LIVERPOOL ON THE UP: A statistical look at pressing and team performance
Liverpool’s current league position and recent Champions League performance emphasise the fine job that Jurgen Klopp is doing. Things are not perfect, they indeed rarely are in football. However, despite the squad still being a work in progress, the year on year improvement is undeniable.
A large part of Liverpool’s success this season is down to the fine-tuning of the acclaimed gegenpress. The addition of the likes of Van Dijk, Oxlade Chamberlain and Salah have only served to add more …
Scouting Christian Pulisic: Dortmund's Teenage Sensation
At 1-1, Dortmund’s recent failures stared them in the face. Julian Nagelsmann – the manager they’ve been pursuing as a means of ailing all their woes suffered under previous incumbents – was about to grind out a great result at the Signal Iduna Park. Hoffenheim had taken a first-half lead but the lack of attacking impetus had come back to bite them in the rear-end as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang nailed an equaliser in the sixty-third minute.
Then stepped up the American …
The Klopp Project (Part 3): Challenging for the title
In my previous pieces, you can also read part 1 and part 2, I discussed the challenges facing Jurgen Klopp, or indeed any Liverpool manager, in landing the league title. Namely, the issue of finances and the sensible "restrictions" FSG pose on spending money; also, the issues that Klopp's tactical approach has had in overcoming the proverbial parked bus. This series is a look at what it takes to win a title so I will look at various options available …
Make-Or-Break Season For Divock Origi
Footballers go in and out of fashion all the time, and any slight lull can see them in danger of being cast aside to the scrap heap in no time.
It wasn’t long ago at all that Divock Origi was almost walking on water at Liverpool, earning acclaim from every corner of Anfield and looking like a striker of gigantic promise.
That was in the second-half of 2015/16, when a string of dominant performances leading the line helped the Reds …
Scouting Naby Keita - The Unrivalled Midfielder
He’s the talk of the town.
Will he ask for a move? Will Liverpool pay the money? Will Leipzig bend to a certain fee? Everyone seems to have their opinion on the Guinean midfielder who lit up the Bundesliga last season, breaking out onto the world scene.
So, is he worth all the fuss?
In a word: yes.
Style
Firstly, the concept of Keita only having proved himself over one exceptional season is a fallacy. What last season’s performances at …
Could Mario Gotze play in the Liverpool midfield?
It was going to happen eventually. It was just inevitable so long as Jurgen Klopp was in charge but I doubt many envisaged it happening quite so soon after being diagnosed with a metabolic disorder.
Mario Gotze is once again being linked with a move to Anfield just six months after rejecting a move to join Klopp’s revolution on Merseyside. The 24 year old was a target for his former manager as he looked to reunite with the player he …
Mario Götze: Should Liverpool Pass or Pounce?
Hey everybody! It's that time of year again, and once again Liverpool are "linked" with Mario Götze. The 24 year old World Cup winner returned to Borrussia Dortmund this past summer for a fee of around 20m, but yet again Mario has struggled to find his feet. This has become a common theme with the German since his initial transfer from BVB to FC Bayern in 2013, as he's yet to kick on from his breakout 12/13 season at Dortmund …
Klopp Out? Only A Fool Would Want The Liverpool Manager Sacked
Remember those optimistic Autumn days of 2015, when the entire Liverpool fanbase felt as united as it had done for many years? It was glorious.
The arrival of Jurgen Klopp was an incredible statement of intent by the club, and the reaction that followed his appointment was bordering on hysteria. He was the one we all wanted, unless you were trying a bit too hard to be different and whinging about his "rubbish final year at Dortmund".
This was a …
Can Klopp And Liverpool Stay Cool?
You know when you've arranged with family or friends that, owing to financial circumstances, you are definitely NOT doing the present thing this Christmas/birthday/whatever? And you know the way that seems like absolutely the correct call at the time and you're definitely okay with it? And do you also know that pang of ludicrous and illogical disappointment when the day arrives and you are indeed present-free?
That is very much the feeling that gnawed at Latest News on the drive to work …
How the Liverpool press Nullified Manchester City
The buzzword surrounding Jurgen Klopp's appointment as Liverpool manger in October 2015 was pressing. Gegenpress this, Gegenpress that, counter-press them here and counter-press them there. Basically, Klopp was supposed to turn up and blitz the Premier League with his high pressing, all action, heavy metal football. When it transpired that this wasn't going to be the case many in the media felt a little cheated.
The German maverick wasn't playing ball. To them it was like receiving a toy for …