Klopp: Arsenal use more long balls against Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp believes Arsenal always adopt a more direct style of play when they face Liverpool.

Ahead of Sunday’s Premier League meeting between the pair, Klopp was reminded of a 2013 quote from his days at Borussia Dortmund when he insisted he preferred a “heavy metal” style of football to Arsenal’s “orchestra”.

After bursting out laughing, the Reds boss told Sky Sports: “It’s hard, in times of television and internet and the world wide web, nobody forgets things like this.

“No [it’s not a great quote], it wasn’t even right! I never thought that anybody would remind me about it one more time after that. Four years ago and you’re still coming up with this.

“I think Arsenal change style always when they play us.

“You watch the games back and it is like this. When we played at Anfield, the 3-3 [in January 2016], there were a lot of long balls to [Olivier] Giroud, for his chest.

“Yes, maybe [because of the way we press] – not sure, but we don’t press all the time, so you can play. It’s high intensity, high quality, they’re really good.

“They have a quite clear build-up, long, winning the second ball, and then they play football, and then they’re all involved. 

He made it look easy. pic.twitter.com/VSZTZ2poQP

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 26, 2017

“Mesut Ozil, [Alexis] Sanchez, whoever, [Theo] Walcott, [Alexandre] Lacazette, Giroud, and it’s really difficult to step in, but that’s a part of the game, we have to work hard again.

“You can’t play a little bit of football and hope to get anything from Arsenal, they are too strong, I really respect their work a lot.

“They had a few good signings. [Sead] Kolasinac good signing, I’ve known him a long time, the whole world has talked about Lacazette and Arsenal got him – a really good team.”