In this game, Mourinho made a large-scale rotation. Gu Ran was placed on the bench, and Liverpool's young players got the chance to play.

The score remained close and Liverpool found it difficult to break through the Hammers' defense.

With 15 minutes left in the second half, West Ham United scored a free kick, changing the score to 2:1 Liverpool.

If no adjustments are made, Liverpool will lose this Premier League game.

Mourinho decisively replaced Sturridge with Gu Ran.

After Gu Ran came on the court, Liverpool immediately underwent a drastic change.

Coutinho was completely activated, sending out deadly through balls one after another. Gu Ran took the ball at the top of the penalty area and passed it to Suarez, who took the opportunity to sweep in front of the goal! When the game ended, the score was West Ham United 2:3 Liverpool.

Gu Ran made an assist and shot, reversing the outcome of the game.

Liverpool was content to take three points from the Hammers and continued to lead the Premier League standings.

On October 22, the Premier League match day, Liverpool faced newly promoted Southampton at home.

This game should be nothing special, but Southampton is Gu Ran's home team, and at least 5 players in Liverpool's main lineup are from Southampton, so this game has also received special attention from fans.

Because the next game is the Champions League group match against Real Madrid, Mourinho also sent all the main players to play in this game so that the main players can maintain a good competitive state.

Of course, Mourinho asked the main players to relax and avoid injuries due to physical confrontation.

After the start of the game, Southampton used a high-pressure tactic to consume Liverpool's physical strength, but the two teams were at completely different levels. Liverpool responded easily with a long pass to Gu Ran in front.

Gu Ran did not force a physical confrontation, but instead used a fake move to deceive his former teammates and passed the ball to Liverpool teammates who were in a better position.

With the help of easy long passes and Gu Ran's accurate passes, Suarez completed a hat-trick and Coutinho also scored a goal.

However, after each goal, Gu Ran refused to celebrate.

After all, he has feelings for Southampton, and he is also the boss of Southampton.

In injury time, Salah received a through pass from Ward-Prowse, broke through Liverpool's loose defense in one breath, and scored the only goal of Southampton in the entire game.

Gu Ran ran over happily and hugged Salah to celebrate.

Many Southampton fans present burst into tears.

At the end of the game, the score was Liverpool 5:1 Southampton.

Without Gu Ran, Southampton has lost its miracle color.

However, the "Mavericks" foundation that Gu Ran left for Southampton was still good enough. Although Southampton lost to the Premier League leader Liverpool in this game, Southampton's overall ranking in the Premier League is around the middle.

After the game, Southampton fans held up Gu Ran’s photos and Gu Ran’s Southampton jersey, sang the song “There is a handsome Oriental man named Gu Ran”, and refused to leave for a long time.

Gu Ran also stayed for the first time and signed autographs for every Southampton fan.

Next, we will prepare for the game against Real Madrid.

This is also the most eye-catching game in the Champions League group stage.

But in fact, both of them are full of energy and are looking forward to this battle.

Mourinho led Liverpool in a fully closed and targeted training.

Ancelotti also conducted fully closed targeted training with Real Madrid.

The two coaches are very familiar with each other's tactics, and the styles of the two teams are very similar, both are pragmatic.

On October 24, Liverpool players took a chartered flight to Madrid, Spain.

On October 25, the third round of the Champions League group stage super death group D began, with Liverpool away challenging Real Madrid.

Tickets to the Bernabeu Stadium are hard to come by! Famous players such as Zidane, Ronaldo, and Beckham also bought luxury box tickets early to watch the game in the box.

Liverpool's starting lineup today is still Mourinho's 433.

Gu Ran leads the team as the center forward, with Suarez on the left and Lallana, who has a spiritual rapport with Gu Ran, on the right.

Compared to the young Sturridge and Chamberlain, Lallana is obviously more stable, and Lallana also has certain defensive capabilities in the midfield and frontcourt, and can be pulled back to play as a winger at critical moments.

The three midfielders are Coutinho, Gerrard, and happy boy Sterling.

In fact, in the last match against Dortmund, Sterling used his speed to tear open Dortmund's honeycomb defense and made a contribution, but Sterling's shot was so worrying that Mourinho decisively replaced Sterling before the game with Dortmund was over to prevent Sterling from wasting opportunities.

In today's match, Real Madrid's tactical style will definitely be high pressure and full-court strangulation. Therefore, from the perspective of countering the opponent's moves, the only way to break the world's martial arts is to be fast. Liverpool really needs a quick knife like Sterling in the midfield to break Real Madrid's high pressure and full-court strangulation and deliver ammunition to Gu Ran.

So, Sterling has to pick it up and use it.

Before the game, Mourinho also specifically talked to Sterling and asked him not to shoot blindly.

Sterling grinned.

Liverpool's four defenders are Van Dijk, Carragher, Enrique and Agger, and the goalkeeper is still Reina.

This was also the first time that Van Dijk played in such a big game. From a substitute player to a regular starter, Van Dijk's progress can be said to be rapid. It took him only three games to win the favor of Mourinho and get more opportunities to play.

On the Real Madrid side - the Real Madrid in the 2012 season can almost be regarded as the Galacticos' peak lineup. There are as many substitutes as main players, and the substitutes are almost as famous as the main players.

In this game, Ancelotti adopted a 4231 defensive counter-attack formation.

The 4231 formation is good at both offense and defense, and combined with high-pressure and full-court strangulation, this formation is almost like killing gods when you see them and killing ghosts when you meet them.

Of course, Klopp of Dortmund also uses the 4231 formation, but Klopp's 4231 is different from Real Madrid's 4231. Simply put, Klopp's 4231 is passionate. He just works hard for the first 10 minutes and then defends. However, Real Madrid's 4231 is balanced and implemented throughout.

In addition, Dortmund's players are basically young players with strong drive but poor endurance, while Real Madrid's players are all well-tested world-class stars with no problems in terms of physical endurance.

So, even though both teams use a 4231 formation, their basic playing styles are different.

...(End of this chapter)