Green Dragon

Chapter 75 What's wrong with Liverpool?
The singing in the stands is still melodious.

Benitez's eyes were a little empty.

It was already the end of September, and the night in Liverpool was not sultry, but his forehead was already shining brightly.

The shirt under his armpit was soaked with sweat and sticky to his body, making him extremely uncomfortable.

The assistant coach handed him a clean towel, wanting him to wipe the sweat off his neck, but he seemed to be distracted and ignored it at all.

Benitez's eyes fell on the court, those players in red jerseys were panting heavily, and everyone's faces looked very confused.

Their captain was holding his hands on his hips, he was trying to keep his eyes open, and the wrinkles on his forehead were particularly obvious at this moment.

Benitez's eyes fell on the big screen directly opposite, and the score of 0-2 was bright red, which was a bit dazzling.

He couldn't help closing his eyes slightly.

His team...what the hell happened? -
"What happened to Liverpool?"

Alan Smith couldn't help asking:
"Throughout the first half...except for Torres' header in the second minute, they never had a single attack that threatened Ajax's goal!"

"Liverpool's players played without tactics at all, and their offensive organization was in a mess!" Martin Taylor also frowned, "In this state, what qualifications does Benitez have to challenge Anche? Lottie's Chelsea?"

Thousands of miles away in China, He Wei is also analyzing Liverpool's problems: "After Alonso left, the most important player in Liverpool's team is undoubtedly the captain Steven Gerrard, whether it is defense or organization, scheduling, long-range shots , his various abilities are excellent, worthy of the real core of the team. Everyone knows that if you want to contain Liverpool's offensive, you must contain Gerrard's performance, but if you want to contain such an all-round player and Not an easy task, whether it is in the Premier League or the Champions League, very few teams can do it, but... just today, Ajax seems to have done it, at least in the first 45 minutes they It did, so Liverpool looked extraordinarily embarrassed."

"That's right," guest Zhang Lu nodded again and again, "Van Basten's move is very deadly. He took the risk of handing over the task of defending Gerrard to Long Shute, while the others focused more on offense, while Long Shu Tet did a great job of it. You know, if you are not a player on Gerrard's level, you can't be a threat to him in a one-on-one contest!"

He Wei's eyes lit up immediately: "What does Zhang Zhi mean... Long Shute has reached the same level as Gerrard now?"

"Ah? Did I say that?" Zhang Lu was taken aback, and then he slapped a haha, smoothing the field for his over-excited judgment just now, "Hey, hey... I just said, in terms of defensive enthusiasm and hard work Keep up the good work, Long Shute will not lose to any opponent..."
-
"How about it, Dragon?"

Back in the locker room, Van Basten specifically asked: "Do you feel all right?"

Long Shute answered the head coach while wiping his sweat: "To be honest, I'm a little tired. Gerrard's running range is too wide... Eh? You don't want to replace me, do you?" He looked at the other side vigilantly .

"Hahaha..." Van Basten laughed, his laughter was so refreshing that it immediately attracted everyone's attention.

He pulled a bench and sat down casually: "Young man, your opponent is not a cat or a dog, he is the captain of Liverpool, the best 11 player in both FIFA and UEFA last year! If you think you are defending Gerrard is as easy as it was against Apadone, then we can only think that Liverpool are not serious about playing us!"

Those young players laughed, the two-goal lead was enough to keep them relaxed.

Suarez, who scored twice in the first half, even patted Long Shute on the shoulder: "If you feel too tired, I don't mind retreating to help you defend."

"Okay, I'm not going to be polite." Long Shu nodded, then raised his hand pretentiously, and signaled to Van Basten, "Coach, Captain Louis wants to switch positions with me. I think I can also play forward." ! I learned how to shoot from you!"

Suarez was dumbfounded, but the teammates behind him were staggering with laughter.

"Well, gentlemen, the joke is over."

Van Basten patted his thigh and motioned for everyone to quiet down.

"With 45 minutes to go, we are in a good position, but I want to calm everyone down a little bit."

"Liverpool's state in the first half was poor, but I think...you should know the characteristics of this Liverpool team. Whether it's the Premier League or the Champions League, there are countless examples of them completing overtakes in adversity. By the way," he suddenly turned He turned his head to the young player with the worst football knowledge in the team, "Dear Long, do you know about the Miracle in Istanbul?"

