Starting with Real Madrid kicking the midfielder

Chapter 310 The sword has the greatest deterrence if it is not unsheathed

There is not much spring in London in March, and the daytime temperature is still very low. Fortunately, there was no rain on March 3, making it a suitable weather for competitions.

Before daylight saving time arrives, the time difference between England and China is still eight hours.

Therefore, the EFL Cup final, which starts at [-] p.m. in London, will be broadcast live in China at exactly zero o'clock.

This time to watch football is barely friendly to Chinese fans.

Various live broadcast platforms with copyrights also started publicity early.

pptv even directly implemented a live broadcast gimmick.

Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu teamed up to broadcast the live broadcast, and General Fan temporarily acted as an on-site reporter, preparing to interview Li Ang before and after the game.

This gesture naturally attracted the vast majority of Chinese fans to watch the live broadcast of the game on PPTV that night.

The Football Association and Chelsea officials will not refuse such an opportunity to appear.

After coordinating the time, Lao Fan first had an awkward chat with officials from the Football Association and Chelsea's global business development officer for 10 minutes.

Then Li Ang, who had completed his warm-up some time in advance, appeared in the live broadcast.

General Fan and Li Ang have not been uncommon in China in recent years, and they are relatively familiar with each other, so after smiling and saying hello, the two went straight to the topic of the interview.

"Are you confident to win this crucial game today? As soon as I arrived in London, I felt the enthusiasm of Chelsea fans."

"Of course I am confident! I have never lost against Tottenham when I moved here. They feel to me like Atletico Madrid back then. They are very powerful, but they can't win against our team. Ball~"

Li Ang started a team immediately, not only Tottenham, but also Atletico Madrid. This answer made Lao Fan secretly smack his tongue.

"Okay... it's good to have this confidence. We have just received the starting 11 rosters of the two teams today. Tottenham have all the main players. You have never encountered such a situation when you played against each other before.

So I would venture to ask here whether the Chelsea coaching staff has any countermeasures. "

Lao Fan can be regarded as asking the question in the minds of most Chinese fans at this moment.

Chelsea had a hand in playing Tottenham before, and they tied with Tottenham in the second league game. That was because Chelsea had rotated their main players, which meant they gave up strategically.

But now Tottenham's main players have returned from injury, and they have now won three consecutive victories in the league. They are in good shape and cannot be underestimated.

Chinese fans are of course more confident in Chelsea's victory, but after all, this Tottenham team is very different from before. They are still somewhat worried that Chelsea's coaching staff is not fully prepared.

Li Ang touched the back of his head at this time, smiled and gave an affirmative answer.

"At the tactical level, fans don't have to worry. Our coaching staff is well prepared. If today's game does not go smoothly, it should be because of the performance problems of our players on the field.

Of course, such situations are rare. I feel that my teammates and I can continue to suppress Tottenham. We are sure and confident! "

Seeing that Li Ang raised the flag again, Lao Fan was afraid that he would say something about winning later, so after blessing him, he decisively ended the pre-match interview.

However, domestic fans still fully felt Li Ang's abundant confidence.

This can't help but make them curious, and they want to quickly understand what kind of tactics Mourinho has prepared today, which can make Li Ang so sure that he can continue to control Tottenham.

Fortunately, the waiting time was not long. After another ten minutes, the players from the two teams followed the referee team onto the court and began the pre-match formation ceremony.

Chelsea and Tottenham both played their main players today, so the court was suddenly star-studded.

Even compared to the strong showdown between Chelsea and Manchester City last season, Chelsea's opponent's star configuration in today's final is slightly inferior.

But it's better than the quality of EFL Cup finals most of the time.

After all, the past two seasons have been a strong dialogue between the top teams in the Premier League. How can it attract more fans to watch the games than teams like Villa and Birmingham.

There is no need to doubt the excitement of the game. After all, it is a London derby. Tottenham also longs for the championship trophy. No matter how you look at it, they will go all out to fight Chelsea to the end.

After the pre-match ceremony, the battle was about to begin. Pochettino walked to the sidelines and looked at the court with a serious face.

He really used all his trump cards today!

In order to ensure the stability of the midfield defense, he directly sent out Dembele Gardel's double midfielder combination.

His favorite playmaking back, Ryan Mason, was on the bench today.

This is already contrary to Pochettino's own coaching philosophy, but there is no way. The lessons he learned from the previous battle with Chelsea forced him to compromise with reality.

If you can't withstand Li Ang's back attack, then talking about winning the game is just empty talk.

