Hi and welcome back to football made simple.
Jurgen Klopp, is undoubtedly one of the best
managers in the world. He took mainz from
the zweite Bundesliga to the bundeliga for
the the first time in their history. After
moving to the westfallonstadion, he took a
sleeping giant from mid table to consistent
silverware in the space of a few seasons.
A few years later he repeated the trick, taking
another sleeping giant in Liverpool, back
to their previous heights. At both of his
latter clubs, he played with unique styles
of play that had many similarities as well
as some distinct differences. But what are
these differences and how had the evolution
progressed? Well in this video, we take a
look.
It is important to note that with both sides
he adjusted his tactics throughout the seasons,
however, we’ll focus on the differences
in the general principles used between both
clubs. If you want a more detailed look at
his tactics at both clubs, take a look at
the videos linked at the end of this one.
Formationally, at Dortmund, Klopp almost always
stuck to his trusted 4-2-3-1. At Liverpool,
after much experimentation in the early days,
he has settled on a 433 in almost every match.
Please note, all the players were given the
same numbering scheme to make it easier to
see how players in the same position operated
differently in each team.
Let’s begin with the deep build up play.
At Liverpool his first choice has been Allison
who on the ball provides a sharp contrast
to Roman Weidenfeller. Allison is much better
on the ball than weidenfeller, and as such
can more skillfully start attacks through
short passing from deep and maintain possession
when pressed deep in their own half. This
plays into one of the major, differences between
the two sides, as Klopp’s Liverpool average
a much higher possession, close to 60 percent
in the last 3 seasons whereas in his last
three seasons at Dortmund, that number was
closer to 50% and the keepers are the best
representatives are this.
Moving futher up, matip and subotic are both
competent on the ball but usually defer to
their more skillful counterparts in Van Dijk
and hummels. And while both are capable of
rotating the ball around the field, many of
their decisions were affected by a single
factor. The location of each teams best/most
dangerous players, a factor which affects
the way the whole team plays. At Dortmund,
their best players for the majority of his
time there were located centrally in Gundogan,
Sahin, Gotze, Kagawa and lewandowski. This
is contrast where they are located wide in
Mane, Salah, Trent and Robertson. This meant
that often hummels looked to break the lines
to get the ball into the deep lying playmake
or the advanced player make down the centre.
And on the occasions where he did go lone
it was to lewandoski, the much bigger frontman
who when required could function as a target
man when needed. In contrast, when van dijk
isn’t looking for the more penetrating pass
the team aims to get their most dangerous
men on the ball, often by overloading on side
of the pitch and then subsequently hitting
the diagonal to get their wide med in space
on the ball.
The behaviour and the roles of the fullbacks
is also another major difference. From deep
on the pitch for Liverpool, ht efullbacks
are an active part of the build up play, and
may start deep to help and rotate the ball
around the pitch. Alexander Arnold is particularly
key to this, and even occasionally tucks into
the midfield. All of this is in contrast to
piscek and schmelzer, operating as much more
traditional fullbacks, looking to immediately
provide width and off the ball movement. This
is exemplified when looking at the stats,
as the Liverpool pairing on average complete
around 20 more passes each per game. And the
way in which the midfield functioned also
affected the fullbacks higher up the pitch.
Liverpools midfield structure means that they
cover more lateral distance on the pitch.
In addition the wide central midfielders in
Henderson and Wijnaldum are hard working and
willing to sacrifice themselves for the team
and move into wider regions to provide cover
for the fullbacks. This means that, both fullbacks
can have the freedom to advance higher up
the pitch, knowing the the defensively aware
wide midfielders are ready to immediately
plug the gap.
At Dortmund, with just the two defensive midfielders
they could not as effectively cover the width
of the pitch, and whilst bender is a willing
runner and could plug any gaps, his partner
in Gundogan or nuri sahin were not as mobile,
but also very skilled on the ball so using
them and ways to plug gaps would be a waste
and as a result they stayed more central.
