Having had Sunday as a recovery day following the 3-3 draw with Brighton, Jurgen Klopp and his staff didn't have a lot of time to implement a change in Liverpool's system for the visit of Rangers.
Klopp told his players on Monday that the tried-and-trusted 4-3-3 would be taking a backseat for the first-ever competitive meeting between the clubs on Tuesday evening as the German attempted to tweak things and kick-start a spluttering campaign.
A 4-4-2 was how the manager himself described it as he settled on a two-man midfield of Thiago Alcantara and Jordan Henderson, who ably probed, passed and pressed behind an exciting looking attack that featured Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah.
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Having already conceded 15 goals across all competitions this season, the clean sheet was a welcome outcome for an embattled defence that had looked so shaky just a few days earlier at home to Brighton.
It's a system that Klopp has rarely selected in recent years from the start. A bold selection at Manchester City in November 2020 saw all four of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Jota and Salah start and the move perhaps took Pep Guardiola by surprise as Liverpool started brightly in a creditable 1-1 draw.
An effort to jolt some life into his attack saw that same quartet named in a disappointing draw with Newcastle in late April of last year too, while Klopp has reverted to the use of four attackers late on in games that his team have been chasing.
For the most part, however, the 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, have been decidedly used as Plan Bs for the Liverpool boss in recent years. The 2-0 win over Rangers might just force a re-think on that front, however, if only temporarily.
"I think our set-up was the bigger surprise tonight," Klopp pointed out after the game. "It was difficult to defend. Diogo Jota moved particularly well between the lines. It was a difficult game and occasion for Rangers, but we respect them a lot."
“I think it was working well, we created many chances in the first half and second half, we tried to score," said Mohamed Salah of the change in system. “It’s an offensive formation. It was good for all of us up front, especially because we all want to score goals. It worked well today.”
Liverpool looked a lot less vulnerable to counter-attacks with Henderson and Thiago patrolling as a two-man midfield but the question is just how conclusive is the evidence to retain the system for this weekend's trip to table-topping Arsenal given the relative paucity of the opposition on Tuesday night?
But for an inspired performance from veteran goalkeeper Allan McGregor, the Reds would have racked up a few more and Nunez might have even had a hat-trick to himself.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side have now conceded nine in Group A without scoring themselves and they are on their way out of Europe entirely barring a shock turnaround in the second-half of their Champions League campaign. That's why it's difficult to gauge just how effective the formation change was for the Reds and whether or not they should remain in that shape for the weekend's trip to the Emirates.
Despite their dominance, Klopp's men were forced to settle for an ultimately routine victory thanks to a free-kick from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah's second-half penalty. It was a gentle step in the right direction as opposed to the statement result that will automatically restore confidence to those peak levels of earlier this year.
"We only had a quick turnaround to do it," says Harvey Elliott. "Playing Saturday and then Tuesday is not much time to flip it around and try something new. I think it was a breath of fresh air for us players, something different coming into the game.
"We felt confident and excited to see how it went and today, thankfully, it worked out. It's all credit to the players understanding their roles to come away with the win. We caused a lot of problems today, whether that's the change of formation or not I'm not sure. But we had a quick turnaround to figure it out and the boys got it absolutely spot on today.
"I think it's just that players are available as well [allowed Klopp to try it]. We've been hit with a fair few injuries so far this season but everyone's on the way back or back now so there's going to be a lot of competition in the team.
"That's another good thing for us to make sure everyone's bang on it in every training session. It's really nice just to have that togetherness again and everyone pushing each other on."
Despite being rested after his two-goal showing against Brighton, perhaps sticking with the two up top allows Klopp to utilise the natural game of Firmino at some point too? The Brazilian plays the centre-forward role uniquely at Anfield, regularly dropping off into pockets of space all over the pitch and trying to carve open opposition backlines from deeper areas.
With a focal point further up the pitch in either Nunez or Jota, it affords Liverpool the opportunity to use the Brazil forward's intelligent approach play in the final third while still maintaining a direct penalty-area threat who can occupy centre-backs.
“Did we have much time to work on it? No, but we have quality players all over," Virgil van Dijk says. "We know the players who come in and those who are playing can make this work and it all starts with the intensity we put in, with the runs and the hard work we do. That's the basis and we have shown that for the last four or five years. Now we are in a difficult period but we showed a good game."
Alexander-Arnold adds: “We went back to a basic 4-4-2 and played it really well. We shifted it across the pitch well, compact, they couldn’t play it through us, they went long and we were picking up second balls so the change of tactics definitely helped us, we’ll see what happens going forward.”
The big issue for Klopp to wrestle with between now and Sunday afternoon is whether he sticks with the 4-4-2 or reverts to type against an Arsenal side who failed to score against Liverpool's 4-3-3 in four attempts last term.
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