However, this season has seen more of a change. While in the past, Klopp’s football has been rather chaotic with a “gung-ho” game plan, his Liverpool side has become far more calculated this season.

Considering that it’s a long season so many matches in quick succession, Klopp’s decided to adopt a less intense style of pressing in order to keep his key players fit, without entirely comprising his footballing identity. While Klopp’s teams are known for their attack, Liverpool this season have been known for their defense.

Klopp’s matured as a manager and come to grasp the knowledge that defensive solidity is more important than attacking flair when it comes to winning titles. Despite only beating Brighton 1–0 away, Liverpool looked defensively strong, something that usually is not synonymous with Klopp’s football. This is a Liverpool we haven’t yet consistently seen under Klopp; a Liverpool capable of dictating matches through defensive nous and midfield dominance, with less chaos thrown in.However, this season has seen more of a change. While in the past, Klopp’s football has been rather chaotic with a “gung-ho” game plan, his Liverpool side has become far more calculated this season.

Considering it’s a long season so many matches in quick succession, Klopp’s decided to adopt a less intense style of pressing to keep his key players fit, without entirely comprising his footballing identity. While Klopp’s teams are known for their attack, Liverpool this season have been known for their defense.

Klopp’s matured as a manager and come to grasp the knowledge that defensive solidity is more important than attacking flair when it comes to winning titles. Despite only beating Brighton 1–0 away, Liverpool looked defensively strong, something that usually is not synonymous with Klopp’s football. This is a Liverpool we haven’t yet consistently seen under Klopp; a Liverpool capable of dictating matches through defensive nous and midfield dominance, with less chaos thrown in.

Mauricio Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino is yet to win a single trophy at Spurs, but that still doesn’t mean he isn’t a skilled manager. Having been strongly linked to Real Madrid and outclassing Real Madrid at Wembley, Pochettino has done very well, developing a young side without having to spend too much nor being forced to sell their key players.

Pochettino’s use of youngsters and high-pressing system has drawn praise from many, with a manager who has a vision for Spurs to play attractive football. Yet despite his footballing ideals, Pochettino is pragmatic too, occasionally changing formation and team shape either based on the players he has available or targeting specific weaknesses of the opposition.

The Argentinian works to two key principles: Positional Play and Defensive Counter-Pressing. Positional Play (or juego de posicion) is an approach that divides up the pitch into a series of zones in which players are instructed to undertake specific duties as they move in and out of the different areas to organise a team’s shape in possession. By applying these guidelines Spurs look for connections between players and stretch the opposition out. In attack they use two wing-backs, two attacking midfielders and a single, central striker to spread out evenly across the width of the pitch. They seek to overload a four man defence meaning that one of the five is always free to receive the ball in space. When Spurs lose the ball, they do something very specific too. Defensive Counter-Pressing is about never letting the opposition settle. Unlike Liverpool who use their pressing to win the ball high and attack rapidly, Spurs are only interested in forcing the opposition to play long. Given the quality of centre-backs at Pochettino’s disposal, he is able to work on the assumption that his defenders can dominate the aerial battles, win the ball and begin building out from the back.

With the way his Tottenham side presses and harries and drives forward with purpose and guile, Pochettino has demonstrated a pragmatic side this season. A coach influenced by the innovative Marcelo Bielsa, Pochettino’s sides are used to controlling the ball. But in the 3–1 home victories over Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League group stages, Spurs had less than 40% of the ball in both games. Despite sacrificing possession at times in the big games, he still doesn’t sacrifice his ideals.

Pochettino has achieved it all with an exciting, high-intensity style of football. His Tottenham team work tirelessly without the ball, pressing high up the pitch and attempting to force mistakes, and with it they are fast and ruthless. Their energy levels often overwhelm opponents, and Pochettino applied the same philosophy at Southampton and Espanyol.

Spurs now have a clear identity in terms of the way they play but perhaps most impressively, they have also shed the perceived flakiness that has been associated with them in the past, and part of that has to do with his growing inclination to pragmatism.

Unai Emery

For a manager whose won 3 Europa League’s in a row, 7 trophies in 2 seasons as PSG manager, and managed 8th place with Almeria, it does seem at times that Unai Emery’s success as a manager has gone under the radar.

Emery is all about structured football, and is open to altering his strategy depending on the opponent, suggesting his occasional pragmatism. Nonetheless, his teams do like keeping the ball, playing a high-defensive line and adopting a rather aggressive pressing system. Yet as Arsenal manager, he’s still failed to solve the problems, suggesting that at times his style of play leaves his defenders too vulnerable.

Like his Spanish counterpart, Emery is an obsessive, spending hours and hours analysing teams, their shapes, their strengths & weaknesses, etc. Emery’s teams like playing structured possession football, preferably playing out the back with fullbacks high up the pitch and narrow wingers, not only to increase attacking options, but to undermine the opposing team’s defense. This is what we see with the 343/3421 that Emery occasionally uses. Despite the gaps that the wingbacks leave when going forward, the wingbacks become wingers, with the attackers becoming inverted forwards, forcing the opposition to drop back and defend in numbers. But because he plays with a back 3 and 2 central midfielders, this allows his team to have some numbers back when the opposing team try hitting Arsenal on the counter.

Emery is pragmatic at times (as we’ve seen in the Europa League), but will not sacrifice his attacking intent or high-pressing fullbacks, even if it meant conceding fewer goals.