This is a few months old but didn't catch it at the time. Fancy a longer read, then have a crack at this me-laddos.
Part the first:
How Klopp Built his ‘Mentality Giants’
“I actually said to the boys before the game that it would be impossible, but because it’s you, we have a chance.”
– Jurgen Klopp post-match Press Conferences, Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona
An impossible task only made possible by the sheer determination and willpower of his Liverpool players in believing they were not already beaten.
A never-say-die attitude? Stubbornness? Fearlessness? What is it about this group of players which made Klopp believe they could still succeed? That they could beat the side that he believes to be the best in the world, and overturn a three-goal deficit while doing so? Why does Klopp believe he has built a team that can do the impossible?
The Right Ingredients
The first step in making, building or creating anything at all is having the right materials to work with. The same is true for building a team capable of success.
Before Klopp arrived, you could split the players he would inherit into certain categories:
• High quality, high usefulness (e.g. Firmino)
• High quality, low usefulness (e.g. Coutinho)
• Average quality, high usefulness (e.g. Toure)
• Average quality, low usefulness (e.g. Skrtel)
• No future at the club (e.g. Benteke)
Starting XI and subs for Klopp’s first game in charge against Tottenham. October 2015.
Quality is referring to the individual quality of the player. Usefulness, on the other hand, is specific to Klopp’s system. Do the players have the physical, technical and tactical qualities he requires in the role they will play?
A goalkeeper rooted to his line, a central defender who struggles when isolated, a forward who doesn’t press from the front. There will be some weaknesses and limitations with certain players that will make them ill-suited to playing for this team.
Over the following transfer windows, Klopp (and Michael Edwards) began a process of bringing in players exclusively of high usefulness to the team. Some of these players were an immediate and obvious success, such as Sadio Mané. Others, such as Karius, were perfectly suited to the system but their quality wasn’t at the required level.
However, there is a fourth important, yet often overlooked, developmental pillar for footballers: Mental/Psychological.
Clearly, as a coach, if you want to build a side of ‘mentality giants’, this is likely a building block that you treat with high, if not the highest, importance.
In the case of Mario Balotelli, Klopp had seemingly already made up his mind before Mario had returned from his loan spell at Milan.
“Klopp doesn’t know me, I spoke to him once, he told me to go somewhere else, work hard and then return”
– Mario Balotelli to Sky Italia, October 2016
While this seems harsh from a manager who is renowned as a father figure to his players, a clue can be found in Jurgen Klopp: The Biography by Elmar Neveling.
Image via guanjie on Reddit.
Then we have the case of Mamadou Sakho. A player who was never really in favour under Rodgers but discovered his form under Klopp’s tutelage in the Europa League run of 2015/16.
However, he took a medication without consulting the club, which caused him to fail a drug test for banned substance. Despite later being cleared by UEFA on review, he had missed Liverpool’s run-in, including the final against Sevilla. Then, he was late for the outbound flight for the club’s pre-season tour, missed a rehabilitation session on an Achilles injury and was late to a team meal. The final straw seemed to be interrupting the bosses’ interview during the pre-season tour.
Sakho was sent back to England the following day and that was the end of his Liverpool career. Again, many will suggest it was harsh but Klopp clearly feels there was a lack of respect and professionalism. He wasn’t a mentality giant in Klopp eyes.
Perhaps even more important than removing the players who lack the mentality you want, is recruiting only players who improve this quality within the team.
When the players voted for additional vice captains, in the absence of Henderson and Milner, it was two of Klopp’s signings who were chosen: Virgil van Dijk and Georginho Wijnaldum. However, in Keita, Mané, Salah, Fabinho, Chamberlain, Robertson & Alisson, there were plenty of other options who have either captained their country, previous clubs, or have all the qualities you would look for in a leader on the pitch.
Even in the young players he has brought through, such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, you can see that the mentality is perfect for what Klopp wants in the squad. When Pep Lijnders was in charge of the U18 side, he made Trent the captain and built the side around him and Ben Woodburn in the #6 and #10 positions respectively. ‘These are they key positions. Six and Ten’, said Lijnders.
