‘Biggest surprise’ - Jurgen Klopp reveals why he unleashed new Liverpool formation vs Rangers

Jurgen Klopp revealed that Liverpool primarily switched formation against Rangers to ‘defend differently’.

The Reds went into the Champions League clash on the back of a 3-3 draw against Brighton.

Liverpool have persistently leaked chances all season and it’s been a concern during their stuttering start.

Against Rangers, Klopp opted to deploy a 4-2-3-1 system rather than his favoured 4-3-3 set-up.

Darwin Nunez led the line, while Diogo Jota played in the number-10 role.

The decision reaped the rewards as Liverpool cruised to a 2-0 victory at Anfield. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah were on target either side of half-time.

And even Klopp admitted the Reds were ‘surprised’ how well the change in formation went.

What’s been said

The Liverpool boss said: “Our set up was the biggest surprise tonight. We surprised ourselves.

“These situations can happen. Diogo Jota did particularly well in between the lines, Darwin kept them away but now we'll see what we do when we go to Rangers.

We respect them a lot. Different game, different occasion and we don't even think we are kind of halfway through on the right side.

“That's why I said 2-0 was a top result. Tough game, fight, good, go from here.

“Actually, [it was] nothing to do with the game. It had a little bit to do with the game, but not too much – it was for us.

“We wanted to defend differently to what we usually do - if you have seen us for a few years now, if somebody was criticising us for defending, it was more [people] talking about a high line.

“Then people created now, when we were in a defensive pressing situation, they created a lot of chances, that’s rare. It was rare, but happened more. That’s why we set it up slightly different, closed different gaps.

“We knew obviously the left side of Rangers is the creative side with Ryan [Kent] and [Borna] Barisic, and [James] Tavernier is a big threat in the finishing situations, so that was the part that had to do with the game, but apart from that no.”