Jurgen Klopp made a subtle tactical tweak that gave Neco Williams the boost he needed against Wolves. The teenager had an encouraging game.
Was Neco Williams perfect against Wolves? No, not quite. But he had a solid game and certainly looked Premier League level.
There were moments on the ball where you saw his real quality, too. Williams can weave in and out of players and when he’s confident, his ball retention is great for a player his age.
But Williams seems to struggle with his confidence. That’s effectively what it came down to when we dissected his struggles recently.
He played well against Ajax, though, and that’s very promising. But we saw a target on his back for the game against Wolves.
Fortunately, Jurgen Klopp had it covered.
Help at hand
Williams is an inexperienced full-back and Wolves are a team with tons of pace in their side. With Raul Jimenez missing, they were always likely to work the channels and exploit someone like the Welshman.
Klopp saw it coming, however, and made a tactical tweak to boost Williams against Wolves.
Whenever a Wolves player pushed high on Liverpool’s right-flank, Williams went back to cover. Then a midfielder – typically Jordan Henderson in the first-half – drifted all the way to the flank in front of the teenager.
Henderson was so far over that he took up a traditional wing-back position, at time.
It means that Wolves could never isolate Williams. If they had the ball, Henderson was there to help out.
On top of that, Henderson’s presence (Curtis Jones in the second-half) frequently forced the Wolves winger to drop back from Williams to cover the captain when the Reds were in possession.
At the end of the day, it was a simple tweak from Klopp. It was very effective, though. So effective, in fact, that they didn’t even need it in the second half as Wolves changed plans.
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