After half a year of adjustment and running-in, coupled with the fact that Ye Qiu has also begun to familiarize himself with the rhythm and atmosphere of the professional league, this makes his preparations for Ajax's winter break training camp more sufficient, which also makes Ajax's second half start in a significantly better state than at the beginning of the league.

In the knockout round of the Dutch Cup round of 8, Ajax met Groningen, and as a result, Robben's excellent performance and Huntelaar's efficiency helped Ajax beat Groningen 4-0 away and played a good start in the second half.

In this game, Ibrahimovic, who had been affected by the beating storm before, did not appear in the game squad, but Ye Qiu arranged for the Swede to start again in the 19th round of the Eredivisie three days later, when he challenged Graafschap away.

Ibrahimovic showed excellent form this time around, passing and shooting against Graafschap to help Ajax beat Graafschap 3-1 away.

A week later, Ajax returned to the Arena Stadium.

Although he will travel to England in midweek to challenge Liverpool at Anfield, Ye Qiu's focus for the season is still in the Eredivisie, so this game is still full of main players, and the result is a 2-0 victory over Adrianse's Willem II at the Arena Stadium.

Ajax, which is getting better, has shown a gratifying form and development momentum, especially this group of young players, which has given all Ajax fans hope, so that after this game, many media have played the horn that Ajax will sound the horn to impact the league title.

Head coach Ye Qiu also affirmed in an interview with the media after the game, "The Eredivisie championship will be a championship we aspire to win this season, I am full of confidence in my team, and we will do our best to compete for this championship that has been estranged from us for two years!" ”

"Yes, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord are both strong rivals, but we don't doubt ourselves because we are also a strong team, no worse than our rivals!"

With three wins in a row in the opening round, Ajax boarded the plane to Liverpool.

…………

…………

I believe that true Liverpool fans will not forget the Evans period, that extremely sexy Red Army.

At the time, Liverpool played pleasing football, continuous small-scale penetration, and imaginative individual play, all of which made Evans' Liverpool a team that Reds fans will never forget.

But alas, Evans' side is destined to win only the fans, not the opponents.

Evans' tragedy just told Ye Qiu one thing, that is, in the field of professional football, it doesn't matter whether you like to attack or defend, the important thing is that you have to find a football that can bring you victory, otherwise, even if your team conquers all the fans, you will only be fired.

Therefore, at Anfield Stadium, Ye Qiu's starting lineup was obviously asking for a draw.

Goalkeeper Grim, the backline is Abidal, Kivo, Lucio and McConn, Heitinga is injured, Ye Qiu uses De Jong in the league, McCone in the game against Liverpool, and the Brazilian plays right-back.

The three players in midfield are Keita and Gilberto? Silva and Sneijder, the front trident is still Robben, Ibrahimovic and Donny van der Meyde, the latter has maintained his momentum even after the winter break, and now he is firmly holding Van der Vaart at bay.

Houllier's lineup in this game made many Ajax fans who came to the away team full of sighs.

The goalkeeper is Westerved, the backline is Zigger, Hyypia, Henkoz and Babel, the midfield is Littmaning, McAllister, Hamann and Gerrard, and the two forwards are a high-pitched combination of Heskey and Owen.

Hyypia was once Willem II's main centre-back, performing well under Adrianse, and his switch to Liverpool is also seen as a major factor in Adrianse's sluggish results in the past two years, because the attacking Adrianse has lost his backbone at the back, and Willem II's defence has become very fragile.

Unlike Hyypia, who was in full swing after switching to Liverpool, Litmanen was once reused after switching to Barcelona, but soon lost his main position, and had to choose to switch from Barcelona to Liverpool during this year's winter break.

When Litmanen decided to leave Camp Nou, because he was on a free transfer, he was once linked with Ajax, and even many media and fans were looking forward to the return of Finnish skates to the Arena Stadium, but for the inquiry from the management, Ye Qiu only asked lightly.

"We have Robben, we have Van der Meyde, we have Van der Vaart, and Hleb, why do we need Litmanen?"

Now that it has completely embarked on the route of rejuvenation, does it make sense to introduce Litmanin again and put pressure on Robben and others?

In the end, the Finn opted to go to Liverpool, and this game was his first game for Liverpool.

Wearing the blood-colored shirt of the home Reds and looking at the group of young boys wearing the traditional Ajax jerseys opposite, Litmanen, who had just passed his 30th birthday, was very embarrassed, because he knew that there was no place for him in this young team and there would be no more.

But he walked up to Anfield with a sense of desire, and it was not just a game for him to prove his worth to the Reds fans, but also a game for him to show his quality and defend himself as a senior against the group of Ajax juniors standing across from him.

"Ajax boys, I'm coming!"

…………

…………

On the familiar flank, Litmanen raised his hand and fired a mid-range ball from Hamann straight in front of him.

