Four Hundred and Twenty-One Neuroknife
After defeating Arsenal in an away game, Liverpool reversed their opponents and climbed to the top of the Premier League. The entire city of Liverpool was completely excited.
This time, they stayed at the top of the league standings for a full 2 weeks.
Because of the national team match day.
Two weeks later, the Premier League resumed war, with Liverpool challenging newly promoted Portsmouth away from home.
This was a game that everyone thought should be won easily, but as a result, Liverpool tied with the opponent 1:1 in the away game. Davis scored for Liverpool in the first half. In the 81st minute of the second half, Park Portsmouth equalized the score.
It's still the same problem, the attack is too fierce.
Physical exhaustion, coupled with the impact of two weeks of national team games, at the last moment, Liverpool could hardly run up and down.
In the same round, Manchester United defeated Leeds United away from home and Arsenal defeated Chelsea at home. Both teams reversed Liverpool and pulled the Red Army from the league leader's position.
There is nothing more depressing than capsizing in a ditch.
In Monday's column, the Guardian directly commented on Liverpool on the front page, saying that the Red Army's performance this season is like a nerve knife. It shows its performance when encountering a strong team, but stops when it encounters a weak team. This is not typical. Stablize.
The Times said that Liverpool's football is full of explosive power, but lacks endurance.
"Their performance reminded me of what Yang Cheng said when he commented on the Premier League team before. He believed that the Premier League team lacked control and lacked adjustments and changes in the rhythm of the game, which made it very difficult to play against the Premier League team. Simple, because they always play at a single pace."
"Yang Cheng used two methods to defeat the Premier League team back then, one, controlling the rhythm, and two, defensive counterattack!"
"We must admit that Yang Cheng's words indeed sharply pointed out the shortcomings of the Premier League team, but we have to wonder why he clearly knew that Liverpool had this shortcoming but did not solve it well. What’s the problem?”
After playing 9 rounds so far this season, Liverpool has 6 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. The results are quite good. This is already Liverpool’s best result in recent years, especially considering that this is Yang Cheng’s arrival in the Premier League. In the first season, the team has just completed its reorganization. It is really not easy to achieve such results.
But for Yang Cheng, the media will always have higher requirements!
This is why the outside world was very dissatisfied with Liverpool's performance after the away draw with Portsmouth.
But the Nerve Knife is the Nerve Knife, and Liverpool quickly counterattacked.
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On October 23, when Baros received a knock back from Kuyt and scored the ball into the goal of Olin Lubjana on the left side of the penalty area, the entire Anfield Stadium in Liverpool exploded. .
All the players were shouting and cheering excitedly.
On the red scoreboard, the current game time is clearly and conspicuously marked, 83 minutes and 21 seconds, score 7:0, international practice, the home team is in front, the away team is in back, but that 7 quickly jumped to 8!
8:0, this is definitely a near-bloody massacre. Although the opponent is a Slovenian team, and although the opponent is not well-known in Europe, it can reach the League Cup and draw with Liverpool at home. Just not a bad team.
But this was the team that was ruthlessly slaughtered by the Red Army at Anfield.
A total of 8 goals were scored, Gerrard scored a hat trick, Murphy, Kuyt, Davis, Smicer and Baros all scored. Yang Cheng also arranged a small number of goals in this game. Ronaldinho started the game. The Portuguese performed very well in this game and contributed 2 assists, but this also has a lot to do with the weak opponent.
The Liverpool players in the stands were celebrating happily, and the players on the court were also celebrating. Their opponents in this game failed to cause them any resistance on the court, and Olin Lubjana was the only one in the whole game. Two non-threatening shots, and the rest of the time was dominated by Liverpool.
After this game, the entire English media began to exclaim.
"The invincible Liverpool team is back!"
"8-goal victory, Liverpool's offensive ability is the best in Europe!"
This kind of hype was pushed to a peak three days later, after Liverpool defeated Leeds United 3:0 at home. All the media began to crazyly exaggerate Liverpool's powerful offensive, thinking that this two-game offensive attack A team that has scored 11 goals and has not conceded half a goal has completed its run-in and reached its peak state.
"We finally saw the perfect Liverpool in Caesar's mind. They scored 11 goals in two games, their attack power is the highest in Europe, and their defense is impregnable. This is simply a typical Yang Cheng's coaching style!"
"We have enough reasons to believe that such a Liverpool team has the strength to win the Premier League title!"
After Arsenal's 1:1 away draw with Charlton, Liverpool also relied on this victory to rank second in the league, second only to the league leader Manchester United.
As a result, everyone began to exaggerate the English Derby two weeks later, when Liverpool plays Manchester United at home.
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On October 29, in the Premier League Cup, Liverpool challenged Blackburn away.
With a 2-goal lead in the first half, Liverpool center back Agger made a mistake at the beginning of the second half. Blackburn scored two goals in just 10 minutes, tied the score, and reversed the score in the 67th minute. .
Souness' team seems to be avenging their previous humiliation and is determined to break the embarrassing record of losing against Liverpool in the League Cup.
However, Yang Cheng replaced Hamann with Smicer in the 70th minute. The team's formation changed to 442. Kuyt was pushed to the front line to partner with Drogba. As a result, the Dutchman continued to play in the next game. He scored two goals in a row, reversing the score to 4:3 for Liverpool and eliminated Blackburn away from home.
On November 2, in the 11th round of the Premier League, Liverpool defeated Fulham 2:1 away from home.
