Rare Insight Into Klopp’s Liverpool Halftime Team Talk And Analysis

When a video of a half-time team talk by RB Salzburg head coach Jesse Marsch somehow made its way onto social media via the Austrian club’s official channels, Marsch’s opposite number on that day, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, commented:

“If LFC put a video out with me in a situation like that, I would leave the club.”

It’s safe to say there will be no fly on the wall documentary featuring Klopp’s halftime team talks, at least for as long as the club want the German as their manager.

That’s why a recent interview with one of Klopp’s assistants, Peter Krawietz, provides such a rare and intriguing insight into what goes on behind closed doors at the club, especially when it comes to what happens in the dressing room at halftime.

Much of the work which goes into this area of the match-day process is not done in the few minutes the coaches have with their players during the break.

As Krawietz points out, the hard yards are put in during the previous days and weeks.

“Half-time analysis is something like the end product of the whole process of analysing during the week,” Klopp’s assistant told Liverpoolfc.com.

“Analysis always starts in the week and of course we have a look at what we can expect for the next game, what kind of opponent we will face, where are their strengths and what will be the things we have to do in that game.

“Our strategy is always the same: how we all know, we want to defend as compact as possible, we want to win the ball – which is already something special that we really put effort into, defending our goal by winning the ball, so that is always the same – and we want to play dominant if we are in possession. 

“We search for ways to build up, to construct and to create chances so you have to see what are, and have a real look for, the solutions in how we defend, especially [regarding] this next opponent we face, and how we can create chances and how we can attack successfully with our skills. 

“This process leads to our pre-match analysis meeting where we present it to the players, and there it is really important that we summarise all of our ideas in a proper way. That means not too long, but still very clear in our idea and very ‘coming to the point’ and showing exactly to the players what we want.”

Clarity is important, as the manager only has a few minutes to deliver his message and make any changes at the interval. 

This is why Krawietz and Liverpool’s other analysts will observe 35 minutes or so of the first half, before preparing examples of a number of areas which can be improved upon, or a few opposition weaknesses which can be presented to the players at halftime, and hopefully exploited in the second half.

“You probably always see me with the book, writing things down,” adds Krawietz.

“What I’m doing there is knowing exactly the situations where we do well or the situations where we have problems, where we don’t probably find the solutions. 

“I notice situations where we have problems in defending so probably the opponent can create chances against us. 

“Then we try to create an overview and shortly before half-time, with around 35 minutes played, I try on the bench, together probably with Pep [Lijnders, assistant manager] and Jürgen as well, to get an idea on what are the talking points for half-time. 

“Always the question is: ‘How can we help our players? What is it necessary to do in the second half?’ Is it to keep going like we do, so we realise our ideas are right and we just have to follow them, or we played very well so the information will just be ‘keep on going like this?’

“Or, we have problems so we have to think already about the solution or what we have to change in the second half. All these are considerations and for the solutions for the second half, I try to find pictures and clips which can help and support Jürgen’s half-time talk.”

And those halftime team meetings are not necessarily the loud, intense grillings they are often billed as, especially when a team emerges in the second half with renewed vigour. It could simply be that a few things were altered tactically.

They are often instructional as well as motivational, pointing out to individual players, as well as the team, where they can improve in both attack and defence in the second 45 minutes.

“As you can imagine, all the manager has is probably five or six minutes to talk and then it can be possible—it’s not like this in every game, but it’s possible—that we find the right clip to show the players in order to support the half-time talk of Jürgen,” explains Krawietz.

“Three or four minutes before half-time, I leave the bench and go to the dressing room. There I meet [analysts] Harry [Kingston] and Mark [Leyland] and I try to choose the right clips I noticed during the first half, I will have a look again to decide if this clip is the right one and if we can use it. 

“These are very intense minutes and then when I am happy that I have found a maximum of one, two or three clips which I think can help, my colleagues Jürgen and Pep come in and I present the clips and tell them what I think could help. 

“Then we make a decision together, if we want to show it or not, and the question behind this decision is always orientated on the solution, or one solution, for the second half and if it is helpful for the players that we show it. 

“We make the decision ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and if we decide to show the one or two or three, maximum, clips, then we are going to present and show these pictures to the players. This is the process that goes on.”

Krawietz refers specifically to a game Liverpool played against Southampton at Anfield this season.

It was 0-0 at halftime after a very subdued first half display, but the team came out in the second half and put in one of their best performances of what is now sure to be a title-winning campaign.

Goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah gave the Reds a 4-0 win.

“Southampton played a real, real, real good game,” adds the German.

“The result in the end was 4-0 but this game was really close and Southampton obviously were prepared very, very well. We really had problems during the first half, they created chances and we didn’t play too well. 

“The half-time talk was about ‘keep on going, keep on attacking like we did’. The simple message was ‘keep it up and then you will see it will happen’. To defend a little bit more compact was one piece of information, a second was to use certain spaces for great finishing situations. 

“The message was that we were on the right way, but we didn’t try it hard enough so we have to keep it up and I believe in the 51st or 52nd minute, Ox scored a goal pretty similar to what we showed at half-time. 

“From time to time this happens: you show something at half-time and immediately afterwards it happens.

“These are the happy moments for a coach, but still all the credit goes to the players, who are able to deal with this information and stick to it, and then have the skills and the quality and the technique to do it on the pitch.”