On October 1st, Liverpool traveled to the Gower Peninsula in Wales to face Swansea away from home.
As the first Welsh club to be promoted to the Premier League, Swansea's performance has been very stable since it came up from the English Championship in the 10-11 season.
Swansea was considered a breath of fresh air in the Premier League in the past few years because they are famous for their gorgeous passing and controlling football. They were jokingly called the La Liga team mixed in with the Premier League by English fans, and they were also jokingly called Barcelona in the Premier League.
In the past few years, the results have basically been hovering around 10th place. They belong to the kind of mid-range team that looks mediocre and has no stars, but is a tough nut to crack. If you are not careful, you will have your teeth broken.
.
However, this summer, Swansea was acquired by two American businessmen without the consent of the fans who owned shares, which caused turmoil in the club's top management and caused fans to riot, which directly affected the operation of the club.
It also indirectly led to Swansea's very sluggish state after the start of this season.
At present, they have achieved a total of four losses, one win and one draw in the six rounds of the league, ranking 17th in the league. It can be said that they are already halfway into the relegation zone.
Even so, Klopp was not careless. Except for Mo Yang, who was the main force, this was a rare opportunity to score points. If you miss it, you will be cursed.
Liverpool currently ranks first in the league with 16 points, followed by the Manchester duo of Manchester City and Manchester United, with only one point behind Liverpool.
Therefore, if Liverpool wants to win the first Premier League championship in team history, it must not give up any opportunity to score points.
There are no underdogs in the Premier League. It is difficult to know who the champion is until the last moment of the league. The competition is too fierce.
Klopp thought it wouldn't be too difficult to win this game.
But after the game started, Swansea's performance shocked Klopp.
Because within the first five minutes, Liverpool could hardly touch the ball and was actually walked away!
Klopp saw a bit of Manchester City's bald man in Swansea's pass-and-control style.
But after observing carefully for a while, Klopp's worried heart relaxed slightly, and finally there was a smile on his face.
Because although Swansea has an absolute advantage in ball possession, its offense is really stretched.
Under Liverpool's high-pressure pressure, sometimes the ball cannot be played smoothly from the backcourt, and they can only keep playing high balls, or else they can make passes from the wing.
Swansea's midfielder was unable to organize a threatening attack under Mo Yang's suppression.
But soon, Klopp stopped laughing!
In the 7th minute of the game, Swansea received a corner kick from the left.
Sigurdsson sent a kick directly to the front and back of the Liverpool goal.
Liverpool did not miss anyone this time. Swansea's No. 5 left center back Vanderhorn was double-marked by Milner and Firmino in the penalty area.
But even so, Vanderhorn still relied on his super physical confrontation ability and excellent prediction of the landing point to seize the position in advance, jump up, and directly hit the ball in front of the goal.
In front of the goal, Lovren is marking Swansea's Britton.
After the ball came over, Britton and Lovren, who was squeezed behind him, both stretched their legs to reach it.
But neither of them touched the ball, which shook Karius quite a bit.
The ball landed untouched, just before the goal line.
At this moment, Swansea midfielder Fell emerged from the crowd and shot the ball directly into the Liverpool goal.
On the sidelines, when Klopp saw the birth of this goal, he covered his face again. Liverpool's weakness in high-altitude balls was once again bloody exposed.
The Liverpool fans who accompanied the team in the stands were also very helpless. Liverpool's defensive problems have existed for many years.
They are almost used to it. Every game if the defensive players don't make some mistakes, they will feel a little strange.
After the goal, Swansea, with their home fans cheering them on, played more steadily and patiently. They firmly controlled the ball and looked for opportunities.
So the two sides played back and forth in the following time, but Liverpool's ball possession rate was only 41 and could not improve. This is very rare this season.
In the past, as long as Mo Yang was on the court, Liverpool's ball possession rate had never been lower than 50.
"I understand that Klopp wants to give the tired Yang more time to rest, but the team now needs Yang to step up and help the team win the game!"
In the commentary box, Bergin really didn't expect the game to turn out like this. He just hopes that Klopp will replace Mo Yang immediately.
Eight minutes into the game, Liverpool got an excellent chance to score.
Emre Can passed the ball diagonally from the side rib position to Coutinho on the left side of the arc.
But as soon as Coutinho received the ball, he was instantly surrounded by four Swansea defensive players, two at the front and behind.
