From the first minute of the game, Villas-Boas frowned on the sidelines.

He said in his pre-match press conference that Mikel and Ramirez were able to contain Qin Xiong.

Because he also knows that Liverpool are without Alonso and Cabaye, and there will be no fraud at all!

The news of Alonso and Cabaye's injuries came from the national team.

The club may also set off smoke bombs, but the national team does not need to cooperate with the club to play these intrigues.

Then Liverpool, who lack creativity in midfield, Villas-Boas predicted that Qin Xiong would retreat to the midfield position, and now it doesn't look too much of a problem.

However, Liverpool neither strengthened the attacking personnel in the forward line, nor arranged wide attacking players, but sent three defensive midfielders, which made Boas unable to understand!

The likes of Mascherano, Lucas and Tiott are not as frequent as Arsenal's Patrick Vieira and Chelsea's Essien in the past, and most of the time these three players have been working diligently in midfield to complete their defensive duties.

And there is no outstanding quality in the attacking organization, and Liverpool's weakening of the attack is really puzzling.

After the start of the game, Liverpool's posture was also very humble, and the formation of the whole team shrank towards the center and back, slightly conservative.

The pace of the attack is also not fast.

In the third minute, Chelsea's attack got bogged down on the left side of the pitch.

Juan Mata is a role that Villas-Boas has high hopes for, and Villas-Boas uses him as a wide midfielder, but today he encountered Liverpool's three defensive midfielders, which means that Liverpool are quick and timely to help defend on the wing of the back line.

In addition to crossing, it can be difficult for Juan Mata to find a link with Frank Lampard in the middle, and sometimes it becomes very difficult because the opposition presses and the speed of the joint defence.

Chelsea's wide flanks have to come up.

After Juan Mata conceded the goal, Liverpool's forward attack was also unsuccessful.

Mascherano cut off Juan Mata's ball and played it to Steven Gerrard.

Gerrard pushed forward in midfield, and he and Qin Xiong collided with the wall in succession before failing on the second occasion, when John Terry stepped forward to poke the ball away.

Chelsea gradually picked up the tempo of the game.

In the eighth minute of the game, Ashley Coletau pressed on the side and finally made a decent attack after supporting Juan Mata on the left.

However, the low cross after bypassing Johnson was not ideal.

Once Chelsea's attack hits Liverpool's defensive danger zone, Tiott will interfere with Drogba in the penalty area, and then with Skrtel and Thiago Silva in combination, Drogba will struggle to get the ball to the back of the line, unless his team-mates pass well enough to give him the lead in a good position, and if he needs to run, Liverpool's two centre-backs will interfere with him physically, preventing him from succeeding.

Just after the ball was cleared by Skrtel's header, Gerrard picked up the ball on the perimeter.

Gerrard turned around and began to stir up a fast attack.

Liverpool's offensive finally showed its threat at this moment.

Steven Gerrard's diagonal pass to the ground was eye-catching.

In fact, Koeman used Steven Gerrard in midfield to play the attacking attack today!

Baines sped on from the left!

Liverpool did not put out a wing attacking player, and Qin Xiong did not pull a side attack, there is only one reason, relying on fullbacks!

And due to the existence of three defensive midfielders, Liverpool almost gave up the defense on the outside of the side, once Chelsea penetrated the wing, the back will directly return to the key position of the penalty area to prevent the opponent from cutting inside, as for the cross, whatever the opponent plays, because the penalty area has formed a dense defense, Drogba can beat everyone to score with a header, otherwise he has almost no other way to break the goal, grab the point and have the central defender to block the front point, the ball can't pass, stop the ball? Before the ball hits the ground, the defenders around you will destroy the ball.

Moreover, Thiago Silva himself will not be at a disadvantage if he defends one-on-one with Drogba.

That's why Koeman has hidden Liverpool's real wide attack at full-back.

Baynes rushes through the ball!

At this moment, Ivanovic and Mikel came to the wing to take the initiative to press Baines.

Unsurprisingly, Baynes passed the ball to the feet of Qin Xiong in the middle.

Ivanovic and Mikel immediately went back to the middle to take part in the defence.

At this time, the whole audience could see the premise of Chelsea's back line, and there was a wide space between the back line and the goalkeeper.

Ramirez ran to force Qin Xiong, Qin Xiong took advantage of the situation to pull the ball to the right side, shook Ramirez away, and after Ramirez stopped and turned around, Qin Xiong immediately passed the ball to the feet of Suarez, who was in front of the back line.

After passing the ball, Qin Xiong immediately pulled his legs and rushed forward, starting the speed and accelerating the explosion, Qin Xiong came directly to the Chelsea back line.

At this point, Chelsea's back line was already tingling.

When the Liverpool coaching staff studied Chelsea's defensive characteristics, there was one thing that they needed to use today, and that was the high-pressing defensive strategy!

To put it bluntly, high pressing is the premise of the team's entire defensive line, and the midfield is organized to implement the siege, forcing the opponent to rush the ball, and destroying the opponent's organized attack from the back.

This strategy is very effective against teams that are not strong in possession of the ball, which will make the opponent's passing efficiency plummet, unable to organize an effective attack, and it is also easy to make mistakes for the opponent, or launch a fast attack to catch the opponent off guard immediately after a successful steal.

This set of Liverpool will also be used, otherwise what would Coman do with so many defensive midfielders!

If Liverpool want to break through the opponent's high pressing, they must first hide the offensive advance point.

Let Chelsea's predictions fail.

This is one of the main roles of the full-backs in this game.

At the same time, it is also a big reason why Gerrard retreats to play the central midfielder as a midfield point.

After the absence of Alonso and Cabaye, Villas-Boas still insisted on using such a defensive strategy in this game, in addition to being unwilling to overturn the tactical concept he had been trying to achieve since the beginning of the season, he also thought that he had mastered the seven inches of the Liverpool team: the overall possession strength declined!

But he was wrong!

Including Koeman's pre-match press conference saying that he didn't know how to deal with today's game, the starting lineup with three defensive midfielders, and Liverpool's weak conservative stance after the opening, all of this is just confusing Chelsea!

Qin Xiong doesn't need to organize an offensive, he just needs to connect in tandem!

Liverpool don't need to pile up too many strikers up front because they have plenty of space to attack!

When the opportunity arises, just two points can kill Chelsea!

Simple coordinates and speed! (To be continued.) )