Football’s First Defender

Jose Enrique is already the best player in the left-back position in the Liverpool team so far. Rogers is in the full-back position, and it is impossible to make any adjustments in his current position.

Simply want to strengthen the defense, there are actually no good defensive players in Liverpool's formation that can be used as substitutes.

As for adding manpower from other lines of defense, for Rogers, it must be drinking poison to quench thirst. If you give them easy offensive space for the rich players in Manchester United, it will definitely deal a fatal blow to Liverpool.

After thinking about it, Rogers decided to attack and attack on this halfway.

Coutinho originally assisted in the defense near the left position, but Coutinho's own characteristic is the ability to dribble the ball at his feet. Although the speed is not slow, compared with Valencia's winger attributes, Coutinho On this wing, the defensive pressure on Valencia on the defensive end is still extremely limited, which also allows Valencia to attack unscrupulously, regardless of the space behind him.

Attack against attack, speed against speed.

Aiming at Valencia's strong point, Rogers directly used his first substitution adjustment of the game, replacing Aspers with Sterling, who was fast enough.

Let Coutinho return to the middle position to play his offensive advantage, and let Sterling play on the left, and compete with Valencia on the same side for a 100-meter sprint race.

Sterling's weak physique may not be able to fight against Valencia, but compared to Coutinho before, on the defensive end, he didn't actually drop much. Instead, it was because Sterling was faster than Coutinho. Despite Coutinho's advantage, the defense may be better.

Although the improvement in defense may not be obvious, after Sterling played, Liverpool's counterattack threat on the left has increased a lot.

Coutinho may not be able to make a targeted impact on the space left behind by Valencia.

But Sterling can do it. In terms of speed, Sterling may even be faster than Valencia.

Not long after Sterling came on the field, Valencia moved forward as usual to create a threat, but after the attack was over, Yang Feng made a long pass in the penalty area and directly found the empty space behind Valencia.

After Sterling completed the acceleration, he kept Valencia in the ashes behind him.

That is to say, Sterling's own ability to hit the goal while running at high speed is still lacking. The last personal kick did not break through De Gea's ten fingers.

But the opportunities created by Sterling with his speed also shocked Manchester United into a cold sweat.

Valencia's offense on this side was limited by the threat of Sterling, and they did not dare to attack forward at will as before.

Without the hot spot of Valencia, Manchester United's offense began to stagnate again.

Liverpool, on the other hand, stabilized their defense and played Manchester United's counterattack. Although the possession of the ball did not exceed 50% as usual, this kind of back and forth did not have any effective offensive threat. , For the leading Liverpool, it is definitely beneficial.

On Valencia's side, after having scruples, Manchester United's two wing threats are not so great.

And Ashley Young couldn't find his offensive status for a long time. Moyes could only make substitutions and adjust, and let another wide player of the team, Nani, come on the field to see if he could open up the situation on the left.

Nani's appearance has indeed brought some vitality to Manchester United's left wing, but it is not so easy for Manchester United to make immediate offensive progress.

Although he couldn't play a successful effect on the wing as soon as he came on the field like Valencia, Nani's passing was much better than Ashley Young, who was in poor form today.

Nani sent a through ball and directly found Welbeck in front of him. Welbeck caught the ball in the open space and crossed it horizontally into Liverpool's penalty area. It was the only very threatening attack of Manchester United in the past ten minutes. .

After that, Welbeck fell directly into the penalty area under the defense of Yang Feng and Glenn Johnson, but the referee did not express much.

He just motioned Welbeck to get up quickly.

Looking at the slow-motion playback, it is true that Yang Feng made a sideways collision, but in terms of the penalty scale of the Premier League, this purely physical collision is indeed within the normal defensive range.

Even though Manchester United's offensive situation on the left has improved after Nani played, but for Liverpool's defense, it can still be supported on the pitch.

Instead, it was Nani's appearance. Because of his defensive weakness, Liverpool's counterattack from Henderson on the right can even achieve quite good results.

Only 5 minutes into the game, Nani defended Henderson's counter-attack from the right, but he could only block it with a shovel from behind and received a yellow card.

As for Manchester United, the offensive threat ability is not enough, but they also started to defend, and were harassed enough by Liverpool's counterattack threat.

In the case that the offense has been unable to continue to achieve results, Moyes can only make further substitution adjustments.

Veteran Ryan Giggs was replaced by Pea Hernandez.

Manchester United played a three-forward tactic. With 20 minutes left in the game, Moyes wanted to win in chaos through the increase in the number of forwards, so that the team could put more pressure on Liverpool's defense and try to make progress. ball. It's just that the fierce fighting between the players on both sides still prevented each other from having a good chance, threatening the opponent's core defensive area.

In a dull game between the two sides, each team has a flash player who can arouse the enthusiasm of the fans.

Coutinho on Liverpool's side, using his excellent dribbling ability, can use continuous dribbling to lead the team's offensive frenzy.

On the other hand, the explosive player on Manchester United's side is Evra.

Evra's performance today is indeed outstanding. Not only can he complete his defensive work well, but his offensive performance is even more remarkable.

Judging from the whole game, Manchester United's Evra has been constantly creating opportunities for the team.

And there are opportunities, or opportunities that are snatched by fighting.

When Manchester United's offensive was ineffective and unable to penetrate Liverpool's defense, Evra himself successfully intercepted Gerrard's pass in the midfield, and then rushed to the penalty area with the ball. 1v3 faced Liverpool's defenders without any hesitation. In the end, relying on his brave dribbling, Manchester United won an excellent free kick in front of the penalty area.

It's just a pity that Manchester United's offensive players did not perform well today. A free kick in such a good position also ended with an anti-aircraft gun.

The entire Manchester United offensive line, even though many offensive players have been added, has not changed in terms of offense.

Especially for Liverpool, after Carragher and Sissoko were replaced one after another, the team's last line of defense became stronger.

The offensive tactics that Moyes wanted to play for Manchester United could not create shooting opportunities in the dangerous area at all.

After a full 20 minutes, the most threatening thing for Manchester United was actually Nani relying on his personal ability, cutting inside and hitting the goal with a long shot, which was brilliantly resolved by Mignolet. All the remaining offensive attempts were eventually destroyed by Liverpool's impregnable defense.

1 to 0, Liverpool won the game in the first "double red meeting" of the season, and also won three consecutive victories in the Premier League at the beginning of the season. The Red Army's recovery may be this season.