Jürgen Klopp tweak has helped his favorite Liverpool playmaker amid major Cody Gakpo boost

Jurgen Klopp has asked Liverpool to play in the center block and it helps the team both ways. As a result, his favorite playmaker is back.

There is no single underlying metric in football that perfectly correlates with success; The game is way too random for that. Whether it’s more obvious numbers like expected goals or shots, or esoteric data, nothing alone can determine which team wins.

However, there are obviously performance elements that a coach wants to see in his players. “To be honest, I thought we didn’t win enough tackles throughout the game,” Jurgen Klopp said after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Wolves in the FA Cup.

While he was right – the Reds only won 37% of tackles in the second half – tackles are far from the metric most associated with Klopp. He once said that ‘no playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation’, but his team failed to prove it in 2022/23.

Opta carries a metric called high turnovers when a team regains possession in the final 40 yards to start a new possession streak in open play. Heading into this weekend, Liverpool are second in the Premier League for this particular stat with 195, while Manchester City’s 220 puts them top of the list (according to the Opta analyst). So far so good for Klopp. However, only 23 of the Reds’ high turnovers have resulted in shots, a shade more than one per game and sixth overall. Arsenal have won four times less possession than Liverpool in opposition territory but lead the division with 36 consecutive shots.

What is most infuriating for the Reds manager is that his side’s counter-press scored just one goal, at least by Opta’s measure. Klopp’s side were co-leaders in the Premier League last season with 71 high-flying shots and seven goals. As with many aspects of Liverpool in 2022/23, their form seems lost since their four-time offer in the dark and distant past no less than a year ago.

With the Reds being so permeable in midfield, Klopp decided to change his tactics and starting midfield. The trio of Thiago Alcântara, Stefan Bajčetić and Naby Keïta have started in the last four games. It’s a relatively calm time of the season – only one of those games has been on weekdays – has helped, but it’s historically been rare for Klopp not to rotate his midfield over a four-game span.

Arguably more notable is the counter-pressure king’s decision to bring his team to adopt a central block structure, with far less shutting down by opponents in the final third. Generally speaking, it has worked as teams don’t slip into the heart of Liverpool’s midfield as easily as they did earlier in the season. Unfortunately, they are now enjoying more crosses and set pieces, but that’s for another article.

Either way, up to and including the 3-0 defeat at Brighton, the Reds have averaged a high 9.4 turnovers per league game this season. After moving to the central block, they then went 12 in the draw with Chelsea and 14 in their loss at Molineux. These numbers are not exceptionally high; They had made at least 12 shots five times before the tactical change

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But after seeing 18 shots on target in their first 18 games – that’s one per game, math fans – Liverpool have had three attempts on goal against the Blues and two against Wolves. What will particularly appeal to Klopp is that the Chelsea trio all included Cody Gakpo, who has played a deeper, Roberto Firmino-like central role over the years. The Dutchman also took advantage of a defensive error by Craig Dawson at Wolves to regain possession and create a chance for Mohamed Salah.

But whether Gakpo or someone else is pulling the strings, the first indications are that the central block is at work both offensively and defensively. Klopp may need another more famous quote before we know it.