Despite the scoreline and the nail shredding finish Liverpool undressed the best team in the Premier League in a fearless, controlled performance that bore all the hallmarks of the very best of a Jurgen Klopp team.
Joining Rob Gutmann to pick out the finest of details of the piece are Paul Cope and Sean Rogers.
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Milner, Lallana & Klavan were all subbed on, just to be petty about it. It was tradmarked tactical genius Guardiola who only made 2 subs, and the first was Danilo in the 30th minute. When it’s suggested that Klopp can’t possibly be tactically astute & a cheerleader at the same time, I can’t help but think that dismisses the value of ‘cheerleading’, work rate, intelligent pressing, ferocious mindset, etc. as a tactic. It’s literally how we won the game, and it’s the tactic that’s given Klopp such an impressive record against Guardiola. Rob rightly brings up the question of whether this is sustainable or able to be imitated, but it doesn’t really get answered. I kind of get the difference between brains & brawn, but it’s a fluid distinction. When Guardiola’s teams have come unstuck, it’s typically because they get slapped around a bit. Think Bayern steamrolling Barca, Atleti grinding a close one against his Bayern.
Will Klopp stay at a club that doesn’t have the finance to compete for Pl and Cl?100 points is the new benchmark
I think reducing our pressing down to sheer determination and fitness is grossly underselling it. I’m sure there is more to it. One thing I have noticed is that when someone presses hard by making a 5 metre sprint to close someone down they often keep on going to press the next player to receive the ball without breaking stride. This says to me that those runs are typically only made when they have the opposition player and their most obvious out ball lined up. This is just one example, and I am sure it is much more like chess where the players around are slowly cutting down options and thinking two/three passes ahead to set the trap. Like when Otamendi plays it into Salah for the third, he doesn’t have a pass on to make despite this being what Guardiola is all about.
Also, our fall off in the last 15/20 was due to the sub of can not because it wasn’t done sooner
Just following up on this point, I have been thinking that this might be what Guardiola was talking about when he referred to Klopp “setting his runners” on you. I initially assumed he was referring to when we have the ball, but it fits much better as a description of our press.
I think this would also explain what Sean referred to Lallana’s “headless chicken pressing”. As Klopp said in his press conference, if it were as simple as that then everyone would do it
Completely agree. It’s dynamic & aggressive & physical, but that doesn’t make it any less intelligent or somehow not tactical. It’s highly coordinated movement with specific objectives in mind. It’s both a way to defend & simultaneously spring high quality attacks.