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Liverpool 2017-18: We won it 5 times

longhorndude

By longhorndude
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mdmost
mdmost

This one? It's pretty badass. Love the Boss.  

maninblack
maninblack

My summer wish list... Yelling 6 times at every Scum fan I see

TKS
TKS

Salah won PFA Player of the Year.

maninblack

maninblack 7974

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, mdmost said:

In the grand scheme of things, who gives a shit. The goal today was to get through to Tuesday without injury. 

I agree but it does suck that we could've put a bow on top 4 there if our shoddy defending hadn't returned. Chelsea could make this interesting now with that game against us in a couple weeks.

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TKS

TKS 66

Posted
Posted (edited)

El Pais in Spain had an article about how Coutinho couldn't fit Klopp's system. Here's a translated version.

https://elpais.com/deportes/2018/04/22/actualidad/1524420154_423331.html

Quote

The day Klopp discarded Coutinho and unleashed Liverpoo

The coach's tests in 2016-17 discredit the Brazilian as a midfielder and placed him behind Mané, Firmino and Salah as the most expensive substitute of history.

The business and sporting success of Liverpool in the current campaign is rooted in the strategy drawn by Jürgen Klopp in May of 2017. Required to present a plan to assault the major titles, the Premier league and the Champions League, the German coach met with the club leaders to inform them that, after a season of tests, he came to the conclusion that the tactical scheme that best suited the team was 4-3-3 and that in that formation Phil Coutinho could stand out only as a winger. When the club raised the possibility of signing Mohammed Salah, the coach told them that he thought it was fine but that he would have to contest a spot in the starting eleven with Coutinho. Never with Mané or Firmino, whom he judged essential.

In Liverpool's offices people were not surprised to see that the bosses embracing as if they had won a title when on 6th January they closed the transfer of Coutinho to Barca for 160 million euros, a record just below Neymar and Mbappé. Never the sale of the third most expensive football player in history meant less sacrifice and more benefit for a major club.

Influenced by the traditional German doctrine, Klopp starts from a basic principle: before gifted, to be competitive at the highest level players must be constant. Regularity, according to his philosophy, is linked to the biological element. It is of little importance that the players handle concepts and are skilled if they are not reliable in the execution of the pressing system when they don't have the ball and not constant in detach from their marking opponents when they have it. Klopp's experiments in the 2016-17 season focused on testing how the players adapted to the physical demands imposed on them by the division of tasks in the different spaces assigned in a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3- 3.

The tests put the emphasis on transitions: attack-defense and defense-attack. From the beginning, they revealed that Coutinho was a magnificent but intermittent player. His cardiovascular system didn’t allow him to make efforts at the levels of Firmino, Mané, Can, Wijnaldun, Milner, Oxlade-Chamberlain or Lallana. The midfielders who best adjusted to a 4-3-3 last year were, based on the results of the tests, Henderson as holding midfielder and Wijnaldun with Can as box-to-box.

Explosive and decisive in short spaces, Coutinho lacked the heart and lungs to perform consistently in the great spaces of the midfield. In the physical tests that simulated situations of the game, after two sprints of 60 meters Coutinho could not recover without remaining half a minute completely stopped. Too much, given the tactical demands. With the emphasis on permanent dynamism, Klopp discarded Coutinho to integrate the midfield in 4-3-3. Even when he placed it as a winger, he found that he disengaged in the fallbacks. During several matches he tried a 4-2-3-1 to place him behind the forward, with a smaller radius of action to avoid him suffering. If he played as an attacking midfielder he could stay off the withdrawal without generating serious imbalances, while the rest of the team ordered 20 meters back. But the 4-2-3-1, in Klopp's opinion, didn’t allow the team to exploit the spaces in the most efficient way possible.

From perplexity to laughter
Barça's first offer for Coutinho amounted to 60 million euros, about a year ago. Klopp's first reaction was perplexing. He thought that Barcelona had the three attacking spots covered with Messi, Suarez and Neymar. When they told him that Bartomeu would sign Dembelé to replace Neymar and offer more than 100 million for Coutinho to act as substitute for Iniesta, his amazement become hilarity. According to an employee of the English club, Klopp was blunt: "Coutinho is a fabulous forward but he will never feel comfortable in 4-3-3 as an inside midfielder; and much less if he has to play in the spot of Iniesta in the defensive phase of the 4-4-2 that Valverde practices, where the longer runs must be done by the wings. Iniesta is a long distance runner. Coutinho not."

With Coutinho as a midfielder in a 4-3-3, this season Liverpool sank against Sevilla (3-3) in the Champions League, and drew in Anfield against Burnley (1-1). The two matches had the character of trials and both provided clear evidence. In December, Klopp had no doubts about Coutinho's incompatibility as a midfielder. The statistics also didn't even guaranteed to be a starter in the attack. In the 2016/17 season Coutinho played 36 games, scored 14 goals and had 9 assists; while in the 46 matches of this season Salah has scored 41 goals and has given 13 assists.

Two weeks ago, Liverpool eliminated Manchester City from the Champions League and this Tuesday will play against Roma in the first leg of the semifinals. Salah's adaptation to the right wing made Phil Coutinho the most expensive substitute in history. With his transfer to Barca, the Reds can boast of being the beneficiary of an economic golazo whose sporting consequences seem equally spectacular.

Edited by TKS
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yoladu

yoladu 4089

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 4/21/2018 at 8:56 AM, maninblack said:

Klopp on the dry pitch: "West Brom can play on a dry pitch in the Championship next season."

What a turd. Did he really say that? Pretty classless, if so.

What is his beef?

 

 

Edited by yoladu
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mdmost

mdmost 42993

Posted
Posted

He obviously doesn't like dry pitches or the relegation teams that use them.

 

Pretty classy of Roma today. After their walk through of Anfield, De Rossi laid a wreath at the Hillsborough memorial. 

 

Pretty good hype video from LFC.

 

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