Chapter 217: Ways to Respond to Provocations

Liverpool's home game against Manchester City was intense from the first minute, and the whole Liverpool team held their breath to beat Wansheng's Manchester City at Anfield.

Liverpool and Manchester City, between the two clubs, there is actually no deep hatred.

Historically, this has also been the case in recent years, and this may have a lot to do with Manchester City's consistently poor results, after all, the team that is always in contention for the title (Liverpool) will not have anything to do with the team that is always relegated (Manchester City).

The animosity between the two teams started more last season.

Manchester City had a very good run last season, they won the league title, and when the two teams played each other unpleasantly, the conflict began. The managers of the two teams, Wan Sheng and Benitez, although not good friends, can by no means be enemies, and there is not much hostility between the Liverpool players and the Manchester City players. The conflict between the two sides is mainly focused on the media, the fans and the competition between the two teams and players in the England team.

Since Rafael Benitez took charge of Liverpool, Liverpool have been doing well in the Champions League, persevering until the end in 2005 and winning the European title, and Liverpool have performed quite well in the Champions League last season and this season.

In comparison, Liverpool's results in the league are much worse.

In the 0405 season, Liverpool only won the fifth place in the Premier League, relying on the qualification of the European champions, to obtain a qualification to enter the Champions League round of 32, last season Liverpool was almost stepping on the 'line' into the Champions League, in the final moments of the league, they were only one more points than Arsenal, won the fourth place in the Premier League, and thus qualified for the Champions League.

This season, Liverpool's results in the league are also in crisis, and they lost to city rivals Everton in the previous competition. Lost to the Blues Chelsea, lost to bitter rivals Manchester United, lost to Bolton, and even lost to Arsenal by three goals at the Emirates Stadium, especially the last game, which is very demoralizing, at this stage many media divide the Premier League into three grades, the first tier of teams is only Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea, these three teams have very good results, they are eligible to compete for the league title. Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton, and Tottenham Hotspur and Bolton Wanderers, who have outstanding results, can only be second-tier teams, that is, all the teams in the second tier are added together, and there is only one place to participate in the Champions League, which requires many teams to compete.

For Liverpool, the biggest rival in the league is Arsenal, and the two teams are likely to fight for the final Champions League spot at the end of the season.

Because of this. Liverpool are in high spirits and want to salvage their league results or they risk not qualifying for the Champions League next season, so this home game against Manchester City is crucial – they have lost almost all of their 'possibly' opponents. So if you can win Manchester City now, you can save some morale and the lost image of the league in front of the media and fans.

Therefore, the whole Liverpool team, including manager Benitez, is holding their breath to win against Manchester City.

The game. Liverpool's main players were fully played, Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Reese, Pennant, Gerrard, Alonso, Crouch and Kuyt were all started, and the game was played at Anfield Stadium. Liverpool are very strong in terms of lineup, fighting spirit and pitch, and they have also started to press Manchester City from the first minute, wanting to rely on their advantage to score first.

The player to watch out for in the Liverpool squad is undoubtedly Steven Gerrard.

After several years of core experience, Gerrard's role in the Liverpool team and his personal performance have become better, and many media and fans even believe that Liverpool with Gerrard and without Gerrard are completely two teams, which shows the importance of Gerrard in the Liverpool team.

Gerrard is looking forward to the game as well.

In the Manchester City team, the one who inspires him the most to perform well is undoubtedly Morris.

In the England squad, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard are in a different situation, with the two being called ' together There is not much difference in terms of technical strength, but in fact, Gerrard's position in the England team is much more stable than Lampard, if the manager wants to replace one of them, it will definitely be Lampard, in addition, Gerrard has a competitive advantage in that he can also be qualified for the two positions of wingback and striker, and can also have a good performance, a multi-faceted superstar, naturally will not worry about his position being replaced, but despite this, Morris is still his direct rival, and more importantly, now many media are making noises, they believe that Morris is the best midfielder in England, and the technical strength is better than GerrardFrank Lampard has been a lot stronger, and the same has been true in the league and Champions League.

In fact, it is not only thought that it can be seen from the goals, Morris has scored five goals in the league so far, and also has a goal in the Champions League, and Gerrard may be affected by the team's excellent strikers such as Kuyt...... So far, he has not scored in the league, and in the Champions League, Gerrard has only scored once.

In terms of assist statistics, Morris is also far ahead with a total of 7 assists in the league and the Champions League.

In terms of data, Morris is much stronger, in terms of real game performance, Morris has also been repeatedly praised by the media, and Gerrard is often criticized, the two are in different situations, and they can also know that there is indeed a gap in performance, but Gerrard will definitely not be convinced, he hopes that in this game, the performance can surpass Morris, so as to prove something.

But in fact, when the game started, Gerrard found that his direct opponent was not Morris, but David Silva, no, to be exact, it was a combination of David Silva, Ivan Crewe and Lescott, whenever he was in the midfield position, when he didn't get the ball, David Silva or Ivan Crewe would follow nearby, and when he got the ball, at least two people immediately rushed over to guard him carefully, and when he defended, it was difficult to find Morris, just Manchester City's smooth cooperation on the right side, which made him feel overwhelmed.

Gerrard struggled to deal with this kind of attack and defence, and he wanted to call his team-mates to deal with it, but he soon found that his team-mates were in a similar situation to him, both offensively and defensively, as if they were facing a few players from Manchester United. It's hard for them to find time to help themselves.

What's going on?

Could it be that Manchester City have more players than Liverpool?

This is of course impossible.

