Jurgen Klopp had a different approach for the Rangers game in the Champions League; says the Scottish will need time to adapt to Europe.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp claims he had to change the system against Rangers in other for them to defend in a good way.
The Reds defeated Scottish side Rangers 2-0 in the Champions League after a 3-3 draw in the Premier League.
Before the game the former Borussia Dortmund manager had to come up with a different approach to the game.
Speaking to the media about the changed system Klopp said: “It had a little bit to do with the game, but not too much – it was for us. We wanted to defend differently to what we usually do; if you have seen us for a few years now, if somebody was criticising us for defending, it was more [people] talking about a high line.
“Then people created now, when we were in a defensive pressing situation, they created a lot of chances, that’s rare. It was rare, but happened more. That’s why we set it up slightly different, closed different gaps.
“We knew obviously the left side of Rangers is the creative side with Ryan [Kent] and [Borna] Barisic, and [James] Tavernier is a big threat in the finishing situations, so that was the part that had to do with the game, but apart from that no.”
Despite defeating Rangers the Reds manager is still not writing off the Scottish club, though he believe they will need time to adapt to Europe.
“Rangers are a really good team, doing really well and played an exceptional season in Europe last year, unlucky they lost the final. They qualified for the Champions League and that’s all positive.
“You cannot have it all in one, you need a bit of time to adapt to Europe as well. Maybe it is the wrong press conference to talk about Celtic, I am not sure if you will all stand up and go if I say the word, but I think both of these clubs made a big steps in the last few years. If you want, you can talk about ‘the gulf’ between, or you see how close they came and that’s pretty much the way I would look at it.”
