Football’s First Defender

Although Liverpool have won four straight in the Premier League recently, the points gap with the top ranked Leicester City has not narrowed, but has expanded to as much as 7 points.

Of course, it is not that Leicester City's record is also a continuous winning streak without giving a chance, but Liverpool's own schedule will have fewer matches.

Due to Liverpool's successive opponents in the league, Everton and Chelsea have had domestic cup matches to be played so far, making Liverpool now 7 points behind Leicester City in two fewer matches in the league.

After defeating Liverpool, Leicester City’s recent performance can only be said to be average. The record of 6 matches, 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss can only be said to be quite normal, but it is not amazing and invincible, which is considered to be Liverpool. There was a chance.

In these 6 games, it was a pity that the away game was lost to Arsenal, and West Bromwich was tied at home, which caused Leicester City's record to stagnate.

Although there are such wonderful games as an away victory over Manchester City, if Leicester City continue to make mistakes in the league and give Liverpool a chance to win, then it is possible for Liverpool to complete the reversal at the end of the league and achieve a reversal to win. Victory to win.

You know, if Liverpool can win the two Premier League make-up matches that have not yet been played, then the points gap between the two teams will be further reduced to 1 point. In this case, the final few rounds of Premier League competitions may be It will be more intense.

Of course, as far as Liverpool are concerned, although the two missed matches were played at their own Anfield home court, one was the Merseyside Derby, and the other was a blue that regained competitiveness after a coaching change. For Chelsea, these are two tough games for Liverpool, but they are not easy to fight. Whether they can win two games is unknown.

Fortunately, however, Chelsea has postponed his match with Liverpool due to the domestic FA Cup. This allows Liverpool to make adjustments for a weekend before the start of the Champions League. Compared with Atletico Madrid, they have better physical fitness to deal with. Such a critical battle.

Liverpool went to Madrid, the capital of Spain, to challenge the Atletico Madrid team that had been brilliant after Simeone became the coach.

Before Madrid, there was only one voice of Real Madrid, but now the re-emergence of Atletico Madrid represents another color and another voice of Madrid.

The second round of this eighth-final match, for the coaches of the two teams, tested the coach's ability to line up.

How to choose your own tactics, offensive or defensive, will have a huge impact on the situation of the game.

It is necessary to know that the score of 0 to 0 in the first round makes the opportunity and risk half for both sides. For both teams, how to choose tactics is really too embarrassing.

The home team Atletico can take advantage of the home court and directly force the attack. Even Atletico Madrid can break through Liverpool's gate with the attacking level at home this season, but what about the defense if it really does come out?

Even if Atletico can score a goal in the end, but if Liverpool's counterattack can really penetrate the gate of Atletico, then Liverpool will have the advantage of away goals and only need to remain unbeaten to get the right to advance.

In the worst case, when Liverpool scores a goal first, Atletico Madrid must chase two goals afterwards.

Atletico, in the choice of tactics, cannot afford to lose a goal at home.

This is also true for Liverpool. Although Liverpool have an away goal, they can occupy a huge advantage, but if Atletico Madrid really takes the lead in scoring, then for Liverpool, it is a challenge for Atletico Madrid in the away game. Under circumstances, it is too difficult to get back the score when you are behind.

Both teams are at the offensive and defensive ends and can make choices, but in the end, the outcome of the scene still depends on the game between the two coaches.

In the selection of the starting lineup, the two head coaches will give priority to showing their ideas in this game.

For Liverpool, because of Emre Can’s red card suspension, there is actually not much room for tactical change in this game.

Liverpool continues the 433 lineup that they are very good at this season.

But in the midfield, Klopp is still a bit conservative, to give priority to his defensive ability, this game arranged for Lucas to start the game.

Lucas, Henderson and Lallana form Liverpool's three midfielders.

The trident in the front court is Firmino, Coutinho and Milner.

In this game, Milner continued to play to his tenacity. When he was the starting right winger in the starting lineup, it might be to better facilitate Klopp's temporary changes in the game.

And Milner's physical effortless running style in the midfield can allow the team to maintain sufficient defensive ability in addition to offense.

At Atletico Madrid, when the starting list was announced, it was very different from the away game.

Atletico still chose to use the 442 formation, but the player selection has undergone several changes.

On the one hand, the team has been in the league in a series of tough battles, and the players have suffered a lot of injuries. On the other hand, Carrasco's return is a great supplement to Atletico's frontcourt strength.

Compared with the first round of the two sides, Simeone replaced Savage with Jimenez on the defensive line today.

In the midfield, the Argentine fellow Augusto, who has replaced Simeone’s double midfielder with Captain Gabi, ~www.NovelMTL.com~ Cork and Saúl, are playing in the announced positions. The two full-backs, of course, Cork may still be closer to the center to organize the offense.

On the front line, it is Carrasco and Griezman who have returned from injury.

Although it is a 442 lineup, if Carrasco returns to the side, it will directly become 451.

The platoons of the coaches of both sides retain the variability of the starting player's position to attack or defend according to the game format on the field.

Before the start of this series, it was considered a matchup between spears and shields. After the first round of the game was 0-0, at the beginning of the second round, the two teams actually chose to do a good job in a “tacit understanding”. Own defense.

At the beginning of the game, the two teams did an excellent job of protecting the ball. They would rather give up some pass opportunities and make more meaningless inverted passes. They would not risk passing the ball to avoid losing the ball.

From the beginning of the game tempo of the two teams, they both lowered their offensive tempo, leaving enough defensive numbers in the midfield and backcourt, only to use a few players to find some offensive opportunities appropriately.

Today, the pace of the match between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid was really slow at the beginning, so slow that apart from the occasional ultra-long-range long shots, there was almost no good offensive method to pass the ball into the danger zone.

For the two goalkeepers, there is no major defensive problem.

In terms of the forces invested by the two teams on the offensive end, even if they lose the ball in the frontcourt, they can still rely on the left-behind players behind to resolve the opponent's offense.

Such a slow pace makes many fans really feel drowsy...