Chapter 318: The Highest Level of Pretending

The result of this game was beyond the expectations of the European media.

Even though these media admit that Chelsea is really strong, this game was played at the Dragon Stadium, Porto's home stadium, and they were able to score 4 goals in such a game. It has to be said that this offensive ability is even comparable to Barcelona.

Although the Premier League has been developing very well in recent years and is even expected to surpass Serie A to become the world's number one league, in the eyes of European media, even the dominant teams in the Premier League still have a certain gap with giants such as Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid and AC Milan.

However, the final round of Group H of the Champions League shocked the European media again and made the English media very happy. At the press conference, the English reporters who came with the team praised Mourinho highly, saying that "his choice of Chelsea was a very wise choice. Such a world-class coach should come to the Premier League to develop in order to have a future." They almost quarreled with the Portuguese reporters on the spot for this.

Facing the attention of these reporters, Mourinho's performance was very calm. In the post-match press conference, he only talked about the process of the game lightly, as if he was an outsider: "This game was very exciting. First of all, I want to congratulate Porto for their appearance in the group. As the defending champions, their strength is worthy of recognition. I am looking forward to playing against them again. I believe that many fans like to watch this kind of exciting game."

Mourinho's words were like a needle that pierced directly into the hearts of the Portuguese media. It was obvious that the "madman"'s words completely drew a line between himself and Porto, which could also be said to be a pledge of allegiance to Chelsea.

The Portuguese journalists present obviously did not want to let this "traitor" go. A reporter from La Stampa immediately asked half-sarcastically: "Mr. Mourinho, in this game, do you think you defeated your old self or Mr. Fernandes?"

Faced with this obvious side question, Mourinho did not lose his temper and get angry with the reporters this time. He just said lightly: "There will inevitably be wins and losses on the football field. On the one hand, it is related to strength, and on the other hand, it also has a lot to do with luck. Although Chelsea won this time, if we are not careful next time, we may fail. I will remind my players."

Obviously, Mourinho did not answer the reporter's question directly. After saying this, he stood up and left the press conference.

In fact, from Mourinho's attitude which is completely different from usual, we can see that he still has certain feelings for Porto. After all, the Dragon Stadium is where he became famous. When he was unknown and even kicked out by Sporting Lisbon, it was Porto that gave him the opportunity, so he became the "madman" he is today.

Everyone has feelings, and Mourinho is no exception.

However, even though many Portuguese reporters at the scene saw this, they would not report it truthfully. In fact, this is the dark side of the media. After Chelsea just defeated Porto, if they praised Mourinho, the fans would not support it.

Catering to the readers' appetite is the most important thing. As for the facts?

That doesn't matter at all.

Fortunately, Porto advanced from the Champions League group stage, which may be the biggest consolation for local fans.

………..

If Chelsea had beaten Porto 4-2 away from home in the Champions League a year ago, it would have been called a "super upset" by media all over Europe.

But now, no one is surprised by the result of this game. Even the Portuguese media recognizes Chelsea's strength. They are just angry about Mourinho's departure. In the second half of this game, Chelsea performed too perfectly. Even many European media said that "even Real Madrid can't get any benefit from them."

This is the role of record.

If a team loses consecutively and then suddenly performs well in one game, it will be called an "upset". However, if it keeps winning, even if it really beats a stronger team, the media will think it is commonplace, even though Chelsea has not won any European-recognized honors in the past 50 years.

After the game, Wang Li, who came on as a substitute in the second half, was once again selected as the best player of the game. In the report of The Times, he was given a high score of 8.5 by the media. There is no doubt that his performance was perfect---

"If Alan doesn't play, Chelsea will probably lose the game. Just like what many people think now, the name Alan Wang is almost synonymous with goals. Although he only scored one goal in the game, which disappointed many fans, looking at the entire second half, all three goals were more or less related to him. This is the role of the core. There is no doubt that Mr. Mourinho is working hard to train Alan into the team's offensive core."

"In our interview, England superstar Lineker used the word 'brilliant' to describe Allen's performance. When talking about the future of this young player, Lineker did not hesitate to say 'his future is bright'. Yes, if a player scores 33 goals in 16 Premier League games, no one can say anything about his performance. This goal efficiency is absolutely unprecedented. We only hope that he can perform better in future games. Now, all the Premier League giants must pay attention. Chelsea, the giant, has risen. If they want to perform better in the Premier League, they must face this fact. Now, what they must do is to find a way to curb Allen's performance."

