I’m not even comparing the effect klopp had to Liverpool w.r.t the effect rodgers had at liverpool.
I’m referring more to their style of play
dunno about that, I’ve seen a few on here and other forums that would try and lay claim to that title.
Personally I’m in agreement with you.
1 Like
I’d agree as well. For me , klopp is the best manager right now. And he has been for the last decade as well.
1 Like
BR drifted away from that possession game not too long after he started with us to be fair. Probably down to the fact that he didn’t really have the players to employ it. I give him a lot of credit for trying different things but this is another are where Klopp does differ from Rodgers. Klopp seems to prefer to stick to his core systems and coach the players into that. Rodgers used to rewrite his tactics to suit players.
2 Likes
I think, as I said at the time, Rodger’s plan he arrived was to implement a patient passing game, a la his Swansea side. He preached possession and ‘sterile domination’.
His problem was that when he arrived he found his two best players - Gerrard and Suarez - were completely unable or unsuited to playing this style.
That prompted the move to a direct style of play.
He was never really able to impose his philosophy while he was here, and I’m not sure he has ever gone back to than pure version of his football that he played at Swansea.
Mind you, I think Tiki Taka was on the way out even when he arrived at Anfield.
4 Likes
You correct he did try and then changed, where as Jurgen tried his tactics and kept with it, he also didn’t have the players, bar Adam. Jurgen coached his team to implement his style or signed on players that could adapt to his style of playing, while BR tried to educate(his words) a bunch of jocks.
1 Like
I think he was trying to go back to it when Suarez left, which is partly why we were in the mess we were that season.
I think this is somewhat misleading. Klopp has been somewhat flexible with his set ups particularly earlier in his time at the club, while working towards what he wanted - one of the advantages of not swapping your squad every season is that you can incrementally improve the squad. Brendan just chucked out much of what he did - the frequent 3CB jobby when his sides started struggling for example - adds lots of complications for the players who have never really trained in such a system.
3 Likes
I think I should clarify what I mean by “core system”.
For Klopp it is a game plan designed to squeeze the opposition into their half and force and error in their half. I agree he’s employed different shapes in an effort to make that work better. Pressing but also squeezing when in possession
Rodgers went from tiki taki to what amounted to kick and chase. When he lost Sterling all the pace in the front line was gone and he was left with little options left down to the squad he had remaining. Plus there was that lingering problem of a defense with more holes than a Swiss cheese
Klopp did better with Rodgers’ players than Rodgers did.
As for style, Klopp’s style has remained pretty identifiable since his Dortmund days (I don’t know how his Mainz teams played). The gegenpress, the high line, the use of attacking full backs.
Rodgers’ ‘style’ has been more fluid. Experimental, perhaps. He’s much more of a tinkerman because Rodgers’ likes to feel like he’s more ‘influential’ in making the team successful. It’s his ‘system’ or ‘tactical adjustments’ that won the game, not the training of the players. Where it fucks up, he doesn’t shoulder the blame. Where it works, it’s down to him.
I think that comes down to their respective egos. For Rodgers, he needs to be able to take credit for his team’s success on any given day. For Klopp, his approach is more about training the players to allow them to be successful. Remember when Coutinho hit a worldie against Southampton and Klopp took the credit as it was a function of the ‘system’? Klopp would never do that - even if Coutinho was able to take up possession in that position as a function of how his team plays. It would be about the understanding, awareness, energies, movement of the players themselves.
Rodgers still values possession much higher than Klopp does, I feel. Yes, he may talk about the importance of transitions but for Rodgers what’s more important is controlling the game and keeping the other team away from the ball. ‘Resting on the ball’ is one of his phrases I recall.
For Klopp it’s more about putting the opposition in situations that they don’t want to be in. Whether they have the ball or not. It’s about drawing a mistake out of the opposition in dangerous areas and hitting them before they’ve had the chance to reset. It’s about building that pressure whether you have the ball or not. It’s much more kinetic…more visceral, more ‘alive’. He suffocates the opposition much more. Is much more focused on cutting out their passing lines, identifying ‘trigger’ points where the opponent is going to be made to feel most uncomfortable. For Rodgers its more about building the play. Probing for weaknesses. It’s more reserved. Less…violent. Less exciting.
5 Likes
From reading Hongstein’s book I believe that the approach was basically the same, although he will have learned a lot along the way. Effectively they had a manager who approached things in this way. He left and was replaced by someone they thought would be similar but struggled. Klopp was asked to step in for a while and try to go back to how the earlier manager was doing it and et voila.
1 Like
Resting on the ball…painful.
You took my essay and summed it up well in one sentence. I need to be less verbose.
Rodgers’ success was more to do with the players he had, than the system that he preached. Look back to the starting lineup and there was a fuckload of talent there in the starting XI. But a huge dropoff afterwards
Reina
Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique
Gerrard
Henderson Coutinho
Sturridge Suarez Sterling
Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique
Gerrard
Henderson Coutinho
Sturridge Suarez Sterling
that team was so incredibly topheavy for attacking talent they were blowing teams out of the water. However, Rodgers has no talent for organizing any kind of defensive plan. Ultimately that was the demise of that title run, exemplified by the Crystal Palace result.
1 Like
I’ve always wondered how much credit should actually be given to those that went before Rodgers at Swansea. He certainly took a lot of praise for what happened there.
2 Likes
Martinez deserves a lot of that credit for building them up. Can see why the club hoped to get him in a directorial role.
2 Likes
I’d even say he did a fair job at the bitters.
1 Like
Yes and the guy before Martinez. The name escapes me now.
I mean 8th for Everton is them winning the whole thing… Them idiots got some weird expectations
Paulo Sousa was it?
1 Like