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Jurgen Klopp’s staff and players will surely never forget it. On September 20, when Liverpool went to Chelsea in the Premier League and won 2-0, the absence of fans at Stamford Bridge, as in almost every stadium in the world, gave us a great idea of what is going on in and out. from the field.
As the break drew near between the English champions and Frank Lampard’s new Blues, Andreas Christensen was sent off for rugby when he faced Sadio Mane following the VAR intervention. When referee Paul Tierney waved the red card, having originally issued a yellow, some Liverpool staff and substitutes, who sat in the stands behind the bench, celebrated the sending off.
Klopp didn’t appreciate it.
“It’s you angry? “he said, turning around to face the culprits.” We don’t do that, do you understand me? We don’t clap when someone gets kicked off the other team! “
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The UK’s three-tier system allows fans to be in games depending on positivity rates with COVID-19 testing. Soccer will slowly return to something approaching normal and will feature true fans, along with organic sounds, in the stands. However, London will move to Level 3 on Wednesday, meaning that fans will again be absent from matches at Chelsea, Arsenal, Fulham, Tottenham and West Ham, as they were allowed to return for a couple of weeks.
Eventually, all the fans will return. It will mean the end of what we have seen in recent months where, as in the case of Klopp, we could hear practically everything that was said on the field and on the bench.
Typically, reporters or pundits would have overlooked this Klopp incident as the noise from the fans would have drowned out the conversation. However, that day on the Bridge, his strong voice could be heard clearly, almost echoing through the stadium.
Klopp has always been very animated in the band, participating intensely in every Liverpool game from his technical area. He yells at his players a lot, although everything is forgiven at the end of the game. Klopp is, in a sense, like the Duracell bunny. His big thing (apart from not celebrating the expulsion of an opposition player) is the press. He enters that state when he encourages his team to press high, to pressure opponents and recover the ball or force a mistake. He celebrates it almost as much as a Liverpool goal.
Without fans, you could hear a lot of encouragement from the former Dortmund boss, such as ‘Outstanding Gini’, on Liverpool action midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, something we heard a lot during Liverpool’s 1-1 draw at Manchester City on 11 November. 8. He’s also quick and vocal with criticism: Every time Jordan Henderson takes too long to overtake, Klopp yells, “Come on Hendo, what are you doing?” Meanwhile, Alisson in goal always says the same thing to his defenders: “Keep working!”
After Arsenal traveled to Anfield on September 28, one of the Gunners players couldn’t believe how much and how clearly Klopp could be heard. “I swear, even the people who live in the houses around the stadium should be able to hear it,” he laughed.
That night, between Klopp and Mikel Arteta, it was a symphony of voices; Like Klopp, Arteta never stops. Talk to Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe in French. “Come on Lacquergo ahead that’s good! “(” Come on Laca, go ahead, that’s good! “) Talk to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in Spanish -” Auba, inside, inside!“(” In, in! “Referring to their attacking options) – and for Héctor Bellerin, Dani Ceballos, Gabriel and Thomas Partey, too, using English with the rest of the squad. Of all the Premier League coaches , Arteta is often the one who trains the most. “Come here”, “move there”, “dive in”, “put it inside”, “push” and “now you’re done” are common terms, expressed with great gestures and intensity .
When Granit Xhaka is not suspended, Arteta can say that he also has another coach on the field. The Swiss midfielder is his absolute relief. He tells all his teammates what to do, where to move, how to play. (He could use some of that organizational knowledge in his own game, though, after being foolishly sent off in the recent loss to Burnley.)
Against Liverpool, after Arsenal took the lead against their streak of play at Anfield, we could hear Xhaka telling his teammates as they celebrated Lacazette’s goal: “We are not afraid, we are not afraid. We come here, we play, we are! Not Afraid!” A couple of minutes later, Liverpool drew and won 3-1, but the idea was there: Arteta wanted his team to go to the home of the champions and be brave, try to play from behind and be authentic. Xhaka relayed the message.
