Chapter 284: A Blow to the Face of the Premier League's Top Club

Li Ang was not surprised by the result of the home victory over Maribor.

It was really unexpected and embarrassing for the Premier League champions to not win more than two goals in a single game against a team from the Slovenian First Division.

However, after playing against Maribor, Li Ang was more and more surprised that Sporting Lisbon and Schalke 04 failed to beat Maribor in the first two group matches.

This Slovenian team, which miraculously entered the Champions League this season, is not a team that likes to park a bus.

At least in this round of group matches, they faced Chelsea, which was much stronger than them, and they also played a 442 starting formation with both wings flying together.

If they hadn't put some effort on the offensive end and didn't defend at the beginning, Li Ang would not have been able to successfully head in and score in the ninth minute of the first half.

Later, with Drogba and Ibrahimovic taking turns to act as a fulcrum to disrupt the situation, Li Ang directly played in the penalty area of ​​Maribor and scored a hat trick with his head and feet.

It is precisely because he has personally experienced the strength of Maribor's defense that Li Ang is even more speechless about the performance of Sporting Lisbon and Schalke 04.

He just felt that his previous evaluation of the two teams' poor performance was simply a statement of fact!

After the big victory over Maribor in this round of group matches, Chelsea won all three rounds of the first three rounds of Group G of the Champions League and topped the list with nine points.

Another Champions League group match in Group G, which started at the same time, ended with Schalke 04 defeating Sporting Lisbon.

Schalke 04 finally won 4-3 against Sporting Lisbon at the Schalke Stadium.

Both teams understand that if they want to get another Champions League knockout qualification in Group G, they can basically only fight each other cruelly.

There is no way, who made them fail to seize the opportunity to score points when they played against Maribor before?

After this round of group matches, Schalke 04 took the lead in qualifying and currently ranks second in Group G of the Champions League with 4 points.

Sporting Lisbon only has one point and unfortunately fell to the last place in the group.

The last three group matches, especially the Champions League group match against Maribor, are crucial for Sporting Lisbon.

If they still can't beat Maribor to fight for that glimmer of hope, let alone strive for the second place in the group to play in the Champions League knockout stage, they may not even play in the Europa League in the end!

Of course, for Chelsea, the fierce competition in the last three rounds of the Champions League Group G has nothing to do with them.

In the next round of group matches, as long as Chelsea can beat Maribor steadily.

Then no matter how Schalke 04 and Sporting Lisbon fight, no matter what the result is, Chelsea will lock in a group qualification in advance.

And as long as Sporting Lisbon fights for some energy in the next round of group matches and prevents Schalke 04 from winning, Chelsea will lock in the first place in the group to qualify in advance!

After a simple analysis, Chelsea fans all sighed like Ge You lying down.

How lonely it is to be invincible~

The new season started with eight consecutive wins in the league, and the first three rounds of the Champions League group stage were all won, plus a victory in the League Cup.

Chelsea has unknowingly won 12 consecutive games in three lines since the start of the new season!

When Chelsea's victory after victory became a habit, neutral fans in other leagues felt that it was natural to see the news of Chelsea's victory again.

England's big and small media newspapers are cheering for Chelsea.

It seems that Chelsea, who has only played three group matches, is already the biggest favorite to win the Champions League this season.

It is definitely not a case of flattery. The English media has always been like this. They also promoted it so loudly when Manchester City defeated Bayern in the group stage.

In addition, the performance of the other three Premier League teams in the Champions League has been somewhat weak recently, so it is understandable that the British media pinned their hopes on Chelsea.

Liverpool lost two consecutive group matches, losing to Basel and then to Real Madrid, and the situation of qualifying is precarious.

Arsenal only achieved one win, one draw and one loss in the first three rounds of the group stage. Compared with Anderlecht, which ranked third in the group, the advantage is not obvious.

