The progress made by Liverpool in the Jurgen Klopp has been quite astonishing. Since taking over from Brendan Rodgers, the German has built upon the values and tactics of the Northern Irishman. For all the criticism that Rodgers took during his final months at Liverpool, the former Swansea manager was able to get the club playing beautiful and attractive football just like the fans had hoped to see. Rodgers, though, was unable to set the tune for the side and failed eventually.
Klopp seems to have succeeded big time in this regard. The German has been in charge of Liverpool for just under a year, and he has transformed the club into a well-oiled outfit capable of winning against any opposition. Admittedly, they are yet to show for this improvement in the terms of trophies, but that will soon come if Liverpool continues on this path of progression. Some of the statistics achieved by Klopp’s Liverpool have been quite remarkable.
The team are even better than Manchester City when it comes to the most number of passes. Liverpool have made 2989 passes compared to 2908 passes made by City and it is quite in achievement to surpass a Guardiola managed outfit in terms of passing statistics.
Controlling the ball has always been the primary philosophy of Guardiola, but Klopp has also focused heavily on reclaiming the ball from the opposition. This has led to numerous counter-attacking situations and Liverpool have profited heavily by scoring the most number of goals in 2016 (56). Their nearest competitors – Manchester City – are some way off with 51 goals in the calendar year.
Teams, who looking to do well often have to have an excellent home record and Klopp has been keen on making Anfield a fortress as the Reds are undefeated at home in the last 10 games. A side comprising of the creative players like Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, and Adam Lallana is bound to create chances, but few would have expected to have created 13 more chances than Spurs and sit top of the table in terms of this statistic.
Klopp is in the process of creating a revolution at Anfield, but deep down, it has been an evolution from the German manager. After making their best start to a league campaign in eight years, it is now the time that Liverpool are taken seriously for the real threat they offer. They are clearly the best team in the Premier League, as few expected them to do so well.