Can Liverpool breach the yellow wall in Dortmund this coming Thursday? The iconic south end of the Westfalenstadion certainly presents a formidable challenge, with its raucous hordes clad in yellow and black. The atmosphere inside the cauldron of noise certainly matches up with Anfield’s famous old Kop, and usually gives the Borussia Dortmund players a lift at important times in big games. Liverpool will have to negate the crowd as best they can and try to nick an away goal in order to set up a blockbuster return leg in Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp’s footballing mind contains the inside track on most of this current Dortmund side. It was Klopp who moulded the team’s current style of play and nurtured many of the current squad. Players like Shinji Kagawa, Marco Reus, and Mats Hummels all came to prominence while playing for Liverpool’s current coach. A disappointing last season apart, the Black and Yellows were very successful with Klopp at the helm, and they will respect his knowledge of how they like to play.
Similarities can be drawn between the recent form of both clubs. Both Dortmund and Liverpool concede goals. In recent games, Dortmund have had to comeback against lower placed sides in order to maintain their fine run of recent league form. Liverpool fans are not too unfamiliar with trailing against so-called lesser opposition, albeit the Reds do not have as good of a record for notching wins when playing from behind.
The first leg in Germany will be crucial to Liverpool’s ambitions. They certainly cannot come away from the Ruhr with too big of a mountain to climb in the second leg. The German team is simply too good on the counter attack for the Reds to bank on a home leg clean sheet. It will be paramount therefore for them to score in Germany while not conceding too many.
Klopp will have some interesting formation choices to consider. He could go with more aggression in the midfield area and sacrifice some of the potential attacking movement from Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho and the out-of-sorts Daniel Sturridge, and should Roberto Firmino be fit, he will have another selection headacheto deal with after the team’s energy-sapping draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
4-2-3-1 is the favoured “gegenpress” formation that Klopp has mastered as a coach. If Tuchel matches up to this formation and counter-presses, he may revert to his favoured alternate 4-4-2 formation. Here is an expected starting lineup for these options:
4-2-3-1:
Mignolet
Clyne-Sakho-Lovren-Moreno
Henderson-Can
Lallana-Coutinho-Firmino or Milner
Sturridge
4-4-2:
Mignolet
Clyne-Sakho-Lovren-Moreno.
Coutinho-Can-Henderson-Milner
Firmino or Origi-Sturridge.
