The Brendan Blitz

We first saw this in the 2nd half of last season.
We'd start off in the first 20 minutes or so at a blistering pace, and there wasn't really a team that could live with it.
For this to work, an early goal is essential, as it forces the opposition to open up.
Then we pressed high and hard, winning the ball back and going at them again, and again.
For the first part of the game it really was relentless stuff from us, and an absolute joy to watch.

It brought home something that Gerrard said about pre-season, in that it was the most intense he had ever trained, and as the season wore on we saw the benefits of this.
The downside of course is that we would start to tire, and our subs really weren't up to the job of hitting back on the counter as the game progressed.
The other downside is that it leaves the CB's very exposed as the full backs push up, and the CB's split, leaving Gerrard in the middle.

I think we are going to see that again this season, with the exception that we have added pace and youth in both full back area's and also at CB.
It's been noticeable to me that Mignolet is coming out more quickly as the system has progressed, and I don't think there's much doubt we need our goalie to be a modern "sweeper-keeper".

What has impressed me with our signings so far is that BR has added yet more pace, but has also brought in strength (Can) and nous (Lovren).

I think we'll take less time to build up to that blitz tactic again, and be able to sustain it for longer due to more options off the bench.

BR will probably start a 433, or 4231, and really go hard at teams again in the opening 20-30 minutes, once players get their full match fitness, utilising the pace of Sturridge, Sterling, Balotelli and Markovic, then we'll see the shape change to a 442, or even 451, with width to stretch the play and plenty of pressing, with Coutinho coming deeper to pull the strings and use those wonderfully quick feet of his.
Our fullbacks will continue to play an integral part of our attack, but we'll see much more attacking down the left from Moreno than we did from Flanagan.
Lambert isn't really a target man, but he is a clever player who can hold the ball up for runners from the midfield, and in this I think Henderson will be excellent for us again this coming season.

Looking at the players we have, and how the shape of the team will start, and then change during a match has me very excited for the coming season, and I can't wait until we start blitzing teams again.
Once players start to tire, we'll see the introduction of Allen and Can, and sit deeper, hitting on the counter but doing it much more effectively than last season.

Edit to add Lallana, a player who can exploit small spaces and pick passes in crowded area's when teams come to park the bus, as they inevitably will, he can also help when the game is open. Not the quickest but looks a very intelligent player.

Good post

I think as well we now have a lot better options to freshen things up from game to game to. We can also change tactics from game to game or mid game more easily now. I think its impossible to go a season at that tempo with the same core of players, we used id say 9 players over and over with 4 more in and out at regular times plus Mignolet . So having stronger options on the bench and indeed some good options not even making the bench at times will benefit

Will be interesting to see if the boss changes tact in Europe

Good post

I think as well we now have a lot better options to freshen things up from game to game to. We can also change tactics from game to game or mid game more easily now. I think its impossible to go a season at that tempo with the same core of players, we used id say 9 players over and over with 4 more in and out at regular times plus Mignolet . So having stronger options on the bench and indeed some good options not even making the bench at times will benefit

Will be interesting to see if the boss changes tact in Europe

As far as Europe goes, we have seen with Dortmund and especially Bayern that a blitz tactic can work very well in Europe, but keeping hold of the ball and knowing when to blitz is going to be key, otherwise the better teams will simply pick us off.

Part of the problem we are going to have that is that tactics are so fluid at the top level of professional football. Teams are already planning how to set up against after watching our performances from last season. In many ways, our progression from a possession based, sterile football side to a pacy “blitz” game caught some of them unawares but Chelsea showed the best way to play against that type of attack.

We will have to figure out how to break down teams who park the bus against us and eliminate the advantage of pace by sitting back in two lines of five with an occasional breakout or a striker left on the halfway line to provide an outball. If we don’t have Suarez’s genius to be able to dribble his way through, we need to stretch the opposition widthwise across the pitch to create space between their players that midfield runners can exploit. For this reason we need both fullbacks running into the opposition corner flags so that our central players can work their magic and be picked out by Lallana / Gerrard / Coutinho.

We could be in for a very special season here – as far as i have seen the other European teams are generally quite slow and our recovery pace will buy us a lot of opportunities.