Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe says he will not read too much into Liverpool’s surprising change of formation in their 2-0 win over Manchester City on Sunday.
Arne Slot moved from a tried and trusted formation to a dynamic and flexible formation that helped lead to a big away win at Eastlands. Slot’s scouts have been monitoring Newcastle carefully in the last few weeks with Anfield spies spotted at St James’ Park.
Liverpool opted for a 4-2-2-2 formation in their 2-0 win over Manchester City after playing 4-2-3-1 a whopping 25 times this season in the Premier League. It leaves Howe’s analysts with a bit of late homework to brush up on for Anfield after the Reds attacked predominantly through the middle on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium.
Howe, who is toying with the idea of playing a back five at Anfield, told Chronicle Live: “Every team has things that they tweak game to game. Depending on their opponent.
“There are very few teams that play the same way week in, week out. It can appear that way visually in terms of starting systems but there are tweaks.
“I think Liverpool are one of those teams who do change quite a bit. It is subtle things, not big shifts in systems.”
Liverpool are racing away to the title and hold an 11-point lead over nearest challengers Arsenal. Howe has hailed the work of Slot, in his first season taking over from Jurgen Klopp, but insists for all the analysis his players have been told what they need to do in order to end 30 years of hurt at Liverpool.
Howe said: “They have been very consistent in that respect (formation set at 4-2-3-1). Naturally when they have been as successful as they are they have not had to change too much.
“They have been in a good moment, their players have performed very well. Arne Slot has done an incredible job with the squad.
“So it does not change too much from our perspective because we are always looking at these things and seeing what we need to do to try to win the game.”
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