Chapter 117 Unfathomable

Manchester City were four points ahead of Chelsea in the league before, which was a two-game gap, and now it's six points, which seems to be a two-game gap, but it's very different.

4 points, it is not difficult to catch up in two games. For example, Manchester City draws two games and Chelsea wins two games, so they can catch up.

6 points?

Manchester City need to lose two games!

Up to now, Manchester City is still unbeaten in the league, and they know how difficult it is for Manchester City to lose, so the gap of 6 points is very large. To catch up with this point, it needs more than two theoretical games.

Wansheng is naturally very happy to be able to continue to widen the gap in the league points. He defines the game as a 'very important victory', which is higher than the games with Liverpool and Arsenal. Of course, he can't say directly with Chelsea. The confrontation, because the meeting is of great significance, and the gap between winning is even greater. In addition, the game with Manchester United is also incomparable, because Manchester City and Manchester United are rivals in the same city. He wants to say that it is more important than the game with Manchester United, regardless of the media or fans, Even he himself would not agree.

In short, Liverpool and Arsenal are inexplicably lying on the gun, but fortunately the gun doesn't matter at all.

There are happy ones, and naturally there are unhappy ones.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was very dissatisfied with the result, he first summed up the team's poor performance, and then... angrily attacked referee Styles's penalty.

"I'm not happy with our performance, Villa made us play hard," Mourinho said. "Sometimes you can't win because you don't play well, and sometimes it's because the opponents are too good. That's how it was today."

Mourinho then turned the conversation and began to express his dissatisfaction with the referee. The reason was a favorable penalty for Chelsea in the first half. Terry's handball in the penalty area escaped the penalty, but Mourinho believes that it was this misjudgment. Let referee Styles start to find balance in the second half. The penalty was clearly skewed towards Villa.

"I'm not happy with the referee, I know that [Terry's handball] deserved a penalty, but I'd rather the referee awarded a penalty, and at the end of the second half, we deserved a penalty. I hope to see it in the second half to a normal referee."

"Our players were pushed down in the box. But they were not called. Crespo kept getting fouled in the header, but it was not called. In the middle of the fight, we were always called for fouls. Someone has to teach the referee, football can't There's a 'balance' saying, if you make a mistake, you avoid making it again. But the referee enforces his law of balance.' I made a mistake in the first half, so I'm going to make a lot of mistakes in the second half for it , to find the balance, 'That's what this game is about."

"I don't think he is a low-level referee, but when he called Chelsea games, he was shocking. Didier Drogba was fouled at this stadium last year without a penalty, and he was fouled at Highbred Roba. , and no penalty was awarded. The same situation happened to Robben today."

Mourinho kept talking about the referee, and it could be seen that he was very dissatisfied with the law enforcement of the referee Styles. But no matter what he said, Chelsea's poor form was definitely an important reason for the draw.

In fact, recently, Manchester City and Chelsea have had some state problems. This may be the ups and downs of a team. Around Christmas, the two teams were in great shape and won all kinds of games easily. Now During this period of time, the state declined, and the game was much more difficult to play.

Of course, there must be a reason for the poor form, and both teams have their own reasons.

The reason for Manchester City comes down to two points-injury and pressure. Needless to say, the pressure comes from the top position in the league and the intensive schedule.

Most of Manchester City's players have not experienced the road to winning the championship. To put it bluntly, the original Manchester City has no ability to win the championship at all. It is very good that they can try to qualify for the next European competition. Under such circumstances, the team suddenly Became No. 1 in the league, some players have not yet completed their mental adaptation, and several players are just young teenagers, their state is very unstable, and they will rise and fall with the team and the environment. The overall state of the team is poor.

Wansheng is trying to get the team back into shape through personal training through the "Football Master System" and psychological therapy for players.

This is also the focus of recent training efforts.

It's hard to find the reason for Chelsea's poor form. They don't have any problems with the lineup, because they still have stars with more than ten million pounds sitting on their bench. In addition, their players are also top stars, so naturally they won't. What pressure is there for them to fight for the championship? Because they have enough tactical rotation space, the dense schedule is not particularly stressful for them.

In short, Chelsea's situation is much better than Manchester City, and because of this, the media was more optimistic about Chelsea before.

The current situation is that Manchester City is doing better, so the media has to find the reason. This is like a scientist who is obsessed with exploring when he sees things that he cannot understand, he must explore, understand, and understand things clearly.

Then Chelsea's game performance, lineup, internal problems, etc., were analyzed by the body in many aspects, and the media quickly found two reasons - one was the player's poor performance, and the other was the player's injury affecting the entire team.

It was Ricardo Carvalho who didn't play well, and the Portuguese central defender took the cauldron.

On September 24, 2005, Luke Moore broke the goal, and Chelsea broke the golden body of the first 6 rounds of the league without conceding a goal. For this reason, the Villa striker also received a reward from the "Sun". Now the two teams are fighting again, and Moore has broken Cech's door again, turning the 3 points that Chelsea almost got into 1 point.

