Chapter 183 Just ride on the horse. Do you have a home whistle? ! 【Please subscribe! 】
Although it suffered its second defeat in the league this season at the Liberty Stadium.
However, the atmosphere in the team's locker room is still relatively stable and optimistic.
Winning or losing is a common matter for military strategists.
No team can win all the time in football matches.
Even Huang Saren will lose.
Pearson did not blame his disciples for their poor performance, but comforted them that it was just a game.
Their enthusiasm on the court is also worthy of recognition.
After all, the strength of the substitute lineup is limited, and we cannot expect too much
A few days later, Leicester City returned to the familiar King Power Stadium to face the thirteenth-ranked West Bromwich Albion .
It is worth mentioning that West Brom is located in the West Midlands region and Leicester City is located in the East Midlands region.
Strictly speaking, this duel can be regarded as a derby in the Midlands.
However, from the very beginning, the outcome of this game was already doomed.
Because the main players, led by Ling Feng, returned to the starting lineup.
After a game of rest, the main players are full of energy and in great condition!
Amid the loud singing of the home fans, the blue fox, with its teeth and claws showing, unceremoniously divided into three mouths and ate the thrush on the West Brom team emblem!
Three to one, easily winning the sixth league victory this season!
In this game, Ling Feng scored a putt from outside the penalty area and scored the fifth goal in the league.
But no assists were recorded.
This brought his record of consecutive assists to an end.
Ling Feng didn't pay much attention to this.
He cannot guarantee that every piece of cake he feeds will be eaten by his teammates.
After the game, both football experts, media and fans could see that there was a clear gap between the strength of Leicester City's starters and substitutes.
If the main players such as the "Blue Fox Three Musketeers" take turns to rest, the strength will be the level of the Premier League relegation team.
But, isn’t this a problem for every Premier League team?
Perhaps only giants like Manchester City and Chelsea, backed by big (stone) old (oil) board (dad), can infinitely close the strength gap between the starting lineup and the substitute lineup
And without knowing it Before you know it, ten rounds of matches have been played in the Premier League this season.
The standings also quietly changed slightly.
Chelsea, the favorites to win the title, have continued their strong performance in the last five games.
Five games, four wins and one draw, scoring ten goals and conceding only three!
Madman's team continues to top the standings!
Manchester City, another favorite to win the championship and the defending champion, after an unsatisfactory start, the team's injured players gradually returned.
Coupled with Aguero's improving condition, the team has won four of the last five games and returned to the top of the standings.
The media and football experts who thought Leicester City would fall behind were shocked.
In the last five league games, Leicester City has three wins, one draw and one loss, scoring 11 goals and conceding five!
Moreover, judging from statistical data, Leicester City ranks in the top three in the league this season in terms of goals scored and number of excellent opportunities created per game, which is almost the same as Chelsea and Manchester City, the two giants competing for the championship!
As a newly promoted team that has returned to the Premier League after ten years, such offensive firepower is absolutely shocking!
It is precisely because of their excellent offensive ability that after ten rounds of the league, they accumulated 20 points, scored 24 goals, and conceded 13 goals.
With the advantage of goal difference, the defending champion "Blue Moon" Manchester City is under pressure, ranking second in the standings.
Second only to Chelsea!
However, compared with the impressive offensive firepower, Leicester City's deficiencies in the team's defense are obvious.
After ten rounds of the league, Leicester City has only two clean sheets, which were achieved against two mid-to-lower teams, Stoke City and Burnley.
It can be seen that the team's defense still has a lot of room for improvement.
Every time a game is won, it is just because the team's offensive firepower is too strong, which prevents the opponent from frequently threatening the back line, thus covering up the team's defensive problems to a certain extent
It is worth mentioning that among the top four in the standings, in addition to the shocking newly promoted Leicester City, there is also a super dark horse.
That's Southampton, who performed well last season!
This season, everyone thought that Southampton, which had lost its head coach and lost a large number of its main players, would go straight to the relegation zone.
Unexpectedly, "Saints" Southampton's transfer operations this season are perfect!
