This is a short vid featuring Endo vs Man City in 23/24 season which ended 1-1 but Endo had a brilliant performance.
If you watch, TWO features of the press become evident:
1) Endo's tackling technique is exceptionally clean, something Liverpool's current set of midfielders aren't able to do. Slot setup the team to cut passing lanes rather than win the ball back clean. Iraola seems to be favouring tactical-fouls.
Also this technique of tackling isn't unique to Endo personally but taught by Klopp. Emre Can, Henderson, Milner and Fabinho could all do the same.
Problem of not having clean ball winning is there are less high value turnovers to exploit.
2) See how when ball is even partially won back, there's always Liverpool players around surrounding like Swarm to help clean up the 2nd balls meaning Liverpool always retains the ball. This is something Slot failed to continue and Iraola has also been so far unable to train that (might change over time). Basically Klopp's system meant Liverpool was dominant in winning the 2nd balls, 50/50s.
You can see Endo wins the ball and MacAllister immediately there to help clean up and progress the ball forward.
Basically these two things in the midfield need to improve to fix the press, just telling Isak, Wirtz, Szobozslai to run around endlessly won't fix anything. These two things: clean ball winning and winning 2nd balls, 50/50s is something that needs to vastly improve.
by SwordofKhaine123
28 Comments
There’s a lot more Endo clips from that season not just vs Man City. Just used one match to keep things simple and basically show what the midfield is lacking.
Miss this intensity
That Endo performance 🔥
is he still injured? miss Endo he is a true warrior even if he’s limited ability wise
Really want to see Endo get some minutes soon, hopefully tonight. Need his attitude and workrate.
Hopefully he can stay fit.
Bring Endo out of hibernation. Even if it is just to let Grav know iraola has options. At the very least, his duel success rate will be higher than grav
Wataru….Endo! He’s japanese. Endo! He wears no. 3
I do think that currently with this team, the intensity and attitude is there. But it does needs more structure and calculation, in terms of when to press and when to conserve energy.
It’ll take time, which I’m willing to give
People have tried to gaslight that Endo was some shit gamble that didn’t pay off but he had stellar performances for us.
*Surely* there’s a world where he can still do a job as a squad player this season
I commented this about Gravenberch when someone spit out the fact that MacAllister is more robust than him.
Again, look at Endo who have far smaller build and height than him. How can a 6 feet 3 player with a better build and stride falls like a piece of paper when the opposition bodied him.
Just doesn’t make sense. Be more physical ffs..
Look at Endo and MacAllister. They fought for the ball like a tank
Neither is Iraolas?
A midfielder that actual knows how to execute a tackle. Ah, memories…
It was also having players in the middle of the park that were precise with short and rapid passing. One touch one-twos that would be placed exactly where it was needed to be placed at speed and consistent enough that it worked most of the time. We’ve excellent passers in the team but I’m not sure if it’s a confidence thing or what but we’ve lost a lot of sharpness.
Endo was brillant in that game shows you how Klopp got so much from the whole squad
Most of these clips aren’t “pressing”
For me, that was always a hallmark of a Klopp team. Hard work and intensity but also clever with it, not just aimless pressing and running. It may have not always worked, but it was always done with a clear intention.
We’ve got one midfielder willing to get stuck in like this – Mac Allister (Nyoni too, but we haven’t seen enough of him to really gauge).
It’s a problem, 3/4 of our midfielders seem allergic to physicality or tackling.
God I miss when we played like this…
You can see Iraola wants to get back to a similar style, but the players just don’t seem to have this in them anymore.
I always think about this game every time someone pops up with the “he’s not good enough” argument. Not even just in recent months, been seeing this pop up all the time even just months into Slot’s first season, when Grav claimed the spot permanently without Slot even giving Endo a sniff of a chance. I’m still going to argue that he still has a role to play if given the chance, just hopefully not as a makeshift CB or FB, but rather in his natural position as a DM
Don’t let them breath
been thinking more about this and tbf, it did take Klopp a fair while to get it right.
I think the frustration comes from the fact that somehow we lost that ability and now we might have to wait again to get back there .
We had the fire in us
We need Endo, badly! I don’t understand why he doesn’t play. He’s an absolute warrior, and puts his head where most players dont even put their feet!
Surely, out of our current squad, Endo is the player most suited to being deployed as a ball winning midfielder, bar maybe Macca?
There’s also a huge **Firmino** **component** to this too.
Imo there’s two types of press. The Charge and the Nick.
Charge:
Our Robertsons and Hendos who would charge down the opponent with a press directly. Often battlecharging towards the opponents, obvious and direct. This was less likely to win the ball back, but effective at putting them under pressure and making them do a mistake or just denying them time to think about an optimal pass. Psychologically taxing and gives the impression they don’t have a moment to think. This press is unlikely to win the ball back directly, but imo massively increases the chance of us winning the ball back up the field as the opponents build up is compromised from the start by this pressure.
The nick:
This is your Frimino, Endo, Lallana, sometimes Mane esk interceptions. The players are less likely to directly change their opponent. Instead they look the opposite, unthreatening and uninterested. Then when the opponent makes a lapse pass or assumes they have space, these players would pounce. It’s a more intelligent type of press, where it revolves around trickery or cheeky interceptions. Ultimately, they use positional awareness, trickery (pretending not to press), reading/predicting opposition passes and lastly, the agility (or long legs) to pull off the interception.
I think in the team right now, we have a lot of direct chargers, this is still good and gets the crowd going. But I would like to see more of the “nick’ers” as well. I think Wirtz and Isak are best positioned to develop this style imo and I hope to see it happening more regularly.
Imagine seriously thinking that Klopp personally teaches tackling techniques to top class defensive players. Have you considered maybe we just bought good tacklers?
Watching Endo during that match:
One of the most annoying things Slot did was not use Endo in midfield when we desperately needed someone to break up the play and stop attacks. Just stubbornness.