Chapter 267: They all wear blue jerseys, why are you such a bad guy?
Winning the first game is a good start for Leicester City and Ranieri.
Moreover, Chelsea’s team doctor incident left most of the media with no time to pay attention to them.
This also allows the team to prepare for the game without too much public opinion or influence.
In the second round of the Premier League, the Blue Fox players came to the Upton Park Stadium in East London to challenge the owner of the place - the "Hammer Gang" West Ham United!
This season, the Hammers, like Leicester City, have gone through a coaching change.
"Big Sam" Allardyce is dismissed from get out of class, and Croatian Slaven Bilic takes over as the new leader of the Hammers.
Ranked 12th last season, which made the owner of West Ham United, who owns the London football market, very unhappy.
In addition to the coaching change, the team also made a big signing in the summer window and introduced many powerful players.
For example, Marseille’s French international Payet, Juventus’ black central defender Ogbonna, Nottingham Forest’s big center Antonio and others, Chelsea’s Moses, Barcelona’s Alexander Song, and Argentina’s new midfielder were also loaned Lanzini.
The improvement in the strength of the team's lineup, coupled with the BUFF change of coach, allowed the Hammers to upset Arsenal, who had the advantage of home court, in the first round of the league.
In previous years, Arsenal would usually start to fall apart after Christmas.
Ling Feng did not expect that Arsenal would start to fall apart in the first round of the league.
No, this doesn’t count as falling off the chain, but just getting on the bike and realizing that the tire is flat!
Being able to defeat defending champion Chelsea in the Community Shield, and also losing to West Ham United in the league.
Too many young people and unstable status may be the biggest problem for the Gunners under Wenger!
Coming to the away game, Ranieri still continued the starting lineup from the previous round, with no change in position.
The idea of him and the Blue Fox coaching staff is to examine the players' game status through the first few games of the season to determine the regular main lineup.
The progress of the game was beyond their expectations.
The Hammers, who were playing at home, faced the cheers of the fans as soon as they came up. Leicester City, wearing white jerseys in the away game, launched wave after wave of attacks.
Among them, French international Payet, who just transferred from Marseille in the summer window, quickly became the commander of the Hammers with his broad vision and passing skills.
His passing scheduling, coupled with the speed and impact of forward Sakho, put huge pressure on Leicester City's defense.
Ranieri's response was to let Inler closely mark Payet and force him to move to the wing.
In this way, he cannot pass the highly penetrating ball from behind and can only pass the ball high.
As for the Blue Fox's defense, the passing method they are least afraid of is the high ball pass!
However, this tactical arrangement is very targeted.
However, the actual effect still depends on the execution ability of the players.
Perhaps because of his self-proclaimed identity, or because of his playing habits in the Swiss national team and Naples, as well as the decline in physical function, Yinler is not willing to be a "blue collar" dedicated to defense
In the last game, facing the weaker Black Cats, he often left his defensive position and jumped in to participate in the attack.
Even in the team's tactics, Ranieri strictly requires that the two midfielders cannot assist.
In this game, faced with Ranieri's instructions, his defensive enthusiasm was average.
I personally interfered with Payet twice and did not let him lose the ball. He was even accidentally penetrated by Payet.
Seeing that Payet was about to pass him, he had no choice but to put his foot down and knock him down.
It was this set kick opportunity outside the penalty area that gave Payet the opportunity to show off his superb free kick skills.
It is about twenty-two meters away from the goal, just right for attacking directly.
Even with a wall of four standing in front of him, even Schmeichel made a move in advance.
But the curve ball taken by Payet is of very high quality.
Kankan bypassed the top of the wall, passed past Schmeichel's fingertips, and drilled into the near corner of the goal!
Twenty-three minutes into the first half, West Ham United took the lead at Upton Park!
Being the first to concede the goal in the away game, apart from Schmeichel who looked helpless and Inler who looked slightly annoyed, no matter it was Ling Feng, Vardy, Morgan or other players, their faces were... There was no sign of anxiety or apprehension at all.
Because, after a season of baptism in the Premier League, they already have a clear understanding of themselves and the team's combat effectiveness.
They know very well that they are absolutely capable of equalizing the score or even taking the lead!
So, after kicking off again, they continued to play according to Ranieri's tactics.
Seeing that the Blue Foxes were no longer as aggressive and crazy as they were last season, the Hammers players thought they had given up. They took the opportunity to control the ball and gradually press the formation forward, trying to score again. One goal to expand the score.
However, this played into Ranieri’s strategy of luring the enemy deeper!
Just ten minutes later, during a frontcourt pass-and-receive, Ling Feng anticipated Alexander Song's pass to Payet, accelerated suddenly, and stretched out his legs to intercept the pass.
The next second, the Blue Fox No. 7 did not even raise his head, and sent an extremely long overhead pass, hanging behind the West Ham United defense.
And the entire formation was fully pressed, so that only one central defender, Reed, was left in the defense.
Oops!
With the fragrance in his heart, he could only immediately turn around and chase after her.
However, there is someone faster than him!
A blue figure rushed towards the ball at extremely fast speed!
Under the somewhat unbelievable gazes of everyone, Vardy used his excellent core strength and speed to squeeze out of the way the Hammers defender Reed, who weighed more than 80 kilograms, while running at high speed. Then he took the lead by half a body and got the ball first.
