Chapter 283 Tyrant Leon

Since transferring to Manchester United this summer, the frequency of phone calls between Angel Di Maria and Li Ang has become higher month by month.

At first - at least when he signed the contract with Manchester United, Di Maria was still very happy.

He got the lucrative contract he wanted, got a commitment from Van Gaal to play the tactical core of the team's offense, and the feeling of playing in the Premier League's largest club was not bad.

At that time, he also asked Li Ang about the current situation of Manchester United.

Li Ang asked him back.

"Angel, do you still want to prove your ability at the club level? Or, do you still want to lead Manchester United to dominate the Premier League?"

The answer given by Di Maria is of course no.

All the club honors he ever wanted were achieved at Real Madrid.

As the absolute main member of Real Madrid, he won the supreme honor of six crowns and defending the Champions League.

He no longer needs to prove his ability to anyone. Their group of main players from Real Madrid are all winners in life.

Now he is actually the same as Higuain who chose to leave Real Madrid in the summer of 2013.

The pursuit of heavyweight championship glory is of course still there, but it has to be ranked below the lucrative contract offer.

After achieving great success, there is nothing wrong with pursuing good rewards and enjoying football as much as possible.

What interests him more now is representing the Argentina national team to compete for the World Cup.

The regret of missing Brazil this summer and being so close to the world championship has become the pain of all Argentine players and fans.

Apart from this, there are basically no events that Di Maria would be willing to work hard for.

He and Li Ang are excellent friends and often communicate in private, so he answered honestly in this regard and did not want to hide anything from Li Ang.

And after knowing Di Maria's current pursuit, Li Ang just responded to him cheerfully.

"Then Manchester United will be a good choice for you. Relax, prepare your personal data, and don't worry about other things..."

Di Maria was a little confused at first and didn't quite understand what Li Ang meant by what he said to him.

But now after playing nearly ten games at the beginning of the season, he finally understood the correctness of what Li Ang said.

The water at Manchester United can no longer be described as turbid. Anyway, Di Maria regrets taking this contract without knowing more about Manchester United's current situation.

However, after experiencing tactical struggles at the beginning of the season, Di Maria finally accepted the reality under Li Ang's constant guidance.

After all, the salaries and bonuses paid by Manchester United are real money.

Never mind that the club's management is in disarray, its training facilities are outdated, and its head coach's tactics are bizarre.

He took the money, took good care of his health, produced data as much as possible, and treated it as early retirement!

Di Maria, who is now more and more relaxed, often teases himself and Manchester United when communicating with Li Ang.

"Really, don't let us lose too embarrassingly at Old Trafford. If the boss (Mourinho) gives us a tragedy at Old Trafford, the next group of reporters will Yue Du has to shoot and taunt us..."

Li Ang listened to Di Maria's self-deprecation, but asked him to relax on the phone.

"No, there will definitely be no tragedy. At most, it will be a small victory. Don't worry~"

Di Maria didn't believe Li Ang's words, but Li Ang kept reassuring him with this answer, making it mysterious and confusing to him.

Fortunately, the international match day is next, and the troubles the club brought to Di Maria were quickly forgotten by him.

Intercontinental competition qualifiers or friendly matches on all continents are in full swing.

Ten days later, the professional players who had finished playing for the national team returned to the club to report.

So the head coaches of the top-ranked teams in the four major leagues began to have headaches again.

The physical depletion and injuries of the stars have been exposed by the media in major leagues one after another.

Chelsea has not escaped the FIFA virus this time, De Bruyne, Ibrahimovic, Azpilicueta, Matic...

Seeing that the list of people recommended to rest included almost half of the important players in the team, Mourinho could only curse in secret.

Then start planning your rotation for the next few rounds.

This is also inevitable. The better Chelsea perform in the Premier League and Champions League, the stronger the starting positions of the team's main players will be in their respective national teams.

Mourinho was used to this kind of trouble when he was at Real Madrid.

Fortunately, Chelsea's current bench is deep enough, and on the central axis, Terry and Liang, two main players who do not have national team competitions, can hold the line.

Drogba replacing Ibrahimovic can also continue to provide a considerable tactical fulcrum.

The defense in the midfield and backfield is stable, and the offensive end will add more burdens to Li Ang. The next two rounds of competition will be against Crystal Palace and Maribor respectively. Mourinho feels that he can still cope with it~

Li Ang was not surprised that Lao Mu temporarily gave him chicken blood and painted cakes.