Before stopping the ball, he looked behind him and found that the Brazilian defender was already close, Litmanen smiled, stopped the ball on his chest, and made a gesture with his left foot to the right side, deceiving McConn behind him to mistakenly think that he was going to break through to the boundary line, and the center of gravity suddenly moved, but what he didn't expect was that Litmanen's right foot met the ball and knocked the whole person from the left side.

Anfield Stadium has always been known for its fiery atmosphere, so when Litmanen's dexterity and skill were like a slippery loach past McConn, all the Reds fans in the stadium cheered him on.

"Ari? Olavi? Litmanen~~~~~~"

Litmanen felt the special treatment that came from the Reds fans, and his heart was full of excitement and anticipation, but his feet were not slow at all, and he silently counted his rhythm in his heart, which is what he is best at.

One, two, round the ball!

Every professional player has his own rhythm of playing, and Litmanen's rhythm has been with him for more than ten years, he has already integrated this rhythm into his blood, as long as he plays, it is according to this rhythm, no manager can change his rhythm.

One, two......

Just when Litmanen habitually thought that he was going to go forward again, he didn't expect that McConn, who was thrown away by him just now and was obviously behind him, suddenly plugged in quickly from behind, very fast, a bit like forcibly overtaking.

The Brazilian gritted his teeth, chased after him, and when he wanted to play the ball, he forced the ball out with his foot.

The man fell out, but the ball stayed!

Beep!!!

The referee blew the whistle and signalled for a foul on McConn, giving Liverpool a chance for a free-kick up front.

McAllister came to the penalty spot and almost all of Liverpool's tall men stuffed into the Ajax box, with Hyypia, Hencoz, Heskey, Gerrard, and the likes of Zigger, Babel and Hamann remaining at the back.

"I'll it, a tall guy like a forest!" Ye Qiu saw so many high-ranking guys in Liverpool on the sidelines, and he really smiled a little bitterly in his heart.

However, this is also very much in line with Houllier's transformation of Liverpool.

If Liverpool in the Evans era was a bit like Barcelona who played sexy ball control in the previous life, then Houllier's arrival completely transformed the possession genre of the Evans era into Mourinho's macho style, and he also attached great importance to defense.

If Ye Qiu remembers correctly, this year's Liverpool should be the five-time champion, winning five championships, but all of them are cups.

This is not surprising at all, because Houllier's team is attacking with defense and counterattacking, and this tactical play is not obvious in the league, because Liverpool is also a strong team in the Premier League, only others defend against it, and it is difficult for them to play defensive counterattack, but in the cup, such defensive counterattack tactics are more safe.

Ye Qiu knows very well the strength of this Liverpool team, so he also came with the intention of defending and counterattacking in this game, anyway, it is an away game, he can afford it completely, but as long as Liverpool shows even the slightest mistake, Ye Qiu can swallow him.

McAllister's free-kick into the box was in chaos and Lucio grabbed Hyypia with his body and took the lead with a header, but the ball didn't fly wide and fell to the feet of Gerrard on the edge of the box.

The Liverpool midfielder, who has been very eye-catching this season, won the ball and hit it straight away, but it was in Gilberto? With Silva's interference, the shot turned into an anti-aircraft gun and failed to hit the target.

The Liverpool fans at Anfield Stadium let out a sigh of regret in unison.

But soon, the Anfield stadium was singing again, with the Liverpool fans cheering on their team with their singing, which also caused their players to quickly regroup on the pitch and launch another wave of attacks.

Hencoz and Hyypia are both that kind of high defenders, turning, flexibility and speed are their weaknesses, so Houllier's defensive approach has always been to retreat, and then put Hamann, McAllister and other central midfielders in the midfield to protect the defense line and further compress their own 30-meter area.

In other words, try to reduce the chances of letting the opponent hit behind!

The advantage of this is that the defense is solid, and the disadvantage is that the attack is weakened very badly, and the most famous possession flow of Evans has disappeared in favor of more reliance on Owen's quick counter-attack, while relatively speaking, Fowler, another striker in the Liverpool team, is not reused by Houllier because of his ability to play in the box and his keen sense of smell in front of goal.

Fowler, whom Evans relied on, gradually lost his stardom, but was more speedy, and Owen, who did not have enough nose in front of goal, replaced him as a banner in Liverpool's attack, which is not a matter of player quality, but the difference in tactical styles between managers Houllier and Evans.

Houllier's tactic is the kind of me who stays at the back, trouble you, attack me!

But now Ye Qiu has also pulled down his face, anyway, I want to fight a defensive counterattack, as long as anyone easily leaves his position and presses up, he will shout loudly, let him hurry back to his position, and make it clear that the carriage and horses should be counterattacked.

I'm going to fight back, Mr. Holier, and you're going to do it!

Playing at home, the morale of the fans is like a rainbow, and against a team in the Eredivisie like Ajax, Houllier really has no reason not to press out and play, because he also wants to win the opponent at home.

