RavinWhether the great man knows it or not, Jürgen Klopp has transformed football forever. The Liverpool title winning side he masterminded will go down in history as one of the most exciting and ruthless of the modern era.
Yet barely a year after Liverpool finished a remarkable run of almost winning the quadruple, and seven years after Klopp took over, they look a shadow of themselves. Broken, disjointed, and low in confidence, the team that prided itself on playing passionate high-octane football seems to have run out of steam. And Klopp is out of ideas.
His approach wasn’t novel, nor was he the sole proponent. Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola are two other managers who implemented counter-pressing tactics to great effect. But no one tested it to the extremes in the manner that Klopp did with his Liverpool side.
At their best, Liverpool’s high line and relentless pressure could choke opposition teams out of matches. Weaker teams were forced to fall back and watch as Mo Salah and Sadio Mane tore through their defences, while stronger teams found their creative outlets struggling to breathe in heavily congested spaces.
Pushing a tactic like gegenpressing to its limits is dangerous, and warning signs rang out even in the early days. Balls over and through the defensive line needed Allison’s frequent heroics, while shutting down Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson meant that Liverpool struggled to progress the ball into the final third.
But Allison swept up everything that came at him, and the two fullbacks continued to swing in those dangerous crosses. And Liverpool kept winning.
Against a petrostate-backed club with seemingly infinite caches of money, coached by maybe the best tactical mind the game has ever seen, Liverpool were seen as the underdogs. A team of heart and vigour, which had been miserably underachieving for so long, was finally taking the game right to a dominant Manchester City side.
It was a study in contrasts. On one side Pep had assembled an extremely smart and tactically astute group of players. Each of whom had an equivalent on the bench, itching for game time. On the other, Klopp had his warriors. A trusted, inflexible starting eleven where every player had his role in the system.
In some ways it was a battle for the soul of football itself. A club rich with tradition, steeped in history, and working class to the very core, standing up against everything that is perceived to be wrong with football today. New money, state-backed owners, endless profligate spending, and success that was bought and paid for.
In four years, Liverpool twice came within a hair’s breadth of winning the league title. Each time bested by a solitary point. When they finally won their first English Premier League title, the fanbase sighed in relief. It was a long time coming. And the man behind it all was Klopp.
No other team has as much faith in their manager, and perhaps no other manager is as deserving of such goodwill. Klopp took over a Liverpool team that had returned to its usual cycle of mediocrity and, by sheer force of will, brought it to new heights. He reminded long-time foes that football heritage was very much a real thing, and made fans believe again.
The injury crisis in the 20/21 season was Klopp’s first real test. His perfectly put together system broke down without Van Dijk’s presence at centre back. Injuries to Gomez and Matip compounded the problem and meant playing Henderson and Fabinho ahead of Allison on occasion.
Liverpool’s current troubles didn’t start then, but there were shades of what could happen when Klopp’s system fails. Players being overworked, injuries, an ageing midfield badly in need of shoring up, and a manager who would stubbornly stick to his tactics come hell or high water.
To call Klopp utterly inflexible would be unfair. Liverpool has evolved tactically under his tenure and if you think the Liverpool from last season is the same as the team that won the title, then you haven’t been paying attention.
However, these changes have come about more from necessity than any real tactical nous. Van Dijk is not the same player he was before his ACL tear, and many of Klopp’s favourites are starting to show their age. The departures of Wijnaldum and Mane, alongside the arrival of players like Thiago and Jota, mean that the character of their playstyle is a little more balanced.
But the real trouble with Klopp’s system is that it’s been found out. Teams are no longer shirking back from the intense press, choosing instead to exploit the spaces left by the marauding fullbacks. Forwards now prowl daringly laterally between the back four, testing the willingness and commitment of the high line. The wings have been shut down, and the lack of flair and forward pressure from the midfield tells the story of a manager who seems stumped.
To his credit, Klopp has experimented with a few new tactics. Trent has been making diagonal runs across the pitch at odd times to play as an inverted fullback. Salah has been pushed more central. From time to time, Klopp has even switched to a 4-2-4 formation with Thiago and Henderson acting as double pivots to an attack shepherded by Roberto Firminho.
None of these modifications have worked. Klopp’s habit of occasionally dipping his toe into alternative playstyles rather than committing to long-term changes is starting to hurt the club. It’s clear that the team can no longer play to the same tune they did a year ago. The legs that made the system work no longer exist. And Klopp should be coming under pressure.
