Ox explains tactical plan for Magpies

ALEX Oxlade-Chamberlain has revealed Jurgen Klopp abandoned Liverpool’s usual free-flowing tactics to help break down Rafa Benitez’s defensive game-plan.

The Magpies opened up with a five-man defence at Anfield, and it took the Reds 40 minutes to breach that rearguard.

Mo Salah’s 32nd goal of the season opened the scoring before Sadio Mane’s strike sealed the victory in the second half.

Oxlade-Chamberlain said the game-plan had been to keep chipping away at Benitez’s side.

The England international (below) told beIN Sports: “We expected that they’d be really hard to break down and well organised, Rafa Benitez sides always are, so we’ve been working on different ways to break them down this week.

“Obviously trying to play football and finding spaces in between the lines can be hard, but we’ve always got the option, with the pace up front and the willingness of runners in behind, to go direct.

“If we don’t manage to find the first ball in behind, we always know to push and maybe create something off the second ball.

“In the end, the first goal was a bit of a ricochet in midfield and it broke to me and I managed to find the space in behind and then set up Mo.

“We’ve been working on that, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy and we had to work for it but I think we did that in the end.”

And Oxlade-Chamberlain said Liverpool kept pushing on near the end of the game just to make sure there was no late surprise.

He added: “Even at 2-0 in this league it’s never over, and I think Newcastle showed [that], they had their moments going forward and if we weren’t fully focused they could punish us.

“The manager was making sure we stayed focused and didn’t drop off and it’s always good when you’ve got that mentality to keep going right until the end.

“Sometimes, the best form of defence is to keep attacking, so we did that for a while and managed to shut up shop at the end and see it out.”