After playing in the EFL Cup, advancing to the final, and ushering in the FA Cup.
Three days later, on January 28, in the fourth round of the 2016/2017 English FA Cup, which was the 1/16 finals, Liverpool faced the British Championship team Wolves at home.
Liverpool still made a lot of rotations in this game, and Klopp didn't mind that his team was eliminated.
After all, the Red Army itself has suffered many injuries and has not yet won the Premier League championship. The main focus should be on conquering the Premier League. First, it must ensure that the league and Champions League games are played. The main players cannot be affected by investing more energy in the cup. Sprinting in the league and Champions League.
Therefore, Liverpool still played with a large number of young players and substitute players in this game. As a result, even if the Red Army played at home, even if they played at Anfield, they were still defeated by Wolves and scored a goal.
Fortunately, Liverpool's physically fit Willard appeared on the starting list. Under Willard's running, stealing, interception and command, Liverpool did not concede a second goal.
On the other hand, when they got the ball and counterattacked, even though the Wolves knew that Liverpool's biggest threat was Verard and guarded him tightly, they still couldn't do anything about Verard's super physical fitness and shooting ability.
In the end, Willard scored a hat-trick at home, leading Liverpool to a 3-1 victory over Wolves and advancing to the top 16 of the FA Cup.
Klopp's desire to give up the FA Cup was once again pulled back by Willard.
At the post-match press conference, a reporter asked Klopp why he made a huge rotation and wanted to give up the FA Cup, but then let Velarde start. In the end, under Velarde's super personal performance, Liverpool continued to win. To advance in the FA Cup and strike fear into the hearts of other teams participating in the FA Cup.
Klopp said with a wry smile that it was Willard who applied to participate in the FA Cup many times and had sufficient physical fitness to fight on multiple fronts without fear of getting tired. He also had good injury resistance and was not afraid of injury, so he allowed Willard to do so himself. Go give it a try.
Facts have proved that even with a pair of substitutes and youth team teammates, Willard can still win when he leads the team against the British Championship team.
I just don’t know if Willard can win against a Premier League team with a bunch of substitutes and youth team players.
Just three days after returning to the league, on January 31, Liverpool faced the challenge of Chelsea at home.
At present, Liverpool has only lost one game in the first 22 rounds and won the other 21 rounds. The points have reached 63 points, ranking first in the Premier League standings.
Chelsea's performance is not bad either, with 18 wins, one draw and three losses in 22 league games, ranking second with 55 points, 8 points behind Liverpool.
In this strong dialogue, if Chelsea can win, the points gap between the two sides will be narrowed to 5 points.
And if Liverpool wins, the points gap between the two sides will widen to double digits, reaching 11 points, and Liverpool's probability of winning will become higher.
Chelsea has no retreat and must attack, otherwise it will be impossible to win and get closer to the points. And Liverpool, at their home court, is even less likely to be timid and dare not attack their opponents.
In this way, the game will be better to watch. Many media and fans have predicted this in advance and have predicted that this game will be a very exciting offensive battle.
At 21:00 on the evening of January 31, 2017, the red-blue battle between Liverpool and Chelsea in the 23rd round of the 2016/2017 Premier League season officially kicked off with the whistle of referee Clattenburg in the heavy rain at Anfield Stadium.
As everyone expected, despite the poor weather and heavy rain in this game, neither Liverpool nor Chelsea were conservative. From the beginning of the game, they spread out their formations and launched a wide-ranging attack.
Due to weather and venue conditions, it was difficult to advance the ground attack, so both sides chose to attack in the air. Although the turnover rate is higher, the transition speed between offense and defense is also much faster, which makes the fans excited to watch.
Even though there were frequent mistakes, this rapid transition between offense and defense still allowed the first ball to appear in just 8 minutes.
Not as Chelsea hoped, the first goal of the game was not from Chelsea, but from Liverpool.
Velarde received an aerial pass from Wijnaldum from the side outside the penalty area, and without stopping the ball, he volleyed directly into the air. He hit a high-quality volley and hit the world wave, blasting the ball into Chelsea's gate.
Goalkeeper Courtois reacted quickly and successfully touched the ball. However, Velarde's shot was too powerful, and there was rain on the ball, which made it too slippery. Although Courtois' save slightly changed the path of the ball, it still failed. After all, the ball did not fly out of bounds, but flew into the goal against the post.
Liverpool leads 1-0 at home.
Although the goal was conceded too early, Chelsea was mentally prepared for this. It is almost impossible to play against Liverpool at Anfield without conceding a goal.
Therefore, even though they lost the ball in the first 8 minutes, Chelsea's mentality did not collapse. Instead, they continued to actively fight and defend, and resolutely launched attacks when they got the ball.
In defense, Gary Cahill, David Luiz, Azpilicueta, Kante and others performed very well. Coupled with Courtois's outstanding performance on the goal line, Liverpool's second goal was delayed. It didn't come, but the Blues Chelsea equalized the score in the 24th minute.
This was a long shot from outside the penalty area from Chelsea's No. 10 core Hazard. Although the angle was not very tricky, goalkeeper Mignolet still did not dare to hold the ball and instead pushed the baseline.
Chelsea won a chance for a corner kick in the frontcourt.
It was during this corner kick attack that Willian's corner kick avoided Willard's defensive zone and landed at the back point. It was grabbed by Blues center back David Luiz who stepped forward to participate in the corner kick. , overpowering Liverpool full-back Milner and heading the ball into the back post.
Goalkeeper Mignolet, who was previously in the forward position, could not retreat in time and could only watch the ball go into the net.
Not to be outdone, Chelsea scored and tied the score at 1-1.
This goal made Chelsea's willingness to attack even stronger. Anyway, it's impossible to keep the ball on time, and if you can stop Liverpool and Velarde from scoring goals, it's really better to give it a try.
Not only do the Blues have many famous players in the defense, they are more stable than Liverpool's defense. The key is that their goalkeeper Courtois' ability is better than Mignolet in all aspects.
Even for Willard, who hit the ball within the goal frame with a long shot, it was difficult to score. First, because the long shot is far away, the ball flies in the air for too long, giving the goalkeeper time to react and make a save. On the other hand, it’s Courtois’s reaction time. His reaction speed is obviously better than Mignolet’s, and his saves are also more professional than Mignolet’s.
Therefore, the 1-1 score between the two sides remained stalemate until the end of the first half, and it did not change again.
