Match Day Thread Vs Tottenham (A)

His system works when he has the players with the right talents and mind-set to make it work. The philosophy at Spurs is for a more open, attacking style, same as at Man U. José is a bad fit with both.

 

I'm not so sure his system works anymore regardless of the players, football has moved on and he got left behind. Yes he could have a certain amount of success if given a massive budget but I don't think his way of playing would have the success it did while he was at Chelsea the first time.

 

Perhaps not. It seems that what you're saying is that his philosophy of defend-first-ask-questions-later has been overtaken by a more expansive, attacking style?
I got well slagged off on here a couple of years ago for daring to suggest such things.



Wait for it.........

 

Well you were bang on the money.

 

Football goes through stages, free flowing football is in vogue at the minute, but as soon as someone comes with a team that does something different and has success everyone else will follow suit.

As city have found this season, free flowing football is great, but it doesnt take much to have a little judder.

The next fad will come along and disappear just like 5 at the back, tikka taka and the christmas tree.

 

Then along comes Klopp, this will be a bit of a red tinted look at him but I'll go with it. We have a set formation yes but something I noticed against Spurs which I had noticed in other games is how we are very fluid once we start playing and that there are tactical changes to our formation depending on the opposition.

So we started as usual sort of

Becker
TAA Gomez VVD Robbo
Hendo
Wijnaldum AOC (This would usually be the other way around)
Salah Bobby Mane​

We then did this in play

Becker
Wijnaldun Gomez VVD
Hendo
TAA AOC Robbo
Front 3 doing whatever the hell they wanted
​

Looked to me like it was designed to cover Alli using that center left channel he likes and it worked brilliantly.

My other point is that Klopp adapts so well to the opposition, we can mix it up with a team that wants to bully us, we can pass a team to death, we can play on the counter or open up a stubborn defence. If Klopp can add more trophies over the next few years and hopefully beyond he's going to go down as the best manager the wuuuurld has ever seen.

 

1980s...

 

Arsenal in the old days would have loved him.
These days even he couldn't make them into a secure defensive unit.

 

Your spot on here, the key thing is fluidity. We are no longer set up to play a certain way. We adapt to who we are playing and how the game progresses our tactics and shape can change.

This is the pinicle of how you want a team to play, to be able to evolve and adjust through out the match and having the players that are able to carry out the different roles asked of them is something to behold.

 

I was watching the game and wondering why the hell Wijnaldum kept turning up as a 3rd CB couldn't get my head around it until later. Brilliant tactics.

 

It is crazy for some people to suggest that Wijnaldum will not be offered a contract extension. I think they are just trying to unsettle him.

 

Our midfielders drop inbetween the two CBs all the time. The two CBs go wide to offer a passing option but also to cover the FBs who then have a licence to bomb forward. We've done that since VVD arrived.

 

It was a little different against Spurs, deffo done too prevent Alli having an influence.

 

I think Henderson did similar against wolves, turned our back two into a back three into negate their wing backs getting into the space behind taa and Robinson.

I've stopped moaning now when I see a player doing something I dont agree with. It's a case now that just because I dont understand why a player is in a certain position or doing a certain thing, it doesnt mean there is no reason for it, it's just that I dont see the reason for it, but klopp does and I'm 99% sure that klopp is a better tactician than me.

 

That's what surprised me with Wijnaldum doing it other than Hendo and Hendo staying in the midfield but quite deep still.

 

The joy of having versatile midfielders. Funny but I dont know how long I bitched about creativity in midfield while overlooking all the qualities that our midfield actually does have in abundance.

 

Second half against Spurs was scary they were pressing us and unlucky not to have scored.

 

It was for 20 mins tops.

 

This^
Before Fabinho, and since his injury, it's been Hendo doing this most of the time (and getting slagged off for being too conservative), but he's been pushing forward a bit more lately and Gini has filled in when needed.
Usually the DM drops back between the CBs, who push wider to form a back 3, or occasionally Hendo has gone to the right and the other two compress.
The FBs are often nowhere to be seen, unless we're under attack they rarely come back further than the half-way line.
As people are saying, it's the fluidity that is so good, and the variation in our play is the key to unlocking those tight defences that we struggled with in the past.