Virgil van Dijk admits Liverpool are learning to ‘create chaos’ under Andoni Iraola.
Sunday’s visit of Arsenal will bring Iraola’s opening months at the Anfield helm into sharp focus as his side takes on the reigning Premier League champions.
The Reds are currently on a five-match winning run in all competition since suffering their first loss of the season to Manchester City earlier this month.
They have also enjoyed several early standout moments with Wednesday’s Carabao Cup penalty shootout win over Chelsea becoming a latest highlight.
And Van Dijk has revealed that Iraola’s ‘risk-reward’ philosophy is leading to Liverpool embracing a number of options in order to make marginal gains.
Asked what has changed under the new head coach, he replied: “The word has been said so many times: ‘intensity’.
“Sometimes [there is] a bit of chaos and there is this risk-reward that’s going on now as well.
“So that if we press high… well, I ended up at one point almost putting Cody (Gakpo) in one-v-one on goal when I intercepted the ball on the right-hand side when I’m a left centre-back.
“It’s this sort of intensity that we try to get into our press. But I think he (Iraola) mentioned it in his press conference before that he wants us to control the game by obviously having the ball and finding the right spaces at times.
“It’s still a work in progress, but if you defend with a lot of intensity you have a big chance to win the ball high.
“Obviously sometimes that creates some risk and it could be vulnerable.
“But we’re working on it a lot in order to be able to take that risk, but still not be as vulnerable as we have been at sometimes.”
He added: “You see a lot of teams playing one-v-ones nowadays.
“So you have to try, and you can try, and get through that press by, you know, playing out from the back, like Brighton does very well in my opinion.
“But also you can go over the press with the first or second ball and go from there.
“You have to find the right balance because I feel that we can still play through the press, but we can also go direct.
“I think at home, sometimes you have to. You have to try and create this chaos, second balls, battles, and that’s what we still are learning.”