Chapter 949 How the Iron Army Was Forged
Many people say that Manchester City now is like Chelsea a few years ago.
This actually overestimates Manchester City and underestimates Chelsea.
Before the Abu Dhabi consortium took over, Manchester City was a second-rate team in the Premier League. Even after struggling to return to the Premier League, Manchester City still played the role of an easy target, so much so that Manchester United ignored this "noisy neighbor" and made the Manchester derby meaningless.
But Chelsea are distinctly different.
Before Abramovich took over, Chelsea was already a top-ranked team in the Premier League, a bit like Tottenham Hotspur now, always stuck on the edge of the Champions League zone, just a little bit away.
More importantly, Chelsea has had a very clear set of business ideas for a long time.
Many people only remember that Wenger landed at Arsenal in 1996, but what they don’t know is that a year earlier, in 1995, one of the Dutch Three Musketeers, Gullit, transferred to Chelsea on a free transfer and replaced Glenn Howard in 1996, coaching Chelsea as a player-head coach.
Also in 1996, Italian striker Vialli transferred from Juventus to Chelsea for 10 million US dollars. Two years later in 1998, when Gullit was dismissed from the Chelsea coaching position, Vialli continued to lead the team as a player and head coach.
From Gullit to Vialli, Chelsea has always been at the forefront of the Premier League's European continentalization movement and has tasted the sweetness of it. So after Vialli was dismissed, Chelsea continued to stick to this route and invited the tinkerer Ranieri to coach.
This time Ranieri stayed in Chelsea for a full four years. It was not until Abramovich took over and injected huge amounts of money that Chelsea's overall strength underwent a complete transformation. Ranieri was no longer considered suitable for Chelsea, so Mourinho was invited to coach instead.
It can be said that before Mourinho coached Chelsea, the Blues were already a strong team in the Premier League and had been at the forefront of the Premier League's Europeanization trend for many years, laying a solid foundation for Mourinho's complete transformation during his coaching tenure.
Ranieri became Mourinho. One reason was that Mourinho brought the most advanced training concepts in European football at that time. At the same time, he attached importance to wingers and the shaping of the team's spirit. These made Chelsea transform from a strong team into a tenacious iron-blooded army.
Perhaps Mourinho failed to lead Chelsea to win the Champions League, but during the years he coached, Chelsea was the iron army that no one in the entire European football world wanted to face, which in itself is enough to prove the success of Mourinho's coaching.
Even many professionals believe that Mourinho's coaching of Barcelona was a mistake.
Barcelona follows a technical style, which is totally inconsistent with Mourinho's philosophy. More importantly, this group of technical geniuses at Barcelona simply cannot play the tough style that Mourinho wants.
Mourinho's success at Barcelona is the success of Barcelona football, but his success at Chelsea is Mourinho's success. Even now, with repeated changes of head coaches, this Chelsea has still not been able to wash off the mark left by Mourinho.
When Boas lost the central axis of Drogba, Lampard and Terry, he immediately lost control and finally had to put Drogba and Terry back in place and was forced to compromise. This is enough to explain the problem.
In fact, Boas was not wrong, so he was recognized by the Chelsea management.
These veterans are old and it's time for them to retire.
Chelsea cannot rely on this group of veterans forever, and the veterans cannot occupy Chelsea's main position forever.
But one thing that is obvious is that, for the time being, Chelsea still cannot completely break away from the framework that has been built over the past decade or so, which has penetrated into Chelsea players and every aspect of the team.
Manchester City coach Guardiola said before the game that it is very important to score first against Chelsea. This is because of his understanding of Chelsea. Only by scoring first can Chelsea be forced to press forward.
If Chelsea scored first, the Blues would start to adopt their most familiar defensive counterattack tactics.
But no one expected that Manchester City would score a goal right at the start of the game.
This not only confused Chelsea, but even Manchester City itself was a little uncomfortable with it, so much so that in the few minutes after the goal, both teams played in a somewhat chaotic manner.
Manchester City didn't know whether they should continue to attack or slow down the pace, keep possession of the ball and let Chelsea press forward.
Guardiola on the sidelines and captain Su Dong on the field quickly realized the team's problems. They both stepped forward to stabilize the team's position, continued attacking for a while, then slowed down the pace, patiently controlled the ball, and allowed Chelsea to press forward.
Chelsea did not rush out blindly, they are also a very experienced team.
After conceding the goal, Chelsea didn't adjust until the 25th minute, then they seized an opportunity and launched a high attack.
First, Sturridge passed the ball, and Drogba shot from the near corner of the penalty area, but was saved by Courtois. Then Juan Mata passed the ball, giving Drogba another chance to shoot in the penalty area, but this time it was slightly off target.