The Times devoted a large amount of space to describing Wang Li's performance in this game. Undoubtedly, Wang Li has become the most watched professional player in the English football field.

In fact, Wang Li himself felt that his performance in the game was very good. He thought it was mainly because he had been watching from the sidelines for a long time. As a bystander, he had a deep understanding of Porto's tactics, personnel configuration, strength, etc. when he came on the court. Therefore, he was able to perform so well after he came on the court.

Another important reason for Wang Li's outstanding performance is that his Chelsea teammates now completely "regard" him as the offensive core.

When Mourinho first proposed this idea, many players, although they did not say it on the surface, were somewhat unconvinced in their hearts. You know, this job has always been Frank Lampard's before. Lampard has been in Chelsea for many seasons. Whether it is experience, technology or experience, he has convinced his teammates. Even if Wang Li scored many goals in several rounds of the league, these are just goals and have little to do with the core tasks of the team.

But as the league progressed, Wang Li became more and more adapted to this position. This adaptation not only brought great benefits to Chelsea's offense, but also increased many scoring opportunities for his teammates. In other words, since Wang Li became the core player, although his number of goals did not increase too much, his teammates' chances of scoring increased. This made it possible for Chelsea's players on all three fronts to have scoring opportunities in many cases during the offense.

In this way, everyone benefits, so they are convinced of his position and performance, and cooperation will naturally be much smoother.

………

After Chelsea returned to London, Mourinho did not give the team a holiday because of the end of the Champions League group stage. Instead, the training became more rigorous.

In the near future, it will be the absolute focus battle of the Premier League before Christmas, Arsenal vs. Chelsea. This game is also the biggest challenge Chelsea will face in the first half. Obviously, almost all non-Chelsea media hope that Arsenal can stop Chelsea's winning streak. Even the English Football Association thinks so. For them, it is definitely a wonderful thing for a Premier League team to perform better in the Champions League, but if there is no opponent in the league, then English football will be dominated by one team, which is not what they want to see.

Obviously, the FA officials would rather see a seven-team competition like in Serie A, rather than Chelsea being the only team leading the league.

Therefore, before the start of this game, Chelsea was under great external pressure. In order to make the players train seriously and reduce pressure, Mourinho even took out the killer method of "closed" training.

In the training, the "zone attack tactics" previously designated by Mourinho became the focus. He knew that the cunning Frenchman would definitely come up with a strategy to limit Wang Li's performance. Even though he had great confidence in the black-haired boy in the team, Mourinho did not want to make any mistakes in the game. This was Chelsea's last hurdle before Christmas and also the most important one. This game could only be won and not lost.

On this day, at the Chelsea first team training ground, the players were conducting an intra-squad training match.

This kind of intra-team training match usually separates the main players from the substitutes. Although this creates a class division among the players and is not conducive to the harmony of the locker room, it is the only way to increase the competitive pressure within the team and gradually improve the strength of the entire team.

This time, Wang Li was assigned to the bench.

In fact, in the current Chelsea team, the division between main players and substitutes is not very clear. For example, Joe Cole, Geremi and Scott Parker are all on the substitute side, while Arkin Robben and Damien Duff are in the main team. In terms of strength, these people are not much different now. It can only be said that Robben and Duff have better cooperation ability, which is more in line with Mourinho's tactics, so they are in the main team.

The reason why Wang Li was on the bench was naturally to test the application of the new tactics.

On the field, the main team still used Chelsea's 433 formation, while the substitute team used 442, with Wang Li participating in the attack as a central midfielder.

"Alan, please be gentle when you shoot. I don't want to miss the game in a few days." When Peter Cech heard the head coach Mourinho ordering Wang Li to go to the substitute, he immediately ran over and said complainingly.

Wang Li smiled embarrassedly, patted Cech on the shoulder, and said, "I will try my best."

"No, kick hard. I only have a chance to play after he goes to the hospital." Thomas said sarcastically. Maybe many people who heard the conversation between these three people would think that the conflict between Thomas and Cech has been exposed, but in fact, the relationship between the two in the team is very good, and the competition will only be based on strength. They will not play any conspiracy or tricks. Such words are just a joke.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Cech just curled his lips and said to Wang Li: "Don't listen to him."

"We are best friends," Thomas said demonstratively, putting his arm around Wang Li's shoulders.

Cech turned his head and said disdainfully: "That was only in the past."

"It's the same now. We used to live together." Thomas said with a chuckle, and then he exerted force with his arms to push Wang Li's body towards him.