Arsenal defender Rob Holding is usually calm on the pitch, but against Wolves at the Emirates on November 29, he was unhappy with what he considered a jump from Adama Traore, and told the referee “[Traore] It’s built like a shitty brick house, how did it fall like this? “
Some players who spoke unofficially to ESPN spoke of the scale of the fanless changes, given that their managers can get much more involved in the action minute by minute. “Before, you could catch some of what the coach was saying, but now you and he know that they listen to every word he says,” said a Premier League player. “It’s a nightmare! Now, managers talk much more than before, more advice, criticism, yelling. It’s so different.”
Arteta recently confirmed this on Spanish radio: “Without assistance, we are lucky that the players listen to us more, but if you ask any player, I am sure they would like to hear us much less!” said the Arsenal manager, before commenting on his use of different languages.
With no fans in the stands, Spurs manager José Mourinho has been notably more vocal than his Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola. He has a lot of energy, either cheering on his players or yelling at them endlessly, like when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg sat too much in midfield against Chelsea in their severe 0-0 draw on 29 November. That said, Mourinho doesn’t always get it right. There was a hilarious moment in the North London derby against Arsenal on November 6 when Mourinho yelled “Pass back, pass back!” to the fourth official after Ceballos passed the ball with his thigh to Bernd Leno, before realizing it was actually allowed.
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José Mourinho puts Tottenham’s form in perspective by comparing his 300 days in charge to Jurgen Klopp’s in 2000.
Guardiola has a different approach. He talks much more with his bench and his assistants than with his players. In the loss to Tottenham a few weeks ago, he repeated three or four times: “How do you concede a goal like this?” after Son Heung-Min’s first goal during which his defense, especially Joao Cancelo, fell asleep.
However, when he has a message to convey, Guardiola is very clear with his team. In the 2-1 loss to Chelsea in June, it was all about Kevin De Bruyne in midfield, meaning that every time one of City’s players was on the ball, Pep would yell “Kevin, Kevin! , Kevin!” to make sure the Belgian was the first choice for a pass. Richard Wright, who used to be City’s third goalkeeper and is now an assistant goalkeeping coach, yells in a loop at each and every game “get ready” and “can we squeeze?”
Another big change without huge crowds is how much more submarines are getting involved. During the Manchester United vs. Arsenal on November 1, midfielder Nemanja Matic began warming up in the 30th minute along the touchline behind United’s goal. He never stopped talking and was dabbling in a bit of training, more focused on repositioning his United teammates than warming up. He told Lindelof, “Vic, tell Fred to come in,” before directing the Brazilian. “Fred, deeper.” Then it was Pogba’s turn. “Yes, Paul, play, again, without the ball.” Rudiger does the same at Chelsea.
There’s also the litany of nicknames we hear during closed-door games. In Tottenham, “Tonton” (“uncle”) is Serge Aurier, while Sergio Reguilon is Regui, Harry Kane is H. In Chelsea, there are Chilly (Ben Chilwell), Jorgi (Jorginho), NG (N’Golo Kante) and Zoum (Kurt Zouma). There are also Ritchie (Richarlison), Shaq (Xherdan Shaqiri) or Willy (Willian) and many more.
We can also hear many more swear words. Take Newcastle goalkeeper Karl Darlow, who was furious with the way his team started their September 20 home loss to Brighton & Hove Albion, yelling “Wake up!” your teammates in a loop after just five minutes. Mind you, that’s nothing compared to the Watford vs. Luton at the Championship on September 26, when Luton midfielder Ryan Tunnicliffe was heard yelling a “selfish piece of shit” at his teammate James Collins as he fired. instead of crossing the ball. (Unfortunately for Collins, Watford won 1-0).
We could have written a book on all the things we hear and continue to listen without capacity crowds, who may not return for some time for many leagues. But perhaps the image that best sums up the era of “closed doors” is what happened in Metz on December 6 when Lyon arrived in the city. Rudi García, the Lyon coach, was suspended after being sent off in the previous game. He was not allowed to be on the bench and had to sit in the stands, but he was still able to coach his team since there was no one at Stade Saint-Symphorien, and all his instructions could be clearly heard on the pitch. . Lyon won the game 3-1.
