Football’s First Defender

Many people believe that without Suarez, Liverpool will definitely fall into a certain chaos on the offensive end in a short period of time, and it will even affect the last few games of Liverpool's competition for Champions League qualification.

But Sturridge proved with his outstanding performance that Liverpool not only have Suarez, but also Sturridge!

2 games, scoring 5 goals, Sturridge's outbreak, making Liverpool easily win the two games.

Along with Sturridge's consecutive goals, after the goal, the iconic mechanical dance celebration also became popular among the fans for a while, causing them to emulate.

Especially the large number of Chinese fans, after watching the Liverpool game, many of them would always imitate Sturridge's celebration after scoring a goal. It caused a wave of mechanical dance.

The two consecutive victories have opened up the point gap between Liverpool and Tottenham, the fifth in the league. As long as they win the penultimate game, Liverpool will advance one round and qualify for the Champions League.

The penultimate round of the league, the Merseyside derby, is played at Anfield.

In such a hot city derby, the Anfield stadium is naturally packed, and both sides will use their outstanding performances in this game to strive for a good result.

Perhaps Everton's record at this time should have been nothing. However, it has been confirmed that Moyes, who will step down as the "Toffees" coach at the end of the season and go to Manchester United to coach, urgently needs to use a good result in this game to bid farewell to the Everton fans who have supported him for many years. Prove your coaching ability in front of the Red Devils fans.

So in terms of fighting spirit, Everton, who lacks fighting spirit in the second half of every season, is indeed a rare high fighting spirit in this game.

Jose Enrique returned to the starting lineup, and the other players did not change. In this Merseyside derby, Rodgers sent the team's most stable and most effective staffing.

Moyes' side is a 4411 formation, directly advancing Fellaini to enhance the team's control ability in the midfield and the ability to compete for high points.

It's just that when it really entered the game, Liverpool's imaginary counterattack, or the situation where the opponent's counterattack was the main attack and the opponent's counterattack did not appear.

Everton directly set up an iron wall in the midfield, and launched a targeted strangulation of Liverpool's kick-out point.

And this kind of strangulation is all-round, without leaving any loopholes.

Even Yang Feng, who is at the end, will be pressed fiercely by the Everton striker.

Liverpool's midfield play, which suffers from great difficulty, will always be disrupted by Everton's players.

From the very beginning of the game, Liverpool couldn't play the offensive coordination they wanted at all.

Even though players can sometimes use their personal abilities and use the space on the field to break through from the center, the rough actions of Everton's defensive players in the backcourt and the attitude of not hesitating to foul make Liverpool's offense fundamental. Unable to advance to the hinterland of Everton's penalty area.

Every season, the Merseyside Derby will be very hot, which is why the referee has relaxed the penalty scale for this game.

As long as there are no malicious fouls, the players can be allowed to continue to make large-scale defensive actions to ensure the smoothness of the game.

This is also the reason why although the ball has been destroyed, the number of shots has not been a few times, and the score on the field is still 0-0, the game is very good.

This is another kind of football aesthetics. The fierce pressing, fast-paced offense and defense, and the running of players on both sides on the field without hesitation make the audience immerse themselves in it.

Except for a few rookies like Sturridge, most players have experienced many Merseyside derbys and know the referee's penalty scale very well.

This also made it difficult for the referee to show a yellow card in the entire first half, although there were a lot of fierce confrontations and even a lot of sliding tackles.

Everything is still under control, within the normal framework of the Merseyside derby.

What Liverpool need is a victory, but Everton, who was a guest in the first half, was really embarrassed to press.

At this time, you can see the disadvantage of lacking Suarez.

Sturridge can make up for the lack of firepower after Suarez's absence, but there is no way to make up for Suarez's tactical role.

In this game, Everton dared to concentrate heavily in the midfield to launch a siege because Liverpool did not have a player in the frontcourt that could act as a tactical fulcrum.

Sturridge's finishing ability is indeed good, but it is unrealistic to let him win the high ball every time and resist the physical confrontation of the opponent's central defender.

Without a fulcrum up front, Liverpool couldn't skip the midfield and attack Everton's half.

You can only find a way to rush through Everton's strangulation area in the midfield, but this kind of breakthrough is indeed not so easy.

Even if he breaks out of the tight encirclement of the midfield, it is still dragging a layer of skin, and the follow-up is weak.

In the first half, Liverpool hit the goal with 4 kicks, and only 1 kick was not too threatening. The long shot was within the range of the goal frame, and it did not show the powerful firepower of scoring 9 goals in the past 2 games.

Of course, Everton's excellent defense was also at the expense of its own offense. In the first half, Everton only scored 2 shots, all of which were shot from long range. Yang Feng's defensive work was very boring. He faced all Everton players, forced crosses from the wing, and there were very few intermediate support players, so he couldn't create enough threats at all.

In the second half of the game, Everton's midfield defense showed no tendency to decline in defensive quality. Rodgers, who couldn't bear it, could only make substitutions and adjustments, replacing Henderson with Borini, who could barely play a certain fulcrum role. , hoping to break this impasse.

It's just that Everton's corresponding defense is also extremely good. The midfielder continues to press, but he no longer expects to completely lock Liverpool's ball. It only needs to play a delaying role.

Then began to draw defensive power, in his own half, to rebuild the team's defense.

But it is not guarding the line of the big penalty area, but a position 10 meters ahead, and a fierce press is launched.

The defense trained by Moyes, in this game, was supported by the Everton players with a high degree of completion, making Liverpool's offense unable to create enough offensive threats at all.

Time passed by little by little, but the score on the field was always 0-0.

Afraid of Everton's counterattack threat, Liverpool's offense did not dare to be too aggressive in the event of a draw.

After all, Liverpool only need two points to qualify for the Champions League. If this game is tied, as long as they are unbeaten at home in the next game, they can also guarantee their ranking.

On the contrary, if you lose this game, you may need to win the next game to ensure your ranking.

So at this time, Rogers didn't dare to completely let go of the offense, and Everton, who wanted to grind to death with a normal offense, was not that simple.

In the whole game, almost all of Liverpool's goal shots came from long-range shots, and almost all of them were ultra-long-range shots, which did not create too much threat at all.

Of course, for Everton, the number of shots is only a pitiful 4. The defense led by Yang Feng needs to run more, catch the clear ball from the opposite side, and stare at the Everton winger, going crazy and mindless Outgoing cross.

There were no offensive miracles, and the score remained 0-0 until the end of the game.

In fact, the game was not boring, but the fierce confrontation was concentrated on the strangulation of the midfield, so that neither side had the opportunity to further advance the offense to the goal and create a threat of goal.

But for Liverpool, the good news is that due to Tottenham's draw on another field, Liverpool finally got a round ahead of schedule, ensuring their qualification for the Champions League next season.