Chapter 234 Triangle Encirclement Tactics

Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, England.

Now, the game has entered the 30th minute of the first half, and Middlesbrough is leading 2:0. No one expected this score before the game. Perhaps the media and fans supporting Chelsea can regard this as just a mistake. After so many games, it is normal to have unstable performance occasionally, especially Thiago Mendes who transferred this year. His performance is really disappointing.

Although this idea makes some sense, it cannot conceal the strong strength of Middlesbrough and the tactical ability of Steve McClaren, a newly emerging young coach in England in the early 21st century.

Wang Li on the field has already experienced this deeply.

With Wang Li's outstanding performance in Chelsea, more teams will focus on him before the game. If a player like this who scores more than 2 goals in a game and is almost like a goal-scoring machine is allowed to play freely, then the game is almost doomed to fail. In previous games, many teams chose to let one or two players closely guard Wang Li throughout the game.

Facts have proved that this kind of close defense is not worth the cost.

First of all, if two players were sent to defend Wang Li closely, even if they were able to defend him, the team would be playing 9 against 10 from the beginning, which seemed like they were playing with one less player. As a quasi-giant team, Chelsea had star players on all three fronts, plus a tactical master coach, Mourinho. How easy would it be to win with one less player?

Moreover, after so many games, although he was closely defended by one or two players in every game, in fact, Wang Li's goal efficiency did not decrease at all. This result seemed to indicate that the close defense tactics did not work at all.

If you study Southampton's tactics, you will find that this newly promoted team did not conduct much research on Wang Li, but they relied on strict man-packing tactics and only lost two goals. It can be said that this is the team that has been most successful in defending Chelsea since the start of this season.

And now, Stephen McLaren has re-developed a tactic, let's call it the triangle encirclement defense tactic.

This tactic is very simple to say. It relies on one player to snatch the ball from Wang Li in close proximity, while the other two players double-team him from a slightly further away, but do not move forward. They only prevent Wang Li from making sudden breakthroughs and block his passing route.

These three defensive players are not fixed, so they do not carry out full-court defense. Only when Wang Li gets the ball, the three closest players of Middlesbrough will independently form this three-on-one encirclement.

In this way, after Wang Li gets the ball, if he chooses to force his way through the player who is defending him closely, he will easily be discovered and intercepted by the other two players who are there to make up for the loss. If he chooses to pass the ball, most of his passing routes will be blocked by the other two players. Coupled with the constant harassment from the player who is defending him closely, it is not easy for him to make any progress.

This tactic is simple to say, but seeing the tacit understanding of the Middlesbrough players, we know that they have practiced this tactic for a long time. Maybe Wang Li gave Mr. McLaren too much "pain" last season, so this time he specially formulated a tactic for Wang Li, and now, this tactic has achieved good results.

Yes, because of this tactic, Wang Li has encountered a lot of trouble since the opening. Middlesbrough did not restrict his receiving the ball, but after he got the ball, he tried to attack twice, but both ended in failure, so that now when Wang Li got the ball, he could only choose to pass back helplessly. This kind of triangular encirclement defense made him angry, but he had to admire the ability of the opposing head coach.

On the sidelines, head coach Mourinho also noticed Wang Li's predicament. He had not yet thought of a good way to crack the tactics that Middlesbrough had arranged against Wang Li. In fact, using such tactics to defend a player was indeed a bit of an overreaction. Even a world-class superstar player would be closely guarded by two players in a game.

However, Wang Li was the focus of the opponent's head coach, who arranged a tough tactic---

Perhaps this is also something to be proud of?

However, although Mourinho could not think of any way to change Wang Li's situation for the time being, he could make Chelsea's attack more threatening by adjusting tactics: every time Wang Li got the ball, he would be double-teamed by three opposing players. This shows that in McLaren's tactics, the right side is the key defensive area.

Mourinho walked to the edge of the field while chewing gum, called Frank Lampard, the center of attack, and whispered some instructions to him. Then, the situation on the field changed immediately.

Chelsea made adjustments and focused on attacking from the left. They also used the skills of Joe Cole and Geremi to continuously make long passes to the penalty area, creating opportunities for Drogba in the penalty area.

From this moment on, Joe Cole frequently sought breakthroughs from the left. Middlesbrough's left-back Zenden had no way to stop him. Left-back Southgate, following the coach's instructions, had to frequently support the central defense, which made the left side very empty.

