Chapter 577 The only Failure

After the start of the second half, Tottenham Hotspur continued to maintain its offensive advantage over Chelsea amid the cheers of more than 30,000 fans at White Hart Lane, but the players also followed the adjustments arranged by Ye Qiu in the midfield, appropriately reducing the pressure on Chelsea, and just firmly grasping the rhythm and initiative of the game.

Ye Qiu has been standing on the sidelines directing the game. He has also been making appropriate adjustments in some small details. For example, he asked Fabregas to move forward a little, then asked him to move back a little, or asked Ribery to move closer to the middle. These are all very subtle local adjustments.

This is on-the-spot command!

Ye Qiu compares this to driving. The effect of the tactics in the overall situation is equivalent to the destination you are going to. In the process of driving, your correct direction is a foundation, but when driving on the road, you must hold the steering wheel firmly and make some subtle adjustments constantly.

Anyone who has driven a car knows that when driving on the road, even if you hold the steering wheel tightly with both hands and try to fix it, the direction of the car will continue to change slightly. If you don't adjust the steering wheel quickly, this slight change will eventually lead to an accident.

The same is true for football games. Your tactics cannot be reflected on the field unchanged. The opponent will adjust your tactics according to your tactics, making your tactics just like driving, constantly changing slightly. If you don't adjust and change accordingly, you will have an accident and eventually lose the game.

When everyone drives on the road, he will not want to turn the car around or make a right-angle turn because of this slight change. More often, he will shake his hands left or right to drive the steering wheel to make fine adjustments.

This is the case with Ye Qiu and Ancelotti. Both sides are waiting for their opponents to make a move.

"He seems to be a little restless!" Ye Qiu has been paying attention to Ancelotti, and said to Mauro Tassotti beside him with a smile. He saw that Ancelotti was able to sit in the visiting team's coaching seat after the start of the second half, but now he has come out.

Mauro Tassotti was Ancelotti's teammate when he was a player, and later he was Ancelotti's assistant when he coached AC Milan. He knows Ancelotti very well, at least he knows Ancelotti's cautious character very well.

Many people think that Ancelotti has always insisted on offensive football. In fact, he turned to offensive technical football after he came to AC Milan, but that was also caused by the players of AC Milan at that time. Who had outstanding technical players such as Seedorf, Pirlo, Kaka, Rui Costa and Rivaldo? It is really harder than climbing to the sky to play conservative football.

Ancelotti has always been a man who tailors his tactics to his own needs. After coming to Chelsea, he also organized tactics based on the team's lineup. Whether Ancelotti coached Juventus or before that, his football has always been known for its conservatism.

So, Ancelotti looks very smooth and knows how to adapt, but in fact he is very cautious, sometimes even cautious to the point of indecision, which is a bit like driving.

All veteran drivers know one thing, when you drive through a fork in the road and meet an oncoming car, you either step on the brakes directly to let him pass first, or simply make your attitude clear, I want to pass first and wait for him to let you, but generally the latter will leave room, but no matter how you choose, you will not be the kind of hesitant, sticking your head out and not daring to pass, but not daring to pass and thinking about it, which is more likely to cause accidents.

So, many people often feel very puzzled, why does Ancelotti make some mistakes in some games?

The actual reason may be this.

It was as if the game was going on until now, in the 63rd minute of the second half, Tottenham Hotspur still maintained its advantage, Chelsea was still very passive, but the situation between the two sides was still stalemate, Tottenham Hotspur still failed to break Chelsea's goal, the two sides attacked and defended, stalemate, as if reaching a certain balance.

Generally speaking, it is the most difficult for the head coach to make a choice in this situation, because your adjustment is to break this balance, and as the balance is broken, the risk is very high, either you turn the situation around or the opponent turns the situation around.

Ye Qiu has not seen any idea of ​​substitution in this game so far, and even if he intends to make a substitution, because the initiative is in his hands, the problem he is thinking about is still how to play a more threatening attack.

If Ancelotti just wants to strengthen the defense, then his adjustment will be fine and he doesn't need to hesitate, but as Ye Qiu guessed, if he wants to play an attack, he must use some brains, and finally in the 68th minute, he made a substitution that Ye Qiu found difficult to understand, replacing Ballack with Arshavin.

With Arshavin replacing Ballack, Chelsea's tactics changed to 442, with Malouda returning to the left midfield, Arshavin playing on the right, Lampard and Essien occupying the middle midfield. Ancelotti obviously wanted to use Arshavin's ability to get the ball, break through, and penetrate horizontally to connect Chelsea's midfield and frontcourt offense.

When Ye Qiu saw this substitution on the sidelines, he was a little bit unbelievable, because he didn't understand, "Really replace Ballack?" He felt that this was more like a pie in the sky that fell from the sky and hit his head, and he was still dizzy now.

