Chapter 263 Boss, Let Me Play Center

Blackburn Rovers' performance this season has been disappointing. In the first eight league games, they had 1 win, 3 draws and 4 losses, ranking only 19th. Relegation seems to be just a step away for them.

Of course, they also have some impressive results. In the fourth round of the league, Blackburn tied Manchester United 1-1 at home, which shocked the media.

Even so, Blackburn's away challenge against the powerful Chelsea is still not favored.

Today, Stamford Bridge was packed again. Many Blues fans who failed to buy tickets crowded outside the stadium, wanting to get game news up close and cheer for every goal Chelsea scored.

With Chelsea's strong performance in the league, these local Fulham fans are full of confidence in the future of the new season. If Chelsea continues this performance this season, Mr. Abramovich should perhaps consider expanding Stamford Bridge to accommodate more fans, so that Chelsea can take a big step towards becoming a top club.

It was not the first time that Blackburn manager Souness faced Wang Li. He always felt sorry for the player he missed. He even said sourly in front of the media: "If Alan could play for Blackburn, we would even set our goal on qualifying for the League Cup."

However, such talk is simply nonsense. Even if Blackburn has always been qualified to participate in the Premier League, a player with technical ability like Wang Li would never be able to stay in such a local team. His salary alone can cover half of the team's expenses.

Souness has studied this game for a long time. Although there is little hope of winning, if he can get a draw at Stamford Bridge, it will also contribute to the team's road to relegation this season. Moreover, the glory of simply stopping Chelsea's winning streak will make Souness famous, and the benefits to his future coaching career are self-evident.

In an interview, Blackburn captain Craig Short declared: "The team is very confident. We will play a wonderful game at Stamford Bridge and strive to win."

However, many media outlets were dismissive of this. The gap in strength between the two teams was too great. Even if Souness deployed some powerful tactics, no matter how hard Blackburn's players tried, facing the powerful Chelsea, their chances of winning were pitifully low.

This time, Wang Li did not express any opinions or declarations. He had no interest in a team like Blackburn. You know, he was able to lead the team to a big victory in Wolverhampton last season, and with the cooperation of so many outstanding teammates at Chelsea, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Blackburn would win without any changes in the lineup.

This has greatly aroused the interest of the media. They even speculated whether Wang Li had put all his energy into pursuing the beautiful little princess and had lost interest in football commentary. If they knew that Angela had already moved in with Wang Li, I wonder if they would be stunned.

Of course, there has been crazy reporting, that’s for sure.

………

At this time, the stands at Stamford Bridge were filled with blue, and the cheers of the Blues fans filled the entire stadium. On the other hand, the hundreds of Blackburn fans who came with the team to London could only huddle in a corner, and if you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't know where they were.

At this time, Creed Pesvak's voice also appeared above the stadium, and he began to introduce the starting lineups of the two teams:

"Blackburn lined up in a 442 formation, with goalkeeper Brad Friedel, defenders Lucas Neil, Dominic Matteo, Lorenzo Amoruso, Craig Short, midfielders David Thompson, Barry Ferguson, Tugay, Pedersen, and forwards Paul Dickov and John Stead."

"On the other hand, our Chelsea, Mourinho surprisingly arranged a 3412 formation. My God, the forwards are Gudjohnsen and Joe Cole, Allen is the attacking midfielder, the midfielders are Damien Duff, Arkin Robben, Scott Parker, Thiago Mendes, the defenders are William Gallas, John Terry, Paulo Ferreira and Wayne Bridge..."

"...We can see that Mr. Mourinho did not let Lampard, Makelele and Drogba play in the game. It seems that he intends to keep these players in the Manchester United game. Also, if these main players are injured or get cards in this game, it will not be worth it."

