Chapter 260 Be Firm and Be Yourself

What is Portugal's champion coach Jose Mourinho best at? ---Defensive counterattack

If Capello is the originator of the 1:0 tactic, then Mourinho has fully developed this style of play. Even though Chelsea showed extremely fierce firepower in the first few rounds of the league, this cannot cover up the fact that the tactical play is still relatively conservative under the score.

But perhaps, the defensive counterattack tactics also highlighted Wang Li's role, so Chelsea was able to get such a big score. Undoubtedly, it was also a defensive counterattack. Compared with Dave Jones's cautiousness last season, Mourinho put Wang Li in the most suitable position. This is also an important reason why Wang Li played well in every Chelsea game---

From this perspective, Mourinho's lineup level is indeed higher than that of ordinary Premier League coaches.

During the halftime break, this "madman" threw out this tactic again. The 4321 peak attack suddenly turned into a 433 all-out attack and defense. In Mourinho's 433 defensive counterattack tactics, the two flanks were the top priority for the counterattack. At this time, Wang Li became the core of the team's counterattack.

It has to be said that after so many games, Mourinho has also developed a dependence on Wang Li:

Mourinho's best tactic is 541, with Wang Li at the forefront. With the threat of this black-haired boy, the opponent dare not attack too much, so the team can drag the game to the last minute. However, he also knows that he should abandon this idea. If one day Wang Li no longer plays under him because of injury or transfer, then this dependence will become a fatal flaw in his tactics.

Is there another dance master on the European stage?

Without a doubt, no

In the second half, Arjen Robben, who had just returned from injury, replaced Joe Cole as left winger, while Damien Duff, who had just scored a goal, retreated to play right winger. It seems that Mourinho has high expectations for Robben. In order to let him recover from injury and adapt to the game, he not only replaced Joe Cole, but also let Duff give way. This kind of favor is really rare.

However, Damien Duff is a bit depressed. In 2002, he transferred to Chelsea for 17.5 million pounds, which was one of the highest in the transfer market that season. But now in Chelsea, he still can't sit firmly in the starting position. Facing the arrangement of the head coach, he has to compromise. This may be the sadness of the all-rounder on the field...

And Joe Cole didn't even dare to complain. In this season, Mr. Mourinho has given him enough opportunities and his performance has been very good. But in this game, he really didn't perform well, and it was natural for him to be substituted.

"Qiao, there are still many opportunities. Don't look so serious." Wang Li ran over and comforted his friend with a smile.

Joe Cole forced a smile and said, "It's okay, Alan. You have to give me more guidance when you have time in the future. If this continues, I will spend my days on the bench again."

"OK, don't worry, I'll help you score another goal later."

"That's for yourself..." Joe Cole said with contempt.

………

In Manchester City's locker room, the players were silent and a little disappointed, and the atmosphere was very depressing. In fact, this was not entirely the reason for the lag in the first half.

Although the team's top striker Anelka is strong, he has an arrogant personality. In 2002, he even had a conflict with the national team coach and has not returned to the French team to date. He has the reputation of being a "problem boy".

The Manchester City team was divided into several factions by default, which led to disharmony in the Manchester City locker room and poor relationships among the players.

Although head coach Kevin Keegan has great prestige in the team, he is not good at mediating conflicts between players, so Manchester City's locker room is more like a powder keg, and a crisis may break out at any time.

Fortunately, in this situation, unlike the players' disappointment, Mr. Keegan walked in with a smile on his face. Yes, he was very satisfied with the players' performance in the first half:

"The team played very well in the first half, especially in the first 30 minutes of the game. I even felt like I was leading a super giant team..." Keegan started praising directly.

"…The first goal the team conceded was just a mistake. That was Chelsea's luck. I hope that in the second half, everyone will play with all their strength and not care about the result. This is the Manchester City Stadium. What we have to do is to show our ability in front of tens of thousands of fans. Chelsea is not scary, as long as…"

After Mr. Keegan finished his nonsense, the players felt less depressed. This is probably another role of the head coach. As the leader of the team, his mood directly affects the mood and state of the entire team.