But the problem is that the French himself knows very well that his most powerful tactic is to defend against the opponent's back, give full play to Owen's lightning speed, once pressed out to play, Owen fell into the quagmire of the opponent's key defense in front of him, and lost the most threatening offensive weapon, what should I do?

This is the turn of the Husky, who is 1.9 meters tall and weighs as much as a tank, to exert his power.

"Pay attention to the defense on the wings!"

"Be careful of Litmanen and Gerald, be careful!"

"Spirits, everyone!"

Ye Qiu saw that Liverpool was pressed out, so he walked to the sideline and kept shouting.

Liverpool's anti-counter-attack has a counter-attacking routine, that is, to play behind the back, give full play to Owen's speed advantage, but once they find that the opponent is not on the road and does not press out to play as they want, they will choose to press it themselves, at this time their ball advancement is to rely on two full-backs to advance to the front court, cross to find Hesky.

Lucio vs. Husky's Warcraft immediately became another highlight of the game.

McConn pinned down Litmanen, Abidal suppressed Gerrard, Lucio stared at Husky one-on-one, Liverpool's attack was bogged down again, never able to open the situation, and they are now pressing aggressively, and they have to defend their opponents against counterattacks at any time.

"The counterattack master was beaten and counterattacked, this must be interesting, right?" Ye Qiu was in a good mood.

On the contrary, Hollier, who was in front of the coach's seat of the home team, looked a little depressed, wondering if his heart could withstand the pressure at this moment.

For the French, Ye Qiu also admires it, but now that he is an opponent, he has to do everything to deal with Holier.

"In the final analysis, Houllier's transformation of Liverpool is also a bit extreme!" Bobby? Harms shook his head and sighed.

Although Evans's style was on the soft side, heavy on attack and light on defense, at that time, Liverpool's small-scale penetration and diversification of ball advancement made their attacks unguardable, especially with Jamie? Redknapp and John? Barnes and other players of the technical school have completely sounded the clarion call for the technical transformation of the Premier League.

Many people say that Arsenal's Arsene Wenger has completely changed the style of the Premier League, but in fact, before Wenger, there is also an Evans who pays more attention to technical skills than him, the difference is that Wenger won the championship, and Evans left the class in disgrace.

"Houllier's Liverpool defense is too reliant on Owen, the positional battle is too reliant on Husky, and the whole team has a seemingly rigorous division of labor, each with its own responsibilities, but it seems too mechanical, too simple, once it is figured out, they don't have enough changes."

Ye Qiu glanced at Liverpool's bench, "If it were me, I would have decisively gone to Fowler at this time, in this kind of positional battle, Fowler can play a more critical role, but it is Owen, who has lost his speed advantage, is also average!" ”

Irving's real transformation into a goalmouth sniffy striker was later, and it hasn't gotten to that point yet.

This is also what Ye Qiu has been avoiding, he started from organizing team tactics, diversifying the attack at home, arranging Robben on the left side, he wanted to choose Van der Vaart on the right side, Sneijder in the middle who can pass short, medium and long, Lucio in the backfield, and right fullback McConn, Ajax's ball path promotion means are more abundant.

The only thing that is relatively poor is experience, and the current group of Ajax players are still young and still need time to improve and polish.

Judging from the scene, Liverpool can be said to be scoreless.

Heskey is a tall and strong player, but his skills are average, he is not the type of player who can attack with his back, that is, he can take the ball with his back but cannot turn around, so he can only be considered a qualified center forward at best, but at the same time, he lacks the ability to grab points in the box, which is evident from the number of goals he scores.

Ye Qiu remembered that he had seen a few jokes in his previous life.

Husky's goal efficiency is not lost to two legendary superstars, how dare you be such a powerful scorer?

Huskey (England): 7 goals in 59 games.

Iquita (Colombia): 8 goals in 68 games.

Chilavert (Paraguay): 8 goals in 74 games.

And the other one is also funny: what to do when you see Husky rushing over and trying to hit you? Hurry up and disguise yourself as a goal!

While the jokes are overtly spoofed by the fans, and Heskey's tactical effectiveness is high, at least it proves that the England striker is really not good at stealing points and scoring goals, and that he is better at attacking opposition defences with his body.

Against such a player, Lucio will definitely have an easier time defending than Batistuta, so he can not only freeze Husky, but also help the defense freeze Irving.

This suddenly made it difficult for Liverpool's attack to threaten the Ajax goal.

From the first half to the second half, time passed quickly, but Houllier's side never found a way to break the Ajax goal, but the Liverpool players in the field became more and more impatient under the overwhelming noise of the fans.

Whether it's tactically or strategically over the two legs, there's no reason for Liverpool to let Ajax get out of Anfield, so they need to score!

As this sentiment spread rapidly, Liverpool's two full-backs, Babel and Zigger, also began to actively participate in the attack, which suddenly exposed the holes in the counter-attack on both wings of the central midfield.