Football’s First Defender

Liverpool's oppressive half-time performance against Arsenal today caused countless Chinese fans who stayed up all night to watch the game to exclaim, "It's a taste!"

Liverpool is the familiar Liverpool team from last season. Even against strong teams, they play with ease. On the offensive end, they can play extremely threatening and wonderful offensive cooperation.

As for Arsenal, in the away game at Anfield, they were so passive in the game scene, and Liverpool scored the first goal. The difficulty of winning this game has increased sharply.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, Wenger wanted to use the suddenness to play a wave of offensive climax belonging to Arsenal.

It's just that Liverpool has long been prepared, especially Yang Feng. After Giroud was handed over to Skrtel to mark, he was fully responsible for the area defense in Liverpool's penalty area.

The main defensive attention is concentrated on Sanchez.

The striker, who had just switched from Barcelona to Arsenal in the summer, seamlessly connected with the Gunners as soon as he came to Arsenal, and his performance was quite impressive.

Yang Feng naturally knows the prestige of "Sang Thigh". This is an excellent offensive player who will support half of Arsenal's offensive by himself for a long time.

For him, Yang Feng would not have the slightest possibility of underestimating the enemy.

It's just that in the opening stage, Arsenal's first pursuit was to pass from the wing, trying to make a fuss about Giroud's high point in the penalty area.

Not to mention that Yang Feng's judgment on the placement of the high ball is short and excellent, and sometimes he can participate in the defense appropriately. Even if Skrtel himself faces Giroud, he will not be at a disadvantage. Otherwise, it would be difficult for the Arsenal players to grab the first spot in the Liverpool penalty area.

Yang Feng and Skrtel's rounds of clearances helped Liverpool easily survive Arsenal's first offensive.

After slowing down Arsenal's opening three tricks, Liverpool began to try to regain the initiative.

It's just that the visiting team's players, who had been slapped in the middle by Professor Wenger, used a very active press to immediately raise the pace of the game, which made the Liverpool players feel a little uncomfortable.

Liverpool can also bring up the rhythm and fight Arsenal in midfield, but that would consume too much physical energy for Liverpool players.

Due to the tight pressure in the first half and the physical energy consumed by counter-robbing on the spot, for Liverpool players, they need to allocate their physical energy more reasonably in the second half. Otherwise, when they face Manchester United, a period of physical collapse may cause very bad results. the result of.

Arsenal was like this in the second half, "grabbing" the initiative, but while they took the initiative to attack, they also had to bear Liverpool's excellent defensive counterattack.

Arsenal's attack, now that the personnel are suffering from serious injuries, the biggest threat point is Sanchez, surrounded by layers of Liverpool's defenders, while others, old and young, have obvious weaknesses and can be defended Players are targeted.

Arsenal's offense has possession of the ball, but there is no good opportunity to attack.

On the other hand, Liverpool's counterattack was played vigorously.

The speed of Arsenal's central defender, Mertesacker is too slow, this time he became the target of Liverpool's counterattack.

Everyone is almost rushing to defend Mertesacker's side. Facing Liverpool's extremely impactful striker group, Mertesacker's defense can't hold on at all.

It's just that Liverpool's counterattack opportunity was not grasped for a short time.

First, in Coutinho's counterattack, he used his speed and flexibility to force Mertesacker to focus all his attention on himself, and then easily distributed the ball to Lallana on the left.

Mertesacker changed positions and was unable to make up the defense. When Lallana made a pass from the left, no one completed the interference.

Lallana passed the ball in an inverted triangle and accurately found Arsenal's rear air defense. Unfortunately, Sterling followed up with a volley from the penalty spot, but it was kicked away, missing a good opportunity to expand the score.

A minute later, thanks to Yang Feng's steal, Liverpool's counterattack came back.

Coutinho received a direct pass from Yang Feng in the midfield area and directly kicked the pass to the front.

Arsenal's backcourt was empty, and Sterling and Mertesacker competed for sprint speed.

Mertesacker kept trying to fight with his body to affect Sterling's speed-up, but Sterling was still carrying his body to fight, and in less than a second, he accelerated and threw Mertesacker away.

It's just that when the ball was stopped, Sterling was a little short of fire.

Szczesny, who attacked, did not directly hug the football, but he also forced Sterling to choose, reaching out for the ball, and stabbing the ball near the baseline.

Arsenal's other defensive players ran back to the goal at full speed and defended the empty goal, which also limited Sterling's chance to hit the goal from a small angle. Sterling could only choose to pass the ball to the back point with one kick.

Balotelli followed up with a header, but it still missed.

Liverpool, who wasted consecutive opportunities, was almost punished afterwards.

Two minutes later, Arsenal took advantage of Liverpool's unsuccessful counterattack and played an exquisite frontcourt coordination.

Cazorla made a quick breakthrough from the wing and passed the ball directly to Giroud in the penalty area. Skrtel thought that Giroud would choose to hit the goal and concentrated on waiting.

However, Giroud passed the ball non-stop and hit the ball to the left baseline area.

Cazorla continued to accelerate forward after passing the ball, taking advantage of Liverpool's wide space, just before the ball went out of the baseline, caught up with the ball, and directly passed the ball back into the penalty area.

The continuous passing back and forth directly tore Liverpool's defense.

As Skrtel moved back into the six-yard box to defend Cazorla's pass, Giroud bounced outside to gain space.

Cazorla's inverted triangle pass just passed to Giroud at the front point.

Giroud adjusted and hit the door directly.

It's just that this adjustment gave Yang Feng time to make up his defense.

Seeing Skrtel's "leaking", Yang Feng immediately defended him. Giroud's adjustment just made Yang Feng make an accelerated sliding action.

Giroud's volley hit the goal, but in the end it just hit Yang Feng's leg and bounced off the baseline...

A dangerous attack by Arsenal cannot save Liverpool's game with more threatening offenses.

After the game, the biggest threat continued to come from Liverpool.

Jie team, who came off the bench, took a long shot and almost expanded the score for Liverpool.

But now Sterling's combination of speed and technology is getting better and better. He can also dance "ballet" in front of the penalty area, use technical fake moves, sway the defense, and create opportunities to hit the goal.

Liverpool's counterattack threat, in the continuous accumulation, finally created an opportunity to expand the score.

In the 74th minute of the game, Liverpool once again completed an offensive interception against Arsenal.

Yang Feng sent a long pass from the backcourt, Sterling on the right received the ball, accelerated forward, and sent a cross directly down the right.

Balotelli, who followed up in the middle, finally seized the opportunity this time.

Seemingly heading straight for the goal, he suddenly turned forward. This time, a very tacit movement allowed Balotelli to get rid of the defender, grab a shot and send the ball into the goal guarded by Szczesny.

The tacit cooperation between Liverpool's private training groups.

Balotelli finally enjoyed the joy of team football, and the sweat of his private comeback was not in vain. He danced happily on the sidelines with his good brother Sterling who assisted him.

In the end, Liverpool, which led 2-0, withstood Arsenal's two counterattacks, and then directly retreated.

At Anfield, Liverpool are still the same, unbeatable champions...