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Will Liverpool Adjust to Jurgen Klopp’s Heavy Metal?

Liverpool fans must be over the moon as the club have officially signed Jurgen Klopp as the next manager. Klopp had been the frontrunner to take up the role after the sacking of Brendan Rodgers and for all of Rodgers’ post-match conferences and talk about ‘character’ and ‘positives’, Klopp will bring a lot of energy to the team.

One thing that Klopp’s teams are known for, at least his former team is the playing style of ‘Gegenpress’. Basically trying to win the ball as quickly and as high up the field as possible before launching a blistering attack on the opposition, who is still trying to get to grips with the loss of possession. Dortmund had the likes of Kagawa, Lewandowski, Reus, Kuba and Gotze during Klopp’s time, probably one of the best set of attackers in Europe and Liverpool fans would expect a similar kind of gameplay under Klopp but can he achieve that with what he has in hand?

Jurgen Klopp
Jurgen Klopp

No new players till January, can Klopp keep it cool?

Liverpool would have to do something similar; Klopp himself calls this the heavy metal way of playing football. Liverpool though will not be strangers to this style, having used something similar in the season with Luis Suarez. The Reds were destroying teams with their quick tempo and fast starts, everyone remembers the 5-1 win over Arsenal or the 3-0 win over Manchester United.

Rodgers, ever since selling Suarez had to tone that down a bit, but Klopp would be looking to bring that intensity back into the football at Liverpool. The German is known to play with a 4-2-3-1 formation and that would be the primary formation for Liverpool under him.

The issue for Klopp is that he cannot bring in any new players until January, had he been brought at the start of the season, he might have had time to work with the players and also make decisions but his first game in charge could be against Tottenham on 17th October and he needs to work with the team as soon as possible.

The back four would select themselves and the two holding midfielder’s jobs would be to win the ball and help set up the Liverpool attack. The four players at the top are the ones who would be expected to do most of the damage. Under Klopp, Dortmund’s attacking quartet of Lewandowski, Reus, Gotze and Kuba were frightening. As soon as they got the ball, they would burst into the opponents defence and try to score.

Marco Reus
Marco Reus

Klopp also likes his front four to play pretty close to one another and Liverpool do have a plethora of options at the top. The problem would be shoehorning them into this formation. Klopp doesn’t have a preseason to work with his players; neither does he have a winter break to count on when his team would get tired from all the pressing. Liverpool also have the headache of Europa League games to worry about. Klopp might be a great choice for any team, but he needs time to get his ethos of football across, can Liverpool get back to the glory days? Only time will tell.

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