"Are you serious?"

On the first training day after Valentine's Day, in Liverpool's office building, Rodgers was having a serious conversation with Lonshette.

The head coach was even a little agitated:

"It's a winner-or-lose final, and it's against Manchester City, who are fourth in the league, and you want me to send a substitute to play?!"

Rodgers' voice was a little loud, and several assistant coaches in the next room couldn't help but look at each other.

Someone tried to knock on the door, but someone else stopped them.

"Take it easy, Brendan."

Long Shute smiled and shrugged his shoulders:

"Ask yourself, what do you think...... Is our rotation much worse than the main one? ”

"Nonsense! This should be asked of you,"

Rogers rolled his eyes:

"You don't really think that the substitutes of Divock, Ince, Lucas, Allen and Flanagan are at the same level compared to Coutinho, Firmino, Milner, Henderson, Klein and Skrtel, right?"

Long Shute is still laughing:

"Of course, the strength of the rotation lineup is still a little inferior."

Rogers pouted:

"It's good that you know, I thought you were carried away by your own strength!"

"But...... Isn't that what we want? ”

Long Shute still had a relaxed and happy expression:

"Even the first-graders know that the main players are definitely weaker than the substitutes, will Manchester City and Manuel Pellegrini not know?"

Rogers couldn't help but be stunned, he frowned and asked:

"What do you mean......"

Long Shute waved his hand:

"Aren't you a tactical genius? Can't see any of this intent? ”

Luo Tiancai muttered for 10 seconds:

“…… Do you want to lure Manchester City into a fight against us? ”

“bingo。” Long Shute cocked Erlang's legs, "But it's not an attack, let's fight back with them!" ”

Rogers was stunned for a moment, and finally let out a long breath:

"You must be a demon!"

-

On February 27, Liverpool submitted the entry list one day ahead of schedule in accordance with the regulations.

Undoubtedly, this list full of substitutes has attracted a lot of attention.

"Liverpool's absolute workhorse...... Only two starters, Long and Lovren? ”

"Is there a problem with the fitness of the others?"

"How is this possible? Liverpool are the most thoroughly rotated team! ”

"Manuel Pellegrini is the main force!"

"Rogers doesn't really think ...... With this lineup, he can beat Manchester City, right? ”

At the pre-match press conference, in response to a reporter's question, Rodgers really replied:

"Liverpool does not have an absolute main force, every player has the quality and qualifications to start, as long as he trains seriously and the technical standards meet the approval of the coaching staff, he can get the opportunity......"

Ronshette also said:

'Against a team like Manchester City, I think we have enough squads!'

Pellegrini, who was sitting not far away, almost blew his lungs!

I've never seen such a brazen person!

-

Pegong is a mild-tempered coach, but it is impossible to say that the Chilean engineer has no temper.

This season, he has become a hot topic in football for a while, but the cause has little to do with him.

Even before Christmas, Manchester City announced that they would not renew the contract of their current manager, Manuel Pellegrini, who is currently in charge at Bayern, after the end of the season.

At that time, Manchester City were tied with Arsenal for third in the league, not far from first-placed Liverpool, and in the Champions League, they successfully qualified for the knockout rounds, and it didn't look like it could be the worst anyway.

But the Abu Dhabi consortium has been so slightly humiliating in announcing the new coach.

Many football people have stood up to complain about Pei Gong, thinking that the club is too unfair to him, and the person concerned, Guardiola, may be a gentleman by nature, or perhaps under pressure, and also took the initiative to stand up and apologize to the Chilean.

After a while, the matter has been a foregone conclusion, and even Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has publicly expressed his loyalty to the new coach in an interview: "I'm sure I can play happily under Pep Guardiola. Of course, I'm happy now playing under Manuel Pellegrini and Roy Hodgson. ”

- Of course, Joe Hart must not have imagined that in the end he would become the worst one in the Manchester City team......

Although Pellegrini has even welcomed and supported Pep Guardiola in public, as a man, he will always have a little anger in his heart.

He has already won the Premier League, and Manchester City want to make a substitution, but they believe that the team has no hope of making a breakthrough in the Champions League under him.

But...... Pep Guardiola won the Champions League at Bayern?