In fact, at this time Mr. Keegan was indeed prepared to lose, but he was very open-minded. There were 38 league games in the whole season, and losing one did not matter. Besides, Manchester City performed very well in the previous rounds of games and is now ranked 9th in the league. As a third-year team in the Premier League, this performance is satisfactory enough.

This does not mean that Keegan has no ambitions. You know, in the two seasons combined, Manchester City has only spent more than 9 million pounds in the transfer market. Is it surprising that they lost 200 million euros to Chelsea? ---

Although football is not equal to money, there would be no professional football without money.

………

Contrary to what the fans imagined, after the start of the second half, Manchester City did not launch a massive attack despite falling behind. They just played steadily, seemingly adopting a style that sought not to achieve anything but to avoid making mistakes.

But you have to know that Chelsea's tactical arrangement was defensive counterattack, so Manchester City seemed to have a certain advantage on the field, which also made the game not at all intense.

Manchester City's tactical play is indeed solid. Each attack is initiated by midfielder Reina. Winger Phillips and midfielder Sinclair slowly advance with the ball. They will not attack blindly. There are always a few defenders in the backcourt to prevent Chelsea's sneak attacks.

Seeing this scene, Mourinho on the sidelines secretly gave Keegan a thumbs up. With this tactic, Chelsea most hoped to see a massive attack from the opponent. Then, by utilizing the intercepting ability of the three defensive midfielders Duff, Lampard and Makelele, Wang Li and Robben on the left and right roads could launch a quick counterattack and threaten the opponent's goal as long as there was a chance.

Keegan had obviously seen through Chelsea's style of play. Even when the team was falling behind, he still chose to play steadily. This calm mentality is truly admirable.

However, this does not mean that Manchester City has the advantage.

Mourinho's defensive counterattack tactics are usually implemented when the team is leading. If Manchester City does not launch a large-scale attack, Chelsea's backcourt will be safer. Although there are not many opportunities in the frontcourt, don't forget that Chelsea is now the leading side. As the game time slowly passes, it will be more beneficial to Chelsea.

Of course, this is not an invincible tactic. If Chelsea encounters a team with strong offensive capabilities such as Arsenal and Barcelona, ​​their tactics will obviously be at a disadvantage, because the team cannot defend at all, which is the same as giving the opponent a goal.

However, it is clear that Manchester City does not have this offensive capability.

………

In this game where Manchester City was unable to score for a long time and Chelsea had no outstanding performance, they finally scored a goal in the 77th minute.

Manchester City's attack, striker Anelka received the pass at the front of the penalty area, and he changed direction quickly and kept rubbing the ball back and forth with his feet, which made Chelsea captain John Terry, who was defending next to him, very helpless. This position was very dangerous and he dared not commit a foul here. After shaking off Terry, Anelka directly shot a low shot, which made the Blues fans sweat. Fortunately, Cech reacted quickly and saved the ball from going out of bounds.

Manchester City's corner kick, young player Phillips passed the ball to the middle of the penalty area, Bridge grabbed a good position and kicked the ball directly to the front court, the ball was directly passed to the feet of Arjen Robben on the left---

Chelsea's counterattack

After Robben got the ball, he ran towards the backcourt of Manchester City. Facing two consecutive defenders, Robben used two quick changes to show his unparalleled speed and sharp way of passing, and told all the Blues fans in the audience that his injury did not affect his condition.

When dribbling the ball to the front left of the penalty area, Robben still chose to cut inside. This may be his signature way of dribbling, but only Chelsea players know this. These Manchester City players obviously don't know this young Dutch player, so the defender Thatcher who was following him was directly thrown away. When Robben reached the penalty area line, there were already three defensive players around him. At this time, he no longer had the space to shoot.

