Jurgen Klopp tackled the misunderstanding of “full-throttle football” ahead of his first home game as Liverpool manager.
The German, who is preparing for the Europa League encounter against Rubin Kazan at Anfield on Thursday evening, cleared up the fallacy around his philosophy.
Klopp’s famed high-intensity approach was already on display as Liverpool earned a point at White Hart Lane in his opening game, with observers immediately questioning whether such a style could be sustainable.
That query was put to the 48-year-old at his pre-match press conference at Melwood, to which Klopp responded: "The biggest misunderstanding is that always people ask me if it’s possible to play this kind of football.
"When I started at Mainz, they would ask me each week, then at [Borussia] Dortmund they would ask me every three days. The thing is, you don’t have to play like this for 90 minutes.
"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, the wild way is only the start.”
Klopp referenced Arsenal’s Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich on Tuesday night as an example of intelligent pressure. Arsene Wenger's men allowed the German giants to have the ball, they pressed well, and profited from dangerous possession.
"If you watched Arsenal against Bayern yesterday, Bayern had 70 per cent of the ball and lost the game 2-0. That’s football," he explained.
"That was one of the first Arsenal games I saw when they played defensively – their defending was very disciplined with a good plan against Bayern, and they won the game.
"We need to have a plan and that’s what we are trying to do, but we don’t have to run 150km every game only to be successful, but we have to be prepared for each style we have to do.
“There is always talk about, ‘Can they do this every three days?’ Yes, of course we need healthy players, but we don’t kill the players – we train with them and they have the confidence and physical skills to do this because they are young, healthy and professionals.
"We ran 116 kms against Tottenham. There were 5kms 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 will try to make problems for Rubin Kazan.”
The Reds boss confirmed that Daniel Sturridge is unlikely to feature against the Russian side, with a targeted return set for Sunday’s hosting of Southampton. Christian Benteke, Roberto Firmino and Dejan Lovren are back in training, but will not start against Kazan.
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