The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 382 Returning to the Premier League
Some people say that before winning the Champions League, Liverpool, together with Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and other teams, were regarded as the traditional powerhouses of the Premier League. Teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal have returned to the ranks of the giants side by side.

But the truth is a bit strange, because among the four giants of the Premier League, Liverpool's performance in the strong dialogue is the worst. One of the embarrassing points is that Liverpool lost 0:3 to Arsenal, 0:2 to Manchester United, and 0:1 to Chelsea. They did not even score a goal in the three games, but lost 6 One goal, such a report card is indeed unsatisfactory and even a bit embarrassing for the Red Army, which is aiming to hit the league championship.

Some media commentators ridiculed that when they did not win the Champions League, Liverpool was a powerful killer. When they met strong teams, they became stronger, but they always capsized and lost points against weak teams, because when they played against strong teams, they could put down their posture and always defend and counterattack; But after winning the Champions League, my identity and status are different. I don’t bother to play defensive counterattacks. When I play against a strong team, I always want to press out and play. As a result...
Although this is a joke, it does make sense, because everyone has known in the past few years that Liverpool has a very, very obvious fatal weakness. Even in the year when Liverpool won the Champions League, this weakness has been It was also clear, that's why so many people thought that Liverpool won the Champions League because Ye Qiu's Chelsea were unlucky.

Up front, this has always been a very serious problem plaguing Liverpool.

Benitez is also making great efforts to adjust the team's offense this season, introducing Dirk Dirk, Pennant, Bellamy and Robbie Keane, especially Robbie Keane, who was favored by Benitez I had high hopes that the Irishman would be able to stir up the banner of Liverpool's striker, but the final result was very disappointing.

Just half a year later, Robbie Keane has been included in the list of leaving the team for the winter break.

This season, Liverpool has picked up England's traditional 442 midfield position. The goalkeeper is Reina, the defense line is Riise, Hyypia, Carragher and Finnan, and the midfielder is Pennant and Mohamed Sissoko. , Harvey? Alonso and Gerrard, the two strikers in the frontcourt are Crouch and Dirk.

Ushering in the first game on the first day of 2007 with the strongest lineup, Benitez's intentions needless to say, he just wants to start the new year at Anfield Stadium, and everyone It is clear that if Tottenham Hotspur continue to perform like this, maybe they can really reach the top four.

Once Tottenham Hotspur enters the top four, the biggest threat is not the far-leading Chelsea and Manchester United, but Arsenal and Liverpool. One of the two teams is bound to be squeezed out of the big ship of the UEFA Champions League.

Therefore, playing Tottenham Hotspur at home, Benitez issued a kill order in this battle!
Liverpool are strong and strong, and Tottenham Hotspur also dare not be careless.

Ye Qiu also arranged the team's best and most suitable lineup to start this game. The goalkeeper is Peter Cech, and the defense line is Arbeloa, Hangeland, Thiago Silva and Al Weiss, the iron triangle in the midfield is Yaya Toure, Mascherano and Fabregas. Among them, Mascherano is at the back, and Yaya Toure and Fabregas are at the front. , forming layers and midfield depth.

The trident in the frontcourt remained unchanged. Franck Ribery and Ruud van Nistelrooy, one of the team's best players this season, both appeared in the starting lineup. Messi was replaced by Ye Qiu because of his consecutive games, and Arshavin took over. on the right side of the team.

This is not only a contest between Ye Qiu and Benitez, a pair of Champions League coaches, but also Beckham's first game after returning to the Premier League. A game is regarded as the most important game for live broadcast and coverage.

Although Liverpool played a 442-[-]-[-] tactic, the positions of the players are not fixed. For example, Dirk Dirk, he has a wide range of activities on the right. Crouch in front is responsible for involving and suppressing the opponent's central defender. Hitter retreated more to the midfield, and sometimes even played the position of the right midfielder, while Gerrard had more freedom to go forward.

