Southampton's formation uses the 4-4-2 formation that they are currently familiar with.
Although head coach Adkins prefers a pragmatic 4231 defensive counterattack formation, Southampton's 4231 is still immature and not even a semi-finished product. Therefore, for a long time in the early stage, the 442 formation was still the main one. , first play the defensive counterattack tactics of 442, and then gradually transition to 4231.
In Southampton's starting lineup, the two forwards are No. 11 Gurley and No. 20 Lallana.
Of course, there is no need to talk about Lallana. As a product of the Saints youth training with a well-established reputation, Lallana is also the core of Southampton's offense.
Lallana is not only fast, has good footwork, wide vision, flexible movement, and can dribble and shoot with both feet, but he is also humble and easy to get along with. In addition, he is also handsome, so he is also called Southampton. team flower.
In addition to the nickname of team flower, Lallana also has the nickname "Lalala".
Lallana is very calm and composed when passing people, and he can often perform wonderful scenes of pulling the ball in a small area to pass people. He has the charm of two things and four things, so Lallana is also called Lallana.
Another forward, Guli Doprado, is from Brazil. He is 28 years old and 190cm tall. He is a typical high center forward.
Currently, Gurley is still on loan at Southampton. If he performs well enough, Southampton will officially buy him out from the Italian club Cesena.
He and Lallana's strike partnership also followed the path of one high and one fast.
Gurley's role is more to attract defensive firepower, help Lallana open the gap and play the ball.
As a forward, Gurley did not score many goals, but his role was not low.
The left midfielder is No. 21 Lee Holmes.
This player is not tall, only 170cm, but he is fast, very flexible with his feet, has very good physical fitness, and passes the ball well, but his defense is average.
In Southampton, at the position of left midfielder, the young Chamberlain was actually better than Holmes. However, Adkins took into account Holmes' experience and Chamberlain's recklessness, so he decided Stabilize the game first and let the more stable Holmes start.
The right midfielder is No. 4 Morgan Schneiderlin.
Schneiderlin can be regarded as Southampton's midfield general. His long pass transfer is very accurate, his vision is broad enough, his range of activities is relatively large, and his defensive interception and steals are also in place.
Putting Schneiderlin on the right also takes into account that Schneiderlin can quickly help defend the center to guard against the quick raids of "Little Ma" and "Biscuit" on the opposite side.
In this scene, Schneiderlin also has a very heavy task.
The two midfielders are No. 14 Dean Hammond and No. 36 Anthony Pulis.
Dean Hammond is also considered a veteran, with plenty of physical fitness, good defensive positioning, and rich experience.
Anthony Pulis is also a veteran, but he is mediocre in all aspects, except that his physical fitness is passable.
——It is worth mentioning that Anthony Pulis’ father is the famous Tony Pulis, the master of sideline grenade tactics.
Tony Pulis once played football for the Hong Kong Yuyuan team when he was young. Of course, this is not the most awesome thing. The most awesome thing is that Tony Pulis had already obtained a British coaching license when he was 19 years old. , he passed the European coaching license at the age of 21.
While other kids want to play football and become stars, Tony Pulis has wanted to be a coach since he was a child.
Currently, Tony Pulis is coaching Stoke City. He helped Stoke City successfully reach the Premier League in the 2007/08 season, and during his second term as coach of Stoke City, he brought Stoke City to the top. Brought to the middle of the Premier League.
Tony Pulis' tactics are very conservative, but the success rate is extremely high. In all his coaching career, he has never been relegated. As long as Tony Pulis is hired as the relegation coach, the team can be brought to the middle. above.
Tony Pulis created the sideline grenade tactic, making sideline throw-ins as lethal as corner kicks. Major teams have also followed suit, and players have also increased their upper body strength and waist and abdominal core training. strength.
It's a pity that, with such an excellent father, his son Anthony Pulis is far behind.
Anthony has been playing in the English League B all year round. Even now at the age of 26, he still doesn't want to make progress and is just getting by.
When Southampton signed Anthony, they did want Anthony to convince his father to coach Southampton.
However, Tony Pulis simply does not want to coach his son's club.
Southampton Club then settled for the next best thing and hired Adkins as its new head coach.
The left back is No. 3 Dan Haldin, who used to play in the English Championship and is indeed quite capable.
The right back is Danny Butterfield - this man is also a 30-year-old veteran who has been involved in the English second team all year round. He seems to work very hard during training and games, but in fact he is unable to work. Contribute.
The two central defenders are team deputy No. 16 Paul Walton and No. 15 the golden generation from Tunisia: Jedi Jaidi.
Paul Walton was born as a midfielder, and he is very experienced in connecting the defensive zones of the midfielder and central defender.
The only problem is that Walton is 33 years old this year, and his physical fitness and confrontation have declined sharply.
Jedi Jaidi, who is one year older than him, is much stronger than him. Jedi Jaidi is tall, fierce in frontal interception, has strong confrontation ability, strong aerial energy, and good physical fitness. , but it is too slow to chase back and turn around. Once it is broken through, it will basically stop.
Finally, the goalkeeper is No. 1 Calvin Davis.
