Football’s First Defender

Liverpool's home performance at Anfield has always been trustworthy.

If it is said that Liverpool still has the possibility of overturning in the away game, then when playing at home, Liverpool can completely show a focused game attitude and directly beat the opponent to the point of no parry.

Even if it is as strong as Tottenham, which is currently ranked third in the Premier League, in the contest with Liverpool at Anfield just now, it was kicked 3-0 cleanly by Liverpool. From the score, we can see the difference between the two teams gap.

Although they were overturned by Southampton in the away game before, so far, in this strong matchup with Tottenham, they have played a complete victory, which can be regarded as Liverpool's proof to the fans that the previous loss was just a game. Unexpectedly, the team will still continue to chase the honor of three consecutive Premier League titles this season.

As far as Liverpool is concerned, the league has progressed to this point, and if they want to recover the points gap between themselves and Leicester City, they cannot lose even a single point.

If Liverpool want to really put pressure on Leicester City in the league, they need to be able to really win as much as possible in the game, and use their better record to make Leicester City feel Rear pressure, and then make mistakes.

For Leicester City, they still have the initiative to compete for the championship.

As long as Leicester City can play all the games and win, then Liverpool's subsequent winning streak will be meaningless.

After the two direct matches between the two teams have been completed, the championship competition this season will be the competition between the two teams in several rounds of the league.

Especially Liverpool, can only hope that other teams can help themselves and stop Leicester City.

However, in the 33rd round of the Premier League that started first, Leicester City took the lead in an away game against "Black Cat" Sunderland.

Leicester City, who played away, faced the relegation madman Sunderland. It was originally a game where Liverpool believed that Leicester City had a chance to lose points.

After all, in the last few rounds of the Premier League, the fighting power of relegation teams can sometimes be comparable to that of championship teams, especially when they are at home.

However, Sunderland, who has struggled to the bottom three and has 6 rounds left in the league, is only 4 points behind Norwich, the bottom four. Although they really want to win the game, they will take all three points to further narrow the points gap .

But Leicester City also wants to continue to win in the game to maintain their championship status.

You know, with Liverpool missing two games, Leicester City currently leads by as much as 10 points.

If this game can be won, then the 13-point points advantage is very likely to cause greater psychological pressure on Liverpool players.

If Liverpool players can make their own mistakes, then for Leicester City, the probability of winning the championship early will be greater.

The first battle against the bottom of the list, Leicester City, who is very eager for the Premier League champion, did not take into account that this is Sunderland's relegation battle in the game, but launched an attack with all their strength in the away game, striving for goals and winning the game .

In the end, Vardy and Mahrez, the two core offensive points of Leicester City, each scored a goal, helping Leicester City win 2-0 in the away game.

It can be regarded as transferring the scoring pressure to Liverpool, who played after this round.

3 games less, 13 points behind.

Even if these three games are victorious, for Liverpool, it is only 9 points, and there is still a gap of 4 points.

You must know that in Liverpool's subsequent schedule, Stoke City is facing the top ten teams in this round, and the opponents in the two make-up matches, one is Everton and the other is Chelsea, and they are also not easy opponents to win.

Simply looking at the schedule and the gap in points, in fact, many media have believed that it is only a matter of time before Leicester City wins the league championship this season.

As long as Liverpool doesn't win all of the strong duels, it is pushing Leicester City on the way to win the championship.

In this round of competition, the schedule is Liverpool, which is fighting on Sunday. They are at home at Anfield Stadium, and their opponent is Stoke City, which is also ranked in the top ten and is now ninth.

The overall performance of Stoke City's team this season is quite good.

Both offensive and defensive are excellent, especially on the offensive end. The offensive combination of Bojan and Shaqiri has played its own threatening offensive in the Premier League.

In this game, for Liverpool, in addition to their own offense, they also need to do a good job on the defensive end. In fact, it is how to limit the offense of Shaqiri and Bojan in the game.

For Stoke City, under the current league situation, Stoke City is more of a "show" in the game, to let the players play their worth, improve their worth, and prepare for the summer transfer market. Ready to put the players on the shelves.

Liverpool is using a 442 lineup today, with Sturridge and Firmino, who has returned from injury, partnering with the double forwards in the frontcourt.

And Coutinho, Lallana, Milner and Henderson are the team's four midfielders.

For the backcourt players, Klopp sent Yang Feng and Lovren today. It is true that Skrtel's state has been a little unstable recently. After a long period of daily training, Yang Feng and Lovren have formed a certain relationship. The tacit understanding of the game.

The two full-backs and Mignolet in the goalkeeper position have not changed in any way. Such a starting lineup can be regarded as Liverpool's absolute main lineup.

Liverpool playing at home, as always, at Anfield, performed extremely strong offensive suppression.

Today, Liverpool's luck on the field is quite good.

For a team of Liverpool's level, in the Premier League, there are only a few teams that can compete with Liverpool, especially at Anfield.

Even though Stoke City ranks in the top ten of the standings this season, ranking 9th in the league.

But for Liverpool, it is still possible to achieve the offensive suppression of the game during the home game.

And in this kind of oppressive attack, it is actually giving the opponent a chance to counterattack while gaining a huge offensive advantage.

Therefore, for Liverpool, being able to break the deadlock earlier in the game is very important for winning the game smoothly.

In other words, for Liverpool, in this game, for them, the sooner they can score the goal of the game and gain the lead, the more comfortable the subsequent games will be.

Today, in the first 10 minutes of the game, Liverpool successfully broke the deadlock.

