Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool's attack has been more 'unpredictable' since selling Coutinho, aiding his side's rush of goals

The Brazilian's departure hasn't slowed the Reds' rampant frontline

Jürgen Klopp thinks Liverpool are harder to prepare for now Coutinho has gone (Getty)

Jurgen Klopp claims Liverpool’s attacking threat has become more “unpredictable” since they sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona.

Coutinho joined the Catalan Club for £142m in January and many Liverpool fans feared his departure would hinder their goalscoring prowess.

But Liverpool have continued to be prolific without the Brazilian and reached 100 goals for the season in all competitions last weekend with a 4-1 thrashing of West Ham.

And ahead of their Premier League clash with Newcastle Klopp praised the reaction of all of his players to spread the creativity and goals around since Coutinho’s exit.

“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, maybe he has an idea,” said the Liverpool manager.

“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.


 Coutinho is now strutting his stuff in Barcelona (Getty)

“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.

“I am happy it has worked so far pretty well but it feels like it is already a few months ago. I am happy it has worked quite well.

“We work for each other, they didn't change attitude they were smart enough to use Phil in a specific moment and now they use each other in a specific moment.

“There was on example of a bad game from us when we gave all the responsibility to Phil and it was Tottenham away.

“We cannot do that anymore, it makes us a little bit more unpredictable with us on the pitch. Now we play with whoever plays.

“On a good day it makes you more unpredictable if you don't have this dominant player but on another day you miss a player like that.”

Klopp also revealed the club are in talks with some of their key players, including Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, over new contracts.

However, the German insists there is no immediate rush to get them to put pen to paper and it is football rather than finance which motivates them to stay at Anfield.

Liverpool's front three have been in superb form (Getty)

He added: “We try to keep this together and strengthen it. It is not like we bring out key players and say ‘Try to find your luck elsewhere’.

“They all have absolute contracts so it is not that we have a big rush and we have to do it tomorrow but we are in constant talks.

“Our job is to create something that everyone wants to be part of. There are a lot of good football clubs around – not 20 better clubs than Liverpool but a few not-too-bad ones and if they ask and if they pay then the player maybe thinks about it can happen.

“We cannot convince them with money, we have to convince them with the football we play, the way we treat them, we handle problems together.

“I think it is a really interesting football project at the moment. I've felt like this since I was in.

“It is quite difficult when you see Man City playing yesterday and they deserve to be first, it is not too bad what they are doing and that means if you only can be really happy if you have one point more than Man City that would be difficult for all other teams in the world at this moment.

“So why should we be bothered by that. So we have to use our situation, we can come close and when you can come closer you can overtake – not only a car but a football club.”