Football’s First Defender

The penalty of ten games is a very heavy penalty for Suarez and the Liverpool team.

As soon as the penalty was announced, Liverpool had already appealed, hoping that Suarez's "sentence" could be reduced as appropriate.

In terms of media campaigns, Yang Feng was used as the link between Liverpool and Chelsea, and as the middleman between Suarez and Ivanovic.

Suarez apologized to Ivan, and the post-match behavior that has been forgiven by the other party has also become the content of Liverpool's appeal document. Everything is to reduce the penalty for Suarez.

It's just that the appeal still takes time. During this time period, Suarez can only watch from the sidelines.

At the most critical time for the team to compete for the Champions League seat, the lack of the team's main attacker is definitely a huge test for Liverpool.

On the one hand, Liverpool is waiting for the result of the appeal, and on the other hand, it is also actively rehearsing the offensive tactics without Suarez's participation, making full preparations for the weekend's away game.

The result of the appeal needs to be announced later. In this weekend's game, Suarez can only stay in Liverpool and cheer for the team at home.

In this round, Liverpool will go to an away game to challenge Newcastle, which is fifth last in the league.

However, the gap between Newcastle and the relegation zone is as much as 5 points. In the last 4 rounds, it can be regarded as a good point lead. Not surprisingly, there should be no problem with relegation this season.

So far in the league, Newcastle, which has only won 1 away game, can get 37 points, purely relying on their excellent record at home to grab enough points.

In the previous 17 home games, they had 9 wins, 1 draw and 7 losses, and grabbed 28 home points. The home record ranks 10th among the Premier League teams. It can be said that the home game is quite strong.

This season, they have successively defeated Tottenham and Chelsea at home, which happen to be Liverpool's direct competitors in the fourth round at this time. It can be said that Newcastle's excellent home scoring rate before has helped Liverpool a lot.

But now it's Liverpool's turn to face Newcastle's home court advantage. Whether they can pass the test smoothly depends on the Liverpool players and their own strength.

In this game, without Suarez playing, Rogers made a proper transformation of the team's frontcourt.

Sturridge was placed in the frontmost offensive position by Rodgers, playing a single striker.

Then the 451 formation is no longer the same as before, using the aggressiveness of Sturridge and Sterling on the left and right sides, as well as the finishing ability, to form an offensive trident.

Instead, the team lineup will be more focused on the construction of the midfield.

Gerrard continues to partner with Lucas as a double defensive midfielder, while in the midfield position, Henderson on the left, Coutinho in the middle, and Downing on the right, form a team with both a certain impact and a sense of security. A mid-lane offensive combination with good ball-playing ability.

At this time, Liverpool's offensive tactics are closer to pass-and-control play. In the absence of Suarez, Rogers chose to believe in using the overall offensive tactics to create opportunities in the away game.

Newcastle is still the team's usual 442 formation. In the Premier League games, the home team generally does not choose an overly conservative lineup configuration in order to give back to the home fans. They all want to take the initiative to attack and take the initiative. This is also the reason why Newcastle's record is obviously slightly stronger than the relegation zone, but they can achieve such good results at home.

At home, amidst the cheers of the fans, the team can give full play to the offensive talents of the players, rely on continuous scoring, try to occupy the initiative on the court, and try to win the game.

The opening three tricks are not so easy for any visiting team that comes to Newcastle's home court.

At the beginning of the game, Newcastle took the initiative to press forward and actively tried to compete with Liverpool for possession of the ball.

A posture of fighting against Liverpool.

But compared with other giants, facing Newcastle's attack style, they are more willing to use defensive counterattacks, give up the ball, and play a more effective counterattack.

For Liverpool, due to the lack of a very tough defensive midfielder, in order to prevent Newcastle's opening three tricks from really restraining themselves, Rogers deliberately chose to let the team start with Newcastle in terms of tactical preparation before the game.

Don't worry about the excessive consumption of physical fitness, Liverpool just want to play in the away game first, and they must not be brought into the rhythm of Newcastle.

The players of the two teams at the beginning of the game directly entered the fierce competition state.

