Jurgen Klopp still has no trophy during his reign in Liverpool, but his third full season was successful in his previous jobs.Adam Bate wonders why Klopp has good reason to be particularly optimistic in the campaign.
"If we stay sitting here in four years, I think we will win a title. "These were the words of Jurgen Klopp at his very first press conference as Liverpool manager in October 2015. Something may have been lost in translation – the title can refer to a trophy of all kinds rather than the championship – but this n is still the last
Jose: Klopp needs a title
Jose Mourinho think that the summer spending of Liverpool is that they face immense pressure to win the Premier League.
Liverpool missed. There was a final of the League Cup in the months of his takeover and a Europa League final this year too. In May, Klopp took the club to the Champions League final to fight Real Madrid. His Liverpool thrilled fans and entertained everyone with their fast football. Only silverware escaped him.
José Mourinho is perfectly aware of this fact. In the wake of Liverpool's summer spending, the Manchester United boss has not lost the chance to increase pressure on his rival. "Maybe this season will finally ask you what they win," he told the media. "I think you must be right and now you must demand." Mildinho is typical but he is right
The good news for Klopp is that it is at this point that Mourinho's machinations may grate and as the project begins to unfold, history suggests that the third Complete season is one where German is experiencing unprecedented success. It is at this point that he took Mainz for the first time in the Bundesliga. With Borussia Dortmund, he won the game.
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Could the story be repeated with Liverpool? There are now enough windows for Klopp to turn the team into a team capable of implementing his ideas and there is a growing feeling that the players are in tune with his style. It's been fifteen months since Liverpool lost a Premier League match at Anfield. The team now knows what he wants but it took a long time.
It's after the 4-3 win at Arsenal, the opening weekend of his first full season, that Klopp has highlighted the problem. For the first goal, Liverpool lost the ball in half and gave Alex Iwobi time to catch Theo Walcott, unmarked, on the edge of the box.
Klopp insisted after spending two hours coaching accurately. how to prevent that kind of thing from happening. Klopp: We must be ready to fight
Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool can not afford to rest on its laurels after a busy summer in the transfer market.
"What we need is that the decision not be made here," he explained, showing his instinct, then his head. "We are in the lead right now, the time spent together will help, as well as experience together, success and good results." Gesturing his instinct once again, he added, "At some point he will be here and then we can use it more easily."
Repetition is the key The late Philippe Coutinho told how he had worked long and hard on a routine where he was playing three small pbades before changing the game with a longer pbad.For the uninformed eye, it might have looked like chaos but there was a method to the madness by Klopp, even the heavier metal bands spend time in the studio
Coutinho sees it as an attempt to "tap into the perfect mental state to be creative" and this has been confirmed by l & # 39; coach Pep Lijnders, the Dutchman who has returned since second stint as coach of the first team.The reason for the rehearsal, says Lijnders, is not because Klopp wants his players to become mechanical in their movements Jurgen Klopp frap eg against critics of Liverpool's vast summer spending
Jurgen Klopp strikes critics of Liverpool's summer spending
There are echoes of Klopp's work with Dortmund in this regard . "What's going on here is just crazy," he said with a distinguished smile after the club's second consecutive Bundesliga victory. But it was the illusion of madness. In fact, it was the culmination of years of perfecting his style of play with a young group of players – the youngest to win the Bundesliga.
During this first triumph, Cesare Prandelli, the head coach of the Italy team, went to watch Klopp on the training ground and was impressed by his drills. Prandelli said that it reminded him of AC Milan Arrigo Sacchi in terms of the organization that they were without a balloon. It was an appropriate point of reference given the influences of Klopp.
Helmut Gross was perhaps not a known name, but he was the first German coach to develop ideas around the importance of zonal marking and a defensive structure. the ball rather than the opponent. With his protégé Ralf Rangnick, they watched so many cbadettes from Sacchi's Milan that they used the VCR
Three players are trying to take the ball back, and then the opening is created. It sometimes sounds chaotic, but it's usually controlled chaos.
Helmut Gross on Dortmund by Jurgen Klopp
In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Gross sums up Klopp's approach well. "I find it beautiful when a risky pbad is played, the ball is lost, but three players try to recover the ball and then the opening is created," he said speaking of this great team from Dortmund . "It sometimes sounds chaotic, but it's usually controlled chaos."
This is exactly what the former Klopp team, Mainz, discovered when Dortmund beat them this season. Christian Heidel, the managing director of Mainz who had appointed Klopp to his first coaching role, could only marvel at what he had seen. "Sometimes they had three men attacking our man in possession," he said. "They are more advanced than us in this regard."
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The lesson that Klopp claims to have taken from his days in Mainz is that management is not about finding the top 11 players, but finding the 11 players most likely to win. "Coaches like Klopp have shown that football is a team sport and that you can do a lot as a group," Gross said. But as in Liverpool, this process took time in Dortmund.
Klopp had to call on seasoned players like Alexander Frei and Mladen Petric, despite their popularity with fans. "If you had asked 100,000 BVB fans which players had to play all the time, they would have named them," Rangnick said. "Klopp knew that Borussia Dortmund was crowned Bundesliga champion in 2011 ” itemprop=”image”/>
Klopp's Borussia Dortmund was crowned Bundesliga champions in 2011
The signing of Robert Lewandowski and Shinji Kagawa in 2010 paved the way for silverware, while Dortmund paid just over £ 4m for the pair, while Liverpool spent more than that with Naby Keita. and Fabinho at the club, Alisson also arriving to solve their keeper problem, but the principle remained exactly the same.
Rangnick described Keita as one of the best worked with in two decades in football and the Midfielder is certainly well-educated in the pressing game.He has recovered possession 452 times in the last two seasons – 70 more than any other Bundesliga player. "Keita adds creativity in Liverpool, but it's his urgency that will be immediately recognizable.
Klopp's machine becomes increasingly oiled, which has become particularly evident in their defensive work. The signing of Virgil van Dijk's club was obviously important. Andrew Robertson has also emerged. But it is more than individuals. According to Opta, Liverpool is now making fewer costly mistakes under Klopp ” itemprop=”image”/>
According to Opta, Liverpool is now making fewer costly mistakes under Klopp
Liverpool conceded 11 goals directly following mistakes in Klopp's first season and 10 in his second. Last year this figure had dropped to four. The number of errors leading to a shot of any kind went from 33 in this first campaign to 20 in the second and only 12 last season. The total number of shots on the target that Liverpool has faced has also decreased year by year.
At first glance, Klopp delivered two consecutive finals in fourth place. Ostensibly, progress has capped. But that 's not the feeling at their Melwood training ground and that' s not the feeling at Anfield either. The belief is that Liverpool is better; that they are working towards something. The underlying figures suggest that it is true.
The club's summer activities reinforce the argument that the best is yet to come. But the real confidence comes from the fact that this coach showed before when he has the time to shape a team in his image, good things happen. The Klopp Trophy's own deadline is now high. But the signs are there that his prediction could still be realized.
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