Jurgen Klopp was delighted with the successful execution of Liverpool’s “most successful” free-kick routine, which did not involve one of his players blocking it this time. The lay-off from Mohamed Salah and the perfect strike from Trent Alexander-Arnold secured the three points for Liverpool against Leicester. This was not the first time the free-kick routine had been successful, as it was used to great effect at Stamford Bridge. However, in February, Jordan Henderson blocked the routine when it was attempted in a stalemate against Crystal Palace, resulting in two points being dropped.
Klopp was in a joking mood when he noted the last time his team tried to execute his plan, but he refrained from naming names. He said, “Third goal, what a wonderful little routine. Love it. That’s the best free-kick routine we have. The most successful. We should have scored with that three times but we defended it ourselves, I don’t mention names. Everybody can watch it on YouTube! We had to work a little bit on the protection, but now from there we can take it direct or roll it to both sides. It must be a bit more likely that we score from these situations. The amount of times we are in that area and the opponent has to make a foul, we have to use it more often. I take it by the way [the credit], I said already that’s my goal.”
The credit for the successful free-kick routine was given to Alexander-Arnold, who noted Klopp’s role in trying out the routine once more. Alexander-Arnold said, “He [Klopp] spoke to us, he said let’s try it again, it has been a while since we have done it.” The strike resulted in Alexander-Arnold’s fourth goal of the season, leaving everyone wondering how soon the free-kick routine will be put into motion again.