Xu Zhu's Successor's Football Journey

Chapter 348 Successful Defense

"Chelsea narrowly beat Tottenham Hotspur, Terry became the hero of the team!!"

"Chelsea is not scary, it's just a one-man team!!"

"Allen at Chelsea is equal to Jordan at the Bulls!!"

.........

The next day, almost all English newspapers and magazines reported on the game. They didn't pay too much attention to Chelsea's victory, or Terry's lore in the last minute, but focused on Chelsea's performance in the second half.

In this regard, the "Sun"'s comment was very thought-provoking. They said: "When Wang Li left the field, Chelsea seemed to have directly become a mid-level team in the Premier League. It gives people a feeling of powerlessness. This kind of team can continue to win, perhaps more because of Allen's personal performance, that's all."

"From the second half of the game, we can see that Chelsea was very weak in offense. They only took 45 shots in the entire 3 minutes. This performance is really different from the first half. Pinning the hope of victory on Allen alone, then when Allen cannot play, will Chelsea face continuous losses!?"

The "Guardian" finally found an opportunity to criticize Chelsea this time. They talked a lot about Chelsea's lack of attack in the report, and called Chelsea a tall building without a cornerstone. Likely to collapse.Although all England fans know that the "Guardian" is Chelsea's mortal enemy, at least in this game, Chelsea's performance is indeed the case. Without Wang Li, they simply cannot reflect the momentum of the Premier League's dominant team.

Many media believe that the head coach Mourinho should prevent the development of this crisis situation. Perhaps an NBA basketball team can become a one-man team. The influence of a superstar player's performance in the game is absolutely huge. Such as Jordan, O'Neal, Kobe, Iverson, etc., but for a European professional football team, a team of one person almost means failure, because no player can guarantee to play every game, even Wang Li, who is rarely affected by injuries.

Obviously, if this kind of team can rule the Premier League, it means the same as Wang Li ruling the Premier League alone. This is absolutely unacceptable to the fans.

There is no need for the media to remind, Mourinho has long been aware of this problem, in fact, he is very clear about the reasons for this situation.

What Mourinho is good at is the team's defense, but due to the presence of Wang Li, Chelsea's offensive performance is too strong, which makes it unnecessary to play any defensive counterattacks in many games. Destroy the opponent. It can be said that in the game where Wang Li participated, Chelsea is not afraid of any opponent at all just by using aggressive offensive tactics, even Arsenal and Barcelona, ​​which are strong in offense.

However, with the strong performance in the offense, the players have become accustomed to using offense to win. Chelsea players unconsciously performed very lax in the backcourt defense, just like William Gallas, Defensive players like John Terry are constantly attacking. This is also the root cause of Chelsea's defensive performance in the last game.

On the other hand, it is a matter of tactics. During Chelsea's training recently, they basically trained "zone offensive tactics". It revolves around Wang Li alone, and when Wang Li is off the court, the offensive players will definitely be at a loss because they can't find the center of the team's offense.

Of course, although the above are the main reasons, there is another point that is the most important - as the game continues to win, there is an impetuous mood in the Chelsea team, although Mourinho has always reminded the players Don't be arrogant, but with the record in front of them, the players still feel more or less that the team's strength is not comparable to other teams.

And this is an important reason why Mourinho hopes to use a failure to remind the players.

Therefore, after the game against Tottenham Hotspur, Mourinho did not give the team a holiday at all, but asked all players to participate in training during the 7 days of free time and were not allowed to ask for leave.

In the daily training of the past few days, some ordinary training is done in the morning, and some strengthening training is added without harming the physical condition of the players, while in the afternoon there is a match within the team. There is one serious difference from the previous ones——
Wang Li was assigned to the substitute team, and sometimes even acted as a referee on the sidelines.

This kind of training game is mainly to let the players experience how to play the ball without Wang Li playing, so that they can get back to their usual state and confidence.

Facts have proved that without Wang Li, the performance of the main first team was really sluggish, and even in the first two days, the substitute team won consecutive victories. Of course, this is mainly because the daily training is no better than the real game. He won't really fight and grab, and Wang Li's strength is too strong. He always scores goals frequently for the first team alone.

But this also made Mourinho furious. After each training session, the main team would be reprimanded and verbally attacked by him.

However, as this kind of training continues, the main team has gradually found its status. At this time, it will be difficult for Wang Li to lead the substitute team to win the score. After all, although the strength of Chelsea's substitute team is not much different from the main team , but still cannot be compared in terms of coordination.

