Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool is undoubtedly one of the most terrifying teams that any team can come up against. Thanks to their fast-paced offensive players and high-pressing tactics, each and every player plays high up the pitch and essentially suffocates the opposition, causing them to lose control of the ball right away.
This level of pressure is so effective that most teams struggle with ball possession or even getting the ball out of their own half. Any Liverpool fan will know what kind of difficulty many teams without creative midfield and aggressive tactics will face when playing against the scousers.
Since Klopp took over the reds back in 2015, many players have shown interest in adopting the Liverpool custom tactics on FIFA 22.
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll show you how to play like Liverpool in FIFA 22. I’ll break down everything from picking the right squad formation to offensive and defensive tactics as well as all custom player instructions that you need to be aware of.
Squad Formation
For the 2021/22 season, Jurgen Klopp has gone for the 4-3-3 Holding formation, which leaves him with a striker upfront followed by two wingers and a CDM in-between the two CB’s and the two CM’s.
4-3-3 holding is the best Liverpool formation in FIFA 22 as it allows for your offensive players to be aggressive in attack with decent creative support and distribution by the center midfielders while the fullbacks shift forward and the CB’s and the CDM act as the front line of defense.
It’s one of the most high-pressure and aggressive ball-hungry formations implemented by not only Jurgen Klopp but also Pep Guardiola and many other top managers from across the world.
Custom Liverpool Tactics on FIFA 22
As far as custom tactics are concerned, on FIFA 22, you can change both the defensive and the offensive aspects of your Liverpool squad. You can change everything from the width and depth to the number of players you want in the box during corners, free kicks, and virtually any other set-piece. You can also amend the style of play you want your players to follow.
Let’s take a closer look at each starting with the defense.
Defense
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool has become one of the best sides as far as defense is concerned. This is particularly because their defensive actions aren’t just left up to the defenders but rather the entire team. As soon as the ball is lost, the entire team applies pressure until the ball is won back in possession.
Thus, for your defensive style, I want you to switch between the different options and pick “Constant Pressure”.
Next up, we have width and depth of play. My advice here is to put your width to 60 and your depth on 80. This way, your entire squad will be compact while everyone will be pushing high up the field, leaving your opponent with very little space to work with. That’s one of the reasons why Liverpool have more possession than their opponents in the majority of their games – they simply know how to win the ball back quickly and effectively.
Offense
As far as Jurgen Klopp’s offensive strategy goes, it follows a rather balanced build-up of play depending on the situation. He also keeps the width of the field quite tight (at 70) but not too tight to allow his forwards to make runs (particularly the wingers), which are responsible for most of the goals scored by the Liverpool side. For that reason, the chance creation option is set to “Forward Runs”.
In some cases, the wingers make runs, leaving them with the chance of crossing the ball to one of the supporting players (usually being the other winger, striker, and some of the central midfielders. To recreate that tactic, set your “Players in Box” setting to 6 bars.
When it comes to set pieces, Liverpool heavily populates the box with some of the strongest and tallest players (VVD is a great example of that). Jurgen wants as many players in the box as possible without sacrificing or exposing the defensive side of the team too much. To replicate that tactic, set the corners bar to 4 and the free kicks to 3 (Liverpool mostly strikes the ball directly at the goal but in some cases, they also cross it in when the free-kick position isn’t suitable for a direct strike.
Liverpool Player Roles
As far as player roles are concerned, Jurgen Klopp has a man for every situation. The team captain role is given to one of the most experienced players in the Liverpool squad, Jordan Henderson, while the left short free-kick and left corner are most often done by Andy Robertson.
On the flip side, for right short free kicks, right corner kicks, as well as long free kicks, Trent Alexander-Arnold stands behind the ball for those. For penalties, Klopp has put all of his trust in the Egyptian King, Mohamed Salah.
Custom Player Instructions
Besides all the general tactics, you can further customize your team by giving each player custom instructions. I’ve already done all the research for you, and below, I’ll show you every custom instruction for every player on the pitch to mimic that of the real Liverpool football club.
Striker
Under the German boss, Roberto Firmino’s job is to score goals and occupy and drag along opposing defenders to open space for the wingers. To do that, once the wingers initiate an attack, the Brazilian drops back dragging with him at least one defender and opening up space for the wingers to get in behind and cut in as they see fit or pass the ball to Firminho, who can then strike it at the back of the net.
