Liv- Man City (1-0): Eye-catching with gegenpressing

(Baonghean.vn) - English football fans have just enjoyed the best match of the new year 2017. The home team Liverpool defeated Man City at Anfield with a score of 1-0. What defeated the tiki-taka style of play? I would say it was gegenpressing. Who defeated Pep Guardiola? I would say it was Klopp, they are both master coaches of the world.

Gegenpressing

Until we saw Liverpool operate with gegenpressing against Man City, our Vietnamese language did not have the best, easiest to understand, and easiest to listen translation for this phrase. Gegenpressing comes from German, and the English translated it as “counter-pressing” about 5 years ago. Coaches Juergen Klopp, Jupp Heynckes – who successfully applied this style of play to their teams.

Center back Le Khac Liem, a former player of Duong Sat, said: “Understanding gegenpressing in a simple way like this, in normal football tactics, after losing the ball, the players will transition to the defensive phase by retreating, returning to their positions. But “counter-pressing” is to completely skip retreating to that position. Instead, the whole team will have to immediately close in on the opponent to regain the ball.” In other words, instead of transitioning from the attacking phase to the defensive phase, “counter-pressing” helps the team to immediately return to the attacking phase. In theory, if egenpressing is applied correctly, it will help them attack continuously.

Midfielder Wijnaldum headed in the only goal for Liv.

In Germany, Guardiola, when he was in charge of BM, realized that most teams were very fond of defensive-counter-attacking play. And they were very good at counter-attacking. That's why he focused more on training his players in the "counter-pressing" method. Even though he might not be able to win the ball back immediately, it was almost certain that the opponent would not be able to counter-attack. But when he was the head coach of Man City, Guardiola was still defeated by Juergen Klopp with gegenpressing.

Talented coach Juergen Klopp

Certainly, when coming to Anfield, coach Guardiola was no stranger to Jurgen Klopp and the gegenpressing style of play, but he did not believe that the home team would dare to play it for the entire 90 minutes. Simply put, the gegenpressing style of play requires the physical endurance and mental state of Liverpool players to be at maximum, continuous concentration.

For other opponents, gegenpressing only works for 6 seconds, from the time the opponent approaches the ball, so players like Sterling, Silva, De Bruyne, Aguero, who are masters of technique, the home team will not dare. Having watched Liverpool for a long time, Klopp's team does not actively spend much energy on immediate pressure, instead they organize zonal defense and press from the middle of the field in a less complicated way. But yesterday, Liverpool players performed a typical German gegenpressing style that made the whole world take their hats off.

Liverpool started with a 4-3-3 formation to counter Man City playing with a 4-2-3-1 formation, the midfield with the trio Henderson, Wijnaldum, Can successfully separated Fernandinho, Yaya Toure. The attack with Lallana, Mane, Firmino moved tirelessly, especially Mane and Clyne, Wijnaldum played extremely well on the right wing, causing Silva and defender Kolarov to be pushed back deep in the home field. It seemed that when Henderson and Mane were exhausted, they were given a rest, but Juergen Klopp still asked his students to maintain this style of play.

Premier League standings after round 19

It can be said that Liverpool scored from the 8th minute, but for the remaining 82 minutes, the Liverpool team divided up to guard every square meter of Anfield. Midfielder Yaya Toure still ran all over the field, Sterling still dribbled the ball quickly as usual, masters of the ball like Silva, De Bruyne, Aguero still played as usual. It was still the short, low-touch tiki-taka style that Guardiola had been practicing for a long time. But they had too little space and time to handle the ball, because they were always surrounded by red shirts. In the whole match, they only had 9 shots, in situations where they were closely marked, victory was unthinkable. To be fair, Man City played not badly, but the home team Liverpool played too well, so the famous tiki-taka had no place to perform.

Gegenpressing is not a style of play without its weaknesses, but in the match between Liverpool and rivals Man City, German coach Juergen Klopp used it wonderfully. So even though Liverpool only had 42.9% possession, they still won 1-0 with a header from Wijnaldum, along with a style of play full of speed and emotion./.

AT