Why Jurgen Klopp needs to tweak his Liverpool tactics

Liverpool’s poor Premier League form continued on Sunday with a crushing 4-1 defeat away to Tottenham Hotspur.

The Reds have now only won one of their last six league games. During that run, they’ve scored six goals but conceded 13.

Spurs threatened to run rampant in the early stages at Wembley. They were given acres of space and seemed to cut through the away defence at will.

Jurgen Klopp ended up dragging Dejan Lovren off after only half an hour to try and stem the tide. The centre-back made mistakes for Spurs’ first two goals but was far from the sole culprit.

Liverpool have struggled defensively for several years. But now there seems to be a calamity at the back almost every week.

Klopp’s pressing system will inevitably leave his defenders exposed occasionally. But Liverpool’s central defenders aren’t good enough to cope without protection. And to make matters worse, Simon Mignolet is unreliable in goal.

All of those factors combine to make Liverpool far too easy to score against once opposition teams get past the initial press.

The only way they can tighten up until January at least is on the training ground. There have been signs that they’re pressing less aggressively in recent weeks. But it seems to have made little difference.

Last season Antonio Conte turned Chelsea’s season around by changing his approach. His decision to change from 4-2-3-1 to 3-5-2 led to the Blues winning the title.

The title’s almost certainly out of the question for Liverpool now at 66/1. But they’ll need to improve to even get into the top four. Our traders have them at 11/8 to secure one of the Champions League spots.

Klopp’s one of the most highly-rated managers around. Can he prove his quality by finding the right formula for his current group of players?

All Odds and Markets correct at date of publication