"Fighting the center back?"

Mascherano thought he had heard it wrong, and Benitez actually asked him to play as a central defender. He had never played in this position, except that he was temporarily arranged to be in this position when he was trying out for the youth team of a domestic club in Argentina.

"Boss,"

"Can I do it?"

"Are you really sure?"

Mascherano is really not sure about this kind of cramming behavior, he is unsure of this kind of behavior. It is mainly because as a central defender, he must be responsible for the entire defense of the team. He is just a recruit. Although he has been a professional player for many years, if he loses the ball, can he bear that responsibility? He doesn't even have the opportunity to practice together.

Benitez's idea is too immature, unlike a head coach's mature approach.

"Javier, you can."

Wu Sanshi also encouraged him.

"A good midfielder is born to be an excellent central defender, but this sentence may not be the opposite. So you can play boldly."

"The team needs you!"

Brother Ma pondered Wu Sanshi's words, "Is that true?"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, have you heard of Mattus? It's the one who guarded Maradona in the World Cup without temper."

A black line flashed across Brother Ma's face. "Man, how can I not know Mattus? You don't need to say specifically about Maradona. Maradona is the best player in the world. What he can't defend against is just a random media writing."

In his heart, Maradona is a god, and Mattus is nothing.

However... Mattus did play well. Mattus played the midfielder and scavenger when he was at Bayern Munich, and he was indeed world-class in both positions.

"All right,"

"I can't do what he can do?"

"right,"

"You can definitely do it."

...

...

※※※※

The kops came to Anfield early, and still pulled up banners as usual and sang team songs. Many Blackburn fans passed by and talked a lot.

“We have the potential to win here,”

"In terms of Liverpool's current lineup, we can play more proactively here."

"Whether it's their defense or offense, forwards, midfielders and defenders, the entire central axis is over."

"Let's see, we can score, it's definitely a day full of expectations."

...

...

"What?"

"These damn guys,"

"What do you think Anfield is? Still want to win here? Where do they think they are coming?"

"The second team in the Premier League is despised by them like this? Did they take the wrong medicine?"

KOPs are really unhappy to listen to these comments. Liverpool’s recent situation is not good, but Liverpool’s record is very awesome. Isn’t there just a few people missing? Why are people feeling that they can’t do it?

At the scene, Anfield Stadium was still very popular, and the whole game was full. Blackburn's starting lineup was read on the spot. Liverpool fans immediately booed. In fact, they had never cared about Blackburn's starting lineup and sent players to the court, because they had no stars and no truly awesome players, they were just habitually booed them.

After reading about Liverpool's starting lineup, Liverpool fans didn't feel anything. After several generals were injured, everyone guessed how Benitez would choose the starting player. However, when the players stood on the court, the kops were stunned.

"What?"

"Use Mascherano to play center back?"

"Is this guy reliable?"

"Just his height?"

"1.74? The same height as stone, oh ~"

The kops couldn't imagine this arrangement, "Did Benitez not wake up? Is this really going to give Blackburn points?"

"Any offensive player can crush him with a header. This arrangement is really stupid."

This is true for fans and so is the commentator.

Even Hansen couldn't help but scold him.

"Damn it, what's the operation? Is Benitez going to push himself and Liverpool into the fire pit now? This is the shortest central defender I've ever seen..."

Hansen is not optimistic about Benitez's operation. "His head must have been pinched by the goal this morning, and Liverpool will definitely concede the goal in the first half today."

BBC's Reinker almost fell down his eyes.

"Rafa is crazy,"

"Absolutely crazy, otherwise he wouldn't do that, and no head coach would do that."

"I can't explain why he was like this, I can't think of any reason."

The Blackburn coach was naturally the happiest. He immediately made tactical adjustments on the sidelines. With the weakness of Mascherano, can he not catch it?

...

...

Amid the full doubts, the Liverpool vs. Blackburn game officially started, and Mascherano appeared in his unfamiliar position for the first time.

Blackburn took the lead in kicking off and immediately wanted to play on this side of Mascherano, but Mascherano was not dragging the back of the central defender. He was still before Carragher, so although Mascherano was not tall, he had a position, which was not as simple as everyone imagined.

Blackburn got a corner kick in the first minute, and former Liverpool player Diouf took the penalty. The ball hit Ag at the front point and came to the middle. Samba headed the ball from a close distance weak and Renner confiscated the ball.

Mascherano got the ball! As a central defender, he will definitely have more opportunities to get the ball in the backcourt. Although Diouf came up to press, Mascherano calmly cooperated with Agri in a wall-to-wall style. The forward's pressing was not under any pressure for him.

The continuous wall hitting him suddenly felt that appearing in the central defender position is actually a good choice, at least very calm, unlike in the midfield and frontcourt, where the ball may be intercepted by the opponent at any time.

He simply organized the offense in the backcourt, and his teammates habitually passed the ball to his feet. He kept swimming in the central defender and midfielder, playing with ease. Blackburn pressed up and forced it very hard. However, Liverpool's midfield and backcourt kept the ball firmly under his feet because of Mascherano's existence.

However, Suarez and Takeshi Sashi had much less chance of getting the ball in front. They didn't touch the ball five minutes before the game.

“Huh,”

"This style of play looks good."

“It’s quite stable,”

"It seems that it's useless?"

Liverpool's defense is doing well. Although Blackburn is making a big save, there is no chance. They are consuming the enthusiasm of Blackburn players.

It was not until the 7th minute that Liverpool made a quality attack. Lucas made a curve ball to find Wu Sanshi. Wu Sanshi passed Givette and continued to move forward, and was finally pulled down by Enzochi.

But the set piece sent by Mascherano was not threatening. The pace of both sides did not accelerate, but instead fell into a rhythm that was difficult to figure out, or in other words, hadn't you seen a game where Liverpool played so patiently?

In the 12th minute, Blackburn found another opportunity. Agur sent out the opponent's cross and Kalinic headed the ball back. Peterson's long shot from the left was held down by Reiner. One minute later, Benadon received Lucas' pass and headed the ball to Suarez. Suarez took the lead and shot with his left foot, but the ball went to the stands out.

Blackburn almost scored in the 15th minute, Lucas was intercepted by Peterson in the backcourt, Blackburn made 2-for-2 in the frontcourt, Kalinic got the ball into the penalty area, and one shot and one shot slightly missed the far post. One minute later, Suarez dribbled the ball near the center circle and passed Samba and Salgado. Salgado immediately tackled Suarez, but was warned by the referee Weley.

Suarez passed the ball back to Benadon, who passed the ball to Mascherano who was behind.

Suddenly, Mascherano made a long pass in the backcourt!

Wu Sanshi rushed up between Salgado and Samba! Salgado couldn't react so much that he couldn't even hold Wu Sanshi's jersey and successfully counterattacked!

It was so unexpected that Mascherano would give such a coquettish pass in the backcourt!

Although Samba was very fast and could not fill the position in a flash, Wu Sanshi directly shot the ball with his left foot, not giving Samba a chance to touch him.

Dong--

The ball hit the upper left corner of the goal like a shell!
Chapter completed!