Why Jordon Ibe Is the Perfect Fit for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool
When a bright, young thing bursts through into the Match of the Day sphere of Premier League football, what typically follows is widespread awe and lavish praise, more often than not backed by a call-up into Roy Hodgson's England squad if they are eligible. But this is yet to transpire for Liverpool's Jordon Ibe.
A key example of this phenomenon is Manchester United winger Jesse Lingard, who celebrates his first England call-up this week, with a potential appearance for the Three Lions against France at Wembley his goal.
Lingard, 22, has played just four games in the Premier League so far this season—with only one coming as a starter—totalling just 169 minutes. But after his goal in November's 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion, the versatile forward has been immediately rewarded.
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Though his rise into Louis van Gaal's first team should be commended, having bided his time on loan and on the treatment bench, Hodgson's recognition is more representative of the farcical state of the English national team; Wilfried Zaha, Dele Alli, Calum Chambers and Carl Jenkinson stand out as similar punts—with varying degrees of credibility—by the former Liverpool and Fulham manager.
Meanwhile, the likes of Ibe, Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse remain on the periphery; in the Liverpool player's case, though, his club manager Jurgen Klopp is unlikely to protest.
Having lost two of his young Englishmen, Joe Gomez and Jordan Rossiter, during the last international break to great controversy—Gomez's season-ending ACL was evaluated by England U21s manager Gareth Southgate and his medical team as, according to Joe Strange of the Daily Mail, "nothing too serious," while Rossiter's overexertion for the England U19s was criticised following a hamstring injury that has kept him out of action for close to a month—Klopp will be privately contented that Ibe has been overlooked.
As Klopp moves into a testing 11-game period between Saturday's clash away to Manchester City and the first match of the new year at West Ham United, averaging a game every 3.8 days, he will be plotting to utilise Ibe's strengths wisely—as the 19-year-old is the perfect fit for the German at Liverpool.
Jordon Ibe
After a hugely profitable loan spell with Derby County last season, which saw him score five goals and assist on another in 20 Championship appearances, making himself a key player within Steve McClaren's squad, Ibe was surprisingly recalled by former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers in the middle of January.
"I brought him back because with the set-up of the team, there are more opportunities for him to play now. He can play in maybe four positions," Rodgers told Neil Jones of the Liverpool Echo in February.
"He’s diligent enough. He gets forward but he also gets back, recovers well, so there are going to be more opportunities for him. I think he’s going to be a big player for us because he’s a wonderful talent with his power and pace, and he will be huge for us in the coming years."
Rodgers' faith was rewarded, as Ibe's versatility and attacking potential allowed him to slot in perfectly within the Ulsterman's 3-4-2-1 formation, particularly excelling in the Europa League, where he won the decisive penalty in February's 1-0 victory at home to Besiktas following a powerful run from right wing-back.
Ibe ended the 2014/15 campaign having made 12 appearances in the Premier League, and he looked set to play a major role in Rodgers' side this season.
Burdened, however, by tags of "the next Raheem Sterling" following his team-mate's high-profile move to Manchester City in July, Ibe made a slow start to 2015/16, visibly feeling the pressure of an expectant Anfield support.
"I think I can play much better than I have done in the two games so far, especially with attacking the full-back," he told the Liverpool Echo's James Pearce in August.
"But with more games, hopefully I will get more confidence and be better in the coming games. There is a lot of stuff I need to work on. I need to be chipping in with goals and assists."
Desperate to net his first competitive goal in a Liverpool shirt, Ibe could be regularly spotted cutting inside onto his left foot and firing hopeless attempts beyond goal, averaging the worst shooting accuracy of any Reds forward under Rodgers in the league this season, with just 33 percent hitting the target.
But with Klopp's arrival, Ibe has begun to improve, finally scoring in Liverpool's 1-0 win away to Rubin Kazan this month. And much of this is due to the merits of Klopp's attacking system.
