Raphael. Benitez is in his fourth year at the helm of Liverpool.

Rafael Benitez made his debut with Real Madrid's junior squad and was promoted to La Liga as a player, although he retired at the age of 26 to join the Real Madrid coaching staff. In 2001, he became the head coach of Valencia, and in his first season in charge of the Bats, Benitez made a name for himself when he led Valencia to La Liga titles.

He arrived at Liverpool in August 2004 and became at the helm of the glorious division.

In David. Under Moores (former Liverpool chairman), Rafael Benitez made a splash as Istanbul Night became one of the most iconic comebacks in world football, and the Reds finally won their fifth European Cup trophy in their history after 20 years of silence.

Liverpool then settled into the top three, winning the FA Cup in 2006-2007, and Rafael Benitez's record is the Reds' best manager since the inception of the Premier League.

However, in 2007, the Liverpool club was hit by a major earthquake, and American businessmen Hicks and Gillette joined forces to buy Liverpool. Morse was disgraced, and the cunning and shrewd American became the new owner of Anfield.

Of course, the two Americans are not useless, they are not too difficult in terms of money, Benitez is still the protagonist of the transfer market in the next two seasons, although the manager Abu and Sheikh Mansour have stolen the limelight, but Liverpool still spent $200 million in the summer transfer market for three seasons, acquiring Torres, Kuyt, Glenn. Johnson and other giants.

It's a pity that compared with his own tactical ability, Bei Bald's vision is really a bit unsightly, and more players he bought have quietly left after a few mediocre seasons, and the purchase of nearly $300 million in four seasons is still Liverpool's thin squad.

Defeat in the transfer market led to a gradual rise and fall in the Reds over the next few seasons, and they reached the Champions League final again in the 06-07 season, but unfortunately the Rossoneri did not give them any chance this time, and Liverpool could not repeat the miracle of Istanbul, kicking off their gradual decline.

After a two-handed 07-08 season, Liverpool have been humiliated this season, with 11 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss in the first 17 rounds, and they have performed well in the opening stage for the second year in a row, and they have overtaken Chelsea, who had been pressing on them before, and enjoyed the honor of topping the league table.

However, Benitez has a huge problem, that is, he is extremely admired for his tactical thinking, even to the point of obsession, whether his players are suitable or not, he will not change his tactics, and Mourinho, Benitez advocates the ultimate defense and fast counterattack, his attainments in defensive tactics are even above the magic bird, the Reds have met the Blues twice in the Champions League, Benitez forced the magic bird with three draws to go away, he never cares about dull scenes and media criticism, in a way, he is more "consequential" than Mourinho.

Mourinho will probably refute the media that he can also lead the team to "play a big score", but Benitez simply ignored the media's nagging, and he once calmly declared to the media: "A victory is a victory, 1:0 or 10:0 makes no difference." ”

Uncle Bird's skin is not thick enough for him, and it has become a natural thing to fall at the feet of Liverpool in the Champions League.

However, Benitez's tactical ability is really powerful, especially in a format like the Cup, which needs to be studied one by one, and his targeting and line-up can often anticipate the enemy's opportunities and restrain the opponent's lineup. Jose Mourinho once proudly said to the media: "Barcelona have never beaten Chelsea at 11 to 11. But in the face of Benitez, he did not have such confidence.

But because of this, Bei Bald fell into a kind of magic obstacle to his tactics, he tried to lead Liverpool to win every war, regardless of the fact that the league is made up of 38 rounds, his squad is changing almost every game, many players rise and fall under him, and finally play until they have no confidence, Babel, Keane and others were once hot players in European football, but in the hands of Bei Bald, they play one game and two games, today to play left forward, tomorrow to play right winger, I couldn't figure out whether I was a player or a guinea pig, so in the end, these players lost confidence and spirit in Liverpool, and were abandoned by Bei Bald without hesitation.

Some media have described that under Benitez, only three players have stable positions, that is, Reina, Alonso and Gerrard, of course, a Torres will be added later, but other players are really difficult to adapt to his changeability, including the left and right wing-backs Glenn. Johnson and Reese have all been pushed by him to the midfield and midfield positions, and they are multi-talented, which is Benitez's favorite trait.

