Speaking at the UK launch of LaLigaTV on which Poyet will function as a pundit, the Uruguayan stated Liverpool’s style would be hard to replicate anywhere else.
I don’t think that you can copy it. A good deal of people in the world attempted to replicate Pep Guardiola. For me they are wrong but I could understand why they tried to copy him. However, you don’t see lots of people trying to play how Klopp plays because it is not that simple since you must have certain people, individual players in certain places to have the ability to create that.”
Liverpool were crowned European Champions last season and are currently 16 points clear in the Premier League, together with the extreme pressing style a vital element in their success.
But Poyet believes that although the intensity is greater in the Premier League, the technical drama remains better in LaLiga.
“Intensity is greater in England, but Spain is better,” he explained.
“I mean, to have the ability to play with high intensity and also be quite good technically you will need to be on top, I mean the very top. I believe in Spain, for the time that I’ve been as a participant and as a trainer, there are more players that they consider the sport and they do different things in this game. It is not like they follow the program 100%, so you want to be improvising all of the time and you want your players to do exactly the same. So it is a different challenge to handling in England.”
Since leaving his latest role with Bordeaux in 2018, Poyet has appeared to reflect on why specific roles did and did not work out for him as a coach.
“As a trainer you learn the Premier League and La Liga are completely different,” he said.
“I have been really analysing my poor experience in Spain. Why did it happen rather than trying to search for explanations, and at precisely the exact same time analysing my last period at the Premier League? Like everywhere there are particular things that are alike, the relationship with the players, the way you wish to work with your staff and the strategy. Then it’s only a case of being in the perfect place at the ideal time.
“Sometimes we are extremely lucky when we arrive in a club in the ideal moment and what’s correct or we arrive at the incorrect time and you are finished within three months. It’s exciting that people see something different. This was my thought when I left England. I ended with Sunderland and I moved overseas because I wanted to see something different. So I moved to Greece, Spain, China, and France, which gave me a completely different view on soccer.”
Poyet’s most successful spell as a supervisor came at Brighton, procuring the club promotion from League 1 before directing them into the Championship playoffs.
But he feels that LaLiga provides more variety and that little clubs are not as likely to play a particular style.
“You will need to show the players that lots of things can occur during the game here in England,” Poyet stated.
“As an instance I always thought, you know when you play at home when you’re a top team against a small team, you understand what’s going to happen. And you know why it is going to happen, sorry we always named the same teams, but if you visit Burnley on a Monday night, you know how they’re going to play. You may visit Villarreal one day and have a very offensive team playing a normal 4-4-2 system. And a year later, go to the exact same place, and have a completely different sort of game, totally different team enjoying a different type of approach and thus you want to pay attention, and you will need the players to be prepared for that.”
Mauricio Pochettino was also a guest in the LaLigaTV launching and Poyet explained that the former director of his previous team Spurs would be in line for any top job when they come available.
“Sometimes you need time,” he said.
If this was the option then you are going to need to wait and that I do not think Mauricio will want to wait too long. The moment one of the large clubs loses their supervisor Pochettino will be there or thereabouts. He must be the first title, possibly Max Allegri and Pochettino, the top two now who enter the upcoming big job.”