Pochettino has finally figured it out. When the cup reaches the final battle, you have to be conservative. If you don't do well on the defensive end, you won't win the championship even if you perform well offensively.

So today he has to learn from Mourinho, tighten his own fence first, defend well and then attack!
Every time Manchester City was tortured by Chelsea until the final stage of the game, they had no good way to break the game. That was because they did not have a strong center to provide tactical support.

Tottenham don't have this lineup flaw.

Although Kane is no match for Chelsea's leading headers in the defense, he is still very good at getting the ball into Chelsea's heartland.

If that doesn't work, let Fazio step up to serve as the tactical fulcrum, which can also have miraculous tactical effects.

In short, Tottenham has no shortage of offensive methods. They can use any offensive style. The key depends on whether today's midfield defense is strong or not.

Pochettino can be regarded as having a psychological shadow from Li Ang's performance.

It wasn't until the referee blew the whistle to officially start the game that he came back to his senses from the memories of previous games against Chelsea.

The huge Wembley Stadium erupted with excited cheers from the fans of both teams.

At this moment, Li Ang, who had received a return pass from his teammate, also began his routine full-court observation.

The midfield teammates who partnered with him today are Kroos and Matic, and their opponents are Eriksen, Dembele and Dier.

Li Ang simply ignored Eriksen's pressing intensity.

After seeing that Dembele did not actively attack, but chose to stand his ground first, Li Ang began to worry about it.

Several of Tottenham's frontcourt offensive players still worked very hard in pressing.

After all, they are all young people, full of physical fitness, and there are no big stars. Pochettino can command them all.

But there are still some problems with their pressing system.

In other words, when the two defensive midfielders prioritize staying in position instead of assisting them to attack together, their pressing level is almost non-existent.

The offensive players in front finished one round and were easily resolved by Chelsea's midfielder, and then repeated the round again...

This pressing method can only be said to have slightly delayed Chelsea's offensive process, but it actually has no big effect.

Reflected in the game, there is a strong sense of fragmentation.

Li Ang finally saw Pochettino's concerns and his tactical ideas.

He couldn't help but smile secretly in his heart.

"Sure enough, Pochettino is still new to Tottenham. Why do you still have illusions? This tactical arrangement is too..." Li Ang did not feel underestimated. After all, Pochettino has not been deeply involved in Chelsea's tactical construction. Come on, he naturally doesn't understand the power of Chelsea's backcourt ball control and conduction.

Guardiola understood this best, so he took the lead in making changes.

Pochettino has also made tactical changes now, but it is not enough. In other words, he was not beaten badly enough by Chelsea and he still does not understand Chelsea well enough.

Controlling the rhythm in the backcourt and making Tottenham's offensive players a little dizzy, Li Ang launched the first offensive attempt of the game.

His sudden forward movement is like a signal to attack.

Kroos held the ball to the side and quickly knocked it back to the center. Li Ang led the ball and accelerated past Eriksen who wanted to interfere with him, all the way to the center line.

Dembele was the first to come forward, but he did not attack easily. He cleverly kept his distance from Li Ang and compressed Li Ang's forward space.

His defensive method is completely different from that stupid boy Bentaleb that Li Ang met before.

He was responsible for attacking, but not recklessly. There was Dell behind as a double insurance. No wonder Pochettino expressed his confidence in today's final before the game.

The defensive ability of such a double midfielder combination is indeed quite impressive. Looking at the entire Premier League, it is not an exaggeration to say that the defensive strength ranks in the top three.

But Dembele had a different idea. Li Ang had no idea of ​​attacking their midfield defense.

Chelsea's ability to attack from behind is indeed the best in the Premier League, and even in Europe.

But in addition, Chelsea is also good at playing offensive tactics with both wings flying together.

Li Ang can be the best midfielder in active football, but he can also be one of the top playmakers in Europe.

Perhaps this season Kroos has assumed most of the midfield organizational tasks in the Chelsea team.

So many fans have subconsciously forgotten that Li Ang alone supported the operation of Chelsea's offensive system last season.

So when Li Ang moved forward to the midline, he simply divided the ball to Hazard and De Bruyne, providing them with offensive shells.

Many fans felt that this scene was a little strange.

But in fact, this was the organizational work that Li Ang did most last season.

When Cross also stepped in later, assisting Liang to control the midfield rhythm and participating in the task of distributing ball rights, Chelsea's offensive on both wings quickly opened up the situation.

