Saturday, 13 August 2016

Klopp taunts 'long ball' Arsenal ahead of Premier League curtain-raiser

Klopp taunts 'long ball' Arsenal ahead of Premier League curtain-raiser
The Reds manager believes that Arsene Wenger relies heavily on aerial deliveries to Olivier Giroud, and sees that as the Gunners' main threat
Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp has raised the temperature ahead of his team's Premier League opener against Arsenal, suggesting Sunday's opponents have adopted a more direct style. 
Arsene Wenger's teams have long been famous for their short, incisive passing, a reputation that has stayed with the veteran French manager. 
But the Reds boss believes that the 2016 Arsenal are rather more straightforward in their playing style. 
“I think everyone who saw the game saw the difference between this game and all the other Arsenal games," he said in a press conference, referring to the team's 3-3 draw in 2015-16. 
“But in the last few years Arsenal had a more direct style. They have only good football players but at the end they don’t use all of them in each build up or each offensive movement - it is a myth.
"It is definitely a plan and they want to win games.”
Klopp believes that dealing with the "long balls" fed into the Gunners' target man will be the key for his team.
 “Arsenal is usually a football playing team but last time against us there was a lot of long balls and always to Olivier Giroud," he explained. 
“The second ball was to Ozil, they caused us a lot of problems in this game. That was a big threat on that day.
“We knew about it because a lot of teams chose this way against us so it we could have defended better.
“It was not about what they did, it was about how they did it because it was with the highest quality how Giroud and Mesut Ozil, especially, on this day performed.”

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