This meant that as opposed to having both
fullbacks consistently bomb forward at the
same time, they operated on more of a one
up on back policy to maintain the defensive
solidity and not leave themselves exposed.
This also meant that in this phase dortmund’s
main ball progresser was Gundogan through
the centre of the pitch, whilst for Liverpool
it is the fullbacks.
Let’s move higher up and look at chance
creation and general play in the final third.
The divergence in the role of the midfield
continues. At Liverpool, the ball side midfielder
will often drop into the half space ready
to potentially create a triangle with the
fullback and the winger, whilst the other
two midfielders remain fairly deep. The three
midfielders will rarely venture into zone
14. Only when chasing the game will one of
the midfielders look to make late runs into
the box. This is in contrast to his Dortmund
side who always played a dedicated 10 to roam
around zone 14. In addition, when the ball
moved higher up the pitch, Gundogan often
moved higher up in support.
A lot of this has to do with the centre forward
and how Liverpool chose to deal with the deep
block. At Liverpool a false 9 in Roberto Firmino
is utilised and it is mainly his role to utilise
zone 14 and try and create space, usually
for the inside forward to attack the half
spaces. If Firmino is found in these positions,
he is often the one to attempt the game breaking
passes into his fellow forwards. However,as
this area is often densely packed the three
forwards tend to attack the box.
At Dortmund, they had a more traditional forward
in lewandowski, who whilst still being great
at link up play preferred to use his movement
on the shoulder. This was paired with wingers
who liked to play in the halfspaces in reus
and blazcykowski who often made runs here.
Note that whilst liverpools winger made runs
to attack the box, dortmunds often attacked
zone 14. So it was often the job for gotze
and Gundogan to look for the defence splitting
pass to find the runs into one of these runners.
Kuba often looked for goal or to cut it back,
and reus the same on the left. But he, or
gotze when he played here could also help
to try and create opposrtunited to create
here.
At Liverpool there is a much greater dependence
on, getting crosses from the fullbacks for
the three forwards who have moved into the
box. So liverpool’sprimary chance creators
are the fullbacks from wide, whereas at Dortmund
the chief creators where down the centre of
the pitch. Dortmund looked to penetrate through
the centre of the low block to supply lewandowski
and thmajor goal scoring burden was on the
centre forward. Liverpool looked to go around
the deep block, giving them the time to overlaod
the box, anotent he goal scoring burden is
on the wingers rather than the centre forward.
The stats bear this out as well, with Liverpool
attempting significantly more crosses than
his Dortmund side.
Now moving onto the defensive side of the
game.
Both teams would immediately look to counter
press after loving the ball in order to get
onto the attack quickly. At Liverpool this
is often achieved by the winger looking to
cut off the wide options thus funneling the
ball into the centre of the pitch where they
could then look to spring. At Dortmund, Lewandoski
would often lead the press, using his cover
shaow to cover the central options. Once the
ball went wide Dortmund when then look to
spring, keeping the ball wide and using the
touchline as an extra defender and increasing
the pressure on the ball carrier. At Dortmund
this press was much more manic and consistent
whereas at Liverpool Klopp has refined this
strategy, and just as they are now more considered
with the ball, even without it they are much
more controlled as well.
One way this is evidenced is the injuries.
Dortmund would often get several injuries
to crucial players towards the end of the
season as the impact of this consistent press
set it in. Now at Liverpool, they have one
of the most injury resistant squads probably
helped by this shift in pressing. But the
most evident changes in play are definitely
in possession.
Overall, Klopp excelled with both sides. Turning
both the westfalonstadion and anifeid into
home fortresses that opponents feared. And
he enjoyed plenty of silverware with both
sides whilst forming an incredible bond with
both sets of fans. But what other differences
have you noticed between the clubs, and what
did you like most about each side? Don’t
forget to leave video suggestions down in
the comments below.
But that’s all for today and remember, keep
it simple.
