Coaching legend

After seeing the harm of Owen, George directly replaced Sagnol with Hargreaves. The lineup was changed to three defenders, all to restrain Owen. In George's eyes, Liverpool now has no player who can change the situation on the field except Owen.

In fact, there is a superstar who has turned the tide several times in the future Liverpool. He is Steven Gerrard, but it's a pity that Gerrard is too young and immature at this time. And Houllier pays more attention to Gerrard's physical strength and defense, rather than Gerrard's offensive ability.

It was not until Benitez came to Liverpool that Gerrard's offensive ability was fully developed.

But Gerrard now has no ability to change the situation on the field. Or it is to limit his ability in this regard. Therefore, when George stared at Owen, Liverpool's offense was reduced by half.

George looked at Hargreaves like a dog-skin plaster following Owen, and his hands and feet were not very clean. One hand even grabbed Owen's clothes, whether Owen had the ball or not. This made George like Hargreaves more and more.

George was a little happy about it, but Houllier frowned tightly. Because Blackburn's attack was getting more and more fierce.

Houllier is not a man of great courage. Or Houllier is a conservative coach. His team rarely takes risks, and he doesn't like that kind of risk.

After seeing Blackburn's fierce attack, Houllier immediately chose to be conservative.

Houllier replaced Fowler with Barmby. Let Barmby play on the right, and let Gerrard return to the middle to help Hamann defend. Although replacing a striker with an offensive midfielder is not a conservative move.

But the meaning of this substitution is clear.

Soon Liverpool's formation shrank back. Only Owen was left in front.

Damn, what is Houllier trying to do? Is he going to play a penalty?

There are nearly 20 minutes left before the end of the game, and Houllier is playing defense so quickly.

In fact, if Houllier continues to play offense with George, George will be in trouble. After all, Liverpool is a strong team, and more importantly, Liverpool players have a kind of momentum. Or it can be said that this is not the momentum of Liverpool players, but the momentum of their club.

This spirit can make up for their lack of strength.

Just like Liverpool's shocking reversal in the Champions League later, in fact, Milan was at its peak in terms of strength at that time. Although many people call Benítez a tactical master, his changes made Liverpool win.

But even Benítez could not make Liverpool's strength surpass Milan. After equalizing the score, Milan actually still had many opportunities.

But Liverpool finally held on. And finally won. Why? It's because Liverpool has a spirit of not admitting defeat. This is not injected by Benítez, but the precipitation left by the glorious history of Liverpool Club.

Therefore, when Houllier attacked, George still had to worry. But now Houllier himself retreated, which is better. This is his own momentum.

George originally wanted to attack, and now seeing Houllier's adjustment, he sneered in his heart. Houllier, Houllier, if you dare to retreat, I dare to chase.

Seeing Liverpool's formation retreat, George first replaced Bellamy with Hleb.

George was very satisfied with Bellamy's performance in this game. But now Liverpool's formation is retreating, Bellamy is very fast, but his skills in small spaces are flawed. Therefore, George replaced Bellamy with Hleb, the king of dribbling.

Houllier saw that this was just a positional substitution. There was no expression. Compared with Bellamy, Hleb's reputation was much smaller.

But George didn't end it like this. Five minutes later, George replaced Makelele with Drogba. In this way, Blackburn's formation became 3-5-2, and the midfield became a combination of Hargreaves, Deco, and Miku.

In fact, it was said to be a five-midfielder, but Pires and Hleb pressed higher.

George's series of substitutions were dazzling.

Houllier really didn't expect George's substitutions to be so resolute. This kind of substitution made Houllier unable to cope with it for a while, but in such a moment of hesitation, George's substitution effect came out.

Just five minutes after George replaced Drogba, when the game was in the 82nd minute, Hleb on the right wing broke through with the ball. Facing Carragher's defense, he easily changed direction and passed.

At this time, because there were many players in Liverpool's backcourt, Hleb was like a little loach, weaving in and out among several defensive players. Liverpool players could not intercept Hleb's ball, and of course Hleb could not enter Liverpool's hinterland.

But it was this breakthrough that exposed a little loophole in Liverpool's defense.

Hleb did not continue to dribble the ball, but passed it to Panucci who came up to respond. Panucci made a direct cross, and Drogba stepped forward to touch it. Unlike last season, Drogba's judgment of the team's landing point has improved a lot.

