DON’T EXPECT KLOPP DROP HIGH DEFENSIVE LINE CALVERT-LEWIN IS CENTRAL TO EVERTON PLAN
Opponents of Liverpool have been caught offside 155 times since the start of last season. since Jurgen Klopp came to the premier League five years ago, his players have won 526 offsides — more than any other club.
that comes courtesy of Liverpool’s high defensive line, which is the cornerstone of their play. It acts as an offside trap and despite that 7-2 defeat to Aston Villa, I don’t expect Klopp to make drastic changes against everton today.
this is a philosophy which won Liverpool the premier League and one I was taught at Arsenal, too. If someone tried to sprint behind our high line, all four of us would have our arms in the air, as if appealing for an lbw! More often than not, they got flagged offside.
It is a system I believe in. the area between your back line and their back line is what I call the ‘inner playing area’. By pushing up, Klopp’s players squeeze this space and most opponents will respond by dropping to create room for themselves.
It’s about territory — suddenly you’re operating more in their half. At the risk of making it sound more simple than it is, the closer you are to their goal the better!
Liverpool are then in a position to win the ball back higher up and potentially score. As Klopp said in 2016: ‘no playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counterpressing situation.’
that is the Liverpool way. the only area it leaves them vulnerable is behind their high line and, until Aston Villa, nobody had properly exploited that in the Klopp era. Ross Barkley and Jack Grealish were running from deep to beat Liverpool’s offside trap, with early balls behind the full backs.
Villa often had time to play these passes, and Liverpool’s biggest mistake was failing to react. even Villa’s seventh goal involved John McGinn, under no pressure, playing a first-time ball behind trent Alexander- Arnold for Grealish to run on to.
Liverpool’s players are programmed to play a certain way.
It had never gone wrong to this extent before, but now they know they need to be able to adjust.
I was part of an Arsenal back four notorious for using a similar trap. After playing for Villa and everton, I was used to dropping off and dealing with any runners. that was the conventional way to defend, but not the Arsenal way.
I had to learn to hold the line after returning to the club in 1993. the statistics aren’t available for back then, but I guarantee — like Liverpool now — nobody created more offsides than we did.
We pushed up and condensed the ‘inner playing area’, and that was key to Arsenal’s success. But, crucially, we knew when to drop.
If there was no pressure on the ball in front of us, that was a trigger. If our high defensive line was being beaten by runs from deep, one of us might say, ‘Let’s retreat’. After that threat had subsided, we’d push up again.
But Liverpool didn’t react. Like Grealish, Richarlison could do damage on the left if everton exploit space behind AlexanderArnold. Arsenal had full backs who could read if someone was making a well- timed run. Liverpool’s equivalents push so high up they leave more space behind them.
Klopp’s high line was well beaten in that 7-2 defeat, but he will believe it is still the right way to play. I believe that, too.
It comes with risks, but the rewards can be great.
WHEN I signed for Everton in 1989, I bought a book to educate myself on the club’s history. I revisited that over the international break, brushing up on how Anfield was their home until a rent row saw them relocate to Goodison Park in 1892. From that, Liverpool Football Club was born. This is a unique rivalry — they were enemies before even playing each other in the first Merseyside derby in 1894! The record books also show Everton have always had someone iconic in front of goal. Dixie Dean, Tommy Lawton, Bob Latchford, then there’s Graeme Sharp, Gary Lineker, Tony Cottee, Big Duncan Ferguson. Dominic Calvert-Lewin (right) is the latest No 9 to become Everton’s leading man. He is following in huge footsteps but he’s tearing it up under Carlo Ancelotti. Calvert-Lewin is avoiding the channels and instead staying central, where he can do the most damage. He did that on his England debut, too. Ancelotti’s full backs like supporting the attack. Lucas Digne on the left flies forward in particular — he has provided the second-most crosses of any Premier League player this season, one of which led to Calvert-Lewin’s winner at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But I do wonder how Ancelotti will tell Digne to play today. Villa left back Matt Targett, for example, rarely vacated his post against Liverpool. Dean Smith didn’t want to give Klopp’s forwards the space to play, and there was safety in numbers at the back for Villa. But Digne’s creativity is a vital part of Everton’s system. That is something Ancelotti will have been thinking about.