Football’s First Defender

In the opening game of the Premier League this season, the FA will face off against Liverpool, which has risen strongly in the past two seasons, and Stoke City, which has always been in the middle of the Premier League team and has its own team characteristics.

This season's Premier League opener starts at BJ time, at 19:45 on August 17.

For the domestic fans who support Yang Feng, it is definitely a good night prime time.

Suarez's 10-game suspension last season is still 6 games away from expiring. He will miss all games for nearly a month. In the TV broadcast footage before the game, Suarez can only be seen with his family, standing in the stands for The team cheers.

In this game, Rogers sent out the lineup that has been rehearsed in the training game.

Compared with the team tactics of last season, the team still has some changes.

Especially for the position on the right side, although Rogers is very optimistic about Sterling's offensive ability, in the opening game, Rogers still wants to do a good job of the team's defense first.

The starting goalkeeper is the Belgian Mignolet. As Rodgers is very optimistic about the goalkeeper, he also said before the game that with the support of Liverpool's better defense, he will strive to complete more clean sheets this season.

There is no change in the defense line. Even with the addition of new aid, Rogers still chooses to believe in the original formula, hoping to get a familiar taste, without making any changes.

The double midfielder Lucas and Gerrard are still the most commonly used partners last season. Lucas is mainly responsible for defense and receiving the ball, while Gerrard can delay organization and attack. In this position, it is even more important. Give full play to your best.

Coutinho got the chance to start this game. Although Coutinho is very young, Rodgers has seen his rapid growth on the offensive end. He also hopes that his creativity can enrich Liverpool's offense .

On the right side, the priority to be solved is the defensive problem, so Sterling did not play, and the starter is Henderson, who can use running in the midfield to adapt to any position.

Henderson occupies the position of the right winger, but he should be more supportive in the midfield, or find an opportunity to complete a 45-degree cross after receiving the ball from the right. The main responsibility should still be to do a good job in the team's defense.

The top striker is of course Sturridge. In the days without Suarez, Sturridge can only serve as Liverpool's offensive bridgehead, and Aspas, who has just transferred this season It is to ambush behind Sturridge and act as a shadow front.

In this slightly rearward offensive position, Aspas can display the delicate foot skills unique to the Spaniard, and complete a certain amount of threatening work in the frontcourt.

As for the visiting team, the coach Mark Hughes, who just took office at the end of last season, did not put up an iron bucket formation at Anfield as expected by the outside world to strictly guard against death.

Instead, he listed the 4141 lineup he wanted to play, and the starting forward even put on "Gao Guy" Crouch. This striker option actually means that Stoke City still has the offensive end of the game. A little bit of thinking, and will not be caught without a fight in the away game, and the initiative will be completely handed over to Liverpool.

It's just that Stoke City's game attitude is more in line with Rogers' wishes.

In fact, Liverpool's current offensive coordination has not yet been fully adapted. If they really face a "tortoise shell", they may not have a good room to play.

In the friendly match against the Celtics a week ago, under the tenacious defense of the Celtics, Liverpool did not get a good chance to attack. A counter-attack goal.

At the beginning of the game, Liverpool launched an aggressive attack. The team's main attack point was Coutinho on the left.

In the preparations for the new season, Coutinho is no longer a substitute choice in the hands of Rogers, but is trained by Rogers as the team's future midfield offensive commander.

And in response to Coutinho's characteristics, Rogers designed many subtle offensive tactics to allow Coutinho to maximize his play.

With two full-backs forming a containment on the wing, Rogers needs Coutinho to be able to display his personal ability to tear open Stoke City's defensive space from the center.

Coutinho actually did a very good job, and he was able to guarantee a pretty good offensive success rate, but the ball was disturbed a lot when it was sent to Stoke City's penalty area.

The personal defensive ability of the Stoke City players may not be so outstanding and perfect, but the players are tall and strong, and they are willing to run physically. They have a good interception area purely by their bodies.

And the defensive players are very tough on the physical confrontation of Liverpool players with the ball.

And all of this made Aspas, who came to the Premier League suddenly, very uncomfortable.

In La Liga, the referees who should be whistled for fouls did not express much.

This has greatly affected Aspers' personal offensive rhythm.

In the team's offensive tactics, Coutinho tore open the offensive space. At this time, Aspers nearby should have come out to share Coutinho's offensive pressure, catch the ball and hit the goal or pass the ball again.

But Aspas, the connection point of the team's offense that Rodgers envisioned, was directly out of order under the defense of Stoke City, ruining many opportunities created by Coutinho.

As a result, Sturridge in front received limited support from his teammates, and there was no way to create too good offensive opportunities.

Liverpool's offense didn't create too many good opportunities, but Stoke City's counterattack and organized offense at the right time, in the away game, threatened Liverpool's defense time and time again.

Although Crouch's physical confrontation ability is not that strong, as long as he stands still, relying on his height advantage, he can also serve as a fulcrum for Stoke City's counterattack.

It is entirely due to the advantage of height, and Crouch's own excellent judgment on the landing point, so that even if Yang Feng defends Crouch, there is no guarantee that he can control the landing point of every incoming ball.

This also allows Stoke City to counterattack. Sometimes after fighting for the first landing point, the wing can still attack and pose a certain threat.

Fortunately, other players in Liverpool's defense line can also complete the task well under the command of Yang Feng, and Mignolet, the goalkeeper, can also show his due strength.

In the first half of the game, Stoke City's several counterattacks did not pose a full threat.

In the second half of the game, Rodgers began to make Aspers stand more forward, allowing Aspers to return to the position of the finisher, even though Aspers was not too defensive under the defense of the opponent's gang of English men. There are many opportunities, but it can also play a role in containment.

After that, Coutinho's personal power to handle the ball was strengthened and Coutinho was given more power to fire.

With the threat of Coutinho's excellent long-range shots, Stoke City's defense had to expand further and invest more defensive power against Coutinho.

At this time, Coutinho showed a maturity that did not meet his age. Instead of being greedy and continuing to fire indefinitely, in an attack, he dribbled the ball horizontally and made a long shot, attracting enough defensive players to move forward and backward. A short pass passed through the wicket of the defensive player rushing forward in front of him, and was received diagonally by Sturridge, who was running without the ball.

Sturridge didn't make too many adjustments, just swayed his legs slightly on the spot, and relied on his own leg strength to take a step in front of the penalty area and complete a kick.

An unexpected kick, a quick horizontal ball, and by the time the Stoke City goalkeeper reacted and made a full save, the ball had already rolled into the goal.

Sturridge scored his first Premier League goal of the new season in the 54th minute of the game.

It was with Sturridge's goal that Liverpool finally defeated the visiting Stoke City 1-0 at home, won the opening game and got a good start.