Stupid Middle Eastern oil daddy, I'm going to show you how good engineers are!

-

The penultimate day of February, the 28th, finally arrived.

At Wembley Stadium in London, as many as 90,000 seats are already full.

While the winner of the League Cup only has a prize fund of £100,000, each team receives a share of the ticket sales...... There are more than 1 million - even if a ticket is at least 50 pounds, 90,000 tickets will have 4.5 million, deducting the organizer's commission and venue usage fees, it is really easy for the participants to get 1 million, not to mention that a ticket to the finals is probably unlikely to be only 50 yuan.

Add to that the fact that the final will be 100% televised on Sunday's prime-time, and there will be no other matches scheduled for the same period, and the broadcast revenue is also quite significant.

"With less than 10 minutes to go until the 15-16 English League Cup final begins, Zhang Zhi and I have just led you through the way to Manchester City and Liverpool, if you have just turned on your TV and computer, or if you don't know much about this competition, please allow me to give you another brief introduction......

Half an hour before the game, Zhan Tianjun had already started his work:

Founded in 1962, the League Cup, known as the English Football League Cup, is a cup competition that is contested by a total of 92 teams in the Premier League, the Championship, League One and League Two every year. Compared to the oldest FA Cup, the history is not particularly long, and of course, this is relative. ”

"Hey, hey."

"When it comes to the establishment of the League Cup, we have to mention the conflict of interests between the two major organizations of the FA and the English Football League, in order to compete with the FA that controls the league and the FA Cup, the Football League established the League Cup, but unfortunately, even after more than 50 years of development, the League Cup is far inferior to the league and the FA Cup in terms of status and influence, and is even regarded as chicken ribs by the Premier League teams, and was once considered by Ferguson, Arsion Wenger, Mourinho and other coaches to be canceled. However, in today's highly competitive league and Champions League, the League Cup has also become one of the few trophy that can be counted on by teams such as Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham......"

Zhan Tianjun took out his own data again:

'Liverpool have won the most titles in the 54-year history of the Carabao Cup, winning eight times in total, most recently four years ago when they beat Cardiff City on penalties to claim their only title since 2006......

Their opponents, Manchester City, have won the title three times, most recently two years ago when they beat Sunderland 3-1, and that year they won the second Premier League title in the club's history under current manager Manuel Pellegrini......

In this season's Premier League, Liverpool beat Manchester City 4-1 away, and it is worth mentioning that in that game, Lonshette did not play because of a severe cold, and the Reds did not come up with the strongest team......

The commentator was presenting the information, and the live announcer at Wembley Stadium had already begun to announce the starting line-ups for both sides, and the players from both teams were slowly stepping into the field along the tunnel of the players.

In a normal game, of course, both sides play at the same time, but this is the final after all, and the organizers require the two teams to appear one by one with the DJ's roll call......

Anyone who has participated in various competitions knows that the first person to appear is generally not highly scored, because the audience and the judges are not fully prepared.

So when Reds captain Ronshette was the first to come out, he certainly got a huge cheer, but he always felt that it was not as powerful as the voice of more than 40,000 people at Anfield.

Fortunately, most of him is behind the backup goalkeeper Bogdan, and he doesn't have to worry about being overshadowed by his teammates, otherwise he will lose face......

Gomez, Bad Stuber, Lovren, Flanagant, Lucas, Allen, Lallana, Ince, Sturridge......

In addition to Lonshette, only Lovren and Lallana are regular members of the main lineup, and Sturridge, the former leading scorer, has gradually been reduced to a substitute due to frequent injuries.

When Liverpool's starting 11 took a stand in midfield, Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany also led his team-mates slowly on the pitch.

Caballero, Sagna, Otamendi, Klich, Fernando, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Raheem Sterling, Aguero......

Long Shute looked at this lineup and couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth.

Pei Gong, Pei Gong, you sent 11 people like this, can you bear to let them defend against us?

Before he could fully laugh, there was a violent boo from the stands.

The boos came from a large area of red stands.

And the object of this group of Liverpool fans' boos...... Of course, it is Anfield's former genius, Liverpool's hope for revival, and last season's resolute switch to the Blues...... Raheem Sterling!

That was the biggest rebel of the Red Army!