I still can’t even tell you what Carlo’s formation was. It looked like a 5311 with us playing wingbacks, but seemed to present itself as a 4411 with Coleman on the right and Gomes on the left of midfield. Either way it was the perfect formation to beat that lot. As you say, their left hand side caused us no end of problems at Goodison but I can’t remember Robertson or Mane having a kick and they seemed to funnel down their right which played straight into Digne and Godfrey. I think it shows that Carlo doesn’t always get it right first time but in terms of learning tactical lessons he’s second to none. He showed it against Leeds, and now against Liverpool also that he rectified mistakes form the first encounters. Hopefully he can do the same v City in the cup!
We seemed to almost have people in half positions (I'm sure there is a more technical term, but I'll use that one). Holgate was somewhere between a right back and a Centre back. Coleman was somewhere between a midfielder and a wing back, where Digne was between a left back and a wing back. Gomes was between a central midfielder and a left midfield player in a 4. In truth the only one who struggled with it was Gomes. In truth I thought Sigurdsson actually played the role much better when he came on, and seemed to "have his head" around it. But theissue with him is legs, so again it was smart to get 65 minutes running out of Gomes.
I think I said into the lead up to this game, Carlo will try something different, it may work, it may not. He won't just send out the same team to lose again. I think overall this is very good. Lets be honest, under previous managers, we would still be playing the same way we did against Newcastle away and would have bombed. The only criticism I would make of him, is that we moved away from 4 CB's too early. I'm sure he had his reasons, but we broke what worked for me a bit too quickly.
I could see us keeping the shape we played with for a while yet though. Godfrey and Holgate generally stay fit, and he can rotate Keane/Mina if he needs too. I actually think Iwobi woukd really suit the role Coleman played in certain games (though he went and played in the 2 at times). It will allow us to rotate Richarlinson/James/DCL. Coleman could even fill in in Holgate's position in certain games too.
As for Coleman, I thought he did very well. The manager recognised the threat Robertson/Mane gave to us. The real risk in a back 3 is who marks the wide forward. He made that easy and put it on Holgate, and allowed Coleman to focus on Robertson. He's a real compititor, quite quick and is an honest pro. He didn't give Robertson a kick.
He's quite an intelligent and versatile player, which you can see Ancelotti likes. It's why I think he values Sigurdsson too, he can put him a variety of positions.
The system we used yesterday, I'll be frank, completely flummoxed Klopp and Liverpool and I don't think they really had any answer to it.