Football’s First Defender

In the double-red games in the past few seasons, Liverpool actually has a certain advantage.

After Ferguson retired, neither Moyes nor Van Gaal could quickly integrate the team and restore the team to its former glory.

In recent years, under the guidance of correct tactics and correct players, Liverpool has grown into a top European team in an instant.

But today, Liverpool have dedicated their worst performance at Old Trafford in recent seasons.

Rodgers, who was full of expectations for many new aids, was once again "acted" by the players sent on the field. A large number of new aids flooded the team. If facing an ordinary team, Liverpool can still rely on the strong personalities of the players Strength, obtain suppression.

But facing a team of the same level as Manchester United, the Liverpool players obviously couldn't show the effect they wanted to play when they were unable to exert their full strength in the game.

Of course, the eldest brother does not say the second brother.

Liverpool's performance is poor, and Manchester United's problems are also very big.

Although Liverpool didn't play well enough, for Manchester United, who are playing at home, they couldn't create too good offensive opportunities in the game.

Throughout the first half, the two teams seemed to have a fast pace, but their own weak offensive capabilities were unable to pose too much threat to their opponents.

After accumulating enough defensive players in the middle and restricting the passage of the midfield, the two teams also lacked offensive changes. They could only choose the wide-footed ball from the side most of the time, hoping to pass it to the front of the goal to create some miracles.

Liverpool's Benteke and Manchester United's Fellaini are both good header players, but in the case of one against two or even three against the team, almost all of them face the team with a 45-degree oblique long pass. The speed of the ball is not enough, and the non-threatening pass with a long pass distance cannot be converted into a shooting opportunity.

Occasionally, he was able to complete the top fight in the penalty area a few times, but the second landing point was almost snatched by the opponent.

When each other has the problem of weak offense, the two teams invariably choose to give priority to their own defense, and must not let the opponent score first.

Throughout the first half, the two teams were weak in offense and did not get even a chance to shoot on target. Of course, it was Liverpool who performed the worst.

In the case that Manchester United's team lineup is already quite tangled, Liverpool made more mistakes on the field.

Although Liverpool and Manchester United have a 1-3 shooting ratio and no shots are on target, Liverpool actually had an excellent chance to break the deadlock.

When Manchester United launched a forward press at 28 minutes and wanted to try to play a wave of offense, Yang Feng made a sudden defense in front of the penalty area and completed the steal with a ground pass from Manchester United.

Although he lost the threat of Sterling's speed in the frontcourt, Yang Feng's more accurate long pass ability was the first to guide the long pass and found Firmino who had already run out of space in front of him.

The Brazilian has no choice when it comes to small skills.

A wonderful stoppage action, without any delay, the ball was unloaded from the foot, and the attack was launched immediately.

Firmino combined the ball to run extremely fast and advanced quickly from the middle, but everything happened too suddenly, and Liverpool instantly formed a 2-on-2 opportunity.

And Smalling alone has some fears about defending Firmino.

Phil Jones, who was dragged to the end, has been paying attention to Firmino's side and preparing to defend.

But the width of the field is huge. When two Manchester United players gathered near the center to defend the fast-advancing Firmino, Benteke, who advanced from the left to the center, had a lot of space in front of him.

Of course, Benteke has a strong physical confrontation ability, but his height and weight limit his running speed.

Although Firmino wanted to pass the ball, he didn't dare to pass the ball too deep, because Phil Jones and even De Gea, who were slightly behind, could completely catch up with the ball and complete the clearance by relying on their speed advantage.

And if the ball is passed directly to Benteke's feet, with Benteke's speed, he may be able to get rid of Phil Jones' defense and dribble the ball to the point where he can complete the goal when he is close to ten meters away from the penalty area. Location.

As a striker, Benteke has been pointing forward, signaling his teammates to pass the ball.

And Firmino is not a greedy person, and he is also ready to pass the ball.

However, the lack of tacit understanding makes the two people's thoughts on the court completely out of sync.

Firmino is waiting for the passing opportunity and wants to send the most threatening pass.

On the other hand, Benteke thought that I had run out of position, and if my teammates couldn't pass the ball, it was not my fault.

Benteke was still accelerating at full speed, but he didn't notice that the two Manchester United players chose to grab Firmino together at the same time.

When Phil Jones and Smalling went up to the left and right at the same time, Firmino finally didn't wait, and kicked the ball diagonally to find Benteke who was open.

Benteke catches the ball one-handedly, and then... offside.

Benteke, who didn't slow down at all, rushed directly to the offside area at full speed when two defensive players of Manchester United went directly to grab.

The tacit understanding between the two offensive players was not enough, and an excellent counterattack opportunity was directly wasted. Rogers on the sidelines was so angry that he threw the water bottle in his hand...

In the first half of the game, the two sides relied entirely on the mistakes of their peers.

Liverpool is obviously "better" in turnover performance due to the starting game of 6 new aids.

The various passes are not tacit, and the running positions overlap, interspersed in Liverpool's offensive position.

Can you imagine that in a top team, there will be a mistake in which the ball is passed to an open position, and then the wide player does not react and gives the ball directly out of the sideline?

Then Liverpool played twice.

Mistakes continue to occur, and there are still serious problems of tacit cooperation in the frontcourt, making Liverpool fight on their own.

And the constant cooperation mistakes between the new players also passed on the tension caused by the mistakes to the old players.

The most threatening thing for Liverpool in the first half was the last offside counterattack, and for Manchester United, the two most threatening attacks were all gifted by Liverpool themselves.

First, in the opening stage, Liverpool goalkeeper Mignolet threw the ball from a fan and gave the entire empty goal to Fellaini, but he didn't kick it in.

And before the end of the first half, it was Mignolet and his teammates who made a mistake in cooperation and almost gave Manchester United an own goal.

When Liverpool made a pass in the backcourt, Manchester United suddenly completed a wave of grabs, putting tremendous pressure on Liverpool's midfield.

Based on the principle of safety first, Yang Feng chose to pass the ball back to Mignolet.

And Mignolet obviously had the intention of "playing". After luring Manchester United player Depay's forward grab, he sent the ball to Emre Can who responded on the right.

As a result, the ball was played too slowly, causing Emre Can to be pressed by Depay and Fellaini in two directions.

Emre Can neither wanted to clear the ball directly out of bounds, nor did he want to make a big mistake in such a dangerous area.

Facing the knife-mountain ball passed by Mignolet, he directly passed it back with a strong kick, and passed it back no matter how it was passed.

Faced with this return pass, Depay did not react immediately according to Emre Can's expectations. The ball passed directly from Depay and passed back to the goal.

But after Mignolet passed the knife mountain ball to his teammates, he did not expect that Emre Can would pass the ball back and was also unprepared.

A mistake in stopping the ball, the ball actually bounced, and was about to go into the goal "bouncing".

Fortunately, Mignolet's reaction was fast enough, he turned around quickly, chased back, and then almost on the goal line, with a flying foot, cleared the ball.

Outside the restricted area, watching Mignolet's performance of "showing off the audience" in the first half also made Yang Feng frown.

"Sure enough, the trajectory of history will not change too much, and Mi Shen has become a low ratio..."