Football’s First Defender

Liverpool and Manchester United, the sworn rivals, finally drew in the first double red meeting of the season at Old Trafford.

Both sides had the chance to win the game, but they failed to grasp it in the end, and they worked together to dedicate a wonderful game with ups and downs.

The recent winning streak of the two teams has been terminated, and several other giants have become vested interests. Chelsea and Manchester City have widened the points gap, while Arsenal and Tottenham behind them have narrowed the gap with the Champions League.

This is a game that means a lot to both teams.

For Liverpool, when the team led away, they lost a good game.

The team's defense on the wing, when there were physical problems in the second half, the weakness was undoubtedly revealed, which is the problem that Liverpool needs to focus on solving next.

But in Liverpool's subsequent games, after falling behind in the game, the tenacity shown was also impressive.

Especially for the equalizing goal, Liverpool used a seemingly unreasonable cooperation between Gerrard and Yang Feng to penetrate the goal guarded by Manchester United De Gea.

Whether this kind of unconventional weapon can become the norm in the future, and whether Yang Feng, who has achieved the ultimate in defense, can use his remaining energy to develop his role in offense is also everyone's new expectation for Liverpool.

After a draw with Manchester United, Liverpool continued to triumph in the Carabao Cup.

The mixed match lineup of the main force and the substitutes still ensured that Liverpool easily defeated the British Championship team Bournemouth 3-1 in the away game and advanced to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.

This year's first championship goal, Liverpool set a small goal in the English League Cup.

After defeating Bournemouth, Liverpool returned to their home court. In the following Premier League matches, they ushered in another "Arsenal" Arsenal, which is famous for its offense and pass control.

The most intensive December schedule in the Premier League will consume the physical energy of players on both sides

Both are huge.

Both teams have experienced personnel disorganization, but Liverpool's losses are the team's most lacking full-backs.

Flanagan and Glenn Johnson are both injured, and Jose Enrique is out of form, while Moreno is also training with minor injuries.

Considering the weak defense of the two flanks and the possible offensive lineup Arsenal may send out, Rodgers simply carried out quite bold tactical reforms in this game.

The 343 system has re-emerged.

Unlike the three central defenders popular in other teams, which only turn the full backs into wing backs in advance, Liverpool's 343 lineup does not have pure wing defenders at all.

Lovren, Skrtel, and Yang Feng are three partners in the midfield. Yang Feng naturally deserves to be the absolute commander standing in the middle.

In the midfield position, Lallana, Henderson, Lucas, and Emre Can lined up, becoming the defensive guarantee before the back line.

The three strikers are Balotelli, Sterling, and Coutinho.

Sturridge was injured again, so Rogers could only make the scoring efficiency a little low, and Bashen, who was very unlucky, made his debut.

And Arsenal continued their 433 lineup, but it was affected by injuries. The most threatening player on the field today may be Sanchez alone.

Liverpool, who sit at home, did not show any mercy in the face of Arsenal, who also performed poorly this season.

As soon as he came up, he attacked aggressively and occupied the absolute initiative on the field.

Just looking at the data on the field, no one will think that this is a strong matchup, but it is like an ordinary league, where the six giants are crushing ordinary teams.

After completing the defense, Arsenal wanted to launch a counterattack, but Liverpool used crazy full-court pressing to complete the press, and did not give them a chance to launch a counterattack.

And Liverpool's offensives, wave after wave, are extremely threatening, and they are only a little short of breaking the goal.

Although the 343 lineup is somewhat uncommon, and lacks side support capabilities.

However, Arsenal has not had a very good midfield defense this season, and there is no good way to face Liverpool's strong center attack.

Coutinho was Liverpool's best player in the first half.

In Arsenal's midfield, only Flamini is a defensive midfielder, and Mertesacker is also a bulky central defender in the defense. Coutinho fully demonstrated his flexibility and skills in this game. ability.

Constantly use running and interspersing to forcibly create 1v1 opportunities, then suddenly accelerate to throw off the defender, and receive a pass from his teammates to create a threat.

In the first half of the game, half of the threatening attacks came from Coutinho.

Only 2 minutes into the game, Coutinho's personal breakthrough was in front of the penalty area and suffered a foul. Afterwards, Coutinho took a free kick and directly attacked the goal. Finally, he flew out of the bottom line against the crossbar and almost scored in a blitzkrieg Rewrite the score.

And 5 minutes later, Lalanara suddenly sent a direct pass while advancing with the ball.

Coutinho's fast oblique thrust, in the process of running at full speed, combined with the right Marseille gyration and stopping the ball, he directly led the ball without any mistakes, got rid of Flamini's defense, and entered the penalty area .

It's just a pity that after Marseille's roundabout, Coutinho volleyed with his left foot after taking a step in the penalty area and was rejected by Szczesny.

Although the shot was not scored, what I have to say is that Coutinho's series of actions before hitting the goal were so wonderful that the director of the broadcast couldn't help but replay it twice during the live broadcast.

In addition to his personal goal attack, Coutinho also sent threatening passes many times in the game.

A pass from the middle wanted to assist Lallana who advanced forward.

After receiving the ball, Lallana threw off the defender and entered the penalty area, but it was a pity that he hit the goal from a small angle and failed to pass through Szczesny's wicket. The Arsenal goalkeeper clamped his legs and blocked the shot.

In the 30th minute or so of the game, Arsenal seized the opportunity to send out multiple people to fight back. After Liverpool intercepted the ball, Coutinho received a long pass from Yang Feng and directly advanced quickly.

After entering his long-range shooting area and attracting the attention of Arsenal's defenders, Coutinho immediately chose to pass the ball.

With a diagonal pass to the left area, Balotelli retreated to the vicinity of the penalty area line and directly hit the ball with a rubbing shot.

It's just that there was a slight deviation in the angle control, and a beautiful arc flew towards the dead corner of the goal, but in the end it rubbed against the outside of the post and popped out of the baseline...

Before the end of the first half, Liverpool completed as many as 10 shot attempts, but none of them scored.

And just when everyone thought that Liverpool might not be able to score at halftime, an accident allowed Liverpool to enter the intermission with a harvest.

In the 44th minute of the game, Arsenal had already lost the ball and wanted to make a final counterattack.

However, under the high-intensity on-the-spot counter-attack situation of Liverpool players, Welbeck made a mistake in the pick pass and was directly intercepted by Lallana.

Lallana immediately made a direct pass and found Coutinho in front of the penalty area.

Before Arsenal wanted to launch a counterattack, many players kept going forward, and there was no way to return to the defense for a while, so Coutinho only had to face Mertesacker in front of him.

Coutinho made a gesture to break to the left, which directly shook Mertesacker's center of gravity. After that, Coutinho made a simple spike and went to the right, directly creating a huge gap in the goal.

Aimed at the opposite corner of the lower left corner of the goal, Szczesny, who was standing forward, had no choice.

The ball finally rubbed against the post accurately and bounced into the goal. Liverpool finally took the lead in this game by virtue of the opportunity of pressing and grabbing the frontcourt.