Claims that Klopp has been too conservative in his deployment have hardly died down in recent seasons. Even when leading Liverpool
Returning to the top of Europe and breaking the Premier League
Curse, two consecutive seasons in the Premier League
Points nearly a hundred and other feats, but also less outside the target of its use of personnel, formation changes, tactical adjustments and other aspects of the suspicion of over-conservative.
Especially in this recent predicament of consecutive winless seasons, when the original set of tactics, formation, and even the players on the pitch are unable to pick up a win, questions are bound to arise as to why not play some of the players who seem to be able to make a difference, whether it's Minamino, who has been loaned out, or say, the two center backs that were just purchased a while ago.
In this article, I will try to start from the basic concept of tactics, that is, the so-called local numerical superiority, to discuss with you whether Klopp is really conservative? Or at best, he has his own insistence on the execution of the game plan?
Local numerical superiority as the name suggests is to create a situation where you are outnumbered by the other team in a certain area of the court, at a certain point in time, and use the numerical superiority to gain benefits both offensively and defensively.
Anyone who has some understanding of soccer or likes to watch the game should often hear discussions about how the attacking team can use the creation of local numerical advantage to break the enemy's defense, for example, when organizing at the back of the field, in the face of the enemy's pressing, how to appropriately return to the center and back of the field to increase the number of their own players to create a local numerical advantage, thereby increasing the number of Passing options to achieve the goal of not allowing the enemy to press and rob successfully. Or when facing the defensive position in front of the field, how to form a local numerical advantage through effective positioning and running, in order to make the enemy face the dilemma of playing with fewer players on the defensive end, and then obtain more space to break the opponent's defensive strategy (the following figure).
But in the defensive end how to use the local numerical advantage to crack the enemy's offensive means, and even be able to take advantage of this on the ground to start the counterattack of the discussion, is relatively rarely mentioned. But in fact, as long as you are familiar with Liverpool
system, it is clear that this passage describes exactly what Klopp does best, the high pressure press (pictured below).
The local numerical advantage in both offense and defense is a situation that every team tries to achieve at every stage of every game, because it is the most efficient way to achieve benefits in both offense and defense. Imagine that the offense and defense have equal numbers of localized players, under the premise that the average technical ability of both players is more or less the same, it is equivalent to a stalemate situation, for both sides have no obvious benefits to speak of.
But achieving localized numerical superiority is not as simple as it seems. There are hundreds of ways to achieve localized numerical superiority on the field, but one of the prerequisites for success is whether the players on the field understand the tactical needs of the coach, and even whether they are consistent in their judgment of the enemy, and whether they have the ability to execute the plans they have formulated before the game.
It is important to realize that the so-called local numerical superiority thing tends to be fleeting, as long as one of the players who should be in place at that moment is not in place, it is very difficult to form a real local numerical superiority (i.e., even if you are allowed to have a localized numerical superiority situation, you can't play to its advantage). That is, as long as even one player doesn't understand it properly, or executes it poorly, it's a direct result of the rest of the team spending a lot of time doing nothing.
This concept should be well understood on the offensive side of the ball, for example, when your teammates do a lot of ball movement and running without the ball, but you are not in the right place, it will make the effort in front of you go from being able to tear the opponent's defense apart, to meaningless conduction. But on the offensive end, as long as you don't lose the ball in a dangerous area, the most you can do is to quickly get back on the ball or reorganize again.
But what if it happens on the defensive side of the ball? What happens when it comes to Klopp's favorite high press? Readers can look back at the previous diagram, which shows Klopp's high press during his time at Dortmund, and clearly see that this is a typical example of using localized numerical superiority in an attempt to achieve a tactical need (to start a counterattack on the spot after a steal).
Readers can look at the positions of the players who are pressing at the same time, and imagine what will happen if just one player (not just one player) is not in the right position at the right time. Wouldn't it mean that the press would be ineffective, giving up a huge gap behind the ball and allowing the other team to penetrate the entire defense with just a few simple passes?
It also shows once again that Liverpool
At this stage, the complexity and requirements of the high press are extremely high, not to mention individual players are not in place, even if everyone's awareness and execution is good, but as long as the timing of the press is a little slow half a beat, such as a moment of concentration is not enough to focus, want to run less to save energy, think that the other side is not so powerful to take a chance and so on, may bring unimaginable results, the beginning of the season, 2-7 defeat Villa The 2-7 defeat to Villa at the beginning of the season is a good example.
This also explains why fans were looking forward to the already on-loan Minamino coming in some time ago to change the dilemma of not being able to score at that time, as well as the previous game against Man City
Klopp hoped to play at least one new center back, so that captain Henderson can go back to his good position in the midfield, but Klopp didn't decide as everyone expected. It is obvious that in Klopp's high pressing tactics, Klopp pays more attention to a player's timing than his individual attacking ability. This also explains why Shaqiri, who is not lacking in individual ability, could not get enough opportunities to play in the previous seasons.
Therefore, when Minamino doesn't get too many chances, maybe the key is that he can't fulfill the coach's requirements in terms of tactical execution. It is important to realize that high pressure is a high-risk tactic, and when the front court players are unable to effectively execute the coach's requirements at the high position, if the midfield with Vandijk, captain Henderson, and Wijnaldum at the same time, they may still have the ability to help wipe their asses. But looking at the current midfield setup, it may not be that Klopp is being conservative and not willing to provide opportunities, but rather that he has to make a decision that fans will feel is conservative due to the greater risk he may have to take.
In other words, Klopp knows that the team's margin for error has been reduced because of the loss of a few key center backs (especially VanDijk), so he has had to cut down on rotations and let the remaining starters ride out the wave of injuries. Instead of being conservative, I think it would be more accurate to say that in order to give the team a better chance to win every game (reducing risk is also a way to increase winning chances), the team has to be too conservative at this stage of the season when they are faced with a serious wave of injuries.
But anyway, Liverpool
The predicament faced this season is indeed quite rare in recent years, and it is a good opportunity to examine whether Klopp's masterpiece of leading the team back to the top over the years is just better luck, or real strength.