Unfortunately, Wang Li would not let him do whatever he wanted. He rolled his eyes helplessly, spread his hands and said, "I don't have that kind of fetish. Stop talking nonsense and start the game."

………

The 442 formation of the substitute team is very confusing. For the general 442 tactics, the two players in the middle of the four midfielders are extremely important because they are the core of the team and need to participate in the offense and return to the half court to participate in the defense. Because the offense of the two wings will drive the front court and create more opportunities for the team, defense is the focus most of the time.

In Chelsea, Frank Lampard, Geremi and others can play these two positions, but Wang Li is definitely not one of them. In fact, Wang Li has just adapted to the frontcourt running position. He has never practiced defensive running. Although his "shadow-like leg" makes him think that his one-on-one defensive ability is not weaker than any other player, in most cases, few players will always dribble past the opponent by themselves. Even if there are some, after being intercepted once or twice, they will try to seek cooperation instead of rashly going for a one-on-one duel---

After all, football is a sport for 11 people.

For the substitutes, this training match went very smoothly. With Joe Cole and Geremi supporting them, the main defense could not pose much threat to Wang Li. One reason was that in normal training matches, the players would not really use dangerous moves, but the most important reason was that Wang Li's choices on the court became flexible and varied.

There were always Chelsea players supporting Wang Li within 15 meters. As a result, Wang Li could pass the ball or dribble past the defense at will. If the main team wanted to interfere with the attack, they had to try hard to steal the ball. However, they had to send out at least two players to intercept Wang Li's ball. However, the substitute players next to them, such as Joe Cole, Scott Parker and others, were by no means wooden stakes. The main team had to defend them seriously, which put the main team's defensive players under serious pressure for a while and gave the substitute team more opportunities.

In fact, although Wang Li was always able to attract two or even more defensive players from the opponent in previous games, these players could run around to block his passing route or defend other Chelsea players in the gaps when Wang Li did not receive the ball or dribbled past opponents. This meant that even if two people defended Wang Li, it was not a complete 11 vs. 10 situation on the field. In terms of data, it can also be understood as 11 vs. 10.5, which means that Wang Li did not fully play his role.

Now, Mourinho's tactics, firstly, allow Wang Li to have space to play freely, and secondly, expand Wang Li's offensive range to maximize this advantage. In other words, as long as this tactic is used and the opponent has two players defending Wang Li, then even if the situation on the field cannot reach the perfect 11 to 10, it will be as close to this data as possible.

This is the essence of Mourinho's zone attack tactics.

On the field, Wang Li passed the ball to Joe Cole in front of him under the defense of Terry and Paulo Ferreira. Joe Cole passed the ball back to Wang Li with his heel. After receiving the ball, Wang Li shot directly and blasted open the goal guarded by Petr Cech.

On the side of the court.

Assistant coach Clark looked at the goal with his eyes shining. He turned around and said happily, "Sir, this tactic is really suitable for the team. I am more confident about the game in three days."

Mourinho was secretly delighted after hearing Clark's words. After all, he had researched this tactic from beginning to end. If the tactic succeeded, he would be very happy to hear others' praise. However, Mourinho felt that he needed to maintain his dignity in front of others. He did not show too much joy, but frowned and said, "It seems that there are still some loopholes. What if Joe Cole's position was also stuck?"

In fact, Mourinho certainly knew in his heart that even if Joe Cole was stuck, Wang Li could still pass the ball to Geremi on the left, Gudjansen in the penalty area, or even dribble the ball himself, but he just picked out a mistake at random to show his solemnity and cover up the joy in his heart.

Unfortunately, although assistant coach Clark has been working with Mourinho for several months, he still doesn't know the Portuguese well. It's no wonder. Except for important matters, Mourinho stays in the office all day long. He rarely even pays attention to training games. He can be called an "office man". How can others have a deeper understanding of him?

Facing the solemn expression of the Portuguese man next to him, Clark just tried hard to think about this problem. He even felt that as long as Mourinho proposed it, there must be a reason. He asked tentatively: "Should Joe Cole's position be moved back a little bit?"

Mourinho shook his head and said seriously: "Any tactics will always have loopholes. We can only do our best to make up for this deficiency."

After hearing these seemingly philosophical words, Clark nodded unconsciously, thinking, "What does this have to do with the previous question?" But Clark always felt that this Portuguese man was full of knowledge and mystery, which made him even admire him a little, so he still wanted to continue to ask respectfully---

But at this time, Mourinho had already turned and walked towards the office building.

………