Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has explained why he feels his side are doing much better following the departure of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in January, as reported by the Mirror.
The German thinks that his side have become far less obvious and predictable since Coutinho signed for Catalan giants Barça for £142million in January, with the Brazilian predictably being constantly on the ball and in the action.
The former Reds’ attacker ended a five year spell at Anfield following his switch, where he made a brilliant impact.
Coutinho was such a vital player for everyone in the team but his departure has allowed for Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to have much more freedom and take their games to the next level with them all being brilliant in recent games.
He left a big gap but the players have really stepped up since the departure and they are a much better side as a result.
Klopp gave his thoughts on the situation:
Phil Coutinho was a very dominant player in our game and when we were not at our best it was always a good idea to give him the ball.
But it was always clear when Phil didn’t play we had to do the job differently, to put responsibility on different shoulders and spread it between the players.
He went onto add:
You can never be sure it will work but now it is a few weeks ago and I am really happy with the reaction of the boys, they stepped up.
Of course we were fighting for Phil, we wanted to keep him here and in the end he decided differently.
