Jurgen Klopp was annoyed. His teams are defined by one characteristic. It was missing altogether. "We played no counter-pressing," said the German, some 20 minutes after Liverpool were defeated by Newcastle United.
Klopp has introduced gegenpressing to the Merseyside lexicon, the phrase that explains how his sides swarm around opponents. They seem to be battery-powered red machines. Chelsea and Manchester City had been hassled and harried to distraction and defeat. Newcastle, Klopp felt, were afforded an easier ride.
Gegenpressing begins at the front. The attacker is the first line of the defence. Where Roberto Firmino had been a ferociously fast false No 9 at Stamford Bridge and the Etihad Stadium, Christian Benteke was a static centre-forward at St James’ Park.
His sole shot was lofted over the bar, but that should not be the greatest concern. The worries for the Belgian ought to be two-fold: that Daniel Sturridge, finally fit again and more potent, supplants him in the pecking order and that Klopp decides Benteke is a stylistic mismatch for his brand of football.
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Not that Sturridge epitomises the relentless running the German wants either, yet the Englishman’s finishing was so deadly in last week’s 6-1 win over Southampton that he could be impossible to ignore. Klopp conceded afterwards that he now realised why others had raved about Sturridge.
While Liverpool, even with Benteke as an unused substitute, operated with twin centre forwards at St Mary’s, there were already legitimate questions if both could be accommodated in the same side and not just because they have only been paired for 45, otherwise forgettable, minutes.
Klopp’s preference is to field one striker. His predecessor, Brendan Rodgers, was a man of many formations but even he rarely used Sturridge and Luis Suarez as two out-and-out centre forwards. Increasingly, it has not been the Liverpool way.
Klopp’s team have been at their deadliest in Benteke’s absence. Their two defining performances came against Chelsea and City. He was confined to cameos in both. The team ethic that is at the heart of the manager’s philosophy was apparent as Liverpool dispensed with specialist strikers, attacked with verve and sourced goals from other departments of the team.
Their energetic brilliance in both games counts against Benteke. So do the statistics. Scored five in five in the games he has started, 16 in the seven he has not.
Those numbers are a little deceptive: Benteke has struck twice as a replacement. Yet perhaps they suggest he is better deployed as an impact substitute once Firmino has tired a defence.
And the problem of what to do with the second costliest buy in Liverpool’s history serves as an unwanted reminder that clubs can be hindered by previous regime’s decisions. Klopp has brought a fresh start, but Liverpool can be weighed down by the baggage of the past.
Thus far, it has rarely mattered. Liverpool have got lucky with Klopp. They are fortunate he was so keen to take the job, especially as some at Anfield did not even want to consider him. The swift start he has made has reduced the possibility that this will be a wasted season whereas, by first persevering with Rodgers and then dismissing him and installing a successor in October, it could easily have been yet another of Liverpool’s transitional years.
He has managed to make their infamous transfer committee seem a group of wise men, spurring club signings such as Alberto Moreno, Emre Can and Firmino to deliver more than they had for Rodgers and even conjuring a hat-trick from the previously barren Divock Origi.
Yet the principal indictment of Liverpool’s botched planning is Rodgers’s biggest buy. The Northern Irishman was allowed to pay £32.5 million (Dh180m) for one player by a club which had doubts if he was the right manager.
Klopp has been complimentary about the squad he inherited, but Liverpool deprived him of the chance to spend such funds by persisting with Rodgers. Too many mistakes have been made at Anfield in recent seasons and if buying Benteke was not necessarily one in itself, the change in circumstances, eras and game plans could leave him languishing as the multi-million pound back-up.
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