Anyway, this happens every year after the international competition.

There's no way, who makes him the only core player under Lao Mu who doesn't need to play in the national team?

And if he doesn't step up, he will have to let other brothers in the team continue to start the game at a higher risk of injury.

The more capable you are, the more work you will do. Li Ang is used to it. He gave Mourinho a look that said "I will do the job for you, please rest assured".

Attack and defense.

This sounds very impressive and impressive, but when it comes to specific tactical arrangements, Li Ang, as the core of offense and defense, will have to bear tactical pressure from both sides.

Especially in the next two rounds of games, they will play against weak teams.

If Chelsea focuses too much on offense, they will set up a defensive counterattack formation. As long as they can steal the chicken once, they can set up a bus and defend to the end.

Van Ginkel is actually capable of playing as a single defensive midfielder, but he is still too young, and Li Ang took the initiative to suggest.

So Mourinho put Li Ang back to the defensive midfielder position.

Playing against weak teams, Chelsea's offensive strength is enough even if they use rotation.

If it doesn't work, can Li Ang still join the attack from behind?

It's always good to be more stable in defense.

And with Li Ang in the midfield and backcourt, Kroos and De Bruyne will take turns to rest together, and Mourinho is still very at ease.

On the afternoon of October 18, after a two-week break, the Premier League war reignited.

At Crystal Palace's home stadium, Selhurst Stadium, Crystal Palace and Chelsea officially started the eighth round of the Premier League!

Exceeding the predictions of most media before the game.

Mourinho arranged a solid 4231 starting formation in this game.

Li Ang even retreated to the defensive midfielder position. The importance of the Chelsea coaching staff to Crystal Palace made Crystal Palace fans feel a little flattered.

Even if Chelsea sent out a rotation lineup, the shining names of the stars made Crystal Palace fans feel no sense of relief.

"Chelsea's starting goalkeeper today is Cech.

On the defensive line, Terry and Kalas partnered as central defenders, Ake was the starting left back, and Ivanovic was the right back.

In the defensive midfielder position, Li Ang partnered with Van Ginkel, and Lampard was the central midfielder.

Left midfielder Lukaku, right midfielder Salah, and the center forward position was the Warcraft Drogba!"

After the Sky Sports commentator introduced the starting lineups of the two teams today, he also discussed the strength of Chelsea's rotation lineup with the special guests.

In the end, they gave a more cautious statement.

"Chelsea's current rotation lineup should be ranked in the top eight of the Premier League, higher than Stoke City, slightly inferior to Everton..."

Such a statement is really a bit too conservative.

At least the Everton fans who are watching this early game don't think they can beat this Chelsea rotation lineup now.

Crystal Palace played very cautiously against Chelsea, who clearly wanted to focus on defense first today.

Obviously, they had the advantage of home court, but they were not busy attacking actively after the game officially started.

Even when they were probing for attack, they were very careful. It looked as if it was not Crystal Palace at home today, but Crystal Palace challenging Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

This conservative tactic naturally could not bring too many offensive threats to Crystal Palace.

Chelsea was not in a hurry to face Crystal Palace, which was reluctant to attack.

Li Ang seemed very keen to compete with Zaha, who started as the right winger for Crystal Palace, in the left defensive midfielder position.

The young "Zah" went to Manchester United for a stroll in the winter of 2013, and was basically delayed and forgotten.

This summer, with the efforts of his agent, Zaha finally returned to his parent team Crystal Palace on loan.

In a stable competition and training environment, Zaha also showed his brilliance, and gradually became the starting right-winger of Crystal Palace from the substitute rotation at the beginning of the season.

His sharp speed and confident breakthrough with the ball made him the sharpest knife on the wing of Crystal Palace.

However, being targeted by Li Ang today, the unlucky Zaha suddenly had little room to play.

After the game started, he hadn't even taken the ball to fight Chelsea's left back Ake one-on-one.

He was basically blocked by Li Ang in advance outside Chelsea's defensive third zone.

Zaha had never thought of having a close combat with Li Ang.

He knew where his advantages were, but when he couldn't escape Li Ang's entanglement no matter how he accelerated and changed direction, he knew that his team was going to suffer in this game.

Sure enough, when Zaha was completely silenced by Li Ang all the way.

