ESPN pundit says Klopp made ‘one of his favourite subs of all-time’ vs Tottenham

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Jurgen Klopp’s decision to bring Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate on against Tottenham Hotspur was inspired.

That’s the view of former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha, who was delighted to see the effect the changes had on Liverpool.

Speaking to ESPN about Saturday’s controversial game, Onuoha praised Klopp for how his changes enabled the Reds to remain a threat, despite having two fewer players.

“I’ll be honest, one of my favourite subs of all time, and this might seem wild, was bringing on Alexander-Arnold and was it Konate as well?” said the pundit.

“Next thing, they’ve got two set-pieces, Alexander-Arnold’s on the ball and at the back post you’ve got Konate, Matip, Van Dijk, I was like ‘Yo! They’ve gone defensive and attacking at the same time!’

“Fair play to them because they still had a threat, even with nine. There won’t be many teams who will ever have that in our lives watching football.”

Unfortunately, Liverpool weren’t able to score and succumbed to a late Joel Matip own goal. Still, at least they gave it everything right up until the end.

Klopp does everything possible

Saturday was a real test of Klopp’s managerial chops. Of course, as one of his generation’s leading managers, Jurgen has no more to prove at any level of the game.

But he’s also someone who’s often pigeon-holed as simply a great man-manager and not much more. As a result, it was nice to see the boss able to demonstrate his tactical acumen.

As Onuoha suggests, there aren’t many who could do what Liverpool did against Tottenham.

That owes something to the quality of players the Reds have at their disposal, but also to Klopp himself.

When putting Alexander-Arnold and Konate on, the manager withdrew his two remaining attacking threats – Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz.

But just as Onuoha says, the presence of Alexander-Arnold in particular meant that a slight menace still remained for Spurs.

In the end, the natural course of things took over, with Liverpool unable to hold out. But Klopp and the Reds supporters learnt so much about this team in North London.