In addition to Drogba's abnormal body, when he stepped forward to grab the ball, Henchoz couldn't stop him at all.

Klose leaned on Hyypia and received the ball, but because of Hyypia, he couldn't turn around at all. Klose is not just a shooter, his versatility is second to none even in the world of football.

Before Klose got the ball, he already knew that it was impossible to turn around and shoot with Hyypia.

So the moment he got the ball, he passed it to Miku who was following behind.

"... Klose, pass back... Miku, there are all Liverpool players in the penalty area now, what will Miku do..."

Indeed, when Miku got the ball, there were Liverpool defenders in front of him, Hamann next to him, and Gerrard forcing him behind. It can be said that there are players in all directions, and everyone is guarding against Miku's long shot.

However, although Miku raised his thigh, he did not shoot. Instead, when landing, gently push to the left. The ball came out of the circle and reached the gap.

Miku's performance is getting better and better, and he is becoming more and more stable. Even facing this kind of environment, he remains calm and composed. And although this pass is a very simple push from the right, it has the effect of lifting the ball with ease.

With this push, all the Liverpool players surrounding Miku were immediately thrown away.

It was Deco who followed to catch the ball. When Deco stepped forward, there were already very few people around Deco.

"...This ball is beautiful, and it immediately disrupted Liverpool's defense. Deco, shoot...it's not a shot, it's a pass!"

When Deco came up, everyone thought it was a shot from Deco. But Deco still didn't shoot. It seemed that he was trying to shoot more hard, but it was a gentle pass. Passed to Pires who broke in from the left.

Everyone's eyes were on Deco's shot, and no one looked at Pires.

So when Pires received the ball, there was no one around him. Pires was completely in the face of Westerwerder.

"...Pires, shoot!"

Pires' shot was simple. It was just a push with his right foot, and the ball rolled into the goal before Westerwerder could react.

"Let's count them, from Hargreaves in the midfield to Deco, Deco to Hleb, Hleb to Panucci, Drogba's header to Klose's Back pass, Miku’s cross, Deco’s pick, Pires’ shot.”

"In this series of passes, no Liverpool player touched the ball. It was so beautiful. This ball completely showed the characteristics of Blackburn."

"Three to two, Blackburn overtook the score again at the last moment of the game."

"George's series of adjustments paid off. Coach Houllier was slow to respond."

The moment he saw Pires score, George jumped up on the sidelines. This ball was so timely. George is not willing to play overtime, as that will greatly affect the players' physical strength. It is not conducive to Blackburn's performance in the league and Champions League.

Now that he has scored, George finally feels relieved.

Hum! Coach Houllier, it doesn’t matter that you have been a coach for 20 years, but you can’t do it!

Know that caution is good, but being overly cautious and conservative is not. Especially in such an important game, sometimes you just need a breath. Although morale is difficult to explain, important games require this kind of morale.

If you shrink back by yourself, you will cut off your limbs. There is no reason not to lose!

One goal behind, Houllier was anxious again. Replaced Hamann with Heskey and wanted to attack.

George is not the kind of person who doesn't know the heights of the world, and immediately let Hargreaves return to the right. It became a back four again. Even Miku was brought back and was in the same position as Deco.

Now Liverpool is also willing to risk everything.

There's no rules, just all kinds of long passes.

George was on tenterhooks on the sidelines, watching the ball flying around in his penalty area. But Blackburn didn't just take a beating. After grabbing the ball, they immediately launched a counterattack. Once again, Deco's long pass even resulted in a one-on-one ball for Drogba.

Drogba's speed was not slow either. He immediately dropped the defenders and headed forward with the ball.

It's a pity that Drogba's shot was so poor. It actually hit West Wade with a kick. George was actually ready to celebrate, but when he saw Drogba's shot, he immediately cursed with a wry smile. "Evan, when you get back, let this boy Didier practice his shooting. Practice hard for me. It makes me mad."

But this is just a joke.

"Dududu——"

With the referee's whistle, the whole game is over.

"The 2001 League Cup final is finally over. Blackburn defeated Liverpool 3-2 and won the first League Cup championship in Blackburn's history. Congratulations to Blackburn!"

"George, this is already his second League Cup championship. Congratulations to George, who is only 32 years old. This is George's fifth Cup championship in his coaching career. Perhaps George is a coach who is good at cup competitions. ”

"Finally, we congratulate Blackburn once again!"