The main contender in the EPL
Love or hate them you have to admit Liverpool have a wonderful history in football. They went missing for a while, but under Klopp they have gone greats guns.
Welcome! This is another edition of the day one series. This series is where we take control of each team in the Premier League and suggest how to start setting them up. The reason for this series is because the problem most new managers face is they don’t know where to start with their team.
For this edition we will be looking at the mighty Liverpool FC. Liverpool have one of the most successful histories in the UK. They went missing for a while and lost their way, but since Klopp has been in charge they have won the league and came close a number of times.
In the guide, you will find everything you need to know to get started with Liverpool FC, including:
- What objectives do Liverpool face and why they are important.
- The different types of players and how they work in the squad.
- Tips, tactics, and best practices to succeed with Liverpool.
Read on and continue the great work that Liverpool have done so far!
Team Objectives
When designing your strategy or tactics for your team, you need to bear in mind the objectives of the club from the board and fans. You want to keep the supporters onside, especially with the Liverpool fans. You also want to keep the board onside as they are your employer. Let’s see if we can find some synergy with both parties.
supporter objectives
Straight away we can see the fans are ambitious, they want to be the most repeatable team in England. This is the toughest task at the moment as there are at least three to four teams that are challenging for that spot. They want to see the team playing attacking and entertaining football which go hand in hand and are easy to build tactics around.
Developing players using the club’s youth system is a familiar objective with most clubs. The only relationship this has with tactics is that we need to play youngsters in our team to help their development. This is a result of this objective but we need to create a youth system that provides home grown heroes.
board objectives
The board on first impressions are very easy to work with. Not only are their objectives straight forward, but they are also aligned with the supporter objectives. They want attacking football so that means we need to have a at minimum a positive mentality on the tactics. This also has a repercussion on the team that we need fast defenders to keep up with a high line associated with attacking football.
They also want to develop players using the youth system. This means that players coming from the youth team, the trail team or bought for the young teams are developed with the youth system. So we need to get the best coaches working with youngsters and upgrade the youth facilities as much as the board will allow. Signing under 23s is an easy objective as you change your criteria on the scouting to 22 maximum age.
Increasing commercial revenue comes in a few different forms. You can win more and push the reputation and revenue of your club so you make more money. You can also buy the best players from commercial viable countries like Japan, USA and China. As well as this you can go on friendly tours in the pre season to these countries and get feeder clubs too.
Liverpool first 11
Let’s move on to the squad! As usual we will sort the team by their current ability. The benefit of doing it this way is that it is easy to highlight the top players and also the weak players in the squad. The key players will define our tactic and formation and the rest of the squad will follow suit.
Let’s have a look at the key players for Liverpool FC according to the current ability sorting. We have 4 players that stand out, Salah and Diaz on the wings, AMR and AML respectively. We also have a top keeper and centre back, in Alisson and big Virgil. There are a number of formations that they can play in such as the 4231, 442 Attack or 433 DM to name a few.
Looking at the rest of the squad we have a complete back four available with the goal keeper, potentially we could play a back five, but that is hard to include the AML/AMR combo. Looking at the midfield Thiago, Szoboszlai and Mac Allister all play centrally. They all play different positions and roles, but luckily they can all play MC too.
There is also something that is not as noticeable in this team, there are a number of strikers in the team, none of them seem to be good enough to play on their own though. As a result, we will need to play two up top, this team is looking more and more like a 442. Surely not in this day and age?!
Liverpool Tactics
The next step in the process is to put all the above information together and create tactic for the team. I don’t normally put the whole tactic on here, but as this is one I like the look of, I will. There are a number of options for a bigger team as they have more players with more skills available. As well as that they tend to have more money and so can act on decisions with full commitment.
Let’s take a look at what we have decided to do then. We went for the 442 Attack, this is mainly down to Salah and Diaz. The alternative was to play 4231 in my mind, but that puts too much stress on the 3 central midfielders in the team. As well as that we have a number of strikers available, in essence this is very attacking.
I have gone with two trequartistas, but this has made the top four forward too attacking. I will look to make one of the two forwards a support role, like a deep lying forward. Other than that, I am happy with the shape.
In terms of tactics we are leading with an attacking possession based approach, where we will pass the ball into space so our forwards will get some space. I want the build up to start from the back as it’s a possession based tactic. The other thing I will incorporate is the ball going down each wing.
Get started with Liverpool FC today
Liverpool are a really strong team and definitely have some fun ways to play. As stated before we are offering a quick guide and suggestion for you to start your game. You can definitely challenge with this team and take them on to glory in the following seasons. There is a fairly young squad here and player that have played together for a while.
The strength of this team is the forward line, Diaz and Salah are immense proposals in any team. Get that ball forward to them as quick as possible and get the goals going. The weakness for this team is that the defence is not the greatest, so do not lean on in times of need. Attack is the best form of defence after all.
The opportunity is the team is young and very flexible. Attacking is easy and if you shore up the defence then you could be looking at a team of world beaters. The threat on the other hand is that there are only a few key players and a couple are knocking on. You do not want to lose that key player status in the squad. Start recruiting now to stop that loss of quality happening.
Start your game today with Liverpool FC and let me know how you get on in the comments. Please like and share this blog if you liked it!