"It's true that Ballack is replaced!" Mauro Tassotti also felt that this substitution was a bit strange.

Ballack is very important in Chelsea's right defense. If it weren't for Ballack, Ferreira would have been eaten by Ribery without leaving even a bone. But now Ancelotti wants to replace Ballack instead of Ferreira. What kind of logic is this?

During the halftime break, Ye Qiu was still telling David Silva to keep Ballack away, but the effect was not very good. But now it's good, you don't have to worry about it, he took the initiative to replace him.

Perhaps Ancelotti has the idea of ​​attacking instead of defending, hoping to play the offensive threat of Arshavin and curb Tottenham's left-wing attack, but the question is, who has the advantage and initiative now?

When Ye Qiu saw Chelsea making substitutions, he immediately walked to the sidelines and waved to the players, especially Ribery, Marcelo, David Silva and Falcao, asking Tottenham's attack to immediately shift to the left, because Arshavin had no way to give Ferreira the same defensive protection as Ballack, and his interception ability was not good.

In other words, the previous balance between offense and defense changed because of Ballack's departure and Arshavin's entry. After breaking it, Chelsea failed to find an effective way to curb Tottenham's left-wing attack.

Of course, there is another possibility that Ancelotti deliberately lured Tottenham to attack his right wing. This is a trap, but this trap is equivalent to harming himself first and then the enemy. How powerful can it be?

In the same situation, with the same choice, Ye Qiu might choose another way, that is, to continue to trust Ballack, let him play as a defensive midfielder, Essien to play as a right back, take down Ferreira, and let Arshavin come up to play on the right.

Of course, no one knows why Ancelotti made the choice. It may be that Ballack is no longer physically fit, or that he is injured. But in short, Ye Qiu is 100% sure that he will regret taking Ballack.

In a football match, the players are always the ones who feel the situation of the game most deeply and directly, even more than the head coach.

In Fabregas' eyes, the most painful thing in a football match is the stalemate, because in the stalemate, you have no confidence at all. You can only keep working hard, keep running, and keep fighting. Everything you do is to be able to win more chips for yourself.

In this process of constantly fighting, you never know when it will end. Your physical energy is constantly consumed, your body will become more and more tired, and you may even have a war-weariness, which requires you to overcome your emotions well.

The dialogue between strong teams is always accompanied by this kind of stalemate confrontation and this kind of war of attrition. As Tottenham Hotspur has experienced countless ups and downs and countless key decisive battles in the past few seasons, the players in the team have long adapted to the pressure and psychological factors in this kind of strong dialogue.

With the departure of Ballack, the entire stalemate situation was broken. I believe that at this moment, all Tottenham Hotspur players will feel relieved.

Perhaps many people who don’t know the reason will find it strange. How can everyone feel relieved when only one person leaves the field?

Just like Fabregas, because of Ballack’s departure, Chelsea’s right defense has become a problem, so Tottenham Hotspur’s offense has always been on its own left, using Marcelo and Ribery, as well as the support of midfielder David Silva, to constantly attack Chelsea’s right.

Under such strong offensive pressure, when Tottenham Hotspur kept creating threatening offensive opportunities, Chelsea had to choose to strengthen defense. Essien had to frequently pull to the right to fill in the gap for Ferreira, because Tottenham Hotspur often created Ribery to challenge Ferreira one-on-one, and Essien had to protect Ferreira.

In other words, what Ballack did before, now has to be done by Essien.

Then the problem came, Essien was on the right side, and Lampard had to pull his position to the middle, or even to the right of the middle, in order to keep the distance between him and Essien and fill the protection gap when Essien left the back line.

This is what is called attracting defensive attention.

Fabregas still stood in the right side of the midfield, that is, Chelsea's midfield was on the left side. Lampard was not as close to him as in the first half, so he felt relaxed. He believed that Messi's pressure must have been much lighter, but because Messi was Tottenham Hotspur's most important scorer, Chelsea did not dare to be careless with him.

Fabregas noticed the change in the situation. He also noticed that this was a critical moment, because after Chelsea took Ballack, there were both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that if the right side could withstand Tottenham's attack and keep the goal, Arshavin's appearance could improve the team's offensive power.

But the disadvantage was that once Tottenham broke the goal, Arshavin's appearance would become a failure.

So Fabregas and his teammates were working hard to attack because they wanted to seize the opportunity.

Ribery began to be very active on the left, frequently creating opportunities. In less than five minutes, he created at least three threatening opportunities for Messi and Falcao, but none of them scored. However, the attack on the left attracted Chelsea's defensive attention.

