Chapter 17: Strategy
Although Eggsy's threat was great, the Crystal Palace was no pushover. At least the Crystal Palace only sent MacArthur to watch over Eggsy, which proved that MacArthur was quite capable.
However, this ability can be seen from his appearance. In terms of height, there is no midfielder taller than Eggsy who is 190cm tall, but there is definitely a midfielder who is taller than Eggsy.
MacArthur stood in front of Eggsy like a wall, and when he opened his arms, he looked like a gorilla. Even Eggsy looked "small" in front of him.
To be honest, Mr. Ranieri on the sidelines was a little panicked when he saw Eggsy being stopped by such a big guy. But Eggsy made a fake move the next second, and then slid around the back without much effort.
As soon as he stood firmly on one foot, he received the pass from Kante. Then he used the inertia of his turning around to go around with the ball, making MacArthur, who was about to overtake from behind to intercept him, almost fall!
The fans of Crystal Palace were very sharp-eyed. Seeing MacArthur being left behind so quickly, they booed him. They felt that this substitute midfielder was so clumsy that he couldn't stand steadily because of being swayed back and forth by a half-grown boy.
So shameful!
As soon as Eggsy got the ball, he would start running forward, and his teammates would quickly follow him. Especially the forwards, who were afraid that if they ran too slowly, the ball would be passed to others.
Especially Vardy, he was running with all his might, and the two defenders defending him could only run after him, and they couldn't catch up with him for a while.
Just this one breakthrough run by Eggsy led the entire team's forwards to run wildly, which in turn made Mr. Ranieri's all-out attack today more effective.
Although Crystal Palace was unlucky to injure their midfielder and now had to find a substitute, but in fact, their forward line and midfield are pretty good, and the defenders are also very strong.
But this is based on a prerequisite, and that prerequisite is that the core midfielder Jedinak is not absent due to injury. If he is, then Leicester City's match against Crystal Palace will be a real hand-to-hand fight.
The metronome of Leicester City is now Eggsy, but Crystal Palace's MacArthur can't be a metronome. In fact, his passing or attacking in the midfield is not very good.
Originally, he was helping Jedinak to defend or pass the ball to disperse the pressure on the left. If other people came to interfere with Jedinak, he could completely replace them or pass the ball, or even help Jedinak clear the obstacles, even if it was a foul.
Players in this position are usually called sweepers, and as the name suggests, they clear the way and obstacles for the main players and the main pass.
Asking him to lead Crystal Palace in attack now is a bit beyond the scope in itself, and now he has to be distracted to intercept Eggsy, which is even worse.
At the beginning of the first half, Eggsy had already reached the periphery of the penalty area with the ball, and Leicester City's four forwards had all followed.
As for Crystal Palace, basically four defenders are now facing Leicester City's forward line in a 1v1 situation, and they no longer have the extra capacity to intercept Eggsy.
The other midfielders and forwards of Crystal Palace are now near the penalty area, appearing hesitant.
In the past, they might not have been so active in returning to defense. Crystal Palace's decent midfielder Jedinak should have organized the back line by now, and might even have given them an extreme rebound, allowing them to directly raid the opponent's home ground.
But now... MacArthur only knew how to defend Eggsy, and the defensive loophole he just made allowed Eggsy to break through. If the defender hadn't intercepted him and Eggsy had been slowed down a bit, he would have probably scored a goal long ago.
Although MacArthur caught up and tried to intercept Eggsy, his interception was still too rigid, and he would leave Eggsy with a flaw from time to time. Eggsy's ability to take advantage of every opportunity immediately led MacArthur to start sneaking around the penalty area.
Moreover, because of the tight defense of the Crystal Palace penalty area, Leicester City's attack could not get in at all, and Eggsy, who was the midfielder, suddenly made a pass that no one understood.
With 4 strikers in the penalty area, Eggsy passed the ball back!
At that time, Eggsy was being entangled in MacArthur's defense, which was almost sticking to his body, and from time to time MacArthur's foot would directly intervene to try to steal the ball.
So Eggsy dealt with this situation very carefully, moving the ball back and forth under his feet, making it impossible for MacArthur to find a pattern to avoid his feet.
At the same time, Eggsy found a loophole in MacArthur's defense and passed the ball back. MacArthur didn't know if he was dazzled by Eggsy's various evasive moves, but he didn't realize that the ball had been passed until more than a minute after the ball was passed.