Moore's goal originated from a mistake in Chelsea's defense. In the 78th minute, Villa stole the ball and then counterattacked. Chelsea defender Carvalho swooped forward but did not block the ball. After he lost his position, he immediately opened the back line. When Villa's Ridgewell dribbled the ball to the bottom line, the three teammates had already outflanked them. Chelsea looked alone in front of the goal, and it was inevitable to concede the goal.

Carvalho's swooping out of position has become an important reason for the collapse of the defense line. If it weren't for this, the Portuguese's performance in this field could have been described as "outstanding".

Sky Sports gave him 7 points. "He is like a rock, and his overall performance is better than Terry, who is in mediocre form, but at a critical moment, the rock is loose."

Carvalho's aggressive style can sometimes intimidate opponents. When he plays well, he is very destructive to the opponent's offense, but sometimes it is easy to reveal his own flaws. Losing position and unnecessary fouls in dangerous areas are the most common mistakes he makes.

In this game, Carvalho stared at Aston Villa's starting striker, but in the end he was overwhelmed by a fever. If he chooses to stand up before conceding the goal rather than swooping in. At least Terry will not be left behind in the middle. In addition, Carvalho's small moves are also a worrying hidden danger. In the Champions League last season, he pulled Ballack and sent a penalty kick. This season, Chelsea has also been sentenced to capital punishment for two reckless fouls. Compared with Terry, Carvalho is more impetuous, and his own characteristics have become an unstable factor in Chelsea's defense.

Mourinho was also unhappy with Carvalho's performance, believing the Portuguese compatriot could have done better by instinct. "The FA Cup against Everton on Saturday. Carvalho is suspended, but even if he hadn't been suspended, I wouldn't have used him, he played badly against Charlton last game."

Another reason that was highlighted by the media was Lampard, but the reason for his reduced attacking performance was because of Essien's injury.

In the last game, Lampard had only one shot, and it was in the 87th minute when he shot hard from the left. But it was blocked by an Aston Villa defender, the last of Chelsea's 11 shots in the game.

Chelsea's iron man 'Lampard' used to be the man with the most shots in the team. His attack is also an important means of scoring, and Lampard still leads Chelsea's team with 13 league goals. However, since his goal against West Ham a month ago, Lampard's attacking firepower seems to have weakened. He once scored Everton's goal in the FA Cup in midweek, but this round of the league has become quiet again, with only one game in the game. Shooting is "abnormal" for him.

This anomaly started after the game against West Ham, and a related detail is that Essien was injured in that game, Gudjansson replaced the Ghanaian in midfield, and since the change of partners, Lampard's The way of playing has also changed, rushing into the opponent's penalty area less often, and there are more shots around the penalty area of ​​his own side, and his position and responsibilities have been fine-tuned.

Lampard's characteristics determine that he is the kind of player who must rely on the whole and his teammates to play. Essien's existence has completely liberated him. Lampard's goal climax this season appeared when Essien gradually integrated into the team. During this period, the Ghanaians took up most of the defensive tasks and it was a key factor.

In the current Chelsea, Gudjanssen is more like the flag-bearer in the attack, and Lampard has become "Essien". This role change seems subtle, but it has no small impact.

Another example is Eriksson's England team. The midfield combination of Lampard and Gerrard is unclear, and the result is rarely played. Eriksson's trial of midfielder Ledley King is actually out of liberation. 'Double virtue' consideration.

In the 2004 European Cup, "left midfielder" Scholes habitually leaned towards the middle, objectively allowing Lampard to move forward more boldly. This tournament is also one of the best events for Chelsea Ironman in England. .

......

The media has analyzed a lot of Manchester City and Chelsea, and all aspects of analysis and reports are flooding the entire sports page, but they don’t care about these Wansheng at all. Maybe some of their statements are correct, but it’s just two games, regardless of the team’s state. How, just two games, there are too many unexpected factors.

Even if Chelsea have two consecutive draws, if they are lucky, it is not surprising that it will become a two-game winning streak.

Besides, it is not surprising for Manchester City to lose two games in a row after one win and one draw. The key is to play. Of course, Wansheng is quite satisfied with the current situation, but he also has ties to the past games. If the team If he is unlucky, in the current state, he really does not have much confidence not to lose.

The most important job now is to maximize the team's state and performance.

Two days later, Manchester City played away to Everton. At Goodison Park, they played a bit difficult, but in the end they won by one goal.

After the game, Wan Sheng felt lucky. He talked about the only goal scorer, Lescott, "This is not the first goal. His long-range shot has become an important scoring method for us!"

"He is a very good full-back. When I see him, I always think of Roberto Carlos, but if he wants to reach the level of Carlos, he should continue to work hard!"

This is of course a compliment.

