"When you pass through a storm,

Hold your head high;

Don't be afraid of the darkness,

At the end of the storm, there was a golden sky;

And the sweet singing voice of the lark,

Through the wind, through the rain,

Your dreams may be shattered;

But move forward with the hope of your heart,

You'll never go it alone!

You'll never walk alone!"

Anfield, Liverpool's home stadium.

When Chen Ping walked out of the players' tunnel, he heard the singing of Liverpool fans at Anfield Stadium, who were singing the Liverpool team song. In his last life, Chen Ping was still very yearning for Anfield Stadium. Because when Chen Ping first became a coach, the Istanbul miracle happened, a blood-boiling game. At that time, Liverpool fans can be said to have shocked the world football world. Their performance really became Liverpool's twelfth man, leaving everyone who watched the game to sigh. The Liverpool fans added even more colour to the game with their unwavering performance.

It is precisely because of the performance of Liverpool fans that Liverpool, who has been silent for many years, once again shocked the world football world. Speaking of which, Anfield has always been a famous stadium in world football, and it is a very good stadium in European football.

In particular, their team song "You'll Never Walk Alone" has been following Liverpool fans all the time. When the English league was extremely strong and Liverpool was the hegemon of European football, the team song "You will never walk alone" followed Liverpool to European football and set off a red storm.

The Liverpool dynasty and this team song are inseparable.

Therefore, Chen Ping has always had a high appreciation for Anfield Stadium and has a very special emotion. It's just that the last time I came here, the experience was not very pleasant. West Ham were strong in the league at the time, but they were taught a lesson by Benitez at Anfield.

This is Chen Ping's second visit to Anfield.

"Tread-step-step-"

"Chen, Chen, Chen!"

"West Ham!West Ham!West Ham!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Champions, Champions, We Want Champions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

When Chen Ping walked out, the fans who followed the team to Anfield Stadium immediately chanted Chen Ping's name and West Ham's name. They stomped the pitch to the rhythm in an attempt to suppress the Liverpool fans.

West Ham fans have always been the most famous fan group in the Premier League, and although they are on the road, they are not willing to lose to Liverpool fans. Liverpool fans aren't easy to mess with, though. On their own pitch, they couldn't have let the West Ham fans be so arrogant.

"Liverpool!Liverpool!Liverpool!!!!!!"

"Hooray, Liverpool! Hooray, Liverpool!!!!!!!!!"

The tens of thousands of Liverpool fans far outnumbered West Ham fans, so when they exerted their strength, they quickly overwhelmed West Ham fans and defended the dignity of Anfield Stadium.

"Hello everyone, this is Anfield. Now the first match of the Carabao Cup semi-finals is being broadcast live, with Liverpool hosting West Ham. I'm Andy Gray. ”

"I'm Martin Taylor. ”

Andy Gray and Martin Taylor introduce themselves before the game starts.

Although everyone knows that it is the two of them as long as they hear the voice, introducing themselves is one of the procedures of the commentary. Ordinary League Cup matches, of course, can't attract a big-name commentator like them. But when it comes to the League Cup final, the commentators are also very famous.

The League Cup is only higher than the Community Shield in all competitions in England, and it is almost the bottom of the competition. Although the Community Shield is of the same nature as the Super Cup of other leagues, in fact, the Community Shield of England is of the nature of a semi-friendly match, and the status of the League Cup is higher than that of the Community Shield. But that's about it.

Not to mention that compared with the Europa League and the Premier League, even compared with the FA Cup, the status is several notches lower. The FA Cup is the oldest competition in England and for some Premier League teams, the FA Cup is even more important than the League Cup. So an FA Cup can even be compared to two or three League Cup winners.

This is the status of the League Cup in English football. Nine peaches

However, although the League Cup has a very low gold content, it is also a cup competition after all, so the League Cup semi-finals have received a lot of attention. Especially in the last four of this season's League Cup, they are all Premier League powerhouses. The final four of the League Cup are Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and West Ham.

It's rare to have this kind of strong conversation in the League Cup.

Many Premier League powerhouses actually don't pay attention to the League Cup at all, so it is very rare for such four strong teams to enter the League Cup semi-finals this season. Therefore, it has received a lot of attention.

"This is the third meeting between West Ham and Liverpool this season, and in the first two meetings, Liverpool and West Ham have won one and lost one, and the water has not taken advantage. Speaking of which, Coach Chen Ping and Coach Benitez are both playing in the Premier League for the first time, and they are both freshmen in the Premier League. However, in terms of this season's performance, Coach Benitez, who has won the La Liga championship and the League Cup, is far inferior to Coach Chen Ping. West Ham are currently top of the table and are doing very well in the league and are aiming to win the Premier League title and create a legend as promoted horses. Liverpool's performance in the league this season has been mediocre, not even as good as when coach Houllier was around. Liverpool currently sit sixth in the Premier League and Rafael Benitez's first season at Liverpool is not looking good so far. ”

"Before the game starts, let's take a look at the line-ups for both sides in this game. Liverpool goalkeeper at home is Dudek, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia and Reese in the back, Hamann, Alonso, Gerrard, Luis Garcia, Colwill in the midfield, and Barosh in the front. ”

'West Ham's goalkeeper is Edwin van der Sar, Zim Bonda, Pepe, Southgate and Baines at the back, Martin Antony, Leo Koke, Michael Carrick, Mascherano and Ribery in midfield, and Lambert up front. Judging from the starting lineup, Coach Chen Ping did not completely abandon the League Cup game because he wanted to fight for the Premier League championship, on the contrary, he basically did his best and did not slow down the League Cup at all. The biggest change was that Franck Franck Ribery, a left-winger, moved to the right, and Martin Antony, who had been playing at left-back, played at left midfield. There is also the fact that West Ham played the back three of Leo Koke, Mascherano and Carrick in this game. This is a very rare style of play in West Ham this season. It can also be seen how seriously West Ham take this game. ”

'It's interesting to see both sides choose to play with five midfielders. The two sides should be battling each other in midfield. ”

The selection is pretty much the same.

Because both sides have similar ideas. Since Rafael Benitez took over Liverpool, Liverpool have embarked on their journey of "being strong when they are strong, and weak when they are weak", and this process has lasted almost for more than a decade. There are many reasons for this.

One important reason is that Liverpool have poor bench thickness.

Among the current Premier League powerhouses, Liverpool have the worst bench depth and the least amount of money in hand. As a result, Benitez can only scratch off in the transfer market, wanting to buy some great players for very little money.

Unfortunately, this is not the time of ten years ago.

The current talented players have just become famous and have been paid attention to by the giants, and there are already a large number of teams eyeing them. As a result, the price of these talented players is very high, where they can be purchased for a small amount of money. The result of Liverpool's scratch is that not only did they not exchange talented players, but they bought a lot of useless players.

In the case of insufficient squad depth and poor quality of substitutes, Benitez has a lot of rotation. But the bench lineup is too poor, and after every rotation, the performance is not very good. Benitez has been at Liverpool for a few years, claiming to have played 99 different combinations, which means that Benitez is a player who likes to rotate. Only against strong teams will Liverpool do their best.

Too much rotation will not only affect the team's run-in, but also the team's combat effectiveness. As a result, at the end of the season, some of the players were really doing well. But the league results are very unstable. In the Premier League, which of the strong teams that can win the Premier League title, which is not the main lineup is stable, no one will change the starting lineup as frequently as Liverpool.

Of course, this is only one of the reasons.

More of the reason is that it has something to do with Liverpool's style of play. Liverpool's attacking strength is not very strong, and Liverpool's attacking line is not very good. The first is their striker Baroshe, don't look at the 2004 European Championship, Barosh performed well, but his strength is very weak among the strikers of the Premier League, and it can even be said that he is at the bottom. Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney, Arsenal's Thierry Henry and Bergkamp, Chelsea's Didier Drogba, all of them are more than a notch better than Liverpool's Baroshe. Barosh is not half a star worse than their strikers.

There is also Colwill, the sharpest man in Liverpool's attacking line. Colwill, who was at Leeds United back then, was really imposing, and he was very good at breaking, passing, and shooting. However, as the injuries increased, although he did not completely become a glass man, he was injured more and more. As a result, Colwill's speed and explosiveness have decreased a lot, including his passing ability. Without speed, explosiveness, and passing ability, Colwell's strength is half of what it was at its peak. Luis Garcia, while doing well, is not the top winger.

Then there are the two cores of Liverpool's midfield, Alonso and Gerrard. Alonso, although he is a West Ham midfielder, is not a characteristic like Barcelona's Xavi. Alonso made a name for himself in La Liga, but what is more powerful than the delicate short pass is the ability to dispatch long passes. Gerrard, on the other hand, is an England midfielder who has a strong impact and long-range shooting ability. But it's not the kind of midfielder who passes the ball in a small area.

The midfield combination of Alonso and Steven Gerrard is a perfect fit for a wide open and close style of play. Alonso can play long balls, and Gerrard uses his impact and long-range ability to break down opposition defences. But what Liverpool lacks most is delicacy, that is, passing and passing in a small area.

In other words, Liverpool's attacking ability is relatively poor. Among several strong teams in the Premier League, Liverpool has the worst ability to break through the opponent's dense defense. For example, Arsenal can tear apart the opponent's defense with wonderful passing, Manchester United use the most British style of wide crosses and the king of the box like Ruud van Nistelrooy to break through the opponent's defense, and Chelsea have Robben as a flashpoint to break down the opponent's defense with a point of face. And Chelsea have a strong centre-forward like Didier Drogba.

Benitez is a master tactician.

Knowing your shortcomings and knowing that you are not good enough to break down the opponent's defence. So whenever they encounter a strong team, Liverpool will play defensive counterattacks. Although Liverpool's offensive ability is poor, it is a strong team after all, and the individual ability of the main players is still good. Gerrard is very good on the counter-attack, his speed, his impact, his passing ability, he is very good on the counter-attack. Benitez always lowers his posture in strong dialogues, and Liverpool is very pragmatic in counter-attacking, so he always has good results in strong dialogues.

But against the weak team, it can't be.

Liverpool is a strong team no matter how you say it, and you can lower your profile when you play against a strong team, but when you play against a weak team, it's completely reversed. When you play against an underdog, you can't defend and counter-attack. If you defend and counterattack, what do you do with the opposing team. Many weak teams survive by defending and counterattacking. At this time, Liverpool's lack of attacking ability is very obvious. Playing with weak teams, Liverpool are always unable to score. On the contrary, he was repeatedly counterattacked successfully by weak teams.

These factors have caused Liverpool to be "strong when they are strong, and weak when they are weak".

Arsenal is a different story by comparison.

Arsenal usually attack-oriented, with strong attacking ability and many attacking methods. So in the face of those weak teams, there are many ways to break the goal, and the least feared thing is the defense of these weak teams. But once you run into a strong team, those methods don't have much effect.

It is precisely because of the careful analysis of Liverpool's characteristics that Chen Ping will launch a five-midfield field. Chen Ping wants to compete with Liverpool for midfield and is also ready to counterattack. Martin Anthony and Ribery were on the flanks and were used on the counter-attack.

After half a season of competition, Chen Ping is getting more and more familiar with Premier League teams, and he is becoming more and more familiar with Premier League teams. Although Liverpool is a strong team, Chen Ping has already found a way to defeat Liverpool. Because compared to Benitez, Chen Ping has more players in his hands, so he has more choices and more tactics to choose from.

"Doot-doo-"

The referee blew the whistle and the first match of the Carabao Cup semi-finals officially began. Liverpool, playing at home, kicked off first to see who could win the game. ”