Note: this is a long read... but unlike its 2009 counterpart, this one's only one post (not three).It's been a while since we Liverpool fans started to use words like 'dominance' and 'dynasty' in the language we use to talk about our club, but the warm glow of European glory tends to do that to a fanbase. The last time around was the late noughties - Rafa was pushing for Barry and Silva and a decent second striker as the final pieces of his jigsaw, and a familiar bullish tone abounded. We would transition to the finished 'total football' product. We would reclaim our League Title.That summer, the Echo's Kristian Walsh frequented these parts as L6 Red. His lovely article "This is the Year" encapsulated that Liverpudlian zeitgeist, while our own Yorkykopite penned "This season's Defence - an Attack" - a tour de force that directly pointed at the growing repertoire and resources Benitez could call upon at that time.Of course, as was the tendency in those days, context bit down hard. Benitez had monsters to wrestle with at board level. The club had business issues to address. We fell, we rose, we fell again.But at that time, Kris and Mark's articles really got me thinking (to the extent that I wrote a post called "Level 3 Football" that grew into a 350-odd discussion of sporting best practice).I'd been a massive fan of Clive Woodward's "Winning" - the story of the project behind England's 2003 Rugby World Cup win. That book described an archaic sporting set up's steady modernisation, with a focus on process and continuous refinement of best practice at all levels, to a point where, in any given situation, that team enjoyed a lengthy spell at Icarean heights, because no matter what situation it faced, their collective belief was that they had no more excuses not to win.Then in 2008, my sister bought me a book by the man often held up as the inventor of Total Football, Rinus Michels. The book is called "Team Building  the Road to Success" . Michels was the Shankly of Ajax, and a visionary who was fortunate to see several stars align before his eyes (and then rearrange themselves at will as a kind of living footballing system that went onto dominate European and World football on and off for a while, before arguably handing the baton onto the likes of ourselves, AC Milan and Barcelona).The book described in detail how to build a team's footballing capacity beyond the basics.So let's get those basics out of the way. I dunno... let's take Everton. Marco Silva gets undressed 5-2 at Anfield by our second string, and is unceremoniously binned. What do you do if you're Duncan Ferguson?As a team, you have your backs to the wall. You instil fight. You drill them on basic defensive shape and set pieces for and against. You make it clear - we compete. We win more than our fair share of first and second balls. We box clever. We may get carded, but in our spiking stats for blocks and tackles and snot and sweat, we keep our key men available. Hey presto, from looking like they'd find a way to lose in any circumstances, Everton are beating Chelsea at home and getting a draw at Old Trafford.Let's call that "Level 1". Level 1 is 'backs to the wall' football.Now, say you manage to get that out of the way. What's next? Well, typically, you find a way to improve your playing squad and embed your playing style. In this respect, there are any number of ways you can go, but in simple terms, there are two main choices:'Level 2' - you 'Counter Attack'; or'Level 3' - you go 'Total Football'.To master either of these long term - to do 'teambuilding' - you have to follow a simple framework. Michels calls the two key teambuilding categories: "Psychological Team Building", and "Team Tactical Team Building".We're no strangers to the word 'mentality'. It felt like Rafa invented it in the noughties. More recently, Klopp has coined the tag 'Mentality Monsters', and the footballing world knows what he means.Michels said, "In the football world, it is apparent that most coaches think of team building in mental or psychological terms. For example, the mentality of the players and team spirit. They are, of course, essential. Only with these as the basis, is it possible to perfect team tactics. The better the mentality of the players, the better the environment is for the coach to work on the tactical team building process. Also essential is the player's willingness or readiness to work on team tactics in training so as to bring them to life as efficiently as possible in a match (in combination with a winner's mentality of course)."Liverpool's culture was set in stone by Bill Shankly, of course. "For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me then come out fighting on the other side."In 2020, however, things have moved on. In a timely interview with James Pearce, Pep Lijnders echoed the words of Clive Woodward in "Winning" in saying the following "The passion and ambition of these players is from another planet... Their self-confidence, their self-criticism, that is what makes us consistent. These boys have the ability to make even a simple rondo competitive. People talk about going game to game - no, we commit session to session. Small things make big things happen. You have to focus on doing the small things right constantly. The passion and ambition I see, especially on rainy and windy days here, that for me is what separates us from the others."We focus on process. We focus on what's happening now. We use 'Mentality Monsters', but we could just as well say 'Mindfulness Monsters'. One game at a time? This squad goes on session at a time - one moment at a time. Is it any wonder that our players don't dwell