Liverpool looked destined for defeat against Newcastle after a man was substituted in the 1-0 defeat, but Jurgen Klopp had other plans.
Liverpool’s 2-1 win against Newcastle United with ten men was the shock result of the Premier League weekend.
After Anthony Gordon’s goal and Virgil Van Dijk’s red card, the situation looked desperate for Jürgen Klopp’s side. However, the calculated risk that the players take in attack allowed them to stay in a game that Darwin Nunez would later win with professionalism, leading Klopp to claim that the comeback was one of the greatest of his career.
However, it is perhaps harder to say that Newcastle took control of the game before the red card. They took the lead through Gordon, who then proceeded to terrorize Trent Alexander-Arnold and won the one-on-one battle handsomely. Liverpool players celebrate their 2-1 Premier League win against Newcastle in August 2023. Nunez scored two superb goals to help Liverpool to victory (Image: Getty Images)
With their captain Van Dijk sent off, things looked even worse for the Reds. In the end, Liverpool were outnumbered.
However, Klopp did not see things that way. The German boss turned that numerical disadvantage on its head by deploying a 4-3-2 formation for his players, with forwards Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo dropping deeper than the traditional strikers.
This allowed Liverpool, as FourFourTwo’s Adam Clery points out in the video above, to overload the pitch, but especially in midfield. With Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson defending in wider areas and Salah and Gakpo narrowing forward, Dan Burn and Kieran Tripper were effectively given free rein to pass forward.
But neither made the most of their extra space or time on the ball and Klopp was confident they would not cause the other full-backs the same problems. As a result, Liverpool doubled Newcastle’s front three when they completed a five-on-three midfield battle through the loss of Salah and Gakpo.
Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk walks off the field after being sent off against Newcastle in the Premier League in August 2023. Van Dijk’s sending off actually helped Liverpool
Bruno Guimaraes was able to play a lot of forward passes before he was sent off,
he didn’t get the game and couldn’t make sharp or line-breaking passes afterwards. The Brazilian had fewer options in practice, although Newcastle had more players on the pitch.
While this allowed Liverpool to dominate the game, it did not allow them to win it. No, that aspect of the tactical plan came from the introduction of Harvey Elliott, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez.
A 4-2-3 was set up with Salah and Jota still playing tight and this switch allowed Nunez to get past the two Newcastle centre-backs which resulted in his two expertly struck goals. Although fortunate, Klopp continued to rely on his overstretched midfield to control the game and was not caught out.
“It was the most impressive and effective tactical change I’ve ever seen,” Clerly states somewhat reluctantly as a
Newcastle fan in the video.
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