Benitez uses this repeated running and interspersing to create opportunities for back penetration, and there is Crouch sitting in the frontcourt, Harvey Alonso's long pass can find Crouch anytime and anywhere, and England Gao Lao's possession and play of the ball in the frontcourt has become an important offensive method for Liverpool to insert in the back.

In view of the characteristics of Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur also gave its own way to deal with it.

The opening is a typical Ye Qiu's opening, rush to attack!
In less than 45 seconds of the opening, Tottenham Hotspur were passing the ball one after another. After Fabregas got the ball, he directly kicked the ball over the top. Ruud van Nistelrooy threw away the sea. After Pia and Carragher, they jumped in against offside, stopped the ball behind their backs and turned to hit the goal. The ball passed Reina's hand and went straight to the bottom of the goal net, but both the referee and the Liverpool players signaled that Ruud van Nistelrooy was offside.

In the 45th second, the goal was disallowed even if it was offside, but Tottenham Hotspur still played the effect they wanted, and soon in the 4th minute, Arshavin made a diagonal pass with his left foot, Ruud van Nistelrooy After stopping the ball in the chest, he swayed past Hyypia, and made a diagonal pass to the left side of the penalty area. Ribery pushed in the back door, but there was no angle, and the ball hit the side net.

Two consecutive waves of attacks have directly hit Liverpool's key positions, which also made Liverpool fans at Anfield terrified. Benitez kept waving his hands on the sidelines, calling on the players not to shrink like this, because everyone Know that Ruud van Nistelrooy's biggest threat is in the penalty area, this is the top scorer in the Premier League this season.

As a wave of offensive gradually took effect, Tottenham Hotspur began to retreat appropriately following Liverpool's advance.

But in order to ensure their own penalty area, Tottenham Hotspur's defense line was arranged at the front of the penalty area. Mascherano stood firmly in front of the defense line, cutting off all the ground balls passed to Crouch, and at the same time blocked as much as possible. Block the back from Liverpool and plug in the attack.

Arbeloa and Alves are two full-backs. The former is the main defender, aiming at the side of Gerrard and Dirk. Pennant has the ball and Alves moves out wide and drops back into the middle, forcing him to cross.

Pennant used to be the assist leader in the Premier League, so he is naturally capable, but if it is just blindly crossing from the side, it goes without saying that the efficiency is low. After all, this tactical play has been abandoned for a long time, and Tottner Hotspur's two central defenders teamed up to restrain Crouch, especially Thiago Silva, who frequently went around the front to defend and made headers to clear the siege.

Although Thiago Silva is much shorter than Crouch, he is more flexible than Crouch, and his jumping ability is also very good, which makes his defensive success rate very high. After all, headers are not only based on height and Bounce, position selection and prediction are also very important, and these are exactly Crouch's weaknesses.

At least from this season, Liverpool's ability to respond to wing defense in the center has always been problematic.

As for the focus of defense, Ye Qiu deliberately let go of the right side and focused on defending the left side, so Arbeloa played the left side and Alves played the right side. This was obviously a targeted arrangement, and even Pennant Taking the ball frequently to get chances, Ye Qiu didn't even think about strengthening the defense on the right, but let it go.

The core purpose of defense is to prevent the opponent from scoring, and Liverpool's most threatening scoring points are on the side of Gerrard, Dirk Dirk and Crouch. No matter how Pennant gets the ball, he always gets the ball from the side. Can't make a threat.

Opening the net, concentrating forces to defend the opponent's deadly weapon, and at the same time allowing the opponent to seize the loopholes to attack, this is not a bad thing for defense, and you must know that both Pennant and Crouch have a problem , that is, the pace of play is slow, and this is undoubtedly in line with Tottenham Hotspur's thinking.