It might be a different story if Klopp was backed to the hilt like so many other title winning teams are. But without the midfield reinforcements he badly requires, he needs to be inventive. And that perhaps, is not his strong suit.
Klopp excels at making gegenpressing work. The man has gone to four champions league finals and taken down giants in both Germany and England. But both times he has seemed a victim of his own success. Both times the injury list grew longer, replacements were found wanting, and opponents grew brave.
The man doesn’t believe in plan B, and why should he? At Dortmund he was careful not to overstay his welcome, and the failures at the end of his tenure were quickly forgotten as Liverpool stormed through the league. Plan A has worked out well enough and Klopp’s stubbornness to stay the course is a large reason for his success.
The problem however lies in the nature of his relationship with the club. Liverpool fans love Klopp and any notion that he is not the right man for the job will never be entertained, until it is too late. His unwillingness to adapt his tactics to suit the players at his disposal will slowly but surely push the club past its breaking point and sink the hopes and dreams of a hungry fanbase with it.
The transfer market too has been hit and miss for Klopp lately. So far he has mostly toed the line and refrained from criticising FSG publicly, even as everyone else loudly denounces their stinginess. Unlike Alex Ferguson who was a living embodiment of Manchester itself, Klopp seems reluctant to take on a more prominent role at the club. A role which no Liverpool fan would ever begrudge him. If Klopp took on FSG publicly, he would win and the man knows it. He has chosen not to.
So what then for a manager whose team is languishing in the league? A manager who has been here before and didn’t manage to find a solution the first time around. A manager who has all the tools at his disposal (and yes many Liverpool players have still retained their talent, it is the system that has broken) but only knows how to build one type of team.
It remains to be seen and this perhaps will decide Klopp’s true legacy to the game. Is he a one trick pony, a curio in the annals of football tactics? Or is he something more?
An exceptional man-manager who can bring out something special in players. A scout with an eagle eye for a particular set of skills. A father figure who truly understands the tribulations of the modern footballer. And a tactician who has mastered the science of the game, while fully understanding that the moving parts are made of flesh and muscle.
Klopp is all of those things. Despite what he has achieved with Liverpool and Dortmund, he cannot as yet be counted among the great managers of the game. His legacy is too brief, and his successes too fleeting.
If he wants to stay at Liverpool and drag them back up to the top, he will need to step into the unknown. Liverpool fans will endure at least a season or two of mediocrity under him. He needs to cash in that goodwill and tinker with his set-up. Abandon gegenpressing and play to the strengths of his current squad.
In time he will likely return to gegenpressing, it is much too ingrained into the club and its players. But it will likely be a more refined modern version of the tactic. But to discover it, Klopp will have to drop it entirely. He will need to make changes and trust his current crop of players to adapt. Doubling down in the other direction, or even staying tethering in the middle, will slowly flush away seasons of goodwill and tarnish everything he has achieved.
Above all Klopp needs to change because that’s what the best managers do. They adapt, evolve, and overcome. Klopp showed the footballing world what team pressing and defensive workrate really mean. But the world has moved on and Klopp must decide if he wants his legacy tied to gegenpressing or if he is a manager truly capable of building, and rebuilding something special.
With the weight of an entire global fanbase on his shoulders, Klopp has to be decisive in what he does next. If at any point realises he is not the man for the job, then he needs to step up and announce his departure. The footballing world will understand, as will millions of Liverpool fans. He has done more than enough for the club.
But if he stays, as his new contract suggests, and carries on trying to implement his outdated ideas, he will end up damaging the club further. With competition in the form of a renewed Arsenal and Manchester United, Liverpool will find themselves in a familiar place. Middle of the table, with dreams of past domestic and European successes sustaining a passionate, but eternally disappointed fanbase.
It is up to Klopp. The man clearly loves Liverpool, but football is not what it once was. He has shown his hand in committing his future to the club, but the way forward looks uncertain and shaky.
The remainder of the season is going to be a long one for Liverpool fans, but it will feel even longer for their manager. He is tethering on the edge of greatness and the next few months will decide if he is to be remembered for bringing a few brief glory years to the club, or if he deserves to be counted among the finest football minds to ever stand on the touchlines.
Ravin
