re: OFFICIAL Liverpool FC 2015-2016 Season Long Thread: Basel Bound!

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He's just trying to convince himself that Klopp is not an upgrade at not only LFC, but most of the EPL... while he's stuck with Poch..

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A mere day later Jurgen Klopp had masterminded a 3-1 victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t an accident. Klopp got everything right in the victory and it was a Jurgen Klopp performance if ever there was one. You could watch Dortmund matches from any of the seven seasons the German mentalist was at the helm and you’d see identical performances to the one we witnessed against Chelsea. The hallmark of a Jurgen Klopp team is their direct style, their controlled (yes, I said controlled) pressing and their defensive structure. Liverpool showed all of that and much more tonight

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In the lead up to the {First} goal Liverpool lost possession twice and within 3 seconds had regained possession. Signs of the gegenpress tactic were evident today and Chelsea couldn’t cope with the ferocity of the press.

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You can see Roberto Firmino to the right of the screen with John Terry marking him. Nothing looks on at this point but it will be Firmino’s movement that plays a key part in the goal eventually....

However, unlike a traditional striker he doesn’t linger in the middle or even move to the back post, instead he spots the space and moves into it giving James Milner an option and to his credit the Englishman executes the pass. At this stage John Terry is in a position he doesn’t want to be in....Coutinho feints to shoot and cuts inside and curls the ball past Begovic. You see John Terry sprinting to get back across to shut the shot down but he was too far out of position that he could get across in time. Firmino may not have done much with the ball in for this goal but his movement was vital and it all stemmed from a press.

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had the misfortune of having to listen to Trevor Francis commentate. After Liverpool scored this goal he kept reminding the viewers had Benteke not been on the pitch Liverpool wouldn’t have been able to create this goal because there wouldn’t have been an option to play the long pass that Sakho did. What you don’t see though, and what Francis continuously failed to acknowledge was the fact Liverpool kept the ball before this goal. They completed 8 passes before Sakho played the pass long. Lucas, Emre Can, Adam Lallana and Martin Skrtel all had a touch of the ball, teasing the Chelsea midfield into pressing a little higher

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n the past few weeks I’ve noticed the Liverpool squad adopt a certain sort of press. They’ll position their body as if to dictate where the opposition can pass. It gives off the impression that they aren’t passing where you don’t want them to pass.... It forces Chelsea to go long and there to be a turnover in possession.

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Liverpool pressed in groups on a total of 27 times yesterday, whilst this was below the 32 against Tottenham it was still impressive. A total of 212 pressing actions were attempted against Chelsea, this was the highest collected on the site this season and close to the record of 223 against Spurs last season at White Hart Lane. If you listen to the episode 90 of the Anfield Index Podcast you’ll get further details on these statistics as Gags states that this performance was the best in terms of overall pressing since he started to collect the stats with Liverpool pressing every 1.96 passes that Chelsea attempted. The previous best was Jurgen Klopp’s first Premier league game against Spurs where Liverpool pressed every 2.3 passes that Spurs attempted.

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