preface
In the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals, Villarreal took on Liverpool at home.
In the first leg, Villar liar lost 0-2 to Liverpool away from home, returning to the Ceramics Stadium, where Villarreal set out again to beat Liverpool at home and reach the Champions League final.
In the end, Liverpool won 3:2 away to Villarreal, advancing to the Champions League final with an aggregate score of 5:2.
Moreno's flank creates an offensive advantage with a big hit
In this game, Villarreal, who played at home, had two adjustments in the forward line compared to the first leg of Liverpool in the starting lineup, no. 15 Danjuma failed to start in this game, and No. 16 Dia came to this position of left forward.
At the same time, The No. 7 Herard Moreno also made a comeback and helped the team in an unconventional way during the game.
He will come to the flank against Liverpool's Robertson in attack, and play against Robertson with the physique of a center-forward, which is very stressful and difficult for a full-back to defend.
This, coupled with Lo Celso's aggressive running towards the centre and right-back No. 8 Voyth grabbing high on the defensive end, ensured that Villaral was able to continue to put pressure on Liverpool on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.
The wingless 442 is used as a starting formation to drive the flank attack with the advantage of the middle road
Villarreal boss Emery's starting line-up is an atypical 4-4-2, also known as a wingless 4-4-2.
Because the left and right wing attackers in the four midfielders are not typical wingers, but play with center-back players.
Cochrane on the left and Lo Celso on the right both have some middle-of-the-road attributes. They will consciously or unconsciously continue to control the ball in the middle of the game and give the wing defenders more opportunities to press assists.
Driving the attack on the flanks with the advantage of the middle was the tactical tone of emery's first half of this game.
In addition, The center-right No. 6 Capué also made two assists in the first half, and he was able to press the assists sharply under the cover of players such as Parejo and Cockran.
This also shows that Emery's wingless 4-4-2 can involve more players in the game to attack on the wing, making Liverpool left-back Robertson always in the transition between attack and defense.
4 Midfield mobility gradually depleted as the game progressed, and Liverpool seized the opportunity to continue to exert pressure
Entering the second half, Liverpool gradually found their form, and Villarreal's high-pressure defense was gradually broken by Liverpool's strong physical strength and high-tempo conversion.
Obviously, the left and right winged 442 forward players will produce a lot of physical exertion as the game time goes by, which will indirectly affect the overall defensive position.
In the same way as the plot of the last leg, in the 61st minute of the second half, Liverpool scored a goal by Fabinho, and then in the 66 minutes, there was another goal in place of Louis Díaz, and in just 5 minutes, Villarreal was completely lost in front of the powerful Liverpool team.
In the following games, Emery decisively replaced the wing attackers and the fresh blood of the front line to try to strengthen the attack, but if he could change the field early, he might be able to change the outcome of the game.
Reflections on Emery's adjustments in the second half
Switching from a wingless 442 to a winged 4-4-2, playing in a winged assault, is an idea, and another approach is to change the team's formation, abandoning the 4-4-2 formation, and then changing to a system of 3 centre-backs and 5 defenders.
Because the defensive width of the 4-back formation is very different from the system of the 5-guard.
4 Defenders need full-back players to rotate with full-back players to defend when defending positions, which is why Villarreal conceded two goals in the second half in 61-66 minutes.
If you switch to a 5-back, the 5-back system naturally has one more player in the middle and back positions, so that the defense of the wing will be more rigorous and the width will be more complete.