Chapter 382: Fallen into the trap!

FA Cup final, Wembley Stadium.

Dalglish sat in the coaching booth feeling very uncomfortable, his chin supported by his hands, staring at the court with a frown.

Fell into a trap

Assistant coach Steve Clarke was already restless and stood on the sidelines, occasionally shouting a few words to remind the players to pay attention.

This is a very experienced assistant coach who even has the ability to take charge of his own affairs.

Liverpool saw that Dalglish had not coached for many years and was somewhat out of touch with modern football, so they invited Mourinho's former assistant to Liverpool to assist Dalglish.

Therefore, this assistant coach has considerable prestige within the team.

But even so, it still cannot change Liverpool's disadvantage on the field.

Southampton launched a fierce attack on Liverpool almost from the beginning of the game, repeatedly attacking the Red Army's midfield and defense.

In this game, Liverpool also made big problems in their lineup.

The goalkeeper is Reina, and the defense is Jose Enrique, Skrtel, Agger and Glen Johnson.

The midfield consists of Gerrard, Spearing and Henderson, while the frontcourt consists of Downing, Suarez and Bellamy.

The reason why Dalglish and Clark arranged such a lineup was more because they wanted to control the initiative in the game.

But what they didn't expect was that Southampton would press forward aggressively from the very beginning.

The goalkeeper is Neuer, the defense is David and Raba, Javi Martinez, Gary Cahill and Carvajal, the midfield is Strootman, Matic and Vidal, and the front trident is Neymar, Drogba and Sturridge.

Toni Kroos didn't play

This completely disrupted Dalglish's pre-match arrangements.

In the two targeted training sessions yesterday, Liverpool focused on how to encircle Toni Kroos and suppress Southampton's midfield.

But yesterday evening, at a press conference at Southampton, Bielsa announced that Toni Kroos would miss the game due to injury.

This disrupted Liverpool's deployment.

Today, in the last pre-match training session, Liverpool was unable to conduct tactical drills due to confidentiality.

All Dalglish and Clark can do is remind the players to be as careful as possible.

How does the saying go?

The competition is the result of training. If the training is not good enough, it will be difficult to play well in the competition.

Given Southampton's strength, even if Liverpool has a tactical match, they may not be able to defeat them.

Not to mention that the current tactics are totally wrong.

The simplest point is that Southampton kept attacking Spearing, and Vidal and Strootman both pressed forward boldly.

Liverpool had no choice but to send Gerrard and Henderson back.

This leads to passivity across the board.

Steve Clark, standing in the coaching area, looked at the time, then looked at the situation, and sighed helplessly.

"Kenny, we have to adjust"

Dalglish still looked straight ahead and asked indifferently, "Substitution?"

Clark was speechless.

Changing players after just ten minutes?

In professional leagues, unless there is a major injury, the head coach will not make substitutions in the first half.

Even substitutions during midfield are relatively rare.

Firstly, this is an admission that the team's starting tactics have failed, which will undermine the team's morale and the players' fighting spirit.

Secondly, the players who were substituted would definitely feel unhappy, because they would feel that the head coach was using them as scapegoats.

If the substitution really happened now, the players would definitely be furious, and the fans in the stands would definitely be unhappy.

"But the situation is very bad now," Clark said worriedly.

"Southampton's midfield pushed forward and used Spearing as defensive midfielder, but it didn't work and exposed their weaknesses. Gerrard and Henderson retreated, and the three players in the frontcourt didn't invest much in defense. Our defensive pressure was too great."

How could Dalglish not know?

However, Liverpool does not have a trustworthy defensive midfielder at all.

Since Mascherano moved to Barcelona and Meireles moved to Chelsea, although Liverpool has trained Lucas, the Brazilian midfielder has suffered frequent injuries and will miss this game due to injury.

He is now in a difficult situation.

Under the alternating attacks of Vidal and Stroman, Spiering made frequent mistakes after the start and became very nervous.

Henderson basically played a supporting role, without any decent passes or performance.

The only one who was relatively standard was Gerrard.

The Red Army captain is hardworking and has good skills and awareness, but the key is that he is old and no longer as brave as he used to be.

"Let's take a gamble, maybe there's a chance to fight back" was all Dalglish could say.

It's true, after two or three minutes, Southampton's attack seemed to slacken a little, and Liverpool seized the opportunity and launched a counterattack.

Henderson, who had no performance in the entire first half, actually made a long diagonal pass.

Bellamy quickly ran along the right side, chasing the ball.

This move immediately aroused the enthusiasm of the Red Army fans in the stands of Wembley Stadium.

For a moment, the entire Wembley Stadium was filled with the cheers of the Red Army fans.

Bellamy finally caught up with the ball on the right side of Southampton's penalty area.

I stopped and looked up, only to see a figure flash before my eyes.

David He Rabah is back

This guy is really fast

Bellamy had forgotten that he was actually going to be thirty-three years old soon.

The Welshman was seen dribbling the ball skillfully, and suddenly he made a fake move, trying to get rid of David and Raba.