Klopp talks of Trent as the “perfect example, from day one” of a player who does everything right. In an interview with Unisport, Klopp stated “When he is not playing, he doesn’t ask me why not. He knows that I thought about him, so he doesn’t even need to think about this. That is pretty smart from him, to be honest”.
However, we see the importance of this more in who we haven’t signed. For example, after Julian Draxler signed for PSG, a player he had made a target to recruit, Klopp stated that “we believe that if someone needs to be convinced by money, then at one point – when you really need character – you will not get it.”
When you cast your eye over Klopp’s signings, there are no players who have had disciplinary issues since signing for the club. Also, no players publicly bemoaning a lack of involvement in the first team. Part of this, of course, is in maintaining a smaller squad that allows everyone to stay more involved. However, having only players with the right mentality is absolutely crucial to this.
Hence why, when you see the likes of Memphis Depay, Mauro Icardi and Wilfred Zaha linked with a move to Liverpool, some mental gymnastics need to be performed to explain why Klopp would break from typically avoiding players who have been criticised for their mentality in the past.
Preparation
Regardless of whether it is a player you inherit or you sign, they will rarely be immediately ready for optimal performance.
While there is little you can do to improve the technical level of a player at the point they are a first-team regular, there are improvements to be made tactically, physically and mentally with players after they arrive. Things aimed at pushing those fine-margins, if you will.
Tactical
It is something that seems to bewilder many fans, but footballers often don’t automatically understand the game. There will be exceptions, of course; some players just have an inherent feel for the game. Generally speaking, it simply isn’t a transferable skill in the same way that spending money doesn’t mean you understand economics.
This is something we know to be true and have plenty of anecdotal evidence to support it. From the failed attempts at management from Thierry Henry, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Alan Shearer, Tony Adams and even one of the greatest players to ever kick a ball, Diego Maradona.
Similarly, pundits regularly fail to offer genuine insight in the game beyond ‘back in my day’ reminiscing. When they talk about life as a footballer, how they would feel in that moment, what would be going through their mind, or offer criticism from a professionalism point of view – you find yourself intrigued. However, often you find as soon as they need to offer analysis beyond that, they struggle.
They face similar struggles even when scouting or offering their ‘hot takes’ on players. Pele naming the likes of Nicky Butt, El Hadji Diouf and Hong Myung-bo among the best players in the world, being a famous example.
And yet whenever a player transfers from one team to another and it is suggested he made need time to adapt to a new team, coach, system, shape and tactical instructions – it is often met with derision.
The less a person knows on any subject, the simpler the subject appears, they offer simple solutions to complex problems and the more confidence they have that they are unmistakably ‘spot on’. We see a lot of this in politics where individuals can present themselves as an expert on all subjects ranging from Global Warming to sound-induced turbine cancer.
So, when Klopp brings in new players, often a period of time will pass where he will be reticent to use them until they understand the system and his methods well enough to be plugged in, without a drop in tactical performance. This is particularly true in central midfield.
At Dortmund, during the early years when Klopp’s transfer budget was between one to five million pounds net, he brought in Sven Bender as one of three big summer signings along with Hummels and Barrios. However, Sven Bender found himself playing for Borussia Dortmund II in the 3.Bundesliga division initially, while he adjusted to Klopp’s system. He spent his first year in and out of the team. Klopp often mentions a similar story with Gundogan.
At Liverpool, we have seen a similar treatment with Robertson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaqiri, Fabinho and Keita. In each instance, we saw people lining up in their droves on social media to write the players off. ‘Klopp has finally signed a dud’.
In fact, to date, the only midfielder Klopp has signed who hasn’t suffered from this adjustment period, is Gini Wijnaldum; Liverpool’s most tactical midfielder. This makes a lot of sense too. He appears to be one of those players who simply ‘get’s it’.
