Liverpool’s Relentless Pressing Mauls Hull City at Anfield

ANFIELD, Liverpool — After brushing aside champions Leicester City 4-1 in their first home game of the season a fortnight ago, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool hit Premier League new boys Hull City for five in their second game after Anfield’s expansion.

Adam Lallana, Sadio Mane, two penalties from James Milner and a trademark Philippe Coutinho strike from 25 yards provided the goals. The only blot on the copybook was the failure to get a first league clean sheet of the season.

The first half was some of the most relentless pressing Anfield has witnessed in some time, with Klopp saying post-match that he felt it was the best “counter-pressing” display his side have given since he joined the club just under a year ago.

“The most impressive thing today was the counter-pressing,” praised Klopp in his post-match press conference. “I think it was the best game we played in counter-pressing until now.”

This was evident especially in the first half and after the visitors went down to 10 men after Ahmed Elmohamady saw red for handling a goal-bound shot.

With talk pre-match about how these games have often been Liverpool’s Achilles’ heel—beating Arsenal then losing to Burnley—Klopp’s side showed no such side of struggling to beat one of the lesser sides. They were dominant from minute one, and once Hull went down to 10 men, the home side didn’t let up.

The pressing suffocated Hull’s players, collectively and individually, constantly forcing mistakes and giving no Hull player any option for a second pass. The understanding between the Liverpool players was impressive to see, with players constantly sprinting to cover a teammate and getting their bodies in the way to deny Hull any breathing space.

Klopp, though, admitted post-match that he wasn’t entirely satisfied, showing his demanding nature by pointing to a slower second-half performance.

“I don’t want to criticise, but I think we could have done better in the second half,” he admitted.

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“It was good, but not as good as it could have been. We have a lot of things to improve, and one is that if you are brilliant, you need to be brilliant for 95 minutes.” 

Klopp looks and sounds like a man on a mission—a mission to instil his players and the supporters with a very clear message: We are Liverpool; we demand high level performance from all.

Admittedly Liverpool did drop down a gear for the second 45 minutes, but this is to be expected after such a relentless opening 45 minutes. Still, 74 per cent …

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