Jump to content
  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

Klopp's Methods Getting Stick Again...


an tha
 Share

Recommended Posts

And here lies the problem. We are shitting ourselves over a game against an already relegated team because our form lends itself to us bottling it against lesser teams.

Or because the nature of football means anything can happens. Ask Spurs.

 

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lack of squad depth has been an issue at the club for years now, and it has often been the case that we've had square pegs in round holes. However, this season saw Klopp shift the roles of several players in our first choice XI, and those players looked better for us as a result.

 

Milner in at left back is the most obvious one, but Klopp has previous for incorporating industrious players in different roles to get more out of them and help the team. At Dortmund, he did that with Blaszczykowski and Grosskreutz. Milner is a coach's dream because he is versatile and always gives 100%. Coaches know that he will do whatever they ask of him on the pitch with extreme diligence. I can't recall us conceding goals due to Milner being out of position. Most of our goals conceded seemed to come from not defending properly at set-pieces, and if we were done on the counter, it was because the full backs were higher up the pitch when we lost the ball. After that, the impetus is on covering and winning the ball back.

 

Whenever we've gone with a midfield 3 or a diamond, Henderson has usually been the right-sided player in that set-up. Klopp moved him back to the deepest point as the holding player, tasked with keeping it simple and getting us moving up the pitch. It allowed Klopp to use 2 other mobile players in midfield and was a key factor in the team transitioning from defence to attack so quickly, especially in the first half of the season.

 

That meant Klopp could use Lallana in the midfield 3 (or diamond) rather than in the front 3, and arguably Lallana's switch was the most successful change from Klopp. The ex-Southampton man has looked like a player who could command the sort of fee we shelled out for him. His work rate and link-up play improved because he now had 3 players in more advanced positions, and he wasn't stuck out wide.

 

Lastly, Firmino in the 'false 9' role. While never a prolific scorer, he has a knack for finding goalscoring positions as well as a knack for linking up with those around him. Sometimes he can look ineffectual but he's also capable of making something out of nothing.

 

When you look at the teams around us, they largely had round pegs in round holes. For the first half of the season, Guardiola fucked about with the likes of Kolarov in central defence or Clichy in midfield, but City's strongest sides in the second half of the season had his players in their (known) best positions. Conte switched to his trusted 3-4-3 after an early hiccup, and bar Moses being deployed as a wing back, everyone else was in their strongest position. Wenger occasionally used Oxlade-Chamberlain in a midfield 3 at Arsenal but that came during their usual post-February spell of getting knocked out of Europe and getting a couple of spankings domestically. Other than that, Arsenal have generally deployed players in their strongest positions.

 

Even though we added the likes of Mane, Wijnaldum, Klavan and Karius to the squad, Klopp was still working with the same mentally flaky squad he'd inherited in 2015. He's taken that group of players to 2 cup finals and a top 4 place in that time. You have to wonder what he might do if he's able to build and develop a squad of players that has the depth, resilience, mental fortitude, consistency and intensity he wants from his teams.

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lack of squad depth has been an issue at the club for years now, and it has often been the case that we've had square pegs in round holes. However, this season saw Klopp shift the roles of several players in our first choice XI, and those players looked better for us as a result.

 

Milner in at left back is the most obvious one, but Klopp has previous for incorporating industrious players in different roles to get more out of them and help the team. At Dortmund, he did that with Blaszczykowski and Grosskreutz. Milner is a coach's dream because he is versatile and always gives 100%. Coaches know that he will do whatever they ask of him on the pitch with extreme diligence. I can't recall us conceding goals due to Milner being out of position. Most of our goals conceded seemed to come from not defending properly at set-pieces, and if we were done on the counter, it was because the full backs were higher up the pitch when we lost the ball. After that, the impetus is on covering and winning the ball back.

 

Whenever we've gone with a midfield 3 or a diamond, Henderson has usually been the right-sided player in that set-up. Klopp moved him back to the deepest point as the holding player, tasked with keeping it simple and getting us moving up the pitch. It allowed Klopp to use 2 other mobile players in midfield and was a key factor in the team transitioning from defence to attack so quickly, especially in the first half of the season.

 

That meant Klopp could use Lallana in the midfield 3 (or diamond) rather than in the front 3, and arguably Lallana's switch was the most successful change from Klopp. The ex-Southampton man has looked like a player who could command the sort of fee we shelled out for him. His work rate and link-up play improved because he now had 3 players in more advanced positions, and he wasn't stuck out wide.

