Klopp's Liverpool Style Guide to Winning Games

[Fredo]

The way Moreno and Clyne push up forward isn't too different to how they were positioned in a 352 so why would they be out of position then? Issue is movement in the final third and getting confidence back in a settled forward line.

[Rich]

Klopp's Liverpool Style Guide On Drawing Games...

[RichC]

He's doing the right thing for me, making us a tougher side to score against. Most good sides are built with a strong foundation it's what Rafa did when he first came in, it took time but once we'd got it right we were tough to beat and we developed as an attacking side.

He's only two games in but I think you can already see us working much harder defensively which is good to see we have quality in the squad and I do believe we'll get the attacking side of things right but it's not going to happen overnight.

[Muddled]

He's doing the right thing for me, making us a tougher side to score against. Most good sides are built with a strong foundation it's what Rafa did when he first came in, it took time but once we'd got it right we were tough to beat and we developed as an attacking side.

He's only two games in but I think you can already see us working much harder defensively which is good to see we have quality in the squad and I do believe we'll get the attacking side of things right but it's not going to happen overnight.

[Rich]

I suspect one of Klopp's biggest problems will be goals, our squad just doesn't have enough regular goal scorers in it. We don't appear to have a dead ball specialist in the ranks either.

If we're going to play mainly with a single striker then the three behind all need to be pretty confident goalscorers, at the moment none of Milner, Coutinho or Lallana are... can they do it though?

Henderson returning should help us, as I think he can help at setpieces and good chance creation and Firmino is still a big question mark; where does he play and can he become a 15 goal a season man?!

Perhaps someone with more time on their hands than me can look at the spread of goals from Klopp's Dortmund teams but I suspect there were goals through out the side.

[RedReet]

We looked far more open when we did mind

I dont know what it is but I dont feel as nervous when teams attack us as I didnt under Brendan. My arse use to twitch 10 to the dozen under Brendan but our shape looks and feels better under Klopp and we appear to have more defensive direction

I think Shaggy can lend you some cream for that.

[el matador]

We used an interesting tactic yesterday that I haven't seen before. From our possession in defence, Clyne would take a high position on the right and Milner would drop deep almost to a point where we were playing a back 3 and play the pass into him or into lallana.

It could be something he used at Dortmund but I haven't seen it before. It was almost as if he didn't trust skrtel in possession of the ball.

[danperkins]

I suspect one of Klopp's biggest problems will be goals, our squad just doesn't have enough regular goal scorers in it. We don't appear to have a dead ball specialist in the ranks either.

If we're going to play mainly with a single striker then the three behind all need to be pretty confident goalscorers, at the moment none of Milner, Coutinho or Lallana are... can they do it though?

Henderson returning should help us, as I think he can help at setpieces and good chance creation and Firmino is still a big question mark; where does he play and can he become a 15 goal a season man?!

Perhaps someone with more time on their hands than me can look at the spread of goals from Klopp's Dortmund teams but I suspect there were goals through out the side.

Have to say our set pieces are a disgrace. I thought it was bad enough when Stevie G used to hit the first man so often but it seems we have some kind of weird aversion to taking a decent set piece. Players with usually good strikes of a ball scuff and underhit corners and set pieces. It's actually very annoying.

Yeah with Firmino it's early days but really yet to see even a glimpse of the player we thought he was. Hopefully he kicks in. Milner for me at the moment could be the one dropped for Firmino.

Coutinho-Firmino-Lallana

I see some have suggested dropping an under performing Coutinho, for me that will just add to our bluntness. He'll kick in at some point and is the heart beat of the side, fabulous if inconsistent player. I'm a fan of Milner but have been really disappointed with his showings so far at LFC. Lots of running but not much else. But I think the fact that he is acting captain makes him undroppable. He looks lethargic and slows up play something awful, I think he'll be decent for us though just having a bad patch.

[Ams12]

We looked far more open when we did mind



I dont know what it is but I dont feel as nervous when teams attack us as I didnt under Brendan. My arse use to twitch 10 to the dozen under Brendan but our shape looks and feels better under Klopp and we appear to have more defensive direction

Agree on this. Far more comfortable watching us now. You can see the way we press as soon as we lose the ball. We are competing for 2nd balls too. And more often than not either win it back, disrupt the oppositions play or force them back or into conceding posession. We defo look better defensively. Their goal yesterday had a touch of class & very clinical. He chested it down & took a first time shot with the outside of his boot! If only we had some of that clinicalness with our 30 odd shots! Cout & Lallana need some serious shooting practice! Nothing wrong with the long shot but at least hit the target/make the keeper work. But saying that, their keeper did also make a couple of great saves from long shots...milner's effort on the volley from the edge of the box was one, although a foul was given inside the box & wouldn't have counted even if it had gone in.

[redmike65]

/Blows dust off thread....

Today was about the two Ps - possession and pressing. Chelsea with the early breakthrough made two errors one was based in arrogance the other in lack of understanding about how much Liverpool have changed in a short time.

The arrogance was of course the apparent belief that they could simply defend a one goal lead the other was that Liverpool would simply run out of legs well before the end and that they would surely get the chance to break and get the 2nd goal that would secure the points.