To achieve a similar tactic in FIFA 22, set your ST’s support runs to “Stay Central” and attacking runs to “False 9”. This will make the striker stay in position centrally relative to the field and drop back as a False 9 during the attack so that the wingers can do their job.
As I mentioned previously, Liverpool’s defensive effort starts with the striker. If you’ve watched a few games, you’ll see how aggressive the offensive players are even when the ball is high upfield. To achieve this, set your ST’s interceptions for “Aggressive Interceptions”. As for defensive support, leave that to (Default).
Wingers
Under Jurgen Klopp, the two wingers are responsible for scoring most of the goals for Liverpool. This is because they are instructed by the German boss to viciously attack and not be afraid to shoot.
To mimic Jurgen’s exact instructions for his LW and RW (Mane and Salah), you want to set the support runs to both wingers to “Get In Behind” as that will make your forwards run behind the defense when an opportunity presents itself.
You also want to change the chance creation to “Cut Inside”, which will make your wingers make cutting runs to the inside from out wide. Those two tactics have been of particular importance to the success of Jurgen Klopp’s attacking strategy.
As for the rest of the instructions, leave them as they are, (Default).
Center Midfielders
The center midfield has a more of a dynamic role in the Liverpool squad. Their job is to not only cover both flanks but also to supplement the attack with sharp, accurate, and timed passes to either the ST or one of the wingers who will then make a run.
To re-create this tactic in FIFA 22, set your player’s positioning freedom to “Drift Wide” and defensive position to “Cover Wing”. This will enable your center midfield to help defend against any sudden loss of possession and make up for the missing fullbacks, which would be upfield helping with the attack.
Besides that, when your CM’s are positioned wide, one of your wingers can simply direct the ball back to either CM, which can then cross it to one of the many players upfront.
As for the rest of the CM instructions, keep those to default.
Center Defensive Midfielder
Your central defensive midfielder is going to have a rather defensive role and support your center backs in case of a counter-attack. This is because your full-backs are assigned the role of running up the pitch and supporting the attack, making them unavailable in case you need to suddenly need to defend against a counterattack.
To mimic this tactic, set your CDM’s attacking support to “Drop Between Defenders” and defensive position to “Cover Center”, which will help your team defend with three rather than two defenders in case you suddenly lose possession of the ball and a counterattack is initiated.
As for the rest of the instructions, keep them to (Default).
Center Backs
The CB’s VVD and Matip are responsible for making sure that no ball goes past the defensive line. Both players are great at reading the opponents and awaiting the perfect moment to step up and intercept a potentially dangerous pass.
To mimic this tactic, set both of your defender’s defensive positions to “Step Up”. This will make your center backs a lot more effective at marking opposing attackers tighter and not only giving them less space to move around but also intercepting long or sharp passes.
As for the rest of the instructions, leave those to their default to keep your defensive line intact and without any “holes”.
Full Backs
Though the fullbacks have mostly defensive abilities, that’s not the case when the players are managed under Jurgen Klopp. Under the German manager, both fullbacks for Liverpool join the attack in order to populate upfield and provide the necessary support to the center midfield and the attackers.
To mimic the full-backs tactic that Jurgen Klopp uses, set your attacking runs to “Join The Attack” and run type to “Overlap”. This way, when the ball is in your possession, the players will run upfield and will support you in an attack.
As far as interceptions and defensive positioning are concerned, stick those to default. You don’t want your full-backs to leave any gaps in defense or be too aggressive in your opposition’s half. This can cause serious issues, especially if your opponent is counterattacking.
Goalkeeper
While some of the goalkeeper instructions allow you to instruct your keeper to come out of position during corners or to chase loose balls, I’d highly discourage you to go for those.
Let me give you an example. During a corner kick, the second you bring out your keeper, your opponent instantly has an advantage over your defenders and the ball is a lot likelier to go in the back of the net. I don’t know why that is but that’s the case. Here I am speaking from experience having played FIFA for over 10 years.
It’s worth noting that if you keep your keeper’s instructions to default, as I’ve recommended, that doesn’t mean you can’t bring your keeper out. If you notice that your keeper can get to the ball earlier than the opponent’s player (especially during through balls and long passes), then you can by simply pressing Y on an Xbox controller and square on a PS controller.
Final Thoughts
And that concludes our guide to the best FIFA 22 Liverpool tactics. Now that you know everything from player-specific instructions to the perfect formation for the squad, you can finally start and play like Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
