Chapter 217 The Way to Respond to Provocations

Liverpool's home game against Manchester City was very intense from the first minute. The Liverpool team held their breath and wanted to defeat Manchester City led by Wansheng at Anfield.

Liverpool and Manchester City, between the two clubs, there is actually no deep hatred between the two clubs.

This has been the case in history and the competition in recent years. This may have something to do with Manchester City's poor performance. After all, the team that always competes for the title (Liverpool) will not be the team that always avoids relegation (Man City). What is the connection.

The hatred between the two teams started more last season.

Manchester City's results last season were very good, they won the league title, plus the unpleasantness of the two teams, so the contradiction began. The coaches of the two teams, Wan Sheng and Benitez, although not good friends, are definitely not enemies, and there is not much hostility between Liverpool players and Manchester City players. The contradiction between the two sides is mainly focused on the media, fans and the competition between the two teams and players in England.

Since Benitez took charge of Liverpool's coach, Liverpool's performance in the Champions League has been very good. In 2005, they persisted to the end, not to mention the European championship. Liverpool's performance in the Champions League last season and this season is also quite good.

In comparison, Liverpool's performance in the league is much worse.

In the 0405 season, Liverpool only won the fifth place in the Premier League, relying on the qualification of the European Championship, they obtained a qualification to enter the top 32 of the Champions League. Last season, Liverpool almost stepped on the 'line' to enter the Champions League. With just one more point advantage over Arsenal, they finished fourth in the Premier League and qualified for the Champions League.

This season, Liverpool's performance in the league is also very dangerous, in the previous competition. They lost to city rivals Everton, Chelsea, the Blues, Manchester United, Bolton and even a three-goal defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates. Especially the last game. It is very demoralizing. At this stage, many media divide the Premier League into three grades. The only teams in the first grade are Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea. The results of these three teams are very good, and they are qualified to compete for the league championship. Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and the outstanding Tottenham Hotspur and Bolton can only be second-tier teams. Do the math. That is to say, if all the teams in the second tier are added together, there is only one place to participate in the Champions League, and this place requires many teams to compete.

For Liverpool, the biggest rival in the league is Arsenal, and the two teams are likely to compete for the last Champions League spot at the end of the season.

Because of this, the Liverpool team is boosting morale and wants to restore the league's results. Otherwise there is a good chance they won't qualify for the Champions League next season, so this home game against Manchester City is very important - they've lost almost every 'possible loser' opponent. So if you can win Manchester City now, you can restore some morale and the image of the league lost in front of the media and fans.

Therefore, the entire Liverpool team, including head coach Benitez, are holding their breath and want to beat Manchester City.

In this game, Liverpool's main players are all ready to play. Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Riise, Pennant, Gerrard, Alonso, Crouch and Kuyt and other main players who can play will all start the game. The location is Anfield again. Regardless of factors such as lineup, fighting spirit or venue, Liverpool are very powerful. They also started a pressing offensive against Manchester City from the first minute, and wanted to rely on their advantages to score first.

The player to watch out for in Liverpool's squad is undoubtedly Steven Gerrard.

After several years of core training, Gerrard's role in Liverpool's squad and his personal performance have become even better. Many media and fans even believe that with Gerrard and Liverpool without Gerrard, it is completely two balls This shows the importance of Gerrard in the Liverpool team.

Gerrard is also looking forward to the game.

In the Manchester City squad, the person who most inspired him to perform well was undoubtedly Morris.

In the England team, the situation of Gerrard and Lampard are different. The two are called 'Double Germany' together, and there is not much difference in technical strength, but in fact, Gerrard's position in the England team is more than Lampard is much more stable. If the manager wants to replace one of them, it will definitely be Lampard. In addition, Gerrard has a competitive advantage in that he can also play both full-back and striker positions, and It can also have a good performance. A multi-faceted superstar will naturally not worry about his position being replaced, but despite this, Morris is still his direct competitor. More importantly, many media have voiced their opinions. Reiss is the best midfielder in England, and his technical strength is much stronger than Gerrard and Lampard, as is his performance in the league and the Champions League.

In fact, it’s not just thinking, it can be seen from the goals that Morris has scored five goals in the league so far and one goal in the Champions League, and Gerrard may be affected by the team’s Cue The impact of the addition of a special striker... So far in the league, he has not scored a goal, and in the Champions League, Gerrard has only scored one goal.

In terms of assist data, Morris also leads the league and the Champions League with a total of 7 assists.

In terms of statistics, Morris is much stronger. In terms of real game performance, Morris has also been repeatedly praised by the media, while Gerrard is often criticized. The two are in different situations, and it can be known that there is indeed a gap in performance. But Gerrard will definitely not be convinced. He hopes to outperform Morris in this game to prove something.

But in fact, when the game started, Gerrard found that his direct opponent was not Maurice, but David Silva, no, exactly, David Silva, Ivan Crewe and A combination of the three of Lescott, whenever he is in midfield and doesn't have the ball, David Silva or Ivan Crewe will follow around, and when he has the ball, immediately At least two people rushed over to mark him carefully, and when he was defending, it was difficult to find Morris, and the smooth cooperation of Manchester City on the right made him feel overwhelmed.

Faced with such an offense and defense, Gerrard found it difficult to deal with it himself, so he wanted to call his teammates to deal with it, but he soon discovered that his teammates encountered similar situations to him, both on offense and defense. They all seem to be facing a few Manchester United players, and it is difficult for them to find time to help themselves.

How is this going?

Do Manchester City have more players than Liverpool?

This is of course impossible.

