Why Klopp, Pep Guardiola are football’s top innovators
Just because they are unlikely to win silverware this season doesn’t cloud the fact Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola are the game’s top innovators. In due time - say two or three years - they will dominate world football again. How?
Watching Liverpool destroy Tottenham Hotspur in a 25-minute whirlwind of football activity also known as ‘Gengenpress’ has convinced me Klopp’s claim that the Kop can beat any team on their day isn’t empty talk. For Liverpool are the hardest working team in world football. If the enigmatic German finds the right player mix, they will stop all comers and win a plethora of silverware.
‘Gengenpress’ press is ‘Tiki Taka’ with German industry. Do you recall Pep’s six-second rule at Barcelona? It formed the foundation of the Catalan’s period of unprecedented success between 2009-16. Both Klopp and Pep task their players to win the ball within seconds, preferably high up the pitch. The principal differences between Barcelona and Liverpool is in the quality of the players and speed with which the teams transit once possession is regained.
Barcelona have a slower transition as they are more elaborate in their build up. Their cleverer players feel they can outwit the opposition. Their Liverpool counterparts are, on the other hand, not as technically gifted. Speed is their principal tool in hurting opposition defences. Because of their emphasis in using the ball, either Pep, whose Manchester City team aren’t pressing as high as they did in their opening ten-match winning streak (perhaps they aren’t yet ready for such intensity), or Klopp, will become the first managers to field a line up of eleven midfielders.
These two football innovators are dead set on fielding ball players and creators. And they want their creativity to start at the back.
It explains why Pep was so insistent on signing a ball playing goal keeper, ball playing central defenders and wing backs.
A similar analogy applies to central defenders where the future belongs to ball players. Top football managers like Pep and Klopp have long had a strong suspicion about defenders and midfielders whose principle strength is tackling. They feel a good ball winner uses superior positional sense and game reading to break up opposition play by intercepting the ball. If your principal strength is tackling, forget about playing for Klopp and Pep.
It is the principal reason Pep let go of Eliaquim Mangala, and why Klopp couldn’t start the partnership of Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho.
In truth, both would prefer to convert good holding midfielders into central defenders. You saw Javier Mascherano and Yaya Toure do it at Barcelona where Dani Alves, a winger at Seville was converted into a very successful wing-back.
The future belongs to hard working, ball winning, creative midfielders who can be deployed as central defenders, strikers and wing backs.