Robert Carlos is the world's top full-back and one of the "six superstars" of the Real Madrid Galaxy battleship. In comparison, Lescott is too immature. But today, his long-range strike helped Manchester City win, and for that, he deserves credit.

However, Manchester City did not have time to review past games, and soon they ushered in the game with Charlton.

The two teams met in the first half of the match. Charlton lost 2:6 to Manchester City. So Manchester City didn't care too much, they all thought this game would be easy, especially if it was a game at Manchester Stadium.

Charlton has just drawn with Chelsea and helped Manchester City gain two points advantage. Wansheng is still a little worried about this. Charlton can draw with Chelsea and is naturally in excellent condition. The big victory in the first half of the schedule does not mean that it can be won now. Even at the Manchester Stadium, there is no 100% certainty, so before the game he reminded the players to take it seriously.

But when it comes to the game, there is still a problem with the team's performance. The key is to be too careless!

Even Wansheng did not expect that Charlton fought so fiercely and attacked so fiercely at the beginning of the game. Manchester City were caught off-guard, and in the 11th minute. Manchester City's goal was broken, and Charlton scored first.

Next, Manchester City's state has improved and its performance has stabilized a lot, but the goal that tied the score was only seen in the 78th minute of the game. This came from Lee Morris. A superb lob made Charl Goalkeeper Keeley could only watch the football fly into the goal.

1:1.

This is also the final score.

In the end, both Manchester City and Wansheng could only accept this result with regret, and in another closely watched game, Chelsea beat Liverpool 2-0.

The gap between the two teams is now 4 points.

After Chelsea's victory, coach Mourinho seemed very happy. He praised the performance of the whole team, especially Crespo who scored the goal. "He can beat three Liverpool players alone," he said.

When Mourinho praised his players, he did not forget to sneer at the next league and Champions League rivals Liverpool. He believes that Crespo's performance is better than Liverpool's three-man Cisse, Crouch and Morientes. .

"He can score a lot of goals whenever he has a chance and they [Liverpool's forwards] have to squander them in front of goal."

"Joining them to trade all forwards for Crespo, I wouldn't even think about it..."

Benitez and his players are quite annoyed. It's okay to lose. As a result, the other coach praised his players and said something sarcastic. Is there anything more irritating than this?

So a new round of Liverpool, Chelsea war of words began.

Soon Arsenal and Manchester United were also involved. Of course, Manchester City was also mentioned. Who made them beat Chelsea and occupy the top spot in the league?

But when all this happened, Wansheng seemed to be very low-key. He ignored the rivalries and focused on team training and preparations.

He has already started preparing for the Carabao Cup showdown with Manchester United.

There are still 12 days left for the game, but in fact, there is not much time left for the team to prepare. There are still 5 days of international games in the period, plus the FA Cup game against Aston Villa. The time for the team to prepare for the game is only a few days.

The team's training focus is still on individual state training, and half a month is enough for the entire team to adjust their state.

Another important thing is the training of small routines. Wansheng has studied many offensive routines for the team to adapt to. These routines are complex and simple, but even the simplest ones will take a while to adapt, because tactical routines are not static. What should be done in any situation, and the players who rely more on respond accordingly.

Manchester City have also adapted to several routines before, but it was in the general mode of 'killing'. In that mode, Manchester City's focus is on offense, and in such an important game as the League Cup final, stability is obviously more important than offense.

In the game against Manchester United, Manchester City is not sure of winning, so stability is still very important.

Therefore, the team will undoubtedly choose the 'defensive' 'kill' tactic, and use the means of control to control the situation and make the game more beneficial to the team, so as to achieve the greatest possible victory.

In the defensive mode, some normal offensive routines will also become rhythm-changing offensives. Because of the different rhythms, players need to adapt to this rhythm change in order to play a role in the game.

If they are not adapted to it, obviously there will be no threat to attack.

In fact, it takes a long time to adapt to this kind of tactical routine. The same routine requires back-and-forth drills, which cannot be completed in a short time. Both Diamares and Pierce are opposed to Wansheng letting the ball go before the battle. Teams do tactical adaptations because they don't think it will do anything at all.

But Wansheng insisted on doing so.

The opposition of the two was invalid, and they could only continue to lead the team for training. Unexpectedly, the players adapt much faster than expected. What would have taken half a month to adapt, the team has been able to play very well in just a few days. .

This was very surprising, so they looked at Wansheng in different ways.

Wan Sheng could only smile bitterly.

He let the team adapt before the war, all from the confidence of his own coaching skills, 'collaboration' to improve the training speed by 200% is not to talk about, what's more, these tactical routines are originally in 'implementation' It is designed on the basis of 'die', and the speed of adaptation will naturally be fast.

Aside from the essence, it's nothing, but Wansheng can't explain it to others.

So he can only smile confidently, as if everything is in control, and others feel even more inscrutable. (To be continued ~^~)