Serbian international Tadic, Eredivisie silver boot and newly promoted Italian international Pelle, Austrian Super League double champion absolute main Mane, Belgian main defender Alderweireld, Chelsea champion full-back Bert Rand
These newly purchased and loaned players will almost reinforce the positions of the corresponding players who were transferred out this season. Some of the players are even better than the main players of last season!
Coupled with the original lineup's double midfielders Schneiderlin and Wanyama, Klein, Sean Long and other players, both starting strength and lineup depth can be said to be strong!
The Dutch star Ronald Koeman, who won many championships as a player, is also eye-catching with his ability to train offense.
He quickly combined these powerful players to form a team full of impact!
Although Southampton uses a 433 formation this season.
However, in terms of tactical play, it is somewhat similar to Leicester City, and it is also extremely sharp and fast.
Several players in the frontcourt, especially Tadic and Mane, were given more freedom and space by Koeman.
The former is a passing master with broad vision, while the latter is a first-rate wing speedster who dribbles through.
Coupled with Pellet, a big center with strong body and superb shooting skills in the middle, the characteristics of the three players completely complement each other, and they are similar to the "Three Musketeers of the Blue Fox"!
Through simple passing and running coordination, players can quickly advance through the wing, allowing players to use their personal abilities to tear apart the opponent's defense.
This kind of tactics works very well against mid- and lower-tier teams.
In addition to ranking at the top of the league in offensive firepower, the Saints' defense has been greatly improved this season.
After ten rounds, they only conceded five goals, which is the team with the fewest goals conceded in the league.
Even more solid defensively than Mourinho's team!
So far in the league, apart from losing to two traditional strong teams, Liverpool and Tottenham, they have won most of the other games.
Especially the home record, including the big victory over Newcastle 4-0 and the bloodbath of Sunderland 8-0!
Coincidentally, Leicester City's next league opponent is Southampton.
This is also a head-to-head confrontation between the second and fourth in the league, and it is also a showdown between two super dark horses this season.
Whoever is darker and attacks more ferociously will decide the winner at St. Mary's Stadium on the weekend!
However, before the fierce battle with Southampton, Leicester City must first face the visiting Turkish Super League team Trabzonspor at home.
The last time they met, the Turks used their home court advantage and rough fouls to draw them.
Returning to the home court this time, all the Blue Fox players are eager to try.
Seeing the burning fighting spirit and passion in the eyes of the players, head coach Pearson had only one task for everyone when mobilizing before the game:
“Kill them! "Don't be polite!"
"This is the King Power Stadium, let's go out and give them an unforgettable lesson"
As soon as the words fell, the Blue Fox generals stood up suddenly, and then stood in a circle. Under the order of captain Morgan, everyone shouted the pre-war slogan in unison:
"Blue Fox, move forward!!!"
When the players from both sides lined up to enter the King Power Stadium, deafening cheers suddenly sounded in the stadium!
The Trabzonspor players also showed a slightly shocked look, and couldn't help but tremble in their hearts.
After three rounds in the Europa League Group L where the two teams are located, Leicester City has two wins and one draw with seven points, temporarily ranking first in the group.
Warsaw Legion has six points with two wins and one loss, second in the group.
And they have one win, one draw and one loss, with four points, ranking third.
In other words, if they cannot win or draw with Leicester City, their appearance will be very unoptimistic.
Therefore, in order to break out of the group, even in the away game, Trabzonspor still adopted an offensive posture!
However, they don’t know that what Leicester City likes most is to press out their formation and fight against their opponents!
Only when the opponent presses out their formation can Leicester City be able to use the space in the opponent's defense to better send the ball into the opponent's goal!
As soon as the game started, seeing the Trabzonspor players rushing forward, Pearson, who was sitting in the stands watching the game, could not help but sneer at the corner of his mouth:
Follow me at the King Power Stadium Fight against each other?
Do you think you are Chelsea or Manchester City? !
The Trabzonspor players soon discovered that compared to the last confrontation, Leicester City's attack this time was full of indomitable momentum!