on it when they make a mistake on the park? The performance increasingly becomes a by-product of the ongoing process.And so we prepare, and we keep on going, and we somehow do things people don't expect us to do. We take what's baked into our DNA - the St Etiennes and Instanbuls - and we elevate it to its logical extent. Quite a prospect. Chris Wilder, manager of Sheffield United, therefore finds himself in a post-match interview at Anfield saying, "They won every first ball, every second ball, ran forward and ran back... They had the humility to do that as World Champions. I love everything about them."This capacity is of course a central tenet of our player recruitment. We all know it. We all know we don't let the wrong uns in any more. The manager favours inactivity in the transfer market over squad churn, and - thank God - the club no longer undermines that by selling its best players for profit. The team's mentality integrates and embeds and compounds upon itself. That kind of thing can lead to a long-term reset in a club's belief - a foundation becomes set that becomes very difficult to shift if the right management structure is put around it. (But I digress - that's another discussion.)With the mentality boxed, we get to the crux - Michels' special sauce - building the footballing capacity.This involves habituating the following:1. Organisational Team Building (formations, balance of play)2. Strategic Team Building (the detail of positioning, marking, pressing, managing space, running intelligently, not wasting energy, and so forth).3. Tactical Team Building (learning to play what's in front of you and the analysis, learning, communication and collective embodiment of the ability to find solutions 'in game').Michels, in his book, constantly emphasises the need to bake these things in at all levels in a structured programme. As he says, "Within top teams in the sport of football it is more widely expected of each player that he is more versatile. The high level of complexity, the continuing action, and the continuous change in attacking and defending, guarantee a high level of unpredictability in the ever-changing situations. that alone demands a lot of insight into the game and football intelligence of the player. Each player has to learn to see the tactical connection. The tactical framework put forward by the coach facilitates this learning process. An accomplished football player must, together with adequate technique and specific mental and physical qualities, possess football intelligence, insight into the game, and recognise the ever-changing situation. He must be able to choose very quickly the most team efficient solution out of the many possible solutions. Talk about complexity! This is also why from a young age on, the tactical and technical development of players should go hand in hand. Also, the youth football development process must be a structured, ongoing tactical maturation process.Again, it's safe to say that increasingly we have this boxed. Just look at Trent. Just look at the Everton FA Cup win the other day. Just look at Williams and Hoever and Elliot. Senior squad and Academy facilities are merging. It's exciting to think what might flow from this long-term, isn't it?So what do you teach them?Well, there's the rub. You know the repertoire you could bake in, but you're limited by your context, your resources, your ability and your vision. The more you can master, the better; but mastering it all takes years and a settled squad with a lot of collective intelligence and talent (more on that in a bit). But you'll be constrained... so what do you do?If you're Roy Hodgson, arguably you stick at Level 1 and dabble with a little Level 2 if you're feeling adventurous. If you're Brendan Rodgers, you take Swansea, with no training ground, and make them Swanselona. But you don't tend to do both.Mourinho? Arguably in his early career he was a precursor of what's happening here at Liverpool. At Porto and Chelsea, his teams could run the full play book. But the most interesting case study for Jose was Inter. Post-Calciopoli, he dominated domestic football with a team of gnarly old ageing pros who'd seen and done it all... but on the European stage, he knew he'd need to sit squarely in Levels 1 and 2, and somehow they ground their way to a European Cup. That's the point - you do what suits you in your context as a teambuilder - you do what you can to win. But sometimes, just maybe, the conditions materialise that let you do the lot.When that happens, if you have the resources, stability, imagination and talent, you can take also-rans and make them World Champions. But to do that, you need to master the full gamut.Michels sets out the tenets of this approach by saying, "The accent in the counter attack style of play lays on the defensive team function, with the emphasis being on the defender's own half of the field and letting the opponents keep the initiative of the game. This is to take advantage of the space that opens up behind their defence for the build-up and the attack."It's all about space in behind - you don't concede any of it to your opponent, while simultaneously sitting ready to spring and exploit theirs. You sit deep in shape, and you spring forward quickly around a well-spaced and organised spine, with a fulcrum up front who can bring others into play and finish. You need pace in abundance to make this work well, and ideally a "fast target player who is good with the ball" not only to support the build-up, but to "take the pressure off his team by being able to quickly receive the long pass".Jurgen, it's safe to say, mastered this in 2017/18. We heard