Fantastic thread here @PhaseOfPlay. I havent read it all, but I get the jist of the template and how it relates to what we have now, and possibly what he wants to finally implement.
I wonder if the template is the same as what he has in mind for Liverpool though. He's bought Keita, Fabinho recently with the latter starting to find his feet in the team, the former not really knowing where to play. Often very wide left in the middle 3.
Its hard to map the template to the current 11, as of November 2018. roles seem to be doubled up.
Alisson - Sweeper keeper, reads the game well, quick witted, obvious drive to win.
Robertson - Work horse wing-back, crosses, tackling.
VVD - Sweeper, Heading, distribution, organiser.
Gomez - Ball playing centre-back. (is he the covering defender? I'm not so sure).
TAA - Immature attacking fullback.
Milner - Box-to-box, in narrow-wide (attacking?) area's. Pressing/Runner.
Wijnaldum - box-to-box in defensive wide area, pressing, tackling.
Henderson/Fabinho - Defensive midfielder, play-maker. Tackling, turning defence to attack.
Mane - Left forward - Dribbling, shots. covering fullback in defensive situation.
Firmino - Roaming forward. 9+1/2. Presses from the front, holds ball up, shots*. Break through lines with skill.
Salah - Narrow right forward. Dribbling, shots, penetrating back line.
Now I haven't really seen Klopp's dortmund play, but it does seem like the players such as Gundogan, Reus, Lewandowski, were all capable of scoring and being a threat, 3 completely different roles. 2 of which, I don't think we have. If we substitute Lewandowski for Salah, its those clever positions where we need to improve. Is Keita meant to be Gundogan? Or Reus?
I think thats why this season is intriguing. I know a lot of the fans want a title push this year. But there is a massive transition occurring in the middle of the park, we'll probably see the fruits of this next year rather than this season. Klopp has superior players at the top end and the back end of the pitch than he had at Dortmund, but that dortmund team had goals everywhere. Subotic/Hummels would quite often score too.
This is where we are at the moment. Nullify the front three, you've nullified Liverpool. Thank God for Shaqiri, who may become our unexpected Reus. Whats very evident is shots and dribbling from the centre of the park is lacking in this Liverpool side. I wonder though, that in the premier league he's sacrificing the 10 for the 8 because we're lacking control in the midfield, hence the reason we havent seen Shaqiri very much.
One thing I am seeing quite often though is the defence bypassing the midfield and searching out the attacking players with one pass. Very aggressive passing. We didnt see that too often in the past.
Who'd be a manager eh. I'm sure there is loads going on that we're not aware of. We're definitely not that far off.
