Football’s First Defender

With three consecutive draws and losing six points in a row, although Liverpool still barely occupy the leading position in the Premier League, they have inevitably narrowed the gap with the teams behind them.

And the most important thing is that none of the targets of Liverpool's loss in these three games was a wealthy team, which means that the subsequent schedule will only be more difficult for Liverpool. Can the adjustment be completed quickly.

Amidst the doubts, Liverpool ushered in the next opponent in the league, a home game against the Hammers, West Ham United.

West Ham United, now ranked fourth from the bottom in the Premier League, is only 3 points away from the relegation zone. The team's goal this season has been very clear, which is to be able to complete relegation and stay in the Premier League.

In this game, in the extensive predictions before the game, no one can be optimistic that Liverpool can win a big victory. Even though Liverpool is still sitting in their most terrifying Anfield stadium, but Liverpool's offensive firepower in these rounds is limited. From the perspective of West Ham United itself as a strong defensive team, whether they can win this game will be a test of Liverpool's ability to adjust.

West Ham United only conceded 15 goals in 14 rounds this season, and among them, the away defense is surprisingly good.

In 7 away games, a total of only 5 goals were conceded, which is one of the few teams in the Premier League with the least number of goals conceded in away games.

The reason why they were reduced to the relegation zone team is that West Ham's offense is really appalling.

There are not many offensive methods in the position, and the defensive counterattack cannot produce excellent results. For West Ham United, if the team can solve the weak offensive problem, it should not be difficult to complete relegation this season.

And today, Liverpool are at home and have to face West Ham United's iron barrel formation. It can be said that it is another extremely difficult challenge for the Red Army soldiers.

In terms of player injuries, Liverpool still has an important lack of combat power.

Although Glen Johnson has resumed training, under the advice of the team doctor, he still will not return in this game.

The two full-back options are still Flanagan and Sissoko.

However, in order to better provide offensive protection, in this game, Rogers asked Sissoko to play the left back with an inverted foot, and let Flanagan come to the right to try the offensive effect on the field.

In the midfield, both Gerrard and Henderson are exempt from the game. Rodgers can only send out a midfield combination of Lucas, Joe Allen, and Coutinho, with an offensive striker composed of "3s".

The shortcomings of this lineup are obvious. Although Sturridge is a left winger, his style of play is more like an end point. Sterling can create threats from the wing, but he also needs teammates to respond from the rear to avoid Sterling was trapped on the wing.

In Liverpool's previous draw, the problem of side attack was not well resolved. The lack of continuous side impact, especially the lack of outstanding offensive attributes of the full-backs, made it impossible for Liverpool to form a continuous offensive impact on the side.

In this game, facing West Ham United's more mature iron barrel formation than other teams, Liverpool's offense occupied more than 80% of the possession, but they were unable to complete the fatal blow to rewrite the score.

The score on the field has always been 0 to 0. Every attack by Liverpool seems to be possible to score, but in the end they are all blocked by the defensive players of West Ham United, or the "goal god" of West Ham United shows their power and contributes. Wonderful save.

Liverpool urgently needs a player who can break the deadlock, and it is not easy for Suarez and Sturridge, who are trapped in the opponent's collective defense, to catch the ball. Coutinho's long-range shot from the outside is blocked by the defender. And if you want to rely on your personal ability to break through, you have to face layers of interception from the opponent's defense.

West Ham United, according to the characteristics of Liverpool's weak wing attack, concentrated a large number of defensive forces in the middle, and targeted arrangements effectively limited Liverpool's offensive performance.

Who will break the deadlock?

In the 34th minute of the game, Liverpool's game breaker appeared.

Although Flanagan's passing skills may not be that good and the threat is not that great, but compared to the previous right back Sissoko, Flanagan, who played back to his best position today, has one of the biggest advantages That is, he is not afraid of getting into trouble and dares to pass the ball.

Sissoko, who came on loan, is still a little timid in Liverpool. However, Flanagan, a product of Liverpool's youth training, has a natural big heart like many predecessors.

Dare to make moves and pass the ball.

When playing left back before, the reverse foot pass was not smooth, but when he returned to the right back position, Flanagan's insertion was bolder, and he did not hesitate to pass the ball.

The weakness of West Ham United's defensive strength on the side also makes it impossible for Flanagan to pass the ball on this side, and it is good to have a chance to complete the destruction of the ball.

Flanagan's pass from the sideline this time was blocked by West Ham United's sideline defender who stretched his leg, blocked the baseline, and gave a corner kick.

Set kicks are one of the best weapons to break dense defenses, and Liverpool now urgently need to rewrite the score, so naturally they are also full of expectations for set kick attack opportunities.

Tall central defenders like Yang Feng and Skrtel are naturally Liverpool's first choice, and they are also the most important players on the defensive end of West Ham United.

Guarding Yang Feng was Welsh defender James Collins, a very British defender.

Of course, for a player like Yang Feng, there will not really be only one person defending. Not far away, Diame, who is in charge of zone defense, will also come to complete the defense depending on the situation.

When Liverpool arranged a large number of top players in the penalty area, West Ham's defense was not rich enough to 2-to-1, but 3-to-2 could still be done.

However, British central defenders like James Collins have very common weaknesses, that is, their turning speed is too slow, acceleration is too slow, and they lack flexibility.

Perhaps in the set kick, as long as they stand in the area, these should not be a problem, but Yang Feng will not stand with them to grab the position.

Not directly in the area in front of the goal, Yang Feng wandered outside the small penalty area, involving Collins and Diame.

Before Coutinho's run-up, Yang Feng had already moved forward and suddenly rushed forward.

After attracting the defensive players to start up with him, Yang Feng quickly changed direction and popped in the opposite direction during the running process.

Coutinho's corner kick was taken at the same time.

A quick arc, straight to the middle.

And Yang Feng's time difference in changing direction this time, directly typed it out.

Although due to the inertia of the body, Yang Feng's figure was a little unstable when he turned back, but these did not affect Yang Feng's take-off this time, controlling his figure in the air.

The waist and abdomen are fully exerted, the neck is straightened, and the header is directly hit.

Yang Feng!

In the 34th minute of the game, he opened the scoring for Liverpool and broke the deadlock on the field.

This is a set-piece tactic carefully rehearsed by Liverpool, aiming at the weakness of the opponent's British central defender, so that Yang Feng can display his personal strength.

But for Yang Feng's running position requirements, and for Coutinho's corner pass skills, the requirements are excellent.

But this time, everything is natural and perfect.

However, the ball is far from over.

The one-goal lead did not allow Liverpool to weaken its offensive frequency. Taking advantage of the morale of scoring goals, Liverpool still maintained a fierce attack at the end of the first half and was still trying its best to create goals.

In the 42nd minute of the game, Liverpool's 7th corner kick in the first half.

It is still the tacit connection between Coutinho and Yang Feng. This time, Yang Feng has completed the escape from Collins. Although Diame came up to defend quickly, Diame is not dominant in height, confrontation strength, and positioning. Mei, in fact, just became the backdrop for Yang Feng's header.

From a slightly behind position, Yang Feng scored with a header to help Liverpool take a 2-0 lead.

A central defender who scored twice within 8 minutes of halftime can only be said to be a bit "not doing his job properly"!