Manchester City started high and ended low in the death group. Although they won Bayern in the first round, they were lost in the cold of Moscow and the frenzy of the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

After a round of comparison, although Chelsea had the best luck in the group draw among the teams representing the Premier League in the Champions League this season, their record was also the best.

Chelsea, which almost firmly occupied the first place in the group stage, naturally had a better chance to represent the Premier League in the Champions League for a longer time.

The recent defeat in the Champions League has affected the players of Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal to some extent.

But the Premier League that came right after, left them no time to review the Champions League games and regret it.

In the ninth round of the Premier League, the Premier League's powerful teams basically grasped the opponents in the middle and lower reaches.

Well, the same is true for Chelsea. Judging from the name, their match against Manchester United is definitely the focus of this round of the Premier League.

But when you look at Manchester United's current 11th place in the Premier League, the value of this game will naturally decrease a lot.

However, even if the value is not enough, this game still attracted a large number of neutral fans.

There is no other reason. These fans just want to see whether Chelsea, who just slaughtered Maribor, will create another tragedy against Manchester United.

They don't care about Manchester United's life or death, they just want to see rivers of blood flowing. The more topical the game is, the more excited they are.

And in this extremely disadvantageous public opinion environment that the entire network is not optimistic about, the local pro-Manchester United media in Manchester also quickly called on Van Gaal to stop making tactical adjustments!

Usually he plays in a 4-4-2 diamond-shaped midfield and plays in a three-back system. If he can barely win the weak team, then forget it.

To give face to Van Gaal, a famous football coach, the local media and fans in Manchester stopped criticizing him.

But we are going to play Chelsea soon. If the offense is not working well, don’t fix it yet. Do a good job in defense, but don’t lose by a big score at Old Trafford!

These local Manchester media reporters feel that their suggestions are reasonable and have received support from many die-hard Manchester United fans.

But Van Gaal is also very aggrieved, and he also has something to say!

Before coming to Manchester United, he clearly agreed with Santoku that he would reorganize the midfielder first.

Now Manchester United's midfielder, he doesn't mind if he can make do with it, but he must at least buy him a core to hold down the formation, right?

As a result, as the summer window passed, Kroos, whom Van Gaal wanted most, was intercepted by Chelsea. Not to mention, Chelsea acted too quickly and too decisively.

But for the alternatives Milner and Xabi Alonso, Manchester United did not even mention a formal offer, and there was not even a transfer scandal, which made Lao Fan quite dissatisfied.

There is no big core available in the midfield, so it is very difficult to rebuild a wealthy team.

Fortunately, the current strength of Manchester United's wing players is still good. Van Gaal has no choice but to look at the food and try to create a new Manchester United with excellent wing attack capabilities and outstanding counterattack capabilities.

Overthrowing Manchester United's inherent lineup and style of play last season and re-establishing a tactical system will naturally involve the cost of trial and error.

This is why the outside world has criticized Van Gaal for constantly trying new formations since the start of the new season.

Subsequently, Van Gaal discovered that no matter how the formation changed, Manchester United's current midfield configuration did not have the ability to compete with other strong teams for control of the game.

So he simply stopped competing with other strong teams in the middle, and directly gave up control of the midfield, protected the dealer Carrick, focused on the left and right sides, and implemented a "big circle tactic".

Of course, the current Lao Fan is still trying and making mistakes, looking for new tactical ideas, and he only has a preliminary idea for the large circle strategy.

But even if he hasn't found a specific way to restrain other strong Premier League teams, Van Gaal also knows it.

His Manchester United will only die miserably if it competes with Chelsea in the midfield at Old Trafford.

Moyes' tragic experience last season has already sounded the alarm to Van Gaal.

Don't play against Chelsea, let alone hoard heavy troops in the middle of the midfield to compete with Chelsea for the rhythm of the game.

If you want to take advantage of Chelsea, you must not make these two mistakes!

