Jurgen Klopp was delighted to be able to spring a surprise on Brighton and Hove Albion with an unorthodox Liverpool line-up, even if his players were similarly in the dark about the new system until Friday.
With Joel Matip ruled out, Klopp fielded midfielders Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum in a three-man defence - and it worked to good effect as Liverpool romped to a 5-1 triumph at Brighton .
The front three of Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Philippe Coutinho were all on song and their manager believes the late call on a change of formation played a big role. "We had no idea we were going to have to line up like this until [Friday's] meeting and I'm pleased for the boys," Klopp told Sky Sports .
'Need to adapt'
"They were able to adapt. Our line-up surprised everybody. It's a good moment that we can do things like this. They adapted and did the job. We need to adapt with plenty of different systems - that's how it should be."
Despite the convincing margin of victory, Liverpool endured a few nervy moments as Glenn Murray made the scoreline 3-1 shortly after Firmino's second goal. And Klopp conceded that this win was not as comfortable as the result suggests.
Asked whether he had enjoyed the victory, the Reds boss replied: "Not really, not all the time."
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