However, Robben reacted quickly. When he looked up, he saw Wang Li coming on the right and passed the ball with his right foot.

Seeing Robben pass the ball to the opponent's No. 21 black-haired boy, Manchester City's defensive players immediately gathered in that direction. They all knew that this boy had a strong ability in long-range shooting and they must not give him space to shoot.

However, the ball was under the control of Wang Li and Robben. Wang Li shook off Mills, who was clinging to him, and before the opponent's players could block all the shooting space, he passed the ball in the opposite direction and passed it directly into the penalty area.

There was Robben again, and the cooperation between him and Wang Li was already quite tacit.

Manchester City players rushed over to defend, but this time Robben still did not choose to shoot, because there were still defensive players in front of him, and the angle was not very good. Facing the pass from Wang Li, Robben rolled the ball with his left foot and passed it back to the right.

At this time, Wang Li just ran up and swung his leg to shoot. The shot was only 5 meters away from the goal. Even if Buffon came in person, he would be powerless to save the situation in the face of Wang Li's shot.

"Goooooooooooooooooooal~~~~~~~~………." After a dull second half, the Blues fans were even a little drowsy. At this time, Wang Li's goal was really a timely rain, which cheered up the fans again.

After seeing Chelsea score another goal, the commentator's words became even more bitter. The radio broadcasted the slightly painful voice again, "Goal... Hey, Chelsea scored again. This is really something no one wants to see. The goal was scored by the opponent's No. 21 young player Allen Wang. It seems that at least in this game, his goal declaration has come true. There are still more than 10 minutes left in the game. I hope the players will work harder to score another goal."

At this time, the Chelsea fans in the stands were delighted and excited. The short pass cooperation between Robben and Wang Li in the opponent's penalty area was indeed extremely wonderful, leaving people speechless. Even the neutral fans kept shouting the names of Wang Li and Robben. The super long-distance world wave in the first half and this wonderful cooperation made them feel that this trip was not in vain.

At this time, the view switches back to the bench. After watching this attack, Mr. Mourinho seems to have remembered something. He turns his head to look at Joe Cole who is sitting on the bench, and then he holds his chin and seems to be lost in thought.

'if……'

………

………

In fact, the player with the lowest mood in this game was Manchester City's left winger Sun Jihai.

Head coach Keegan arranged him as a left winger, but also told him to defend well on the left to prevent the opponent's No. 21 kid from scoring. Of course, this was also the most important reason why he was able to replace Barton in the starting lineup.

However, after nearly 80 minutes of the game, Sun Jihai realized that he had no ability to defend him. The so-called "unusual Chinese derby" seemed to have been lost at the beginning.

But these are not the reasons for his depression. No one knows Sun Jihai better than himself. He knows that his characteristic is comprehensiveness. No matter attack, defense, dribbling, etc., he has no big flaws, but he is not outstanding in any aspect. But the head coach Keegan asked him to only play defense in this game, which obviously made his performance greatly inferior. When it comes to single ability, he may be inferior to many players in the team who cannot play.

Sun Jihai knew very well that all his performances were watched by the fans, the head coach, and his teammates. Perhaps after this game, it would be difficult for him to get a chance to start again, which made him feel very frustrated.

Yes, it's frustrating.

This mentality is not entirely due to fear of losing position, but mainly because the game was too depressing. For a full 80 minutes, he did not make any assists. This is not the usual Sun Jihai.

And now, Manchester City is in crisis, with the opponent leading by two goals. In this situation, if he could move forward and score a goal, he would surely be able to cover up the bleakness of the entire game with this performance, and even regain the favor of Mr. Keegan and take back his starting position?

Thinking of this, Sun Jihai's eyes lit up. He turned around and looked at the black-haired boy standing next to him. He shook his head silently. He knew that he was completely useless in the backcourt and it would be useless for the team if he stayed here.

He turned his head to look at Coach Keegan on the bench, and with a firm heart, he slowly ran to the front court...