The opening 20 minutes of Borussia Dortmund’s 2013 Champions League final match against Bayern Munich followed a familiar Jurgen Klopp-ian rhythm. Dortmund pressed Bayern intensely, created chances off turnovers and transitions, and didn’t let their opponents get a clean opportunity at goal until the 26th minute. The goal Dortmund deserved never came, and with Klopp’s side tiring late in the second half, Arjen Robben scored the game winner in the 89th minute. But in a partnership three years in the making, that Bayern Munich team set the blueprint for Liverpool’s upcoming season.  

A similar story repeated itself last season when Liverpool faded badly in the second half of their Europa League finals match against Sevilla for a place in the Champions League. After a dominant first half in which they took a one goal lead that should have been more, Sevilla scored three unanswered in the second half and won 3-1. On the surface, the story was of a well seasoned European side bending but not breaking, waiting for its opponent to tire - which Liverpool did (they blew two goal leads against Sunderland, Newcastle, and Southampton last season). 

The loss, and the lack of Champions League matches in the upcoming season, represented a blow in Klopp’s transfer market efforts (which, as we’ll get to below, isn’t as bad as it appears). In previewing the match against Sevilla, Jonathan Wilson noted of there being two Liverpool's: there was the chaotic version we often attribute to Klopp, the one that throws haymakers and scores three goals in the last 30 minutes to stun Borussia Dortmund in the quarterfinals of the Europa League. It also has its Hyde, the more rational version, with players getting rest as they prepare for another round of intense pressing.   

Klopp spoke about how the loss to Sevilla affected him over the summer. He described his team’s second half performance as broken and tired, with no weapons or confidence. It was labeled the anti-Istanbul and brought Klopp’s record of 5 losses out of 6 finals into the foreground. This makes 41-year-old fitness coach Andreas Kornmayer, who Klopp hired after a decade at Bayern Munich, his most important transfer of the summer (he also looks like Klopp). Kornmayer trained the 2013 Bayern Munich side that defeated Dortmund in the Champions League finals before ceding to Pep Guardiola’s personal fitness guru for the past three seasons. If Klopp wants his heavy metal football at Anfield, then it will be up to Kornmayer to provide the players with the strength and endurance to survive the perpetual rhythm of pressing triggers and traps.

Kornmayer comes highly respected from Germany, with Thomas Muller providing the signature quote of how the trainer transformed him from a slow snail to a fast snail. The utopian ideal will be to match the power of that Bayern side. Except, of course, replace Muller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, Javi Martinez, Dante, Arjen Robben, and Franck Ribery with Daniel Sturridge, Sadio Mane, Jordan Henderson, and Dejan Lovren (interestingly enough, it was attacking midfielders Firmino and Adam Lallana who lead Liverpool in successful pressing tackles last season). Lallana and Firmino each implicitly understand the nuances of the pressing game, both from a standpoint of when to press and how to capitalize in transition once the ball is won. Fitness wise, Lallana goes back and forth between completing a full 90 minutes, as he did in all of March, to getting subbed off around the 70 minute, as he did in most of April (which, granted, lead to this epic photo).  

Outside of 20-year-old attacking midfielder Marko Grujic and 30-year-old defender Ragnar Klavan, Liverpool targeted players between the ages of 23 and 25 years old in the summer window. To the dismay of many supporters, Liverpool turned to relatively unflashy names like Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum to build upon the energy of last year’s side. But there is a silver lining. This core of the current side falls within the 24 to 27-year-old age window. And the signings, Joel Matip and Loris Karius included, were the same type of under the radar players which Klopp molded into almost European champions at Dortmund. As Paul Tomkins so aptly responded to the lack of big name summer transfers, this is why Klopp was hired in the first place. Rock and roll is the music and soccer of rebellion. 

Klopp and Kornmayer have already scheduled three training sessions per day to prepare for the upcoming season. Klopp warned that the summer sessions would be the toughest of his players’ careers. Klopp overeagerness to impose his style last season without proper training culminated into last January’s hamstring-ageddon, with seven players missing matches through the same hamstring injury. In addition to Kornmayer, Klopp also hired sports nutritionist Mona Nemmer from Bayern Munich (this is a welcome contrast to Bayern Munich always poaching Klopp’s players while at Dortmund). The pursuit of both Kornmayer and Nemmer signals Klopp’s intent of perfecting every fitness detail. If, as Klopp once said, gegenpressing is a team’s best playmaker, then fitness is its most important skill. 

With Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino and Antonio Conte focused on out-running and out-pressing each other’s sides next season, fitness programs have never been this scrutinized. Dutch trainer Raymond Verheijen blasted both Klopp and Conte’s methods involving triple training sessions, which he believes leads to clumsiness, fatigue, and injury (Verheijen’s tweets blasting supposed outdated fitness methods are the closest soccer equivalent to #wojbombs). And Pochettino’s sides have a reputation of tiring towards the end of each season, broken down after a season of hard pressing. Then again, what Klopp admired most about that 2013 Bayern Munich side was how their players never tired.

The difference in talent between that Bayern team and this current Liverpool side highlights the counter press as an effective tool to bridge the gap in both on field quality and off field financial power. The emphasis on fitness is a significant step closer to seeing a true Jurgen Klopp side at Liverpool. We saw how Klopp’s press can disrupt opponents, especially in that first half against Sevilla, and Liverpool will surely reach that excitement and dynamism again this season. But how they respond to the rest of the 90 minutes will decide if they make it back to Europe.