Roberto De Zerbi suggests Jurgen Klopp really ‘transformed’ one Liverpool player’s role this season

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Jurgen Klopp has tailored the role of Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker during the current season.

That’s according to Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi, who’s Seagulls side came face-to-face with the Reds back in October. The game ended 2-2, as Liverpool squandered a lead late on.

Alisson was actually at fault for one of Brighton’s goals on the day. Nevertheless, De Zerbi told Italian station Brescia Oggi that Klopp’s use of the goalie at the Amex put his team ‘in difficulty’.

“The evolution of the role of the goalkeeper: today he is becoming an additional player on the pitch at the time of construction,” said the Italian coach via Sport Italia.

“I give you the example of two matches played this year by my Brighton, against Liverpool and Manchester City: I had prepared the defensive phase, in both cases, going man for man.

“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.”

Klopp changes Alisson role

This is an interesting little insight from De Zerbi and actually speaks to how highly Klopp rates his Brighton team.

Ever since he arrived in the Premier League in 2022, Klopp hasn’t been afraid to praise the former Sassuolo manager. And this nugget from De Zerbi is just another instance of that.

Jurgen wouldn’t tailor the use of one of his key players to face just any old team. He and his coaching staff clearly felt that Liverpool needed the extra player when building up from the back.

Fearing Brighton’s ability to press his defence, Klopp used Alisson to help create a spare man.

In the end this obviously produced mixed results. Alisson being far out of his goal led to Liverpool going one down.

Having seen Brighton win the ball high up the pitch with a press, the Brazilian failed to get back in his net quickly enough and Simon Adingra fired the Seagulls in-front.

Since then, we haven’t really seen Alisson operating too much as a ‘sweeper-keeper’. He has the ball at his feet a fair bit during games, but he’s often still within his penalty area.

For certain games though, Klopp knows he can normally rely on a goalkeeper who’s the best in the world right now. Keep an eye out for this little tweak in future games.