Following his appointment as BVB Manager
in 2008, I guess each of every non-German football enthusiasts thought
that Jürgen Klopp was a lunatic professor. Well; as a new follower of this
yellow team of Revier during those times, I did so. To be honest, -as known by
everyone- due to economic depression that they were through, I did not think
that they wouldn’t be able to success thank to smaller expactations than
before. Because –from any point of view- Dortmund had a successful background and
a mass of support with a deep-rooted fan tradition which can facilitate itself to
hang on to mid-table at least. Their fans are especially famous with earning
the nickname “The Yellow Wall” and Jürgen Klopp has appearently been able to
bring this passion down on the pitch.
When we look over Jürgen Klopp’s first term of two
year, he seems to be able to meet the expectations which we have written above.
Despite moving his team up to the 5th place on the table at the end of his
second season and achieving a ticket to the European competitions, team and
coach didn’t succeed to reflect their potentials to the pitch according to both the Board of Prussians and to Klopp, and the actual rise of the team and
restructure have began just after this season. As beginning to the third season
together, Nuri Şahin was appointed as vice-captain and given the leadership of
the game on the pitch. Even Nuri’s departure from NRW at the end of the season
in order to join Real Madrid didn’t restrain the rise of Borussia Dortmund
and morover it showed that this system was not depending on the individiual
talents and performances of the player and/or players. Another output of the
season 2010-2011 was that Klopp’s succession was not a coincidence because
Klopp’s ex-team Maiz were the runners until the championship struggle break off.
Well, what kind of football does Jürgen Klopp make
his players play? If we explain it entirely with his own words; “An ambitious
and offensive football within the regulations.” It is just the game philosophy
Jürgen Klopp adopted, however it is just easy to say. If we need to give some
technical detail we can see a harmony of FC Barcelona as the magnificent team
of the very last decade and Real Madrid as the Best Team of 20th Century. Of
course, the mixture consists of best ways of both parts.
Many would regard FC Barcelona as an offensive team
related to their big victories with big deficits, however FC Barcelona’s main
principle on the pitch is quite simple, a sudden press to the ball where they
got it stolen or lost. Reason behind that has its source definitely from knowing the
value of the ball and in fact it is a defensive approach because it basicly has
the principle of "being able to avoid from concede is possible as long as being able to
hold the ball". On the offensive end however there is a utmost boring, slow passing
game, having its importance from knowing the value of the ball either. So, one
can say that FC Barcelona’s glittering victories with plenty of goals is
derived from talents of players. Even if the opponent defense take any
preventive action, FC Barcelona have always had the key players to unlock the
lock.
Distinction of the machine that has been designed by
Jürgen Klopp shows itself at this approach differency. “An ambitious and
offensive football within the regulations” could not just be performed neither by narrowing areas nor by pressing intensive suddenly. Moreover, when the
subject is the necessity of individual talents in order to make a difference on the offensive end, Dortmund’s facilities are
waisted. Here, we must pay attention to the state of being independent from
indiviual talents and/or performances. Dortmund –when their opponent got
control of the ball- narrows the area and presses to the ball with a determination
like Barcelona, and goes down to the goal line with a desire like Real Madrid.
According to Jürgen Klopp, easiest time to go down
to the opposite goal line in most dangerous way is just 8 seconds after getting
the ball [1], just like on the case of “easiest way to get the ball again is
just 6 seconds after losing it”.[2] Because, when a team got the ball and let
the opposite defense to settle and get their position, they might not be able
to have such players like Xavi, Iniesta, Messi in order to unlock the lock.
Yet; despite the absence of super-stars, the astonishing and the thrilling
matter is quick transition to offensive formation from defense scheme. Even
though it sounds “counter-attack” at first, the Germans call it “Gear Up Game” and
it is more about game vision and positioning knowledge rathen than talent. Yet here, by working so many times
together each player can adopt to the game and can glitter in the system. Thus,
the state of non-dependency to the player(s) talents or performance is in consistency with this case as I repeated. Players are being to Dortmund and then
they leave, but with its improving form the Dortmund reality does not any
change.
Nuri, Zidan, Barrios, Götze etc. Considering
the rumours which suggest Lewandowski’s departure, a new challenge awaits Klopp;
finding new gears for the machine that he builded. Nevertheless Kloppo is assured;
“We are building up a new team, a new press-machine. Our first season was quite
well but did not go perfectly. We have moved our play upwards. We want to qualify again for the UEFA Champions League in the new season. It is not going to be
easy, because everybody must struggle accurately.” [3]
In content of these objectives, BVB has already completed its first transfer by singing Greek national Sokratis Papasthatopoulos from
Werder Bremen. As Klopp’s phrase “Lewandowski Game ends soon.”.[4] But will BVB
be able to replace these players? In my opinion, Jürgen Klopp has the players
who got the potential to reach adequate quality to replace these players like İlkay
Gündoğan who has been able to replace Nuri Şahin just like Klopp did before. Especially
if the objectives which Schieber, Leitner and Bittencourt (*) take on the pitch has
point, there is no reason for the ending of the Dortmund-Tale. However, the time
will show us whether big-budget European giants give up to go after Jürgen Klopp
who is expert on motivation and is fluent in English.
* Leonardo Bittencourt and Moritz Leitner were part
of Borussia Dortmund when this article was written before they agreed on terms
with different teams. Leitner was loaned out to Stuttgart for a term of two
years while Dortmund gave permission to Bittencourt for joining Hannover 96
with a buy-back option.
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