This season:
vs Chelsea 4 points out of 6
vs Man City 4 out of 6
vs Spurs 4 out of 6
vs Arsenal 6 out of 6
vs United 2 out of 6
Overall W5 D5 L0
Last season under Klopp:
vs Chelsea 4 points out of 6
vs Man City 6 out of 6
vs Spurs 2 out of 6
vs Arsenal 1 out of 3
vs United 0 out of 3 in the league, but eliminated them in the Europa League (home win and away draw)
Overall (including EL) W4 D5 L1
Klopp's record against other top teams and managers in this league has been nothing short of extraordinary thus far. Only 1 loss in 20 games against much richer and often more talented clubs, while he had to deal with so many issues in our squad from misfit players he inherited, injury crises, scheduling nightmares and general lack of depth in the squad. We often say that Klopp is not a miracle worker, but in this respect... he kind of is a miracle worker. For years before that a trip to Emirates or Etihad or Old Trafford was an almost guaranteed loss for us. Now it's the other top teams who worry about meeting us, no matter home or away.
This season has been a crazy rollercoaster ride, but it gives me quite a bit of satisfaction to go through a full season unbeaten against the top 6 teams. For our players, this must feel like a big psychological change as well – from having no idea how to beat top teams away to making it a fairly routine occurrence, so much so that an away draw against Guardiola's City feels like a disappointment. In Germany it was the same way for Klopp, where Bayern had to endure humiliation home and away for several seasons before they managed to beat a Klopp team for the first time. This is why perhaps Klopp is so resistant to making major changes in our style of play and formation, even when we hit a rough patch. If you beat Mourinho, Wenger, Conte, Guardiola, Pochettino and Van Gaal in one and a half seasons of work, you have to think you're doing something right.
One last point I want to make is about the defense. If you look at our goals per game conceded, you may conclude that the defense under Klopp has not significantly improved compared to the Rodgers years. That conclusion would be wrong. Anybody who knows football knows that it's impossible to beat other top teams, particularly away, if players don't have confidence in their defensive system. Pundits often pigeonhole this LFC team as "all attack, no defense," compare it to Keegan's Newcastle etc – in my opinion that's just lazy journalism. Look again at our results this season against the best attacks in the country – other than the crazy early-season Arsenal game, where we conceded a couple of goals after leading 4:1, we have not let any of the top 6 teams score more than one goal against us in any game. And we have successfully defended 1-goal leads against Chelsea, City and Arsenal twice.
Sorry, pundits, but there is just no comparison to the defense under Rodgers, where he had to sacrifice one attacking player to keep 5 at the back because our back 4 was just getting murdered. We still concede due to boneheaded individual mistakes (fortunately not so often lately), but you have to be blind or biased not to notice the improved defensive organization and calmness. The team clearly knows how to shut up shop when they need to – it's when we lose patience against a defensively minded opponent, we become defensively vulnerable. Let's hope next summer's transfers will bring an influx of quality that will both help us unlock deep defenses and minimize individual mistakes at the back. The results against top 6 show that we are not far off from having a very good team here.
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