The Red Army had the advantage in the first half. Edwin van der Sar, who transferred from Juventus this season, performed well with high blocks and low passes, but still could not prevent Gerrard's goal from opening the scoring for Liverpool.
However, Fulham's defensive counterattack took effect in the second half, and they scored a goal through a counterattack to equalize the score.
The game after that completely turned into a depressing physical confrontation. In the end, Liverpool relied on Robben to break into the penalty area and was tripped. The referee gave a controversial penalty kick and defeated Fulham 2:1.
However, Liverpool in this game did not have the unstoppable style of defeating Leeds United 3:0.
And on the front pages of major newspapers the next day, all the media were wondering, what is going on with Liverpool this season?
But amid such doubts, Liverpool defeated Romania's Steaua Bucharest 4-0 in the first leg of the second round of the UEFA Cup away from home, stepping into the top 32 knockout stages with one foot.
This undoubtedly deepens everyone's doubts about Liverpool's current situation.
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"If you look at it from home and away, there is no doubt that Liverpool's home record is very good. They have won all the games so far this season. Their offense is very sharp and their defense is very solid. However, this team seems to be in trouble when it comes to away games. I can play ball."
In a conference room at Manchester United's Carrington training ground, a group of Ferguson's assistants are analyzing the current situation of Liverpool's season, because they will visit Anfield in three days.
"But their away record this season is not bad. They played against Blackburn and Everton, both away from home, but they won them both and they were very convincing, whether offensively or defensively." Another person put forward objection.
After everyone heard this, they couldn't help but frown. This Liverpool team is really weird.
You said he won't win, but he was able to win against his opponents in many games. Chelsea and Arsenal have already fallen victim to their swords, and there were no problems in both games, so winning was not very difficult. , the second half against Arsenal was more about Liverpool being conservative in order to maintain the score.
But you have to say that he is very strong, but they were able to lose to Charlton, draw with Portsmouth and Aston Villa, and have a stumbling match against Blackburn in the League Cup. It is really amazing. People wonder, why does this team's status fluctuate so much?
Ferguson was sitting at the top of the conference room, silently listening to this group of people analyzing Liverpool's tactics.
They are all Manchester United's technical team, responsible for making suggestions for Ferguson's tactics and player positioning. They can also be said to be some of the assistants Ferguson relies on, but the one Ferguson relies on most is the new assistant he hired personally, Walter Smith.
Before Queiroz came to Old Trafford, Ferguson felt deeply that one person was not capable of doing what he wanted, and Queiroz's arrival immediately brought a championship to Manchester United. Therefore, after Queiroz left, Ferguson immediately invited him from Scotland. His old partner, Walter Smith, the famous coach who once led the Rangers to win seven consecutive Scottish Premiership titles, serves as his assistant.
Ferguson has a very good advantage, that is, he will fully trust the people he trusts. This was the case for Queiroz in the past, and the same is true for Walter Smith today.
"What do you think, Walter?" Ferguson asked.
As soon as Lafayette spoke, the entire conference room fell silent.
Walter Smith is definitely an outstanding head coach. His status in Scotland is not inferior to that of Ferguson. Moreover, he has won many championship honors in Scotland and also received the Order of the British Empire. However, his performance as a manager at Everton was poor. , but David Moyes was brought out by him.
For such a big-name right-hand man, only Ferguson can influence him through sexual intercourse.
When asked by Ferguson, the Scotsman with short white hair nodded seriously and analyzed: "Liverpool seems to be very disorderly this season, but in fact it is not. If you study his opponents carefully, you can find out. Make a rule.”
Not only Ferguson, but also the surrounding technical team members immediately looked at the old coach.
The old Scottish coach paused and continued: "Whenever Liverpool wins a big victory or a complete victory, there are no more than two reasons. First, poor defense, such as Leeds United; second, active attack, such as Chelsea and Arsenal. Na!"
"This is not a complete team. At least I can't see that this team is qualified to compete for the Premier League championship. I believe Yang Cheng must also see this. In the final analysis, it lies in the summer transfer. It ruined the result of Liverpool's introduction of Xavi Alonso, and coupled with Yang Cheng not being able to get Arteta, the team lacked organization in the midfield."
"Today's Premier League is no longer the Premier League of the past. Arsenal plays control, and Chelsea is also preparing to play control. Yang Cheng himself is an expert at playing control. It is impossible for him not to understand this, but Liverpool is short of money and there is no way to let him Ranieri is so profligate, so now he can only do everything he can to fill the gaps in the midfield."
Speaking of this, Walter Smith smiled in admiration, "Yang Cheng's tactical understanding is indeed very strong. He uses midfield running to fill the connection problem between the front and back fields. He is also working hard to use running to solve the rhythm problem. , the former has an obvious effect, but the latter cannot be helped.”
"Many people describe Liverpool this season as playing typical English football, simple, rough and direct, but that's not the case. Today's Liverpool framework has come out, only one person is missing!" Walter Smith raised his eyebrows He pointed his right index finger and said, "A midfielder!"
"Understanding this, let's look at it again, why does Liverpool always win against strong teams?"
"The reason is very simple. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Everton all want to win. They all want to win against Liverpool, but they are not willing to defend and counterattack, so their overall formation gives Liverpool room to attack. Drogba, the center forward, The impact is really scary, Robben's attack on the left, Kuyt and Murphy's support and running, Davis and Gerrard's back row insertion..." x-on:.