Jurgen Klopp explains why he unleashed a new formation in Liverpool’s win vs Ajax

Jurgen Klopp has explained Liverpool’s latest formation change in the victory over Ajax.

The Reds moved into the last 16 of the Champions League with a 3-0 win at the Johan Cruyff Stadium.

Liverpool deployed a 4-4-2 diamond system against the Dutch side, different to the 4-2-4 formation they’ve been playing recently and the 4-3-3 set-up Klopp used for the majority of his time as Anfield boss.

And after riding early pressure, it reaped rewards. Mo Salah broke the deadlock in the first half before Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott scored after the interval.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Klopp admitted a lack of natural wingers at his disposal was the reason for a switch to a diamond.

He said: “So we could have lined up today obviously with that formation in a 4-3-3 but we decided more for a diamond. Where the difference is obviously in possession, not that big, but it keeps the striker a bit more inside, so we have no clear wingers, the wings open up for the full-backs and all these kind of things.

“That’s nothing new. But you have to be really brave on the [number] eight positions and on the full-back positions. Actually the problem was only you arrive there in the challenge, you want to block the full-back and then in that moment they pass the ball to [Dusan] Tadic or to [Brian] Brobbey.

“There, we couldn’t stop them pretty much because they just physically were really there. We had these situations in the home game as well with Tadic especially. I think the ref there whistled like five, six offensive fouls – I’m not sure they were offensive fouls but he saw it like that. Today, he didn’t whistle them, so from there they play on and that was one problem.

“The other problem is the man-marking system of Ajax is uncomfortable. We should have turned in a lot of moments in midfield where we then realised immediately that we are constantly under pressure.

“Very important was [the] last line, Virgil [van Dijk] and Joey [Gomez]. In the moment they started stepping in... you might remember the first game against Ajax when Joel [Matip] was constantly super-active there. In the moment they stepped in, Ajax was in doubt because now they have to mark a different player, now they leave another player free and all of a sudden you find constantly a player you can play with.

“And that changed everything, we just needed time to do that again. And when we did it then we controlled the game and we had brilliant moments actually.”