Liverpool’s pre-season drills with a team of sports phycologists gave them the upper hand in yesterday’s penalty shootout with Chelsea.
That’s according to Jurgen Klopp. Speaking to LFCTV GO after the game, the manager detailed his players work with neuro11, a team of specialist neuroscientists.
“We work together with neuro11. In pre-season, you should have seen it. In the training camp, the boys (neuro11) are training set-pieces with the boys,” said Klopp.
“Each player went through a proper drill – psychological, and others, to do penalties, corners, free-kicks, but penalties as well.”
This is a classic example of Klopp’s determination to utilise ‘marginal gains’. The German is notorious for allowing specialists from other fields into Liverpool to help his players eek the most out of their abilities.
Whether this specific instance had an impact or not is hard to say. But what we do know is that not a single Liverpool player buckled under the pressure of taking a cup final penalty.
Perfectly laid plans
Klopp said that Liverpool had a list of players to take penalties before the game. But given the changes during the game, that list was out of the window by the time the shootout came around.
“We had a list from the boys, they had a heart rate I cannot imagine. It’s not about five players, then six, seven, eight, but some of the players were not on the field anymore,” the 54-year-old continued.
“So from eight on they were not even close on any list, so that wasn’t really exciting!”.
It’s likely that Liverpool’s “list” was disrupted before a ball was even kicked. Thiago Alcantara has excellent technique and would surely have been in line to take a penalty.
Sadio Mane is fresh off the back of scoring an iconic penalty goal for Senegal to win them the AFCON less than a month ago.
Although he’s had his struggles from the spot, he’d have been a favourite to step up for The Reds here.
Naby Keita and Jordan Henderson have both take penalties in similar situations for Liverpool in the past. Both would have most likely been ahead of the likes of Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson and Harvey Elliott.
What a way to win it
As it turned out, Klopp needn’t have worried.
And the manager was delighted to be able to see the results of his players’ hard work in pre-season.
“Compliments to the boys, compliments to neuro 11, they did an incredible job with the boys and I’m really happy that we can win it like this then,” said the boss.
Klopp lost the same competition on penalties to Manchester City in 2016.
He wouldn’t have cared whatever way Liverpool collected the trophy. But judging by his comments, the manner in which his team dispatched their spot-kicks was extra satisfying for him.
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