Davis is a veteran of the Southampton team. He started with the Premier League team Sunderland, but he was only the second goalkeeper at Sunderland. After coming to Southampton Club, he quickly became the main goalkeeper. His advantages are that he is very agile, very calm, reacts quickly, has a strong ability to deal with one-on-one attacks, and has rich experience. He is good at commanding his teammates loudly in the penalty area.
Although he is 33 years old this year, as a goalkeeper, the older he gets, the better he gets.
As for the opposite Liverpool team, just as Coach Adkins analyzed before the game, they sent out a 451 formation that was both offensive and defensive.
The striker at the front is Milan "The Viper" Jovanovic.
Why is it called a viper? Because his speed is very fast, and it starts suddenly, killing him with one blow!
When he was playing for Standard Liege, he was punished by the head coach and forced to be benched because of a fight with his teammates on the training ground. But even so, Jovanovic still scored 12 goals in extremely limited playing time. .
The scoring efficiency is evident.
Liverpool's three forwards are Maxi Rodriguez, Christian Poulsen, and Ngogo.
In fact, the title "Brother Ma" is not unique to Maxi Rodriguez. Mascherano, who is also an Argentine player, is also called Brother Ma.
Of course, Maxi is not as famous as Mascherano, but Maxi's engineer temperament of charging into battle is actually more in line with Ma Ke's positioning.
Maxi has comprehensive skills, fast attack speed, fast defense speed, and a strong desire to shoot. As a typical Argentine player, he is also good at dribbling and rarely loses the ball on the court.
Of course, Maxi's temper is quite fiery.
David Ngogo, the "Rejoice Brother", actually does not have long rejoice hair, but is bald.
Just because he is very confident on the court, this confidence matches the Rejoice advertising slogan, and he feels like a monk using Rejoice to wash his hair, so he was given the title of Brother Rejoice.
Ngogo is a very talented French player. It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that he is a top-level talented player, but he has a common problem among black talented players - laziness.
Ngego was unwilling to train and often arrived late and left early.
With his talent, if he works half as hard as Cristiano Ronaldo, he can become a world-class star.
It's a pity... not every genius can make it to the end and become a real star. Too many geniuses are lost to everyone in the end.
The two midfielders are "Little Joe" Joe Cole and Spearing.
The left back is Paul Konchesky and the right back is young Stephen Darby.
The two central defenders are Sodirios Kiljakos and Martin Skrtel.
The goalkeeper is Brad Jones, the backup goalkeeper for the Australian national team.
Joe Cole is known as the "midfield magician". He has a strong ability to advance the ball, has a wonderful long shot, and is very good at running around.
At first, Joe Cole liked to show off his skills and played very fancy football. It was not until Mourinho coached him that Joe Cole began to change his playing style, becoming more pragmatic and more efficient. .
Joe Cole is also Gerrard's perfect partner in the England national team. Gerrard's organizational skills coupled with Joe Cole's dispatching ability make England's midfield cooperation very smooth and beautiful.
Joe Cole was originally a Chelsea player and partnered with Chelsea's No. 8 Frank Lampard. Later, he was persuaded by Lampard and joined the Liverpool team.
Except for Joe Cole, the remaining players are basically Liverpool's substitutes.
——It’s easy to see from Liverpool’s starting list that coach Hodgson doesn’t pay attention to Southampton at all. Except for a few main forwards in the midfield and frontcourt, the back line is almost all substitutes and new players. Liverpool player.
On the other hand, the Southampton team sent almost all its main players.
Liverpool's players were very relaxed, talking and laughing with each other while standing.
The Southampton players looked nervous and solemn.
After all, this is not a close game.
beep--
With the head coach's loud opening whistle, the pre-season friendly match between Premier League team Liverpool and English League One team Southampton officially begins!
All the Liverpool fans shouted wildly and waved the Phoenix LFC team flag crazily!
Southampton forward Gurley kicked off the ball and knocked the ball back to his right midfielder Schneiderlin, who organized the attack.
While observing Liverpool's pressing formation, Schneiderlin steadily advanced with the ball.
Schneiderlin wanted to slow down the pace and wait for his teammates to penetrate forward before passing the ball.
However, the Liverpool players, who had been laughing and joking just now, quickly got into the mood and pressed forward.
The left midfielder Maxi went directly towards Schneiderlin who was dribbling the ball!
The game had just started and Liverpool's rhythm picked up.
Although Liverpool did not have the ball, they defended very passionately!
The Southampton team was unable to adapt to such a fast pace of play for a while, and their positions were still a little loose.
Facing the surging Liverpool players, Schneiderlin failed to grasp a personal breakthrough and could only pass the ball back to Anthony Pulis who was trailing behind.
Viper Yovanovic robs Pulis.
Pulis obviously hadn't adapted to such a fast pressing rhythm, and he didn't have enough confidence to go one-on-one with Jovanovic, so he quickly half-turned and passed the ball back to center back Walton.
The ball was passed too hastily, and the route was a little deflected, heading towards the gap between the center back and the left back in his own backcourt.
Seeing the opportunity, Jovanovic immediately threw Pulis away and accelerated his sprint.
Pulis can't guard against Jovanovic's speed!
