aaron bond wrote:Mikhail Chigorin wrote:I was recently talking about the 'pressing game' with a Liverpool fan and he said that, last season, under Klopp, the Dippers used to play in this way, at top speed, for thirty minutes, or so, at the start of a game and then the intensity dropped off a little after that. Thereafter, it would come back at odd spells during the game when the players had had a breather or refocused their attitudes (or had a rocket from Klipperty).
He put it down to overall fitness, together with a different type of fitness needed and also the new mentality involved with having to play this type of game.
Don't know if this is correct, or not, but that's what he seemed to think and it might apply to us as well.
It'll be interesting to see if the Dippers are playing their full-on pressing game, for the whole 90 minutes, this season.
That's what Liverpool did in the season they 'won the league in 2014'. They'd blitz a team for 20-30 mins and then run out of steam.
Our 3-2 to defeat to them was a prime example. We started slowly and found ourselves 2-0 down very quickly. Then we got back into the game and dominated, getting back to 2-2 and should have been winning before a lapse in concentration cost us.
The key to playing Liverpool that season was not trying to go toe-to-toe with them in the opening stages of a game as that was their strong point.
Absolutely correct on the dippers. Rodgers played to his strengths that season, and knew with a whirlwind start if you pressed hard enough around the oppos box Suarez would score, with Sterling and Sturridge chipping in their share. They managed it without Suarez initially who was banned until September, and on his return they were destroying teams 2,3,4 goals in the first 30 minutes, and picking them off on the counter in the 2nd half. I can't believe so many teams fell for it all season long, though it bit them on the arse towards the end of the season, particularly when they couldn't put palace to bed.
The funny thing is that this approach which won him plaudits as the greatest manager in the world was also his downfall when minus Suarez the season after, the thick cunt was so up his own arse, he complely failed to grasp that he couldn't play the same way over several months without a dynamo like Suarez. I was astounded he even tried.
In our case though, we have the talent, no doubt about it. I don't think we need to play at that intensity for 90 minutes. Aside from it being physically unsustainable, teams CAN defend against it and in the PL we have some of the best organised teams and managers in club football globally on their day and we will be back to square 1 with teams parking the bus. Perverse logic, but being unplayable is not a good thing, as nobody will ever try to play against us, so I think sometimes we have to offer ourselves up to encourage teams to have a go to create our opportunities.
I reckon 10/15 minute spells surrounded by 5/10 minute lulls to see what the oppo does/give them a chance to compete and try to play them on the counter, repeated throughout the game is most likely where we will end up.
