Would Jurgen Klopp's Tactics and Tendencies Suit Manchester City?

Jurgen Klopp now stands the most intriguing name on the impending managerial merry-go-round. Brendan Rodgers, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez could all still lose their jobs, but Klopp is the name many fans fantasise about seeing unveiled as head of their respective clubs.

It's easy to see why.

This season aside, in which he's admittedly led Borussia Dortmund's nosedive into mid-table obscurity in the Bundesliga (at one point the club sat last), he's been a roaring success. He achieved European football with lowly Mainz before resigning after a rocky patch, and turned BVB into a European superpower that finished agonisingly shy of winning the UEFA Champions League in 2013.

Still just 47, and now a relative big name in the footballing industry, he has other tangible, likable qualities that allow him to slot seamlessly into top jobs. He guffaws with laughter at press conferences and distracts attention like a lightning rod, and his advanced, 2015-ready tactics are what fans want to see.

It should not come as a surprise, then, to hear Manchester City are showing interest, per The Independent. Reports have suggested Klopp has rejected a very ambitious approach from West Ham United (you've got to ask, in fairness) to keep the Etihad Stadium firmly on the horizon, but would City be a good fit for a man whose tactics are innovative, demanding and value a team ethic?

Klopp runs a high-intensity, high-press system. That's well documented, and terms such as "gegenpressing" are freely thrown around by fans when it comes to discussing Borussia Dortmund over the past few years.

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To define it, "gegenpressing" (counter-pressing) is to immediately press and recover the ball after losing it. It attempts to catch the opposition just as they are opening themselves out to attack and utilises a high number of players in smaller areas to block passing lanes and close in on the ball.

It's pretty ferocious in full flow, with fit players, and it's a wonderful watch. Klopp favours the 4-2-3-1—an ideal base system to press from due to its equal/spread occupation of zones on the pitch—and asks the world of each of his players. He had a director of football (Michael Zorc) at Signal Iduna Park who bought him players, but every player purchased was deemed capable of fitting Klopp's pressing game.

It's why post-Robert Lewandowski they ended up with Ciro Immobile, one of the hardest-working players on the planet, and tended to bring back former players (Shinji Kagawa, Nuri Sahin) who had left the club previously. Henrikh Mkhitaryan was recruited off the back of a remarkable goalscoring season for Shakhtar Donetsk, but he can also run for days.

To ensure his players can swarm to the ball and counter-press, Klopp plays short, possession football with short passes. If there are too many long balls or sweeping switches, he leaves his side exposed and light of men when trying to recover possession if it's lost. Kagawa was perfect for this; his tactical nous and elusiveness in tight areas was key to working the ball through to the strikers.

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Klopp also squeezes the area in which sides play, with a high defensive line pushing up and leaving space in behind but reducing the pressing zone of the midfielders. In the past, at least one defender (Mats Hummels) has been an adept ball-player, and when his midfield options are marked, he has become a playmaker from the back. Given that the front six are constantly hunting for the ball, the defensive line is rarely exposed to accurate balls over the top.

So to City's squad, and the players available: Would they function, and prosper, under Klopp's demanding regime? He'd take no excuses and expel non-believers from the training ground. He'd likely have the brazen balls to tell any director or owner where to stick it, too.

That leaves one player, in particular, immediately in trouble. Yaya Toure's work ethic this season has been at an all-time low, and while the Africa Cup of Nations will likely have drained him, it does feel as though his time at City—and his time at the top—is fading.

David Silva would need a reconfiguration, too, but Klopp's success with a willing Kagawa shines a ray of light on this potential experiment. Samir Nasri may well decide this type of football isn't for him, and despite his strong influence on the side over the past few years, he's an affordable casualty.

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Fernando and Fernandinho provide a potentially dreamy base to the midfield; Klopp would love them as a pair. On paper, Vincent Kompany is the Mats Hummels alternative, but he'd need to rewire the Belgian and fix his failing circuitry. Pablo Zabaleta, Gael Clichy, Sergio Aguero and James Milner, if retained, would all emerge as key, energetic players.

The key to Klopp's success was to mould world-class attacking talents into workhorses too. Marco Reus, Mario Gotze, Lewandowski, Kagawa, Ilkay Gundogan and more are (or were) all exceptional offensive players, but they put the hard yards in to make the system work too. That perhaps explains the seeming patterned decline in Klopp's sides: Mainz hit Europe and fell away, getting relegated, and BVB reached the zenith before plummeting head-first toward the respective nadir.

The system comes first, second and third; Klopp is a man-manager, but he's married to a tactical philosophy, as many top coaches are. Murmurs of City needing a revamp this summer will increase tenfold should Klopp take the reins, but boy would it be worth it for the football they produce.

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