Football is a game that never stands still.

It seems that in a blink of an eye ideas and methodologies shift. For a time tiki-taka ruled the world. Perfected by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and replicated by the all-conquering Spain national team, possession was king.

It was a tactic that was adopted across the globe. In England, Arsene Wenger dismantled the powerful Arsenal teams that brought him so much success in his first decade in north London and filled his side with smaller, technically gifted players in the mould of Cesc Fabregas, Alex Hleb, Tomas Roscicky and Samir Nasri.

A possession-based style became the norm, but now trends have moved on. While possession was king, now it seems a high-intensity pressing style has taken the throne.

Tiki-taka has been replaced by gegenpressing and it is Jurgen Klopp, not Guardiola, who now rules the roost. But for how long? Is the high-intensity pressing style here to stay, or could we soon see the pattern shift once again? Is there another tactical revolution on the horizon?

“I don’t think it’s going to change within a couple of years,” former Feyenoord boss Jaap Stam tells Goal. “But I still think the most important thing is the manager and how he wants to play.

“As a manager you have to go to a club, look at your squad and the quality of the players and then pick a certain way of playing. The likes of Klopp and Guardiola have the opportunity to buy their own team in terms of how they want to play.

“At the big clubs where a lot of money can be spent, they also look at the league they are playing in and the type of football that can get results.

“If you look at Pep, he wants to play possession football, but he learnt as well that in the Premier League sometimes he got caught out on the break and conceded goals. So now he’s choosing to sometimes drop in a bit more and wait for the right time to press and win the ball and then go on the break himself.”

Klopp’s arrival in the Premier League in 2015 has coincided with a fairly dramatic shift in the way the football is now played on these shores. It took a bit of time for the German to construct his team, but he has now transformed the Merseysiders into the best side in the country and taken them to the verge of their first league title in 30 years.

Liverpool have been beaten just twice in the past two league seasons and have not lost in the league at Anfield since April, 2017. Klopp has crafted a side that has a powerful spine, full-backs that are as dangerous as wingers going forward and a frontline of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane that is interchangeable and full of running.

“Our system, when we play with all three up front, is something like a diamond; it can be a 4-5-1, it can be a 4-3-3. Of course, 4-2-3-1 – 4-4-1-1 I’d prefer in most situations to name it – is a good system,” Klopp explained to Liverpool.com.

“But it’s never about the system, it’s all about the players. My job is to bring the players into the best position where they can help the team most with the things they can do.

“If I can do it with the system, I do it, but it’s not that we go through the week and be very creative with things like that because, in the end, the players need to play [on instinct].”

It is clear from watching Liverpool, though, that the desire to win the ball back quickly and high up the pitch is something that is drilled into them time and time again on the training ground.

It is not just at Liverpool that we have seen this tactical shift in recent years. Unai Emery tried and failed to bring it to Arsenal, mainly because he did not have the players in midfield to be able to pull it off. Ralph Hasenhuttl is having some success at Southampton operating in the Klopp mould while in the Championship, Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds have blown teams away with their intense style of play.

There is no doubt that the pace of the game has quickened over the years and many believe it will be difficult for young players currently coming through academies to make it at the top level in the future if they are not blessed with the attributes of an elite athlete.

“I think the game will always change,” says Omer Riza, who is currently in charge of Watford’s Under-23s side. “The one thing that is obvious it has got quicker and more physical and I think to be an elite player, you probably will need to have those attributes to be able to compete at the top level.

“At youth level there are two aims. One is to get the Under-23s boys up to a level where they are pushing for first-team football and the other is to develop the basics in the younger ones so they are ready to cope with the rigours of professional football and they have sound tactical understanding.

“I try to focus on a bit of everything as a coach. The intensity of sessions is paramount because if that isn’t there, they just get lost when they try to step up to the first-team.

“So I try to implement that the best I can. Intensity wise, they train at a level that is replicated when they go up to the first-team and tactically it’s really important they understand how to beat opposition, how to deal with opposition and be able to deal with making changes to either win a game or protect a game.”

Riza adds: “One thing we know for sure is one player is never going to play under the same manager for a long period of time anymore, so they also have to be adaptable, they have to be able to play different ways and also in different positions.

“That’s why it’s important you don’t just give young players a narrow understanding of the game. You have to give them a broad one and you expose them to different type of systems, different types of tactics throughout the course of the season.

Source:- allfootballapp