The fixture list has not been kind to Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp ahead of a potentially title-defining clash with Manchester City. But that’s the cost of competing for a quadruple.
It’s also, in fairness, the cost of missing out on Champions League football last season. Ultimately, Liverpool only has itself to blame for its Thursday night outings, and that has cost Klopp a day of recovery before the Manchester City match.
It’s doubly unfortunate that the quirks of the European schedule mean Manchester City is playing a second-leg encounter, while Liverpool will be competing the first leg against Sparta Prague. Pep Guardiola has been able to name his team against Copenhagen knowing that the tie is more or less over.
Meanwhile, Klopp will need to try and strike a delicate balance tomorrow. The first leg is away — in the circumstances, another unlucky twist — and Liverpool must try to protect key players ahead of the Manchester City game without handing the initiative to its European opponent.
Sparta’s only loss since November came against Galatasaray in the playoff round, before the Czechs overturned that aggregate deficit in the second leg to advance. It would be foolish to expect a walkover.
Former Liverpool and Sparta Prague player Patrik Berger has warned as much. He gave an insight into what Klopp should expect:
“Like Liverpool, it tries to play with the goalkeeper. It puts the ball on the floor and tries to build up the play from the goalkeeper to the defenders, and it tries to keep the ball at its feet for as long as possible and then find a way to go forward.”
But therein might just lie Liverpool’s major advantage. Whatever team Klopp fields, he knows he can rely on his ‘best playmaker’ to inflict some serious damage.
This, of course, is how he once referred to ‘a good counter-pressing situation’. Klopp’s style may have evolved over the years, but this fundamental tenet has not changed: anyone facing Liverpool must brace for a ferocious press.
Some opponents prepare for that by adopting a long-ball tactic — don’t hold onto it long enough to let Liverpool win it back, and rely on the strikers to conjure something in behind. But others back themselves to play out, and these sides tend to be Klopp’s favorite prey.
Perhaps that’s part of the reason why Liverpool has reached three Champions League finals out of the last five. The competition may no longer be exclusively for ‘champions’, but it is certainly full of sides who are used to dominating domestically, and the same is more or less true of the Europa League. Up against Klopp, they can either attempt an unfamiliarly deep defensive block, or else take their chances playing their usual way.
Both tactics have been comprehensively ripped apart by Klopp’s great teams over the years. But Liverpool has also proved recently that the ‘best playmaker’ is present right through the age groups.
Against Southampton in the FA Cup, Klopp’s young Reds made no mistake as they exploited the brave possession approach adopted by Russell Martin. The names may have been different, but the outcome was the same, as the likes of Jayden Danns and Lewis Koumas restricted the space and then pounced at the right moments.
It seems Danns will miss the game against Sparta Prague, having picked up a concussion against Nottingham Forest. But whoever Klopp selects, he can be confident that they will make it an unpleasant evening for the opposing defenders if they try and play their way out.
An identity built around ruthless high pressing is a major advantage in European football, one that doesn’t get discussed all that often. Klopp will hope to lean upon it once again as he seeks to walk a precarious selection tightrope before the Manchester City showdown.
