Football’s First Defender

In the first round of the Premier League, only Manchester United, which played the league opener, became the loser among the six giants in this round of the league.

The integration of new aid is not effective, and the veterans are full of conflicts. After the first game of the new season, Manchester United did not show the kind of arrogance in the transfer market that they had before the start of the season.

For Liverpool, the team's performance in the first round was quite satisfactory, but those who are familiar with Liverpool last season can definitely see that there are still certain problems in Liverpool's offense this season.

Losing Suarez, the biggest loss to Liverpool is that the team lost a player in the frontcourt who can connect in a small range.

Although Coutinho's attack on the wing is also effective, but simply pulling the edge, it still limited his outstanding performance in the midfielder position last season, and lacked the creativity behind the "3s".

As for the opponent in the second round, Liverpool faced their old enemy Manchester City last season.

In the previous Community Shield, Liverpool was beaten without temper by Manchester City.

As for the second match in a short period of time, although this game was played at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester City, the entire Liverpool team wanted to use their outstanding performance to change the decline of the previous "warm-up match" to prove that own strength.

But before the game started, Liverpool lost a general first.

The team's midfielder Lucas suffered a thigh strain during training and will definitely not be able to play in this crucial game.

Lacking the defensive midfielder Lucas, Rodgers did not let new aid Emre Can come off the bench. In such a strong matchup, Rodgers still believes in his team's rotation lineup last season.

Henderson and Gerrard went to play the position of the double midfielder, and Joe Allen was sent to play the position of the attacking midfielder.

With the offensive line led by Sturridge, Coutinho is still responsible for breakthroughs on the left in this game.

In the Community Shield Cup, Manchester City seized the weakness and stormed for a while, which caused Liverpool to fall behind absolutely in the game.

Today's Liverpool changed tactics. Even if they came to the Etihad Stadium as a guest, the team's offensive posture was directly displayed.

Since there are certain loopholes in defense, it is good to rely on offense to make up for it.

As for Manchester City, Aguero sat on the bench due to some minor injuries in this game and did not start the game.

But the starting Dzeko and Jovetic are also currently the top strikers in European football.

The striker combination of the double center made Manchester City change from the previous pass-and-control style of play in this game, and began to focus on making a fuss on the wing.

After confirming the starting lineup, Rogers also knew that he didn't need to worry too much about his defense in the middle, but he still didn't change his tactics, but wanted to try to master the offensive in the away game.

Liverpool, the defending champion, wants to regain the strong feeling of last season.

For Manchester City, Silva and Nasri, who are separated on the left and right, will cooperate with the left back Clichy and the right back Sabaletta, and will continue to attack Liverpool's side defense.

The midfield combination of Yaya Toure and Fernando, in addition to solid defense, can also contribute a good long-range threat.

The game has just started, and Liverpool is looking forward to their opening three tricks, which can seize the rhythm of the game and take the initiative to attack in the away game.

Limited by the running ability of the two forwards, Manchester City's defense is indeed weak in terms of defensive personnel.

It's just that the defensive quality of the players is indeed extremely high.

Especially the new aid midfielder Fernando, after he transferred from Porto to Manchester City, his excellent sweeping ability and tireless running have a greater defensive coverage than Fernandinho.

Can sweep an area alone, effectively liberating Yaya Toure on the defensive end, and cooperate with the defenders on the defensive line to limit Liverpool's offense to the dangerous area.

Liverpool started the game and wanted to attack from Coutinho's side, but it was predicted by Manchester City's pre-match defensive arrangement.

Manchester City, which has assembled a large number of defensive forces on the wing, is surrounded by Nasri, Zabaleta, and Fernando on Coutinho's side, which does not give Coutinho anything to play. space.

After strangling Coutinho's offensive threat, Manchester City's defense further expanded. In the game, Liverpool's offense formed a huge oppression.

Liverpool, who didn't have a good offensive option, finally in order to avoid Manchester City's counterattack from hitting their own defense, they could only hand over possession of the ball slowly, allowing Manchester City to occupy the possession advantage and start attacking.

For most of the first half, Manchester City's wide crosses did not pose enough threats to Liverpool.

Indeed, the excellent personal ability of Manchester City players can create many passing opportunities, but the landing point of the wing pass in the penalty area, even if Dzeko and Jovetic are competing for the top, but Yang Feng and Scoo Under Tell's defense, Manchester City's final finishing ability is still not good enough.

Manchester City, which has been unable to make further progress, began to change its style of play.

The team still starts the attack on the wing.

But Nasri and Silva, not as the final pass option from the wing, but hand the ball to the full-back who plugs in, as the main passer.

On the other hand, Silva and Nasri interspersed into Liverpool's penalty area to increase Manchester City's offensive numbers, and also to draw a certain amount of attention from Liverpool's defensive players.

Nasri's piercing may only depend on his own personal finishing ability, but Silva's piercing really killed Liverpool's defense.

Silva doesn't look small, but he dares to resist defensive players in the penalty area.

Its excellent technical ability, coupled with excellent agility and flexibility, make it like a loach, drilling around in Liverpool's penalty area.

Yang Feng has always been the most wary of Silva, but he knows that in Manchester City under Guardiola, Silva can pass the ball and run into the penalty area to become a catcher under the pass control system. How much difficulty has been caused to the defense of other teams in the Premier League by launching a personal offense.

Gua Shuai just developed all of Silva's offensive strength.

After that, Silva, who became bald but also became stronger, is an absolute core offensive player in Manchester City. It is because of his ghostly running position that the threat of Manchester City's pass control tactics has reached the extreme.

Nowadays, there may not be so much tactical slant on Silva, but Yang Feng will also give Silva more attention while defending the Manchester City striker.

It's just that a defense is a defense after all. Yang Feng's excellent cover limited Manchester City's two threatening passes, but in the end there was still no way to completely restrain the opponent.

After Jovetic and Silva cooperated with Zabaleta's continuous pass from the wing, Zabaleta made a pass and passed the ball into the Liverpool penalty area.

Dzeko's forward rush for the top was blocked by Yang Feng, and Skrtel came to the front point to defend Silva, but was inserted by Silva, occupying a better landing position, leaning on Skrtel Tell, under the physical confrontation from Skrtel's side and rear, barely unloaded the ball's chest to the outside.

Jovetic, outside the penalty area, directly plugged in, received the football unloaded by Silva, and directly hit the goal with a burst shot.

Mignolet has already made a saving action and blocked the football, but Naihe hit the goal with great force. After the ball was blocked, it did not change much of its route and still "tenaciously" flew into the goal. middle.

1 to 0!

Manchester City, playing at home, finally broke the deadlock and took the lead at the end of the first half.