The head coach of Crystal Palace turned pale!
Meanwhile, Mr. Ranieri at Leicester City shook his head helplessly. The assistant coach at the side also shook his head and sighed.
"He can be a good defensive player, but playing him as a midfielder..."
Mr. Ranieri pushed his glasses and added: "It's not the player's fault, but the coach's tactical arrangement is problematic."
In fact, the Crystal Palace coach's calculation is very clear, that is, to use offense to make up for their shortcomings in midfield adjustment. This premise is based on the premise that they feel that their defense line is fine, so they dare to take such a gamble.
But they obviously still didn't take Leicester City's attack, or in other words, the midfielder's deployment, seriously. Although Eggsy passed the ball back now, Mr. Ranieri suddenly laughed.
The tactical coach also laughed. The two old foxes looked at each other with smugness.
Mr. Ranieri always stood up when he encountered a tough bone to chew, but now he just wanted to sit down, because he already knew in his heart that Eggsy and his players would definitely be able to complete his instructions in the first half, so he unexpectedly wanted to see how his players would perform.
Crystal Palace's penalty area was now difficult to move, and Eggsy's pass forced their forwards and midfielders to come out. In other words, they had to come out according to their original plan.
Morgan and Drinkwater were also confused when they received the pass, but when they saw Eggsy was heading back, they immediately looked towards their own rest area. However, they found that the coaching staff did not say anything, so they immediately received the ball and started to make a detour.
Eggsy's retreat not only confused his teammates, but also confused MacArthur who was defending him.
He also retreated quickly, and when his teammates passed the ball to him, he quickly passed it back, almost passing it as far as possible, and he almost passed it to his own goalkeeper Schmeichel.
The first half of the game was already 10 minutes in, and the tactics being played now had both players and fans a little confused, especially when Eggsy passed the ball back when his own forward was close to the penalty area, which made the fans and commentators a little confused.
It stands to reason that even if the penalty area is very difficult to break through at this time, you can at least give it a try. Your level and height of Leicester City have been increased by Eggsy, so you can still try for a header!
What is the return pass? Look, look at Leicester City, they are passing the ball back and forth all the time. Is it interesting? Is it good? The commentator has nothing to say!
The fans couldn't adapt to the passionate sprint and fight that had just turned into the current high ball movement, and they started booing Eggsy!
But what about Eggsy? He seemed to have not heard anything at all, and was watching the ball go around his teammate's hands and was about to return to his position.
But Eggsy didn't just notice that the ball went around and came back, he also noticed that the defenders who were originally anxiously guarding their own forward line in the penalty area were also paying attention to the direction of the ball and were not staring at their own forwards so closely.
Eggsy is now winking at Vardy, and whenever Vardy sees Eggsy, his eyes stare at him like a hungry little animal seeing its parents.
After seeing Eggsy wink at him, Vardy immediately started to steal the spot. Because he was judged offside for stealing in the last match against Queen's Park, Eggsy was more careful this time, and did not rush in even if he was blocking the spot.
Instead, he stuck to the defender who was defending him and performed for the opponent, seeming to be still trying to grab or look for an opportunity. In fact, he already knew that the opponent's defender was lax, and it would only take minutes for him to get in.
Eggsy was also watching the direction of the ball. When Brother Drinkwater made a long pass back to him, Eggsy dribbled the ball alternately with his left and right feet and accelerated. He didn't give Mag Arthur any chance to react and went around it!
The fans loved watching this scene! Isn't it better than the high lob that was passed all over the field? Immediately, both the visiting team and the home team fans were cheering. They may not understand the game, nor the tactics, and even the positioning is probably amateurish.
But they are die-hard fans!
"McAyes made a mistake, and Eggsy dribbled the ball through!" The host's voice rose an octave. "Eggsy's pass back broke through the Crystal Palace penalty area defense. It was really beautiful!"
Now the fans knew why Eggsy passed the ball back, and they couldn't help but gasp after realizing that the kid was trying to lure the tiger away from the mountain.
Is this really 16 years old? ? ? ?
However, Eggsy kicked the ball directly out, and saw a group of people in the penalty area jumping up one after another, trying to intercept. But this ball actually hit a beautiful arc, which confused the people in the penalty area again!
Eggsy...are you shooting or passing the ball? ?
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