Football’s First Defender

Sometimes morale on the football field can give players various spiritual blessings.

The performance of the Liverpool team is actually not bad, but today they just couldn't show their suppression when facing Newcastle.

It's not that Liverpool's performance is abnormal, but that the Newcastle players have completely performed exceptionally in the home game.

Newcastle only led 1-0 at halftime. The Liverpool players would also like to thank Yang Feng for his desperate return to defense at the last moment, blocking Newcastle's threatening counterattack.

For Klopp, he doesn't want the team to lose points when facing such an underdog, even if it's a tie with 1 point, Klopp doesn't want to, let alone lose directly away.

Regarding the team's current predicament, Klopp feels that it is still due to the team's lack of offensive firepower, and there is no way to completely suppress it.

In the midfield, due to the impact of injuries, there are really no players who can be replaced.

Klopp can only adjust his attention to the forward line.

First of all, because Liverpool faced Newcastle's unconventional style of play in the game, they couldn't play their tight defense in the frontcourt and their ability to counterattack on the spot, which made Jordan Ibe's personal performance on the right. has been greatly affected.

And Jordan Iby played limitedly in the offensive position, which always made Liverpool's offensive stagnant. After Klopp struggled in the midfield, he still replaced Jordan Iby directly at the beginning of the second half. On Sturridge, who has just returned from injury.

Klopp did not try, and immediately used Benteke to play. In Klopp's view, the team does not need to kick the ball from the side. At this stage of header bombing, Sturridge can be played. Continue to try this slightly technical flow of control play.

Klopp believes that so many technical offensive players, gathered together, can bring the desired surprise to the team's offense.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, Liverpool created good opportunities on the offensive end.

Firmino, Sturridge, Coutinho and Lallana formed a four-person attacking team, within the defensive hinterland of the opponent in the frontcourt, made a continuous one-kick pass, and passed Coutinho A straight kick pierced through Newcastle's defense in an instant.

Although the angle of this ball is not big, it still attracts all Newcastle's defensive players to retreat to the defense in front of the goal.

Firmino, who received the ball, did not forcefully hit the goal from a small angle, but passed the ball back with one kick, and gave the ball to Coutinho on the outside again.

Coutinho followed up with a long-range shot that did not increase.

This long-range shot flew to the upper right corner of the goal.

It's just the angle and strength, although they have achieved excellent results, but in terms of height control, they are still a little bit worse. The ball almost brushed the crossbar and flew out of the baseline, slightly higher than the goal.

Although the offense at the opening stage of the second half made Klopp feel a pity, it also convinced Klopp that the players have the ability to rewrite the team's unfavorable situation in the second half.

When Liverpool began to control the offensive, many fans in front of the TV thought that it might be too late for Liverpool to score a goal.

But 5 minutes passed, 10 minutes passed, 20 minutes of the second half passed.

Although Liverpool had an unstoppable offensive on the scene, it turned out that there was only thunder but no rain, and they did not score an equalizer goal.

The team seems to always have some haste in the final shot processing, or some small problems in controlling footwork, unable to shoot on target, so how can they score goals?

And just when Klopp had ordered Benteke and others to warm up and prepare to continue to strengthen the attack in the game, Newcastle's long-awaited counterattack opportunity suddenly appeared.

First, Liverpool's midfielder took the ball and made a mistake.

Sturridge, who had been out of battle for a long time, made a mistake in communicating with Lallana when he retreated to adjust his offensive position.

Lallana thought that Sturridge wanted to retreat and serve as the fulcrum of the team's offense to catch the ball, and immediately passed the ball to Sturridge.

Sturridge himself just wanted to retreat a little and adjust his position. He didn't notice Lallana's pass from the side, but immediately returned to the front again.

This also makes, in the game, this mistake between the offensive players directly caused the Newcastle players to easily complete the defensive interception, and immediately pushed the counterattack forward without pressure.

It seems to be just a pass error between two people, but because Liverpool is fully pressing the offense, there are quite a few offensive players involved in other positions, and there are also quite a few players who have advanced and are waiting for passing opportunities.

When the team suddenly switches from an offensive state to a defensive state, it is not easy for these players to quickly return to their defensive position.

The Newcastle players, on the other hand, fully seized this counterattack opportunity. The team invested a number of midfielders and frontcourt players to participate in this counterattack.

In particular, Shelvey dribbled the ball on the side with fewer defensive players, but in front of him, there were three Newcastle players' crazy forwards. They all quickly approached the penalty area and were ready to complete the grab. The pressure on the three-man defense was high.

And Yang Feng can only take care of Xi Sai at this time, it is simply unrealistic to want to defend against three.

Under such circumstances, Shelvey, who quickly dribbled the ball forward on the right side, was about to be chased by Liverpool's returning defenders, and directly sent a half-high ball diagonally from the side. The pass passed accurately. The defense zone of the three back-to-defense Liverpool players passed into the penalty area.

And the landing point is in front of Skrtel at the front point and Newcastle's young midfielder Wijnaldum.

Wijnaldum is tall, but he still has flexibility and explosive power. First, he stretches his legs and flicks the ball to the outside, and then successfully leans against Skrtel. After the adjustment, he catches up with the football and directly completes the kick without adjustment volley hit the goal.

This kick hit the goal and hit a contra-angle directly, and Wijnaldum volleyed from the right to the lower left corner of the goal.

Mignolet was already struggling to make a save, but he couldn't do anything about the tricky shot from this angle.

2 to 0, Newcastle once again dealt a heavy blow to Liverpool in the 68th minute of the game.

Two goals behind, at this time, for Liverpool, it seems to have become a luxury to be able to chase two goals in a row and guarantee to retreat in the away game.

The two substitution adjustments after Klopp went very quickly.

Both Benteke and Origi came off the bench. Klopp hopes that the appearance of these two can further strengthen Liverpool's finishing ability in the frontcourt.

However, Newcastle, whose morale is high, is becoming more and more tenacious on the defensive end amidst the cheers of the home fans.

Newcastle's goalkeeper also played off again and again, making Liverpool's offense return in vain.

Liverpool had 23 shots and 10 shots on goal in the whole game, but in the end they couldn't convert even a goal in the away game.

In the end, Newcastle defeated Liverpool 2-0 in an upset at home. When Liverpool's winning streak ended, the situation in the Premier League this season was even more confusing.