After much thought, Van Gaal finally decided to simply give up the initiative in the midfield and use the speed advantage of the two wings to create a tactical routine to see if he could successfully steal the chicken.

If you can't steal the chicken, just like those reporters said, passive defense is the only way to go. If we play like this, Manchester United still hopes to get a point at home.

On the afternoon of October 26, the Manchester United players, who had made full tactical preparations, completed their warm-up amidst the cheers of the fans at Old Trafford.

But in Manchester United's home dressing room, Van Gaal, who had received Chelsea's starting eleven, had a very strange look on his face.

There is a hint of embarrassment hidden in the relief and relaxation.

Because today Mourinho directly arranged a rotation lineup!

Yes, Chelsea's coaching staff has no intention of sending a pure main force against Manchester United this round.

Even in the past two rounds of games, the main players in the Chelsea team have actually recovered their game and physical condition through rest.

But Mourinho still sent out a rotation formation just like he had played against Crystal Palace and Maribor before.

Except that Mourinho doesn't think Manchester United can cause Chelsea too much trouble in the game.

The only reason why Mourinho is worried that Manchester United's tactics in this game may cause injuries to Chelsea players...

Face hurts!

Many local reporters in Manchester and countless die-hard Manchester United fans only felt their faces hurt after seeing Chelsea's starting eleven!

Chelsea's "contempt" is a naked humiliation for Manchester United!

At least now Manchester United fans only feel that their anger level is full!

Di Maria returned to the locker room after the warm-up. After listening to the assistant coach talk about Chelsea's starting situation for this game, he suddenly understood what Li Ang had been saying to him before, "Don't worry."

Emotional Li Ang is really not joking. Chelsea really have no intention of having a big fight with Manchester United at Old Trafford in this game? !

To say that this is Mourinho's humiliation of Manchester United, Di Maria doesn't think it is.

Although Mourinho sometimes speaks arrogantly before and after the game, he has never made a tactical decision to deliberately humiliate his opponent in an official game.

But now as a Manchester United player, it is difficult for Di Maria to speak for Mourinho in the locker room.

After the players from both teams have lined up in the tunnel, they follow the referee team onto the court.

The Manchester United fans who got the news at the scene were furious at the Chelsea players who booed!

However, the Chelsea players who started today were relatively calm.

It’s no wonder that Mourinho decided to use rotation in the game against Manchester United.

It’s just that Manchester United’s style of play has become increasingly rough after slowly changing their tactics in the previous few league games.

Maybe in order to protect Carrick, who is the organizer, Van Gaal now likes to use Fellaini and Herrera as the starting midfielder.

In terms of midfield rhythm control and cooperation skills, Manchester United now can’t see anything.

But in terms of rough confrontation and fouls, this midfield combination of Manchester United is now far ahead in the Premier League.

In Chelsea, players like Li Ang, Matic and Ibrahimovic are definitely not afraid of losing.

But Hazard, who had made great efforts in the national team game before and had some discomfort in his ankle after reporting back to the club, Mourinho would definitely not let him start.

In addition, De Bruyne, who only played half of the last round of the Champions League group stage and felt some discomfort in his thigh muscles, was also given a holiday by Mourinho in this round of the league.

The Belgian double stars are all resting, so Chelsea’s offense will naturally be discounted.

However, in the last round of the Champions League group stage, Lukaku and Salah's outstanding performance made the Blues' fans feel relieved.

Today, Matic, Kroos and Leon all started, and Chelsea's midfield still had an absolute advantage in strength.

Even if Terry took a rest on the defensive line, with Matic's sweeping protection, the central defender partnership of Maguire and Silva still looked quite stable.

So even if Chelsea continued to rotate, the starting lineup and the strength of the players still overwhelmed Manchester United.

No matter what the fans and players on the field of Manchester United thought and how angry they were.

After the game started, the gap in strength between them and Chelsea was quickly reflected in the offensive and defensive competition.