Without too much probing, it is to attack the opponent directly.

Newcastle's side is extremely simple to attack from the side in turn, using the ball in the middle, hoping to create opportunities to grab points.

Yang Feng and Skrtel entered the game very quickly today, and their excellent defensive positioning made the opponent's crosses not pose too much threat.

Instead, it was Liverpool's counterattack after getting the ball, which scared the home team fans into a cold sweat.

Coutinho's change of direction with the ball in the counterattack directly played with the opponent's central defender Aidala who was staying behind, and gained ample space to hit the goal.

Complete a well-prepared long-range shot before other opponents help to defend.

This kick went straight to the upper left corner of the goal. Fortunately, Newcastle goalkeeper Robert reacted quickly and took off quickly to hold the football with one palm, only giving Liverpool a corner kick.

When Gerrard took the corner kick this time, he directly went to the area in front of the goal.

And what about Yang Feng?

In the penalty area, this time he didn't move too much, just stared at the ball, took off on the spot in an appropriate position, resisted the defensive interference of the Newcastle central defender, and completed a rather unpretentious header.

"GOAL!!!"

"The ball went in!"

"Yang Feng! Only 3 minutes into the game, he took advantage of a corner kick and scored with a header, giving Liverpool the lead."

"Liverpool got off to a fantastic start."

Yang Feng, who usually stood up in times of crisis for the team, this time it was rare for the team to score the first goal and take the lead at the beginning of the game.

In this game without Suarez, being able to break the deadlock early is definitely the most critical thing for Liverpool.

Conceding the ball at the beginning is indeed a big blow to the Newcastle players. However, after the team fell behind, there is no way out for the Newcastle players at this time. They can only rely on offense to create threats.

Newcastle began to attack aggressively. Compared with the first attack at the beginning of the game, the players' positions were earlier and more violent.

This kind of offensive did make Liverpool's defense a little scrambled, but correspondingly, Newcastle's rear defense began to become bigger and more obvious.

In a short period of time, Newcastle completed two long-range shots from outside the Liverpool penalty area, trying to create scoring opportunities.

And Liverpool's counterattack effect is really good, but it lacks a ball-holding point like Suarez for counterattack. Liverpool players still need more game time to adapt to the existing lineup on the field.

If the counterattack fails once, hit the second time, if it fails twice, hit the third time.

Liverpool does have a lack of cooperation, but thanks to the strong personal abilities of the players, sometimes the display of this personal ability can determine the situation on the field.

Although Newcastle's offensive is fierce, due to the lack of personal ability of the forwards, they cannot create enough threats in the penalty area. As a top central defender, Yang Feng can handle all kinds of balls with ease on the defensive end against Newcastle's civilian strikers.

Another successful predictive interception. This is the second time that Newcastle's direct pass has been intercepted so easily by Yang Feng.

Naturally, Liverpool counterattacked directly.

However, usually at this time, there should be a fulcrum like Suarez in the frontcourt, allowing Yang Feng to directly find the frontcourt with a long pass.

But today, without such a comprehensive striker, Liverpool focuses on strengthening the thickness of the midfield. Therefore, in the process of counterattack advancement, Liverpool also emphasizes the rapid advancement on the ground when formulating tactics.

Yang Feng passed the ball straight through a distance of tens of meters, and prepared to pass the ball to the feet of Gerrard, who was already counterattacking and accelerating forward.

After Gerrard received the ball in the midfield position, he made a direct lateral move and passed the ball to Coutinho who was a few meters away.

There are Newcastle players on the front, back, left, and right sides. In the case of quick return to defense, Coutinho did not indulge in dribbling the ball by himself and gave the opponent a chance to double-team him. Instead, he kicked the ball directly and used the outside of his foot. It bounced directly forward and passed to the arc of Newcastle's penalty area.

Sturridge has always been at the forefront, cutting diagonally from the right to Coutinho's passing position, leading the ball first, and heading towards the penalty area.

There is a close interference from the side and rear, the front goalkeeper attacks, and the last Newcastle defender comes from the left front, and a three-person double team is to be formed.