 

Lastly, Firmino in the 'false 9' role. While never a prolific scorer, he has a knack for finding goalscoring positions as well as a knack for linking up with those around him. Sometimes he can look ineffectual but he's also capable of making something out of nothing.

 

When you look at the teams around us, they largely had round pegs in round holes. For the first half of the season, Guardiola fucked about with the likes of Kolarov in central defence or Clichy in midfield, but City's strongest sides in the second half of the season had his players in their (known) best positions. Conte switched to his trusted 3-4-3 after an early hiccup, and bar Moses being deployed as a wing back, everyone else was in their strongest position. Wenger occasionally used Oxlade-Chamberlain in a midfield 3 at Arsenal but that came during their usual post-February spell of getting knocked out of Europe and getting a couple of spankings domestically. Other than that, Arsenal have generally deployed players in their strongest positions.

 

Even though we added the likes of Mane, Wijnaldum, Klavan and Karius to the squad, Klopp was still working with the same mentally flaky squad he'd inherited in 2015. He's taken that group of players to 2 cup finals and a top 4 place in that time. You have to wonder what he might do if he's able to build and develop a squad of players that has the depth, resilience, mental fortitude, consistency and intensity he wants from his teams.

Great post.

I think Klopp is the reason we don't need world class players or £50 million transfers,we just need very good players with a good mental attitude. They are not particularly expensive,just difficult to find.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 10 months later...
  • 3 months later...

I keep seeing articles insinuating that Klopp is a hypocrit for making comments about Man Utd spending a then-world record £90m on Pogba, only to go and spend £75m on Van Dijk and £65m on Alisson (world record fees for a defender and goalkeeper respectively) this year.

 

What this narrative fails to understand is that his comments were made in 2016 after the Pogba transfer, which was only slightly dearer than the previous record (Bale in 2013), which was only slightly dearer than the one before that (Ronaldo in 2009). Nobody knew how transfer fees would escalate dramatically after PSG signed Neymar in 2017 for more than double what Pogba had gone for in 2016. The fees for players have basically doubled from what they would have been prior to the Neymar deal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Loved his comments in the pressie before Dortmund. The world has changed and, anyway, I'd rather have an opinion and change it than not have one.

 

Exactly and I bet the vast majority of Utd supporters would swap managers in a heartbeat if they were being honest, 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rubbish. They enjoy watching their goalkeeper and ten full backs every week

 

 

 

Mate of mine , season ticket holder at the Toilet for years, has jacked it in and is going back to watch his home town club Preston,  Can't stand watching Mourinho ball any longer 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mate of mine , season ticket holder at the Toilet for years, has jacked it in and is going back to watch his home town club Preston,  Can't stand watching Mourinho ball any longer 

 

That reminded me of the Marc Park episode of ' That Peter Kay Thing ' where he always had a United shirt on when he was selling millions of records & a Bolton one on when he was in the clubs or washed up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of the criticism will come from fans who support teams who have had a new arsehole torn for them.  I can see it from their point of view, it can't be much fun watching the likes of Bobby, Mane and Mo just utterly take the fucking piss out of your team.

On the subject of United, do United fans honestly believe they're getting value for money paying the prices they do to watch the turgid fucking shite that a Mourinho team typically serves up ?

I hope their ticket prices go through the fucking roof and the quality of football they watch gets worse, if it's possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But it's mind games, and he's the master of that. It's what he's built his career on.

SC: Liverpool have spent more than us this year so they have to win the league to justify it. If I had spent that much money I would have to win the league to justify it. Blah blah blah blah etc.

 

JK: it's all cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But it's mind games, and he's the master of that. It's what he's built his career on.

SC: Liverpool have spent more than us this year so they have to win the league to justify it. If I had spent that much money I would have to win the league to justify it. Blah blah blah blah etc.

 

JK: it's all cool.

Who’s ‘SC’?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But it's mind games, and he's the master of that. It's what he's built his career on.

SC: Liverpool have spent more than us this year so they have to win the league to justify it. If I had spent that much money I would have to win the league to justify it. Blah blah blah blah etc.

 

JK: it's all cool.

 

I guess he's forgot all those years he outspent everyone and didn't win the league.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share


×
×
  • Create New...