As a great central midfielder, Gerrard knows the reason is that Manchester City players run more, and more movement brings more space and position. Often their players are passing the ball. There will be a lot of options, so it seems that one-on-one is like the opponent has a few more players, and the same is true when the opponent is defending. They will keep running, and one interception will not result in a second interception immediately, so No matter who has the ball on the team. Will face the defense again and again. The best way to deal with this kind of intensive pressing defense is to continue to cooperate with short passes like the opponent, but this is also a headache-in terms of short pass cooperation, the team is more than a little bit behind Manchester City. When making a few more short passes in the frontcourt, the possibility of losing the ball will be greatly increased, and the opponent often takes advantage of the opponent's mistakes to control the ball under his feet again. Then they will launch a very stable offensive, constantly cooperating with each other. Constantly trying to move forward, the formation also slowly moved forward, this kind of oppressive offensive was a little breathless.

Less than 20 minutes into the game, Liverpool were already somewhat suppressed in the situation.

Gerrard has done some research on Manchester City's game. He knows that at this time, if the game continues to develop, Liverpool will become more and more passive. In the end, it is very difficult to even attack the middle line. It is best now. The way to do it is to force the attack or the goal to open up the situation and press the opponent back again, so that the team will have a better chance.

So Gerrard began to keep trying to lead the team to attack, but he encountered the same problem as before. Whenever David Silva came to defend, he still had to pass the ball, and occasionally did not pass the ball. Rad found that he underestimated this young Spanish boy. Let alone the opponent's foot skills, this kind of face-to-face and steady defense is not something that ordinary young players, even defenders, can do. Faced with this kind of defense , Gerrard can only choose to cooperate with his teammates.

But often football passes in the past, and it is difficult to pass it back!

When the football reached Crouch's feet, the 'tall man' didn't even have time to stop the ball, and was directly tackled and stopped by the opponent's young Portuguese central defender.

———

Wan Sheng sat on the coach's bench and saw this scene, and couldn't help but laugh.

Among England's strikers, Crouch is quite good. He is tall, a tactical center, and is very good at headers, but because he is a tactical striker, he is poor in both position and individual flexibility. A lot, even if a player like this is placed in Manchester City, Wansheng will not use it, because he simply cannot adapt to Manchester City's flexible tactics.

Perhaps only the 'simple and rude' tactics adopted by Liverpool will always be inseparable from tactical centres such as Baros, Crouch and Husky.

But Manchester City is not afraid of this type of center, because the team has Koppelle Ferreira in the backcourt. The Portuguese center is very good at defending high-altitude balls. In this aspect, he is simply a master. In addition, he will be very decisive in defense. Just like just now, Crouch just stopped the ball a little bigger, and was directly tackled by Ferreira. Maybe this action sometimes seems rude, but I have to say, sometimes it seems very decisive and effective.

In front of Koppelle Ferreira, it is not easy for Crouch to think what to do.

———

Before the start of the game, the Liverpool media was still advocating how strong Liverpool was. They used various praises to boost Liverpool's fighting spirit, hoping that they could play a victory at Anfield and restore Liverpool's inferior image in the league.

But after 30 minutes of the game, when many people saw that Gerrard, Alonso, Crouch and others could not do anything in the frontcourt, they could only be silent.

At the same time, Liverpool has also been suppressed by Manchester City as a whole. The ratio of possession time between the two teams has begun to exceed 1:2. Manchester City has twice the ball possession rate, and has a more flexible and targeted attack. The stronger you are, the more opportunities you will naturally get.

In the 34 minutes of the game, David Silva helped Manchester City break the deadlock!

"David Silva—!!"

"Goal!! A cold shot! David Silva used a sudden shot from outside the penalty area to let the football successfully break through Reina's ten fingers!!"

"Goal scored! 1:0, Manchester City take the lead!"

"David Silva! David Silva! Congrats to this young Spanish player who has already scored three goals in the Champions League, but only in the third round of the league this season He scored a goal between Manchester City and Arsenal, and many media said he had entered a 'goal drought' in the league, but now he hit back at the media with a direct kick, proving his stability."

Like the commentator said, goals are really important to David Silva.

In the Champions League, Silva has already scored three goals, but in the league, he has only scored one in the third round against Arsenal. Until now, after eleven rounds of the league, he has not been able to score again. Goal, although the media said that he and Morris are 'Man City double star', but he is still too few goals in the league, which has brought pressure on him.

But with this goal, the pressure is gone.

A direct break from outside the penalty area is enough to prove his state.

After scoring, David Silva relaxed and celebrated, ran, and shared the joy of scoring with his teammates and fans.

There was a 'boo' sound at Anfield at this time. It was the voice of all Liverpool fans. They were not 'boo' to celebrate the goal of David Silva. In fact, some fans were still in their hearts for David Silva. - Thumbs up for Silva's goal, they were 'booing' the Manchester City manager who rushed out of the dugout with an extremely arrogant expression - Wan Sheng.

Wansheng will not forget the 'gift' given to him by the Liverpool fans at the beginning of the game. There is still a gift hanging on the east side stand, and the Liverpool fans are still holding it high as if to express something.

So Wan Sheng excitedly rushed to the sidelines and raised his pinky in that direction in a high-profile manner.

Everyone saw it, and the referee even ran over to warn Wansheng not to make similar provocative actions, and at the same time Liverpool fans responded with an angry 'boo' sound.

Under the clear camera lens, it can be seen that as the 'shush' sounded louder, the smile on the face of the young Chinese coach seemed to grow thicker. (To be continued ~^~)