talk of rote drills that baked in the transitions at breakneck speed from deep, building on the foundations of the gegenpressing approach (more on that in a bit).Now - Michels makes three key points here that show why this is 'Level 2' in the evolutionary scale. First, he says, "Counter attack football has shown to be the most efficient when short-term success is desired." Second, he says, "Counter attack football is easier to train... you are able to start earlier in building set patterns in comparison to the game making strategy." Third, and most crucially he says, "When being behind the game, a counter attack team has trouble taking the initiative. Against a weaker team, the coach will have to fall back on a more attacking variation of his counter attack style of play. Most of the time this is not very well mastered. They lack the set patterns in their style of play and the specific players to perform this."Between the lines (ahem) of these words, we see the one key point - that to win in all circumstances, a team has to be able to master all of these things, because the game is going to demand some of each of them from time to time. If you entertain ideas of winning all the time, you're going to need to be able to do them all, and do them well.Michels calls this "The Play-Making Strategy", but I've substituted that for "Total Football" from here. He starts out by saying, "[Total Football] is not often seen. This style of football is risky to play and needs to have a lot of players with individual qualities. In most football cultures the coaches are scared to use it." He continues, "This risky style of play demands individually a lot of football capacity. It entails that you have to operate in small spaces during the build-up and attack and defend large spaces with few players. This style of play requires a methodical process in the youth program, and also specific types of players; such as the wing forwards and defenders who get involved in the attack."It's worth pausing to emphasise that last sentence. Keep it in mind as you read on. Do some of our tactical developments over the last couple of years start to make sense against this backdrop?Michels continues, saying, "When losing possession in the attacking phase, the entire team has to be tactically able to defend. Preferably by keeping the opponents in their own half or by dropping back more if you do not succeed in that. This demands good positional play in tactical coherence with each other. The defensive line needs to push up right away towards the midfielders. In general you defend far away from your own goal."To implement this style, your team needs:- Defenders who attack- Attackers who defend- Players who shift position to outnumber or pressure opponents- Covering defenders with pace and one-to-one defensive ability- A keeper who sweeps- A keeper who can play football- Players who don't give the ball away in risky positions- Players who can regain the ball- Midfielders who control with tactical insight and discipline- Midfielders who ensure enough cover is always behind the ball- Midfielders who tactically foul- Players who can play 'circulation football'.Now - this last point is the reason for the lionisation in recent times of La Masia, of Guardiola's approach to the game, and of sides who pursue this supposedly purist approach. (I say supposedly - Michels is clear that, like all other styles, this is a means to a specific end - the end of winning football matches. If you believed some, you'd think there was a thing called 'anti-football'. There isn't - there's just football. But again - I digress.)Michels said, "The team must master the 'ball circulation' component to be able to determine the correct moment to start the attack. However, ball circulation is a means, not a goal in itself! To carry the play on the opponents half of the field places high demands on the build-up. There is not much time and space to work in and you have to deal with high defensive pressure. ...One touch passing is also a must in the building-up team function of this strategy. This demands additional tactical insight from the players as situations quickly have to be surveyed. Each player has to anticipate even more. To carry the play means that one time you choose to play in a high tempo and the next time you use delaying tactics to slow the play down. A play-making team must take full advantage of the space and must have defenders who can quickly change the point of attack, wing forwards who remain on the outside, etc. The transition from defence to build-up must be executed very quickly."This hints at variety with control. The players, individually and collectively, need the 'team tactical' insight to control and make decisions. Michels in particular emphasises the spine of the team in this respect (although Klopp, like Sacchi before him, arguably extends it throughout the team). He says, "The team tactical manpower in the centre of the field (central defenders, midfielders and striker) is of great importance. During the build-up, the tactical coherence between the central defenders who must be thinking of playing the ball forward, the attacking midfielders and the central striker is very precise work. When possession is lost, it starts in the opposite direction. Good ball circulation puts high demands on the quality of the positional play, the mastering of the tempo and the speed of action."The tenets are clear. Your team needs to function like a bionic "Borg" Michels said, "a [Total Football] team must also be able to fall back on the tactical counter attack variation. However, this is mastered much more easily."I'd argue that