………

………

Jose Mourinho will certainly use his best weapons where they are needed most. Makelele and Lampard both received yellow cards in the last game. If there are any problems in this game, it will be a loss. Although striker Gudjohnsen's center ability is not as fierce as Drogba, he has comprehensive abilities. He can retreat to get the ball or make precise passes, which can effectively make up for the loopholes caused by Wang Li's lack of adaptation in the attacking midfielder position.

As for Joe Cole, that is just a bonus. In fact, his position is a shadow striker, and of course he can retreat. In short, facing a weak opponent like Blackson, Mourinho simply regards it as a training exercise before the big battle.

In fact, this was true. The game had just begun when Blackburn Rovers took up a defensive stance. It was called a 442 formation, but they only left one striker, John Stead, in the frontcourt. Another striker, Paul Dickov, retreated to their own penalty area to participate in the defense.

Chelsea launched a massive attack from the beginning of the game. Now everyone in the team has become accustomed to this style of play. Facing the soft persimmon in the Premier League, as long as they can take the lead in the first half, they will immediately switch to defensive counterattack in the second half. This tactic is almost invincible. The team's results are also the reason why they are convinced of head coach Mourinho.

However, before the game had even started for 10 minutes, veteran Blues fans in the stands already frowned deeply.

This was not because of the situation on the field. In the first few minutes, the ball was almost always under the control of Chelsea, and Blackson had no chance to resist at all. They were like a weak girl who had no power to fight back, allowing others to destroy them. However, this weak girl was wearing an iron coat...

Blackburn retreated across the board, leaving Chelsea with little chance of attacking.

Although this bottom-tier Premier League team is not very strong, they are only one level lower than teams like Chelsea. If they completely give up attacking and firmly defend their positions, 7 or 8 defensive players standing in the penalty area, even if they don't arrange any defensive tactics, it will be enough to block all shooting angles. What's more, their defensive players are not wooden stakes.

Although Blackburn captain Craig Short vowed before the game that the team would play a wonderful game, it was just a smokescreen to confuse Chelsea. For Blackburn, giving up the attack at Stamford Bridge was not a shameful thing. On the contrary, if they succeeded, they would not only receive praise from the media, but also increase their league points. Everyone knows how to choose this kind of profitable business.

As for letting go of the formation and fighting with Chelsea?

Souness is not that stupid.

Not to mention others, Didier Drogba alone is almost worth the price of their entire team. He is only 51 years old this year and is not so foolish as to think that Blackburn has the ability to compete with Chelsea.

As a result, it becomes very difficult for Chelsea to score goals.

Of course Wang Li had seen this kind of formation and playing style before. Not to mention anything else, he had encountered this kind of play even in Wolverhampton. At that time, he found the opportunity by dribbling the ball arrogantly to attract the opponent to follow and grab the ball. But now his fame is not as good as before. If he continues to provoke in this way, the opponent will not pay any attention to him, but will treat him as a monkey performing.

The best way to break this kind of dense defense is to use free kicks or high passes into the penalty area to provide scoring opportunities for the center forward. At this time, the advantage of a team having a high center forward is revealed.

However, Blackburn's players followed the tactical arrangements of head coach Souness and did not commit fouls in front of the penalty area. They did not make too many interceptions when they wanted to take long shots, dribble, etc. This left Chelsea's offensive players helpless and gave Wang Li a deep headache.

Now, there is only one center forward, Gudjohnsen, in Blackburn's penalty area. He is surrounded by several defenders and has no chance to perform at all. This makes it difficult to create scoring opportunities even with high balls, which puts Chelsea's offense into a dilemma.

Seeing this situation, Mourinho on the sidelines knew that he was a little careless. If Drogba could be on the field, as an extra center forward, Chelsea's chances of scoring would be much higher and they would not fall into this predicament.

In this way, the game time passed quietly, and in a blink of an eye Chelsea's attack had lasted for more than 40 minutes. The entire first half was slowly consumed in this helpless attack, and the fighting spirit of Chelsea players on the field was almost exhausted again and again.