On the 4th day, Wang Lize was banned by the head coach Mourinho. He took over the job of assistant coach and acted as a referee on the field.

This job is really novel, and Wang Li is doing it with great enjoyment. When Mourinho is not watching the game, he starts to 'warn the players on the field' for fun, which makes many teammates glaring at him, but there is nothing he can do. .

Fortunately, these days are all closed training, otherwise the media would definitely use "Chelsea's dressing room is not harmonious, Allen has conflicts with all his teammates" as the headline.

However, the recent Chelsea news is not all the news that makes Mourinho feel angry. There is good news that Ricardo Carvalho has finally recovered from his injury. The return of this powerful Portuguese super defender makes Mourinho A smile finally flashed on Neo's face again. As a veteran who followed Mourinho in the Porto era, Carvalho's position in Portugal's heart is beyond doubt.

On January 1, Chelsea's game against Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge also became the first game of Carvalho's return from injury.

In this game, Mourinho, who has been worried about the team's state recently, did not send Wang Li to play, but the other positions were all main players. Obviously, this was regarded as a training game by him, which can also test The current state of the team.

Chelsea's starting lineup surprised Portsmouth coach Zayech. In fact, although the media have talked about 'Chelsea is a one-man team', 'the number one in the Premier League is just empty shelf' and so on. topic, but Zayech still didn't have much hope for the game.

Because even if Chelsea is a one-man team, as long as Wang Li plays, Portsmouth still has no chance. Zayeqi will not be arrogant and think that Portsmouth's defenders can defend Wang Li, but Manchester United, What Arsenal and other giants have not done.

However, Wang Li did not play in this game. Although Chelsea are the main players in other positions, Zajech still sees the hope of winning.Now, in the eyes of many Premier League coaches, Wang Li is simply a bug on the football field. In any case, the game without him depends on the strength of the two teams, but luck also plays a big role.

The mentality of the Portsmouth players was similar to that of the head coach. Without Wang Li playing, they felt very little pressure, so the game was very relaxed.

In this game, Mourinho used the 433 formation that he is good at. The goalkeeper Thomas Clark, the defenders are William Gallas, John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho and Wayne. Bridget, three defensive midfielders Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele, Joe Cole, three forwards Alkin Robben, Edur Goodjanssen and Damien Duff.

In this formation, the front, middle and rear are almost all the main players. The real difference is that Wang Li was not able to play. Even so, the Blues fans at Stamford Bridge are still not very interested, because many people are now I am used to watching the games that Wang Li plays, because Chelsea will play very well in those games.

However, there are still many loyal fans who are very interested in the state of the team without Wang Li. Due to the media reports, the fans also have a relevant understanding of the current problems facing Chelsea. Under the circumstances, what kind of state can Chelsea play.

But obviously, the current game on the court is very different from the performance when Wang Li was on the court. Although Mourinho's 433 formation is total attack and defense, the main thing is defense, but facing a ball like Portsmouth Although the offense of the team is much worse than before, they still played some wonderful cooperation.

Although the momentum of the Portsmouth players is very high, even if Chelsea does not have Wang Li playing, they cannot be Chelsea's opponents at their current level of relegated teams.

As a result, this situation occurred in the game: in the first 20 minutes, both teams performed very well, and wonderful performances were staged frequently, which made the fans really feel that this game was worth the fare.

However, in the 21st minute, Chelsea's right midfielder Damien Duff made a through pass, allowing the Icelander Gudjenssen to find a chance to score. He turned back and suddenly accelerated to throw off the defender. After catching the ball, he won a beautiful one-handed shot. Gud Jansen did not waste this hard-won opportunity. He pushed from a small angle to open the scoring for Chelsea.

In the following game, Portsmouth's morale declined significantly, because their players realized that even Chelsea without Wang Li was still not something they could shake, so they put more energy on defense. Into a state of anxiety.

In the 74th minute of the second half, taking advantage of a set-piece opportunity, Lampard scored another goal for the team, fixing the score at 2:0.

After the game, many media also affirmed Chelsea's performance, and they began to talk about "Chelsea has regained its form". Without Wang Li, being able to easily defeat Portsmouth still reflects that Chelsea's strength is not comparable to that of ordinary Premier League mid-range teams.

Imagine that Wang Li can score 2 goals or even 3 goals in every game, which makes Chelsea always win by a big score. Without Wang Li, it is indeed normal to score 2:0, and even If Manchester United or Arsenal face Portsmouth, they can only score this kind of score.

