Jürgen Klopp said the 2-0 win over Rangers was "exactly what Liverpool needed" after setting his side up in a new system. Liverpool have struggled to dominate games so far this season and find it unusually difficult to protect against counter-attacks.
That prompted a change in Klopp's thinking for the visit of Rangers in the Champions League, and his players rewarded him with a solid win thanks to goals from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah. While Klopp was pleased with his side's defensive performance, what pleased him most was that Liverpool were able to adjust without losing anything from an attacking point of view.
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"It was exactly what we needed tonight," he said. "A new formation, we had to change things. We had a lot of chances, imagine if we had taken more. Very good game. Very important. Two goals from set-pieces as well - I love that as it means you don't need to wait for VAR. "Unlucky at times offensively, rock solid defensively except until the end. It will be a different game next week."
Klopp also reserved special praise for Alexander-Arnold, whose performances have been under the microscope more than most after a very public snub from England manager Gareth Southgate. "There's no problem with defending, at good times it's all good, if there's no protection it looks like he's exposed," the manager explained. "We changed it a little bit today.
"We expected a reaction, everyone expected a reaction, we really want to turn this into something positive and for that we need consistency. For that, you need a top-class defence and we had that tonight. It worked pretty well.
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