Chapter 190: After the Breakthrough, Practice Your Feet

In Mourinho's tactical system, Wang Li is Chelsea's right midfielder.

It was this right winger who scored five goals for Chelsea in a warm-up match and a league match. If you add in the two shots on the goal post, Wang Li's threat to the goal alone is even greater than that of half of the Chelsea team. Of course, it doesn't mean that Wang Li can really match the entire team in attack. This is just a one-sided statistic of the number of shots.

Throughout Wang Li's career from joining the Wolverhampton youth team to joining the England team and now in all the games he has played for Chelsea, in one-on-one situations, except for the time when he was intercepted by Carvalho in the European Cup, almost no one could intercept his dribbling. This technique is outstanding and one of the best in the world. In terms of defense, if you carefully count, Wang Li has made many steals on the field, and the counterattacks brought about by each steal are also very effective.

This super star is also very fast. In the England-France match in the European Cup, his fastest running speed in the last 10 minutes even reached 13 meters per second. I believe that at this speed, if he participates in the 100-meter race in the Olympics, he will also get very good results. Of course, this kind of good result is worthy of the top few places or even the first place.

After carefully observing Wang Li's statistics, we can come to a conclusion: Wang Li's work on the court is almost all for scoring goals. Whether it is defense or passing, he is very purposeful. Perhaps this is also the reason why he has a very high goal efficiency.

In addition, this English superstar has a special way of scoring goals, which even gave many world-class goalkeepers a headache in the European Cup. That is his long-range shooting skill with his right foot!

Many people may be surprised that Wang Li can kick such a powerful shot. You know, he doesn't look strong. In the first round of the Premier League, the super lob shot from 60 meters away was undoubtedly the best goal of the round. According to media reports, that goal is likely to be directly included in the top ten classic goals in the history of the Premier League. This shows how threatening the long-range shot of this super star who is not even 18 years old is.

How can such a player be defended to limit his performance? Now this question is facing the new Crystal Palace coach Dawe.

Although the Premier League has just started, Crystal Palace has already lost a game against Wolverhampton. He is still impressed by the "dwarf" striker of Wolverhampton. A supplementary shot and a penalty made Dawe burst into tears! Now they are facing the giant team Chelsea. If Crystal Palace loses continuously, it will definitely affect the players' hearts and have a great impact on the future league.

Therefore, when facing reporters, Dawe said, 'We will definitely play in the team's style and make efforts', which means that even if we lose, we must let these players regain some confidence to face future games.

In order to defend Chelsea's "goal maniac" Wang Li, Dawe and his coaching staff studied for a long time and carefully analyzed the methods used by other teams against Wolverhampton last season. Finally, they came to a conclusion: this kind of player must not be underestimated, and he must not be given any room to play. He must be defended as a world-class superstar. However, this new star has a very obvious shortcoming, which is also the aspect that other teams targeted in defending him last season - his running and passing ability are not up to standard.

It's easy to find the defensive direction. As long as the players block his receiving route, all problems will be solved and there will be no need to worry too much.

"Find two players to defend Wang Li closely, and have another player to provide support from the side and block him at all times." This is the solution the coaching staff came up with after research.

As for what to do with players like Drogba, Lampard and others, Dawes has no good solution for this. There are gains and losses, and everything cannot be perfect. How can he completely stop this superstar from performing without sacrificing something?

Crystal Palace could only hope that Chelsea's offensive players would not be able to find their form in the next day's game... After Dawe informed the players of this tactic, Hudson said in surprise: "What, Mr. Dawe, you want me and Popovich to defend that kid closely throughout the game? And Boyce also needs to pay attention to backup defense at all times?"

"Yes, that's it."

"So sir, what about the others?" Boyce asked. Although he didn't say it, the other players understood that he was referring to Chelsea's center forward Drogba.

Dawe did not answer, but directly read out the list of players for tomorrow's game: "Boyce, Popovich, Hudson, Granville, Butterfield, your task is to defend the team. Mainly pay attention to the black-haired No. 21. I don't need to say much about his strength. As for Drogba, you still need to pay attention to marking him in the penalty area."

After listening to Daowei's arrangements, the players who were called just now nodded to indicate that they understood.

"Hall, Hughes, Ricci and Korka, you will start tomorrow. You should also participate more in defense and don't launch attacks rashly. Chelsea's offensive ability is too strong. Don't leave any gaps for the opponent. Remember, you must ensure the team's defense. Rodriguez, you should be at the front and launch a counterattack when you have the chance to get the ball. Maybe tomorrow's game will be difficult, but I hope you can perform at your best."

Obviously, what Dawe said to the reporter as "my tactics tomorrow" refers to the 541 defensive counterattack formation. However, even so, the players will not have any objection. As a newly promoted team, it is natural to arrange this tactic when facing the Chelsea team that has gathered stars this season.

However, the loyal fans of Crystal Palace will definitely not be satisfied with this style of play, because the opponent is Chelsea, who is also a London team! !

It has to be said that although the strength of the two teams in this game is very different and even the media feel that there is nothing to watch, it is undeniable that this is also a derby between London teams.

Every derby match is very exciting, and this is no joke.

Take Manchester United for example. Perhaps Sir Alex Ferguson's biggest headache is not the games against Arsenal, Liverpool, or Chelsea, but the games against Manchester City. Even though Manchester United has a high chance of winning, they rarely have all their players on the field. In other words, Manchester City will do everything they can to weaken Manchester United. It's not a matter of the score. Maybe Manchester City doesn't even care about the score when playing against Manchester United. This is the deep hatred between the two teams and their fans throughout history.

