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Liverpool have undergone a massive transformation under Jurgen Klopp but before this summer, he didn’t invest heavily in the squad. In fact, Klopp took Liverpool to two cup finals in his debut season without altering the squad he had at his disposal.
Klopp utilised many of the players he inherited in ways his predecessors didn’t think of. Even some of the players he signed were shifted to a different position or role than they were used to at their previous clubs.
Mohamed Salah, for example, predominantly played as a right winger before joining Liverpool and on paper, he played in the same position for the Reds. However, Klopp has created a system in which Salah is often the furthest player up the pitch.
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Take the case of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who showed glimpses of his quality in central midfield at Arsenal but at Liverpool thrived in a system more suited to his attributes.
Salah and Chamberlain are examples of players who benefited from the system Klopp used rather than a change in their playing position. Four current first-team players at Liverpool changed their playing position successfully under Jurgen Klopp and that has helped the player or the team or both.
#4 Georginio Wijnaldum
Before Georginio Wijnaldum joined Liverpool, he predominantly played as an attacking midfielder or as a winger. In fact, he was quite good in that role.
For his former club PSV, he scored 56 goals in 152 games before joining Newcastle United and in his only season for the Toons, Gini scored 11 and assisted 5 in 38 league games.
When Klopp signed Wijnaldum in 2016, many expected him to play as a winger or in a #10 role but instead, Wijnaldum was used as a #8. He was one of the two midfielders who played on either side of the defensive midfielder (#6).
In his first season in that role, Wijnaldum scored six goals and assisted 11 more in all competitions!
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He continued to play in the same role for most of the 2017/18 season but injuries and the need to rest players forced Klopp to use Wijnaldum as a #6 towards the end of the season and he impressed in that role also in the local derby against Everton.
Wijnaldum sitting back as the deepest midfielder in the team seemed like a temporary solution especially with Jordan Henderson and Fabinho available to play as the sole defensive midfielder.
Klopp started the Dutchman in the #6 role in the first three league games of the 2018/19 season and the 27-year-old has made it difficult for both Henderson and Fabinho to take his place.
After his brilliant performance against Brighton, Klopp didn’t hold back from praising the player.
“Gini can switch from one mindset to the other and that is pretty good for us. If you ask me he was brilliant in pre-season as the eight. He was good as the six but brilliant as the eight. That’s why we never had any doubts about him. He can play both.
It was always clear he would be in the mix for the six positions. He has worked hard and plays it very well. He’s a good footballer, but it is important that you have the kind of mindset that you can cool yourself down in different situations."
#3 Jordan Henderson
Ahead of the 2016/17 season, Jurgen Klopp shifted Liverpool’s formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3. However, during the preseason, the lineup he used was baffling as the team had three players who were attacking midfielders and one who played as a box to box midfielder.
Later on, it became evident that Klopp changed the position of the players and Jordan Henderson operated as the #6 with Adam Lallana and Gini Wijnaldum playing on either side of him. This was the same midfield he used in the first league game of the 2016/17 season.
Klopp had Lucas Leiva and Emre Can in the squad and both players were capable of playing as a #6 but he preferred to use the Liverpool skipper because of his ability to keep the ball ticking and in possession.
Also read: 3 stats that show the brilliance of Liverpool's Alisson Becker
Henderson was not just leading the passing statistics in the Premier League, he was bossing it! He was the first player to attempt over 2000 passes in the league and he reached that figure in just 24 games. Sadly, he only played that many games in 2016/17 due to injury.
Although ten players made more passes than Henderson by the end of the 16/17 season, none of them bettered his passes per 90 minutes which was an incredible 89.62!
Incredibly, around a quarter way into the 2016/17 season, Henderson led the league in touches, passes, tackles and distance covered!
Moving Henderson to a defensive midfield role has helped Liverpool and England in recent years.
#2 James Milner
James Milner’s middle name is versatility but he took that to a whole new level under Jurgen Klopp.
Very few players from the Brendan Rodgers era have been able to survive the mass exodus under Klopp but Milner has not only avoided it, he has forced his way into the starting XI time and time again.
Milner left Manchester City in 2015 to join Liverpool because he wanted to play in his preferred central midfield role. He played in that role a few times under Brendan Rodgers but after Klopp took over, Milner had to play down the right-wing because of lack of options.
In 2016/17, Milner was a regular in the Liverpool starting XI. In fact, he played 36 out of the 38 league games. However, he didn’t play any of those games as a central midfielder or as a winger, he played the entire season as a left-back!
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Throughout the season, Klopp used the Englishman as a right-footed left-back ahead of the left-footed Alberto Moreno.
He had his limitations in that role but he did his job well and helped Liverpool qualify for the Champions League at the end of the season. He also attempted 2,168 passes that season which was the fifth highest in the league, the most for a Liverpool player, the second highest for a defender in the league and the most for a full-back. Not bad, huh?
Milner was back to playing in midfield last season and he broke the record for most assists ever in a single Champions League campaign.
#1 Roberto Firmino
The transformation of Roberto Firmino has to be one of Jurgen Klopp’s best moves yet as the Liverpool manager.
The Brazilian played as an attacking midfielder for Hoffenheim but because of a severe imbalance in the Liverpool squad when Klopp took over and also a lack of quality strikers, Klopp used him as a centre-forward occasionally in 2015/16.
At the start of the 2016/17 season, Klopp permanently shifted Firmino up front. The Brazilian played as the centre-forward with Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane playing on either side.
In his first season in the new role, Firmino scored 12 and assisted 8 more in 41 games. However, there were games in which he had to play out wide.
Also read: 10 Liverpool flops who found success elsewhere
The 2017/18 season saw the best of Firmino as a striker with him scoring 27 goals and assisting 15 more in 54 games. However, it’s not just his goals that makes Firmino the perfect centre-forward for Klopp’s system.
The Brazilian’s work rate, pressing and willingness to drop deep helps Liverpool win the ball high up the pitch and release the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.
Incredibly, Firmino won more tackles in the Premier League in 2017/18 than all the defenders of the Top 6 clubs barring Cesar Azpilicueta. That’s some stat.
