Change of Liverpool FC under Jürgen Klopp

After an average start and 10th place in the Premier League, Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers parted ways eight weeks into the season. Fans had been calling a certain name for a long time, a man that was currently on his sabbatical – Jürgen Klopp. The former Dortmund manager had planned to take a year off after his intense years at BVB but a football romantic like him would find it close to impossible to decline an offer from Liverpool FC.

The 8th of October 2015 was a great day for Liverpool fans as the club announced the appointment of Jürgen Klopp, a well respected manager with his own identity and approach of football. How does he fare thus far? What has he changed? Today, we’ll have a look at the changes under the German at the club and compare them to Brendan Rodgers’ approach.

Tactical setups & man management

First, we look at Liverpool FC under Brendan Rodgers, he played several different formations but mostly a 3-5-2, which I use as an example for this article. Data and graphics are from the Everton game which showed the frequent issues that had been around for a while. It was Rodgers’ last game as manager but it showed the majority of flaws in the system - Sakho, Skrtel, Can at centre half with Moreno and Clyne as wing backs, Lucas as the only defensive midfielder behind a roaming Coutinho and Milner in a supporting role. Upfront, Liverpool had Sturridge in a free role and Ings as a proper striker.

Sounds exciting but that’s about it. The three centre-backs had to move the ball on quickly, Sakho can play brilliant cross-field balls, but didn’t do that under the former manager. Skrtel is close to useless at passing and Can was the only one who moved up the pitch to further the build-up, not to mention that he’s played out of position - the German has a natural urge to go forward whenever he can. Too many players roaming to different positions left Lucas as the only genuine defensive mid on the pitch. Moreno and Clyne have a decent skill set for attacking wing-backs but they’re not utilized well enough, the two rarely saw a [useful] overlap from their teammates nor did they use the space they had which could’ve been done if Sakho or Can played some passes cross pitch, they widened the field but it wasn’t taken advantage of. Sturridge had a free role and had a few nice sequences with Coutinho, however Ings looked slightly isolated at times, early days in his Liverpool career, nothing overly dramatic. The attack as a whole - dull and ineffective.

Defence? Naïve uncoordinated pressing. Milner running at the defence with the strikers ball watching and thus opening big holes in midfield. Coutinho does his best but he’s not made for these kind of defensive duties, the player who had to compensate all of this was Lucas Leiva - a rather unforgiving job. The spacing between the lines was off, offering a lot of working space for Barkley and McCarthy in behind the midfield. Moreno and Clyne dropped back too quickly which made it far too easy for Everton to enter Liverpool’s half instead of actively defending against the ball. Moreno’s defending abilities are questionable anyway.

In the Everton game especially Liverpool’s defence was too narrow - Sakho, Skrtel and Can aren’t the worst defenders but as a whole they didn’t go together. The Slovakian has a fair amount of experience on paper, however he just can’t lead a backline nor is his timing and reading of the game any good. Sakho is a solid defender, had a lot on his plate as he couldn’t rely on Moreno covering his side as well as looking out for Skrtel. Emre Can was thrown in there because he can do a lot of different things on both sides of the pitch, however he’s not quite good enough as a centre-back and simply too good going forward to play this deep, a victim of his versatility. And then there’s the keeper, Mignolet can pull off an incredible save but when it comes to positioning, commanding his box or simply playing consistent, he’s not your guy. It takes much more than good reflexes to make a sound goalkeeper.

Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool had a lot of men behind the ball which didn’t seem like it as the defence always looked rather open. As I mentioned before, Milner [or any player] runs at the defence with the other players watching instead of supporting. Rodgers’ awful interpretation of pressing or were the players executing it wrong? One might say the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t a cohesive unit that would deliver every weekend – on both ends of the pitch, players probably would’ve been able to do better if they would’ve been played in their position and instruction that fit their abilities.

Not to mention the several players that were drained of confidence in his reign and couldn’t perform to previous years. Origi looked horrendous, Firmino seemed as if he’s missing Hoffenheim already and Lovren was a complete liability. All three of them must’ve been happy to see a new manager come in and get a fresh start.

Now onto the new boss, Jürgen Klopp. It was obvious what the German would bring to the club – the will to put in the necessary effort and trying to bring club and fans closer together [again]…did I mentioned ‘Gegenpressing’? He obviously had a magical bond with BVB’s fans at the Signal-Iduna Park and Anfield is a special place too. In his first game in charge, he faced Tottenham Hotspur and drew 0-0 at White Hart Lane, not the worst start, in which the players already showed signs of improving confidence, team work and effort. Aspects of the game that are a given under a manager like Klopp.

