Rivalries and grudges are fired in the furnace of regular competition over similar goals, and in recent years, as Tottenham Hotspur have sought to move in on a top four promised land Liverpool once claimed as their own, tensions have grown.
Both sides have had to contend not only with a veritable glass ceiling set ahead of them by the richest teams in the Premier League but also each other.
It was fitting then that Jurgen Klopp’s first game in charge after taking over at Anfield came against Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs. Given the parallels between the two managers and their approaches, as trainers and as tacticians, they were always destined to be paired off against each other in a battle to become best in their class at what they do.
But what are the similarities shared by the managers of Tottenham and Liverpool and how does their work differ?
Importance of pressing
While Pochettino and Klopp may come at the problem of winning matches from different angles – the former being a direct disciple of Marcelo Bielsa and Argentinian football, the latter an indirect student of Arrigo Sacchi and the German school of gegenpressing – their solutions are almost the same.
They like their players to play an aggressive, ambitious and intense pressing game, rapidly closing opponents high up the park, often in their own half and ideally close to goal in order to force errors and launch counter-attacks behind enemy lines.
It is these fundamentals by which they have both ultimately defined themselves as managers throughout their careers so far, and the most obvious parallel to be drawn between them.
Loading on the training
Dutch football fitness expert Raymond Verhaijian may not approve but Pochettino and Klopp often make use of extra training, often double sessions, to try and ensure their sides are as fast, fit and powerful as they need to be in order to play their manager’s hard-pressing systems to the level required.
The Argentinian and the German’s view is to ensure their players put in the work, especially during pre-season, to ensure they are ready for the long campaigns ahead of them. Unfortunately, their demanding regimes out on the training pitch can cause issues as well as solve them too.
It’s no coincidence that Liverpool’s injury record was worsened under Klopp while signs of mental and physical exhaustion in the closing weeks of a season are not just symptomatic of Pochettino’s teams but also sides coached by his mentor, Bielsea, and the many other coaches to follow in his wake.
A settled first-choice team
Making the most of the transitions between defence and attack – and losing the ball and winning the ball, and vica versa – is key to the style of football Pochettino and Klopp set out to create. However, to execute the rapid, almost automatic counter-attacks required to realise the potential of their ideas, their teams need to be more than just well drilled.
They need the chemistry, understanding and send of collective intuition to make sure – as a unit – that not a moment is wasted on hesitation or indecision. Only time and experience spent playing with the same teammates, in the same side, can forge this kind of bond.
In ideal conditions, Pochettino and Klopp do not rotate. Neither do they obsess over alternatives to the primary plan of action. If they can identify their strongest side and ensure the team reaches its potential – and realises the potential of the system – the results will follow.
Klopp won two Bundesliga titles and constructed one of the most exciting and watchable teams in Europe at Borussia Dortmund. A common view last season was that Spurs were the best, most balanced team in the Premier League, beaten by the forces of destiny swirling around Leicester City.
Different dealings with the media
While Klopp may be happy to engage with the press, winning over reporters with his gregarious manner, Pochettino endures a far more evasive relationship with the media.
At Southampton, he pretended to be unable to speak a word of English, using an interpreter during his post-match interviews to bat away questions or get away with less complex answers.
He wasn’t able to repeat the trick at White Hart Lane and since moving to Spurs Pochettino has instead become one of the most reserved managers in front of the media in the Premier League. Klopp’s approach couldn’t be more dissimilar if he tried.
Contrasting functions at full-back
While neither Pochettino nor Klopp look to go defence-first when it comes to the personnel they deploy out the flanks of their defence, there is a slight divergence in how they use their auxiliary wide-men down each flank.
The former uses his full-backs for width, instructing his wingers to come narrow and cut inside as alternative threats for the opposition’s centre-backs to deal with while the likes of Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Kieran Trippier and Ben Davies shuttle the ball forward and sling in crosses for Harry Kane.
Klopp on the other hand still tends to rely on his forwards out on the flanks to do a fair share of the work stretching teams – running wide and at full-backs before coming inside, or sitting slightly deeper to surge forward on the counter, with the rest of the pitch freed for them to gallop through as a three-or-more pronged attack alongside the centre-forward.
It could be argued that Pochettino’s players are more like wing-backs while his German rival still depends on a more traditional, yet still offensively-minded interpretation of the role of the full-back, with defensive stability important as well as their forward propulsion, hence the difficulties Alberto Moreno has got himself into of late.
Target men, or not
For Spurs, Kane is key. He is not just their main goalscorer but a vital focus of the whole team’s style of play, holding up the ball, bringing others into play and giving his teammates purchase in the opposition’s half.
By contrast, Klopp’s peaks, with Dortmund and Liverpool, have come without the use of a target man. Even Robert Lewandowski – a striker whose wiry frame makes him look taller than he actually is – stands at just six foot. His great strength was his intelligence, his movement and dexterity for a player of his build, not so much his strength, even if, like Kane, he melded together the roles of playing as a provider and scorer all at once.
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