Chapter 047: Challenging Anfield (Part II)
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"Robbie, well done!" George excitedly slapped Robbie Keane on the shoulder after returning to the visiting locker room. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Obviously, seeing the team leading Liverpool by one goal at Anfield, the young coach's heart is also not very calm at this time. After all, no matter what George said in front of the Reds players, Liverpool has always been one of the most successful clubs in English football, and one of only three top clubs in the Premier League now, and although Tottenham has many future stars in the team, the potential is far greater than that of the current Liverpool, but for now, Tottenham is still far inferior to the Reds in terms of strength. Therefore, to be able to lead Tottenham to Liverpool in this head-to-head head-to-head meeting, even if only one goal ahead of the opposition, and with a second half to play, is enough to make George happy.
"Shhh...... Boss, you just slapped me in the face and almost knocked me apart. Robbie Keane said, quickly scurrying from George's palm to the nearest bench and squeezing Ronaldo to his feet, "Sorry, Ronaldo." The boss has too many hands, and I can't stand it anymore. ”
"Well, it's okay, I can understand that. Looking at George, who was banging on the small blackboard on the wall of the locker room, Ronaldo couldn't help but shrink his neck, squeezed around Robbie Keane and whispered, "To be honest, I always think that even if I go to be a professional player, I can definitely become a first-class player." Not to mention anything else, with the strength and agility of the leader, two defenders together may not be able to stop the leader. ”
Cristiano Ronaldo has always wanted to play with his brother George, and it's no secret within Tottenham. So, on this occasion, he once again brought it up to Robbie Keane to see if there was any possibility of facilitating it.
"Come on, don't be delusional about this matter. Robbie Keane raised his hand and funnily rubbed Ronaldo's carefully permed hair, which caused the latter to be dissatisfied, "You don't want to think about it, in addition to being our boss and head coach, he is also an English nobleman, with the hereditary title of viscount." Let such a big man play on the pitch with us? Even if the boss himself wants to, the people around him will try to obstruct it. Not to mention, if the boss does step on the pitch with us, then who is responsible for directing us off the pitch?"
Hearing Robbie Keane's answer, Ronaldo couldn't help but hang his head in frustration. But it didn't take long for him to raise his head again in fright by George's loud shout: "Chris (Ronaldo), what do you think?
Just when the Tottenham players gathered around George, happily watching Ronaldo who was taken out by George as a negative example, while listening to his coach's tactical deployment in the second half, in the home team's dressing room on the other side, there was a faint cloud of melancholy at this time, and the Liverpool players sat silently in their accustomed positions, and the atmosphere could be said to be extremely depressing.
'Dietmar [Hamann], Danny [Murphy], Steven [Gerrard], the three of you have to be mindful of the protection and sweeping of the edge of the box in the second half, don't just focus on the man to man. Otherwise, Tottenham will switch positions in the attack and our defence will be pulled out of a hole. However, Houllier didn't seem to notice the low pressure that permeated the dressing room, still instilling his tactical intentions in front of the small blackboard, "Also, in attack you have to make sure that you have a connection with Michael [Owen] and don't let the Spurs players easily cut off our midfield...... So Michael [Irving], your play will go a long way in determining the fate of the team tonight, don't let us down. ”
Owen just nodded silently about Houllier's arrangement, and did not make any additional indications. This former wind-chasing teenager is no longer on how to lead the Red Army to win. For Owen, who lacks heavyweight collective honours, Liverpool, who have not improved for many years, can no longer meet his ambitions. As a result, Irving has been thinking about where he should go from here for some time, which naturally affects his performance on the court.
We have to do all the work, so what do you want Owen to do? Do you care about shooting and scoring the limelight? Hearing Houllier's arrangement, Gerrard couldn't help but feel a little angry. After taking over the captain's armband from Hyypia this season, Steven Gerrard is preparing to lead the Reds in the new campaign, but manager Houllier still doesn't trust his talent in attack - you must know that he has scored 16 Premier League goals for Liverpool in defensive midfield positions since his debut, which is enough to show that Gerrard has huge potential in attack, especially from distance.
If before, Gerrard was still hesitant because of the friendship between Gu Nian and Houllier and Owen, then before the start of this game, in the face of George's provocation, Owen's non-caring attitude began to make Gerrard feel a little estranged from this friend from the bottom of his heart - he can't tolerate that when Liverpool is in trouble, Owen actually does not come forward to defend Liverpool's dignity!
