Klopp calls for stuttering Liverpool to be ‘unpredictable again’

Jurgen Klopp said Friday that Liverpool must rediscover their unpredictability after a disappointing start to the season and expressed his belief that misfiring striker Darwin Nunez has a bright future at the club.

The 2020 Premier League champions have won just two of their opening 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 4-2-3-1, or 4-4-2, in Tuesday’s 2-0 Champions League victory over Scottish side Rangers.

He was asked at his pre-match press conference on Friday whether that was the blueprint for the future.

“For us, it is much more important that we become unpredictable again and we need different systems for that,” he said.

“This is 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 it more complicated than it is, but there are obviously different systems for us available and we have to choose from now on which one is the best for the next opponent, or the best for us in the moment. 

“We have to be more unpredictable, definitely.”

Klopp said even though some teams had worked out how to play Liverpool over the past few years, those opponents had often come up short because his own side had been “exceptional”.

He said no system was without its weaknesses but he wanted Liverpool to put doubts in the minds of opponents.

“If you prepare for (playing) us it makes sense that you just have to think twice or three times where there might be something you could use,” he said.

Uruguay forward Nunez has scored just one competitive goal since arriving from Benfica for an initial fee of 75 million euros ($73 million) in the summer transfer window.

But Klopp, whose side face in-form Arsenal at the Emirates, said he showed some positive signs in the midweek win against Rangers.

“It was down to his movement and down to the movement of the boys around,” he said.  

“One of the things he showed so far in all the games he played is that he brings himself quite frequently in good finishing positions, which is actually the most important thing for a striker. 

“That’s why everybody should be, or could be, very optimistic about what’s coming from him in the future. That was absolutely good.”