In addition to the fast opening attack, Tottenham deliberately slowed down the tempo, trying to slow down the tempo with more ball possession and series of ball coordination, while Liverpool used active running and pressing to destroy it. , I hope to use physical fitness and speed to overwhelm the opponent, so the Red Army wants to be fast, Tottenham wants to be slow, and it is also good for Liverpool to play Pennant's side.

However, Mohamed? Sissoko, Harvey? Alonso, Gerrard and Dirk. The frontcourt is indeed very good, at least in the point of suppressing the opponent through running and pressing. Tenham Hotspur tried to play a threatening offense several times, but they were destroyed by them.

But even so, Ye Qiu still kept waving his hands on the sidelines to signal the players to be patient, not to follow Liverpool to speed up the pace, and continue to slow down, because slowness is beneficial to Tottenham Hotspur.

But who could have imagined that this slowness lasted until the second half.

Beckham was sitting on the bench. Although he failed to start this game, Ye Qiu made him into the big roster. While sitting on the bench, his attention was not at all distracted by the outside world. Influenced, he didn't even pay attention to the camera passing in front of him, and he was all focused on the game.

For this game, he has his own feeling that Liverpool are held back by Tottenham Hotspur's possession-based style of play, and Tottenham Hotspur are also held back by Liverpool's running and pressing. It was overwhelmed, which directly led to the poor performance of the two teams.

To put it simply, Liverpool lacks an effective weapon to speed up the tempo, while Tottenham needs a player who can bypass Liverpool's press and send the ball into the frontcourt. Whoever makes corresponding adjustments first will continue to occupy initiative.

And through the game until now, Beckham can feel that this Tottenham Hotspur team is still very strong, at least not like Ye Qiu's Waterloo as many outside media said.

"David!"

While Beckham was thinking, Roland walked over from the front and waved at him, "Hurry up and warm up!"

Beckham stood up towards Roland. After all, he was a veteran with rich experience in the game. He took off his training clothes as soon as he stood up, stood on the sidelines and jumped a few times, exercising his muscles and bones, and then walked to the sidelines Warm up, every movement is very skillful, rigorous and serious.

Only veterans who have experienced many years of professional career can realize the importance of warm-up, it can make you integrate into the game faster, and in the process of warm-up, you should not just move your body, but make your body more Quickly adapt to the rhythm of the game.

So when I was warming up, I saw Beckham running back and forth many times and sprinting short distances, which made the sidelines direct the game. Ye Qiu, who watched it in his spare time, couldn't help smiling, and looked at Mauro Tassotti and Roland Dezan. Said: "A veteran is a veteran!"

"Oh, we saw that Beckham appeared on the sidelines to warm up, and Tottenham Hotspur seem to be going to make a substitution!" The on-site commentator also noticed this phenomenon, and with his shout , There was a burst of cheers at the scene.

Even though Beckham played for Liverpool's rival Manchester United before, in fact, he still has many fans in Liverpool.

In less than two or three minutes, Beckham returned to the coaching bench of the visiting team.

"As soon as you go up, they will definitely force you!" Ye Qiu didn't say much, and directly pulled Beckham closer, explaining in a low voice.

"If they press you, you back off, if they follow you pass the ball to Cesc Fabregas and put him in, if they don't follow you play long, understand?"

Ye Qiu's explanation is actually very simple, but it contains many, many details. As an experienced veteran, Beckham immediately understood Ye Qiu's meaning, and he quickly figured out a deeper level. tactical significance.

There are two differences in his playing. One is that if the Liverpool midfielder continues to choose to press him closely after he retreats, then the Liverpool midfielder will definitely miss one person, because Tottenham Hotspur has three, and Liverpool It is a 442 tactic, and there are only two. If Alves on the right is counted, the advantage will be even more obvious.

If Liverpool does not press him closely in order to maintain the balance of the midfield, then he can choose to take the ball and launch an attack with a long pass, which can also create a threat. This is actually creating a problem for Liverpool. Do you force or not? !
The traditional 442 tactic has been proven to be less and less suitable for modern football. The main reason is that it is easy to lose power in the midfield, so now whether it is 4231, 4321, or even 433, the middle of the midfield maintains a configuration of about three people. There is a huge threat to 442.

