The award has to go to Rafa Benitez for his halftime adjustments. In the first half he wanted his fullbacks to get forward and overload the Milan fullbacks. It worked, but when the crosses flew in, there was no one there to attack them. How many times did a leaping Baros, marked by Stam or Nesta, watch a ball fly over his head?
And while this approach worked on the attacking end, it was a completely disaster defensively! Liverpool was concentrating on the wings while Milan was shredding them up the middle. Seedorf, Pirlo and most especially Kaka had the run of the field and were able to send dangerous balls through to Crespo and Shevchenko. If those two would have stayed onsides more often the score could have been 6-0 at half time.
In the second half, Benitez sacrificed Finnan on the right to bring in Hamman in the middle of the pitch. This switch closed up the space that Milan's midfielders were exploiting and allowed Gerrard to move forward and concentrate on attacking. Gerrard scored one and created one, and Hamman created the other with a quick pass to Scmicer.
While Benitez was decisive, Ancelotti didn't change his tactics until too late. Only when he brought on Sergihno (sp?) and started attacking Liverpool's flank did Milan look like getting back into the game. But big saves from Dudek and tired legs forced PKs. Which much to my surprise, Liv won. Credit Dudek's "crazy legs" and his new habit of coming out 3 steps to deny the kick. A tactic I like to call "the Brianna Scurry".
Now, will the CL trophy stay in Liverpool next year? Only if David Moyes is as good a manager as Rafa Benitez.
-Jeremy
No comments:
Post a Comment