Pep and Klopp's strategies

[VOOMER]

I think two things can be true at the same time:
1. Pep and his coaching team have done brilliantly to adjust to this crazy season with so many games.
2. Liverpool have been unlucky with injuries, especially to their centre backs.
It’s a bit of a stretch to blame Van Dijk’s injury on Klopp’s over use of him - I think a fairer reading is that he was at the wrong end of a mad challenge by Pickford.

They haven't been unlucky, as the lack of injuries in the previous seasons was incredible.

 

[JOGAMIGMOG]

This season we have seen Liverpool collapse because in the past couple of seasons Klopp played an unchanged side in almost every game except for domestic cups (which he obviously doesn't rate). Result - players are knackered.
Whereas Pep constantly rotates his players to keep them relatively fresh and prevent them from getting worn out by playing too many high tempo games every few days.
That strategy was clearly illustrated last night - City are through to the semis whereas the scousers are out and in a dogfight to qualify for the UCL next season.

This and the fact that our players are better than theirs!

 

[SamBlue]

Their gegenpressing is gone and their front three stopped producing, which was again, the product of their gegenpressing. Loss of their CB's is just a secondary reason. They had a full complement of CBs against Leeds and Villa at the start of the season and they very shipping goals from all over the place. Their peak season was when they won CL, but when age caught with Milner and injuries with Henderson those turnovers at the top third of the pitch dried out. Klopper managed to compensate that with Trent and Robertson on both wings, but he essentially tried to play the very system over and over again, but it could not last for long with lack of quality players and sheer physicality of that system.
In the same period, Pep went through three different phases of structuring the team and god knows how many sub-variants, all pictured best in trajectory of Raheem's game-positioning - playing on right, playing on left, reconditioned to play through the middle and now not playing at all.

 

[decmancity]

Dunno what the Dippers will do this summer

A lot of their best players are approaching/hit 30 and have 2 years left on their contract.....VVD, Salah, Mane, Firmino, Fabinho, Henderson, keita, Chamberlain and Shaqiri etc

They probably want to sell some but Mane, Firminio, Keita and Chamberlain are having their worst seasons

The most likely is Salah, and they will get a LOT of money for him but he's got them all their goals....can't see them replacing him with someone as good

Already losing Wijnaldum for a free this summer, he's not amazing but he's normally one of the first names on the teamsheet

They put that squad together and got rewarded for it, a back to back CL final and one prem. Thats it.

Not bad for the money they have spent all told.

The difference between us and them will be that we have continously built in the past decade, they have built once and thats it. More worried about winning the net spend trophy now than investing a few hundred million to go again.

As you say, when the current squad start dropping off and get sold or move on we can hear them whinging for the next decade about how they couldn't keep up and how money has ruined the game.

They will ignore FSG draining millions and using the club to draw money into them externally for their other investments and just bleat about how good they were for two seasons.

Injuries happen, it is what it is. That is what you have a squad for and quite simply Klopp doesn't know how to build one, he throws all of the domestic cups to save the games rather than just build a squad. Their bench for a team apparently as good as they are is embarassing.

 

[Bluster]

I think the Pep has rotated very well and the team is remarkably fresh considering the truncated season. But I think he overdid it against Leeds and he ought to be slightly rotating each game rather than having an obvious a and b team, with the latter squad without Mahrez, DeBruyne, Gundogan and Foden. The Leeds game was lost because we were disjointed and there were too many players who were either rusty or out of form. I would hope that the key players can play 3 out of 4 games over the next few weeks but they are rested at different times.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

It's entirely possible that they'll be back next season, but currently it does look like they are closer to Blackburn, a team designed from scratch to win the league once, rather than than City or Chelsea, teams put together to have at least a decade of dominance. Be interesting to see whether Klopp has the energy or patience to rebuild in the same way Pep has. As both City and Liverpool have found out in recent seasons, the best way to shut up your critics is on the pitch.

They won't be back next season, I'm sure of that.

Egypt have already stated Salah will be called up for their Olympic squad.

In addition, he will then be off to Afcon along with Mane before Christmas.

Teams have lost their fear factor of them and a bit like Tyson after his first defeat, everyone fancied their chances.

 

[Ashleymcduff]

They won't be back next season, I'm sure of that.

Egypt have already stated Salah will be called up for their Olympic squad.

In addition, he will then be off to Afcon along with Mane before Christmas.

Teams have lost their fear factor of them and a bit like Tyson after his first defeat, everyone fancied their chances.

Danny Williams likes this

 

[Mancity1980]

I think the Pep has rotated very well and the team is remarkably fresh considering the truncated season. But I think he overdid it against Leeds and he ought to be slightly rotating each game rather than having an obvious a and b team, with the latter squad without Mahrez, DeBruyne, Gundogan and Foden. The Leeds game was lost because we were disjointed and there were too many players who were either rusty or out of form. I would hope that the key players can play 3 out of 4 games over the next few weeks but they are rested at different times.

The Leeds game was always going to be a problem being in between the two legs of a tricky CL quarter final. However we had built a great lead at a relatively late stage of the EPL season so we could afford the rotation and the risk of dropping points. The amazing thing was that in despite of this we hammered the Yorkshire men and were extremely unlucky to lose.

If we had lost this tie Pep and plenty of the fans would have bemoaned not rotating more last Saturday.

 

[BlueLou82]

You cant flog the same 11 for nearly 3 years straight and not expect them to tire. They dont have enough technical players/ability to play through teams, who have learned to defend against them now.

Pep is the other way, sometimes as a neutral your team is screaming for a plan B, a Dzeko type but who is technical too to change it up a bit. Inveriably though you have enough talent to break down most teams as you dont rely on 2 players every game.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

The Leeds game was always going to be a problem being in between the two legs of a tricky CL quarter final. However we had built a great lead at a relatively late stage of the EPL season so we could afford the rotation and the risk of dropping points. The amazing thing was that in despite of this we hammered the Yorkshire men and were extremely unlucky to lose.

If we had lost this tie Pep and plenty of the fans would have bemoaned not rotating more last Saturday.

Agreed. It is just about fine margins. If we had made five changes not seven we might have got over the line against Leeds. We had plenty of chances. Pep has a similar decision to make for the Villa match which, for me, is a must-win because we can't afford to give any more momentum to United. What an amazing season this has been.