Chapter 42
Earlier this morning, Mourinho specifically told Endrit to watch the game carefully and tell him his thoughts after the game.
Endrit agreed without hesitation. He had originally thought about taking a piece of paper and pen to write it down, but he didn't expect it to rain suddenly. Naturally, he could only use his brain to remember it.
He wore a hat and a black coat and looked up at his teammates who were playing football in the rain.
It is more difficult to defend on rainy days than usual because the field is slippery and easily deformed during technical moves, and each player's stability in controlling the ball will decrease. If there is water on the field, it is very easy to fall when changing direction or dribbling the ball, and it is also very easy to make an own goal.
Because of the disadvantage of the field in a rainy game, the gap in technical level between the two sides will be minimized, so in the end it will come down to the physical conditions and physical state of the players on both sides - except for the goalkeeper.
The rainy games have the greatest impact on their goalkeepers. Because of the rain, long passes, short passes, straight passes, etc. cannot be the same as before. You can no longer just go wherever you want the ball to land. Where the ball ends up depends on how much face your rain father gives you.
Therefore, when playing on rainy days, the wonderful cooperation that was often seen in the penalty area in the past no longer exists. Long shots and counter-attacks to score goals are the norm. When Endrit was in the youth team, he encountered rainy games and often fell down and hit his chin on the grass throughout the game, but he didn't save many balls.
At that moment, he felt that what he was wearing were not spikes, but skates - too slippery!
"Endrit?"
Endrit glanced quickly to the side, then pulled open his coat and said, "I don't have an extra hat with me, so you can just use my coat to keep out the rain."
Sheva's eyelids twitched, and he raised his hand to comb all his hair back in one go, revealing his delicate features. "I'm not here to hide from the rain, I'm here to ask you if you're not going to play in this game?"
Endrit stared at Cech on the field, focusing his attention on his legs and feet. Not only did he want to observe closely how Cech played, he also planned to ask him directly after the game was over.
"No, I'm playing this game just to learn. What's wrong, you want to start?"
Sheva didn't say anything. Endrit wanted to see the expression on his face, but he couldn't bear to take his eyes off Cech. "Then wait a minute. I think you may have a chance to play in today's game. After all, anything is possible in rainy days."
Sheva hummed softly, and Endrit reached out to find Sheva's position and put his arm on his shoulder. "Look at Cech's movement in front of the goal, isn't it quite regular?"
Sheva stared at it for a few seconds, a little confused, "Is that so? If there is a pattern, then he should practice it normally, but I have never seen him practice this since I came to the team."
After hearing this, Endrit became a little unconfident, "Then let me take another look?"
Sheva hummed indifferently, and just as Endrit's gaze fell uncontrollably on Cech, Sheva's gaze also fell uncontrollably on Drogba.
In the 2nd minute, Liverpool player Pennant made a cross from the right to the far post, but Michael failed to stop it. Endrit opened his eyes wide and watched Cech rush out in time to confiscate the ball.
In the 13th minute, Liverpool striker Kuyt passed the ball, and Riise took a long shot from the left, but the ball was again caught by Cech.
In the 16th minute, Gerrard, who came on the field with an injury, made a straight pass in the middle. After receiving the ball, forward Torres quickly got rid of Ben Haim and pushed the ball far away from the left side of the penalty area.
Endrit clenched his fists nervously. From his angle, he could see Torres' movements at the first time, but Cech's vision was blocked by Ben Haim, so Cech was a little slow when he moved out this time. By the time Cech arrived, the football had hit the post and went into the net!
The cheers of Liverpool fans immediately rang out at Anfield, and many fans spontaneously cheered for Gerrard.
Why? Because Gerrard was diagnosed with a fractured toe before the game, head coach Betnis said in an interview with the media: Because the game against Chelsea is too important, Gerrard cannot rest and can only continue to play with the injury. After the game, he will rest for one to two weeks.
"Is he really injured?" Endrit couldn't help but turn his head to look at Sheva, "I saw he was running very fast just now. The pass was also very beautiful. By the way, this is Torres' first goal this season, right?"
