Brendan Rodgers explains why he needed to change to 3-4-3 formation

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Ever wondered what triggered our change in formation? Find out here, as Rodgers speaks out…

Brendan Rodgers has revealed why Liverpool’s Champions League exit at the hand of Basel was the game than convinced him to implement an unprecedented overhaul of his team’s approach.

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Despite Steven Gerrard’s superb goal, our 1-1 draw with the Swiss giants saw us finish third in our European group, and drop into the Europa League. Less than a week after that game, the Reds travelled to Manchester United, and saw a new-look team beaten 3-0.

The game at Old Trafford on December 14th was the first game which saw us employ a 3-4-3 formation, it was also the last league game that we lost. Following an impressive run of results since then, we are now just two points adrift of the top four places.

Rodgers has deservedly attracted plenty of praise for inspiring the turnaround, and having led his team to eight wins and three draws in eleven games, is now convinced that he’s found the formula for making things work.

The Northern Irishman, who was quoted by our official website, said: “We had no identity and everyone could see it [after the Basel game]. I probably was low, because it was not working.

“We had a huge challenge, probably the biggest I have had as a coach or manager, at a club the size of this one, where I love being.

“We just weren’t the team I had built over a couple of years. You try to give everyone a chance but it just wasn’t happening for us and of course that can eat away at you.

“Every manager will tell you the same, you’re thinking of the game all the time, you’re locking yourself in a room and analysing and looking at ways to make the team function.

“I knew I had to do something fairly radical because I had seen enough of the players to know we were not going to be able to shape up and work and play as we had done for the previous couple of years with what we had got.

“I am an innovative coach, and I needed to find a way to make us play better. It is a complex way in which we are working and playing, but it suits what we have. I knew I needed to do something earlier than when I did do it.

“We played the system away at Newcastle but I couldn’t really work on it in training because we didn’t have the time. At Newcastle, Raheem played as one of the wide players.

“I learned that Raheem probably won’t be able to play wide in what I was looking to do because he’s not in the game enough. I knew what I wanted to do earlier but after Newcastle we had Real Madrid and I wasn’t going to go into a game of that magnitude with a system that I knew I needed more work on.

“It was just about the timing and the timing was right for the Manchester United game. By that stage I was comfortable that we had the players to make it work.

“I think the transformation in the team has been really good to see and to see the confidence, and everyone talking about the system and how dynamic it is, and the fluency.”

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