Physical
If you are a fan of WWE, you are probably aware of a guy by the name Kurt Angle. For those of you who don’t know, he won an Olympic gold medal “with a broken freakin’ neck”, in his words. We know this because he announces is every time he speaks. Literally.
While WWE is certainly more entertainment than wrestling, which understandably may see some of its ‘cast’ not respected as athletes, the Olympic namesake is very much a sport. In fact, in mixed martial arts, having a solid base in wrestling is considered essential. The likes of Dana White and Joe Rogan have often said it is the best base, due to the ease wrestlers can transition into other disciplines. Not to mention the high level of athletic ability and work ethic it produces.
So, being an Olympic gold medallist in wrestling is a huge achievement. To do so with a broken neck is just incredible. Perhaps many would have said impossible.
Which makes the question how he done so a pertinent one. Obviously, he was absolutely elite in his profession, but what gave him the edge is what he called ‘fatigue training’.
As a Pittsburgh native, he was living in a part of the world knowing for having among the steepest streets in the world. Kurt would do a four mile run up and down the hills just as his warm up, sprinting as hard as he could up every slope. He would then repeat while piggyback or fireman carrying a friend while doing so.
Then, at the point he felt ready to quit, he would sprint up the hills with his friend pulling back on a bungee cord. He would do so until he reached a point of exhaustion and his legs started to shake. Then he would start his wrestling training.
His logic was this – no matter how good you are when you are fresh and ready, it wouldn’t matter in a hard fight. It is how well you can perform when your body is wanting to give up that will dictate who will survive in those moments.
It worked too. In the final, whenever they had to reset to their positions, he would sprint back and get ready, never letting his opponent have a moment rest. Can you imagine how crushing that must be to your morale? You are absolutely exhausted and this guy is sprinting back into position like it is nothing.
When Barcelona walked out onto that Anfield turf just weeks ago, they weren’t ready. They enjoy the La Liga pace of a game, where resets are more frequent and can be used to allow little moments of rest during the game.
Liverpool didn’t give them those moments. The first 20 minutes of that game were absolutely frantic. Immediately from kick-off Mané is sprinting at Busquets, they are playing the ball backwards and one of Barcelona’s first passes of the night from their own half was straight to a Liverpool player. They were rattled and we were still in the first minute of the match. The tone was set.
The aggression levels too were like nothing I had seen before from a Klopp side. I was genuinely terrified Fabinho would get sent off, or try to rip Suarez in two with his bare hands. Mild-mannered, quietly spoken Fabinho from the farms of Campinas, Brazil. You could almost hear the screams inside Suarez’s head when the camera cut to his face.
After the match, Simon Hughes’ article revealed the ball-boys had been instructed to get the ball back into play as quickly as possible. In doing so, those few moments rest Barca players want at resets continues to get eaten away. Not to mention, throw-ins are much harder to defend in the first 5 seconds the ball goes out of play. Once a team has reset their shape and sorted out their marking of opposition players around the ball, your chances of retaining possession quickly diminish. This seems like the sort of information that a club who employees a specialist throw-in coach would be on top off. Nothing is by accident. Little is left to chance.
The end result of not allowing a side to have those natural moments of rest in the game when the ball is out of play, is they need to find it elsewhere. You stop tracking runners every time. You stop making that run from van Dijk to Robertson to press the ball. You stop making that run in behind to stretch play and create space. You switch off in key moments when you need to be sharp.
When Wijnaldum scored the second on the night, he wrestled the ball out of ter Stegen’s hands on the ground, then ran back to the centre circle. Mentally Barca were shutting down. He knew. Let’s grab another before they can switch back on.
As the ball goes out of play in the 79th minute of the game for a Liverpool corner, the entire Barcelona team is facing away from where the corner will come from. Ter Stegen can be seen clapping his hands trying to wake his team up as the ball is already zipping along the turf towards Origi’s right foot.
Nobody told Trent to do this. This wasn’t some set-piece rehearsed in training. However, in drilling the players to always be ready, alert and knowing they would have the edge when their opponent was fatigued – they were ready to take advantage of those opportunities that would appear.