Suarez and Downing have come up in the middle, and Gerrard and Henderson have also rushed into the 30-meter area.

As long as we get rid of David and Raba, we will have a lot of opportunities, and we may even be able to create a threat.

But at the moment when Bellamy got rid of David and Raba, Javi Martinez, who had been defending behind David and Raba, suddenly stepped forward and poked Bellamy's ball out.

The Spanish defense was very decisive and calm this time.

After the ball was poked away, it fell behind Bellamy. David and Raba quickly chased after it and kicked it forward before the Liverpool players could.

The ball was cleared not far away and landed in Southampton's half, near the top of the center circle.

Drogba blocked Agger with his body, headed the ball forward towards the landing point of the ball.

The ball was knocked back to Stroman.

The Dutchman faced the direction of attack, raised his head, looked at Neymar on the left, then looked at Sturridge on the right, and knew what was going on. As soon as the ball arrived, he stopped and rubbed it.

The ball drew a low, flat and fast arc, just passed over the head of Liverpool left back Jose Enrique, and fell behind the defense line.

Sturridge was like a cheetah ready to pounce, having been eyeing its prey for a long time. As soon as the ball came, he started quickly like a flash of lightning, sprinting forward and leaving Jose Enrique behind in an instant.

At this moment, the whole audience cheered and became Southampton fans.

All the Saints fans are cheering Sturridge's name, cheering for the young English player.

After Sturridge got rid of Jose Enrique, there was no defensive player in front of him.

Liverpool's other central defender Skrtel was still a bit far away, and even if he ran over to defend, Sturridge could already rush into the penalty area.

It can be said that at this time Sturridge's opponent is no longer someone else, but himself.

Stop the ball, carry the ball, and make a good single shot

Sturridge sprinted very quickly, but he also kept his eye on the ball.

In order to avoid being caught up by Jose Enrique, he did not turn around to stop the ball because that would be slow.

He faced the ball directly and kicked it lightly.

When he felt the instep of his foot touch the ball, he knew he had caught it.

The ball bounced back, the body chased after it, and the chest pushed the ball forward.

Although Jose Enrique caught up, Sturridge blocked him with his body.

The Spanish left-back stretched out his hand, trying to pull Sturridge from behind.

But the Englishman just staggered but did not fall to the ground. Instead, he started accelerating again.

With a move towards the ball, both the player and the ball entered the penalty area.

Skrtel came over and Jose Enrique was right behind him, but Sturridge didn't even look at them.

He just looked at Reina in front of the goal.

This is his only opponent now.

Reina didn't dare to attack, his eyes were fixed on Sturridge, constantly making judgments.

The angle is too big, where will he hit?

Left? Right? Far corner? Near corner?

Reina was a little confused. He had no idea what Sturridge would choose. He could only watch his movements and react instinctively.

Far Corner

The Spanish goalkeeper dives to the far corner

But Sturridge hit the ball into the near corner with his left foot

The ball almost brushed the right post and went into the lower right corner of the goal.

The entire Wembley Stadium was boiling with excitement.

In the stands, all the Southampton fans rushed out of their seats, waving their arms and shouting Sturridge's name.

"In the 13th minute, Southampton finally broke through Liverpool's goal"

"The first goal for the Saints was scored by the English youngster Daniel Turic"

"The Saints striker has performed well this season and has played for the team many times. He has scored 13 goals so far, including goals in the Europa League, FA Cup, League Cup and Championship."

Sturridge excitedly rushed to the sidelines and performed his unique dance celebration towards the Saints fans in the stands.

Behind him, Southampton players rushed up one after another and knocked Sturridge to the ground.

“It’s wonderful”

"Southampton played very resolutely after the opening, using a tidal wave of attack to completely suppress Liverpool"

"The Reds seem very passive and are now one goal behind. This game will become very difficult for them."

"This is Liverpool's manager, Kenny Dalglish, he should start thinking about it"

When Southampton players finished celebrating on the sidelines and walked into the stadium, head coach Bielsa was shouting loudly and waving at the players.

Anyone familiar with Southampton must know that Bielsa's action is telling the players.

Don't relax, it's just one goal, keep attacking, press forward, attack like crazy

When you meet a team like Liverpool, you have to be ruthless.

Seize a weak spot, attack hard and strive to score more goals.

Once you relax, you will have no chance until this tenacious team adjusts and stabilizes the situation.

During the Istanbul Miracle, AC Milan was leading by three goals. However, in the second half, the team adjusted themselves and scored three goals. In the end, they defeated AC Milan on a penalty shootout and won the Champions League.

It can be seen from this that if we don't take advantage of the situation and attack Liverpool in one go, and beat them to death or injure them, they will still counterattack sooner or later.

Therefore, after the restart, Liverpool took the lead in sounding the clarion call for a counterattack.

But Southampton, who were leading by one goal, showed no fear at all and launched a head-on offensive battle with Liverpool.

In the football field, there are many exciting scenes with offensive and defensive battles.

In the stands and in front of the TV, the fans were also cheering with excitement.

It depends on who has the better skills.