Chapter 411: Formation without fullbacks? I don’t understand, but I’m shocked

Author: Ant who loves watching football

"I have carefully studied Pan Yi's formation. To be honest, there are very few loopholes, but it is not without breakthroughs."

At Liverpool's Melwood training base, Klopp, who has just taken office, is discussing the strategy against Chelsea with his chief assistant Zeljko Buvac.

Buvac has been following Klopp for more than ten years, from Mainz to Dortmund.

Now that Klopp has been invited to Liverpool, Uncle Zha has also brought this assistant with him.

Now, Buvac also submitted a detailed game report, talking about his analysis results:

"In this formation, the most critical thing is the two wing-backs. Whether Pan Yi plays Marcos Alonso, Cancelo, Azpilicueta and Ivanovic, they are

The movement on both wings has a great impact on Chelsea's overall offense and defense."

"However, they often leave a lot of space behind them after pressing forward. The space here often needs to be filled by the team's defensive midfielder."

"In the current Chelsea, Pan Yi prefers to use a midfield combination of two attacking midfielders + one defensive midfielder, but both Hazard and B are inclined to attack, so this matter is usually done by one player

Defensive midfielder Kanter will complete it."

"When Kanter moves to one side to help fill the gap, if we focus on the other side at this time, then our opportunity will come."

"It can be said that this is the biggest drawback of their single defensive midfielder lineup. I feel that many coaches of the team have discovered this recently. They should pay attention to suppressing the forward penetration of Chelsea's double wing backs when defending, and focus on attacking behind them when attacking. This way

It can limit Chelsea's performance very well."

"Of course, due to the limited strength of the team, they will often lose in the end, but at least they have not been beaten by a big score. In the past few games, except for Stoke City in the League Cup, they used a rotating lineup and were beaten.

A 6:0, and no other team suffered a big loss."

"But with the strength of our current lineup, there is hope that we can compete with them at home, as long as we can seize their weakness."

While listening to Buvac's words, Klopp was also carefully reading the analysis report.

Then, he raised his head, revealing his big white teeth on his stubbled face: "You did a very good job. You are right, this can be said to be a fatal loophole for Chelsea."

Defeating Pan Yi is Klopp's biggest goal in recent years.

It can even be said that one of the big reasons for coming to the Premier League and coming to Liverpool is that we can use a better lineup to face Pan Yi here!

This is also a scene he imagined when he was in the Bundesliga.

In Klopp's first Premier League game after coming to Liverpool, he defeated the difficult Southampton 2-0, which also gave him great confidence.

In addition, Liverpool's goal this season is to compete for the top four in the league and qualify for the Champions League, so every game, especially every home game, is important.

If we can defeat Chelsea and Pan Yi at Anfield, it will really be a double happiness.

"In recent games, Chelsea really haven't scored many goals." Buvac pointed to the game data in the report, "I think Pan Yi is a bit too arrogant, daring to use a single defensive midfielder formation, but even if he is stronger than

Kanter also has no way to split up to both wings to help with offense and defense. In addition, his formation does not have conventional wingers and relies too much on wing backs when attacking from the wing. This is the important weakness I just mentioned."

"But in this case, their attack in the middle is still very sharp." Klopp said, "The two front centers Harry Kane and Lukaku, plus the two attacking midfielders Hazard and Bernardo...

Silva, the firepower is really strong."

Buvac nodded: "Then we have to defend accordingly."

Klopp thought for a moment: "Then we will use three defensive midfielders to fight against them. On the one hand, we must prevent their midfield attack, and on the other hand, we must seize the loopholes behind their wing backs and use their single back

The shortcomings of late defense are not timely, and they will be hit hard from behind."

"Well." Buvac said, "In this case, the characteristics of Coutinho and Lallana will play a key role in this game. We must firmly seize this loophole to fight, and focus on this loophole."

area to create opportunities.”

Coutinho's technical characteristics are that he is good at dribbling, accurate passing, and powerful long-range shots, but he is not fast and has weak physical confrontation ability.

These technical characteristics determine that Coutinho is more of an offensive midfielder or attacking midfielder, rather than a traditional winger.

But he can reverse to the wing during the game, and then seek to advance to the center. This is more sudden and harder to prevent than if he stays on the wing.

Lallana's characteristics are that he can run, knows how to run, and has good skills. This is perfectly consistent with Klopp's requirements for large space counterattacks and a large number of substitutions.

In other words, he can also suddenly insert behind the Chelsea wing-back to beat the opponent's time difference.

In the initial stages of the Kremlin Red Army, Lallana was an extremely important tactical piece for the Germans and an indispensable lubricant on the offensive end.

Now, if he and Coutinho are placed in the attacking midfielder position, and they cooperate with the three defensive midfielders behind them to fight against Chelsea's midfield combination, they should be able to gain an advantage.

