Chapter 477: The Central Defender

Three consecutive draws, losing six points in a row, although Liverpool still barely occupy the position of the Premier League leader, but inevitably has narrowed the gap with the team behind.
And the most important thing is that none of Liverpool’s points lost in these three games is a giant team, which means that Liverpool’s future schedule will only be more difficult. Whether it can get out of the predicament depends on the Liverpool players. Can the adjustment be completed quickly.
In a voice of doubt, Liverpool ushered in the league's next opponent, home to the Hammers, West Ham United.
West Ham United, now ranked fourth from the bottom in the Premier League, is only 3 points away from the relegation zone. The team's goal this season has been very clear, which is to be able to complete relegation and stay in the Premier League.
In this game, in the extensive predictions before the game, no one can be optimistic that Liverpool can win a big victory, even if Liverpool are still sitting at their most terrifying Anfield stadium, but Liverpool’s offensive firepower in these rounds is limited. West Ham United itself is a strong defensive team. Whether it can win this game will be a test of Liverpool's ability to adjust.
West Ham United, only conceded 15 goals in 14 rounds this season, and among them, the away defense is surprisingly good.
Seven away games, a total of only 5 goals conceded, the number of away goals conceded is one of the few teams in the Premier League.
The reason why they fell to the relegation zone team is that West Ham United's offense is really terrible.
There are not many offensive methods on the position, and the defensive counterattack cannot produce excellent results. For West Ham United, if the team can solve the weak offensive problem, it should not be difficult to complete relegation this season.
Today, Liverpool is at home and has to face West Ham United’s iron barrel formation, which can be said to be an extremely difficult challenge for the soldiers of the Red Army.
In terms of player injuries, there is still an important lack of combat power in Liverpool.
Although Glen Johnson has resumed training, but under the advice of the team doctor, he still will not come back in this game.
The choice of two full-backs is still Flanagan and Sissoko.
However, in order to better provide offensive protection, in this game, Rogers asked Sissoko to play the inverted left back, let Flanagan to the right, try the offensive effect on the field.
In the midfield, Gerrard and Henderson both played free cards in this game. Rogers could only send a midfield combination of Lucas, Joe Allen, and Coutinho, with an offensive striker composed of "3s".
The shortcomings of this lineup are obvious. Although Sturridge is a left winger, his playing style is more like an end point. Sterling can create a threat on the wing, but he also needs a teammate to respond to it to avoid Sterling was trapped on the sidewalk.
Liverpool’s previous draws did not solve the problem of wing attack. The lack of continuous wing attack, especially the lack of offensive attributes of the full back, made it impossible for Liverpool to form a continuous attack on the wing.
In this game, in the face of West Ham United's more mature iron barrel formation than other teams, Liverpool's offense occupied more than 80% of the possession, but it was unable to complete the fatal blow to rewrite the score.
The score on the field has always been 0 to 0. Liverpool seems to be able to score in every attack, but in the end it was blocked by the defensive players of West Ham United, or the "door god" of West Ham United showed off their power and contributed. Wonderful save.
Liverpool desperately needs a player who can break the deadlock. Suarez and Sturridge, who are trapped in the opponent's collective defense, are not easy to receive the ball. Coutinho's long-range shot angle is blocked by the defender. And if you want to rely on your personal ability to break through, you have to face layers of interception from your opponent's line of defense.
West Ham United, based on the weak offensive characteristics of Liverpool’s wing, concentrated a large number of defensive forces in the center, and the targeted arrangement effectively restricted Liverpool’s offensive performance.
Who will break the deadlock?
In the 34th minute of the game, the breaker of Liverpool's game appeared.
Although Flanagan's passing skills may not be so good and the threat is not that great, compared to the previous right back Sissoko, Flanagan, who returned to his best position today, has one of the biggest advantages. But he is not afraid of things and dares to pass the ball.
Sissoko, who came on loan, is still a bit daunting in Liverpool, but Flanagan, who was produced by Liverpool's youth academy, has a natural big heart like many predecessors.
Dare to move and pass the ball.
Before playing the left back, the pass was a bit unsatisfactory. Returning to the right back position, Flanagan made a bolder insertion and did not hesitate to pass the ball.
The weakness of West Ham United's wing defense also makes Flanagan's pass on this side only to be left unchecked, just having a chance to complete the destruction of the ball.
Flanagan's wing pass this time was just blocked by West Ham United’s wing defender, who stretched his leg to block the baseline and gave a corner kick.
Positioning kicks are one of the best weapons to break dense defenses, and Liverpool is now in urgent need of rewriting the score. Naturally, they are also full of expectations for the opportunity for positioning kicks.
Tall central defenders such as Yang Feng and Scotter are naturally Liverpool's first choice, and they are also the most important players on the defensive end of West Ham United.
Defending Yang Feng is the Welsh defender James Collins, a very British defender.
Of course, for players like Yang Feng, there will not really be only one person to defend. Not far away, Diame, who is responsible for regional defense, will also come to complete the defense according to the situation.
When Liverpool arranged a large number of top players in the penalty area, West Ham United's defense was not as rich as 2 staring 1, but 3 staring 2 can still be achieved.
However, British central defenders like James Collins have a very common weakness, that is, their turning speed is too slow, acceleration is too slow, and they lack flexibility.
Perhaps in the set kick, as long as they stand well in the area, these shouldn't be a problem, but Yang Feng will not stand with them to grab the spot.
Not directly in front of the door, Yang Feng drifted outside the small restricted area, pulling Collins and Diame out.
Before Coutinho's run-up, Yang Feng had already pointed forward and suddenly jumped in.
After attracting the defensive players to start speeding together with him~EbookFREE.me~ Yang Feng changed direction quickly and bounced back in the process of running.
Coutinho's corner kick was also taken at the same time.
A fast arc went straight to the middle road.
The time difference between Yang Feng's change of direction this time was directly shot out.
Although due to physical inertia, Yang Feng's figure was a little unstable when he returned, but these did not affect Yang Feng's take-off this time, controlling his figure in the air.
The waist and abdomen are fully exerted, the neck is straightened, and the goal is headed directly.
Yang Feng!
In the 34th minute of the game, Liverpool opened the scoring, breaking the deadlock on the field.
This is a set-kick tactic carefully practiced by Liverpool, which is aimed at the weakness of the opponent's British central defender, allowing Yang Feng to exert his personal strength.
But the requirements for Yang Feng's running position and Coutinho's corner kick pass skills are excellent.
But this time, everything is completely natural, reaching the best.
However, a goal is far from over.
The one-goal lead did not let Liverpool weaken its attacking frequency. Taking advantage of the morale of the goal, Liverpool still maintained a fierce attack in the final stage of the first half, still trying to create goals.
In the 42nd minute of the game, Liverpool had the 7th corner kick in the first half.
It is still the tacit connection between Coutinho and Yang Feng. This time Yang Feng has completed the elimination of Collins. Although Diame came up to defend very quickly, but Dia is not dominant in height, confrontation strength, and position. Mei, in fact, has only become the background board for Yang Feng's header.
In a slightly rear position, Yang Feng headed the goal and helped Liverpool take a 2-0 lead.
A central defender, who scored twice within 8 minutes of halftime, can only say that he is "not doing his job properly"!