Football’s First Defender

The Champions League in the middle of the week not only won the victory, but also allowed some players to have a rest time, and the new season lasted for a month without an official game window, which did not affect Suarez's state, but made Suarez himself full of enthusiasm for the game More hunger.

Rodgers feels that the team as a whole is in a positive state. Not only the main players, but also the performance of some substitute players in this Champions League game can provide the team with immediate combat power. It is crucial for a team that wants to hit the championship in a long season.

After the Champions League game, Liverpool flew back to Liverpool overnight. Fortunately, France and the UK are separated by a strait, so the simple journey is not so tiring. After flying back to Liverpool that day, the players can go home to rest all day.

Although Rodgers still has some tactical changes this season, compared to his first arrival last season, he needs a lot of training time to adjust the team's overall tactics.

This season's tactical rehearsal tasks are not so heavy, so sometimes after a victory, Rogers will take a day off to allow the players to make better adjustments.

In the fifth round of the Premier League on the weekend, Liverpool faced Southampton at home.

This is a duel between two young coaches, but Rogers is relying on one step at a time, and now he has entered Anfield, while Pochettino still needs to prove himself a little bit in Southampton.

In this game, both teams started the game with a 4231 formation.

It's just that Coutinho on Liverpool's side suffered some minor injuries during training, so he was not included in the squad for this game.

So on the spot, Rodgers can only send Moses on the field to replace Coutinho on the left side. Although this configuration can strengthen the sideline breakthrough ability on the left side, without Coutinho, it is very difficult to tear apart the opponent. The defense line is a huge loss.

In the game, Liverpool's struggling performance today shows the importance of the teenager Coutinho to this Liverpool team.

Henderson on the right side, as a midfielder, plays the position of the right midfielder. The main consideration is Henderson's defensive strength and the use of his abundant physical fitness to attract the opponent's defensive attention on the right side, or to catch up. After the ball, it is good to make a direct cross from the side.

Henderson is on the right, and he doesn't have a good ability to create threats on his own attack. He mainly relies on his teammates to grab points in the middle.

Behind Sturridge, Aspas, who serves as the connection point between the striker and the midfielder, has excellent technical ability, but under the pressure of the Premier League confrontation level, it is not easy for one person to create opportunities. .

Faced with a well-regulated pass, Aspers retreated and was able to receive the ball, but he was unable to get rid of the defense to create opportunities.

In the previous game, Aspas was able to act as the glue for Liverpool's offense. First, he used his ability to pull the side. During the counterattack, he went to the side to open up space. Coutinho has used his breakthrough to open up a certain situation and tear apart the opponent's defense. Aspas then catches the ball and starts attacking in a fairly sufficient environment for receiving the ball.

It's just that today, in more offensive positions, Aspas does not have a breakthrough player like Coutinho to support him, so the threat he can pose is indeed limited.

And Moses played today as a left midfielder.

A player who relies on absolute physical talent to make a living can naturally create certain opportunities on the wing during the game.

It's just that this kind of wing pass or personal offensive shooting opportunity has no way to connect with the team's overall offense.

An offensive like Liverpool may be able to create some opportunities for a team that focuses on offense or has a poor defense, but facing the Southampton team led by Pochettino, it is doomed to rely solely on the few front players. Offensive players, there is no good way.

Southampton's protection of the central defense line is extremely good in this game. There are sufficient defensive personnel in the penalty area. The defense on the wing is also as personal as possible 1-on-1, and it will not deploy too many players. contain.

The so-called different routes lead to the same goal. Although there is a certain amount of space for the wing, in the end Liverpool's wing attack must rely on the middle players to grab points. Southampton is to choke the defense in the middle to prevent Liverpool's final attack from being effective. .

Throughout the game, Southampton's layers of defense showed results. First, they fought against Liverpool in the middle. After Liverpool passed the midfield, they retracted the defense directly into the middle and the penalty area. Lu opened up a certain amount of space, but it did not affect Southampton's overall defense.

After the successful defense, Southampton's counterattack is also very methodical. They will not rush forward recklessly, but will patiently look for opportunities. There are no excellent counterattack opportunities. Generally, Southampton Dominate the ball and try to play pass-and-control style.

It is precisely because of Southampton's competition for ball possession that Liverpool did not even form a crushing ball possession rate in today's game.

Fifty-five percent vs. forty-five percent ball possession rate, Liverpool, a strong team that pursues pass control, and at home, are only ahead by ten percentage points. It can be seen that Southampton is in the lead. How well he did on both ends of the offense and defense.

In contrast, the two sides shot 11 to 12 and shot 4 to 4, but Southampton still has a weak lead in the number of shots.

Fortunately, although Liverpool's offense was not effective, the defense line led by Yang Feng still performed quite well.

Once Mignolet played with fire in the back defense, after the ball was intercepted, it was Yang Feng who actively returned to the defense. In the area in front of the goal, he blocked the ball that Mignolet did not pounce, and defended the goal for Liverpool.

And after Mignolet played with fire and almost "immolated", he also used a series of wonderful saves, which can be regarded as making up for his mistakes.

During a Southampton counterattack, the opponent passed the ball very penetratingly and hit the ball in the opposite direction of Yang Feng's defense area, and Lambert directly chased the ball in the penalty area to create a goal.

One kick was blocked by Mignolet, followed by a follow-up shot, which was blocked by Mignolet stretching out his hand while lying on the ground. Hit the ball out of the bottom line with both fists.

When Mi Shen is not playing with fire, he can use his excellent defensive line to make up for the gaps that Yang Feng can't take care of.

This game became a defensive performance of the two teams. In the end, it was a 0-0 draw. For the excellent defensive players on both sides, everyone was happy.

Liverpool's rotation in the Champions League did not return a victory in the Premier League.

Southampton's outstanding performance is one aspect, and Liverpool's lack of breakthrough players who can tear apart the opponent's overall defense is another important reason.

Fortunately, with the end of this game, the real thigh of Liverpool's offensive line can finally return to the domestic arena.