This isn’t a one-time thing either. That wonderful 4th goal against Barcelona was merely the best example of it bearing fruit.
Table of Premier League teams ranked in order of goals scored from the 80th minute onwards. Click to expand.
In terms of goals being scored from the 80th minute onwards, Liverpool lead the way in the Premier League. They have scored almost double in that time than their Champions League final opponents, Tottenham.
While having the mental strength and desire to keep going, actually being physically capable of doing so is crucial to succeeding. In pre-season, in Evian, it was revealed the players were participating in triple sessions. They were also training heavily before games. As a result, a lot of their pre-season matches, and particularly early ones, showed the players having heavy touches and struggling with their passing and shooting.
This all makes sense of course as I am sure we have all had that sensation of lead-feet when we are exhausted. Now, if you can run your opponent until they are feeling that way, yet you are able to play through it with no discernible drop in your own quality, what a massive advantage to have.
Table of Premier League teams ranked in order of goals conceded from the 80th minute onwards. Click to expand.
We see it at both ends of the pitch too. Despite being so aggressive in the pursuit of goals at the end of games, this isn’t reflected at the other end of the pitch where they have conceded just four goals after the 80th minute this season. Only Chelsea and City can better this, with three.
Even more interesting here will be the fact their opponents, Spurs, have conceded double the amount that Liverpool have in that time. They are the worst of all the top 6 sides towards the end of games, with a goal difference of just +1. While Liverpool are the strongest side in the Premier League at the end of games, with a goal difference of +14.
This very much feels like Liverpool have been building up to this moment all season. The frequent periods of personal rest and relaxation allowed to the players, such as Salah travelling to New York, or Wijnaldum visiting Memphis Depay in Lyon. The hot weather training camps in periods without games. The focus on managing the little details to increase the speed of play and reduce the opponent’s opportunity to rest during the game. The ‘fatigue training’ at the start of the season. This side is physically capable of running an opponent into the ground and then picking them off in those seconds they switch off due to fatigue. We are at our sharpest when others as gasping for air.
Part the first:
How Klopp Built his ‘Mentality Giants’
“I actually said to the boys before the game that it would be impossible, but because it’s you, we have a chance.”
– Jurgen Klopp post-match Press Conferences, Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona
An impossible task only made possible by the sheer determination and willpower of his Liverpool players in believing they were not already beaten.
A never-say-die attitude? Stubbornness? Fearlessness? What is it about this group of players which made Klopp believe they could still succeed? That they could beat the side that he believes to be the best in the world, and overturn a three-goal deficit while doing so? Why does Klopp believe he has built a team that can do the impossible?
The Right Ingredients
The first step in making, building or creating anything at all is having the right materials to work with. The same is true for building a team capable of success.
Before Klopp arrived, you could split the players he would inherit into certain categories:
• High quality, high usefulness (e.g. Firmino)
• High quality, low usefulness (e.g. Coutinho)
• Average quality, high usefulness (e.g. Toure)
• Average quality, low usefulness (e.g. Skrtel)
• No future at the club (e.g. Benteke)
Starting XI and subs for Klopp’s first game in charge against Tottenham. October 2015.
Quality is referring to the individual quality of the player. Usefulness, on the other hand, is specific to Klopp’s system. Do the players have the physical, technical and tactical qualities he requires in the role they will play?
A goalkeeper rooted to his line, a central defender who struggles when isolated, a forward who doesn’t press from the front. There will be some weaknesses and limitations with certain players that will make them ill-suited to playing for this team.
Over the following transfer windows, Klopp (and Michael Edwards) began a process of bringing in players exclusively of high usefulness to the team. Some of these players were an immediate and obvious success, such as Sadio Mané. Others, such as Karius, were perfectly suited to the system but their quality wasn’t at the required level.
However, there is a fourth important, yet often overlooked, developmental pillar for footballers: Mental/Psychological.
Clearly, as a coach, if you want to build a side of ‘mentality giants’, this is likely a building block that you treat with high, if not the highest, importance.
