DANNY MURPHY: With a Champions League spot gone, Klopp should try different ideas with Liverpool

Liverpool are highly unlikely to qualify for the Champions League this season even if it is not Jurgen Klopp’s nature to give up.

It’s disappointing but also represents an opportunity. He and the club have to use this period, starting against Arsenal today, to look at the big picture and plan for next year and beyond.

This campaign has been an extreme let down. From chasing the Quadruple last season, Liverpool are fighting to reach the top six — and they’ve not finished lower than eighth since being promoted to the top flight in 1962.

Here are a few ideas that can help them return to the top:

GIVE DARWIN A RUN AT CENTRE-FORWARD

Can Darwin Nunez do it as a centre forward? Now is the time to experiment with positions

Darwin Nunez has great strength, pace and carries an aerial threat. He’s a finisher, not a creator, so he’s wasted playing on the left. He’s going to be Liverpool’s main No 9 when Roberto Firmino leaves at the end of the season, so why delay? Let him have a proper feel of it now.

Firmino was a different type of centre-forward during Liverpool’s glory days of winning the Premier League and Champions League, but he was automatic first choice and was able to build relationships with Mo Salah and Sadio Mane.

Nunez needs to have that backing. He’s only 23, in his first season in the Premier League, and only had two years in the Portuguese top flight before that.

He’s going to be a super player but needs stability, while the rest of the team need to get used to him down the middle so they can get the best out of him. It’s hurting his development to be wide one week, centre-forward the next and on the bench after that.

Nunez should be the main man up front. Look at what’s happened to Ollie Watkins at Aston Villa since Danny Ings left. He knows he’s going to be playing up front every week rather than being rotated or used on the flanks. Watkins has responded with goals and the same will happen to Nunez because he is the type of centre-forward who defenders hate playing against.

Trent Alexander-Arnold’s operation could be more effective in midfield, but they need to test it

FIND OUT IF TRENT CAN MOVE INTO MIDFIELD

It is hard to experiment when chasing trophies or battling relegation but it’s worth using some of Liverpool’s remaining games to see if Trent Alexander-Arnold can operate in midfield.

Trent has such fabulous technical attributes, it would be fascinating to see if he could express himself without having the same amount of defensive responsibility or being left isolated against a winger.

There are different ways of going about it. If Klopp wanted to stick religiously to his tried and trusted 4-3-3, he’d have to play someone else at right-back and put Trent into the middle. But Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta have shown you can be flexible during games and turn a back-four into a three, so full-backs can step into midfield. We’ve seen it work with Joao Cancelo and Oleksandr Zinchenko and John Stones was fantastic last Saturday against Liverpool going into the middle.

It would represent a tactical shift for Klopp, who has enjoyed the majority of his success with a standard 4-3-3. But Trent is such a talent, it’d be worth looking for alternative ways to get the best out of him. That could also be introducing three at the back so he and Andy Robertson would be wing-backs.

Or giving Trent an experienced midfield partner until he learns the details of the position: shorter, sharper positions, maybe being a bit more tenacious.

Liverpool need some new blood in the summer, like Declan Rice and/or Jude Bellingham

QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY, SIGNINGS

Liverpool have been at their best in the transfer market when paying big money for key individuals like Alisson and Virgil van Dijk rather than having a scattergun approach and buying a bunch of players who don’t really make a difference.

That has to be the approach again this summer. Despite the team’s struggles, Liverpool need to identify the right two or three players to bring in.

I’d agree that the area of priority is midfield. If Liverpool can bring in two out of Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice and Mason Mount, they will be in excellent shape.

Liverpool still have plenty to offer as a club, not least the manager, the supporters, the quality of the existing players and their history. I don’t think Van Dijk has ever regretted choosing to go to Anfield rather than Manchester City.

With a year left on his contract, Mount will probably be a cheaper acquisition than Bellingham or Rice. If you could add two of them to the goalkeeper, defenders and forwards Liverpool have, they’ll be a force.

Mason Mount could be another option, and he only has one year left on his deal at Chelsea

Though they aren’t the richest club in the league, savings can be made on the wage bill if Firmino, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, James Milner and even Joel Matip left this summer.

Ibrahima Konate and Van Dijk remain a formidable centre-back pairing but they probably need cover in that position, too, with Matip’s recent injury record.

DIFFERENT VOICES ON THE TRAINING GROUND

We see managers on television all the time but, as an ex-player, I can tell you the input of the coaches and other staff is hugely important in the daily workplace.

Klopp has been very close to assistants Peter Krawietz and Pep Lijnders during his time at Anfield. Krawietz has been with him for the whole eight years and Lijnders for seven of them.

No doubt they have the manager’s full trust and rightly so. I am not saying either one has to go, but I do think an extra fresh voice can be useful when a management team has been together so long.

Jurgen Klopp may need new voices in training, despite long-term work with Peter Krawietz (R)

During his time at Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson used Archie Knox, Brian Kidd, Mike Phelan, Steve McClaren, Carlos Queiroz and Rene Meulensteen at different times.

I’m sure he would say listening to different opinions helped him and, looking from afar, maybe Klopp needs something similar.

I’m not at the training ground so can’t speak with full authority, it’s just that from my experience in the game eight years is a long time for players without having a new take on things.

Danny Murphy was speaking to Joe Bernstein