At this time, the Portuguese man finally couldn't help but stand up. He paced back and forth on the sidelines thinking about the next strategy. If the game continued like this, Chelsea would be unable to score and might really face a draw. This would not only be a matter of two points, but if other teams followed suit, Chelsea's future league journey would definitely be very difficult.

After a while, he couldn't help but turn to Clark and asked, "What do you think we should do next?"

Assistant coach Clark shook his head and said, "It would be great if Didier could be here."

Mourinho frowned, glanced at Lampard on the bench, shook his head, and gave up the idea of ​​making substitutions now. There were only a few minutes left before the half-time break, so any tactical adjustments would have to be made in the second half.

Without the command of the head coach, the Chelsea team on the field could not come up with any good way to break through Blackburn's goal. The whole first half was really drowsy. Except for the 31st minute, when Wang Li's cold shot outside the penalty area almost scored a goal, Chelsea basically did not get any good scoring opportunities. Under such circumstances, the players' performance was really mediocre.

With the referee's whistle, the first half of the game ended.

However, Blackburn players, who had been attacked by Chelsea for half the game but had not been defeated for the first time, were not willing to be lonely. When Chelsea players were about to return to the locker room, defender David Thomson shouted in the direction of Wang Li: "You wimp, don't even think about scoring a goal!"

Although Thomson did not mention the name, all the players nearby obviously knew who he was scolding. The first half was already depressing enough, and when Wang Li heard this, he immediately became annoyed and shook his head and scolded: "What did you say?" He would not impulsively go up and beat someone up. Even if this was not during the game, such behavior was enough to prevent him from participating in the second half of the game.

Thomson was stunned, obviously not understanding the Chinese sentence above, and couldn't help but ask: "What?"

Looking at the boy's expression, Wang Li smiled and explained, "It's just that I have some ambiguous relationship with all the women in your group."

"Ah?" Thomson thought for a long time but still couldn't understand what Wang Li meant. He turned to himself in confusion and said, "My family is so charming?"

………

In the players' corridor, Mr. Mourinho, who was dissatisfied with the score in the first half, accepted an impromptu interview with reporters. Regarding the first half of the game, he spoke angrily:

"We Portuguese have a saying, buy a bus to block the goal. If I'm a Blackburn fan and I spend £50 to watch them train their defense, I'll be frustrated. If one team is only thinking about winning and the other team is only thinking about not conceding, then it's not a fair game."

The reporters nearby nodded frequently to indicate that what Mourinho said made sense, but Mourinho did not have so much time to waste here. He threw down a sentence: "Even if the opponent uses such despicable tactics, we will definitely score a goal" and then walked towards the locker room.

………

Although Mourinho spoke nicely to reporters, he actually couldn't come up with any good solution. He did not include Drogba in the roster for this game, which made the team's ability to break through dense defense much lower.

The opponent's tactics were very clear, which was to rely on crowding to make it difficult for Chelsea to score, but this really made it difficult for this "madman".

At this time, the atmosphere in the home team's locker room seemed a little depressing. It was the first time that Chelsea's locker room seemed so quiet.

Seeing this situation, Bridget, who always liked to attract attention, wanted to make a joke to liven up the atmosphere, but no one paid attention to his words, which made him feel depressed.

Seeing head coach Mourinho walk in, the players all turned their eyes to him. In this difficult situation, the head coach is the only one who can be relied on.

But in fact, Mourinho had no good solution. He could only bite the bullet and think of every possible way. He told the team: "In the second half, Frank will play and we will use headers to create chances..."

"...But, Claude, you also need to pay more attention to your defense and don't give the opponent a chance to counterattack..."

…

After head coach Mourinho arranged the tactics, the players sat in their seats and prepared to rest. This game was definitely very frustrating. They needed to recover their strength and work harder to score goals in the second half.

But at this time, Wang Li walked to Mourinho and asked tentatively: "Boss, let me and Eidur switch positions in the second half."