They didn't control the ball too much at all, but continued to launch waves of attacks against their defense through direct passes and penetrations!
Attack, attack again, keep attacking!
Only three passes and two downs, Ling Feng kept the ball in the middle and suddenly made a very concealed through ball, which penetrated the entire defense line.
Vardy, who reversed the ball, followed up with a powerful shot, rewriting the score to 1-0.
At this time, only five minutes had passed
. . .
Leicester City did not give the Turks any chance and scored three goals in the first half!
It doesn't matter if they lose the ball, what makes the Turks most frustrated is that they encountered the home whistle.
The iron (dirty) blood (dirty) defense they are proud of has no place in this stadium.
As long as their actions are slightly rough, the referee will blow the whistle mercilessly and give them a yellow card!
Every time a card is played, Leicester City players will deliberately come to the referee's side and applaud the referee's wise decision.
The sarcastic expression on his face seemed to be saying:
"Just step on the horse and you have a home whistle?!"
In the 48th minute of the game, at After a Trabzonspor midfielder tackled Ling Feng with both feet off the ground and was directly sent off with a red card by the referee, the Trabzonspor players no longer dared to make rough fouls.
Looking at the score displayed on the big screen, they all had blank expressions, and in their hearts they just wanted to end this nightmare game quickly.
Looking at the disciples who had lost their dreams on the field, the head coach of Trabzonspor, who was filled with regret, finally reacted and asked the players to retreat to half-time to hold on to the current score!
Seeing this, Pearson also gave up and directly replaced Ling Feng, Mahrez and Lingard who scored twice in this game.
After all, two days later, they had a head-on matchup with Southampton.
In the end, amid the cheers of the home team fans, Leicester City won a clean four-to-one match Zero, beating Trabzonspor.
After defeating Trabzonspor at home, Leicester City won three and drew one in the first four rounds of the Europa League group stage, accumulating ten points.
Another competitor in the same group, the Warsaw Legion, will only accumulate nine points if it wins Kharkiv Metallurgy.
With the last two rounds left in the group stage, they are basically guaranteed to qualify.
In this way, in the remaining two Europa League group matches, Pearson can perform a certain degree of rotation to give the team's main players more rest time.
After all, their main battlefield is still in the league!
After ten rounds, Leicester City ranks second in the standings, and its offensive firepower ranks at the forefront of the league.
Although I haven’t touched Manchester City, Liverpool, or Tottenham yet.
However, they have already played against the other three BIG6 teams.
Not only did they score points against Arsenal and Manchester United, they also played back and forth with Chelsea.
This is enough to prove that the potential of this team is definitely more than just a relegation team!
We can definitely do better!
Ever since, Pearson couldn't help but have more ideas.
Since relegation seems to be no problem at all, can they set their goals higher and be more ambitious?
The Premier League champions would definitely not dare to think about it.
But, is it possible to rush into the European theater? !
Of course, such an idea only stayed in Pearson's mind for less than a few minutes before he was forgotten.
The league is like a ten-month marathon.
Now that the league has only passed ten rounds, it is too ambitious to think about entering the European competition.
Besides, the reason why Leicester City performed so amazingly in their first season back in the Premier League has a lot to do with the fact that they don't have much performance pressure.
Without pressure, players can relax and perform to their best on the court.
Originally, their stated goal was to avoid relegation.
If he suddenly shouts the slogan and goal of "impacting the European theater", the players may suddenly feel that the plan has been disrupted and feel caught off guard.
Then there was a heavy burden on me, and my steps on the court were no longer light.
At the same time, they will also have random thoughts.
Once you perform poorly, will you be criticized and criticized by the club, fans, and even the media?
Will it fail the team’s goal of entering the European theater?
Will the team sell itself?
Wait
You know, football is a competitive sport that requires full concentration.
On the court, the more you think, the less focused you become.
If your mind is in a state of confusion, your performance on the court will definitely not be much better.
There is no future in playing football while thinking about where to go to sing karaoke and drink or wash your feet and pick up girls after playing football
(End of this chapter)