Jurgen Klopp: Outrunning Opponents One Of Many Tactical Plans For Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp insists out-running opponents is part of the tactical ideals he wants to instill at Liverpool, but it’s just one of several game plans he’s hoping to introduce.

The Reds covered more ground than in any other of their Premier League games so far this season in the German’s first game in charge against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.

Liverpool tallied 116 kilometers (103 miles) in total at White Hart Lane and, in doing so, became the first side to clock up more distance than Spurs so far this term.

However, when asked by journalists at his pre-Rubin Kazan press conference whether he felt his team could sustain such levels when playing three games a week, Klopp was keen to explain why such a tactic is just one approach he’s looking to impose at Anfield, with the boss eager to make the Reds adaptable to what’s required on a game-by-game basis.

“The thing is, you don’t have to play like this for 90 minutes,” Klopp said. “Your only possibility to learn is to start like this, but if you have the ball, you don’t have to run like crazy. If you get a better feeling for this kind of defending, it’s only the start.

“We need to have a plan, and that’s what we are trying to do, but we don’t have to run 150 kilometers (93 miles) a game to be successful. We have to be prepared for each style we want to do.

“We ran 116 kilometers against Tottenham. There were 5 kilometers that were not useful and we did them — but we did them because we wanted to. It was not the most clever thing, but now we can try to turn the screws and do it in the right way, in the right moment, with better timing and (being) cooler with the ball. It will get better and better and better.

“If you play against a much better team and are not ready to run more than they are, then you are crazy. Tottenham have been together for a long time –- they are stable with results and performances –- so we had to give them problems, and that’s what we tried to do.

“Now (we) will try to create problems for Rubin Kazan.”