Match Focus: Could Klopp Put the Nail in Mourinho Coffin?

Long before his team gave way to finally concede the killer blows, Jose Mourinho realised what was going on and fervently tried to do something about it. It was early in the 2012-13 Champions League semi-final first leg, and Borussia Dortmund were swarming all over Real Madrid. Mourinho knew his midfielders needed to calm down in possession before they could try anything else, and rushed to the sideline, desperately trying to tell them.

It was already too late. Dortmund were too well drilled, too intense, too immersed into what proved a perfect tactical plan. The Germans won 4-1, and Jurgen Klopp again had Mourinho’s number.

The two coaches met four times in the Champions League that season and Klopp won two, with his only defeat coming as Real cut that 4-1 deficit to 4-3 in a chaotic return leg. Dortmund still went through, however, and it was hard to escape the perception that Klopp had worked Mourinho out.

It is a perception that only amplifies the pressure on the Portuguese before Liverpool’s trip to Chelsea this Saturday, as his career at Stamford Bridge potentially comes to a head. He must now face one of the few other managers he hasn’t yet got his own head around, just at the point when everything seems to be going against him.

Football history is filled with such quirkily timed fixtures, but then events within those fixtures are also what make football history itself.

In that regard, this is genuinely one of the grand football stories. Mourinho is undeniably one of the greatest managers in that history, and it is compelling to see whether he can work his way out of this, by far the worst spell of his career.

The best of that career has been built on psychologically infusing his players with intensity, while also keeping a calculating presence of mind to forensically figure out how to beat opposition.

The wonder, with so much going on at Chelsea, is whether Mourinho can still derive the same response out of questioning players and whether he himself can remain focused enough to work out a way to turn it all back on Klopp.

If the Chelsea manager can do the latter, the roots of Klopp’s previous approaches against him should at least be clear. Dortmund bested Mourinho’s Real over the course of the 2012-13 season by targeting the conservative full-backs that formed the cornerstones of the Portuguese's system, beating his side for intensity and then relentless and ruthlessly maximising the consequent errors.

That can be seen in how Klopp’s side never went through the centre for more than 26% of their play in any game. In one of the matches, almost half of Dortmund’s play - a remarkable 43% - went down Real’s right, creating disarray. From there, they were willing to aggressively tackle more than Mourinho’s side in every match - a collective of 115 challenges against 93 - and were so much more clinical. Dortmund had 26 of their 46 shots on target, compared to Real managing just 18 of 66.

Of course, one other big difference between then and now is that Klopp at that point had a team completely in tune with his thinking, and a core of players who had the benefit of almost half a decade with him. Liverpool barely have half a month. They haven’t yet offered sufficient intensity to even win one game so it is maybe getting too carried away with Chelsea’s poor form to expect Klopp’s team to suddenly click enough to finish off Mourinho. The German is still trying to both connect the team together, and connect them all to his ideas.

Then again, another reason that Dortmund so overwhelmed Real in 2012-13 was because there was at that point a significant disconnect between Mourinho and most of his key players. It is getting close to that now at Chelsea. Most of the squad aren’t offering the intensity of application in individual challenges and plays that one would usually associate with the Portuguese, to only add to the plethora of problems.

In order to be given more time to solve those, Mourinho has a more pressing problem: countering Klopp's approach.

The Chelsea manager needs a moment of realisation, or this could end up a moment of reckoning.

Who will come out on top when Liverpool travel to Chelsea? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below