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There are four guiding principles that have brought Liverpool a close distance to the Premier League title.
Prepare, carry out, reflect, refine.
It is this framework that has allowed Jurgen Klopp, his coaching staff and the players to get the best of themselves this season, according to club psychologist Lee Richardson.
Richardson was hired earlier in the season in an effort by Klopp to unearth those extra fringe gains that proved so decisive in last season’s pursuit of the Premier League title with Manchester City.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Richardson explained the thinking process of Klopp and his staff and how he has put the club in such a good position.
The Reds need just six points from the past nine games to become champions for the first time since 1990, and much of the good work comes from how they prepare properly, do the day, reflect on their results, and try to improve. .
“It is, prepare, perform, reflect, refine,” said Richardson. “Prepare, act, reflect, refine. And that coincides with effectiveness.
“The impulse, in sports, is a psychological and not a physical state because winning generates self-efficacy, which is to believe in oneself, and co-effectiveness, which is to believe in one another.
“Jurgen and his staff are great at nurturing and developing that, using not just personality but methodology.”
But how exactly does Klopp and his players accomplish this?
Prepare
One of the things that Klopp altered when he joined Liverpool in October 2015 was the players’ training time at Melwood.
Klopp prefers to train at the same time as a game starts, so players will start their work at the West Derby base in the early afternoon on a Friday if their game starts at 5.30 p.m. of a Saturday.
Likewise for Sunday afternoon games, while open training for the Champions League games will take place in the late afternoon before a more strenuous off-camera session begins.
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“At first it was a little surprising to get to 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. and train late, and have nothing to do all day,” said captain Jordan Henderson. “But with time you get used to it and now it’s normal.”
Video analysis takes place in Melwood the Friday before a weekend game in team meetings, with Klopp willing to never look forward to upcoming games that go beyond the next one.
“Everyone says we go game by game, we focus only on this and only that, but it’s even more. Let’s go session by session,” says assistant chief Pep Lijnders.
Three days before a game, a team meeting is held about their own strengths in Melwood while players are briefed on implementing their own style in the opposition.
The focus on the opposition is believed to be as close to the game as possible to allow for alterations or injuries to opponents during the week.
“You see our games, and in terms of results, it looks good, but in terms of performance there is a lot of room for improvement,” Klopp said in March.
“That’s what we constantly work on and try to do throughout the week. We try to work on things that can happen immediately and not in the long term, but in the long term there is a lot of room for improvement.”
On a game day, the phones switch to flight mode when players arrive in the locker room, with the focus on routines performed before warm-up.
The goalkeepers are put to the test with the coaches first at Anfield before the field players go through a slight warm-up of their own.
Bottoms are often the benchmark exercise, while center-back pairings play long, diagonal passes against each other against the Kop to hone what has become a more than useful weapon for Klopp’s attacking arsenal.
Perform
A fairly self-explanatory principle.
This is when the work done by the players and staff in preparing for the week stands out and one of the key issues for Klopp is his team’s fitness levels.
Given the pressure their players are asked to perform during each match, their team must be one of the fittest in all areas of the Premier League.
High levels of resistance allow players to think more clearly about the later stages of games and help people make the right decisions in attack or defense.
The less tired your muscles are, the more responsive they will be later in games, and those crucial details can make a difference.
“We feel like we are in better shape and stronger than most teams and we can go all the way,” said Andy Robertson last year.
“That physical condition has been key and has allowed our quality to shine. We are still strong in the 90th minute.”
Fourteen times, in total this period, Liverpool have won by a goal margin this season.
His hopes for a first league title in 30 years would look very different if even a handful of those results hadn’t been for the Reds.
Virgil van Dijk says such a trademark is simply due to a belief that allows the squad to continue sticking to its initial game plan, even when it seems like it may not be their day.
“I think the main thing is that we have to keep doing the same things and it’s difficult for the teams to keep defending as well as they do at the beginning if we keep playing like we do for the full 90 minutes,” he said earlier. season.
Henderson said in April: “When [Klopp] First of all, I can remember him talking about never stopping and ending or changing his mindset in a game.
“You always go on no matter what happens in a game, no matter what the score is, until the end because you never know what can happen in football, and you need to keep the same mindset and continue to the end.”
Reflect
Players involved in a game day receive the following day off with those not selected on the game day team summoned to Melwood for a session.
If, for example, a game is on a Saturday, that means that the time for reflection comes on a Monday in a team meeting about the previous game.
James Milner has previously discussed how reflection on the 2018 Champions League final equipped the team to exorcise the ghosts of Kiev by winning the 2019 version in Madrid.
He told the BBC in April: “We discussed it and decided to say that, in the finals, if he scores a goal, it is as important as staying behind, his reaction.”
“It’s easy to get into your shell and protect what you have. So we actually had a player meeting about that, if we hit go again, we play with the front foot, we pick it up again.”
Klopp has also previously spoken about an “emotional” team meeting that was reflected in the 3-1 victory over Manchester City.
After beating City on Sunday, November 10, it was nearly a fortnight later before the players had time to properly reflect on the outcome given the immediate international break.
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“We talked about it, what we did and what we have to do again,” said Klopp. “The whole situation.
“A lot of things were said before the game and after the game a lot of things that people said, but it’s about us doing the things that we have to do. So yeah, yesterday was the first time.”
“It would have been nice to play again five days later because it was very emotional. It was also very good. The way we did it was very special.”
Refine
This is likely a combination of what is discussed in subsequent team meetings and the following post-game training session.
“Then [the 3-0 loss at] Watford, I thought we had to talk in more detail now, and we did. ” Klopp said in March.
“I saw a reaction from the players [at Chelsea]. So we move on. I can’t have a meeting where it’s the same. It doesn’t work. Opponents were strong, we were not so strong. “
With an almost impeccable Premier League career so far this period, outsiders might suggest that there is little to refine in such meetings and sessions, but the search for improvement never ends under Klopp at Anfield.
“Jurgen did the heavy lifting and for me there are two sides: recruiting really good players and creating a culture of success where those players can really improve,” says Richardson.
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