Chapter 962 I will not be fooled this time!
Kenny Dalglish, the King of Anfield, is a legendary name, and he continues to create legends.
He is destined to be a name that will never be forgotten in the history of Liverpool and even English football.
He witnessed the most glorious golden age in the history of English professional football. In the 1980s, he led Liverpool to sweep across European football, creating one amazing achievement after another and bringing Liverpool to the pinnacle of history.
The sudden Heysel tragedy did not defeat Liverpool. After head coach Joe Fagan left the team, Dalglish took on the heavy responsibility of both player and head coach, leading Liverpool to continue to remain strong.
To make matters worse, the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 completely destroyed Liverpool.
The heavy pressure dragged down Dalglish's health, and he resigned as Liverpool head coach in 1991, which shocked the entire British football world and even the European football world at that time.
He is the greatest legend in Liverpool football history! After that, although Dalglish coached Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, the results were not ideal. His pragmatic and conservative tactics were considered outdated. He was away from the front line of coaching for a long time, and Dalglish gradually became a mascot. It was not until 2009 that Benitez invited him to serve as Liverpool's youth training consultant. He appeared in the eyes of Liverpool fans again.
In January last year, Hodgson, the head coach who replaced Benítez as Liverpool coach, was fired for his poor performance. Dalglish, who was the club's youth training consultant, was very familiar with the team's business and was also a legendary figure in the club's history, was appointed to take over the team.
Liverpool at that time was facing internal and external troubles.
Ranked in the lower middle of the Premier League standings, just three points away from the relegation zone, the team's top star Torres insisted on transferring to Chelsea, and Dalglish himself had been away from front-line coaching for more than a decade. This made Liverpool at the time precarious and in danger.
But Dalglish soon showed his skill. He transferred Torres in exchange for 50 million pounds and brought in Suarez and Andy Carroll, an English center forward who was in hot form at the time.
Both transfers were effective in the second half of the season, helping Liverpool maintain their performance and quickly climb to sixth place in the league. After the game, Dalglish was offered a three-year coaching contract.
This time, he was officially sent back to prison for the second time.
Dalglish received strong support from the management and made frequent moves in the transfer market, bringing in a number of powerful stars including Henderson, Downing, Charlie Adam and Bellamy, which improved Liverpool's overall strength.
More importantly, Liverpool only needs to worry about the league as they fight on a single front, which undoubtedly provides convenience for Dalglish's coaching.
But no one expected that when the outside world had high hopes for Dalglish, Liverpool's start to the season was not ideal.
It has one of the strongest defenses in the Premier League, but it is also the team with the weakest offensive strength among the Premier League's strong teams.
After 22 rounds, Liverpool's defense only conceded 21 goals, losing only to Manchester City in the Premier League, which shows how strong Liverpool's defense is, but the team's offense has only scored 25 goals, only more than six teams in the Premier League.
It can be said that Liverpool's defense is very solid, but their offense is a mess.
This seems to once again confirm the outside world's evaluation and concerns about Dalglish, that is, his tactics are outdated, he no longer knows how to coach the team's offense, and cannot adapt to current football tactics.
Dalglish was unable to refute the outside world's doubts because his team's performance was indeed not ideal.
Seventh in the Premier League is obviously a big gap from the top two in the league that the outside world expected him to be before the season.
But his team relied on tenacious defense to overcome all obstacles and finally made it to the League Cup semi-finals, just one step away from the League Cup final, which ignited Dalglish's hope.
Regardless of whether he is sacked after the end of this season, at least he hopes to leave something for the team, such as a championship trophy, during his second coaching of Liverpool.
It was with this wish in mind that Dalglish showed a certain enthusiasm in the first leg at Anfield, and even tied Manchester City 2-2. Dalglish's team even received a lot of praise for this.
Looking at the Premier League and European football this season, how many teams can draw with Manchester City? But from this game, Dalglish also clearly saw the gap between Liverpool and Manchester City. The Reds have already sent out their main players, but still can't beat Manchester City, who rotated, and even conceded two away goals.
If it was at the Etihad Stadium, what would Liverpool use to fight Manchester City?
Dalglish was clearly aware of this, so in the second leg at the Etihad Stadium, Liverpool chose a three-defensive tactic, with all three lines adopting a defensive strategy and not daring to go beyond a single step.
Liverpool's defense is excellent in itself, and Dalglish's tactics of strict defense and retreat made Liverpool's defense even more impregnable.
Manchester City's passing and controlling the ball is indeed excellent, but facing such an iron-clad defense, they really can't come up with many solutions. They can only patiently maintain control of the ball and rhythm, patiently organize penetration, slowly consume the opponent, and slowly look for opportunities.
The two sides tied 0-0 in the first half and neither side gained an advantage.
