Jurgen Klopp, nicknamed Uncle Zha, is a very capable head coach who comes from a poor family.

He is called Uncle Zha because he has an unshaven beard most of the time, which is very inconsistent with the image of a rigorous and upright German man.

It is worth mentioning that Klopp never played in the Bundesliga when he was a player.

What makes Klopp different from Mourinho, Guardiola, Conte, Mancini and other famous coaches is that he is neither a well-known player nor has a famous coach to guide him. He has worked hard to get to where he is today based on his own abilities.

In 1990, the young Klopp became a professional player for the German second division team Mainz and played until his retirement in 2001. Klopp played for Mainz for 11 years.

At the time, the Mainz club was in financial trouble and was on the verge of relegation from the German 2nd Division with poor performance, so they decided to try their luck and hired Klopp, who had just retired, as the team's new head coach.

Klopp's salary is very low, but he is very happy to be able to coach a familiar team.

At that time, the Mainz club's top management only gave Klopp one request: work hard to avoid relegation and lead the team to stay in the German Second Division.

But what shocked everyone was that Klopp not only relied on a Mainz team that had no big names and was even disunited to overcome all obstacles, but also won the third place in the German Second Division and successfully promoted to the Bundesliga!

This is the first time that Mainz has been promoted to the Bundesliga since its establishment! Mainz fans are all crazy, and Klopp has become famous in one battle and has become the most watched coaching star in Germany and even in Europe.

It was originally thought to be just a flash in the pan, but after the new season, Mainz quickly gained a foothold in the Bundesliga and even reached the middle of the Bundesliga at one point.

Klopp's coaching style has gradually taken shape. As a pragmatic defensive counterattack player, Klopp is also unique in the Bundesliga's tactics.

Klopp's dominant tactics in the early days of his coaching career were often solid defense, and it was during this period that he developed his own unique defensive counterattack philosophy.

This idea was continued in Klopp's subsequent career. Whether when he was coaching Dortmund or later when he was coaching Liverpool, Klopp was often willing to take the initiative to lower his posture when facing teams that were weaker than himself on paper, and thus adopt a more low-key and pragmatic defensive counterattack strategy.

In the 2007 season, Mainz fell back to the Bundesliga 2nd Division because it sold many meritorious players and the club's financial situation deteriorated again. At this time, the Bundesliga giants Dortmund, which had a poor record, extended an olive branch to Klopp, and Klopp immediately chose to join the Hornets.

After Klopp took charge of the Hornets, he changed the Hornets' tactical style and continued to use his low-profile defensive counterattack concept.

The players of Bumblebee are much stronger than those of Mainz. With Klopp's tactics and the abilities of the Bumblebee players, Bumblebee immediately re-emerged in the Bundesliga. Even the dominant team Bayern had to avoid them. In the first two seasons of the Bundesliga, Bumblebee overpowered Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen, winning the Bundesliga championship and the defending champion of the Bundesliga two rounds in advance.

Klopp's formation at Mainz and Dortmund was a 4231 defensive counter-attack formation, which is similar to the formation Adkins used at Southampton.

In today's Champions League group match, Klopp came to Anfield and still deployed his best 4231 formation.

The striker is the "Polish striker" Lewandowski at the front.

Lewandowski is the undisputed Polish football king, possessing all the qualities a striker needs, including speed, technique, agility, strength, jumping ability, etc. He is the perfect template of a modern striker. Lewandowski not only has excellent shooting skills, but also his passing technique, passing vision, and even headers are quite accomplished.

The three central midfielders of the Hornets are "Little Rocket" Reus on the left, "Super Mario, Little Fatty" Gotze in the middle, and "Polish Captain, Kuba" Blaszkowski on the right.

During this period, Reus was already a well-known figure. If it weren't for so many injuries, Reus' achievements would definitely be ranked among the top ten in the world.

Not to mention Gotze, who in his peak period could often play one against many. He is a versatile frontcourt player with strong ball holding and attacking abilities, and was once regarded as one of the top offensive players in world football.

Of course, what people talk about most about Götze is his "greatness".

The two defensive midfielders of the Hornets are: "Guo Degang" Gundogan and the younger brother of the German twins, Bender.

Gundogan is a player with a strong sense of the overall situation, high football IQ, great imagination, and solid technical skills.

Gundogan is good at finding the opponent's space in a blockade. This kind of ball is full of threats and has strong penetrating power.

Gundogan is also known as the "God of Favorable Games". Once Gundogan cannot be restricted and is allowed to play in a favorable situation, no matter whether the opponent is Real Madrid or Bayern, they will all feel overwhelmed.

The reason why Gundogan's nickname is Guo Degang is not because he is funny, nor because he is short. Gundogan is at least 1.8 meters tall, and the little black fat man can't reach Gundogan's mouth even if he jumps.

The reason why he is called Guo Degang is simply because Gundogan's English name is "Gundogan", which looks very similar to the phonetic spelling of Guo Degang. Moreover, the period when Gundogan became famous worldwide roughly overlapped with the period when Guo Degang was very popular in China, so Gundogan also got the nickname Guo Degang.

Another defensive midfielder, Sven Bender, is the younger brother of Lars Bender of Bayer Leverkusen, and is also one of the rare brothers in the history of German football.

Sven Bender does not play football in a gentle manner at all, but is very aggressive. He is a sweeping defensive midfielder who often runs all over the field and engages in large-scale defense. He can be said to be the mainstay of the Hornets.

It is not difficult to see from the configuration of forwards to defensive midfielders that the current Hornets' offensive players are very strong.

As a coach who believes in defensive counterattack tactics, Klopp is also well aware of the essence of defensive counterattack - that is offense.

Defensive counterattack is just a formation. The core of this formation is to ensure better offense. Therefore, the core of defensive counterattack is by no means blindly defense, but offense. Since you want to attack, you naturally have to configure the best offensive players in the midfield and frontcourt of the defensive counterattack formation.

Lewandowski, Reus, Gotze and Gundogan are definitely tough players when it comes to attacking.

Gundogan is the brain, Gotze is the front engine, and Lewandowski is the spear.

...(End of this chapter)