The Premier League has never boasted so many top-class managers, and Saturday's meeting between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola is among the most mouthwatering tactical battles on the menu. We've had to wait exactly half the season to witness Klopp vs. Guardiola, but we could be in for fireworks on New Year's Eve.
Klopp and Guardiola encourage completely different footballing styles. Indeed, when the two regularly met as managers of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, this was framed as a simple clash between transition play and possession play. Of course, things are a little more complex than that: Klopp's teams pass the ball effectively, Guardiola's are often very good at transitions. But there's clearly a fundamental difference in approach here -- more than anything, in terms of tempo. While Guardiola wants patient, methodical build-up play, Klopp's emphasises urgency.
In that respect alone, Klopp's approach better suits the Premier League. English football, and the Premier League in particular, has been based largely around directness rather than patience. The revolutionary sides in the Premier League era -- Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, Claudio Ranieri's Leicester City -- have all been based, at least initially, upon direct and immediate counter-attacking football rather than possession play.
They're four of only six sides to have won the Premier League, and Kenny Dalglish's Blackburn were yet another direct side, based around width and crossing. Only Manchester City under the guidance of Roberto Mancini have first tasted success with possession football, so in that sense Guardiola is probably at the right club.
Liverpool, meanwhile, were known for their pass-and-move football in the 1980s, but during the Premier League have generally been better as a slightly reactive, counter-attacking side. Spells of promise under Gerard Houllier, Rafael Benitez and Brendan Rodgers have all occurred when Liverpool have attacked directly, in various forms. Rodgers, in particular, eschewed the tiki-taka he preached at Swansea, and in his first season at Liverpool, and developed a rapid, quickfire attacking approach that nearly won the league.
Guardiola, then, is very much fighting against the tide. Klopp's style feels more natural in Britain, and while his specific brand of gegenpressing is certainly more intense and intelligent than we've seen before in England, the basics -- hard work, lots of running, immediate attacking -- feel typically English. Indeed, English football has struggled to find the right identity in recent years, it has always felt like, of the two dominant nations in European football over the last decade, Germany is more of a template than Spain.
The pressing and counter-pressing of Klopp's side will be particularly fascinating this weekend, because in theory Guardiola's style works nicely with a side closing down in advanced positions. Manchester City remain insistent on playing out from the back, and approach that will probably reap rewards in the long term but has caused considerable problems so far this season. Both Claudio Bravo and John Stones, two of Guardiola's new signings, have repeatedly made errors in possession.
There's little doubt Klopp will be encouraging his forwards to shut down both particularly keenly, with the intention of winning possession and attacking quickly. Indeed, that's precisely what Liverpool did in their superb 4-1 victory at the Etihad in November 2015, albeit against a somewhat disjointed Manuel Pellegrini side. There could be a similar approach this time around.
Guardiola is not a complete fundamentalist, however, and orders his players to pass in a different manner if there's a specific requirement. In fact, perhaps the most blatant example of Guardiola prescribing long-ball football came when, as Bayern manager, he faced Klopp's Dortmund for the first time. He surprisingly decided to use Javi Martinez, until then used as a centre-back or holding midfielder, in an advanced midfield role close to lone centre-forward Mario Mandzukic.
That meant Bayern could play direct balls into the general direction of two serious aerial threats, bypassing Dortmund's press and ensuring they never conceded possession in dangerous areas. Once Bayern had established control and survived Dortmund's usual early wave of pressing, Martinez switched to his usual deep-lying role and started to command possession.
It wasn't particularly effective in an attacking sense -- Bayern won 3-0, but largely thanks to the impact of substitutes -- but it certainly rendered Dortmund's pressing ineffective.
It's not unreasonable to think Guardiola could use the same tactics this weekend. With question marks about City's ability to play through the press -- the injured Ilkay Gundogan would have been perfect for this, not least because he knows Klopp's tactics perfectly from his Dortmund days -- they could go long.
Sergio Aguero will be a crucial attacking weapon, and presumably raring to go having returned from his four-match ban. He offers pace in behind, but for an aerial threat, might Guardiola deploy Yaya Toure in that deep-target-man role Martinez played?
Toure, like Martinez, is versatile enough to play in defence or midfield, and it was notable that as Manchester City chased the game against Leicester City earlier this month, Guardiola deployed Toure as an emergency striker. It wouldn't be entirely surprising to see him used there from the outset at Anfield, at least in the early stages. When the tempo cools, he might retreat and allow David Silva or Kevin De Bruyne, more traditional No. 10s, to support Aguero.
The reality remains to be seen. But it's a testament to the innovative, inventive and forward-thinking approaches of both managers that it feels like something entirely bonkers will be tried at Anfield. Two contrasting approaches, and two managers capable of changing their plans to guard against the opposition's strengths and expose their weaknesses means we should be in for a truly fascinating contest.