Jürgen Klopp

[BigChief]

That's a thing of real beauty.

[labourRed]

That is special. Was more emotive than Virgil's third seeing that.

[shanks69]

Klopp saying becker thought something had hit his calf,which isn't a good sign

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[Rigadon]

Klopp saying becker thought something had hit his calf,which isn't a good sign

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Carragher's reaction "an object?"
Klopp "No, he 'felt' like something had hit him. An athlete would understand that"

[Barnie7]

I think it was Geoff shreeves who said an object and the Athlete comment was aimed at him..but it definately sounds like his Calf...ouch

[McDermotX]

[ame]https://twitter.com/TheRedmenTV/status/1162063576405807109[/ame]

[rodo]

[ame]https://twitter.com/2sporten/status/1161961414728327169[/ame]

[McDermotX]

[RedAndWhite]

That's in Rio de Janeiro?

[Yozza]

That's in Rio de Janeiro?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Steps

[Mark79]

That's in Rio de Janeiro?

Yep, Adrian is Brazilian and the Philadelphia Museum is in Rio

[baitman]

everton fans will be in full fume, stalone is a bitter

[marcus50bucks]

How VAR and fear of complacency has encouraged Klopp to employ an even higher defensive line

By Simon Hughes Aug 15, 2019

A month or two into Jurgen Klopp’s reign as Liverpool manager and, believe it or not, the word coming back from Melwood was not entirely encouraging.

One senior player had recognised the pattern of the working day was all a bit predictable. And if he was confiding in outsiders already, then the matter was probably also being discussed in the changing room.

Klopp was respected for his achievements elsewhere and liked – his personality had already made an enormous impression. “But,” as the player told me, “we pretty much do the same thing day after day.”

This led to further conversations and it became apparent through listening to those who knew Klopp far better that this was his method and that he was watching closely for those who did not buy into it. He is cut from a cloth of management that holds faith in repetition within a collective, because he believes it is the best way to ensure a team performs as though it is natural.

Over and over, Klopp would detail what gegenpressing meant to him, explaining the difference between the high, medium and low levels of pressure by using mannequins placed at equal distances from each other on training pitches split into thirds. He would target a “pressing victim” in the opposition, which was code for a defender who was not particularly confident in possession of the ball, and want five or six of his own team and hunt him down as a pack.

Someone close to Klopp told me: “Individual stuff might come later, but it tends to be with younger players who need to work on specific parts of their game.”

Repetition, Klopp thinks, brings about not only a rhythm but greater sense of group responsibility and eventually, a togetherness – harbouring comradeship. In other words, Liverpool – like his Borussia Dortmund and Mainz sides before them – would become machine-like. Or: “The point where everyone knows not only what they are doing themselves but what others are supposed to be doing – that’s a common understanding and a tactical appreciation of what everyone is working towards.”

Repetition can serve more than one purpose.

When Roy Hodgson was Liverpool’s manager, there was a pre-season session when he left the pitch bemoaning what he’d just seen and the apparent lack of appetite for following his conservative instructions.

“Repeat, repeat, bloody repeat,” he said apparently, turning to a trialist he’d coached elsewhere for vindication of his methods without seeming to realise that Liverpool’s stars were never going to take that seriously the commendation of someone trying to earn a contract.

Hodgson was using repetition to create organisation at the back, as Anfield predecessors Rafa Benitez and Gerard Houllier did.

Perhaps a perception exists that attacking football provides an opportunity to be free-spirited, allowing players to constantly express themselves. Though Klopp allows this in the right moments, his repetition was focused getting the most out of the attack first. The defence could come later.

This was unusual, going against preconceptions about what managers should focus on whenever they take a new job. It is fair to say that by the end of Klopp’s first season, the player with his small doubts understood what was happening a lot better.

Slowly, Liverpool were becoming a more organised but also a more enterprising team.

Klopp believes creation requires concentration and hard work.

Initially, he looked for attitude and willingness to embrace his immense physical expectations in training, rather than impose his own beliefs on the way the game should played through formational changes.

The German is an Anglophile with an interest in British football in its purest form. Though the strength of the wind surprised him, he looked forward to playing games in the rain in front of angry crowds demanding extreme effort.

After leaving Dortmund in summer 2015, he studied the patterns in the Premier League and tried to figure out where the gaps where.

Klopp used 4-5-1 for much of his first six months in charge at Liverpool because he knew he did not have the players to follow his vision. This began to change when Sadio Mane arrived from Southampton, and Mohamed Salah’s signing from Roma finally brought the 4-3-3 the manager wanted.

He had recognised a narrow front-three had the potential to suffocate opposition defences which usually involved only two centre backs. The space on the wings allowed his full backs to race up the touchline, providing the sort of service Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson have since delivered. The most pressure would be on the midfield, where the energy would need to be extreme in order to plug the gaps while other, more traditionally defensive-minded players were streaming forward. That is why he could rationalise the departure of Philippe Coutinho.

At Mainz and Dortmund, Klopp had achieved so much but he was also self-critical and recognised that the responsibility of any manager is to try to tempt others to follow him in what he does without really figuring out what he is doing by regularly redefining his own methods through tweaks, thus keeping him ahead of challengers.

Klopp has since changed the vocabulary of football because any discussion about any Premier League game now seems to involve the success of the “high-press” or, indeed, the “low block.”

He now sees potential in rule changes that impact on every player and every team, appreciating that the sooner Liverpool adapt to a shifting environment with differing expectations, the more dangerous they’ll be and the more games they will win.

