Zhang Tiehan did not respond to Mourinho's statement because he also felt that what Mourinho said was very reasonable. He did not perform very well in the league and had no strength no matter what he said. He needed better performance and he wanted to prove his words with facts.

He was holding back his energy to prepare for the game.

He wants to ask Mourinho and Chelsea for a while in the game.

This time, Zhang Tiehan had no preparations. He didn't prepare anything in a white T-shirt, nor did he prepare any special celebration after scoring the goal. He didn't need those things. He needed to be performance, goals, and victory with the team. These were the most powerful.

Liverpool beat Chelsea and I led the team to victory with a goal. No matter what you say, it is useless. Next time, do you refute me again? I will do this!

No one will question me then. If you question me, others will regard you as a joke.

That's what Zhang Tiehan thought.

...

In fact, for Liverpool and Benitez, whether to send all the main lineups in this game is a question.

Benitez's coaching philosophy is not "do your best when you meet a strong team, and substitute when you meet a weak team." He has his own coaching philosophy. This philosophy is to try to make the team achieve the best results. For example, in the league, a season is long, and there is no need to deal with all your energy in every game. Sometimes when you encounter a weak team, you can send all your strength and strive to get all three points. When you meet a strong team, you can temporarily avoid the edge, so that the team can get the most points at the end of the season.

The same is true in the Champions League.

The three opponents in the group stage, six home and away games, are not something that they have to fight for in every game. As long as they defeat the weak team, the team will almost certainly qualify. But this is also Benitez. Or Liverpool's helpless choice. Their strength is worse than Manchester United, Chelsea, and even Arsenal. If they don't do this, they will not be able to achieve the best results.

In this game, the match against Chelsea is only the first leg of the league between the two teams. Three days after the game, the first round of the Champions League group stage will start. Liverpool's opponent is Real Betis, and it is a away game. That game must be won. Compared with the two games, the battle with Chelsea is less important.

So before the game, Benitez considered using a half-substitute lineup.

But in the end he decided to send all the main forces!

On the one hand, the whole of England is discussing the match between Liverpool and Chelsea, even if there is an impact of other games. But if the main lineup is sent in the first half, the responsibility for losing the game will obviously be on him. After the game, the media will say 'Liverpool admits defeat in advance', which will be a great pressure and will also be a big blow to the team's morale. He, the coach, will lose his prestige in front of the players, which is something that cannot be done.

Most importantly, Liverpool will definitely play Chelsea at least four times this season!

This is the first time.

If you can't win Chelsea at Anfield this time, then the team will be psychologically weaker in the next few matches. Chelsea is the opposite, which will affect future games with Chelsea, so Benitez still decided to try his best to win.

At least...can't lose!

He has decided to fight Chelsea to the death at Anfield Stadium, even if it affects the next European game, it doesn't matter.

...

Zhang Tiehan is not unfamiliar with Chelsea. Although he did not join Chelsea, he still played against Chelsea a year and a half ago when he was at Wigan Athletics. Terry was the player that impressed him, but standing in the player channel and looking at the Chelsea players, Zhang Tiehan still felt very unfamiliar.

Very strange.

Chelsea's lineup has changed too many players. Except for a few familiar faces such as Lampard and Terry, Zhang Tiehan feels very unfamiliar with others, but these unknown players are not unfamiliar with their appearance. After all, they often appear on TV and reports, so Zhang Tiehan can still call out their names.

At the same time, many Chelsea players also looked at Zhang Tiehan.

Many Chelsea players are interested in Zhang Tiehan. They all want to see this guy who dares to challenge Mourinho... They admire him very much. This is from the bottom of their hearts. At least at Chelsea, no player dares to challenge Mourinho. Mourinho is a very majestic coach. Often he is just talking about it. Even if it is wrong, no player dares to refute what he says.

In European football, there are few players from other teams who challenge Mourinho, mainly because no one wants to offend a world-class coach with excellent abilities. What if... just what if they may play under Mourinho in the future?

So no one will do that.

Zhang Tiehan did it, and Chelsea players still admired it very much. Among them, Terry and Lampard knew Zhang Tiehan, but they were actually not familiar with Zhang Tiehan. After all, they had no private friendship. They were also surprised by Zhang Tiehan doing this and thought he had a very personality.

In addition to being surprised by Zhang Tiehan's approach, Chelsea players were also looking at their main opponents in advance.

Although Zhang Tiehan performed poorly in the league, Mourinho's defense arrangements were not relaxed at all. He emphasized the need to defend Zhang Tiehan because the Portuguese knew very well that although Zhang Tiehan performed in the league, if the defense was slack, it would be no surprise that he scored three goals in the first half.

