THE TACTICAL STORY OF JURGEN KLOPP’S LIVERPOOL AND PEP GUARDIOLA’S MAN CITY - AND WHAT THE NEXT CHAPTER HOLDS El Clásico.
A term that was imported from Latin America in the early 2000s to describe the highly anticipated fixture between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The label derived from the hold that the two Spanish clubs had over La Liga, with their meetings differing in nature to a typical derby.
Instead, the match represented a clash between the two best sides in the country, the only two that had a genuine shot of securing the league title.
A duopoly, of sorts.
Since, Der Klassiker has followed. Germany’s take on the expression to capture the Bundesliga dominance of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
England failed to follow suit, because it couldn’t.
The Premier League is renowned for embracing the unpredictable aspects of football, and rather than having a top two, there has instead essentially been a top six. Until now.
Last season, two Premier League teams finished streets ahead of the rest, having amassed points totals of 98 and 97 respectively.
The team that were crowned as champions won 32 of their 38 matches, with the second-placed side losing only once all season.
The former scored an irrepressible 95 goals, while the latter kept 21 clean sheets.
This season, a gap has already emerged after only eleven fixtures, with the two rivals reaffirming their advanced level in comparison to their competitors.
Those teams? Manchester City and Liverpool... The Classic.
The pair meet at Anfield on November 10 for the first time this season, with the victors gaining a potentially decisive three points over the other.
When the general standard of two groups of players is so closely matched, individual quality alone cannot be relied upon as much as usual to secure a win.
The tactical aspects of the game become more prominent, with subtle calculated ploys often proving to make the difference.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool versus Pep Guardiola’s City has been fascinating from a strategic perspective, with the former having the upper hand initially, before the latter figured out his failings and corrected them accordingly, resulting in a draw and a win materialising for City last season.
The two met four times in 2017/18, with Liverpool winning three of those meetings and suffering defeat only once having lost Sadio Mane to a 37th minute red card at the Etihad.
Klopp's side ended City's unbeaten league run in the January fixture with a thrilling 4-3 victory on Merseyside, and they also knocked the Manchester club out of Europe having won both home and away in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Crucially, though, Klopp gained the upper hand despite managing the weaker team. The tactics imposed by Liverpool acted as kryptonite to City's controlling powers in all of those three consecutive wins.
In the 4-3 victory at Anfield, Guardiola set his team up almost as though he was facing mid-table opposition. The customary 4-3-3 was utilised by the Spanish coach, as pictured below, and his team seemed to play without any consideration for the strengths of Liverpool.
This weekend, the two outfits will clash again.
Will Klopp stick or twist regarding his approach to facing the current champions? The reliance on pressing to forge chances by encouraging City to make errors hasn’t been as rewarding in the past two contests, but on the other hand, Guardiola has issues in his defence.
Laporte is the Spaniard’s most reliable defender, but he’s out through injury. Vincent Kompany is no longer at the club, Joao Cancelo is yet to experience Anfield and Fernandinho is currently having to operate as a central defender.
Those circumstances, as well as the edge that Liverpool hold in the Premier League table, may influence Klopp into favouring his tried and tested approach.
If City again manage to erase mistakes from their game, then the German boss has the tools to instigate another means of posing a threat by effectively introducing midfielders that naturally possess offensive traits, as Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita are available unlike last year.
Sunday’s bout will incorporate 90 minutes of risk versus reward. The more return sought, the more risk that must be undertaken, which may bode well for the Reds considering their lead.
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