Manchester United gave up control of the midfield first, and Chelsea was naturally happy to take over.

But just when Manchester United wanted to open up a second battlefield and increase the intensity of the counterattack on both wings.

They had to admit that Chelsea's offensive and defensive strength on both wings after the rotation was still able to suppress them!

Manchester United's Luke Shaw and Di Maria on the left are both very good in attack, but they can hardly take advantage of the defensive combination of Matic and Azpilicueta.

Rafael and Mata on the right want to play technical penetration, but they have a harder time playing against Li Ang and Ashley Cole, who has rich defensive experience!

Di Maria on the left can at least use his speed advantage to rush up from time to time and create some opportunities for Van Persie in the penalty area.

Mata on the right does not have this physical advantage. He cannot cooperate with his teammates, and his offensive space is really very small.

This is also the most important reason why Mourinho decided to sell Mata when he returned to Chelsea.

Mata needs a lot of ball holding opportunities, but he prefers to play as the core of the organization on the wing.

As a pure winger, his explosive breakthrough ability is not enough, and as a center, his confrontation is not good.

In addition, Mourinho was determined to make Li Ang the right player at that time, so he could only sell Mata.

In comparison, Hazard and De Bruyne are obviously more suitable wing partners for Li Ang.

In today's game, Mata was targeted for his silence at the beginning, which further proved the correctness of Mourinho's selling him.

It's not that Mata is not outstanding, but his technical characteristics are really not in line with Mourinho's tactical system.

In contrast, Mourinho put Lukaku and Salah on the left and right sides to force Manchester United's defense, and the tactical effect was extremely outstanding!

Luke Shaw is strong in attack but weak in defense, and often fails to return to defense after cooperating with Di Maria to advance.

Salah is so comfortable rushing to him.

And Lukaku simply crushed Rafael in confrontation!

The two are not at the same level of confrontation at all. Even if Herrera retreated many times to help Rafael limit Lukaku's performance, the defensive effect was also average.

In desperation, Van Gaal had to let Fellaini and Herrera switch positions after just over ten minutes of the opening game, and use Fellaini to make tactical exchanges with Lukaku.

But after Fan's adjustment, Li Ang, who smelled the opportunity, suddenly attacked with Azpilicueta!

After the two of them double-teamed and snatched the ball from Di Maria's feet, Li Ang dribbled the ball and ran over Herrera, heading straight for Manchester United's defensive hinterland!

Fellaini gritted his teeth and left his defensive area, and hurried forward to intercept Li Ang.

But when he lost his position, Li Ang directly lobbed the ball in front of Lukaku, who had already accelerated on the right side of Manchester United!

Rafael looked at Lukaku, who was rushing towards him, and his scalp was numb!

But he finally bravely met him!

Then he was bounced away by Lukaku's pig-like advance...

This scene made the Manchester United fans at the scene shake their heads and exclaim.

After Lukaku rushed into the bottom line of Manchester United's penalty area and sent a reverse triangle pass that was deliberately let by Ibrahimovic, Old Trafford was so nervous that it was silent!

Li Ang, who inserted at the back point, directly met the ball and shot it on the right side of Manchester United's penalty area!

Li Ang's shot was extremely decisive, without any delay!

De Gea's reaction was already quite fast!

He showed his ability to save as a top goalkeeper in the current football world!

But again, after Li Ang made such a powerful shot in the penalty area that was heading for the blind spot, he himself could not guarantee whether the ball would be kicked away.

Li Ang himself didn’t know if this kind of shot was methodical or not. Anyway, it was just a matter of strength overcoming skill. How to break it? I just want to ask you, De Gea, how to break it? !

De Gea still failed to block Li Ang’s powerful shot.

While he was slapping the ground and roaring in frustration, Li Ang had already excitedly rushed to the corner flag area and celebrated with a high fist!

Rotation?

Slap in the face?

That’s right~

Today they slapped the face of the Premier League’s top giants!