Football’s First Defender

In the league, Liverpool has not won two consecutive rounds, once again making their prospects for qualifying for the Champions League confusing. However, given the outstanding strength of the two opponents, they drew with Tottenham and narrowly lost to Manchester United by one goal. Liverpool fans Still optimistic about the team's final results this year.

After two slightly bitter league games, Liverpool's next step is to compete for the honor of this season in the two cup competitions.

The first game was the fifth round of the FA Cup. Liverpool was lucky again. Not only did they get the home court advantage, but their opponent was the British Championship team "Seagull" Brighton!

Liverpool, who played at home, started with all the main players, blasting 4 goals in just half of the game, completely establishing the victory.

Yang Feng took advantage of a set-piece opportunity and scored for Liverpool with a header.

Brighton, the visiting team, played in the rough style of the British Championship. Facing Liverpool, which is also not delicate today, although they were against the style, they were beaten by Liverpool, who had better players.

In the second half of the game, although Dalglish replaced Gerrard, Downing and Henderson in preparation for the Carabao Cup final five days later in order to protect the team's main players from injury, Liverpool's offensive was still unstoppable.

In the confrontation with Brighton, Liverpool scored two goals again in the second half, but because the defense line was too big, Yang Feng couldn't make up for all the holes, and Brighton counterattacked and scored a goal.

The score was finally fixed at 6 to 1. Liverpool successfully reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and hoped to compete for the honor of the double crown in the two domestic competitions.

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Wembley Stadium, the venue of the English League Cup final, the English League Cup final in the 2011/2012 season, the two sides are the traditional giants Liverpool, and the British Championship team Cardiff City.

Cardiff City this season is committed to being promoted to the Premier League in the English Championship. If Swansea in the Premier League is not relegated, then there may be a derby between two Welsh teams in the Premier League next season.

Cardiff City, which is now ranked third in the English Championship, is only 1 point away from the second-placed direct promotion qualification.

This Cardiff City team reached the final of the Carabao Cup. It is definitely not weak, but it is not strong either.

The team used the typical long-distance play style of the British Championship. The reason why they were able to go all the way to the final of the English League Cup should be related to their huge advantages in the schedule and draw.

Even if it reached the final stage, Cardiff City had only encountered a Premier League team before, and it was still the Premier League underdog Blackburn who was deeply in the relegation zone.

For the rest, even in the semi-finals, Cardiff City faced Crystal Palace, a mid-table team in the English Championship. Cardiff City scored 1-1 in two rounds and won by penalty shootout.

In this final, Liverpool must have an absolute advantage in terms of team strength.

However, for this season's most within reach of a champion, Dalglish still made full preparations to avoid the possibility of capsized in the gutter.

Liverpool players, after a few days of recuperation and recovery, all of them participated in the competition for the Carabao Cup final in the best state of play.

It is still the 442 formation most commonly used by Liverpool after Yang Feng's comeback, and Dalglish is still ready to use his offense to win the game.

Pay attention to the opponent psychologically, but must "despise" the opponent tactically.

Although this is a final, it is reasonable to seek stability, but Dalglish also knows that in the final, if you don't seek to perform well, you can play at a normal level of competition. For Liverpool, there is a high probability of winning .

So instead of starting the game timidly and letting the opponent rely on intensive defense to gain momentum, it is better for Liverpool to launch a fierce attack directly, first pressing Cardiff City in momentum.

Although there are different levels of leagues within a country, according to common sense, the overall league style should be similar.

After all, because of the problem of players' promotion channels, in the low-level leagues, because there are a large number of level-up players from top-level league teams, the league style should remain fairly uniform.

But in England, the Premier League and the English Championship obviously need to be viewed separately.

Due to the introduction of a large number of foreign players in the Premier League to enhance the strength of the team, coupled with the development of the football world, more overseas coaches began to try to promote technical football in England.

This also makes the Premier League, especially the mid-upstream teams, have begun to start their own tactical reforms.

But among the English Championship teams, they still continue the tradition of English football, and they are more inclined to the most basic offensive routines of football.

The long pass is the main focus, and the flow of ball control skills is supplemented. Most teams mainly play on the side, relying on crosses from the side and the contention of players in the penalty area to ensure the efficiency of the offense.

So two tall defenders are the standard equipment of the Championship team, and Cardiff City is not surprised.

When Cardiff City set up an iron barrel formation, although the "iron barrel" was not so tight, but because it was thick and high enough, Liverpool's opening attack did not achieve much effect.

Carroll's high point is somewhat limited when facing the same rough opponents of the British Championship team.

The two central defenders of Cardiff City are both tall and strong, typical British defenders. They took turns fighting Carroll in the penalty area. Carroll is really limited in physical fitness. In the face of the defense of the opponents, they cannot really play their role as a fulcrum.

However, it is good that Carroll plays the role of attracting firepower. The real big killer in the Liverpool team is another striker, the Uruguayan Suarez.

The reason why the Premier League began to be reluctant to use traditional British central defenders is that the tall defenders may be really useful when fighting for headers, but facing the opponent's small and fast offensive players, their turns are slow and their flexibility is poor. Weaknesses are always easy to be targeted.

And even if the opponent puts up an iron barrel formation, as long as Suarez can run more frequently and patiently look for opportunities in the penalty area, he will always be able to find opportunities.

"Facing the dense defense of Cardiff City, Liverpool has been passing the ball patiently. There are long-range shots. Gerrard and others did not hesitate to try to hit the goal directly."

"This time, the team still wanted to find a breakthrough on the sidewalk. Tangning's breakthrough from the bottom attracted the help of several defenders,"

Tangning's breakthrough from the wing further "flattened" Cardiff City's entire defense.

After that, he passed the ball back in a timely manner, and picked the ball out of the encirclement that was about to be formed on the left.

Gerrard, who received the ball at the corner of the penalty area, made a through pass and stuffed the ball into the opponent's penalty area.

Suarez shrewdly got rid of the players who were defending him, made a small circle, cooperated with Gerrard tacitly, didn't stop the ball, and shot with his legs.

"GOAL!!!"

"Suarez! In the 21st minute of the first half, he opened the scoring for Liverpool and Liverpool took the lead in the game."

Liverpool, which took the lead, was really able to do a job with ease in the following games.

Facing the opponent's counterattack, the defense led by Yang Feng completed its defensive task very well.

This is especially true of Yang Feng. Facing opponents who only know to grab points in their original positions, Yang Feng will always be able to use his judgment on the placement properly to complete the selection of the best position.

The opponent either couldn't grab the landing point, or violated Yang Feng's defensive area, and Yang Feng caused a pushing foul.

Cardiff City, which had failed to attack several times, was succeeded by Suarez's counterattack and surprise attack.

The 2-0 lead almost locked the suspense of the game.

In the second half, Cardiff City's offensive still couldn't help Liverpool, and Liverpool also began to focus on controlling the ball by passing the ball.

In the end, with Gerrard scoring another goal in the second half, Liverpool easily won the game 3-0 and won their first championship of the new season!

Although it is the English League Cup championship trophy with the lowest gold content, the champion is a champion after all. For Liverpool, who have not received honors in the past two years, this championship will definitely quench their thirst!