Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp
Lindsey Parnaby
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Jurgen Klopp said on Friday Liverpool needed to rediscover their unpredictability after a disappointing start to the season and expressed his belief that failed striker Darwin Nunez had a bright future at the club.
The 2020 Premier League champions have won just two of their first seven games in the English top flight and are already 11 points behind leaders Arsenal, their opponents on Sunday.
Liverpool manager Klopp deviated from his established 4-3-3 system to play a 4-2-3-1, or 4-4-2, in Tuesday’s 2-0 Champions League win over the Scottish Rangers.
He was asked during his pre-match press conference on Friday if that was the plan going forward.
“For us, it’s much more important that we become unpredictable again and we need different systems for that,” he said.
“It’s not the only system we can play. It was now a 4-4-2. Always when you name systems it’s ‘Is it 4-3-3 or is it 4- 5-1? Is it 4-4 -2 or 4-2-3-1?’
“We don’t want to make things more complicated than they are, but obviously there are different systems available to us and we have to choose from now on which one is best for the next opponent, or which is best for us right now. moment. .
“We have to be more unpredictable, definitely.”
Klopp said that while some teams had figured out how to play Liverpool over the past few years, those opponents often failed because his own team had been “exceptional”.
He said no system was without its weaknesses, but he wanted Liverpool to put doubt in the minds of opponents.
“If you’re getting ready to (play) with us, it makes sense that you just have to think twice or thrice where there might be something you could use,” he said.
Uruguay striker Nunez has scored just one competitive goal since joining from Benfica for an initial €75 million ($73 million) in the summer transfer window.
But Klopp, whose side face in-form Arsenal at the Emirates, said he showed positive signs in the midweek win over Rangers.
“It was due to his movement and the movement of the boys around,” he said.
“One of the things he’s shown so far in all the games he’s played is that he gets into good finishing positions quite often, which is actually the most important thing for a attacker.
“That’s why everyone should be, or could be, very optimistic about what comes of him in the future. It was absolutely fine.”
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