Klopp and his team in three weeks has apparently raised the endurance and fitness levels of the squad by about a quarter, add that to the more coherent defensive shape and players the right players in the right positions malarky and suddenly the whole side looks so much more imposing. From the moment Liverpool went behind they were at Chelsea keeping them in their own third while retaining possession (63% in the first half) and it wasn't bad possession either, had it been Rodgers it would have been deep and sideways, under Klopp its high and probing, sure some recycling of course but always in their face and looking to pull defenders laterally while looking for the moment which happily Coutinho found. Now even if he hadn't scored the same approach would surely have been maintained gradually wearing Chelsea down and then throwing on Benteke dominate space inside the area and on the 18 yard line.

"Terrible" wrote Klopp on the Melwood white board - that's what he wants the opposition to think when they play Liverpool - that it'll be an absolute slog and they'll be glad its all over. After three league games you can see how he is starting to shape the side to be terrible to play.

City will be very interesting.

[BigChief]

Good points. Yes, like Bournemouth and Southampton previously Chelsea also sat back waiting for us to lose fizz in the last 10-15 mins of the game. But our play means we make the opposition tired not ourselves.

With Rodgers while we retained possession there would only be 1 or maybe 2 players in and around the opposition penalty area. And if we were lucky 1 person actually in the penalty area. Easy to defend against. With Klopp I'm seeing Sakho in the final third and Lucas winning the ball not on the half way line but on the edge of the penalty area.

We will get caught no doubt. But with our better ball players returning the chances will be fewer and far between. This must be what gegenpressen is in actual practice.

[Fredo]

/Blows dust off thread....

Today was about the two Ps - possession and pressing. Chelsea with the early breakthrough made two errors one was based in arrogance the other in lack of understanding about how much Liverpool have changed in a short time.

The arrogance was of course the apparent belief that they could simply defend a one goal lead the other was that Liverpool would simply run out of legs well before the end and that they would surely get the chance to break and get the 2nd goal that would secure the points.

Klopp and his team in three weeks has apparently raised the endurance and fitness levels of the squad by about a quarter, add that to the more coherent defensive shape and players the right players in the right positions malarky and suddenly the whole side looks so much more imposing. From the moment Liverpool went behind they were at Chelsea keeping them in their own third while retaining possession (63% in the first half) and it wasn't bad possession either, had it been Rodgers it would have been deep and sideways, under Klopp its high and probing, sure some recycling of course but always in their face and looking to pull defenders laterally while looking for the moment which happily Coutinho found. Now even if he hadn't scored the same approach would surely have been maintained gradually wearing Chelsea down and then throwing on Benteke dominate space inside the area and on the 18 yard line.

"Terrible" wrote Klopp on the Melwood white board - that's what he wants the opposition to think when they play Liverpool - that it'll be an absolute slog and they'll be glad its all over. After three league games you can see how he is starting to shape the side to be terrible to play.

City will be very interesting.

It's a false impression though as he hardly had the time to train with the team and certainly wouldn't have put them through their paces to gain any degree of considerable improvement. The team was already fit when the came. He just altered the system a little bit and made us better defensively which we badly needed as we don't score enough goals. It will get better when we get both Sturridge and Benteke fit for a long period of time, thing which Rodgers hardly had at the beginning of the season.

[DannyMan2006]

It's a false impression though as he hardly had the time to train with the team and certainly wouldn't have put them through their paces to gain any degree of considerable improvement. The team was already fit when the came. He just altered the system a little bit and made us better defensively which we badly needed as we don't score enough goals. It will get better when we get both Sturridge and Benteke fit for a long period of time, thing which Rodgers hardly had at the beginning of the season.

You said it yourself there. Had Rodgers been capable he'd have made us difficult to beat when he didn't have top class firepower to rely on. That was Rodgers biggest undoing.

I think we are seeing now, it wasn't the personnel, it was the coaching and tactical shape. Don't think there's many better than Rodgers at creating attacking play with the right type of players available. But he's right at the bottom of the pile on the defensive aspect.

Klopp with none of his own players has already shown marked improvements in the team being compact. Strange that we are seeing the full backs pushed right up, only 2 CB's, yet look far more solid.

[RichC]

One of the big things for us winning yesterday comes from a trait we'd usually complaint about our own side doing and that's the midfielders tracking their runners, for both the 2nd and 3rd goals the Chelsea midfielders didn't do their jobs properly and track our runners which allowed us the chances to score those goals.
It's amazing really that Chelsea a side that have historically been so good at the defensive side of things look woefully prepared and capable of dealing with these types of things the side under Mourinho looks broken it really does.

Great to see Klopp to tactically outwit Mourinho with the shape and style of our play and you sort of feel it will only get better with time.

[dww]

I feel people are giving us/Klopp too much credit for yesterday. We did well and do look to be 'getting it' now, more joined up and able to execute plans. However, Chelsea look awful. As soon as they scored they scored they hung back, offered nothing but showed none of the defensive energy of the best Mourinho sides.

Hopefully the win will give us a massive psychological boost but I don't think anyone should believe that we beat a really top class side.

It is nice to see us have a plan A and plan B that we can put into action.