Long Shute, who was named, rolled his eyes angrily: "Please, I am a player from Everton's youth academy. If you mention the glorious history of Liverpool, believe it or not, I will bite you!"

——Of course he was joking. He didn't have any good feelings for Everton's youth training camp. He just expressed his dissatisfaction with Van Basten's contempt for his football knowledge.

Seeing that the head coach hit a snag, the players who had finally restrained themselves burst into laughter again.

"cough!"

Assistant coach Weitzger coughed hard, and he had to play the role of black face: "If we see someone who is absent-minded in the second half, the coaching staff doesn't mind replacing him in the first second of the game!"
-
The former midfielder Harvey Alonso has become the engine of Real Madrid, and the Argentine iron gate Javier Mascherano is also unable to play due to injury. In addition to Gerrard, Liverpool's midfielder also has a player from Brazil. Lucas and Aurelio.These two players are obviously fellow Brazilians, but there is no tacit understanding at all.

Not only on offense, Gerrard and Torres can't count on them to provide any help at all, even in their own business - defensive interception, the Brazilian duo also performed full of loopholes, making it easy for the striker led by Suarez He rushed directly to the central defense line composed of Carragher and Skrtel.

Benitez, known as the master of tactics, did not hesitate too much. He made personnel adjustments before the start of the second half, removed the left back Aurelio who rushed the ducks to play the midfielder, and let Gerrard Dropped back and sent 23-year-old Dutch winger Ryan Babel.

Van Basten laughed as soon as he saw Babel play.

If he knew the Chinese proverb, he would definitely comment on Benitez's substitution like this:

"The flood rushed to the Dragon King Temple!"

"Guan Gong is playing big swords in front of the gate!"

Because... Babel is a product of Ajax's youth training, and in the national team, Van Basten, who was the head coach of the Dutch national team at the time, was the one who promoted him to the first team!
Van Basten is too familiar with this young player who was called "New Kluivert" and "Henry Henry" when he debuted, and broke the 60-year-old Dutch national team's youngest scoring record: Babel's high-speed dribbling on the wing almost makes him be regarded as Robben's successor, but compared to Peter Pan's iconic in-cut shot, Babel is too far behind.

Babel's appearance only made Bruno Silva, who was facing him, a little nervous for 2 minutes. The experienced Brazilian defender soon discovered that the Dutch teenager only learned the "independence" of Robben when he was young, but not enough. Excellent passing and shooting, several attacks came in front of him, and he always led to the sideways. After Silva and Emmanuel Sen who returned to defend blocked all the breakthrough lines, Baba had nowhere to escape. Only then did Bell take a shot, and the threat to Ajax goalkeeper Stegrunberg was pitifully small.

On the contrary, after the retreat, Gerrard became a little more active. His organizational ability is much stronger than that of the two Brazilians.

Gerrard tried hard to play the role of his former best friend, Xavi Alonso, using long passes to help strikers create scoring opportunities, but he was not Alonso after all.

Once again he missed his friend terribly.

There is only one Xavi Alonso.

Gerrard's long pass couldn't break through Ajax's young but vigorous defense line, whether it was Torres, Benayoun, Babel, or Kurit, they couldn't break through the defense guarded by Stegrunberg. door.

It is not uncommon for Gerrard to experience that the strikers are not able to score goals. In the usual games, he can play the hero who saves the team, using his powerful long-range shots to blast the opponent's iron wall into a hole.

But today... as long as he enters the 35-meter zone, whether the football is under his feet or not, that damn number 8 in the black jersey of the visiting team... will turn into a piece of brown sugar, wrap Gerrard tightly, and then Also unable to move.

Gerrard is an extremely brave fighter. He is not good at small-scale dodging and sudden escape. For a defensive player like Long Special who has excellent physical fitness, quick response, is not afraid of confrontation, and is dedicated to stalking, He has nothing to do!

He could only watch the minutes and seconds passing by on the big screen.

Then the three tragic whistles were heard.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

At this moment, there was no singing in the sky above Anfield.

(End of this chapter)