So, when Ribery got the ball on the left and noticed Essien approaching, he immediately chose to knock it back. Marcelo passed it horizontally to David Silva, with his back to the Chelsea goal. David Silva, who retreated to get the ball, knocked it horizontally again and passed it to Fabregas' feet. The Spaniard stopped the ball and faced the goal.

Lampard shook off David Silva because he saw Essien was going back to the center, so he rushed to Fabregas.

But Fabregas didn't wait for Lampard to get close. He was always observing the changes in front. Essien returned to the center, and Ribery was going to cut to the area between Ferreira and Alex. The Brazilian central defender was a little outside, and was obviously shocked by Ribery's previous attacks.

Falcao's running awareness was very smart. He had been cruising between Alex and Terry, with his back to the goal. After looking at Fabregas, the two of them instantly sparked a spark. Fabregas rushed to Lampard and made a half-high overhead pass with his right foot, which landed behind Alex.

The smartest thing about the Colombian center was that he ran behind Alex, with his back to the left and facing the right side of the ball. The position he chose was also very smart. He did not let the ball stop at his feet, or go for a header, but used his chest to stop the ball.

Terry reacted the moment Falcao ran behind Alex. Because of the lag of this defense, he had no choice but to block the ball, which was very passive, especially when he found that he had just rushed over and stuck between Falcao and Cesar in front of the goal, blocking Falcao's shooting angle, but the Colombian chose to stop the ball to the right with his chest, landing a little bit to the left of the penalty spot.

The whole stop not only opened up the distance between Falcao and Terry, but also allowed him to avoid Alex's interference. More importantly, after his stop landed, he only needed to take a step forward, step on his left foot, stand firm, and swing his right foot to shoot directly near the penalty spot.

Although Falcao could not shoot on the left side of the goal because of Terry's position, he chose to shoot in the upper right corner of the goal, and he chose a clever shot, and the ball seemed to be controlled by him and listened to him very much. After being kicked out from under his feet, it climbed and fell along an arc and drilled into the upper right corner of the goal.

"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!"

"Oh my god, in the 78th minute of the second half, Tottenham Hotspur scored the first goal, 1:0!"

"Ye Qiu's team maintained the advantage for more than an hour, persisted in the attack for more than an hour, and finally broke through Chelsea's goal. We saw that this was a penalty kick from Colombian center forward Rodamel Falcao, which was very accurate and almost an absolute dead corner!!!"

Andy Gray has been amazed at Falcao's shooting ability for several times this season, because it is too accurate, especially his use of shooting skills. He rarely makes mistakes, and as long as you create enough opportunities for him, he will reward you with endless goals.

"Rodamel Falcao is simply a goal-scoring machine. This season, the trident of Tottenham's offensive line, Falcao, Messi and Ribery, have scored nearly 90 league goals. It's a very surprising offensive ability!"

After scoring the goal, Falcao excitedly rushed out of Chelsea's penalty area, clenching his fists all the way and shouting to the fans in the stands, and Tottenham's players also rushed out of the stadium and celebrated the goal with Falcao on the sidelines.

1:0, although this score seems unsafe, in fact, it has almost sentenced Chelsea to death!

"Early before the game, when I made my prediction, I said that Ancelotti made mistakes in many key games. When playing against Manchester United and Arsenal, Manchester United did not try their best and Arsenal was not strong enough, but when playing against Manchester City and Liverpool, Ancelotti made fatal mistakes."

"In the 2:4 game against Manchester City, the media criticized Ancelotti's starting tactics one-sidedly after the game. In this game against Tottenham Hotspur, Ancelotti's starting tactics were fine, and there was no problem with the on-the-spot command in the first hour, but the real problem, or the controversial point, was his substitution adjustment."

"Of course, Ancelotti's substitution this time was very brave, replacing the defensive Ballack was replaced by the attacking Arshavin, but the question is, can such a substitution produce results? Or is there a better choice? "

"We saw that after replacing Ballack, Tottenham's left-wing attack was completely activated, and Tottenham's goal was actually assisted by Fabregas's diagonal pass from the right side of the midfield after the left-wing attack attracted the attention of the defensive players, and then passed to Falcao on the left side of the penalty area. "

"Of course, Fabregas's over-the-top pass was excellent, with an excellent landing point, and Falcao's positioning and anticipation were also very good. The cooperation between the two created this goal, but Chelsea's defense did make a mistake, and it was not a small mistake. "

The live TV camera was specially given to the sidelines. Unlike Ye Qiu's wild celebration after Falcao scored, Ancelotti looked very frustrated and regretful on the sidelines. Perhaps he was regretting his substitution.

Regardless of the purpose and starting point of his substitution, and regardless of whether his substitution had any active or passive reasons, in a word, his substitution caused Chelsea's defense to be broken and Chelsea lost the ball.

Perhaps Ancelotti did a very good job throughout the game, but this substitution was his only failure in this game, the only mistake!