After the change of sides in the second half, Liverpool still defended tightly, and it seemed that they wanted to maintain the defense until the end of the game. This made people doubt. Doesn’t Liverpool want to advance?
But everyone in Manchester City knows that Liverpool is waiting for Manchester City to make a mistake.
Dalglish's strategy is very conservative. He first ensures that he does not make mistakes, and then waits for his opponents to make mistakes.
But what’s interesting is that Guardiola’s strategy is the same.
So it turned into a conservative and miserable stalemate.
Manchester City, which was exhausted after a long battle, really had no way to play against Liverpool, because no one could guarantee that the players would not make mistakes due to fatigue and be exploited by the opponent.
This matter concerns the right to advance to the next round, so no one dares to be careless.
The two sides continued to fight in the area from 30 meters of Liverpool to near the center line. As long as Manchester City seized the opportunity, they would immediately launch a wave of pressing pressure in the midfield and frontcourt, trying to snatch the ball from the frontcourt, while also forcing Liverpool's midfield and backcourt players to make mistakes.
Liverpool seized an opportunity in the 55th minute. Henderson broke through on the left, dribbled into Manchester City's half and made a cross, but the ball was cleared by Kompany's header at the front of the penalty area and headed back to the midfield.
Manchester City quickly organized a quick attack, and with two or three passes the ball was sent to the frontcourt, directly threatening Liverpool's penalty area. However, this attack failed to pass the ball to Su Dong's feet. It was intercepted by Daniel Agger at the front of the penalty area and passed to Gerrard in the midfield.
The Blue Moon immediately organized a press in the midfield and formed a strangling tactic against Liverpool's midfielders, forcing Gerrard to pass back.
Su Dong and his teammates took advantage of the victory and continued to press forward on the defense line, especially Manchester City's front trident, who pressed forward step by step, cutting off Liverpool's forward passing line from the defense line, leaving the Reds with no choice.
In the 57th minute, when left-back Martin Kelly received the pass from his teammate on the left, Di Maria immediately approached Martin Kelly and put him under close pressure, mainly blocking his lateral and forward passes.
Di Maria's positioning made Martin Kelly very uncomfortable, and there was the sideline on the other side, so he couldn't pass the ball.
The 21-year-old Liverpool youngster, at a loss for a good solution, chose to pass the ball back to goalkeeper Reina.
This was not a problem originally. The real problem was that due to Di Maria's close interference, Martin Kelly's pass was a little light. Although the ball rolled into the penalty area, the speed was slow.
Before Martin Kelly passed the ball, Su Dong had already guessed his intention of passing.
There was no way out. The young player lacked some experience. After being forced to the sideline by Di Maria, he had no way to pass forward or sideways, so passing back was his natural choice.
Therefore, Martin Kelly's pass was more like an assist to Su Dong.
Reina's reaction was also incredibly quick. When he saw Su Dong making a forward advance and was obviously in an offside position, he screamed in his heart that something was wrong.
Why? With Su Dong's ability, he would never be so obviously offside.
There is only one explanation, he was waiting for Martin Kelly to pass the ball back.
It can even be said that Manchester City's pressing, especially Di Maria's pressing, was intended to force Martin Kelly to pass the ball back so that Su Dong could reap the benefits.
Reina decisively left the goal and headed towards Martin Kelly's pass.
But Su Dong was obviously faster and had longer legs. Before Reina arrived, he kicked the ball first and stopped the ball to the left with the inside of his right foot, just avoiding Reina's save.
Reina's reaction was indeed quick enough. He seemed to have guessed that Su Dong would intercept the ball first. He immediately opened his arms and expanded the defensive area, obviously guarding against Su Dong's direct kick.
After Su Dong stopped the ball with his right foot, he rushed in front of Reina. He suddenly stopped and lowered his left shoulder, as if he was going to create a gap to the left. His left foot also made a seemingly secret movement, as if he wanted to kick the ball, which immediately fooled Reina into reacting.
But Su Dong suddenly pushed the ball behind him with his left foot, and the ball rolled to the right from behind him. He also adjusted his center of gravity and leaned to the right, which immediately shocked Reina.
The previous move was indeed a fake, this guy just wanted to cut inside.
This time, after seeing Su Dong's right foot movement, Reina rushed forward without hesitation.
I will definitely not be fooled this time! Unexpectedly, Su Dong's right foot did not shoot the ball out, but dribbled it back again.
The whole process sounds long, but it actually happened in the blink of an eye. In an instant, Su Dong made continuous sudden stops and changes of direction, pulling the ball left and right, and finally created a gap on the left side. Behind him was an empty goal.
He no longer hesitated and shot with his left foot, and the ball flew straight into the goal!
(End of this chapter)
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