After attacking for a while, Chelsea slowed down the pace appropriately.
Unexpectedly, in the 34th minute, Chelsea suddenly launched another quick counterattack.
Busquets' pass in the midfield was intercepted, Sturridge went straight behind Marcelo, and used his speed to break through Manchester City's defense, avoiding Drogba in front and passing the ball to the unguarded back point.
Courtois reacted quickly, moved quickly, left the goal and rushed out before Meireles, and hit the ball out of the penalty area with one hand, causing him to collide with Meireles.
The ball was kicked directly out of bounds by Toni Kroos, and Manchester City resolved a very dangerous attack.
Courtois' defense even won a lot of applause from the Stamford Bridge stadium, but he himself was also hit hard and was carried to the sidelines by the team doctor for treatment. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured and returned to the stadium soon.
After that, the trend of the first half was basically Manchester City controlling the ball, occasionally creating opportunities through passing, while Chelsea patiently defended and waited for the opportunity to counterattack, but neither side was able to create any threats.
…
After the change of sides in the second half, Chelsea launched a fast-paced attack as soon as the whistle blew. At the same time, the actions on hand began to become more and more vigorous. Obviously, the Blues players also began to feel the pressure.
But Manchester City's defense is not made of paper either.
In the past two seasons, the central defender combination of Pepe and Kompany has always been the most solid central defender partnership in the Premier League. Although Marcelo and Zabaleta are both offensive, Manchester City has strong passing and ball control capabilities, and most of the game is controlled by Manchester City, so Manchester City's defense has always been among the best in the Premier League.
When Chelsea's attack was thwarted, Manchester City was patiently waiting for opportunities.
In the 58th minute, Manchester City's midfielder chased and intercepted, and finally succeeded in stealing the ball from Ramirez near the center line. David Silva quickly passed it to Su Dong.
Su Dong stopped the ball and turned around, taking a few steps forward. Seeing that Chelsea's defense was retreating rapidly, he did not hesitate, seized the opportunity, rushed forward, and shot.
This long shot, which was twenty-seven meters away from the goal, caught everyone off guard.
Chelsea goalkeeper Cech was originally standing on the outside and was caught off guard at this time. He kept backing away and finally jumped high, trying to tip the ball over the crossbar.
Unexpectedly, although Su Dong's shooting range was long, his leg strength was amazing. Cech couldn't even kick the ball out with one hand. He just made the ball change direction slightly, but it still fell into Chelsea's goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!"
"WORLD WAVE!!!!!!"
"Oh my God, another world-class goal!"
"Su Dong scored twice, a very exciting goal, 2-0!!!"
Su Dong rushed to the sidelines frantically, running around the field all the way, and was stopped by Guardiola in the visiting team's coaching bench. The two hugged each other tightly on the sidelines, and other Manchester City players also caught up and stood in a group.
"We were really impressed by how united City were."
"Many people say that Guardiola is not good at dressing room management. Instead, captain Su Dong is the soul of the dressing room. He stabilizes Manchester City's dressing room well and keeps the teammates around him closely united."
"It is very difficult to make a fledgling team like Manchester City achieve results and show cohesion, but it is the cooperation between Su Dong and Guardiola that has made Manchester City invincible on the court."
Two to zero, the score made Stamford Bridge silent.
Chelsea fans must be unhappy, but they have to admit that, for now, Manchester City's strength is indeed above Chelsea.
Not to mention sending out all the main players, even if Manchester City played with a rotation lineup, they would not necessarily lose to Chelsea.
There is no way, the wealthy teams are so willful! Chelsea used to ravage other Premier League teams in this way, and now it is their turn to be ravaged by Manchester City.
Ultimately, it is the power of capital.
The difference is that Manchester City has superstars like Su Dong, which makes Manchester City rise faster and more rapidly than Chelsea back then, and at the same time more unstoppable.
In front of the home team's coaching bench, Boas put his hands on his waist and pursed his lips. He was obviously not satisfied with the result, but he also knew that the players had tried their best.
Chelsea's lineup is old, and the longer time goes, the more disadvantageous it will be for Chelsea.
The tough battle against Valencia in the middle of the week had a great impact on Chelsea. The players were exhausted, which resulted in the team being unable to stop Manchester City's penetration and attack in this game.
Especially their ability to pass and control the ball, which is like mercury flowing on the ground, is really terrifying and hard to defend against.
Boas also had to admit that only Barcelona and Barcelona's direct descendants could develop such a passing and controlling system.
This is something other teams can't learn.
(End of this chapter)
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