Football’s First Defender

On the weekend after the national team match day, Liverpool's opponent in the league is another wealthy team. In recent years, they have been quite competitive with Manchester City in the championship competition with Liverpool.

Relying on the excellent record since the coaching change, Liverpool has been thriving in the league recently. After changing the 1 win and 4 loss at the beginning of the season, now relying on a wave of league unbeaten, it has reached 6 wins and 2 draws With 4 losses and 20 points, they have already ranked 8th in the league, only 8 points away from the top Leicester City.

Regarding the situation of the Premier League championship this season, the current media believes that Leicester City, which aims to relegation, is only temporarily occupying the top position. After all, the Manchester City duo behind him and Arsenal are both in two Within the difference in points, if a civilian team like Leicester City can win the final league championship, no one will believe it except for the old man who bought his home team with 500 times the odds of winning the championship this season.

However, Yang Feng knows that the trajectory of history is like this. At a time when the six giants of the Premier League were all in a crisis of internal and external troubles, Leicester City suddenly emerged, relying on defensive and counterattack tactics, relying on the team. A group of top players successfully created the "Blue Fox Miracle".

This is also the reason why Yang Feng believes that even if Liverpool encounters great difficulties at the beginning of the season, they may turn around immediately, that is, the points for this year's championship competition will not be too high, and the rich teams generally perform poorly. It is actually very beneficial for Liverpool to catch up from the end of the league.

Now for Liverpool, the gap from the top of the list is 8 points, and everything is possible when the league is only in the 13th round.

Although most of the players in the Liverpool team have participated in the national team competition, compared with the opponents in this game, the physical fitness of the Liverpool players actually has a certain advantage.

Nowadays, the players in the Liverpool team are almost all young people, not to mention their fast recovery ability, and they are not the absolute main players in the national team. In terms of the physical consumption of the national team match day, they are actually not as rich and powerful The absolute main player in Manchester City.

Moreover, players like Yang Feng and Milner either have certain "privileges" of the national team, or have withdrawn from the national team and did not participate in the national team competition, so they have retained enough physical fitness to deal with this strong duel .

Playing away at the Etihad Stadium and challenging the "Blue Moon" Manchester City, this is a game that Klopp wants to press, a game that can continue to prove his coaching ability.

The national team match day is a huge loss for Manchester City, and it is definitely a major injury to the FIFA virus.

For Pellegrini, in the case of suffering from huge injuries, the lineup adjustments he can make are really limited.

On the defensive line, Mangala and veteran Demichelis started as a central defender with haircuts.

The two full-backs, Sagna and Kororav are also aged players, which makes Manchester City's entire defense line, except for Joe Hart in the goalkeeper position, the defense of everyone else actually has certain problems.

Especially Demichelis and Mangala in the central defender combination. The two "colanders" started at the same time. Manchester City's defense is definitely digging a hole for themselves.

However, Manchester City's midfield is still quite impressive.

In the 451 lineup configuration, Fernando, Yaya Toure, and De Bruyne defend and attack in the midfield.

Navas and Sterling are separated on the two wings to complete the team's wing breakthrough, and in the forward position, the team has always been the starting forward, Aguero.

Even though there may be sinkholes in the backcourt, Manchester City's strong midfield lineup, coupled with the home game, still makes many people think that in this game, Manchester City actually still has a certain advantage.

As for Liverpool's lineup, Henderson entered the injured list, which affected the team's midfield to a certain extent.

However, fortunately, Liverpool's midfielder reserves are better.

Milner, Emre Can and Lallana serve as the team's three midfielders, each completing the division of labor.

As for the configuration of the three forwards, Firmino is still in the center, Coutinho and Jordan Ibi are on the left and right.

The defense is no different from the previous starters. As long as there are no injuries, Liverpool's defense is as stable as ever.

At the beginning of the game, Liverpool turned away from the away game. It was not that Manchester City would give up the initiative, but that Liverpool played their high position in the midfield from the beginning of the game to suppress Manchester City. out the ball.

The main reason is that Manchester City's backcourt players are not strong enough to play the ball. The defensive line, goalkeeper, central defender, and midfielder Fernando's ability to play the ball is not outstanding.

Before the game, Klopp estimated the possible starting of Manchester City based on the opponent's injury list, and then discovered the problem of Manchester City's ability to play the ball in the backcourt. In the game, he chose to strengthen Liverpool's high-position defense in the frontcourt.

Klopp's tactics are very simple. Isn't your Manchester City midfielder strong in attack? Then I will stop the possibility of your easy attack from the source.

After limiting your passes in the backcourt, you can effectively prevent Manchester City players from receiving the ball in the midfield and attacking in the frontcourt.

And Liverpool's high-position press achieved a miraculous effect in the 7th minute of the first half.

Coutinho hit the goal with a long shot before, and after the anti-aircraft gun, he gave Manchester City a goal kick.

And when Joe Hart set up his posture and was about to pass the ball, Liverpool's frontcourt pressing position was already in place.

Maybe Joe Hart wants to show off his footwork in the game, to pass the rumored next coach, and prove that he can also live with his feet.

This goal kick did not go directly with a big kick, but a half-high ball, and the ball was passed directly to Sagna on the right.

Sarnia's stop this time was still excellent, and there were no surprises.

However, Coutinho accelerated from the back and rushed over to complete the press.

Before Coutinho was still watching Mangala face to face, but when Joe Hart completed the pass, he immediately accelerated and rushed over to press Sagna.

Sagna is indeed a little old. The speed of handling this ball is obviously a little slow, and it may be that he didn't notice Coutinho who accelerated from the side and rear.

I want to rely on my body to block Coutinho's grab from the side and rear.

As a result, Coutinho used the momentum from his own acceleration to stagger Sagna and snatch the football.

And when Sania lost his balance slightly, he also slipped on the soles of his feet and directly half-knelt on the ground.

The referee didn't think it was a foul.

Coutinho dribbles the ball straight forward and hits the penalty area obliquely.

Demichelis hurried over to defend, but when facing Coutinho, he obviously didn't dare to make moves to prevent Coutinho from directly completing the pass.

And Coutinho, when Demichelis held his position, did not attack hard, but moved forward lightly.

Firmino rushed directly to the middle and diagonally forward. After receiving the ball, he continued to bottom, and then passed directly to the goal in an inverted triangle.

The one who responded in front of the goal was Coutinho who sent Firmino a through pass. After Coutinho passed the ball, he immediately inserted himself into the middle to complete the response.

Whether Demichelis is chasing Firmino or turning around to chase Coutinho, he is a bit slow, so that Mangala can only defend two in front of the goal.

Firmino's limited shooting angle also allowed Mangala to focus on defending Coutinho.

However, Mangala's tall stature made his reaction ability not so fast.

Firmino quickly reversed the triangle and passed the ball to the middle. Mangala made a clearance first, but because of his own slow speed, he did not make enough clearance. Instead, he just blocked the ball.

Firmino's sweeping pass to the middle, passed through Mangala's block, and flew directly towards the goal. Joe Hart was caught off guard, and the ball rolled directly into the net.

Own goals!