Football’s First Defender

After the loss to Newcastle, it was another double match a week, the Champions League match in the middle of the week.

Liverpool travel to Madrid to play away against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu.

As the most historical team in the Champions League and the most successful team in the 20th century, there is no one. Real Madrid itself is a monument of European football standing there.

Real Madrid, which had won three consecutive victories in the group before, won this game, and can even get the first promotion in the group two rounds in advance with a high probability.

With the remaining three teams with 3 points, Liverpool wants to take the initiative to advance. In this game against Real Madrid, it is better not to lose.

Because if Real Madrid wins the game against Liverpool and takes a rest in the next two games, then if any upset really breaks out, it will be very passive for Liverpool's promotion.

Liverpool still wants to struggle in the away game, but although Real Madrid is not in good form, Liverpool also played well on the defensive end.

But Marcelo showed his individual ability in the second half, forcing a breakthrough Glenn Johnson, and sent a wonderful low pass from the left wing.

Isco, who was in the middle, poked and shot the goal, and still scored the only goal of the game.

Liverpool was double-killed by Real Madrid and completely fell into a passive situation where they might not be able to qualify for the Champions League group stage.

On the plane back to Liverpool, the atmosphere in the team was very bad.

The ups and downs of the team's current record, and the lack of competitiveness in the face of strong teams, have made Liverpool have to make large-scale tactical changes.

Everyone knows that Liverpool has to change, and how to change and how to make the team perform better has become a problem that Liverpool must solve at present.

The next day, at Liverpool's training base, Rodgers internally announced the starting list for the match against Chelsea three days before the start of training.

Changes in personnel in other areas are normal, but Gerrard, who has no injuries, was placed on the bench, which shocked everyone.

Gerrard looked at the questioning eyes cast by his teammates and acted quite calmly.

This is the result of a long conversation between Gerrard and Rodgers after they returned to Liverpool last night.

Rogers needs to make new tactical adjustments, and the physical fitness of Gerrard, who is one year older, is destined to be a huge hidden danger.

Rodgers described the new tactical construction in detail, and Gerrard also knew that he could not do the galloping in the whole game required in the tactics. In the case of not wanting to drag the team back, it may be beneficial to the team. Say it's the best option right now.

Gerrard himself also understands that many goals conceded by the team before are related to the defensive flaws in the midfield. When Gerrard has to pay attention to defense and physical distribution recently, he lacks his own strength. The threat of long-range shots forward, Liverpool's offense, there are not enough offensive players, and it is normal to have a sense of stagnation.

For Liverpool's record and multiple championship goals this season, Gerrard is willing to sacrifice playing time in a few games to verify Rodgers' new style of play.

If it is really effective, then Gerrard can also be willing to play off the bench in future games, just like Carragher in the last few seasons...

The training time is very tight. Now that the starting lineup has been determined, the starting players of Liverpool need to get familiar with new tactics, new running positions, and show a new mental outlook to deal with the challenge of the weekend leader Chelsea.

Tens of thousands of Liverpool fans gathered at Anfield Stadium on the weekend. Although the team's recent situation is not good, this does not affect the local people's love for Liverpool.

This strong duel is definitely the highlight of this round of the Premier League. Although Liverpool have played dull games recently, and Chelsea has never been a team that is open to attack, but such a strong dialogue, the intensity of itself, makes everyone They are all looking forward to it.

However, Liverpool fans who paid attention to the starting roster before the game found that Gerrard did not appear on the starting roster. The first reaction was that the Jay team was injured, but they continued to look down and saw the Jay team on the substitute list. They were a little surprised .

As the banner figure of Liverpool, Gerrard actually sat on the bench today and did not start the game.

This is news that shocked many people familiar with Liverpool.

Gerrard is definitely a business card of Liverpool, a player who supported Liverpool's name during Liverpool's lonely period, but now, he will choose to play as a substitute. Everyone is waiting for Liverpool's off-court news after the game source……

And Liverpool's game fully demonstrated that young people are in charge.

Rogers put out a 433 lineup.

The defense line is all the "veterans" of last season. After Flanagan recovered from injury, he came back and directly replaced Moreno, who suffered a loss in height, back to the starting position.

As for the configuration of the three midfielders, Rogers chose Henderson, Lucas, plus the young midfielder Emre Can.

The three midfielders all have a certain defensive ability and can form enough defensive pressure for the Liverpool midfielder.

The three strikers are Sturridge, Coutinho and Sterling.

When the new aid took turns to play and failed to achieve results, only Emre Can succeeded in the end. It can be seen that Rogers also considers himself a failure in his transfer operation this season.

Unlike Liverpool, another lineup change is different.

Chelsea continues to stick to its 451 tactics this season. This season, Diego Coster, a thigh-level striker transferred from Atletico Madrid, is still the team's well-deserved siege hammer.

And behind him, there are Hazard, Oscar, a technical midfielder who is good at breaking through, and Fabregas, a long-passing master who delivers ammunition, making Costa temporarily top the scorer list this season.

The entire Chelsea team building style also inherited Mourinho's tactical philosophy of giving priority to defense.

Matic, Ramirez is in charge of defense in the midfield.

In the defense system of four backs, the priority is to do a good job in defense, and then the full backs can plug in and attack.

From the start of the game, Liverpool displayed a rather different mentality.

A younger midfielder gives Rogers the capital to make the tactical changes he has always wanted to make.

At the end of Liverpool's attack this time, they no longer retreated, but the central and frontcourt players continued to press forward and launched an on-the-spot press in the frontcourt.

Put more pressure on the opponent to play the ball in the midfield, and completely hand over the defense to the defense led by Yang Feng.

This very aggressive scrambling tactic requires players to have more physical fitness, and all members to maintain scrambling strength to prevent the opponent from easily hitting the ball.

It also requires the team's midfielder to be able to have high-strength individual defensive capabilities and not let opponents easily pass through the defense zone.

This was not enough protection in the case of Gerrard dragging back and playing the midfielder before.

Gerrard's self-sacrifice made Liverpool's tactical changes achieve the effect Rogers expected.

Although the threat on the offensive end has not yet been fully demonstrated, Liverpool's spirit and aggression in defense are all gratifying.

Anfield Stadium, this time it will not be so easy for Chelsea to break through.