Due to the disadvantage of goal difference, Liverpool's ranking has not changed after this round and is still fifth. However, it is still early before the end of the season, and there is still a chance to continue to improve the ranking, enter the top four, qualify for the Champions League next season, and even participate in the championship competition.
However, what is more important at the moment is the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals. As long as they win against Stoke City, they can advance to the final and have a chance to compete for the championship. Once they win the championship, they will at least be guaranteed to qualify for next season's Europa League.
In the Premier League, a competition with the Big 6, coupled with the strong dark horse of Leicester City this year and the challenges from other strong teams, it is already good to guarantee a Europa League qualification. Get this qualification first and then compete for the Champions League qualification.
On Monday, January 25, Willard spent another 5 skill points to increase "Inverse Foot" from 88 to 89, leaving 141 skill points in the balance.
Then, the next day, January 26, Liverpool sat at home and faced the challenge of Stoke City in the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals.
It has only been three days since the last Premier League game, and the Red Army won 2-0 away from home in the first leg. Not only did the total score lead by two goals, but there was also a huge advantage of two away goals.
Therefore, Klopp carried out a certain rotation in this game. No. 2 right back Klein rested and No. 38 Flanagan started; No. 23 Emre Can also rested and was replaced by No. 21 Lucas in the starting lineup; Firmino, who previously played center, returned to the wing, and No. 9 center Benteke got the starting start.
However, in the locker room before the game, Klopp did not underestimate his opponents, but warned everyone:
"I'm sure you all had a bad experience in the first half of the last game."
"Although we are now 2-0 up and have a two away goal advantage, we still cannot be careless."
"Especially their starting center in this game, Crouch, is 2.02 meters tall. None of us can jump as high as him, including Willard."
"Therefore, everyone must be fully focused, especially paying attention to the opponent's aerial attack. Even if they cannot compete with Crouch for the top, they must still effectively interfere with him personally."
"There is also their No. 10 Anautovic. Although he plays as a full midfielder, he is also 192cm tall, so Stoke City's tactics in this game must be aerial attack."
"Everyone has to pay attention to this."
Speaking of this, Klopp specifically called out Willard's name, asking him to defend more and take care of the air ball in the penalty area. Even if he can't compete with Crouch, he still has to interfere with him.
Willard nodded.
He knew this person, and he was somewhat famous. He was the tallest player in the Premier League besides the goalkeeper, and he was a very big threat. Fortunately, Crouch's header skills are not very good. As long as it interferes with him, the success rate of heading the ball is not very high.
But it is necessary to interfere with him, and he must not be allowed to head the ball comfortably without being defended. In this game, Stoke City started him as a center forward. He must have been attacking in the air and trying to reverse the situation.
It's really worth noting.
At 20:45 in the evening, with the referee's whistle, the second leg of the 2015/2016 English League Cup semi-finals between Liverpool and Stoke City officially started in the cheers of the packed Anfield stadium.
With a two-goal lead in the total score, Liverpool will naturally not waste their energy in high-pressing Stoke City.
The battalion is already full of injuries and the lineup is stretched in the second half of the season. Klopp is not a pedantic person. In addition, several players have been rotated in this round, so the tactic of this game is defensive counterattack.
However, when counterattacking, there are still a large number of people, creating a situation where many people are grabbing points and many points are blooming. If we can score one more goal, we will basically be safe.
After testing for a few minutes, we saw that Liverpool, playing at home, was still as stable as a rock and did not take the initiative to attack on a large scale. Stoke City, which was lagging behind, had no choice but to move its formation significantly forward and officially started the attack.
They were behind in the score, and they were behind by two goals. They couldn't do anything without attacking.
However, Liverpool's formation of four defenders and three defensive midfielders, coupled with Willard's flexible supplementary defense, prevented Stoke City from finding the opportunity to pass the ball from the ground into the penalty area, and could only start constant aerial bombing.
After all, with two tall men, Crouch and Arnautovic, they originally planned to attack in the air.
But the aerial attack efficiency is very low, otherwise breaking the dense defense would not be a problem in the world. Although Crouch is very tall, he cannot succeed in every aerial challenge. This depends on the quality of his teammates' passes and his own position.
In the 11th and 14th minutes, Stoke City made two consecutive 45-degree diagonal passes into the penalty area from the wing, but failed to reach Crouch's head. He was blocked by a Liverpool player and failed to reach the landing point. The ball was pushed out of the penalty area by a Liverpool player and cleared.
It wasn't until the 20th minute of the first half that attacking midfielder Bo Yang switched to the right wing. After receiving a pass from his teammate, he quickly passed the ball into the Liverpool penalty area with a long pass in front of the Liverpool players. Grab the landing spot once and succeed in the fight for the top.
But his attack on the top failed to pose a threat because Velarde also rushed to the landing point. Although he did not jump as high as him and failed to top the ball, his strong physique hit Crouch in the air and interfered with his point of contact for the top ball.
Crouch's heading skills were not very good to begin with, and the ball he finally headed flew softly over the crossbar, failing to pose a threat to Liverpool's goal.
Liverpool calmly dealt with the waves of aerial bombardments from Stoke City. Fortunately, Crouch's poor header skills and Willard's constant defense and destruction kept Stoke City's offense going. There was no real breakthrough.
The most threatening attack was when Crouch grabbed the first point in the 28th minute and instead of heading towards the goal, he headed the ball back to attacking midfielder Bo Yang who was inserted in the back row. Bojan rushed into the penalty area, leaned on center back Sakho, and took Crouch's header about 12 meters away from the goal and hit a threatening volley.
The force of the ball was quite strong and the threat was quite great. Fortunately, the angle was not tricky enough. Goalkeeper Mignolet subconsciously stretched out his hand and blocked the ball with his palm. Then, before Stoke City's players could make a follow-up shot, He immediately dived down and held the ball under his body.
Of course, Crouch was also blocked by Willard when he tried to rush over for a follow-up shot. Without Willard blocking his position, it is unclear whether Crouch would have been able to grab the second spot for a follow-up shot.
