Jurgen Klopp offered some incredible insight into his tactics following Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Manchester City yesterday.
The Reds made a slow start to the match and were fortunate to be level at half-time. However, there was a huge improvement after the interval, with Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah edging them ahead with 15 minutes to play. Klopp attributed this transformation to the intensity of his team's press and their passing game.
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"First of all, what you have to say is you're playing Man City and Man City with the ball is a proper team," he told Sky Sports. "But there are obviously, as we saw in the second half, ways to defend it. What you have to do... is close down the decisive spaces. For that you have to step out in specific moments.
"So what does City want to do? They want to play through the centre. First idea. But if the centre's closed they leave the two wingers high and wide, pass the ball there. If it's a big switch or just a pass... I'm not sure I've seen many games where City could pass the ball that easily through the half spaces.
"So what's the reason for that? Neither Hendo (Jordan Henderson) nor Curtis (Jones) could really step out when needed, when necessary. So we were just passive, they passed the ball through us. They obviously had chances but they didn't score from that. But what it gives you is a really bad feeling. This bad feeling leads to not playing football.
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So then we had these long balls that made absolutely no sense. One or two of them maybe made sense. All the rest... not really, I didn't see the reason for it. Obviously all these things we changed in the second half immediately. We set up, we were higher and more aggressive in this situation. We felt closer, we felt more compact... we scored wonderful goals. The message for the football was 'play the extra pass'. We didn't do that in the first half at all.
Second half I'm really happy. It's a strong opponent. Do we want to win a game like this? Yes but we have to admit today because the game has two halves, the point is completely fine."
The result leaves Klopp's men unbeaten and in 2nd place in the Premier League table.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Manchester City, Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp
