Chapter 248: Liverpool's counterattack
The Reds fans at Anfield were apprehensive that the scene was too thrilling and thankfully Mignolet had expanded the defensive area, otherwise Hazard would have provided a perfect assist to Jones.
At this time, Klopp, who was sitting in the coach's seat on the sidelines, was also shocked, and he was not afraid to fight any opponent! If Liverpool's opening game only threw a few men into the attack, giving the impression that Liverpool were afraid of Chelsea, then it was a big mistake!
Klopp naturally has his own wishful thinking, and also has his tactical vision, to defeat the current Chelsea, naturally need to make more efforts, Liverpool has to catch, in fact, it is still a counterattack!
After Chelsea's attacking group pushed the attack into the danger zone, Liverpool needed to judge whether to launch a fierce attack according to the situation on the field at the time, this time, after Jones's header failed, the football fell at the feet of Henderson, and the first reaction of all the players in Liverpool's midfield was to watch!
Jones, Costa, Hazard, Fabregas, Kante! Chelsea have five players still in Liverpool's defensive danger zone, in other words, there are only five players in the vast space of Chelsea's central midfield at this time!
The Liverpool players know that this situation will not last long, maybe in five seconds, Kante will be back in midfield, Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard will also be withdrawn, and Jones, who is now running back, is a fleeting opportunity for them to attack!
You can't miss it! Salah, Sturridge, Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, all began to run forward, Henderson passed the ball to the feet of the Liverpool midfield commander, Coutinho looked up at the front, about to make an attacking organization! When the Reds' attacking crowd struck Chelsea's half, it was a sight that really put pressure on Chelsea's defensive system!
It was as if a magnificent red whirlwind was sweeping in front of me! Philippe Coutinho played a long ball in front of the penalty area and the ball sped down the left side of the pitch, where Oxlade-Chamberlain ran in front of the position.
Cahill did not retreat, but stepped forward to intercept, Chamberlain took the lead than him, pushed the ball to the right with the outside instep, and then bypassed Cahill to run forward, before Cahill, Sturridge slanted the ball from Chamberlain to the left front, it was in front of Henderson! Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's pass was also running forward, and Henderson was already behind Sturridge after turning.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain met the ball on the left flank outside the box and passed it to Henderson, at which point Christensen, Cesar Azpilicueta and Zampacosta on the back line immediately recycled into the box to form a back three.
Henderson flicked the ball sideways to avoid Cahill from behind, and then Zampacosta stepped forward to intercept it, at which point Sturridge slipped in from Christensen into the space behind Azpilicueta, and Cahill saw it and immediately closed the door with Christensen, fearing that Henderson would send Sturridge a lethal through ball.
Henderson dribbled the ball sideways as Andreas Christensen came up, shook off Christensen's frontal blockade angle, and then passed the ball at his feet and slotted it in!
Cahill was moving towards the middle of the goal when he saw Henderson pass the ball behind him, he stopped and turned to look, only to see that the ball behind him had been cut inside and taken away! Salah rushing up from the back!
Thibaut Courtois immediately abandoned the goal, Salah was extremely calm at this point, he crossed the ball in front of the goal, Sturridge slid first and swept the ball into the empty net! Anfield was like a nuclear bomb, and the Reds fans erupted in joy! Sturridge ran to the sidelines to greet the fans!
Klopp, who was sitting in the coach's seat, was not as nervous as before, he bowed his head lightly and wrote and drew on the notepad, and he didn't know what was recorded, what he needed to see most was whether Liverpool would fight back! Of course, goals are important, but if Liverpool don't execute their tactical plan perfectly, even a chance goal will be inconsequential for 90 minutes.
Counterattacks are not the opportunity to invest in attacking forces to launch, especially in the face of a top opponent like Chelsea, Liverpool must calmly judge the situation, whether they can firmly put into the counterattack when Chelsea's defense is the weakest, this is what Klopp cares about most, Chelsea can be said to have been hit in this Reds counterattack! Every link in the defense was defeated by the opponent, the layers were torn apart, and the final goal conceded seemed logical.
"Liverpool have scored! Anfield Sturridge opens the scoring for Liverpool! It was a brilliant goal scored by Liverpool on the counter-attack, and it was a goal that showed Liverpool's superb team tactical coordination.
After Mignolet narrowly blocked Jones' header, Liverpool didn't slow down the tempo to slow down, they immediately instigated the attack, Henderson instigated the attack at the back, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sturridge advanced the attack to the front, and finally Henderson sent a wonderful pass to Salah, who provided the assist to Sturridge! Beautiful goal, a model of teamwork! ”
Chelsea was also a little surprised, Liverpool's counterattack was too dazzling, speed is the mainstream of the Premier League in this era, the most intuitive feature of the Premier League game is fast, fast, Liverpool play speed impact is not surprising, offensive and defensive conversion to speed up the pace is also what they are good at.
It's just that the counter-attack was too good to be able to get involved in the defence at all, and the wide defence was useless, Liverpool were clearly premeditated, they played the attack they wanted, and then scored goals.
After Chelsea's restart, Jones took the initiative to drop back to help the team control the situation in midfield, and Liverpool's defense can be said to be involved in other players except Sturridge, even Henderson, who is also a very well-rounded player in attack and defence.
In this way, Liverpool's defensive ability in the midfield area is very strong, and can form a kind of entrapment situation, Henderson in front, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Salah on both sides, Coutinho and Milner in the back, plus strong physical fitness and aggressive pressing, Chelsea want to control the midfield calmly, it is difficult.
In the 19th minute of the game, Jones suddenly sent a diagonal pass in the midfield, he handed the ball to Hazard, and let Hazard play freely on the right wing, Hazard faced Milner's defense and pretended to get rid of it laterally but dunked the ball into the direction of the bottom line.
He played the ball back to Cesc Fabregas, who sent the ball to Jones with a cross pass, and Jones made an unbelievable move.
With Gomez following and Moreno pressing diagonally, Jones knew he had no room to control the ball, and when the ball rolled over, Jones smashed the ball directly into the box from behind his body with his right foot!
The Liverpool players had no idea that Jones would do this, and the ball that was knocked into the box was met by the keen Costa, who half-turned and volleyed out the ball, and boom! The ball hit the near post and bounced off the line! Costa looked down and roared, then turned back to Jones and raised his hand.