In the case of Mario Balotelli, Klopp had seemingly already made up his mind before Mario had returned from his loan spell at Milan.
“Klopp doesn’t know me, I spoke to him once, he told me to go somewhere else, work hard and then return”
– Mario Balotelli to Sky Italia, October 2016
While this seems harsh from a manager who is renowned as a father figure to his players, a clue can be found in Jurgen Klopp: The Biography by Elmar Neveling.
Image via guanjie on Reddit.
Then we have the case of Mamadou Sakho. A player who was never really in favour under Rodgers but discovered his form under Klopp’s tutelage in the Europa League run of 2015/16.
However, he took a medication without consulting the club, which caused him to fail a drug test for banned substance. Despite later being cleared by UEFA on review, he had missed Liverpool’s run-in, including the final against Sevilla. Then, he was late for the outbound flight for the club’s pre-season tour, missed a rehabilitation session on an Achilles injury and was late to a team meal. The final straw seemed to be interrupting the bosses’ interview during the pre-season tour.
Sakho was sent back to England the following day and that was the end of his Liverpool career. Again, many will suggest it was harsh but Klopp clearly feels there was a lack of respect and professionalism. He wasn’t a mentality giant in Klopp eyes.
Perhaps even more important than removing the players who lack the mentality you want, is recruiting only players who improve this quality within the team.
When the players voted for additional vice captains, in the absence of Henderson and Milner, it was two of Klopp’s signings who were chosen: Virgil van Dijk and Georginho Wijnaldum. However, in Keita, Mané, Salah, Fabinho, Chamberlain, Robertson & Alisson, there were plenty of other options who have either captained their country, previous clubs, or have all the qualities you would look for in a leader on the pitch.
Even in the young players he has brought through, such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, you can see that the mentality is perfect for what Klopp wants in the squad. When Pep Lijnders was in charge of the U18 side, he made Trent the captain and built the side around him and Ben Woodburn in the #6 and #10 positions respectively. ‘These are they key positions. Six and Ten’, said Lijnders.
Klopp talks of Trent as the “perfect example, from day one” of a player who does everything right. In an interview with Unisport, Klopp stated “When he is not playing, he doesn’t ask me why not. He knows that I thought about him, so he doesn’t even need to think about this. That is pretty smart from him, to be honest”.
However, we see the importance of this more in who we haven’t signed. For example, after Julian Draxler signed for PSG, a player he had made a target to recruit, Klopp stated that “we believe that if someone needs to be convinced by money, then at one point – when you really need character – you will not get it.”
When you cast your eye over Klopp’s signings, there are no players who have had disciplinary issues since signing for the club. Also, no players publicly bemoaning a lack of involvement in the first team. Part of this, of course, is in maintaining a smaller squad that allows everyone to stay more involved. However, having only players with the right mentality is absolutely crucial to this.
Hence why, when you see the likes of Memphis Depay, Mauro Icardi and Wilfred Zaha linked with a move to Liverpool, some mental gymnastics need to be performed to explain why Klopp would break from typically avoiding players who have been criticised for their mentality in the past.
Preparation
Regardless of whether it is a player you inherit or you sign, they will rarely be immediately ready for optimal performance.
While there is little you can do to improve the technical level of a player at the point they are a first-team regular, there are improvements to be made tactically, physically and mentally with players after they arrive. Things aimed at pushing those fine-margins, if you will.
Tactical
It is something that seems to bewilder many fans, but footballers often don’t automatically understand the game. There will be exceptions, of course; some players just have an inherent feel for the game. Generally speaking, it simply isn’t a transferable skill in the same way that spending money doesn’t mean you understand economics.
This is something we know to be true and have plenty of anecdotal evidence to support it. From the failed attempts at management from Thierry Henry, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Alan Shearer, Tony Adams and even one of the greatest players to ever kick a ball, Diego Maradona.