This is the ability of a world-class striker.

Mourinho attaches importance to Zhang Tiehan, so naturally Chelsea players will also pay attention to it, especially the captain Terry told them about the last time, a year and a half ago, when he met Zhang Tiehan. That was a bad memory for Terry. Until now, he still remembers the powerlessness he was defending Zhang Tiehan in the game against Wigan.

He talked to his teammates, so everyone wanted to see this dangerous person.

As expected, he is as tall and strong as in the report... Even if the game has not started yet, just based on momentum and some other information, Chelsea players also know that Zhang Tiehan is definitely the opponent he must pay the most attention to.

Finally, it was the playing time for both teams to play.

In the broadcast of the stands on the west side of Anfield Stadium, Liverpool players entering the field were constantly introduced, and Liverpool fans also shouted loudly with these names, and the shouts filled the entire stadium with great momentum.

That will shock the opponent's players, and their own players will be even more excited by the shouts.

This is the home court advantage.

"Below is - Steven -" Gerald's name was heard on the radio. The commentator even lengthened the tone.

The fans in Anfield stands immediately shouted, "Gerard--"

Almost every Liverpool fan was calling Gerald's name, which made the atmosphere reach **. After introducing Gerald, it was Zhang Tiehan behind him. Many fans also shouted "Zhang", but it was still much worse than Gerald's previous call.

Zhang Tiehan was not excited when he heard this cry.

If Zhang Tiehan had just entered the professional league, there were so many home fans calling their names, Zhang Tiehan would definitely be quite excited, but now it is different. He is already a star and transfers to Liverpool at a heavyweight of 29 million pounds, so his mentality will naturally be different.

When the shouts of his name came to his ears, Zhang Tiehan knew one thing--he has not completely conquered Liverpool fans with his performance.

Their cheers may be more because of their own value and being a member of Liverpool. They were the Serie A and Champions League scorer in last season, not because of their performance, not because of their ability, not because of their likes, etc.

Anyway, his path to conquering Liverpool fans has just begun.

...

The competition officially began soon.

At the first minute of the beginning, Chelsea launched a fierce offensive against Liverpool, and Liverpool quickly entered the game and also had a head-on fight with Chelsea.

The two teams had no tests at all.

They are already very familiar with each other. Although this is the first match of the season, both teams have not changed much in the summer, so the team's style will naturally not change much. So the two teams started to use offense to gain the initiative at the beginning.

Zhang Tiehan has been in the middle of the formation. He did not press too far and was not far behind. He was always in front of Gerald, participating in defense and attacking. The most important thing was to compete with Chelsea in the midfield, which is a very important step in any game.

Chelsea midfielders include Marklele and Lampard. They have some advantages in fighting, compared with the combination of Gerald and Alonso. This advantage comes from the comparison between Marklele and Alonso - Marklele is better at fighting, while Alonso is better at attacking.

But Zhang Tiehan's joining is different.

Liverpool has a 451 formation. To be honest, it should be 4411. Zhang Tiehan retreated and was the same as the midfielder. His ability to grab the ball was still very strong. At first, Chelsea didn't care. Zhang Tiehan retreated to the midfield. Instead, they thought that Zhang Tiehan was not a big threat to the goal. This is a good thing. After all, Zhang Tiehan is a striker, not a midfielder. But when Zhang Tiehan snatched the ball from Lampard twice in a row, they also knew that the team must pay attention to it.

Because of Zhang Tiehan's participation, Chelsea failed to play an advantage in the midfield.

This is surprising.

Many people are looking forward to Zhang Tiehan's performance on the front line, but they didn't expect that the first performance was in the midfield position. Mourinho was also a little puzzled on the coach's bench. He was not confused by Zhang Tiehan's stealing ability. He was a big guy like Zhang Tiehan, who was fast, had good physical fitness, and had a very advantageous body, and had a very strong fighting ability.

He was puzzled by Zhang Tiehan's position.

Zhang Tiehan has already pulled back to only a little ahead of Gerald. Is this a tactic or his own approach?

Mourinho looked at the Liverpool coaching seat, where Benitez was sitting calmly with his legs crossed, and he was still chewing gum in his mouth. He seemed to be completely unwilling to care about the game, but his eyes never left the court.

When Mourinho looked over, Benitez also looked back consciously. The two of them had a confrontation, and then they both laughed, not knowing what they were laughing at.
Chapter completed!