I'll concede we have been better defensively of late but then again we have been playing weaker more defensive opposition, the one game against a good team we shipped in 3 goals in one half and went from a solid win to a hang on for a draw. Tell me how Klopp changed to Plan B against Sevilla? Would it not have perhaps made sense at half time to switch to a defensive system and see out the game?
BTW I really did not notice a huge tactical shift in the second half against West Brom but if there was one it didn't work as we created less in the second half than we did in the first. a big tactical shift would have been to go more direct with Solanke as a target man, its the kind of thing Manure do with Fellaini and it works more often than not.
regarding the subs you know damned well that Klopp almost always waits to long to make subs, ask yourself how often a sub makes any difference to the scoreline for us, we almost never score a late goal in the way that a Citeh, Manure or Arsenal do.
Again, I must ask if you actually watch the games or not. First of all, a 'plan B' usually consists of using the players already on the pitch and setting them up slightly differently. Using substitutions is already 'plan C' or 'plan D'.
The Sevilla game: How many big chances from open play (because that's what you're looking at if you want to see a change in defensive set-up) did Sevilla create in the second half of the game compared to the first half of the game? Of the top of my head, I think they created three (maybe two?) very big chances in the first half. How many did they create in the second half? I don't remember many, if any, yet we did concede two goals early on. A set piece (it was a perfectly taken one to be fair) and a penalty. Nothing to do with our shape or how we set up. Straight after we conceded the second goal, Klopp made two substitutions: Milner for Moreno and Can for Coutinho. He set up more defensively and it did actually help, Can made us more solid and we didn't give away anything in terms of chances from open play. We conceded again from a corner (poorly defended one I have to admit).
None of the goals we conceded had anything to do with our defensive shape or 'lack of a defensive plan', there was a plan straight after we conceded the second one. It worked. That's football for you. You set up better defensively, give away less (big) chances, yet you concede three goals.
The West-Brom game:How did it not work and how did we create less in the second half than in the first half?
The only chance we created in the first half was the Firmino one and Salah who came short for a cross from Trent.
Second half: Mane's shot that missed the target (difficult, but should hit the target), Salah coming short for another good ball behind their defence, Salah missing the open header, Chamberlain with a good look and hit it straight at Foster, Solanke's shot cleared off the line by Hegazi and Solanke's goal that was disallowed.
See how that second half, after the tactical changes, compares to the first half in terms of chances and shorts on target? It was much better. A tactical shift doesn't need to be big to be effective. There was one, wether you noticed it or not and it helped us create far more in the second half than in the first half.
There's this strange obsession people have with making substitutions. There's no point in making changes for the sake of making changes.
We indeed haven't made a late goal in quite a while. Shouldn't we be looking at the players rather than the manager though? Klopp has made the tactical changes, he has made the substitutions. Then it's down to the players to put the ball in the back of the net, not Klopp. Against Burnley Solanke hit the bar in the last minutes of the game, now against West-Brom his goal was (wrongly?) disallowed. It's not that we don't create the chances late in the game, we just haven't been finishing them.