It is precisely because of Benitez's changeability that Liverpool cannot show the stability that the league needs most, they can often overcome obstacles and be unstoppable when they are full of energy and high morale at the beginning of the season, and the only one who can go hand in hand with Arsenal in the first half of last season is also Liverpool, and Liverpool is still chasing me in the first game of this season and Chelsea, but after February, they began to gradually fall behind, unable to finish well.

Last season, Arsenal collapsed, and Liverpool also collapsed in the second half, and even the ranking is still below Arsenal, and this season, Chelsea has gradually shown a lack of stamina, can Liverpool hold on to the end?

While these three teams are still entangled, the media have already noticed that defending champions Manchester United are catching up, and they have now overtaken Arsenal to move into third place in the league, just three points behind Liverpool.

Manchester United was in the chaos after the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo at the beginning of the season, but Lord Freuds's quick adjustment, Rooney became the focus of the whole team's attack, with the assistance of veterans such as Scholes and Ryan Giggs, they stabilized the pace in the following games, performed better and better, and have quietly caught up.

Therefore, the most indispensable thing in the Manchester United team is not Keane, nor Beckham, but Ferguson, with him, Manchester United will never collapse, it is no exaggeration to say that Ferguson is equal to Manchester United, Manchester United is Ferguson.

On December 21, Arsenal sat at the Emirates Stadium to welcome league leaders Liverpool and their smothered manager Rafael Benitez.

Although Arsenal is also a strong opponent, the journey of the great Red Army is paved by the corpses of strong opponents, and Benitez and the Red Army have never been afraid of war.

The game fell into a very frenzied atmosphere at the beginning, last season's Anfield stadium 3:3, squeezed the last spirit of the two teams, that game was the beginning of the collapse of Arsenal, but many people did not expect that it also became the beginning of Liverpool's collapse, the two teams that had only lost one or two games before seemed to be fighting for who lost more in the subsequent game, and the ranking fell all the way, from the first and second in the league to the third and fourth.

If it weren't for the fact that the league was nearing its end at the time, both teams might even have slipped out of the Champions League.

So in this game, the two teams can be described as enemies, and they are very red, Liverpool did not hesitate to draw a bayonet, Arsenal has no intention of saluting first, Van Persie, Descartes, Rosicky, Nasri, Walcoat and others are all on the field, Wenger's bench, there is no player who can change the situation.

The deadlock was broken in the 16th minute, with Arsenal at home in full swing, and Nasri's return to the squad that had won the past few games, despite the loss of core Cesc Fabregas, Rosicky has been improving in this position, and he has become an important part of the team's front and back attack.

Rosicky took the ball in the middle of the midfield, Gerrard and Alonso were negligent at this time, they thought that Rosicky would take the initiative to pass the ball out like Cesc Fabregas, seeking cooperation with teammates, but they forgot that Rosicky's fame relied on a breakthrough, and at the moment when the two were distracted, Rosicky broke through the defense line formed by Gerrard and Alonso in one fell swoop, and rushed directly in front of defender Carragher.

Carragher is also a fine product of Melwood's academy and is now becoming a fixture in Liverpool's backline as veteran Finnish defender Hyypia ages, directing his team-mates to help defend against a fast-paced Rosicky.

Rosicky considered himself impeccable in the face of Carragher's caution and experience, so he slowed down and began to look for his teammates.

At this time, Gerrard and Alonso, who were behind them, had already reacted and were desperately chasing from behind.

Between the flashes of lightning, Rosicky caught a glimpse of someone in the Liverpool penalty area who raised Bai Shengsheng's arm, regardless of who was asking for it, Rosicky poked the ball with his toes, he was already in a deep siege, and it was too late to pass the ball.

The passing route of the ball was not very good, and Liverpool defender Agger was not too far away from the ball, and if the Arsenal players wanted to get the ball, they would probably have to get caught up in a scramble with Ager.