In Dortmund, the German has played a 4-2-3-1 pretty much every week, with a breeze of 4-1-4-1 here and there. So far, he’s stuck to his habits with small tweaks to fit the Premier League. After 10 games at the club Klopp recorded 4 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses which took the team up to 8th in the table. However, there was still a lot of work to ahead to get the team to play the way he wanted to. They just conceded too many goals – 2 against Newcastle, 2 against West Brom, 3 against Watford. On the other hand, under the new manager numerous players started playing well, to the relief of many fans. The €41m signing Firmino thrived under Klopp, put in consistently improving performances and rewarded himself when he scored 2 and assisted another in a massive 4-1 away win at Manchester City, which took a lot of pressure off his shoulders. The Brazilian shifted into full gear in early 2016 when he recorded 7 goals and 4 assists in the first 8 games of the new year, just to be stopped by a hamstring injury. Coutinho, Lallana, Can, Lovren and Sakho also massively improved under the German, especially the Croatian Dejan Lovren who had a nightmare start to his personal campaign. Can now played in his natural position, as centre mid, has had very consistent displays since. One player who has not benefited however is Christian Benteke who has dropped down very low in the picking order.

As an example for Liverpool under Klopp, I chose the 3-0 home win against Manchester City. It was one of their best displays and this game clearly showed in which direction the club could go if they keep up their good work, not the most spectacular performance overall but in my opinion, their best against the ball. The goals weren’t bad either, it was a very effective and homogenous display by the team. Two convincing wins against City, unthinkable at the start of the season.

Liverpool started in a 4-1-4-1 with Firmino as a second striker that was floating around Origi. A compact midfield in Milner, Henderson, Can and Lallana, and a defence consisting of Flanagan, Toure, Lovren and Clyne with Mignolet in net. Game had a slow start where both teams were trying to get a feel for the opponent, not much happened in the first 30 minutes as City couldn’t get the ball to Agüero and Liverpool focused on denying the Citizens a way into their half. After winning possession they tried to play it as quickly as possible into their attacking players and successfully did so when Lallana slotted home a goal into the bottom right corner in the 34th minute. It took Klopp’s team three simple passes to get Lallana into that space – effective. Only six minutes later James Milner piled on the misery for City as he finished off a brilliant attack to make it 2-0. Henderson and Can dictated the game with the attackers constantly switching positions to open up gaps, especially the former Southampton player Adam Lallana who had a cracking game, moving the ball on quickly, getting into space and using it well. Second half was quiet until Lallana picked the ball off Clichy to play it into Firmino who curled it past Hart to make it three. Game. Set. Match.

In defence Klopp’s team applied their (counter) pressing very well and forced City’s players to move into space with players already waiting to close them down. Clichy and Zabaleta being the common victims of that trap. The Citizens barely broke into the opponents half and if they did it ended far away from Liverpool’s box. The midfielders were closing down very early, either man or zone oriented with Firmino moving towards the man and Origi staying on City’s centre backs, as displayed in the graphic below. Their defence wasn’t tested much with Toure and Lovren dealing well with the agile Agüero who rarely saw a useful ball. Klopp’s favourite moment of the game was Kolo Toure chasing down the Argentine to make a last ditch tackle in the box in the 70th minute. The Ivorian got a standing ovation from his manager for that. One of the very few highlights in the second half as Liverpool strolled to an empathic victory.

Now we’re in late April and Liverpool are currently in the semi-finals of the Europa League with a good chance to advance. The club is 8th in the Premier League, 5 points behind Manchester United in 5th with a game in hand, they were knocked out of the FA Cup by a last minute winner by Ogbonna and lost the League Cup final on penalties to Manchester City. Two very unfortunate losses for Jürgen Klopp’s side but the journey will continue. Come summer I expect a few new faces, not a complete overhaul though, they’ll look for players that will complement Liverpool’s team and get them closer to desired silverware. Schalke defender Joel Matip has already sealed a transfer to Liverpool on a free this summer. This team has a lot of potential but is still missing missing pieces to become a real force in European football, the German will be happy to have his first full pre season this upcoming summer and hopefully a good transfer window as well. I am excited about the future of this club.

(@MichoB93)