In such a fierce game rhythm, for Liverpool, after scoring the first goal, they actually have a considerable score base afterwards, and can completely control the game in their own rhythm.

In the 7th and a half minutes of the game, Liverpool's oppressive frontcourt continued to play.

If we talk about the last game, when facing Tottenham, Liverpool still had some restraint on the offensive end.

Facing an opponent like Stoke City, still in their own Anfield Stadium, Liverpool's offense has been full of pressure from the beginning, firmly controlling the ball within the opponent's half, and launching an oppressive attack. attack.

The insertion of the two full-backs also gave Liverpool more room for change in the frontcourt attack.

In this attack.

Because of Coutinho's edge, after the left back Moreno stepped in, he came to a position close to the center.

Coutinho's breakthrough on the left has a great advantage in 1v1 confrontation.

And after Coutinho used the emergency stop to sway the defender away, at the first time, he saw several Liverpool players in the penalty area responding to grab points, and the defense of the Stoke City players retreated to the penalty area. In the case of confinement, he was not in a good offensive position, so he did not force the cross.

Coutinho directly kicked the ball back and found Moreno who had an open opportunity before the penalty area.

In Stoke City's defense this time, there were actually many problems.

In other words, Stoke City's defense is too targeted.

Within the penalty area, Liverpool's reception points were restricted to death.

Outside the penalty area, Henderson, who has long-range shooting ability, was also watched.

But for Moreno, who received the ball outside the penalty area, no one came to defend him at the first time.

Even when Moreno stopped the ball, made the ball, and put on his shooting posture, Stoke City's defensive players hadn't made a save and completed the defense.

Under such circumstances, it is natural for Moreno to bend his bow and shoot an arrow near the penalty area line, and shoot a long shot.

With this long shot, some of Moreno's shots hit the outside instep.

On the trajectory of the ball's flight, there is a rather weird rotation route.

This sudden change in the flight trajectory made the goalkeeper of Stoke City unable to react in time. Although he forcibly changed direction and barely touched the football, but under Moreno's vigorous volley, the flight trajectory of the ball did not change much. , In the end, it flew directly into the goal.

1 to 0, Moreno's wonderful long-range shot directly helped Liverpool break the deadlock on the field.

The next game will be much easier.

After Liverpool has gained the advantage on the field, they can play their best defensive counterattack.

There is no need to rush to attack.

Moreover, the players can also play their best strength in the game without too much psychological burden.

In the 33rd minute of the game, Coutinho showed his excellent personal technical ability on the left flank.

When facing the defensive player in front of him in 1v1, Coutinho suddenly chose to play a one-man ball during the breakthrough process, and kicked the ball from the defensive player's wicket into the penalty area. Go around into the restricted area from the other side.

This amazing man scored the ball, which fully demonstrated Coutinho's outstanding personal ability and the kind of big heart that dared to make moves in the game.

After the ball was successfully scored and the defensive player was caught off guard, Coutinho went straight into the penalty area, and took advantage of other defensive players Hang Qiang to complete a pass from the wing at close range, directly to the Point behind the goal.

Since Coutinho entered the penalty area from the left, the goalkeeper of the visiting team will naturally come to block the near corner position at the first time, which makes Coutinho's pass pass in such a situation. Under this situation, the goalkeeper of the visiting team will have no good way to rush to the back position, but can only watch the performance of the defensive players.

Coutinho's passing and Sturridge's ghostly running were just one of Liverpool's sharp weapons in the game last season.

But this time, the two successfully completed the connection again.

Sturridge was at the back point, directly overwhelmed the defender, shook his head and hit the goal, and smashed the ball into the goal from the back point position, and the visiting team's goalkeeper only rushed to the middle of the goal at this time.

2 to 0!

At the end of the first half, Liverpool once again took a two-goal lead.

However, since the first two rounds, when Southampton was reversed, for Liverpool, they will not relax their spirits when they lead by two goals.

Instead, do your best to determine the lead more and leave enough room for yourself to "make mistakes".

At the beginning of the second half of the game, Firmino's goal completely sealed the outcome of the game.

In the 50th minute of the game, Milner sent a cross with his left foot from the right to the front and back of the goal.

Firmino quickly plugged in from the back, faced the pass, and had a "Tarzan Overwhelming".

Hit the ball directly into the goal.

After two games of truce, Firmino scored goals when he returned, maintaining his excellent offensive state as always.

And Liverpool also took a 3-0 lead early, which can be regarded as a complete seal of victory.

After 3 to 0, Liverpool obviously began to gain some strength in the game.

Even though the visiting team, Stoke City, began to gain momentum on the offensive end, Liverpool's defense did a very good job, and there were no major defensive problems.

This also makes it possible for Liverpool to kill time by controlling the ball for most of the game after the second half.

For the visiting team Stoke City's attack is mainly to limit their side attack.

Shaqiri and Bojan, the two strong offensive points of Stoke City, are mainly marked by Liverpool.

Especially restricting Shaqiri's performance on the wing, it can be said that it has restricted most of Stoke City's offense.

As a powerful player, Shaqiri is not tall, but he has excellent confrontation ability and very fast speed. After leaving Bayern, he also got the core position he wanted. In this season's Stoke Among the city teams, as well as in the Premier League, they have performed quite well.

Without Shaqiri's tandem, Stoke City would not have played very well under such circumstances. They could only play some offenses at will during the game.

In the last 30 minutes of the game, the two teams were almost "grinding foreign skills" instead of playing too effective offense or defense.

The final score was 3-0. Liverpool once again won a 3-goal victory at home, and they are also using their own winning streak to maintain their pursuit of the top Leicester City.