The departure of Philippe Coutinho in January threatened to decimate Liverpool's season.

The Brazilian was in the form of his life, scoring 12 goals and assisting another eight, before joining Barcelona in an £142million club record deal.

On December 30, the playmaker featured in his last game for the Reds in a 2-1 victory over Leicester City.

Fittingly, Mohamed Salah scored both of their goals on that occasion, as the Egyptian has now replaced his former team-mate as the club's main man.

It's partly thanks to Salah that Liverpool are still flying high in the Premier League - they're just two points behind second-placed Manchester United - and are a dead cert to make the quarter-finals of the Champions League, having beaten Porto 5-0 in the first leg of the last-16.

However, Jurgen Klopp has suggested that far from having a negative effect on their style of play, Coutinho leaving has actually helped his side change things up.

Speaking to the media ahead of his side's game against Newcastle on Saturday evening, the manager explained how he feels his players are now less predictable.

Liverpool have adapted 

“Phil Coutinho was a very dominant player in our game and when we were not at our best it was always a good idea to give him the ball, maybe he has an idea,” Klopp was quoted by the Liverpool Echo.

“But it was always clear when Phil didn’t play we had to do the job differently, to put responsibility on different shoulders and spread it between the players.

“You can never be sure it will work but now it is a few weeks ago and I am really happy with the reaction of the boys, they stepped up. It makes us a little bit more unpredictable on the pitch."

Explaining how his side's strategy has now shifted from focusing on one particular player, Klopp added:

“They are smart enough to use good players in the team. If you see Barcelona playing in a specific moment they give the ball to (Lionel) Messi: that is a good idea and I’d do the same.

“That is what we did with Phil and now we do it with other players. We work for each other, they didn’t change attitude, they were smart enough to use Phil in a specific moment and now they use each other in a specific moment.

“There was one example of a bad game from us when we gave all the responsibility to Phil and it was Tottenham away [when Liverpool lost 4-1). We gave it to him in the wrong moments.”

As strange as it may be for Liverpool fans to see Coutinho in a Barca shirt, their side have done a fine job of coping without him so far.

How will Coutinho's departure affect Liverpool long-term? Have your say in the comments.