Football: The strongest post-zero generation.

Chapter 254: Master Level and Great Loss of Level

Mourinho sees Pogba's poor performance, but he can't replace Pogba now because there is no player in the team who can replace Pogba's role.

As one of the French internationals and the most creative midfielders, Pogba still has a lot to offer, but his outstanding performance is based on a good personal mood.

Perhaps due to his poor performance in the first half, he was not excited enough in the second half, making it difficult for him to perform at his best.

During the halftime break, Mourinho deliberately put aside his prejudices and encouraged Pogba alone, hoping that he could take on greater responsibilities and lead Manchester United to equalize or even overtake.

Judging from the first five minutes of the second half, Pogba's performance was still stagnant.

However, Lingard, who came on as a substitute, performed well. His long-range shot had already forced Mignolet to make a wonderful save, so much so that there was a cry of exclamation in the sky above Anfield.

In addition to Pogba's sluggish performance, Martial and the team's top scorer Lukaku did not perform as expected before the game.

Mourinho is wondering whether he should make adjustments to these two positions as soon as possible?
Rashford can replace Lukaku, and Ashley Young can replace Martial. What makes Mourinho hesitate is that it is still relatively early. If the three substitution adjustments are used up early, the next game will definitely be Will be very passive.

Liverpool has not made any substitution adjustments yet, obviously trying to cope with changes by staying the same.

Five more minutes passed in the second half, and at the 55th minute, Pogba's long pass in the midfield was not passed well, and it was picked up by Mignolet. Liverpool switched from defense to offense, and Matic was defensive. Li Qing received a yellow card, and Herrera's attention turned to Li Qing. Pogba, Phil Jones and Smallin also consciously approached Li Qing.

Li Qing did not raise his hand to ask for the ball. Mignolet threw the ball to Mane, who handed it to Firmino at the transfer station.

It was only then that the Manchester United defensive players realized that Liverpool's attack was not organized by Li Qing, but by Firmino.

After receiving the ball, Firmino smashed the ball 180 degrees on the spot, turned around to avoid Pogba's attack, and then passed the ball to Salah, who was running in at high speed from the right.

Liverpool's attack did not go through Li Qing this time, but it was no less threatening than Li Qing's participation. Salah took the ball on the right side of the attack and broke through to the penalty area. His shot from the inside of his left foot into the far corner was quite threatening.

The football drew a wonderful arc in mid-air, and Manchester United head coach Mourinho's heart was in his throat. Fortunately, goalkeeper De Gea stepped forward. His flying side dive knocked the ball out of the baseline, giving Liverpool only a corner kick.

"wowoowowoooo——"

There was a burst of exclamation in the sky above Anfield.

If De Gea had reacted just half a beat slower, Salah's shot would have helped Liverpool expand the score to three goals.

Mourinho, still frightened, ran to the sidelines and pulled left back Damian to explain.

Henderson's corner kick failed to find his teammate and was pushed out by Smalling. Moreno, who was guarding the edge of the penalty area, fired a direct volley without stopping the ball.

Affected by his personal technical ability, his volley directly fired the anti-aircraft cannon, which was equivalent to helping Manchester United complete the rescue.

Salah's counterattack with the ball posed a great threat to Manchester United, and Manchester United's next defense became a zone defense.

In the 63rd minute, Liverpool and Manchester United made substitution adjustments at the same time. Manchester United replaced Martial with Rashford, and Liverpool replaced Mane with Emre Can. Emre Can appeared in the midfield, Li Qing moved to the familiar right wing, and Salah, who was in good form in this game, moved to the left wing.

Mourinho frowned, realizing that the team's next defense would definitely have problems. Li Qing came to the familiar right wing, which meant that he could break through unscrupulously.

But then again, our team is now two goals behind. If we don't strengthen our offense, we can only wait for death.

Time passed by second by second, which also meant that Manchester United had less and less time to equalize the score, so they could only pin their hopes on their own side to score first.

Rashford is obviously in better condition than Martial, but Rashford does not have Martial's skillful foot skills, but the closest Manchester United shot to scoring came from Rashford!

In the 67th minute, Rashford's goal from the left suddenly accelerated. Arnold failed to follow up, allowing Rashford to enter the penalty area close to the baseline. The penalty area suddenly became noisy.

After attracting enough defensive attention, he passed an inverted triangle pass. Lukaku used his body to get stuck in position to complete a shot, but Van Dyke fell to the ground and blocked it in time, blocking the football back.

Coincidentally, the rebounding football actually rolled forward to Pogba at the top of the penalty area. In front of him, there was no defensive player. Even goalkeeper Mignolet subconsciously fell to the ground to block Lukaku's shot. Blocked, which means that Liverpool's goal is now unguarded.

Pogba stepped forward with his left foot, stood in the penalty area, and quickly followed up with the football with his right foot.

I don’t know if it was affected by Wijnaldum who fell to the ground and tackled, but Pogba’s shot from the penalty area line accidentally fired the anti-aircraft cannon...

"Goooo..."

Sky TV's Andy Gray was about to cheer for Pogba's goal, but instead he flew to the second-tier fan stand in the KOP stand, causing the home team fans to burst into laughter: "hahahhahaaaa——"

Pogba, who missed the great opportunity, neither held his head in regret nor half-knelt on the grass. Instead, he lowered his head and looked at the shooting spot seriously, stepped on his right foot twice, frowned and shook his head repeatedly, giving people a look. The kind of shot that put an anti-aircraft gun on was the turf's fault.

Anyone who has played football has experienced similar behaviors. When someone fires off an anti-aircraft cannon or kicks an outrageous shot, they often feel not regret, but frowning at the trouble of finding a place to shoot.

How could Mourinho not see that Pogba was in poor condition?
Does it have anything to do with grass?
But he couldn't express his dissatisfaction with Pogba in front of fans all over the world, so he just pursed his lips and kept shaking his head.

"Paul Pogba really missed the mark with this goal."

Sky TV commentator Martin Taylor shook his head and said: "But I give him a 100% rating for his expression. He obviously didn't control his footwork well but it seemed to be a problem at Anfield.

Lukaku, Rashford, Matic and others were all very depressed. They did everything they could, but Pogba, the simplest one, made a mistake...

The Manchester United fans in the audience held their heads in their hands in depression and could not recover for a while.

They really didn't expect that Pogba would directly fire anti-aircraft guns at that location...

Pogba, who has a master's level, kicked the ball away when facing an almost empty goal, which suddenly turned into a huge failure!

(End of this chapter)