Time will tell. I personally doubt AWB, DdG, Ronaldo, Maguire and a few others will ever fit a modern high press system, But I might be wrong.
He may not be but that's his only reputation and why else would he even be here? You're fighting the blatantly obvious. The club has made a long term strategic decision to go high press. And the reason - in case you still don't see this - is that with Liverpool, City, Chelsea and Arsenal all playing that way (and Spurs playing better than us too plus Newcastle incoming), the long term path to top four is blocked unless we do the same. Which means we do this or the Glazer business model is fekked along with the share price. Do you get it now?
I guess I don’t “get it.”
I think you are misunderstanding the “high press.” The high press is just a system, and actually, it’s a part of a system. Pep and City use a very quick and dirty high press, but actually look to attack by 3v2s and 2v1s, usually during the build up and are still very tiki taka. They use one player to commit a tactical foul to stop play and reset the defense. Klopp is closest to a true gegenpress, they commit large numbers forward, but after the press is broken they really move into a conservative defensive shape. Chelsea doesn’t play much high press, particularly against top sides, they are actually quite conservative.
Install a high press = Champions League football isn’t really a thing. If that was the case, Southampton would be top 4, but they regularly lose 5-0.
Since the so called “high press” was “invented” in the early 2000’s (ignoring Saatchi and Michels and the guy that invented it before them who no one remembers), we’ve had one team that has won the CL with the gegenpress… Liverpool. In the meantime, Real has won it 4 times, mostly with counter attacking teams, and then you have Chelsea, Milan, United, Porto, Inter, all pretty much counter attacking. Bayern and Barcelona were possession centric, and they won 5 CL titles in the last 20 years.
The Glazers don’t know what the feck they are doing, so I highly doubt that a system of football somehow relates in their mind to revenues and share price.
I don’t disagree with you that the gegenpress is a effective tactical setup when implemented correctly with the right players. But it’s not the only or “best” setup, there are others that work equally well or even better, especially if we judge by CL titles.
I think the decision to appoint Ralf was a couple of things, mostly we dithered in sacking Ole and therefore lost out on Conte, we had few options, and finally it was the influence of Arnold and Murtagh that got the deal through. I think by January/Feb they regretted the decision. If you think this was a grand design by the club, a long term strategy, I think you are probably wrong. There is no indication that this club thinks years ahead. I believe the furthest they can look forward is basically how far Joel and Avram Glazer can look past their own navels, which isn’t very far.
Fair play