Klopp gets egg on his face after plan to expose Arsenal 'weak link' backfires

04 February 2024 , 18:37

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Klopp gets egg on his face after plan to expose Arsenal 'weak link' backfires

Liverpool were undone by one of their most consistent performers on Sunday after Alisson's error contributed to Arsenal's deserved 3-1 win, but it could all have been so different.

The Gunners were terrific in the first half and would have deserved to go in ahead before Gabriel handled the ball into his own net for the equaliser, after which Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta had replaced Oleksandar Zinchenko with Jakub Kiwior at the break, and after initially judging just what impact that would have on his opposition, Klopp sprang into action with a triple change of his own.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is only recently back from injury, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo all came off to be replaced by Andy Robertson, Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nunez, who had been an injury doubt before the game.

Straight away it was easy to see what Klopp was trying to do, with Elliott pulling far wider than Gravenberch had when he was on the right side of the Liverpool midfield, with Diogo Jota and occasionally Luis Diaz pulling over to the right of the attack to take on Kiwior. With Joe Gomez switching from the left of defence to the right, the players were buoyed by a greater sense of defensive protection.

It was a change that immediately began to work, with Elliott seeing a lot of the ball and shaping up to take on Kiwior, while he was supported by those around him. Straight away though, Liverpool's good work was undone by the Alisson error, with the Brazilian failing to communicate with Virgil van Dijk and allowing Gabriel Martinelli to score.

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Klopp saw his side lost 3-1 in North London (PA)

It was an awful mistake from a goalkeeper usually so reliable and consistent, and it almost compounded matters when Kiwior was booked shortly afterwards for a foul on Jota. Klopp would have wanted his side to keep attacking the Pole, especially with him on a yellow card, but they now had to do it from 2-1 down.

To Kiwior's credit though, and indeed Arsenal's as a whole, he improved after the second goal, and he stood up tall to whichever Liverpool attacker had come to join Elliott on the Reds' right hand side.

He even played a part in the third goal when his header set Leandro Trossard away down the wing before his deflected effort went in. Klopp had tried to identify a weak link in the Arsenal side, but ultimately it was Liverpool who had one.

Mark Jones