Immediately after Klopp announced the big news of a renewed relationship, the news about assistant coach Pep Lijnders discussing a 19-year
European crown
A brief tactical analysis of the tactical film of the second round of the quarterfinals, which was a stunning comeback at home, has also been released (I say briefly because the main reference is to a general framework of tactics, and although there are some details discussed it is in fact closer to a derivation of an established concept, and of course mainly to make it easier for the fans and viewers to understand it). The author decided to review this classic match once again, and incidentally, to see what differences there would be between the purely fan mentality of the time and his own, who has started to write analysis articles at this stage, in terms of realization, and whether he could find something to share with you from this bloodthirsty review.
We suggest that readers watch the movie at least once, or at least read this article, to get a general understanding of the content of the movie, which will be more helpful to the reading experience.
Facing a three-goal deficit in the second round, and with Barcelona's Messi at the helm, Klopp, who specializes in pressing, is bound to continue his established style, even more aggressive. Including what Lijnders mentions in the movie:
In the second round, the requirement for players is not simply to direct the opponent's passing route or organization to a certain area, but to try to steal the ball directly through more intense pressing and pressing to complete a counter-attack.
With this more intense execution required, it's easy for fans to get the feeling that, ah, that this must have been a frantic push from start to finish, but it wasn't.
Crazier is definitely the case, but instead of a massive uptick in frequency, the quality of each Pressing is demanded
, and that's something we can see in the Pressure numbers for this ball:
Even if you look at the success rate of the press, the 25% is only slightly higher than that of the previous year.
European crown
Lijnders also mentioned in the video that the team usually cuts the court into three zones when pressing, and most of the time the team's training focuses on the Mid 3rd of the court (the Mid 3rd is added by the author based on Lijnders's explanation in order to let the readers have a picture in their brains, which may not be exactly what Lijnders meant, but it should not be too far off). However, in this game, the coaching staff asked the players to turn the whole pitch into a key pressing area.
Here too, the author believes that
The so-called more frantic and intense pressing is not reflected in the number of times, but rather in the intent, the desire to see intent in each execution
The fact is that with both Salah and Firmino missing (Salah is still an absolute starter, of course). In fact, with the absence of Salah and Firmino, who were the absolute starters at the time (Salah is still the absolute starter of course), and almost two matches in a week, it is not reasonable to ask the players to press with such intensity from the beginning to the end of the match, and if you have time to look back at the match, you can clearly see that the team did not press like this from the beginning to the end of the match, but rather in phases (the beginning, and the period after each goal, were more obvious). The intent of this frantic and intense pressing was more evident in the opening half and after each goal, and it so happened that the first three goals were scored in the opening ten minutes of the half, with the fourth coming from a corner kick that caught the opponent off-guard).
Lijnders mentions an important concept in the movie, Doubt, which I think is more suitable to be translated as hesitation and lack of confidence. Lijnders emphasizes that when executing a tactic, first of all, you have to be firm enough to believe that the tactic can bring victory, and every second of the whole execution process, even if it's just a hint of hesitation, can't appear. On the contrary, you should utilize this firmness and perseverance to make your opponents produce a lot of Doubts during the process of repeated execution, and these short-lived Doubts are the breakthroughs that you can utilize in high-intensity competitions.
In other words, after reviewing the game, the author does not think that
Liverpool (England)
Tactics will be key in this battle, and as Lijnders himself mentioned the team won't change their style of play whether they're ahead or behind, but rather the
The level of commitment from the players, the morale boost the fans give the players, the whole
Liverpool (England)
An emotionally contagious atmosphere up and down the line is the most crucial factor in crushing your opponent.
Looking back at the stats from this game, the xG's for both teams weren't really that far apart:
Barcelona though many times seems to have been
Liverpool (England)
The high tension press was a bit overwhelming, but still created 3 Big Chances throughout the game (
Liverpool (England)
(5 times in total), scoring a random goal while there is still an away goal regulation in place at that time
Liverpool (England)
By and large they were almost Game Over, and two of the Big Chances came in the first half.
Here's where Alisson comes in. barcelona came down to just 1 xG, but had a PSxG (Post-Shot xG) of 2.6 and only used 5 shots on target, on the contrary.
Liverpool (England)
On the other hand, it took 7 shots on target to get 2.5 goals for PSxG. i.e. although it looked as if they were dumbfounded, Barcelona wasn't too bad in terms of clinical play, and ran into Alisson in a high-tension game where a goal was almost all that was needed to kill off the opposition.