Sturridge quickly poked the ball with his toes, and stabbed the ball obliquely to the left front position. After Sturridge kicked out, he was directly surrounded by three people and lost his balance.

But the ball was successfully missed, and a red figure belonging to Liverpool appeared in the huge space on the left.

"Henderson!"

"Plug in quickly and shoot with one kick!"

"Successfully hit the empty door!"

"Liverpool took a 2-0 lead in the 18th minute."

"Henderson is celebrating with forgetfulness, but the absolute credit for this goal should belong to Sturridge, who is not greedy for credit, and Coutinho, who sent a very crucial pass near the center circle..."

After a 2-0 lead, for Liverpool, they have more confidence and a greater fault tolerance rate.

The team can also use a more relaxed attitude to carry out subsequent games.

Unlike Liverpool's easy response, for Newcastle at home, two goals behind, the psychological pressure on the players began to increase, and they began to panic when handling the ball.

This gap in team morale made Newcastle's offensive coordination more and more chaotic, and the threat began to become lower.

As for Liverpool, the defense began to become more stable, and the counterattack effect was getting better and better, creating more and more threats.

It's just that I thought that the small-scale players' cooperation was rusty. In the subsequent quick counterattack, there were good counterattack opportunities, but there were still many flaws in the passing cooperation, which led to Liverpool's failure to expand the score again in the half. .

It just brought the two-goal lead back to the second half.

After the adjustment of the intermission time, Newcastle's players have obviously improved compared with the performance in the final stage of the first half. However, facing Liverpool's defense led by Yang Feng, Newcastle's slightly rough offense is really unable to create. Too much of a threat.

The British style of long pass and lob has already been offered, but Yang Feng is too steady. Newcastle's striker has no chance to complete the goal in Liverpool's penalty area.

The strong attack at the beginning of the second half did not help Newcastle catch up with the score, but Liverpool finally seized a chance to completely seal the victory.

In the 56th minute of the game, Liverpool's defense expanded to the midfield and achieved miraculous results.

Coutinho used active running and pressing to grab a chance.

After stealing the ball, Coutinho accelerated quickly along the left flank, playing two-on-three in the frontcourt for a while, and Newcastle still had the numerical advantage.

It's just that the tall body of the Newcastle central defender at this time is at an absolute disadvantage when facing Coutinho's flexibility.

You can only keep retreating to avoid being caught by Coutinho who has enough space to complete the pass.

It's just that when the opponent intends to stop and retreat at the line of the penalty area, and cooperate with the teammate on the other side to help defend, 2v1, and go straight up, Coutinho is the first to complete the ball.

A diagonal through ball passed directly into Newcastle's penalty area from the gap between the two defenders.

Sturridge, who has been moving forward quickly, the defender on the left went to help defend Coutinho, while the defender on the right couldn't stop Sturridge's non-stop ball with his left foot.

With a push on the way, Sturridge scored Liverpool's third goal of the game.

A very simple one-handed goal, Newcastle's defense was completely disrupted by Coutinho, so that when Sturridge hit the goal, there was almost no defensive pressure.

Liverpool, leading by 3 goals, has completely broken the mentality of the players of the home team Newcastle.

Although Newcastle is still working hard to attack, many players already look like they are not interested in fighting.

Players' running enthusiasm has dropped significantly, and the degree of completion of movements has also begun to decrease.

In the past 3 minutes of Sturridge's previous goal, Liverpool's offense has made a comeback.

Gerrard kicked a pass to the left near the center circle, and the offside trap created by Newcastle failed. After the referee did not say anything, Newcastle's players were too lazy to run back to defend with all their strength.

Henderson stepped in behind and received a pick pass from Gerrard. At the same level, it actually formed a 3-on-0 for Liverpool players.

Without a single defender, only the goalkeeper is left in front of the goal.

Henderson went directly into the penalty area. After attracting the attention of the opponent's goalkeeper, he passed a cross pass to Sturridge at the back point. Sturridge followed up and shot an empty goal, extending the score advantage to 4-0. , Completely defeated Newcastle.

Even without Suarez, Liverpool is still the invincible Liverpool!