- Liverpool fielded a 3-4-3 formation at the weekend, for the first time this season
- Midfielders Emre Can and Gini Wijnaldum played at the back alongside Dejan Lovren
- Jurgen Klopp made the decision at the last minute, without much time on the training ground
- SEE MORE: Wijnaldum gives brutally honest opinion on defensive role for Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp gave Emre Can and Gini Wijnaldum around 20 minutes in training to get used to playing at centre-back, before speaking to them about it in the team meeting.
This was all the two midfielders had to adapt to playing in a back-three either side of Dejan Lovren.
Liverpool ended up winning 5-1 against newly promoted Brighton in a performance that was so offensively good the makeshift defence was rarely troubled.
“Emre needs to do that, like Gini can do that,” he told the Echo. “They have to do it, we don’t have anybody else.
“I enjoyed it. It was like ‘wow, interesting’. We had 20 minutes in training and then we spoke for a little bit in the team meeting before the game again about it.
“But it’s not long. It was clear it wouldn’t be perfect, but the boys were ready to cope with the difficulties of the new system.
“They did really well.”
Wijnaldum in particular struggled, with Can actually playing in a back-three before under Brendan Rodgers, alongside Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho a few years back.
Despite the win, we’re not sure the formation is a long-term option unless we buy some top level centre-backs.
On Wednesday evening, Spartak Moscow travel to Anfield for our Champions League tie. We’d hope that one of Joe Gomez or Ragnar Klavan will have got over their illnesses and be able to take the field alongside Lovren in a regular back-four.