Sheva: ...
Is Ritter praising or insulting someone?
In the 23rd minute, Chelsea got a free kick opportunity: Alonso on the opposite side fouled Malu in front of the penalty area, and Drogba took a free kick in the middle.
Drogba obviously wanted to score a goal by going around the wall with this free kick, but Gerrard jumped up and the ball hit him directly, and then the ball rushed directly outside the right post - it didn't go in!
Sheva couldn't help but mutter, "He doesn't look like he's injured."
"Yeah, yeah," Endrit nodded in agreement, "If you were injured, would you be able to jump that high?"
Sheva was speechless. After he came to Chelsea, he was suspended as soon as he was injured and had never played with an injury. But this obviously cannot be said to be because the head coach values him and is reluctant to let him play with an injury...
Benister wanted to give Gerrard a rest, but as the soul of the Red Army, the difference between having Gerrard on the field and not having him on the field is too big!
Less than two minutes later, Liverpool player Riise once again attacked the Chelsea goal. This time he chose to head the ball, but in the end Cech jumped up and easily confiscated the ball.
In the 32nd minute, Liverpool striker Kuyt took a long shot directly at the goal, but the ball went wide. Endrit noticed that Cech was standing there calmly staring at the flying football. If it were him, he would definitely have run a few more steps in vain.
Does this mean that the opponent's ball will not go in? What is the basis? Endritt silently noted the time of the attack in his mind.
In the 43rd minute, at the end of the first half, Gerrard received a yellow card for a flying tackle on Chelsea midfielder Obi Miki in the midfield.
Endrit and Sheva looked at each other, then sighed together.
Gerrard played so hard even though he was injured. Endrit couldn't imagine if he hadn't been injured, would he have been able to fly directly on the field?
…………
Liverpool entered the halftime break with a score of 1:0. Endrit didn't know what the atmosphere was like in the home team's locker room which was leading by one goal, but the atmosphere in the away team's locker room which was trailing by one goal was indeed quite quiet.
Just like the drizzle outside at the moment, although it won’t soak people like a drowned rat, but this kind of rain can best highlight the sad scene - ah? Is the rain clearing up?
Well, that's normal, this is England after all.
…
At the beginning of the second half, Mourinho replaced Carlos with Peruvian striker Pizarro.
Compared with other players who had already played for half the game, Pizarro, who had an advantage in physical strength, created two scoring opportunities for Chelsea after he came on the court, namely a header assist in the 47th point and a header in the 49th point - but unfortunately, he failed to seize the opportunity to score a goal both times.
In the 62nd minute, Chelsea finally seized the opportunity. Sedwell made a cross from the right, and Liverpool defender Finnan knocked Malouda directly on the edge of the penalty area. The former must have thought that Malouda, who had just transferred to Chelsea this year, was going to do something at this time, but in fact Malouda was just a cover. The football passed behind the two of them, and Lampard received the ball and scored directly!
1:1 draw!
In the 83rd minute, Cech, who was being stared at by Endrit, blocked Riise's small-angle shot with his legs.
From then until the end of the game, the opposing Liverpool players were unable to pose any threat to Cech.
"beep……"
As the referee blew the whistle to end the game, Mourinho walked over to Endrit and took his hat off his head. "Why are you still wearing it when it's not raining?"
"I forgot," Endrit stood up. "Coach, I want to practice in the rain next time it rains. After today's game, I think I need to practice more."
"Well," Mourinho nodded noncommittally, "I'll be relieved when your legs can be as flexible as your head."
Mourinho has been brooding over this matter and wants Endrit to correct this bad habit, but before Endrit can truly grow into a goalkeeper, Endrit may not be able to correct this "bad habit".
………
The next day, when Sky Sports and The Sun were selecting the best player of the match at Anfield, they both voted for Liverpool captain Gerrard, praising his "feet as full of inspiration."
Mourinho crumpled up the newspaper and threw it into the wastebasket. He knew that Gerrard played with injections. If he was not the head coach, he would probably show respect to Gerrard, but he was the head coach of Chelsea, so he told his assistant not to buy newspapers from these two companies in the near future.