KOP fans cheered excitedly!
Fortunately, center back Walton was more experienced. He quickly stepped forward and kicked the ball to left back Haldin.
Jovanovic, who had no hope of grabbing the ball, slowed down.
While Walton returned to the penalty area to defend, he yelled at Pulis for his previous pass error: "Fake! Anthony! How the hell did you pass the ball? Did you pass shit?"
Pulis also knew that it was his mistake, so he ran away with his head sullen, not daring to talk back.
Fortunately, the ball was still in Southampton's side, but it was so exciting at the beginning, and Southampton's team was a little hairy up and down.
Left back Haldin dribbled the ball along the wing.
Liverpool's talented player Rejoice Ngogo came up to prevent Harding from getting off the pace easily.
Haldin wanted to rely on his body and foot skills to get past Ngogo, but as soon as there was a slight pause, Christian Poulsen, another forward player of the Liverpool team, quickly came to help defend.
Ngogo and Poulsen combined to trap Haldin on the left sideline.
Under Liverpool's offensive and defensive tactics, Harding couldn't even get past the center line, and the passing line between him and his teammates was completely cut off!
However, Haldin is also experienced. After some physical confrontation, Haldin kicked the ball directly into Poulsen's calf, and the football immediately bounced off the sideline.
The linesman immediately raised his flag and the referee awarded the ball to Southampton.
The KOP fans booed wildly.
Nearly two minutes into the game, the Southampton team, which had the ball, only crossed the center line once when Schneiderlin dribbled the ball. After that, it was always suppressed by Liverpool in its own backcourt.
This is really a gap in strength.
This also reflects the horror of Hodgson's 451 formation.
Coach Adkins frowned slightly, stood up from the bench, walked to the tactical area on the sidelines, and shouted very fast: "Don't lose the ball! Don't lose the ball! Haldin, serve quickly! Take advantage of it." The width of the court! Holmes goes back, runs back into space! Hammond is ready to receive the second ball, Schneiderlin, you go forward!"
All the Southampton players on the field were in high spirits.
Unexpectedly, coach Adkins, who usually can't even fart, would speak so fast and talk so much when giving instructions on the spot!
With Adkins' on-the-spot command, Southampton's players suddenly regained some confidence.
Haldin took a few rough breaths, picked up the football, and quickly kicked out the foul ball.
Holmes, the left midfielder who retreated, grabbed the football immediately. Before Joe Cole and Spearing could surround him, he immediately transferred the ball laterally to Hammond in midfield.
Schneiderlin on the right has already run out of space in advance——
However, Hammond made a mistake in stopping the ball and the ball bounced two meters away!
Maxi, who had been ambushing Hammond for a long time, immediately seized the opportunity and started sprinting to chase the ball!
Hammond quickly reached for Maxi!
Maxi directly bumped his shoulder, knocking Hammond away, and intercepted the ball immediately!
The KOP stands were filled with excitement!
Within the first 5 minutes, the Liverpool team switched from defense to offense!
"Go back to defense!" Coach Adkins shouted very fast: "Don't panic, don't panic, shrink back to defense, block the route, and keep an eye on their forward! Hammond, hurry up. ! Puliss, don’t fool around! Go and help defend Joe Cole!”
Schneiderlin and Lallana also quickly retreated to intercept Maxi Rodriguez.
Faced with the two men's double-team interception, Maxi very calmly used a Messi-style L-droop move.
Maxi first pushed the ball outwards with the outside of his left foot, and then smashed the ball inward with the inside of his right foot. This push and dunk were extremely fast!
Schneiderlin and Lallana's double-team defense was immediately opened up.
Maxi accelerated the ball and broke through, passing between Schneiderlin and Lallana.
Lallana and Schneiderlin's speed and reactions are already very fast, but they are nothing in front of Maxi.
Almost in the blink of an eye, Maxi had dribbled the ball to the 30-meter area of the Southampton goal.
Southampton's defense also shrank immediately.
The training sessions and defensive drills in the past few days have not been in vain.
But the gap in personal strength is still visible to the naked eye.
Coach Adkins shouted eagerly: "Pulis! Pulis——"
Before he could finish the shouting, Joe Cole, who was being marked by Pulis, came up from the side like a ghost and appeared on the right side of the penalty area.
By the time Pulis reacted and followed up, Joe Cole had already thrown him away from three positions.
Maxi immediately separated the side with a kick!
Joe Cole easily raised his foot to stop the ball, and then faced the joint defense of Haldin and Walton, he did not break through. Instead, he "stepped inside and turned" on the spot, and the supporting foot landed behind the side of the ball. , draw an arc with the other foot, step in front of the ball from the other side, and make a posture of thrusting forward.
As expected, Haldin and Wharton stepped forward to blockade the situation.
Joe Cole pulled the ball and turned around, passed Haldin smoothly, and then directly knocked Walton away from the passing route!
This wave of operations is as dazzling as a magician, involving both technique and physical confrontation!
KOP fans cheered wildly!
After Joe Cole passed the two men, he didn't dribble much. Instead, before more Southampton defensive players double-teamed him, he kicked a low ball towards the goal——
(End of chapter)