this isn't as easy as he thinks. Guardiola loses Kompany and Laporte. Is he able to fall back on a counter attacking variation? Well, no - sides sit deep against his team. He has a purist's pig-headed commitment to his purist brand of football. So not only are there coaching- and personnel-related obstacles to this kind of flexibility; there are mental hang-ups too.Elsewhere, some coaches are inclined to go direct to Total Football. Look at Rodgers at Swansea. He inherited a set up that was used to that in spirit. But when he moved to Liverpool... results only shifted when Coutinho and Sturridge came in and the repertoire extended to include an effective counter attack.Beyond this, even if you do master the counter attacking style, there will still be times when you have to simply battle your way through a game by force of collective will, and nick it with a set piece. That's Level 1 stuff... but if you're going to consistently dominate? Well, you need to master all three.Under Klopp, Liverpool's footballing operation has developed into arguably the best of breed in pretty much all facets of its work. We know who Ian Graham and Michael Edwards are. We know how good they are. We know Alex Inglethorpe and Peter Krawietz, and we understand the roles they play. Some of us even know the nutritionists and doctors.As a result of that, increasingly our squad is, at its root, more resilient to injury than its competitors are. "Reds on PEDs", we see them saying. Well, take a look at Anfield Index's work on fatigue and injury. We are the best in Europe in our resilience to soft tissue injury. Not only that, due to our expanding repertoire and squad integration (the team-tactical work we talked about above), we seem to exert less effort to win than we ever have. Again, Anfield Index's work underlines this. Our pressing statistics appear to have shifted fundamentally. If the game is tied or if we're losing, we work very hard to retain the ball, and we do it everywhere. If, on the other hand, we're winning? We retreat into our funnel, we force and selectively press in only certain areas of the pitch, and we do a lot less high intensity running. Indeed, based on the Anfield Index numbers, we have, despite our crazy fixture schedule, put in several games' worth of running less than at the equivalent stage last season. Our players are fresher and more rested. Those who are injured are returning to action more quickly... it all adds up.The styles listed above? We're seeing a set up that works continuously to elevate them all.At Level 1, we boast the best numbers for goals for and against at set pieces. We hire throw in coaches. We get heralded by Sheffield United's manager for our work ethic and humility in relation to the basics.At Level 2, we continue to be the best there is in transition. But do we leave it at that? No - we continue to fall into that mode regularly, and score incredible goals that way. I bet you can think of a few swathing moves this season of just that kind after a deep possession regain... ooft.At Level 3? Well, it's here that we're starting to rediscover the notion us older heads had of what a 'Liverpool player' looks like. It's a player who maybe seems unfashionable (or in some cases even unfathomable), who ticks all of the boxes mentioned above. Not only that, our manager not only does what he did at Dortmund - where the gegenpress was their main playmaker - he increasingly boasts a squad where from one to eleven, that player is able in key moments to make the decisive contribution.To finish, back to Pep Lijnders - he sums it up best as he says, "Even if were 3-0 up we want to be dominant. We still search for the 4-0 but the way we do that can be different from how we searched to make it 1-0 or 2-0. We can make more passes, we can switch the play more from one side to the other, we can create more doubt for the opponents with our positioning. But we are still searching for the 4-0."When you become European champions, when you become more dominant on the ball, you dont rely as much on defensive organisation and counter-attack which is a very attractive part of our game. Weve become better on the ball as teams have set up differently against us. Id say 75 per cent of teams in the Premier League, even the bigger teams, changed their system or approach to play against us this season  lines much closer together, dropping deeper."Can we then expect to have attack, attack, attack? No, we cant. We have to respect that and find a new way against them. Its why our variety of creating and scoring is so important. It pushes us to evolve again. What I like about our game is that we have so many different weapons and that makes us unpredictable. Its not about playing it from A to B to C to D. Thats not the game we want. Even our defensive principles arent like that. That makes us very difficult to read."Teams cant just drop deep against us and try to stop us playing through them because Trent and Robbo will get down the wings and then youve got the centre-backs bringing it forward and creating space. Theres a lot of freedom because we focus on principles rather than exact plays. We know that if all this is present then the mentality of Jurgen and the boys will put us above the other team. But all this has to be right (Lijnders bangs the desk)."You can have a lot of passion but if theres no structure then you have no chance. You need organisation, tactical discipline and the right distances. Thats the base  thats the father and mother of football and being a consistent team."So - what do you reckon. Have we mastered the full repertoire? Are there any flies in the ointment? Over to you.