"What a nonsense! How are our Chelsea players inferior to Gerrard?" Mourinho complained in a low voice, looking up at his assistant, "Where's Ritt? Why hasn't he come yet?"
"Sir, Ritter is still in training."
Mourinho was a little amused when he heard this: He has been coaching for so many years, but he has never seen a player at this age who loves training as much as Ritter.
The key is that Ritter is not the kind of player who relies solely on hard work to improve his strength because he has no talent. He is the kind of player who is talented and works very hard, which makes others envy, melancholy and helpless.
Finally, just before the end of the get off work day, Mourinho waited for Endrit in the office.
"When I was watching the game yesterday, I kept staring at Cech. I felt that Cech's lower body was very stable and he was very confident in his judgment. He would not do anything in vain."
"We lost the ball in yesterday's game because our vision was blocked. I asked Cech today and he said that he really didn't notice that Torres had gotten rid of Ben Haim in the first time." Endrit was a little excited when he talked about this. "Today, Cech and I imitated yesterday's game in training. When the opponent's forward rushed into the penalty area, the two of us who were directly defending in front of him did not exist. If we only treated the opponent as a one-on-one opponent facing the goalkeeper, we could expand our field of vision through some irregular running."
Mourinho hummed softly and tapped the table with his fingers. "Not bad, any more?"
"Yes, yes," Endrit continued, "I watched the game again last night, and this time I didn't just focus on Cech, and then I found that Liverpool played a little, um... panicked?"
Mourinho leaned forward, his expression becoming serious, "Panic?"
"Yes, Liverpool were clearly ahead less than 20 minutes into the first half, but they committed fouls afterwards. It seemed like they wanted to defend but also wanted to score a few more goals. In the end, they got a yellow card."
Endrit was a little unsure of his judgment, but Mourinho didn't interrupt him, so he just went on. "After we scored in the second half, although Liverpool's number of shots seemed to be quite a lot, only Riise's shot was blocked by Cech's legs. The rest of the shots were basically blocked in the midfield and backcourt, and the football didn't even fly to the goal."
"Anything else?"
Endrit shook his head. "No more."
"It's like this, Liverpool... uh, wait a minute." Mourinho bent down and picked up a ball of paper that he had just thrown into the wastebasket nearby, unwrapped it and put it in front of Endrit. "Look, in yesterday's game, many media were praising Gerrard, saying that he performed well despite the injury."
"That's the contradiction. Gerrard wanted to open up the situation and score a few more goals, but the opposing players, under the instructions of coach Benítez, defended when they were one point ahead. So after Liverpool took the lead in the first half, Gerrard still played very hard, but he was out of sync with the rhythm of other players."
Endrit blinked, feeling something was wrong. "Is there a disconnect? I thought their coordination was still the same..."
"The disconnect is not a problem with coordination. Gerrard committed a foul in the end and did not help his teammates score. This is a problem with communication."
Endrit fell silent. He felt that Mourinho was deceiving him, no, was trying to trick him.
"It's like when you play with an injury one day, you think you can keep the opponent scoreless, but your teammates don't want you to get injured on the court again so they play very aggressively, and as a result, this aggressiveness hinders your vision and allows the opponent to seize the opportunity to send the ball into the goal." Mourinho said: "It is very normal for this situation to occur, but it can be avoided.
"Communicate more with teammates and coaches. You can't always be alone in training. Goalkeepers cannot be excluded from the team system."
Endrit: ...
"Starting tomorrow, Ritter, you can't just focus on training."
"Okay, coach."
"You play in the next game."
"ah?"
"What?" Mourinho glared at Endrit. "Are you not happy with me starting you? That's it. Okay, you can leave."
Endrit stood there without moving, and Mourinho gave him a strange look: Why aren't you leaving yet?
"It's time to get off work," Endrit raised his hand and pointed at the clock on the wall, "Aren't we leaving together? Coach, you have something to do today, so you can't go back? Then I need to..."
"Go, go, go," Mourinho stood up immediately, "Go home!"
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