As an excellent midfielder, Gerrard knows that the reason is that the more Manchester City players run, the more they run, the more space and position they can bring, and often their players will have a lot of options when passing the ball, so it seems that one-on-one is like the opponent has a few more players, and the opponent is the same when defending, they will keep running. One interception does not lead to a second interception, so no matter who gets the ball, they will face defense again and again, and the best way to deal with this kind of dense pressing defense is to keep making short passes like the opponent, but this is also a headache - in terms of short passing, the team and Manchester City are more than a little bit worse, and every time you make a few more short passes in the front court, the possibility of conceding the ball will be greatly increased. The opponent will often take advantage of the opponent's mistakes to control the ball firmly at their feet again, and then they will launch a very steady attack, constantly cooperating with the inverted foot. Constantly trying to move forward, the formation is also slowly moving forward, and this kind of pressing offensive is a little breathless.

With less than twenty minutes played, Liverpool were already somewhat suppressed in the situation.

Steven Gerrard has done some research on Manchester City's game. He knows that at this point, if the game is allowed to continue to develop, Liverpool will become more and more passive. At the end of the day, it's very difficult to even attack the halfway line, and the best thing to do now is to force the situation with an attack or a goal to open up the situation and press the opponent back again, so that the team will have more chances.

So Gerrard began to constantly try to lead the team to attack, but the problem he encountered was the same as just now, whenever David Silva came to defend, he still had to pass the ball, and occasionally did not pass the ball, Gerrard found that he was a little underestimated this young Spanish boy, the opponent's foot skills aside, just this kind of face-to-face solid defense, is not an ordinary young player, even a defender can do, in the face of this kind of defense, Gerrard can only choose to cooperate with his teammates.

But often the football is passed in the past, and it is difficult to pass it back!

When the football reached Crouch's feet, the 'tall man' was stopped by the young Portuguese centre-back before he could stop the ball.

―――

Wan Sheng sat in the coach's seat and saw this scene, and couldn't help laughing.

Among England's forwards, Crouch is quite good, he is very tall, a tactical center forward, very good at heading, but it is precisely because he is a tactical striker that his position and personal flexibility are much worse, such a player, even if he is placed in Manchester City, Wan Sheng will not use it, because he can't adapt to Manchester City's flexible tactics at all.

Perhaps only the 'simple and rough' tactics adopted by Liverpool will always be inseparable from tactical centre-forwards such as Barosch, Crouch, and Husky.

But Manchester City is not afraid of this type of center, because the team has Copelle Ferreira in the backfield, the Portuguese central defender is very good at defending high-altitude balls, which is simply a master, in addition, he will also be very decisive in defense, just like just now, Crouch just stopped the ball a little wider, and was directly tackled by Ferreira, maybe this action sometimes seems rough, but I have to say, sometimes it seems very decisive and effective.

In front of Copelle Ferreira, it was not easy for Crouch to think of any performance.

―――

Before the start of the game, the Liverpool media were still touting how strong Liverpool were, and they used all kinds of praise to boost Liverpool's fighting spirit, hoping that they could play a victory at Anfield Stadium and salvage Liverpool's image of poor results in the league.

But the game went on for 30 minutes, and when many people saw that Gerrard, Alonso, Crouch and others couldn't do anything in the frontcourt, they could only be silent.

At the same time, Liverpool as a whole has also been suppressed by Manchester City, the ratio of possession time between the two teams has begun to develop in the data of more than 1:2, Manchester City has twice the possession rate, more flexible play, more targeted attack, and naturally more opportunities.

With 34 minutes played, David Silva broke the deadlock for Manchester City!

"David Silva-!!"

β€œGoal!! A cold shot! David Silva from outside the box with a sudden shot on goal allowed the ball to break through Reina's ten fingers!! ”

"The ball is in! 1:0, Manchester City takes the lead! ”

"David Silva! David Silva! Congratulations to him, the young Spaniard, who has already scored three goals in the Champions League, but in the league this season he has only scored once in the third round of Manchester City and Arsenal, and many media say that he has entered the 'goal drought' of the league, but now he has hit back with a direct goal from the media, proving his consistency of form. ”

As the commentator said, scoring goals is really important for David Silva.

In the Champions League, Silva has scored three goals, but in the league, he has only scored one in the third round against Arsenal, until now after 11 rounds of the league, he has not been able to score again, although the media say that he and Morris are 'Manchester City double stars', but he still has too few goals in the league, which has put pressure on him.

But with this goal, the pressure is gone.

A direct strike from outside the box was enough to prove his form.

After the goal, David Silva relaxed celebrated, ran, and shared the joy of scoring with his teammates and fans.

At this time, there was a 'boo' sound at Anfield Stadium, it was the voice of all the Liverpool fans, they were not 'booing' David Silva celebrating the goal, in fact, some fans were still giving a thumbs up to David Silva's goal in their hearts, they were 'booing' the Manchester City manager who rushed out of the dugout with an extremely arrogant expression - Wan Sheng.

Wan Sheng will not forget the 'gift' given to him by the Liverpool fans at the beginning of the game, and now there is a gift hanging in the east stand, and the Liverpool fans are still holding it up as if to express something.

So Wan Sheng rushed to the sidelines excitedly and raised his little finger in that direction in a very high-profile manner.

Everyone saw it, and the referee even ran over to warn Wan Sheng not to make similar provocative actions again, and at the same time, Liverpool fans responded with angry 'boos'.

Under the clear lens of the camera, it can be seen that as the 'boo' on the scene is louder, the smile on the face of the young Chinese coach seems to become stronger. (To be continued.) )