Jurgen Klopp's System
At Borussia Dortmund, Klopp typically fielded a 4-2-3-1 formation, employing what he once described, according to the Guardian's David Hytner, as "heavy metal" football.
"It is not serenity football, it is fighting football—that is what I like," he explained to Hytner in 2013.
"What we call in German—English [football]...rainy day, heavy pitch, everybody is dirty in the face and they go home and can't play football for the next four weeks. This is Borussia."
Klopp's Dortmund ran faster and harder than any other team in Europe as they fought for glory in the Bundesliga and the Champions League, tackling with tenacity and attacking with ferocity, and this 4-2-3-1 gave them the best platform to do so.
Operating around world-class centre-forward Robert Lewandowski as their reference point, the fleet-footed likes of Shinji Kagawa, Marco Reus, Mario Gotze, Jakub Blaszczykowski and, more latterly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Dortmund's attacking line would flood defences with pace.
Paired with an intelligent movement and a hive-mind approach to maintaining—and retrieving—possession, Dortmund's attacking system proved devastating. On their way to the Bundesliga title in 2011/12, for example, Dortmund scored 80 goals—more than any other side in the German top flight.
In translating this system to Liverpool, pace is essential, but so is variety. And with Klopp's squad boasting a plethora of No. 10s in Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, Adam Lallana and Joao Carlos Teixeira, Ibe's presence is refreshing.
The 19-year-old is the only orthodox winger at Klopp's disposal at present, with his pace, power and swiftly developing appreciation of movement making him an invaluable option moving forward.
Against Rubin, this was abundantly clear.
Servicing Christian Benteke, Ibe made the most accurate crosses of any Liverpool player (three) and tormented Rubin right-back Elmir Nabiullin throughout, registering eight successful dribbles as he varied his movement towards the by-line or the edge of the penalty area.
Victory at the Kazan Arena represented something of a coming of age for Ibe, recognised by an elated Klopp, who made a beeline for his match-winner at the final whistle.
His next challenge is to firmly establish himself under the German and continue to reinforce his star quality.
Star Quality?
"When I am managing a club I think each young player should smile, because the door is wide open for him," Klopp said, per Paul Wilson of the Guardian, shortly after his appointment as Liverpool manager.
Continuing to detail his appreciation for development over collecting a squad of ready-made stars, Klopp referenced Lewandowski's progress from a high-potential, young Lech Poznan talent to dominant Champions League striker while at Dortmund:
"[Each young player] has the chance to do anything. I don’t care so much about experience, it can be important but it is not the main thing.
The best players in the world today are around already, you can see them.
What I enjoy more is trying to identify the best players of tomorrow, who has the capacity to improve himself most, to take a young player from a small club in Poland and see what he can turn into.
"
Klopp is very much a "project" manager—making Liverpool the perfect club for him, when the likes of Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City could all have feasibly come calling in the summer—and his emphasis on the importance of youth development underscores this.
"For me the character of a player is the most important consideration, he must have the will to improve himself," he continued, prompting a brief, collective shudder throughout the Liverpool support with his use of a sickly Rodgers buzzword.
With this in mind, Ibe fits the mould perfectly, and having already slotted into Klopp's system well in his first month at the club—with his pace on the flanks allowing the German to implement his attacking philosophy—the winger has set his sights on following Lewandowski's trajectory.
"The fact that the young players he brought in were a big part of the success is very encouraging for guys like me," he told the club's official website.
"Of course, those youngsters at Dortmund didn’t just become a little bit better either—some of them, like Robert Lewandowski, have become players who are operating at the highest level in the Champions League. Hopefully he can help me and some of the lads here do the same."
Klopp and Ibe clearly enjoy a reciprocal admiration—Klopp as mentor, Ibe as student—and with both sharing similar ideals on and off the field, they are the perfect fit for each other.
Klopp can help Ibe go on to become a star player at Liverpool.
Statistics via WhoScored.com and Squawka.com.
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