Liverpool - Villarreal: A lot happens or nothing happens

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Villarreal's coach, Unai Emery, this Tuesday in training.Doménech Castelló (EFE)

For Jürgen Klopp, the semifinals against Villarreal, a priori, are still two more games in the unbridled race of his Liverpool to win all the competitions they play.

Except for the occasional choice in a couple of positions: Jota or Luis Díaz, above, and Henderson or Keita, in the middle, nothing special is expected to emerge from their rich and versatile slate.

For Unai Emery, however, after eliminating Juventus and Bayern from two purely defensive approaches, when it is usual for his Villarreal to want to carry the weight of the games through possession, this tie appears to be the most difficult still due to the complexity of a rival that shows itself in each match like an open book but difficult to counteract.

Klopp and Emery know each other well, respect each other and even send flowers from a distance.

Four years older than the German (54-50), his career includes common symptoms with short but safe steps.

Well synced.

In addition, they have already had the opportunity to measure themselves directly.

Emery's Sevilla won (3-1) the Europa League final against Klopp's Liverpool (2016).

When the Basque coach landed at Arsenal, he crossed paths with Klopp's coach on four occasions with an unfavorable balance: two defeats (5-1 and 3-1) and a draw (1-1) in the three Premier League matches and a brutal 5-5 at Anfield, in the League Cup, which on penalties fell on the side of the locals.

Liverpool comes to this first duel at an optimal moment, both physically and in terms of play.

This is confirmed by the results and sensations.

Always from the same tactical layout, 4-3-3, Klopp's is a machine used to submitting and cornering opponents in his area.

He handles all the records for the game.

He wants the ball and the spaces.

Positional play and counterattack.

Mixture.

He cajoles with his game between centrals to come out with a long ball from Van Dijk or insists on getting it chewed up from behind with the full-backs already in the opposite field and with Thiago, inspired as he hasn't been for a long time, as head of maneuvers.

As soon as the former azulgrana repeats four short passes with his partner Fabinho, as he launches long changes of orientation, with Salah and Mané as recipients in the other meridian of the field.

Liverpool's high pressure

Handcuffing Liverpool defensively seems more complicated than doing it with Juventus and Bayern, both more predictable in their attacks to the point that they were only capable of scoring one goal each in 180 minutes of play.

Those of Klopp never use two equal movements.

His three top men, five starters for three positions with Salah and Mané fixed, constantly exchange their positions with the main mission of creating large estates for their sides.

Alexander Arnold and Robertson appear inside and then show themselves outside.

They throw a frontal center and a minute later they take a lateral one from near the baseline.

Mobility reigns in all his attacks.

Defensively, Liverpool seeks pressure as close as possible to the opponent's box.

The obligation is to accumulate many men in the zone of the ball and squeeze as if each action were going to be the last of the match.

There, in that debauchery, infected by his audience that goes crazy with the rhythm, is where he dislodges himself and leaves gaps.

Above all, behind the backs of the sides, and that is where the gap for surprise opens.

Emery has a zone on his board.

Alexander Arnold's.

Danjuma has to get there and for there he will constantly look at Parejo's radar.

Without the ball, the yellow interiors fall back as full-backs

The normal thing is that Liverpool do not let Villarreal play with the block as high as they like, nor, as usual, with the line of four closer to the dividing line than to the front.

Emery feels safe in the 4-4-2 with which he intends to occupy all the plots of the field.

With the ball, the team seeks to widen the field and that its tips swell to throw breaking unchecks into free spaces;

without the ball, on the contrary, he bets on closing it as much as possible, without caring that the interiors sink as full-backs —Yeremy in Turin;

Lo Celso and Coquelin in Munich—and that a line of six or seven players be formed, with Capoue sandwiched between Albiol and Pau.

Everything will be worth Emery to try to make another of his long games in which the minutes pass and as little as possible happens.

Precisely, quite the opposite that the rival in front of him is looking for.

Possibly, the team that tries to make them as short as possible with those galloping outings that are known to be lethal.

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