Beckham quickly completed the handover, standing on the sidelines wearing a belt, waiting for the opportunity to go up when the ball was dead, and this time he replaced Yaya Toure. The Ivorian worked hard and ran very actively. The defense is in place, but the effect is not very good. Ye Qiu still feels that he lacks one thing, awareness.

When preparing to make a substitution, Ye Qiu used Roland to pass a pass to the frontcourt players. Ribery and Arshavin tried to stay as close to the opponent's defense line as possible. Once Beckham seized the opportunity, he would directly launch a long pass. To ensure anti-offside at the first time.

Beckham replaced Yaya Toure. After the two embraced on the sidelines, the Englishman walked into the stadium amidst the cheers and boos of everyone in the entire Anfield stadium, walked into the familiar Anfield, walked Entered the familiar but unfamiliar Premier League arena.

This is the first time he has returned to the Premier League, and it is also the first time he has returned to the Premier League after an absence of more than three years. How many familiar but unfamiliar emotions and memories flooded into his mind in an instant middle.

Two days ago, he was still confused about his future and worried about where his next stop would be, but now, two days later, he is already standing on the stage of the Premier League, waiting for this opportunity. A chance to prove yourself again.

Looking up, feeling the dazzling lights above Anfield, the cheers sweeping the audience were deafening, even though many people said that the atmosphere at home in the Premier League is bad and the attendance rate is getting worse and worse, but compared to all other leagues In general, Premier League fans will always be the most fanatical and passionate fans.

Taking a deep breath, Beckham quickly ran into the field. The referee standing nearby came over, shook hands with him, said a few words of encouragement, and then he ran all the way to his teammates.

Before this game, he had never had even one joint training with Tottenham Hotspur, and at most his teammates had only heard the name and understood some general technical and tactical characteristics, and the others were Very strange.

Fanny came over and hugged Beckham, "Do it well, David, you can do it!"

Beckham patted Van Nistelrooy on the shoulder, watching the Dutchman run to the front again, while he was looking at Cesc Fabregas, the Spanish kid was also looking at him, his expression was a bit like seeing a big-name superstar That kind of restraint, but the Englishman responded with a kind smile, and the Spaniard naturally smiled back.

Taking a few steps back and standing next to Mascherano, Beckham nodded towards the Argentine, "When I get back, go up and support Cesc, and leave it to me!"

Mascherano was taken aback for a moment. He originally thought that big-name players would not like to take the initiative to take on defensive tasks, because no big-name players would be willing to do this kind of dirty work, so he was also ready. After Beckham came up, he To do more, but unexpectedly, Beckham took the initiative to take these jobs.

"Yeah!" Mascherano nodded with a smile, he knew that this was Ye Qiu's arrangement.

And all along, he has trusted his head coach very much. He firmly believes that Ye Qiu's arrangement must have his own intentions. He doesn't need to think too much now, he just needs to obey, and that's enough.

The game resumed soon, and Tottenham Hotspur's midfield still maintained a triangle position. Beckham and Fabregas were relatively high, and Mascherano was lagging behind. Just now there is not much difference.

But just 2 minutes after Beckham played, he got a chance to get the ball with his back. Mohamed Sissoko used his body to block behind him. At this time, Beckham chose to take the ball back. Mohamed Sissoko Coe didn't catch up, because he saw Mascherano pressing forward and was worried about Harvey Alonso, so he didn't keep up.

When Beckham was hesitating, he saw Arbeloa running forward and immediately passed a pass to Arbeloa, and then turned around. After the Spaniard attracted Dirk's attention, he turned around with a horizontal knock Beckham.

The Englishman raised his head, stopped the ball with his right foot, swung it up, rubbed it, and a beautiful arc was drawn from his feet!
(End of this chapter)