Chapter 180 England Goalkeeper

Although they wanted to compress the defense, Deco and Miku, including Pires and Duff, were not real defensive players. Their characteristics can only be fully utilized in the offense.

Looking at the defense of Deco and Miku after they retreated, George shook his head.

In these days, they only practiced how to attack and how to cooperate, but forgot to let them practice how to defend.

If facing Manchester United and Arsenal now, George does not believe that he can completely suppress them in the midfield. He can also attack them in an oppressive manner, after all, the midfield strength of both teams is outstanding. Last time at Old Trafford, it was completely relying on suddenness and the physical problems of Manchester United players that they were able to retreat unscathed.

Facing those strong teams again, we must not only find ways to attack. There must be no problems in defense.

Rebuilding Blackburn, forgetting his own business. He is a coach who came from defensive counterattacks. He forgot everything, and he should not forget defense.

Although the space was compressed, Owen's performance was still quite active. George saw that Makelele had lost all confidence in front of Owen, so he shook his head.

"Owen, come here." George waved at Hargreaves.

"Have you seen Owen? I think you should know him too." George pulled Hargreaves. Owen was too active, and he must not be let go like this. "After you come on the court, follow Owen. If he enters the penalty area, don't worry about him, but once he is outside the penalty area, keep an eye on him. Don't let him turn around easily, use your body to hold him back. If it doesn't work, use a foul. Anyway, no matter what method you use, stopping Owen is victory."

Hargreaves listened to George's words and nodded. He was quite proud in his heart.

Speaking of which, there is actually a midfielder on the bench now. It is David Dunn, who was trained by Blackburn Youth Training Camp. After being promoted to the first team this season, he is still highly regarded by George. He has played far more times than Hargreaves. Hargreaves basically went up to warm up in garbage time and the last few minutes.

Although David Dunn played more times than Hargreaves, he also played in garbage time. Only when the team leads by more than two goals can they get playing time.

Now that the team is at a disadvantage, George first thought of himself instead of David Dunn. Hargreaves was very happy just for this. Doesn't this just show that his position in George's heart is higher than Dunn.

In the 36th minute of the first half, George replaced No. 24 Makelele with No. 13 Hargreaves. This was also the first time that Makelele was replaced in the game, and it was before the end of the first half.

"George replaced Makelele. Makelele's performance in this game was really too bad. Liverpool's midfielders hardly put any pressure on him, but only Owen made him embarrassed. He lost his position several times. Fortunately, Liverpool's midfield put less pressure in this game, otherwise Blackburn's defense would have collapsed long ago."

"The player George replaced was Hargreaves, who will be 18 years old in more than two months. He was originally a player of Bayern Munich's youth team. George dug him from Bayern Munich's youth team this season. The total playing time this season is less than 30 minutes. I don't know what George meant by replacing him?"

Hargreaves is really an unknown person. He was originally just in Bayern's youth team. When he arrived at Blackburn, he didn't play many times. He only played when the game was about to end. Therefore, even the senior commentators didn't know Hargreaves. Except for those cold information and data.

"Owen Hargreaves? Midfielder? 17 years old?" Houllier looked at Hargreaves' information and talked to himself.

Houllier knows a lot about Blackburn, and has conducted special research on many of their players. But this Hargreaves? Where did he come from? His technical style and characteristics are unknown.

"Claude, sit here. Just sit here and watch the game carefully, think about your position and how you should defend." George nodded to Makelele.

It is very uncomfortable for the players who were replaced in the first half. But George did not comfort Makelele because his performance was too bad.

"Claude, do you know why I asked you to play as a defensive midfielder?" George asked coldly, looking at Makelele who looked frustrated. Makelele looked up at George, which was also what Makelele was puzzled about. "Because the defensive midfielder is not just the body. I want you to play as a defensive midfielder to let you play with your brain. The smartest defensive players will not run with the ball. Instead, they will stand in position and prevent the ball from passing by. This is what people call consciousness."

"Watch the game carefully down there and think about where the defensive midfielder should stand."

Hargreaves cherished this opportunity very much. He spent a year and a half in Bayern's youth team, and the Bayern Munich youth team coach still thinks highly of Hargreaves. If it weren't for playing in the first team, Hargreaves would certainly not leave the familiar Bayern youth team.

