In fact, Liverpool is not fighting on two sides, but on three sides. Because they still have the League Cup to play.

The English League Cup tournament started in early August, but Premier League teams will not start joining until the third round. It is already late September.[]

Since there are many games in England, it is almost impossible not to rotate, otherwise few people from the giant teams could hold on.

The Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and Europa League, England's giant teams have to participate in these events. If they are lucky and win all the way, they will have to play 70 games in a season. Almost every week, there are double games a week, and the players are not iron-kicked. So if they do not change, the players will exhaust their physical fitness early, start to have frequent injuries, and eventually collapse.

Rotation in England is a compulsory course for all giant teams.

Liverpool had only domestic competitions last season, so they did not rotate much, but even in the second half of the league, the players frequently suffered injuries, which made Daglish very troublesome.

Now to prevent this from happening, Martin O'Neal started rotation early.

The media are right, Liverpool is not very adaptable to this rotation. However, if you rotate early, you will adapt early, and if you rotate late, you will adapt late. If you adapt less, the result will be worse.

Anyway, Liverpool had an amazing five-game winning streak and had accumulated enough "tuition capital". Liverpool can adapt to rotation as much as possible. Even if they lose a few more games, the team's performance will not be too ugly.

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On September 22, in the seventh round of the league, Liverpool welcomed Swansea at home.

In this game, Liverpool continued to rotate, combining the last game of Big Fulham and the two lineups that played in the Europa League.

Chen Yingxiong and Klashnich partnered, Sanchez was replaced by Adam Johnson, while the left side was given to Bellamy. Gerald and Inler continued to partner in the midfield, while the center backs were Scotter and Carragher, left back Glen Johnson, right back Enrique, goalkeeper Renner.

This lineup allowed Liverpool to beat Swansea 1-0 at home.

Because it is a brand new starting lineup, Liverpool players are still not very adaptable.

But having Chen Yingxiong is enough.

He scored the only goal in the game with a free kick in the game, helping the team win.

This goal is also his tenth goal this season.

The league had just started seven rounds and he scored ten goals, leading second-ranked Van Persie three goals.

This has just begun, and the contest between the two shooters has begun.

Last season, Van Persie was eventually turned around by Chen Yingxiong, losing his first league golden boot in his personal career.

Everyone is sorry for him, and some people are not optimistic about Van Persie continuing to chase Chen Yingxiong. They are already surprised because Van Persie's performance was so outstanding last season.

Unexpectedly, perhaps because he wanted to compete with Chen Yingxiong, Van Persie was in good shape this season. He scored seven goals in seven league rounds, and his average goal rate of one goal per game was already the highest in his personal career.

But even so, he still lags behind Chen Yingxiong...

Some London media lamented for Van Persie: "Heroes are the nightmare and public enemy of all forwards! I suggest that the Premier League re-establish a scorer list and only let heroes on the list. Then, now this scorer list should be left to ordinary players... Otherwise, it would be too unfair for Van Persie!"

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After playing against Swansea, Liverpool ushered in the League Cup after only three days.

They challenged Reading away.

Liverpool beat Reading 6-0 at home in the league. Now this is the opportunity for Reading to take revenge because Liverpool has rotated again.

Since playing in the Europa League, Liverpool's starting lineup has not been exactly the same.

This time Chen Yingxiong and Suarez started, Kuyt played the right forward, and gave it to Bellamy on the left. Lucas and Inler, who returned from injury, partnered with him, and the center back was Martin Kelly and Coates, and the right back was the young player Flanagan, a 1993-born man, and the left back was Jack Robinson of the reserve team. The goalkeeper was still Reina.

It can be seen that Martin O'Neal intends to use the League Cup as his "test field" to adapt the team to rotation, and also gives many young players the opportunity to play.

Such a large rotation made Liverpool players feel a little uncomfortable, and Reading could take advantage of their home court to take revenge.

I didn't expect that the old revenge was not revenged, and new revenge was added...

They lost 2:4 at their home court. Although they scored two goals in the game, they once saw hope of winning, Chen Yingxiong cruelly suppressed them.

As the top scorer of the League Cup last season, Chen Yingxiong scored a hat trick in his first League Cup of the season.

He was in amazing condition in September.

He was named the Premier League's Player of the Month in August. Now it seems that he is the best player of September.

Liverpool, who defeated Reading 4:2 away, successfully advanced to the fourth round. Their opponent will be Cardiff City, the opponent in the League Cup final last season...

This seems to be another battle of revenge?

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Due to multi-line battles, Liverpool's away challenge to Grica's Europa League and the eighth round of the Premier League on September 29, Liverpool's away challenge to Stoke City clashed. Therefore, the match between Liverpool and Stoke City was postponed to October 2.

From this we can see how intense Liverpool's schedule is in September...

In September, they played four Premier League games, two Europa League games - one is the upcoming away game against Grica and one League Cup. There are seven games in total. Considering that the first half of September is the national team match day, Liverpool actually only played one league game in the first fifteen days, and the remaining six games were squeezed in half a month after the fifteen days, with an average of two and a half days a game.

With such a intensive schedule, it is no wonder that Liverpool's head coach Martin O'Neal will take the risk of the team's performance declining. No matter if it changes, I'm afraid that Christmas will be gone before the team's physical reserves will be exhausted...

There is nothing to say about the game against Grika in Slovenia. The gap in strength between the two sides is too big. Even if Grika plays at home, it cannot make up for this gap.

So Liverpool beat Grica 2-1 away and achieved two consecutive victories.

Sporting Lisbon tied with Anderlecht 1:1 at home. In this way, Liverpool, who won all the two games, will be the leader. They are currently the first in the group and the situation of qualifying is very optimistic.
Chapter completed!