Rosicky regretted the ball a little after passing it, because the pass was too hasty, he couldn't grasp the route well, and the ball looked hopeless.

But just when everyone was relieved, a thin figure suddenly rushed out, and shot the ball out with an unconventional half-turn tackle before Ag made a steal.

This is a sliding tackle in the process of running diagonally towards the ball, and the difficulty is extremely high is that when sliding the tackle, you have to twist your body to shoot the ball behind you, usually, this kind of ball is either kicked or weak, but this player's shot is very resolute, and the footwork is also well controlled, the ball is accelerated by his instep to the goal, when Agen arrives, only his bright black spikes can be seen.

Liverpool goalkeeper Reina didn't expect someone to shoot in such an awkward position, he reacted the moment the ball rolled over, but the ball rolled against the turf, and when he fell, the ball had already gone under his armpit and over the Liverpool goal line.

1:0！

It was only then that it became clear that it was Arsenal's No. 18 Descartes who scored the goal.

In the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season, Descartes shocked the entire Anfield stadium with a breakthrough full of blood and willpower, and even Gerrard felt sorry for him after the game, and in this game, he once again staged an incredible goal, and it seemed that he was like Liverpool's nemesis, always unstoppable.

The Liverpool players, who had fallen behind for some reason, had apparently not yet come to their senses, only Gerrard looked at the back of Descartes galloping, and a wry smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

After conceding the goal, Liverpool stepped up their attack, and Gerrard was not willing to let Descartes steal all the show, so he began to plug in frequently and attack Arsenal's midfield.

Arsenal's starting midfielder for this game was still Denilson. Although Denilson has such and such flaws in defense, his ability to play the ball and forward is what Wenger needs most at the moment, Fabregas's work Rosicky cannot afford to do it alone, without Denilson, Rosicky, who does not have a wide field of vision, is easy to be targeted.

And Gerrard also aimed at Denilson's relatively weak defensive ability, and began to charge fiercely against his defensive zone.

Denilson, who is 1.77m tall and weighs 67kg, is defined as a defensive midfielder, but in fact, with his physical fitness, he is not able to cover the front of the penalty area, and even when he is facing off against opposing attacking players, he is still physically at a disadvantage.

Gerrard is 1.88 meters tall and weighs 82 kilograms, and his physical fitness can be regarded as the number one among the midfielders in the world, especially his impact is very strong, when he runs, few players dare to stand in his assault path, and when he rushes straight to Denilson with the ball, the latter even feels a slight tremor in his calves.

After one or two times, Denilson faced Gerrard's impact and chose a limited avoidance, in fact, this is also the problem of most Brazilian players, their skills are beautiful, but their mental strength and willpower are always not strong, they can't never give up on the court, and they can't control their ** off the court.

Gerrard felt Denilson's fear, so he attacked more resolutely, and finally, his efforts paid off in the 44th minute, when he once again took the ball and rushed to Denilson's defensive area, the latter had a trace of hesitation on his face, in Denilson's opinion, the first half of the game was almost over, maybe this is Liverpool's last attack, even if he relaxed, there was probably no problem, not to mention that he was blue and purple all over his body in the confrontation with Gerrard, This big guy is too stout to be as good as ...... Hand him over to his teammates behind him, right?

With such hesitation, Denelson did not resolutely intercept Gerrard, Gerrard took advantage of such a good opportunity to decisively break through his defense, and then at the top of the arc of the penalty area, he suddenly chose to shoot angrily, Arsenal's third captain Garra felt a strong wind blow over his face before he ran in front of Gerrard, and then he turned back and saw Almunia falling to the ground in despair, the ball was spinning quickly in the net.

“**!” Even if he is as suave as Arsene Wenger, he has to curse at this time, conceding a goal before half-time is unbearable for any team, and what makes him even more unbearable is Denilson's performance before, he was forced to run over by Gerrard like a stupid chicken, did he come to the pitch to watch the play?

"When Francisco comes back, Lao Tzu will replace you immediately!" Wenger swore inwardly as he turned and walked back to the dressing room with a gloomy face. (To be continued.) )