But even in the face of this dilemma, Coutinho had flowers dancing at his feet and just didn't let the opponent get the ball.
Although the ball was not lost, Coutinho couldn't score and had to take it outside the penalty area.
At this time, Swansea's penalty area had been disrupted by him, which was an excellent passing opportunity.
Because the penalty area on the other side of Swansea was unknowingly empty, Salah had already found the gap.
But Coutinho once again made a surprising choice. He chose to take a kick from outside the penalty area.
Salah stood on the left side of the goal, waving his hands, looking incredible. He really didn't expect Coutinho not to pass the ball.
"God! This was a 100% chance to score, and Coutinho actually chose to take a direct long shot!"
"Coutinho wasted an excellent scoring opportunity!" In the commentary box, Berglin pulled his hair with his hands, widened his eyes, and had an incredible expression on his face.
In the end, Coutinho's very good shot was saved by Swansea goalkeeper Fabianski.
After wasting this excellent opportunity, Liverpool never got a better shooting opportunity until the end of the first half.
After the start of the second half, the Liverpool fans who were originally a little depressed suddenly saw the figure of the No. 8 jersey and immediately became excited.
Originally, Klopp planned to let Mo Yang rest in this game and also give other players some opportunities to play.
But looking at it now, Mo Yang couldn't do it anymore.
Coutinho cannot bear the heavy responsibility of organizing the team's offense, so he is not that material.
Mo Yang made a brilliant debut with Klopp's tactical arrangements, and the effect was immediate.
He has been observing Swansea for a full forty-five minutes. Even if Klopp does not give him a way to deal with Swansea's passing and controlling, he still has a way to break this team's false passing and controlling.
Then the situation in the second half changed drastically.
After Mo Yang came on the field, he repeatedly relied on his body and sharp personal skills to break through Swansea's midfield.
Then he frequently sent penetrating passes, allowing Coutinho and Salah to attack Swansea's defense.
In less than ten minutes, Mo Yang completely destroyed Swansea's midfield and completely controlled the rhythm of the game.
Countless people watching the game saw Mo Yang's terrifying dominance in the midfield.
Regarding Swansea's ball control, Klopp's arrangement is also very simple, which is to directly destroy the soul triangle position of passing and controlling.
So Mo Yang, who gained control of the midfield, began to link up with his teammates again. Through his running, he formed a linkage with Henderson and the others, and appeared in Swansea's three-legged passing route every time.
Swansea's passing control was instantly broken, causing Liverpool's ball possession rate to soar to 61% in the second half.
With a huge advantage, Liverpool's goal came naturally.
The game lasted 6 minutes.
Liverpool gets a free kick from about 5 meters away.
Milner took the penalty, and his kick was powerful and heavy, but it hit the wall and bounced to Mo Yang on the right side of the arc.
Just when all the Swansea players thought that Mo Yang would choose to stop the ball, Mo Yang suddenly raised his right foot and the ball flew into the Swansea penalty area from the air.
Swansea's defense missed someone, Firmino moved forward and the ball came to him, there was no offside at all!
It can be said that Mo Yang's pass was accurate to a millimeter. It was right in front of Firmino's forehead. He only had to stretch his head.
Faced with such an excellent opportunity, how could Firmino, who was a forward, miss it and head the ball directly to the right side of the goal.
Moreover, Firmino was smart enough to hit the ball, which instantly interfered with Fabianski's judgment.
After watching the ball roll into the goal, Liverpool's coaches and players collectively fell into a crazy celebration.
After the score was equalized, Swansea was completely frightened by Mo Yang. The head coach made timely adjustments and then collectively recovered the half-time defensive counterattack.
But even so, Mo Yang was still able to constantly find loopholes in Swansea's defense and frequently sent threatening balls, but unfortunately he failed to score in the end.
Until the 86th minute of the game, Mo Yang once again stuffed the ball from Swansea's left rib position to Firmino's feet in the penalty area.
Firmino turned to take a kick, but was pushed by Swansea center back Amat.
The referee immediately awarded Liverpool a penalty kick!
Milner took the penalty and scored again. Liverpool reversed the score near the end and won the game, taking away three points from the Liberty Stadium.
Mo Yang took away the ball in this game. This was his third MVP after coming to Liverpool. (To be continued)