By Daily Sports on January 7, 2020

A big congratulations to Liverpool for they will be kings of England come May. Anyone with a decent knowledge of the game who has followed the club from England’s north west will know there is no stopping them this season. The Jurgen Klopp-tutored side are on a roll, crushing opponents with almost reckless abandon, riding their luck sometimes but mostly looking too solid in all departments both in and out of the pitch to fail to any opposition.

Liverpool ended last year unbeaten in the English Premier League and there’s a big possibility that they will erase Arsenal’s proud record of going a full season without losing a game. Ouch! How that will hurt the ego of the Gunners faithful.

Of course, it mustn’t be forgotten that football is a game of shocks and surprises when least expected. Liverpool’s present wide gap lead is not one that has never been overhauled before, and dreams of going unbeaten can be truncated by just one terrible night against a minnow of an opposition. It’s happened before and can happen again.

However, those who saw Liverpool’s mostly second string team outplay and eliminate a full strength Everton in the fifth round of the FA Cup some days ago would know that any team hoping to stop Liverpool this season have a herculean task in their hands.

Klopp! The disheveled manager that has turned the fortunes of Liverpool around. The man who is destined to bring the club its first Premier League trophy. What a wonderful job he has done, making Liverpool a non-stop pressing machine, applying his gegenpress tactics with a consistent animus that chased Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City all the way last year only to lose the title by the slightest of margins.

This season his team have continued from their strong end to the previous season and they have zoomed past City with relative ease.

Klopp’s 4-3-3 formation has been his default tactics since his Borrusia Dortmund days and now that it has conquered England, it’s this tactics that will become x-rayed more now from admirers and foes.

It is instructive to note that both Klopp and Guardiorla employ the 4-3-3 formation, with clear differences in application, to the same devastating ends to opponents.

One of the most noticeable differences is how the forward players press. While Guardiorla’s wingers usually keep track with the opponents fullbacks and apply the press mostly when the ball gets to the fullbacks, Klopp’s wingers Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah usually look to press the opponents’ centre backs while covering the passing options of the centre backs to the full backs.

Another difference between Klopp and Guardiola is that the Liverpool boss favors the use of workaholics in midfield more than flair midfielders. Fabiano, James Milner, Jordan Henderson and Georginho Wijnaldum are the tireless brutes that enforce Klopp’s no-nonsense overpowering of opponents and they are a wide contrast with the more nippy and technically gifted midfielders like David Silver, Phil Foden and Bernado Silva and used by Guardiorla.

While Guardiola loves the patient passing game, knocking the ball around beautifully in triangles in search of the right moment to sting opponents, Klopp wants his team  to be more direct, and  to play, in his words, like hard rock musicians.

The question now is how long will Klopp’s gegenpress last as the number 1 tactic in England or world club football.

It’s very difficult to tell. It will depend on a number of factors, like his ability to keep his star players motivated after they achieve their long held Premier League title dream. Will he even have some of his key players available next season in the face of Hawks like Real Madrid hovering? If star players leave, will oncoming ones be able to maintain the momentum of dominating the EPL?

Also much will ride on, as well, how the fiercely Guardiola responds to the disappointment of losing his crown. There is a sense that Pep took this season a little too easy, not signing a center back to replace the inspirational Vincent Company who retired as the Man City’s captain at the end of last season.

The cheque book will always be available for Guardiorla at City and he could get the very best of legs that will return his own 4-3-3 style as the best.

Source Daily Sports

Posted January 7, 2020

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