Liverpool are closing in on the appointment of Ruben Amorim as the Reds’ new boss for next season, and the Portuguese could make some sweeping changes to how they line up

Liverpool life without Jurgen Klopp might still seem difficult to countenance, but it is coming. And fast.

The Reds might still be in the hunt for the Premier League and Europa League this season, but come the summer Klopp will be handing over the reins to another manager, and that manager looks likely to be Ruben Amorim.

The Portuguese is now the hot favourite to succeed Klopp come the end of his almost nine-year spell on Merseyside, with reports in his native Portugal claiming that a three-year deal has been verbally agreed, with the 39-year-old to take over in the summer.

Ruben Amorim is closing in on replacing Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

The sight of someone else in the home dugout at Anfield will take some getting used to, but Amorim is going to have to be his own man and not simply try and follow Klopp’s work. He’s going to have his own ideas, and he mustn’t be afraid to use them.

One of the major changes he could implement at Liverpool is a move to his trusted 3-4-3 formation at Sporting, where he is on the cusp of winning his second Portuguese league title in four years.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is one Liverpool player who could see his starting position dramatically change (
Image:
NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Amorim’s system features three centre-backs who are all comfortable on the ball and able to move into midfield, with wing-backs getting forward down both flanks, two mobile central midfielders and then three players in attack.

No two systems are exactly the same of course, and if the Portuguese were to look to implement this way of playing at Liverpool – something he isn’t certain to do, for Klopp’s Dortmund side played in a different system to one he settled on at Liverpool – then he will have to consider which players will fit into it.

Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate are likely to be vital for Amorim (
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Getty Images)
Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate are of course two centre-backs who are comfortable on the ball, and if Andy Robertson and Conor Bradley are the wing-backs then that creates the possibility for Trent Alexander-Arnold to start in the back three and drift into midfield.

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Eyebrows would be raised at Alexander-Arnold starting as a third centre-back of course, but he wouldn’t really be playing there most of the time and would instead be able to drift into midfield to support the likes of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.

How Liverpool could look in Amorim’s current system

In attack things wouldn’t really change too much, on paper at least, but Amorim would certainly look to get the goalscoring best out of Darwin Nunez as the team’s No.9, just as he has with Sporting’s ex-Coventry star Viktor Gyokeres this season.

The Swede has scored 28 goals in all competitions since his summer move from the Sky Blues, and he is believed to be on the radar of plenty of Europe’s elite clubs in the coming months.