Since Chelsea has no wingers, Klopp will use a central formation, and then use Lallana and Coutinho to open up the opponent's wing-backs, and then look for opportunities.

Klopp praised: "Then let's refine the training plan for the next few days, and you can arrange relevant training later."

"Okay, I understand." Buvac nodded in agreement.

Now that Chelsea's weakness has been grasped, Klopp and the coaching staff must create targeted tactics based on this weakness, and practice defensive and counterattack routines to restrain Chelsea in the team.

Finally, Klopp adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and smiled again:

"Pan Yi, I will give you an unforgettable meeting gift at Anfield Stadium!"

——

"Viewers, welcome to the Sky Sports live broadcast room, I am your old friend, Lineker."

"Hello everyone, my name is Alan Shearer."

"I'm Carragher."

"I'm Zola."

In the studio hall of Sky Sports TV, after all the guests greeted the audience, host Lineker said:

"Today's match in the 11th round of the Premier League is the most watched match in this round. The red team Liverpool will face the blue team Chelsea at Anfield."

"I believe everyone is looking forward to this game. First of all, this is Klopp's first official appearance at home this season after taking over Liverpool midway. We all want to know, after having a

With a new captain, will this once giant Liverpool ship be able to sail smoothly?"

"At the same time, this will also be the first meeting of the old rivals Klopp and Pan Yi in the Premier League. Whether Pan Yi continues his overwhelming advantage over Klopp, or whether Klopp succeeds in counterattacking with the new team, this will matter.

These are all points worthy of our attention.”

"For Chelsea, they have only one goal, and that is to equal the Premier League record of 49 unbeaten sets set by Arsenal twelve years ago!"

"The miracle that Wenger created with Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira was once thought to be impossible to surpass. But in the second year after Pan Yi came to the Premier League, he was already so close to it.

Got it!"

"What's interesting is that in the next round, Chelsea's opponent is Arsenal! In other words, if Pan Yi can overcome Liverpool today, then whether Chelsea can finally break Arsenal's record will depend on it.

To Arsenal themselves!”

"Is this a coincidence? Or is it an arrangement from God? But no matter what, Chelsea must first survive at Anfield, otherwise the game a week later will not be of such great significance."

"It can be seen from the TV broadcast footage that the Russian behind Chelsea boss Abramovich also came to the scene to watch the game in person, but the Anfield fans did not seem to welcome him and responded with boos."

"Okay, we've got Liverpool's starting lineup first, let's see how Klopp is preparing to deal with his old rival Pan Yi."

"This looks like a -1 formation? The goalkeeper is Mignolet, the defense is Moreno, Lovren, Skrtel, Klein, and the three defensive midfielders are Emre Can and Henderson.

Milner, the two attacking midfielders are Coutinho and Lallana, and the center forward is Firmino."

"What do you think of this starting lineup?"

With that said, Lineker posed the question to Red Army star Carragher.

"Klopp arranged the Christmas tree formation today, which is indeed a bit surprising, because as we all know, he is better at -1 or formation." Carragher said in his thick northern British accent, "But it is also understandable, because Pan Yi has not played well this season.

The most common style of play is to focus on attacking in the middle, and Klopp wants to limit the performance of Chelsea's two attacking midfielders and two forwards."

"It seems that many people have seen the characteristics of Pan Yi's style of play and are thinking of ways to deal with it." Alan Shearer also nodded, "Klopp did not start the strong center Benteke today.

Instead, they used Firmino, who is more flexible and retreats more, presumably because he wanted him to help the midfielder deal with Chelsea's central players."

"Yes." Carragher agreed with Alan Shearer's statement and added, "Chelsea mainly relies on two wing-backs on the wings, but the two midfielders Liverpool started today are very good at running behind each other.

, coupled with Firmino’s flexible movement, it should cause Chelsea a lot of trouble.”

Lineker also said: "It seems that Klopp is very well prepared today. Judging from the camera, he also seems confident. Maybe today is the beginning of his defeat of Pan Yi?"

Carragher smiled and said: "I hope so. The Red Army's revival may start from this game, and I am full of expectations for it!"

But at this time, Zola, Pan Yi's idiot fan, snorted: "With your analysis like this, do you think our Pan Yi is too simple? He won't play two games in one game. If he is really that easy to deal with,

Why haven't Chelsea lost yet this season?"

Lineker laughed: "You're right. Let's not forget that Pan Yi's most powerful thing is his on-the-spot changes. Even if the initial formation is firmly restrained by the opponent, he can quickly come up with a response...

Ah, Chelsea’s starting lineup has also come out, let’s take a look first.”

Following Lineker's reminder, all the guests also turned their attention to the big screen.

There have been pictures of Chelsea players, as well as their formation positions.

Goalkeeper: Courtois.

Defenders: Ake, Van Dijk, Terry.

Midfielder: Kante, David Luiz.
To be continued...