So much so that Danny Rose and Kyle Walker, who subconsciously took the first position at the beginning of the game and wanted to participate in the offense, had to retreat to honest defense at this time.

Without the two full-backs to advance with the ball, Tottenham's offensive efficiency on the two wings will be greatly reduced.

Chelsea can be regarded as using offense instead of defense, using their own strong path to suppress Tottenham's strong path.

At this moment, Dembélé and Dier, who were still stuck in the middle, became the most embarrassing Tottenham players on the field.

If he pulls to the side to help his teammates defend, who will keep an eye on Li Ang in the middle?
But if they don't pull wide, the full-backs on both sides will be unable to withstand mistakes.

Once the defense on this side is torn open, do you really think that Ibrahimovic, who is stuck in the Tottenham penalty area at this moment, is not a threat?

Pochettino also had a headache watching the sudden change in the game situation.

Mourinho, who was not far next door, calmly took a sip of water and then continued to discuss Tottenham's defensive weaknesses with Holland on the field.

To put it bluntly, attack where it must be saved. At this time, as long as Tottenham's tactical layout is disrupted, it will be chaos everywhere!
Chelsea has the ability to forcefully break the situation from the wing or the center.

But Tottenham do not have the ability to fill two holes at the same time.

In terms of defensive system construction, Tottenham lags far behind Chelsea.

With Mourinho's order, Hazard and De Bruyne on the Chelsea wing can return to their own defensive third at the same time.

Moreover, this kind of return to defense is systematic and will not affect the performance of Bertrand and Azpilicueta.

But Tottenham can't do this.

Kyle Walker is very capable, but to be honest, he can't withstand Hazard's repeated one-on-one impact.

At this time, if Pochettino wants to pull in the midfielder to help defend the wing, Li Ang, who is stuck on the center line, will have to move.

This is a sharp knife hanging over the heads of all Tottenham players. It may fall down at any time and give them a severe blow!

Pochettino hesitated, but he finally chose to support Chelsea's wing attack. In his heart, Li Ang was the greatest threat.

The lesser of two evils.

At this time, Chelsea attacked fiercely from the wing. Tottenham's defensive players were a little uncomfortable, but they could still withstand it.

But for Li Ang to become active, it's not just as simple as being uncomfortable on defense.

Most of the cup competition efforts of most of the season will probably be ruined in this game!

Pochettino feels that he has done nothing wrong, and he feels that his players can also understand this kind of tactical play.

But in fact, the Tottenham defenders on the field at this moment completely cannot understand their head coach's delay in making tactical adjustments.

The defense is about to be penetrated, why don't you let the midfielder assist you in returning to defense?

I really think Hazard and De Bruyne are vegetarians!
Kyle Walker is completely in trouble at the moment and can't express it.

He really tried his best to defend, but facing Hazard at his peak, he really couldn't stand it!
At the 201st minute of the first half, Hazard once again took the ball and advanced along the left sideline.

Facing Kyle Walker's cautious retreat, Hazard dribbled for a while and then suddenly exploded and accelerated to the bottom!
Kyle Walker quickly turned around to chase back, but Hazard stopped and spiked the ball after he lost his defensive position, and cut inside the Tottenham penalty area!
The first reaction of Fazio and Vertonghen at this time was not to intercept Hazard or keep an eye on Ibrahimovic.

Instead, he looked outside the penalty area to see if Li Ang intervened at the same time.

This is also the defensive key point that Pochettino gave many instructions before the game.

But at this moment, the two of them looked at each other and found that Li Ang was still standing at the top of the arc in Tottenham's half.

Seeing that Fazio didn't press forward immediately, Hazard felt happy. After a slight adjustment, he directly hit a shot from the far corner!
The moment Lori saw Hazard taking off his feet, he secretly said something bad!

He pushed hard to make the save, but his slightly awkward wingspan became his fatal flaw at this moment!

The angle of Hazard's shot was very tricky, and the ball speed was not slow. Lori tried his best to stretch his fingertips, but in the end he still failed to touch the football!
When the football spun and plunged into the upper right corner of Tottenham's goal, the entire Wembley Stadium shook and became noisy!

Li Ang stood on the center line and smiled.

He, Cross, and Marco Polo, who came over, gave each other high-fives and hugs, and then the three of them ran to the frontcourt to join in the celebration.

Pochettillo stood on the sidelines, his whole body in a mess.

Mourinho calmly applauded and celebrated, then looked at Bob and shook his head.

In terms of tactical games, Pochettino still needs to learn more...

A sword is most intimidating when it is unsheathed!
(End of this chapter)