At this time, Joe Cole was definitely the most dazzling person in the stadium. He used his skills to show off his footwork unscrupulously, which aroused the anger of the fans in the audience, but they had no way to stop it.

During this period, Chelsea mainly attacked the left side. Although the ball would occasionally be passed to Wang Li's feet, more often he would choose to pass it to his teammates so that they would have more and better opportunities. Therefore, Wang Li had some free time, and he frequently entered the penalty area to look for scoring opportunities.

The opponent's triangle encirclement tactic can indeed cause great trouble to Wang Li in the open area, but it is completely useless in the crowded penalty area. There is no space for breakthrough or passing. The first choice for getting the ball is to shoot.

On the sidelines, McLaren turned his head to look at the figure on the Chelsea bench wearing a suit and tie but with messy hair and a crooked tie, and a trace of admiration flashed through his mind. However, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse after only 30 minutes of the game.

Before Steve McLaren could come up with a plan, the situation on the field changed dramatically.

In the 41st minute of the first half, Joe Cole was still dribbling the ball on the wing. He took the ball directly to the left side of the penalty area. Facing Southgate's defense, he did not choose to break through, but kicked the ball to Geremi who was following with his heel.

Geremi got the ball and without thinking, he kicked it towards the penalty area.

At this time, in the Middlesbrough penalty area, Wang Li was in a position a little behind the large penalty area line, while Drogba was standing on the small penalty area line surrounded by two-meter players from the opponent. This time the football landed between Drogba and Wang Li.

There was also a defensive player next to Wang Li. When the ball was about to land, Drogba and Wang Li had already run here.

In an instant, three players jumped up at the same time---Drogba, Wang Li, Parnaby

But obviously, Wang Li is more skilled. Although the other two have the advantage of height, the Xiaoyao Sect's light skill 'Flying Yao Technique' is by no means comparable to the physical advantages of ordinary people.

Wang Li was in the air. When he saw the football flying towards him, he curled his lips and was about to head straight for the goal.

He feels very good now. The ball is less than 9 meters away from the goal. At this time, goalkeeper Schwartzel is standing a little to the right of the goal frame. If the ball is put into the left corner, it will definitely go in.

However, things don't always go smoothly. Middlesbrough defender Riggett reacted instantly, stretched out his big hand, grabbed Wang Li's waistband, and dragged him to the grass. However, he himself was not in a good situation. During the falling process, Wang Li pressed his hand on Riggett's shoulder, and after falling on the grass, he used the latter as a cushion...

After falling to the grass, Wang Li discovered something embarrassing. His upper body was lying on the ground, but his legs were on the body of the tall defender. Of course, this was nothing. What was more important was that his left leg was on the opponent's thigh, and his left foot was stopped between the opponent's legs.

Those cold shoe spikes told everyone nearby that as long as Wang Li stretched out his legs gently... ?

"Oh, sorry, are you okay?" Wang Li stood up somewhat awkwardly and reached out his hand to pull Rigt up in a friendly manner.

Fortunately, although Rigt had thought of that scene just now and even subconsciously covered his lower body with his hands, he was not hurt. After he reacted, he was in no mood to lie on the ground to win the sympathy of the referee. He quickly held Wang Li's right hand and stood up, "No problem, thank you."

At this time, Rigt was still feeling frightened.

However, the referee obviously ignored it. He saw the ball very clearly, so he directly showed a yellow card to Riggett and awarded Chelsea a penalty.

In fact, this penalty was a bit light. A dangerous move like that of Riggett just now should undoubtedly have been a red card. Perhaps this was at the Riverside Stadium, so the referee would of course favor the home team a little.

No one competed for the penalty kick. Frank Lampard, the team's offensive soul, stood directly in front of the ball and shot the ball hard into the dead corner of the goal, helping Chelsea to score a goal.

At this time, on the Chelsea bench, Mourinho chuckled, turned to Clark and said: "We recovered a goal in the first half, and the second half will be much easier."

Clark nodded and said, "Yes, sir. There will be a big difference in the players' mental state when they are behind by one goal or two goals."

"So, how do you think McClaren will respond in the second half?"

Clark thought for a moment and tentatively asked, "Will he defend with all his strength to maintain the one-goal advantage?"

Mourinho smiled and said nothing. He stood up, looked up at the defense on the field, then spit out the chewing gum he was still holding, turned and walked towards the player tunnel.