Similarly, pundits regularly fail to offer genuine insight in the game beyond ‘back in my day’ reminiscing. When they talk about life as a footballer, how they would feel in that moment, what would be going through their mind, or offer criticism from a professionalism point of view – you find yourself intrigued. However, often you find as soon as they need to offer analysis beyond that, they struggle.
They face similar struggles even when scouting or offering their ‘hot takes’ on players. Pele naming the likes of Nicky Butt, El Hadji Diouf and Hong Myung-bo among the best players in the world, being a famous example.
And yet whenever a player transfers from one team to another and it is suggested he made need time to adapt to a new team, coach, system, shape and tactical instructions – it is often met with derision.
The less a person knows on any subject, the simpler the subject appears, they offer simple solutions to complex problems and the more confidence they have that they are unmistakably ‘spot on’. We see a lot of this in politics where individuals can present themselves as an expert on all subjects ranging from Global Warming to sound-induced turbine cancer.
So, when Klopp brings in new players, often a period of time will pass where he will be reticent to use them until they understand the system and his methods well enough to be plugged in, without a drop in tactical performance. This is particularly true in central midfield.
At Dortmund, during the early years when Klopp’s transfer budget was between one to five million pounds net, he brought in Sven Bender as one of three big summer signings along with Hummels and Barrios. However, Sven Bender found himself playing for Borussia Dortmund II in the 3.Bundesliga division initially, while he adjusted to Klopp’s system. He spent his first year in and out of the team. Klopp often mentions a similar story with Gundogan.
At Liverpool, we have seen a similar treatment with Robertson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaqiri, Fabinho and Keita. In each instance, we saw people lining up in their droves on social media to write the players off. ‘Klopp has finally signed a dud’.
In fact, to date, the only midfielder Klopp has signed who hasn’t suffered from this adjustment period, is Gini Wijnaldum; Liverpool’s most tactical midfielder. This makes a lot of sense too. He appears to be one of those players who simply ‘get’s it’.
Physical
If you are a fan of WWE, you are probably aware of a guy by the name Kurt Angle. For those of you who don’t know, he won an Olympic gold medal “with a broken freakin’ neck”, in his words. We know this because he announces is every time he speaks. Literally.
While WWE is certainly more entertainment than wrestling, which understandably may see some of its ‘cast’ not respected as athletes, the Olympic namesake is very much a sport. In fact, in mixed martial arts, having a solid base in wrestling is considered essential. The likes of Dana White and Joe Rogan have often said it is the best base, due to the ease wrestlers can transition into other disciplines. Not to mention the high level of athletic ability and work ethic it produces.
So, being an Olympic gold medallist in wrestling is a huge achievement. To do so with a broken neck is just incredible. Perhaps many would have said impossible.
Which makes the question how he done so a pertinent one. Obviously, he was absolutely elite in his profession, but what gave him the edge is what he called ‘fatigue training’.
As a Pittsburgh native, he was living in a part of the world knowing for having among the steepest streets in the world. Kurt would do a four mile run up and down the hills just as his warm up, sprinting as hard as he could up every slope. He would then repeat while piggyback or fireman carrying a friend while doing so.
Then, at the point he felt ready to quit, he would sprint up the hills with his friend pulling back on a bungee cord. He would do so until he reached a point of exhaustion and his legs started to shake. Then he would start his wrestling training.
His logic was this – no matter how good you are when you are fresh and ready, it wouldn’t matter in a hard fight. It is how well you can perform when your body is wanting to give up that will dictate who will survive in those moments.
It worked too. In the final, whenever they had to reset to their positions, he would sprint back and get ready, never letting his opponent have a moment rest. Can you imagine how crushing that must be to your morale? You are absolutely exhausted and this guy is sprinting back into position like it is nothing.
When Barcelona walked out onto that Anfield turf just weeks ago, they weren’t ready. They enjoy the La Liga pace of a game, where resets are more frequent and can be used to allow little moments of rest during the game.