Relying only on Bolasie on the left, it was difficult for Crystal Palace to open up the offensive situation under Chelsea's midfield siege.

Bolasie is tall, but Van Ginkel and Ivanovic are not much inferior in confrontation.

After the two wingers were basically out of power, Crystal Palace's three offensive axes were almost finished.

Compared with Chelsea in set-piece offense, they have no advantage at all.

So in the second half of the first half, Chelsea directly controlled the rhythm of the game.

Relying on Drogba's super fulcrum in the frontcourt, Chelsea's offense was so prosperous.

But Crystal Palace's defensive will today was also very tenacious. Their back line did not make any mistakes in the whole first half, and they managed to keep the game in a draw for half a game.

Mourinho was not ambiguous when he saw this. After finding out the counterattack strength of Crystal Palace, he directly let Lampard and Li Ang switch positions at the beginning of the second half.

After changing to the central midfielder position, just ten minutes into the second half, Li Ang used his ability to shoot from behind to help Chelsea win two corner kicks.

In the second corner kick, Ivan the Great descended from heaven and pressed the shoulder of Crystal Palace center back Hangeland to make a lion's head shake!

Crystal Palace goalkeeper Speroni didn't even have time to make a save before Ivanovic's header penetrated the goal!

After this goal was scored, the morale of the entire Chelsea team was greatly boosted!

However, Li Ang on the field still kept a cool head. After making a tactical gesture to Mourinho on the sidelines, he changed positions with Lampard again.

The Crystal Palace players, who were forced to increase their offensive strength, soon discovered the change in Li Ang's position.

They didn't know that this was a position adjustment made by Li Ang on his own initiative, and they all cursed Mourinho in their hearts.

After trying to attack Chelsea's midfield defense several times, not to mention the Crystal Palace players, countless neutral fans watching the game felt desperate for Crystal Palace.

In the 68th minute of the second half, watching Li Ang complete two effective tackles in just ten seconds, forcibly destroying Crystal Palace's rare counterattack opportunity.

The commentator of Sky Sports sighed and said a golden sentence of comment.

"In today's football, who is the world's first offensive midfielder and the first defensive midfielder depends only on whether Li Ang wants to play as a central midfielder or a defensive midfielder today."

Such an evaluation is already very exaggerated.

But just like when Lahm was at his peak, countless fans believed that he would be the first full-back in whichever team he played.

Today, Li Ang is also qualified to accept such praise from the media and fans.

Li Ang has both data and scenes. In terms of tough performance, Li Ang is undoubtedly the first among today's midfielders.

At least the fans who watched today's Premier League game have to admit that Li Ang's defensive coverage and interception success rate are really amazing!

In the end, Chelsea only achieved a 1-0 result at Crystal Palace's home stadium, but the situation in the second half of the game was completely under Chelsea's control.

After the game, Crystal Palace coach Prince even used "desperation" to describe his psychological feelings after seeing Li Ang's phenomenal defensive performance.

"I would rather lose this game with a score of 1-4 or 2-5.

Li Ang's defensive performance is an absolute torture for me, my players and the Crystal Palace fans on the scene today!

He is the strongest central defender I have ever seen! Fortunately, we did not see the "tyrant Li Ang" on the offensive end today. In a way, we are lucky today..."

Prince's high evaluation of Li Ang after the game made him criticized by various media.

Even many Crystal Palace fans think that he just wants to shirk his responsibility for negligence in tactical arrangements.

But three days later, when Chelsea beat Maribor, the opponent of the third round of the Champions League group stage, 7-0 at home, the voices accusing Prince disappeared from the Internet!

Because in this game, Li Ang, who was at full power, shot three times and passed two times, and directly used his personal ability to blow up Maribor's midfield and backcourt defense!

Five goals in a single game!

Although facing a weak European team, Li Ang only led the rotating Chelsea to create this massacre!

And it is too early to say that Maribor is a weak team. After all, in the previous two rounds of the Champions League group stage, they tied Sporting Lisbon and Schalke 04 respectively.

But now they are facing Chelsea, and they have no power to fight back. Li Ang's three shots and two passes are more and more convincing against the record of the two teams...

The nickname "Tyrant" that Prince gave Li Ang before became the focus of hot discussion among fans with the popularity of this game.

Now everyone believed that Crystal Palace, who had only lost to Chelsea by one goal before, were indeed lucky!