Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says Jurgen Klopp will get used to English football’s busy fixture schedule

Tough times: Liverpool boss growing frustrated amid fixture pile-up
Clive Mason/Getty Images
James Olley11 January 2016

Jurgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool with a much loftier reputation than Arsene Wenger did when pitching up at Arsenal 19 years earlier.

Klopp gained fame for his successes at Borussia Dortmund through an alluring philosophy known as “gegenpressing” and conducted himself with sufficient charisma in press conferences to render him a revolutionary admired by many Premier League clubs.

Wenger was a technocrat with impressive foreign credentials of his own but operating in far greater obscurity. Club captain Tony Adams claimed Wenger looked more like a schoolteacher than a football manager upon taking his first training session. Klopp looks more like a rocker.

Despite their contrasting styles — Klopp once claimed his football was like heavy metal while Wenger’s resembled an orchestra — the Frenchman sees certain similarities in his Liverpool counterpart ahead of Wednesday’s Premier League meeting at Anfield.

Klopp has recently bemoaned the lack of a winter break in England, claiming the festive fixture list is damaging the national team’s chances of success. He even warned Pep Guardiola of the need for 35 players to navigate the sheer volume of fixtures when the outgoing Bayern Munich coach arrives to take a job here in the summer.

Wenger revealed similar frustrations when he took charge at Arsenal in September 1996 — frequently condemning the match scheduling — but although he has revised his views, the 66-year-old gave a knowing nod when discussing Klopp’s public frustrations as he acclimatises to English football.

“You get that from everybody who comes to England at the start because they have to adapt to the English style,” Wenger told Standard Sport.

“I was like that, and I’m still in favour of a winter break, but without losing the traditions of English football. That is to play over Christmas, and maybe have a break in January. But I believe as well that we go a little bit overboard because today the English clubs are in a financial situation to have a squad of 25 top, top level players.

“It’s not like it was 25 years ago, so we cannot always complain that we play too much because we have players who can rotate, players who want to play. In every club now, when I look at the bench I am quite impressed with the players who are there, so I don’t believe that it’s like we have 13 players who have to play every single game.”

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Klopp’s gegenpressing has created a mixed bag of results since arriving on Merseyside, winning 10 of his 20 matches. Despite the 48-year-old being hailed as an innovator in drilling his teams without the ball, Wenger claims the notion of pressing opponents into mistakes high up the pitch is in fact a quintessentially English creation.

“We are used to that pressing,” he said. “It is not just Liverpool who do that, everybody in the modern game [does]. Pressing has been created in England basically because there is a history of teams who have done that very well so it is part of the modern game to make quick decisions, be very short with your first touch and play your game.

“Every time we go to Anfield, we face a team who are up for it. It’s always a ferocious battle, no matter who the manager is. They had a very strong manager before, they have a very strong one now and Klopp has the personality to do well there.”

A further similarity between the two managers are the injury problems that are threatening to curtail both teams’ progress this season. Liverpool have 11 first-team players unavailable with Klopp facing scrutiny over whether his intense training regime is having a negative effect on his players.

Arsenal conducted an internal inquiry at the end of last season after suffering a plethora of muscular problems throughout the squad but that did not prevent another campaign blighted by fitness setbacks.

“I don’t think you can explain the injuries of the players by the intensity of Liverpool’s game,” said Wenger. “Every injury is an individual case.”

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