Tactics wrote:
goon wrote:
Yep, I’m amazed how well they’ve adapted their game.
I think you guys have forgotten what they did to Barca, they pressed the sh** out of them at Anfield. I remember saying on here they were definitely doping(I strongly believe they do). They are still the best pressing team around IMO, they are just less gung-ho these days compared to 2-3 seasons ago.
They had to adapt their game for 2 reasons IMO:
1) They realise as great as the likes of Allison(he's amazing by the way) and Van Dijk are, they couldn't afford to take so much risk, in every single game throughout the season. They are quite happy these days to get a goal and grind out results.
2)They aren't a possession based team, so they don't have the advantage of getting the ball and passing it around in order to allow the team to breathe during matches. And they can't also be charging around like mad dogs for the entire 90 minutes in so many matches throughout the season, even doping isn't sufficient for that kind of energy and stamina needed. Therefore the best way to go is alternate between pressing hard (when u need a goal) or sitting back and defending in large numbers(when you don't)
I think the Barca game was an outlier for them this season. One of those nights at Anfield where it's impossible not to play at 100mph and on the front foot. Even on that night I don't think they pressed in the organised, agressive and systematic way they tried to do in most games last season.
I think at this point the pressing game they're revered for doesn't exist and people are too inobservant or lazy to notice the difference and so just parrot what pundits say--the laziest and most inobservant of all. When the pundits finally catch on then prevailing opinion will change with it (I am not suggesting this is you by the way, Tactics, I have a lot of respect for your opinion. You have your own reasons I'm sure). The same pundits that had most fans believing Arsenal played beautiful attacking football right up until Wenger's last season. 😆
I'm not sure whether the change happened because Klopp wanted to go a new direction and thought the additions of Alisson, van Dijk and Fabinho meant he had the defensive stability to sit off that bit deeper and defend or whether his long-time assistant, Zeljko Buvac, leaving forced his hand.
Louis van Gaal had an interesting perspective in yesterday's Guardian:
I saw as Manchester United manager that the quality of the players of City, Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal was better. So what can I do? We were attacking. We were not defending and we were looking for tactical solutions adapted to the level of our players. For example we were provoking space and that was new in England. I think six months ago [Jürgen] Klopp has also seen the light because in former days he was always pressing.
How do you provoke space?
I have tried because of the speed of [Anthony] Martial and [Marcus] Rashford to provoke space by not pressing immediately but to come a little back, not parking the bus, but to the middle line and then the defenders halfway in our own half. Only with AZ did I do that before, also because of the lower level of my players, and of course I adapt to the quality of my players. You have to see it. Because I didn’t have the best quality of players, they could not perform the system to attack. For example, when Liverpool have to attack constantly, they have a problem, more a problem than, for example, Manchester City.
Why?
Because Salah, Firmino and Mané need a bigger space than Agüero, Sané and Sterling and also the creativity in City’s midfield is higher with De Bruyne, David Silva, Fernandinho and Bernardo Silva – they can play in a small space. That’s why City are the champions.
Perhaps Klopp, as I mentioned above, has weighted the team toward the strengths of the defensive half, which he considers to have more quality? What van Gaal says about Liverpool's attackers needing more space than City's attackers I really think makes a lot of sense.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/03/louis-van-gaal-manchester-united--interview-buy-players-rooney-tactics-solskjaer?CMP=share_btn_tw
Interesting interview with an interesting football mind about his time at United. He's generally pretty scathing in his analysis of the way in which the club is run. Quite controversial in his crticism of Rooney and the way he failed to look after himself away from the training pitch.
