After Torres scored, Liverpool's morale was greatly boosted. They launched many attacks in the next few minutes, and the attack method was to find Torres' point.
One time, Babel got the ball from the wing and hit the middle. Torres made a late attack, but this time it was immediately destroyed by Woodgate.
Another time it was Gerrard's through ball, and Woodgate followed up in time to poke the ball away.
This offensive lasted for nearly 10 minutes, but gradually Liverpool's head coach Benitez found that the team's offense had stagnated. The most obvious manifestation was that their ball could not be passed to the feet of Torres.
The Liverpool players on the field may not have felt it. They just found that the team's offense would pass the ball inexplicably, or they made a mistake in passing the ball. Anyway, there was no smooth attack like after the opening.
Torres put his hands on his hips and kept breathing heavily.
He leaned over and kept looking at the Leeds United captain beside him. Likewise, Smith kept breathing.
Just now, Benayoun on the right side of Liverpool passed the ball to Gerrard. Gerrard wanted to pass the ball again to Torres who was preparing to take the ball with his back, but as soon as the ball was passed, he was ran over by the edge. Smith was cut off.
As soon as the ball was poked away, Smith and Torres went to chase the ball.
Torres started quickly, while Smith was always running. The two kept fighting while chasing the ball. Finally, they chased all the way to the sideline. When Torres, who was accelerating from behind, was about to get the ball, Milner, who was rushing from the other side, kicked the ball forward.
Because the kick was too hasty, the ball flew directly out of the sideline.
This caused the two people grabbing the ball to have to stop and take a break and watch Liverpool's sideline ball from the backcourt.
George Li looked at the two gasping people. Just now, he got what he wanted through Chris Casper's data analysis.
In order to target Torres' performance, it is also to limit Gerrard's forward penetration. George Lee moved Smith's position back a little, allowing him and Parker to form a double midfielder configuration.
Although this change did not have an immediate effect, because Torres still got a chance to attack at the beginning. But after a short period of adaptation, Smith found the feeling, that is, he kept sweeping the midfield.
Anyway, when he is really defending, he still has Parker in the midfield to support him, so he doesn't have to worry about his rash attack and being beaten behind by his opponent. And Parker was greatly liberated because of Smith's retreat. He can now run more to block the opponent's passing route and limit the opponent's movement, instead of having to go around like a headless fly to make up for the loss. Be on guard.
"Do you think Benitez will change his tactics?" George Lee asked Brian Kidd when he saw that his targeted arrangements had achieved results.
Kidd thought for a while, first communicated softly with Casper on the side, then turned to George Li and said: "I don't think so. Chris also told me just now that Benitez always likes to use This formation is 4231.”
"But it is undeniable that Benitez is indeed a master tactician. That night in Istanbul, he did have a set of tactical adjustments in the midfield. Maybe he will change his style of play in the second half."
"I don't know if he will change his formation, but we need to find the weak points of the opponent. You see, we are still lagging behind." Kidd reminded George Lee.
"I know even if you don't tell me, the score is hanging there." George Li pointed to the big screen in the Elland Road Stadium, with the score "0:1" printed on it.
After George Lee withdrew Smith, he greatly restricted Liverpool's frontcourt offensive. At least no matter where Torres is now, there will definitely be someone watching him, and as soon as he gets the ball, he will immediately fall into Leeds United. of containment.
After Torres had no room to break through and escape, he could only pass the ball to other teammates.
The two wingers were also heavily guarded by Leeds United's wingers. The only person who could give him some support was Gerrard, who came in behind.
However, Gerrard also discovered today that no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't get the ball. Parker and Sneijder will be watching closely on the route Torres takes to pass the ball to him. If Torres is not paying attention at all, he will make a pass error.
After the above-mentioned situations occurred several times, Gerrard did not dare to intervene rashly. Once there is a passing error here, Leeds United's counterattack will begin immediately. Their counterattack is no worse than Liverpool's.
Liverpool's counterattack here mainly uses a single arrow called Torres, so Leeds United has more arrows. In particular, several fast wingers like to move towards the center during counterattacks, which puts greater pressure on Liwu's midfielders and central defenders.
Because when attacking, it is necessary to give up the wings to the full-backs who come behind, so Arnesen went to the center whenever he had a chance to counterattack today, which made Liverpool's right back Finnan follow him, and it would be wrong if he did not follow. .
In the 36th minute of the game, Leeds United launched an efficient counterattack.
This time Alonso wanted to find Benayoun on the right through a long pass, because he found that if he found Torres, he would not have a good chance in the first half, unless Leeds United made a mistake themselves. So Alonso first used a half-turn to get rid of Sneijder. Just as he raised his foot to prepare for a long pass, the ball was intercepted by Smith running over from the other side.
After Smith was placed in the defensive midfielder position in the first half, he began to sweep Liverpool's midfield like a "mad dog".
Often, after guarding Liverpool's attack from the left, they go to the other side to defend Liverpool's large-scale movement.
This time he came directly from behind and intercepted the ball that Alonso wanted to pass.
This movement is very big. You can say it is a bit like pedaling, or it can be said that it is raising the leg too high. But because no one was kicked, the referee did not call it.
After the ball rolled to the side, Smith immediately hit the ground and started to catch up with the football.
Arnesen in front of him had already begun to penetrate diagonally into the middle, and Finnan also began to shrink inward.
However, after seeing Finnan move, Smith chose to pass the ball to the wing. Bynes, who inserted behind, caught up with Smith's ball from behind.
Coming to the corner of the penalty area, Baynes did not observe, but decisively chose to cross.
There, Leeds United forward Kuyt had already gotten rid of Carragher behind him, jumped up hard to face the ball and then swung his head towards the goal.
The ball was hit very hard. After being touched by Kuyt, it bounced off the ground and flew toward the back of the goal. It even accelerated after landing.
Lee George and the Leeds United bench were ready to celebrate.
But they forget there's another guy here in Liverpool.
That's Reyna.
The Spanish goalkeeper used all his strength, made a side dive, and finally touched the football with his fingertips, knocking the ball out of the baseline.
"call!"
"call!"
George Lee and all the Leeds United fans at the scene exhaled almost at the same time and expressed their regrets.