And now, if the loyal fans of Crystal Palace knew that the new head coach Mr. Dawe actually used this turtle defense tactic in the game against Chelsea, he might encounter a lot of trouble on his way home today... 4 pm on August 21, Selhurst Park, London.

A large number of Crystal Palace fans wearing red-bottomed blue-striped jerseys had gathered in the square and were taking turns entering the stadium through the entrance. At this time, a blue bus drove directly in from the vehicle passage and stopped at the door of the player passage.

The Chelsea players felt the hostility of the Crystal Palace fans as soon as they got off the bus. The Crystal Palace fans who had just come in from the fan aisle gathered together and shouted at the Chelsea players:

"You're finished! Go back to Stamford Bridge!"

"We will defeat you ten to zero and let you know what strength is!"

"Just wait, I'll take care of you in a bit!"

…These gentlemen in ordinary days seemed to have lost all their manners and directed all kinds of dirty words at the Chelsea players. Some even wanted to cross the short guardrail next to them and have direct physical contact with the Chelsea players. Fortunately, the security guards of the stadium reacted in time and stopped the chaos.

Of course, another big reason is that after the Chelsea players got off the bus, they all walked into the away team's locker room inside the stadium in a low-key manner. Even if Wang Li had martial arts skills, he would never want to try the fists of so many fans. That would definitely be a very unwise choice.

"I just realized that fans in London are so violent..." Drogba said with sympathy. This seemingly ferocious African man now behaved more like a pitiful girl who had just been persecuted.

"How long have you been in London? It's nothing. Wait until the next game against Arsenal and you'll know what it means to be hot-tempered!" Bridge said to Drogba with a chuckle. Then he remembered something and turned to Wang Li and asked, "By the way, Alan, did you provoke Arsenal fans at Highbury last season?"

Wang Li smiled and said, "At that time, I was so excited!"

"What? Alan, you are amazing. You actually dared to do such a thing at Highbury. Don't you have any sequelae?" Joe Cole shouted excitedly, and then pretended to check Wang Li's body carefully. "It's really intact. I think you will lead the team in the next game. After they score a goal, we can laugh at them together! It must feel great to be scolded by tens of thousands of fans together!"

"Fuck!! You are such a slut! Joe, I think you'd better go see a psychiatrist. It's not good to like being a masochist!" Thomas looked at Joe Cole carefully and said pitifully.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Nothing, nothing..."

"Thomas gave me a Japanese film last time. The heroine in the film was tied to the roof naked. She was whipped and moaning in comfort, shouting ah...ah...ah..." Bridger added. The servile expression he demonstrated with his own body caused laughter in the locker room.

"Oh my god! Thomas, I'm not done with you yet, just wait!"

…………At 5:40 in the afternoon, Selhurst Park was already packed with more than 30,000 fans. Since they are both in London, at least half of them are Chelsea fans. Generally speaking, the number of fans of Crystal Palace Club cannot be compared with Chelsea, who often play in the Premier League, even though it is Selhurst Park now.

At this time, James Richardson, the anchor of Setanta Sports Channel, had already received the starting lineups of the two teams. He began to introduce them to the fans in a very neutral tone:

"Let's take a look at Chelsea first. The Portuguese still uses the 433 formation he used in the last game. The goalkeeper is No. 1 Petr Cech. On the back line, there are captain No. 26 John Terry, No. 18 Wayne Bridge, No. 6 Ricardo Carvalho and No. 29 Robert Huth. The midfielders are No. 8 Frank Lampard, No. 10 Joe Cole and No. 4 Claude Makelele. The forwards are No. 15 Didier Drogba, No. 21 Alan Wang and No. 16 Arjen Robben."

"We can see that the difference from the last game is that the young Arjen Robben got the chance to start in place of Geremi. It seems that Mr Mourinho has high expectations for this new Dutch star."

"On the other hand, the head coach of the home team Crystal Palace, Dawe, arranged a 541 formation. It seems that he intends to defend with all his strength to fight for a point. However, in such a London derby, is it a bit too conservative to play with this formation? Well, let's not worry about that. Here are the players on the field: Goalkeeper No. 1 Speroni, the back line is Boyce, Popovich, Hudson, Granville, Butterfield..."

As a neutral commentator, Richardson certainly wouldn't care too much. However, when he saw his own players go into the field with a formation of five defenders and a single striker, the Crystal Palace fans in the audience immediately became unhappy and they all booed Mr. Dawe, who had just been appointed as the head coach.

Even many radical fans angrily threw everything in their hands towards the Crystal Palace bench. What's a bit tragic is that the distance between the fan stands and the bench at Selhurst Park is very close, and one can even reach the bench from the first row of seats with just a light jump.

It seems that in this game, Dawe will definitely suffer a lot... On the other hand, Mr. Mourinho, who just came to the bench, was sitting upright on the bench, smiling and talking with the assistant coach Clark next to him. This "madman" coach in the media's mouth has won the favor of most Chelsea fans after these two big wins. When he walked into the stadium, he even received applause from the audience.

This kind of different treatment has clearly distinguished the strength of the two head coaches, at least the fans think so... After the players of both teams entered the field and took their positions, with the referee's whistle, this focus battle in London finally started. Chelsea kicked off first. Drogba kicked the ball to Robben with the instep of his foot and ran towards the front court. Robben got the ball, passed it back to Wang Li with his heel, and also moved forward.

Wang Li stepped on the football, looked at the situation in the front court, and grinned.

He had been looking forward to this match for a long time. His inner strength had broken through, and his ability on the football field had also greatly improved. It was just right for him to practice his feet against this fish sac team...

(To be continued)