Never mind Liverpool’s inconsistent failings so far this campaign as we near the mid-season break for the World Cup, October was a rollercoaster ride all on its own for the Reds, filled with twists and turns and ups and downs.
There were memorable highs, such as the 1-0 home victory over Man City, a handful of corners turned, like winning 7-1 away at Rangers and 3-0 away at Ajax, and then those miserable lows - namely defeats to struggling Nottingham Forest and Leeds United.
Between October 1 and November 1, Jurgen Klopp 's side took to the field a hefty 10 times. They'd win six games, draw one and lose three while scoring 22 goals but shipping 10. On paper, it perhaps doesn’t quite resemble the emotional minefield Liverpool have had to conquer, but while they are through to the knockout stages of the Champions League, a ninth place standing in the Premier League table with an eight-point deficit on the top four tells its own story.
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Klopp would turn to four different formations over the month in a bid to solve his side’s ailments, rectify their defensive woes and in response to their injury woes after losing both Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota to long-term lay-offs. But while a leaky 3-3 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion on October 1 signalled the end of the German’s tried and trusted 4-3-3 system, the Reds went full circle when reverting to such a set-up for their 2-0 victory over Napoli on November 1.
Speaking after the win over the Serie A outfit, Klopp insisted such a system had never been ‘off the table’ despite Liverpool’s experimentation with other formations in a bid to resurrect their season.
“It is the system we played most often and the system which is familiar to us,” the German told reporters. “When we played well, we can defend really well in that system.
“We didn’t do that that often when we played it recently. That’s why we had to change a couple of things, give the boys some new things to think about.
“It is always on the table for us but doesn’t mean we will now play it all the time. Darwin came on and especially offensively it’s not a problem. There’s no difference to a diamond really. But defensively it is a big difference.
“We have just to figure out what is best for us and which players are playing. Curtis did extremely well. Fabio and Oxlade, we have a couple of players who can play there (on the left-wing). No decision made.
“We will see against Tottenham but it was never off the table, this system. It was just we had to change a bit to give ourselves a new impulse and feel the defending in a new way. That’s sometimes how it works.
“We had some good games in the other system, especially in the Champions League as well where we played really well in the 4-4-2 for example.
“That is the only positive thing what happened so far in the season. That we played well and won in different systems. Not often enough but at least a couple of times.”
After that draw with Brighton, Klopp and Liverpool have played around with 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2 and diamond formations over the past month. Yet for every good result in one system, an injury to a key player and/or shock defeat was just around the corner, prompting the German to head back to the drawing board.
This is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that the Reds have lined up in three different formations in the past four games, with defeat to Forest ending the flat 4-4-2 experiment. A diamond was introduced for the 3-0 win at Ajax only to be torn up after losing 2-1 at home to Leeds, before Liverpool returned to their familiar 4-3-3 set-up against Napoli. It has certainly been a long, draining month.
There will of course be fresh hope that victory over the Neapolitans signals a fresh corner turned for the Reds, once and for all. Yet that has been said plenty of times already this season with each victory in a new formation, only for Liverpool to be swiftly brought crashing back down to earth by the very next setback lying in wait. One step forward, two steps back is an understatement.
Yet, for all the chopping and changing, Klopp has ignored outside suggestions to change defensive set-up altogether in favour of a five-man defence. On paper, you can see the argument for such a change considering the issues the Reds have been facing.
With Trent Alexander-Arnold ’s defensive displays under greater scrutiny than ever before and Fabinho in the worst form of his Reds career, a third centre-back would potentially add further protection to both the right-back and the midfield in front of him. Especially when you consider the added pace such a switch could also entail if Ibrahima Konate and/or Joe Gomez were brought in alongside Virgil van Dijk.
It would enable Liverpool to play their favoured high-line and still have the recovery pace to get back if opposing players get in behind them. Meanwhile, the added protection would also enable Alexander-Arnold to still attack at will.
And at the other end of the field, it also counters for the loss of both Diaz and Jota and the lack of a natural left-winger, with Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez free to operate as a strike partnership ahead of a number 10 or a midfield trio.
Granted, injuries to Joel Matip against Arsenal and Konate against Rangers made such a prospect temporarily impossible, while, still haunted by the centre-back injury crisis of 2020/21, Klopp was always unlikely to put all his eggs in one starting basket. But even when the Cameroonian returns to complete the Reds’ full centre-back quota, such a switch is still improbable. Klopp just doesn’t like such a system.
With Germany playing a five-man defence with wing-backs during Euro 2020, the Liverpool boss went public with his disdain for the formation when working as a pundit back in his homeland during the tournament after their opening loss to France.
"It's a bit uncomfortable because every coach has the right to make his own decision. I would play a back four with this team,” Klopp told Magenta TV . “That doesn't mean anything right now. Probably I would have lost against France too.
“I could imagine Joshua Kimmich, Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gundogan in midfield being extremely good, to be honest. Everyone would be in the position they felt comfortable in. That was also the problem in the game that everyone had the feeling that they needed a little more support from midfield.
“It wasn't easy for the two players at wing-back (Gosens and Kimmich) because both are extremely concerned with security tasks of five players, who are actually just hedging and that's a bit much for me to be honest. That's why I don't like the system that much.”
While Klopp might occasionally throw on a third centre-back to hold onto a lead late in games, it is extremely rare for him to line up his team in such a way from the start of a match. A rare exception came in December 2017 when Liverpool won 5-1 away at Brighton, but that was through necessity because of injuries with Emre Can and Gini Wijnaldum both starting in unfamiliar roles in defence either side of Dejan Lovren.
Meanwhile, historically it is also a system the Reds have rarely even used under previous managers. Brendan Rodgers would turn to it out of desperation for three months in 2014/15 in an attempt to rescue both his side’s season and his job. He'd ultimately fail and while he would hold on until the following season, he’d be dismissed the following October.
If Klopp were to introduce such a drastic change now, you’d fear such a U-turn would be a drastic last throw of the dice from the German. No-one wants to see that at Anfield.
But while Liverpool might not opt for such a formation, the Reds are likely to face a five-man defence when they are next in action away at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, with it being manager Antonio Conte’s own favoured system.
The Italian has enjoyed great success playing such a way with the likes of Juventus, Italy, Chelsea and Inter Milan throughout his managerial career. However, it remains unclear how Spurs will line up in attack and who will play alongside Harry Kane after Heung-Min Son joined Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison on their injury list.
Either way, Klopp will get another close-up look at a defensive set-up that, while he has repeatedly been encouraged to turn to it by outside voices in the past, it also remains one he’ll seldom ever use.
Liverpool can only hope that the enforced chopping and changing of formations is now a thing of the past at Anfield and that victory over Napoli, back in the Reds’ favoured 4-3-3 formation, proves to be another corner turned. If such a system proves to be here to stay once again, at the very least it would suggest they are continuing to take steps in the right direction and put their recent inconsistencies firmly behind them.
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