In terms of results, of the many system changes in the second half of the season, Klopp's Liverpool were clearly the best performers.
With Alexander-Arnold completely retracting into the middle, Klopp stepped out of the mindset of constantly trying in the back four, thus freeing the team from the problem of previous erratic results.
With a win over Leicester City, Liverpool won their seventh league win in recent times and remain a threat to their Champions League spot. In fact, regardless of whether they manage to break into the top four, for Liverpool fans who have watched the team struggle through ups and downs for most of the season, the team's performance is now satisfying.
So, you can actually look to the future.
In this system transformation, from the perspective of the media, Arnold is clearly the biggest beneficiary.
From the previous big hole in the defensive line, to the current midfield real strongman, those days dominated by wingers are gone, and now everyone sees Alexander-Arnold's dashing passing performance:
However, in fact, Arnold was not the starting point of this system overhaul, or rather not the initial starting point, as we have mentioned more than once this season, Arnold's defensive problems have existed since ancient times, and did not pop up suddenly this season.
The earliest starting point for system transformation is actually Salah.
After sending Mane away last summer, Núñez's integration process was not satisfactory, which brought to light Salah's incompetence that began at the beginning of last year, and even more thoroughly.
Under the 433 system, the premise of the winger's non-participation in defense must be to be able to steadily output threats on the offensive end, but Salah's ability to play alone has declined significantly. In order to ensure that he continues to play, Klopp has tilted a lot of resources for him on this side, not completely ineffective, but the price for this is to increase the defensive burden on this road.
Alexander-Arnold is not good at defending, Fabinho and Van Dijk are also visibly aging, and it is difficult to avoid leakage before brushing.
Klopp has thought of other ways to solve this problem, the most interesting of which is the 442-diamond midfield that won Manchester City in the first half of the season.
Under this system, Liverpool, who have a strong presence in the middle, can perfectly cover up the problems at the back, but the price is that Salah needs to constantly work up front, fighting, sprinting, and everything to help the team forward and pop up.
In essence, this is equivalent to putting the team's center of gravity back in the backfield, so forward ability has become a consumable at the tactical level, and Salah is bound to not like this style of play, which may not be appreciated by the outside world.
So after the winter window brought in a different type of Hakepo than Núñez, Klopp tried to use his style of play to return to the 433 system, Salah improved, but the backfield was still exposed.
So at the end of the season, Klopp simply followed Manchester City and Arsenal and moved Alexander-Arnold into the midfield, and the benefit of this improvement is that Liverpool has such a stronger dominance of the game:
So it is the opposite of the set of 442 diamond-shaped midfielders in the first half of the season, and the current set of 3223 focuses on the front court, through more people into the midfield, to fully ensure the play of the offensive end, and after dropping the ball, you can also use the manpower advantage to counterattack on the spot:
The price is naturally that the consumption of defenders is relatively large, and the ability of the backfield has become a consumable at the tactical level.
However, in the league, there are many teams in the middle and lower reaches, and in a strong versus weak environment, the balance between attack and defense is indeed not as important as in the cup, and the record of Manchester City and Arsenal in the league proves this, so this system transformation has indeed solved many of Liverpool's problems in one fell swoop.
First of all, Salah can continue to play as a winger without returning to defense, and there is always no shortage of helpers, so he has scored a lot of goals in recent times and provided assists in this game:
In such a performance, this inaccuracy of the feet is not a problem:
Secondly, in addition to playing the advantage of his good passing, Arnold can not defend the area, and use this defensive expenditure of chasing the ball to make up for it:
Of course, occasionally when returning to full-back, it is inevitable that there will be problems, but the opponent's strength is weak, and it is not necessarily possible to catch it once or twice:
On the contrary, after the confidence is improved, he can offset and cover with the dedication of the offensive end:
Curtis Jones, who scored twice in this game, is also a beneficiary, and his ability can actually be said to be relatively mediocre, but under this system, he only needs to do a good job of sapper tasks like Henderson on the right, run more, catch more, and help the front and back ends by inserting and chasing back.
Playing against a weak team like Leicester City and being able to score goals is a good example of the system improving the performance of players.
Leicester City in this game is obviously insufficient, and Dean Smith sees Liverpool's defensive problems, but the intention is too obvious, which makes Liverpool's defense not under too much pressure.
Weak teams face 3223 and need at least two forward elements up front to shoot from both directions, just like West Ham United have Antonio on the left, Bowen on the right, Nottingham Forest have Awonier on the left and Brennan Johnson on the right. Leicester City had Barnes on the left in this game, but the lack of attacking ability in the right half and Vardy's old age and inability to pull the other side was an obvious problem.
On this basis, Leicester City defenders are either old or incompetent, which is the core reason why they have not been good this season and are on the verge of relegation.
However, we must mention that the upper limit of the 3223 system is actually questionable.
In theory, this system is obviously a lot of consumption for defenders, because most of the time it takes three people to cover the width of the entire backfield, even in Manchester City and Arsenal, the size of defenders has adapted to this, but on the Arsenal side, Saleba's injury directly led to a decline in the ability to resist attacks at the back, and the record was significantly affected, while Manchester City lost Ake at the most critical moment, if you can't step up to Real Madrid, which is actually defective in defense, then the 3223 set of things may only be suitable for brushing the league.
But for Liverpool, which was previously unstable in the league, this is indeed a path that can be learned, and after improving their record, they can give themselves enough time to update the squad.
After all, if there is no European game to play, the replacement of the squad will also be affected.
So at league level, Liverpool have to make some plans for this.
Considering the fact that Van Dijk is a veteran at the back and Konate is too large, left-back Robertson is not suitable for being so involved in pressing and attacking so much:
Therefore, Liverpool in this summer window, in addition to focusing on buying midfielders, actually need to pay attention to some backfield positions, and make some reinforcements when they have the opportunity.
For example, in the position of Robertson, you can try Arsenal's tone about Tierney.
The latter is in the full-back position, because of the straight up and down play, not in line with Arteta's tactical taste, but in the Scottish national team, he is actually a left-center in the back three, a backfield defender who can be all on the wing, just responsible for covering the space left by Robertson's attack, so in theory, he can also assist Van Dijk in the left-back position, just like Van Dijk is next to the Dutch national team Ake.
If you buy a midfielder this summer, you can still find a cheap player like Tierney, and next season there is still a relatively high degree of certainty in the fight for a Champions League spot.
This system overhaul has significantly improved Liverpool's performance and record, forming a positive cycle of team tactics and player confidence, and it is no surprise that seven consecutive wins have been made.
If Nunez integrates next season, the forward line will have better impact and suppression, the effect is actually equivalent to the Harkepo retreat, the offensive end does not need to worry too much, the main thing is that the central midfield needs to be strengthened and observed.
Of course, these seven consecutive wins have a large number of weak teams with insufficient strength, Tottenham Hotspur with quality but immature system almost interrupted the process, and the next game against Emery Aston Villa will obviously put Liverpool to the test.
But whatever the outcome, Liverpool can look to the future.