Therefore, it seems that everything is going well, Chelsea has regained its previous state, and the media has begun to pay attention to Chelsea's winning streak, because they know that in very important games, Mourinho will not let a The powerful superstars will not be used, and no opponent will think about how to beat Chelsea in a game without Wang Li's participation. It is obviously unrealistic.

Soon, the focus of media attention returned to Manchester United and Chelsea, because the second round of the League Cup will be held soon, and Manchester United will face Chelsea at Old Trafford. focus on.

On January 1, a bus carrying Chelsea players drove into Manchester and into the Old Trafford Stadium, followed by the influx of various media reporters.

In comparison, this game should have received more attention, because this is the second round of the League Cup semi-final confrontation, this game will also decide who will enter the final between Manchester United and Chelsea, but in fact, this The level of attention in this game is obviously far worse than the last match at Stamford Bridge.

Except for some English media, there are very few media from other European countries. This may be more because they don’t think Manchester United will beat Chelsea, and at this time, leagues in other countries are also closely following each other. In the schedule, they will pay more attention to the games of their home giants.

The actual situation was the same as the pre-match media analysis. Manchester United did not break out. The game ended with a 1:0. Chelsea won the ticket to the League Cup final with a score of 3:0 in two rounds.

In fact, these days, Sir Alex Ferguson has been studying the methods of countering Chelsea tactics. In the end, he decided to implement a tight blockade on the two sides and the big penalty area, and relax the defense at the front of the big penalty area. Wang Li wants to shoot from the front of the penalty area, but without a shooting angle, he can only look for opportunities, and Robben and Duff on the two sides will be much more passive. They are not at Wang Li's level. For the close defense of the Manchester United defenders, it is difficult for them to cooperate with Wang Li in long passes.

This also made Chelsea blocked in the attack.

However, this kind of defense is still of little help to Manchester United's offense. Due to the investment of too many troops in defense, their offensive performance is still very sluggish. Fast break, but Manchester United's current striker does not have Wang Li's strength, neither personal skills nor physical fitness can meet such high requirements.

Perhaps, for Manchester United, there is also good news during this period. Their Dutch center Van Nistelrooy has finally recovered from his injury. Manchester United is undoubtedly great news.

But it is a pity that against the strong Chelsea, Van Nistelrooy is not in the state. Maybe this super striker has some psychological shadows on Wang Li. Anyway, his performance in defense is really poor, and in the In offense, he also performed much worse than before, which made Sir Alex Ferguson replace him with Saha in the 40th minute of the first half. Obviously, the old Jazz could no longer stand Ruud van Nistelrooy's performance up.

However, the focus of many English media is not the result of the game, because Manchester United's loss did not surprise most people, they put more attention on Manchester United's defense.

For the first time this season, Chelsea have only scored one goal in a game, which clearly reflects the defensive success of Manchester United.After the game, the full-length video of the game was welcomed by the Premier League teams and all European team coaches who pay attention to Chelsea. They need to watch the full-length game video carefully in order to understand how Manchester United defended against Chelsea's attack and how It restricted Wang Li's performance.

After the game, the "Guardian" lavishly praised Manchester United's defense. They said: "Manchester United's defense has allowed more teams to see the dawn of winning Chelsea. A great reference."

The "Sun" is worried about Chelsea, because they feel that before the start of the UEFA Champions League, Chelsea played such a game, which will make other European teams discover Chelsea's "weakness". The European Cup is unfavorable. They hope that Chelsea will be as strong as the league in the European war. The English team really needs a European Cup, because it can reflect the style of the "European First League".

Although the media commented on the game, Chelsea coach Mourinho did not care. In an interview, he said: "If every team defends like Manchester United, then we will be even less concerned. Worry, because the team doesn't have to worry about defense at all, and you can see that Manchester United can't attack at all in the game."

Although the Portuguese showed full confidence, in fact, he was still a little worried about the team's offense, because Manchester United did defend, and their stoppage on the two wings made Chelsea's wing attack almost come to a standstill. , In the current Chelsea team, the combination of Robben and Duff is undoubtedly an important weight for the team's offense. How to resist the opponent's full-court defense has become Mourinho's current worry.

But at least for now, Mourinho doesn't have time to think so much. On the third day after Chelsea's battle with Manchester United, that is, on January 1, they will usher in the FA Cup round of 30 knockout matches, and their opponents will be the Premier League. Birmingham team.

(End of this chapter)