The first time, the second time.

Chapter 20 Magic Bird’s Doubt

The FA Cup game is a chicken rib for Leicester City, which is aiming for promotion this season.

It’s tasteless, but it’s a pity to throw it away.

What’s more, the opponent is Chelsea, a Premier League giant.

Even if the opponent adopts a comprehensive rotation, Leicester City’s chances of winning this game will not be high.

Considering that there are many games in the Championship and the schedule is very dense.

After the analysis of the coaching staff, Pearson decided to make a large-scale rotation in the FA Cup.

Winning is the best, but losing is okay.

“In this game, we use the 4231 formation, mainly organizing the offense around Ling.”

“Ling’s passing is our advantage. We can let him serve as the team’s corner kicker and free kicker in this game and make more use of set pieces.”

“Mahrez is playing better and better. We can play more on the right and let Ling cooperate with him more.”

“Who do you plan to let play as the striker?”

Pearson paused when he heard the assistant coach’s question.

The forward position is the most adequate in the personnel configuration of Leicester City’s first team.

In addition to Jamie Vardy and David Nugent, the stable starting striker pair, there are four more strikers!

They are Kevin Phillips, who won the Premier League Golden Boot and the European Golden Boot in Sunderland more than a decade ago and is still playing professional football at the age of 40, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, a veteran striker who has been in the lower-level leagues for many years, Chris Wood, a New Zealand center forward, and Tom Hope, a young striker who was transferred from the youth team.

These guys, old and young, are OK as substitutes in the Championship.

If they are really asked to start against a giant team like Chelsea, it would be tantamount to surrendering!

After thinking about it, Pearson made a decision:

“Since we adopt tactic B, let Jamie (Vardy) play! Let’s see if he can have a better chemical reaction with Ling Feng as a single striker.”

. . .

On the other side.

London, Cobham Base.

In the tactical room.

The Chelsea coaching team, led by José Mourinho, is also holding a tactical meeting for the FA Cup match in a few days.

However, compared with the serious faces of the Leicester City coaching team, the Chelsea coaching team looks very relaxed.

In their view, the team that draws the Championship in the FA Cup is definitely a good draw.

Even though Leicester City is the leader of the Championship League, they don’t take the other side seriously.

You know, they are the “Blues” Chelsea!

Sitting in the upper seat, wearing a blue Chelsea training suit, Mourinho bowed his head and carefully read the scout’s team report on Leicester City.

After six years, Mourinho returned to Stamford Bridge. Compared with the arrogance when he first came to England, he is more calm and restrained.

His black hair has long turned gray.

Having won the treble at Inter Milan and the championship at Real Madrid, Mourinho, who returned to the palace for the second time, is still the most trusted helmsman of the team owner Abramovich!

And Mourinho did not disappoint the expectations of the team owner and fans.

Although the team did not start smoothly at the beginning of the season due to the running-in problem.

However, after entering December, as the team ran into formation and the tactics were gradually improved, the team began to get on the right track of winning.

Since defeating Crystal Palace 2-1 in the 16th round, the Blues under the Portuguese have played a terrifying record of six wins and one draw around Christmas when the schedule is the most intensive!

In the last round of the league, Chelsea, led by Mourinho, defeated the “Red Devils” Manchester United with a score of 3 to 1 in front of 40,000 people at Stamford Bridge.

In addition to consolidating the third place, they also chased Arsenal, who was at the top of the list.

With the opportunity to compete for the championship in the league and the Champions League entering the knockout stage, Chelsea’s situation this season can be said to be very good.

However, Chelsea, with high morale, is in crisis.

Because, with the current depth of Chelsea’s lineup, it is simply unable to cope with multi-line operations.

After the devil’s schedule around Christmas, most of Chelsea’s main players have obviously lost their physical strength, and some players have suffered injuries.

Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup

At this time, you have to make a choice.

As one of the most successful coaches in today’s football world, Mourinho is very familiar with this situation.

Slowly raising his head, he was very

Made a decision easily:

“In this FA Cup, we will make a full rotation!”

With the opportunity to compete for the Premier League championship, of course, we must focus on the league.

As for the FA Cup and League Cup, just arrange substitutes and newcomers to brush up experience.

If you accidentally reach the semi-finals, it won’t be too late to send the main lineup.

Drawing the “Blue Fox” in the FA Cup is the first time Mourinho has led the team to face Leicester City.

Although I don’t know much about this opponent.

However, no matter who the opponent is, Mourinho will never take it lightly.

What’s more, this opponent from the Championship just defeated the Premier League team in the last round

Putting down the pen in his hand, Mourinho raised his head, and a pair of sharp eyes shot to his assistant José Antonio Torero:

“Antonio, start!”

Hearing this, Torero, who was sitting opposite, nodded, stood up, came to the computer, and started to operate.

After a while, the game screen began to appear on the projection screen.

The game screen played was the highlights of the second half of the previous match between Leicester City and Stoke City!

After the broadcast, assistant coach Torero continued to play a game video.

And this video was the highlights of Leicester City’s away victory over Leeds United a few days ago.

While playing the video, assistant coach Torero paused the video from time to time to analyze and explain to the other coaching staff:

“In these two games, their No. 23 player Ling Feng came on as a substitute in the second half. After he came on, Leicester City’s formation changed from 442 to 4231”

“This 18-year-old young man is talented. Especially his passing is very threatening. In the cup match and two league games where he came on as a substitute, he averaged two key passes per game.”

“According to my analysis, in the upcoming FA Cup match, this No. 23 is likely to start and will definitely become the core of the tactics”

“So, we must not take it lightly!”

Listening to the assistant’s analysis, Mourinho, who watched Ling Feng’s game video for the first time, was already deeply attracted by Ling Feng’s performance on the field!

Ripples have already appeared in his heart!

In his opinion, this No. 23 of Leicester City is definitely a genius with extraordinary potential!

The extremely reasonable running position, the wide field of vision, the creative passing, and the general style when controlling the team’s rhythm

All of these made Mourinho secretly surprised in his heart.

He even compared Ling Feng with the top midfielders he had led in his mind.

Deco, Sneijder, 272, Xabi Alonso

Then, he was surprised to find that the passing, vision and off-ball running of this 18-year-old young man were not inferior to the above top midfielders.

At this time, Mourinho couldn’t help but have a doubt:

In England, where rough guys are everywhere, there are such creative players? !

(End of this chapter)


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