124 early Christmas presents.
Jurgen Klopp’s philosophy of gegenpressing is based on attacking your opponents when they have possession, but we don’t think the German’s intention is for his Liverpool players to be quite so good at giving them the ball.
The Reds blew an opportunity to put themselves back in the mix in the top six of the Premier League when they crashed to a 2-0 defeat against Newcastle yesterday.
It was a performance lacking in the verve and intensity of recent away wins against Manchester City, Chelsea and Southampton, and saw the Magpies punish Liverpool’s carelessness in possession.
In fact, Klopp’s side misplaced more passes at St James’s Park than any Liverpool side in the last five years, a whopping 124 passes.
That’s more than one every minute and, as the chart below shows, includes plenty of giveaways deep inside their own half.
Liverpool misplaced 124 passes vs. Newcastle, most in a league game in any of the last 5 seasons. Gegen-depressing. pic.twitter.com/DgHTnQlyZ4
— Squawka (@Squawka) December 7, 2015
It’s fair to say Klopp might cut down on the running and book in a bit of possession work at Melwood ahead of Thursday’s trip to Sion.