Therefore, after seeing what Houllier and Owen had done, Gerrard, who was extremely disappointed by this, decided that he had to step up and do something about it at this time. However, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble and confusion for the team, Gerrard cannot openly challenge Houllier's authority in the dressing room, and can only make some harmless adjustments to Houllier's arrangement in private - for example, not to be obsessed with feeding Owen directly when attacking, but also to give other players who are better and have the same offensive ability to give some opportunities.
So, at the end of the break, Houllier and Owen took the lead out of the locker room, and Gerrard stopped several teammates who also had a lot of say in the team, such as Hyypia and Carragher, to explain his plan and plan.
However, although Hyypia and the others were also very dissatisfied with Hollier and Owen's performance, they did not agree to act on Gerald's plan immediately, and only assured Gerald that if the game did not go according to Houllier's expectations, then they would switch to Gerald's plan!
Gerard understood the result and nodded in agreement. After all, if Houllier's tactical setup proved to be effective, then he didn't want to do anything about it.
However, in Gerrard's eyes, when Liverpool have the overall strength but the score is behind, Houllier's approach of letting the team continue to play Tottenham Hotspur defensive counter-attack is really a little too unwise. If nothing else, as long as Tottenham continued to put on a defensive counter-attacking posture in the second half, it was enough to make Houllier's set-up at half-time all fall short!
In this way, after the start of the second half, the Liverpool players found that according to Houllier's tactical arrangement, they could not break through the heavy defensive line laid by Tottenham. With Houllier clinging to the defensive counterattack, the Reds, who only have Owen as a reliable firepower point on the offensive end, are really difficult to find an equalizer.
Under the pressure of reality, the rest of Liverpool's players couldn't help but think of the amendment they had heard from Hyypia and Carragher, and involuntarily began to experiment with it, gradually reducing the number of passes that were barely fed to Owen - Houllier's tactical tweaks had proven to be a failure, and they had little to do without changing the big picture.
Since Gerrard's plan is not based on the premise of completely overturning Houllier's tactical play, but has made some minor adjustments on the basis of the original tactics and increased the role of other players on the offensive end, Houllier on the sidelines did not notice anything unusual, but wondered why Husky gave Irving fewer passes and other players shot more.
This change for Liverpool has put a lot of defensive pressure on Tottenham players. After all, under the original Houllier's tactical system, Owen is the first offensive option, so Tottenham players only need to concentrate on defending Owen, and now, Liverpool's attack has not only become much more active, but even has some more flowering meaning, plus Reese, Hamann, Gerrard They all have a strong long-range shooting kung fu, so that Tottenham has to distract to defend players other than Owen, and the defensive pressure naturally becomes greater.
In the first minute of stoppage time, substitute Reeser came on to come on Colwill to break through Karl's defence and cross high to Heskey's header. However, instead of giving the ball to Owen on the other side as Houllier requested, the high school forward chose to pass the ball back to Gerrard, who was inserted into the attack!
This time, Steven Gerrard became the hero who saved Liverpool. Facing the flying ball, Gerrard directly broke Cech's ten-finger pass with a powerful instep volley, and tied the score at the last moment!
And just like that, thanks to Gerrard's last-minute saving goal, Liverpool narrowly saved a draw at Anfield and didn't let Tottenham Hotspur take three points away from their home stadium.
Despite this, Liverpool fans are still very unhappy with Houllier's performance - after this round of Premier League fixtures, Liverpool have only managed two draws and one defeat in the first three rounds to accumulate two points, which is clearly not in line with the psychological expectations of Reds fans. Not to mention, Houllier's ugly counter-attacking tactics were not pleasing to Liverpool fans who had experienced the flashy attacking era of the Tigers.
As a result, after the match with Tottenham, Liverpool fans who were dissatisfied with the team's record once again launched a wave of "revolt", demanding that the club give a reasonable explanation for the team's poor results since the start of the new season!
On the other hand, after a draw with Leeds United and then Liverpool, Tottenham's tragic fate of consecutive draws does not seem to be over yet - in the fourth round of the Premier League three days later, Tottenham Hotspur and visiting Fulham exchanged a blank sheet in 90 minutes of regular time to eat their third consecutive draw in the Premier League!