Liverpool didn’t give them those moments. The first 20 minutes of that game were absolutely frantic. Immediately from kick-off Mané is sprinting at Busquets, they are playing the ball backwards and one of Barcelona’s first passes of the night from their own half was straight to a Liverpool player. They were rattled and we were still in the first minute of the match. The tone was set.
The aggression levels too were like nothing I had seen before from a Klopp side. I was genuinely terrified Fabinho would get sent off, or try to rip Suarez in two with his bare hands. Mild-mannered, quietly spoken Fabinho from the farms of Campinas, Brazil. You could almost hear the screams inside Suarez’s head when the camera cut to his face.
After the match, Simon Hughes’ article revealed the ball-boys had been instructed to get the ball back into play as quickly as possible. In doing so, those few moments rest Barca players want at resets continues to get eaten away. Not to mention, throw-ins are much harder to defend in the first 5 seconds the ball goes out of play. Once a team has reset their shape and sorted out their marking of opposition players around the ball, your chances of retaining possession quickly diminish. This seems like the sort of information that a club who employees a specialist throw-in coach would be on top off. Nothing is by accident. Little is left to chance.
The end result of not allowing a side to have those natural moments of rest in the game when the ball is out of play, is they need to find it elsewhere. You stop tracking runners every time. You stop making that run from van Dijk to Robertson to press the ball. You stop making that run in behind to stretch play and create space. You switch off in key moments when you need to be sharp.
When Wijnaldum scored the second on the night, he wrestled the ball out of ter Stegen’s hands on the ground, then ran back to the centre circle. Mentally Barca were shutting down. He knew. Let’s grab another before they can switch back on.
As the ball goes out of play in the 79th minute of the game for a Liverpool corner, the entire Barcelona team is facing away from where the corner will come from. Ter Stegen can be seen clapping his hands trying to wake his team up as the ball is already zipping along the turf towards Origi’s right foot.
Nobody told Trent to do this. This wasn’t some set-piece rehearsed in training. However, in drilling the players to always be ready, alert and knowing they would have the edge when their opponent was fatigued – they were ready to take advantage of those opportunities that would appear.
This isn’t a one-time thing either. That wonderful 4th goal against Barcelona was merely the best example of it bearing fruit.
Table of Premier League teams ranked in order of goals scored from the 80th minute onwards. Click to expand.
In terms of goals being scored from the 80th minute onwards, Liverpool lead the way in the Premier League. They have scored almost double in that time than their Champions League final opponents, Tottenham.
While having the mental strength and desire to keep going, actually being physically capable of doing so is crucial to succeeding. In pre-season, in Evian, it was revealed the players were participating in triple sessions. They were also training heavily before games. As a result, a lot of their pre-season matches, and particularly early ones, showed the players having heavy touches and struggling with their passing and shooting.
This all makes sense of course as I am sure we have all had that sensation of lead-feet when we are exhausted. Now, if you can run your opponent until they are feeling that way, yet you are able to play through it with no discernible drop in your own quality, what a massive advantage to have.
Table of Premier League teams ranked in order of goals conceded from the 80th minute onwards. Click to expand.
We see it at both ends of the pitch too. Despite being so aggressive in the pursuit of goals at the end of games, this isn’t reflected at the other end of the pitch where they have conceded just four goals after the 80th minute this season. Only Chelsea and City can better this, with three.
Even more interesting here will be the fact their opponents, Spurs, have conceded double the amount that Liverpool have in that time. They are the worst of all the top 6 sides towards the end of games, with a goal difference of just +1. While Liverpool are the strongest side in the Premier League at the end of games, with a goal difference of +14.
This very much feels like Liverpool have been building up to this moment all season. The frequent periods of personal rest and relaxation allowed to the players, such as Salah travelling to New York, or Wijnaldum visiting Memphis Depay in Lyon. The hot weather training camps in periods without games. The focus on managing the little details to increase the speed of play and reduce the opponent’s opportunity to rest during the game. The ‘fatigue training’ at the start of the season. This side is physically capable of running an opponent into the ground and then picking them off in those seconds they switch off due to fatigue. We are at our sharpest when others as gasping for air.
