The Premier League manager acknowledges that Klopp’s one move during Liverpool’s match this season caught him off guard.

The Premier League manager acknowledges that Klopp’s one move during Liverpool’s match this season caught him off guard.

In a radio interview on Italian radio, Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi stated that the way Alisson Becker was used in the 2-2 draw at the Amex Stadium rendered his tactics for facing the Reds unnecessary.

The 44-year-old stated [via Sport Italia] in an interview with Brescia Oggi about the “evolution of the role of the goalkeeper” that “today he is becoming an additional player on the pitch at the time of construction.”

“I’ll use two games my Brighton played this year against Manchester City and Liverpool as an example. In both games, I had planned the man-for-man defensive phase.

“However, Klopp and Guardiola raised the goalkeeper a lot in relation to the penalty area, transforming him into an outfield player and definitely putting me in difficulty.”

The irony of De Zerbi’s comments is that the Brighton game featured a rare mistake from Alisson, whose positioning for Simon Adingra’s opening goal that day left a lot to be desired.

However, it was apparent that Klopp wanted to use the goalkeeper as an extra player in Liverpool building out from the back in possession, in order to combat the Seagulls’ ability to press high. It was from such a scenario that the home side won back the ball in the move which led to the deadlock being broken.

The 31-year-old hasn’t been asked to play so high up the field since that match two months ago, and it’s questionable if the Reds will be able to pull off a similar ruse against De Zerbi’s squad for the match at Anfield at the end of March.

Even so, it’s intriguing to hear the Brighton manager admit that Klopp’s tactical change gave him “difficulty” on that October day. It speaks volumes about the German’s courage to follow through on his convictions, even if it didn’t work out for Adingra’s goal.

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