Stats Insider: Jurgen Klopp’s tenure has Liverpool sitting on top of key offensive statistics

JURGEN Klopp is a man who does what he believes and has a clear mandate for his teams.

The flamboyant Liverpool boss gave a typically charismatic performance on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football in the UK, with an intriguing insight into those beliefs that have fuelled his approach to football.

When he arrived in the UK there was a hysteria over his “gegenpressing” philosophy, where he implores his teams to press high up the pitch to win the ball back as soon as they lose it.

With the benefit of a pre-season under his belt now, his team is employing those ideals to great effect - and there’s clear evidence that it’s working.

Since taking over in October 2015, Liverpool have scored the most Premier League goals (71), had the most possession (58.8%), tackles per game (22.4) and sprints per game (22.4) – all factors a product from his relentless style of play.

Klopp, who has settled on a 4-3-3 revolving around the pace, creativity and mobility of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and georginio Wijnaldum, knows what he wants, and he’s making sure his team deploys it.

“Counter-pressing makes exactly the same (influence as having a top playmaker),” he said of his approach. .

“No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation.”

That’s his clear mantra, amidst the eclectic mix of heavyweight European managers now dominating the Premier League.

In addition to those impressive stats, the opening two wins at Anfield this term is the first time since 1959-1960 the side has scored four or more goals to start the campaign at home, while the 5-1 win over hapless Hull put the Reds on top of the leader board for the most shots (32) by a side so far this season.

Indeed, Liverpool have created the most chances in the PL (96) this term, putting them amongst the top tier in Europe behind Real Madrid (101) and AS Roma (97).

Behind that attack sits rejuvinated midfielder and captain Jordan Henderson, who has clocked the most passes in the Premier League this season - 499, with 449 successful - ahead of Danny Drinkwater and Santi Cazorla.

It bodes well; so much so, some betting agencies even have the Reds as second favourite to win the title behind Manchester City.

The bigger question mark over Liverpool has been their temerity against weaker sides; Swansea present another mental examination again this weekend.

“It’s not important for me. But it’s better that we have an optimistic mood around. At this moment Liverpool feels good,” Klopp said about the odds.

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“We had this very important game against Hull, where everybody said before ‘this is the last real issue they have, they cannot play against teams that defend deeper’. We did it in a really impressive way. But for me it’s over. The next game is Swansea.

“Nothing happened. We did our job until now. I’m fine with the moment but not finally happy. It’s all good but it could be better.

“It’s not the worst table we’ve had - maybe it’s the best since I’ve been here! It’s nice. But the problem is the one number: six games. It’s quite early stages.

“I’m happy about this but I know there’s a long way to go.”

For example, 49 goals conceded since his arrival (10th), with 15 goals from set pieces (18th) and just eight clean sheets (12th) is the obvious Achilles heel.

Reds games are certainly exciting, but Klopp says his side is now able to cope with the high intensity he demands, as well as the fact that the defensive record, although still not desirable, has improved vastly.

“We are a ball-possession team,” Klopp said. “We have the ball most of the time. I always get asked ‘can you play this intensity’. I know we have the ball a lot and in most of the games we have much more [than 58.8% possession]. That’s good, we have a good way but we still can do better.

“There’s still a lot of work to do. Forty-nine goals conceded is really a big number and 15 conceded from set pieces - that’s not good. We still work on it.

“That’s an issue for us. Not the biggest this year because we did better already, but of course it always doesn’t feel too good when you’re really good in the game - like the Hull game - they had no chance and we give a goal away.

“But most of the [set-piece] goals we gave away were in the early stage of [Klopp’s time in charge]. When I came here we had to change a few things, we had to change formation [when defending set-pieces] and we always played against specialists in set-pieces, against West Brom, Crystal Palace, West Ham - teams unbelievably strong in this.”