Ralf Rangnick has hailed the ability of Liverpool’s attackers to play anywhere across the front-line.
As quoted in the Evening Standard, Rangnick has called on Manchester United to sign some similar forwards to those utilised by Liverpool and Manchester City.
“If you look at Liverpool and Manchester City, they have five or six top-class strikers,” said Rangnick.
“You look at the number of players they have and if you ask me is he playing as central striker or winger? Is Jack Grealish a winger or striker? They’re all strikers and can play in different positions. They can also switch, they can rotate. Those kinds of players, we don’t have that many.”
It’s still strange to hear a United manager so openly praising Liverpool, but we’re here for it!
The iconic front-three make way
Liverpool’s front three of Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane was the most predictable in all of football for three years. Without fail, all three would play every game of importance for Jurgen Klopp.
But even with opponents knowing who they were going to face, the trio were still regularly rotating their positions.
The arrivals of first Diogo Jota and then Luis Diaz have changed the make-up of Liverpool’s forward line drastically. It is no longer easy to predict who will start one game to the next.
Klopp’s ‘original’ front-three will remain iconic for the years to come. But the later additions have helped to take Liverpool to the next level.
Rotation, rotation, rotation
On top of the uncertainty over who will be on the teamsheet, it’s also difficult to know what position each will take up.
The only given for the moment is that Salah will line up on his favoured right-sided role. Salah has at times played through the middle for The Reds but not for some time now.
Instead, Mane has unexpectedly proved himself to be an adept centre-forward. The 30-year-old has now played all three positions for Liverpool for large chunks. Beginning his career at Anfield as a right-winger, he moved to the left to accommodate Salah and is now excelling down the middle.
His transformation into a striker has followed on from Jota successfully playing much of the season through the middle, too.
The Portuguese has also regularly occupied a left-handed role, which Diaz has been performing with aplomb as well.
While other teams highlight one key position to improve upon, Liverpool’s remit for signing attacking options seems to be that they seemingly have no fixed position.
If they bring in any more forward thinking players this summer, expect that to remain exactly the same.
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