In the opening Premier League game of the season at home to Norwich and in the UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea, Liverpool’s defence adopted an unfamiliarly high line. There seems to be two reasons for this.

Klopp knows technology is having more of a say in outcomes, believing VAR favours a well-organised defence over an over-eager attacker or one without pace because, quite simply, millimetres register on camera in a way they might not with a human.

By asking his own defence, one marshalled by Virgil van Dijk, to be on high alert from day one of a new season also refocuses his players in the months after they became European champions. Is he challenging them to think again about what they are doing at a moment in their careers when they might be feeling quite good about themselves, and so potentially losing some focus? That was Pep Guardiola’s fear at Manchester City after winning the title in 2017-18, explaining why he introduced a stricter fining policy. Maybe Klopp is being subtler in his solutions.

Klopp must appreciate the challenge in front of him.

Liverpool are unbeaten at Anfield in the league for more than two years and lost just one top-flight game in the whole of last season. Norwich came out and had a go last Friday but were blown away even though Liverpool did not move up the gears.

When nothing seems to work for opponents, there is every chance the solution will be to fall deeper and deeper themselves – not necessarily to try to win but to limit the scale of defeat.

Having Liverpool play 15 yards further up the pitch, presents a new challenge for managers facing them – keeping Klopp’s team ahead of the curve, and perhaps increasing the possibility of more goals being scored in a title race that could be defined by such fine margins.

It was telling in Istanbul when Klopp was asked why Chelsea were able to create so many chances. “We dropped too deep,” he explained.

Yet this explanation sounded like more of a warning.

https://theathletic.com/1129214/2019...efensive-line/

[Buzzo]

Fascinating Cheers for posting.

[marcus50bucks]

The high risk tactical change that proves Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool are ahead of the curve again

Liverpool 's latest tactical adjustment coincides with the Premier League's latest addition

By David Alexander Hughes
06:00, 16 AUG 2019 UPDATED 07:40, 16 AUG 2019

This season may only be three games old, but it’s already felt like a hectic start to the campaign for Liverpool.

On Wednesday night, they put to bed the disappointment of suffering penalty shootout defeat to Manchester City two weeks ago in the Community Shield by defeating Chelsea on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup final to lift their second European trophy in three months.

In between both finals, the Reds opened their Premier League campaign with a 4-1 victory at home to Norwich. As a result, Jurgen Klopp’s side remain undefeated so far and look set for another strong domestic and European campaign.

Among the many subplots that have evolved from the season so far, an interesting aspect of Liverpool’s play has been their noticeable high defensive line.

Whilst Klopp’s side are best known for their pressing capabilities, they are often underestimated in terms of their ability in possession. Last season they had a Premier League ball possession average of 61% - this was the third highest in the division.

That trend has continued this season with Liverpool bettering all three of their opponents in terms of ball possession. A result of their dominance in this department means many teams retreat into their own defensive half when the Reds are on the ball, allowing Liverpool’s centre-backs to push forward onto the halfway line and pen the opposition into their own half.

Notably though, when possession is lost, usually a defensive line will drop deep to either track the run of an attacker or in order to safeguard against the risk of a long ball over the top and into the space behind.

Yet, Liverpool look to be avoiding doing the same this season, instead maintaining a high line and staying compact allowing little space in front of them for the opposition to play through.

An example of this is below taken from Wednesday’s Super Cup final vs Chelsea.

Jorginho receives the ball on the halfway line. Although he has little space to play short passes in the middle, there is plenty of space behind the Liverpool high defensive line in which he can play a lofted ball forwarded.

Whilst playing such a high line can boast great reward in stifling out an opposition attack, the same also traditionally presents a high risk for a defensive unit, which is why managers have often been reluctant to utilise it.

When using the same, clubs are heavily reliant on officials correctly flagging for offsides against attacking players. Meanwhile, any defender not maintaining the line could keep an opposition attacker onside and the same could lead to a high quality chance on their goal.

However, as one of the more forward thinking clubs in Europe, Liverpool look to have implemented the high defensive line tactic in cohesion with the recent introduction of Video assistant refereeing (VAR) in the Premier League.

The rule change saw referrers provided assistance to officiate the game using video footage and a headset for communication which means that any goal scored can be scrutinised and checked for any infringements - including offsides.

This means that providing Liverpool maintain a robust and organised defensive line, they can be rest assured that any missed offside by the officials resulting in a goal will be ruled out with the assistance of VAR.

Klopp’s men have trialed a similar tactic in the past, notably in last season’s Champions League away fixture vs PSG. In that game, PSG’s forward line was caught offside on six occasions, limiting the attacking prowess of one of Europe’s top forward lines.

Strikingly, across Liverpool’s three competitive matches so far this season, they have been awarded 19 free-kicks for offsides. For comparison, they were awarded just five free-kicks for offsides in their final three games of last season.

We saw an example of this tactic’s proficiency on Wednesday night after Christian Pulisic latched onto Emerson’s pass to dribble his way into the Liverpool penalty area and seemingly double Chelsea’s advantage in the 39th minute. Yet, the goal was eventually ruled out for offside after Liverpool maintained their well drilled defensive line.

Governed by Virgil van Dijk, expect to see Liverpool maintain their high defensive line throughout the up and coming campaign. They will of course encounter perilous moments which may see the opposition bypass the tactic in the same way Manchester City managed with their well worked free-kick at Wembley two weeks ago.

Yet, overall it seems Liverpool are once again ahead of the curve in using the Premier League’s latest rule to change to their benefit.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spor...roves-16762317