Hargreaves got George's promise. But since he came to Blackburn for half a year, he has not had many opportunities to play. Although he felt a little resentful, Hargreaves has been meticulous in training. He is waiting for the moment to make a splash.

"Beep--"

"It seems that Hargreaves came here specifically to defend Owen."

Hargreaves was very excited. He saw Owen pulled out of the penalty area and received the ball again. After going up, he knocked him over. Hargreaves' body is not very strong, but compared to Owen, he is already very strong.

The referee blew the whistle quickly, indicating that Hargreaves had committed a foul.

But Hargreaves shrugged, and didn't care about Owen lying on the ground at all, and ran back directly.

"Beautiful, that's it." George looked at Hargreaves' foul and patted his thigh off the court.

Compared with Makelele, Hargreaves is much better in physical fitness. Fast, strong, and fierce. Therefore, when defending Owen, it was like sticking to him like a dog-skin plaster. Once Owen showed signs of being extraordinary, he would foul directly.

"It seems that Hargreaves came on the court with George's mission. In less than ten minutes, he had already fouled Owen three times. He was young but fouled with discretion, and the referee was not easy to deal with."

Hargreaves's persistent style of play made Owen very uncomfortable. It turned out that Owen, who broke through in the middle, had no choice but to avoid Hargreaves and came to the left. He wanted to cooperate with McManaman, but Hargreaves got George's instructions. Unless Owen entered the penalty area, as long as he was outside the penalty area, he was in Hargreaves' care.

Hargreaves went to take care of Owen specifically, and Deco came to fill the position in the defensive midfielder position. Deco's personal defensive ability is not as good as those defensive midfielders. But the one-on-one defense is still very good.

Seeing their golden boy being bullied by Hargreaves like this, the Anfield stadium booed.

Owen's silence reduced Liverpool's attack power by half. It also gave Blackburn a chance to counterattack.

However, the first half was coming to an end, and because of Deco's retreat, Miku could only retreat to organize the attack. This caused a lot of problems in attacking.

Blackburn's attack power was concentrated on Liverpool's right side, where Carragher was guarding. Pires and Duff switched positions and took turns to attack this point.

"Pires, he passed Carragher... passed the ball... the ball was too deep and went directly to James."

Towards the end of the first half, Pires passed the ball to the middle again. But the ball was floating and went directly to James.

Klose, who was about to grab the ball, and Miku, who was inserted from behind, shook their heads.

"Huh, what is this?"

This was an easy ball that couldn't be easier, and James did jump and easily took the ball. But the accident happened at this time. James might have wanted to send the ball quickly, but he didn't expect his hands to hit his knees.

A mistake, a huge mistake. James used his knee to head the ball out.

Miku, who was sighing just now, was surprised to see the ball at his feet. But there was no one next to him. All Liverpool defenders had already moved forward, ready to attack.

Miku looked at the huge empty goal and pushed the ball without hesitation.

"This is such an amateur mistake, James! Such an amateur mistake actually happened to James. It shouldn't be, it really shouldn't be." The commentator was surprised, the players on the field were surprised, and even George was surprised.

Miku accepted James's gift with a smile. James's gift allowed Blackburn to equalize the score before the end of the first half.

Houllier angrily shook the mineral water in his hand on the sidelines. Seeing James's low-level mistake, Houllier's determination to sell James was strengthened. Houllier originally disliked several Liverpool players, including Redknapp and James.

"Is this the future England goalkeeper? Haha!"

George shook his head. After Seaman, England will usher in a ten-year goalkeeper shortage. Whether it is James in front of us or Carson and Green later, they just added a lot of jokes to the world football. It was not until the appearance of Joe Hart that the England goalkeeper stabilized.

This is the butter hand, the goalkeeper's low-level mistake, which is the first time George has encountered it since he became the head coach.

Although George is now English, he does not have any sense of belonging to England. He does not care about the performance of the England goalkeeper and the results of the England national team. It would be better if the goalkeepers of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool were all such big sieves.

If it were not for James' low-level mistake, how could Blackburn equalize the score before the end of the first half.