At the same time, goalkeeper Adrian also abandoned the goal and attacked, spreading his arms to increase the defensive area as much as possible.
Faced with the critical moment of being attacked from both front and back, Vardy's shooter instinct did not allow him to hesitate at all. Instead, he directly extended his leg and poked the ball in from Adrian's left armpit. In the empty door behind you!
"The ball is scored!!"
"It's the connection between Ling Feng and Vardy again!"
"The Blue Fox equalized the score!"
With this progress The two sides continued to attack and defend each other in the first half.
West Ham United has more possession of the ball and has more advantages, and Payet has repeatedly made threatening passes.
The slightly slower Inle was embarrassed by him. After several fouls, he finally received the first yellow card of the game.
Finally, with the referee's whistle, the two sides returned to the locker room with a score of one to one.
After the intermission, when we returned to the court again, the situation did not change much.
Seeing that Payet continues to be able to calmly take the ball and organize passes in the frontcourt, while Inler, who has a yellow card on his back, can only give in step by step, and even can only let the drinking brother come to help, so that the center There is more space for the defense.
Ranieri on the sidelines frowned, turned around without hesitation and pointed at Kante on the bench:
"N'Golo, go warm up!"
Hearing this, Kanter jumped up and ran to the sideline to warm up.
In the 62nd minute, Kanter replaced Inler again. While standing on the sidelines preparing to play, Ranieri hugged Kante, who was like a child, and whispered in his ear:
"After you go up, keep an eye on that No. 27!!"
Kanter's response was to nod seriously.
With Kanter's appearance, the situation on the court immediately changed.
Kante followed Payet tightly, like a piece of brown candy that he couldn't get rid of.
Last season, Payet played against Kante when he was in Ligue 1.
At that time, he was guarded by this little-known black boy.
But he didn't expect that this kid would still stubbornly follow him to the Premier League? !
Except for Payet, West Ham United's four midfielders, the three midfielders behind them, Kouyate, Alexander Song and Noble, are all engineer-type midfielders with average organizational skills.
With the core of the team's organization frozen, West Ham United's offense instantly became like a headless fly.
On the contrary, with Kanter's terrifying sweep in the midfield, the Blue Fox repeatedly seized the ball and launched a quick counterattack!
In the 73rd minute, after Kanter stole the ball again, he handed the ball to Brother Drinking Water.
The latter made a long diagonal pass and found Mahrez on the right.
Mahrez dribbled the ball along the right wing and advanced at high speed, then performed a feint with his upper body, cut inside past the full-back, and then shot into the far corner.
One to two!
With Mahrez leading the score, West Ham United's offense became more aggressive and their formation became more pressing.
And this also gives the Blue Fox more opportunities to counterattack
In the 85th minute, Ling Feng took a corner kick and passed the ball to the head of the Argentinian Ulloa who came on the bench. He flicked the ball into the goal with a header, which also completely ended the suspense of the game!
In this game, Kanter, who played less than thirty minutes, contributed astonishing defensive data of three steals, two clearances, and three interceptions.
And directly froze Payet, the core organization of the Hammers.
And his match heat map covers the entire midfield!
Although the best player in this game is still Ling Feng who sent out two assists.
However, Kanter still scored the fourth-highest score of 7.35 points after the game, second only to the Blue Fox Three Musketeers!
The commentators and commentators who have watched the whole game can all see that it was after Kanter came on the stage and through his own active sweep that the Blue Fox stabilized the midfield defense.
It was Mahrez’s counterattack that led the score that gave the Blue Fox more excellent opportunities in the second half of the game.
So, after the game, many Blue Fox fans who knew football began to leave comments on the club's official website, calling on Ranieri to let Kante start.
Ranieri was not satisfied with Inle's performance in the first two starts.
The Swiss captain is in a good defensive position on the court, but from time to time he can't control his inner desire to attack and leaves his defensive area unconsciously.
Moreover, many years of experience in Serie A have allowed him to adapt to the slow-paced offense and defense of Serie A. However, when he came to the faster and more intense pace of the Premier League, he always felt a little slower.
In Ranieri's defensive tactics, whether it is a positional attack or a quick counterattack, only four people are invested in the frontcourt.
Mainly rely on the tacit understanding between the frontcourt players to intersperse movement, as well as personal dribbling and flash of inspiration to solve the problem.
Fortunately, he has Ling Feng, the offensive midfielder who is best at creating chances in the Premier League, as well as winger Mahrez who is among the top five in the UK in overmatch success rate, and currently ranks first in shot conversion rate. Forward Vardy!
According to Lineker's original words on Twitter, it is:
"This trident combination can destroy the defense of all Premier League teams!"
Although there are some bragging Element.
However, many people agree.
Therefore, the team's two defensive midfielders do not need to participate in the attack at all, but stay in the midfield to form a second line of defense to prevent the opponent from counterattacking.
Therefore, based on the performance of the first two games and the strong voice of the fans, Ranieri announced the team's starting lineup the day before the third round of the Premier League against Tottenham.
Kante unsurprisingly replaced Inle and partnered with Andy King in the defensive midfielder.
In addition to Kanter, left back Fuchs also got the opportunity to start in the league for the Blue Fox for the first time.
Schlupp, who can play as a full-back and winger, was pushed to the left winger position.
Albrighton's performance on the left is obvious to all in the past two league games.
However, the league is a long war.
What we are fighting for is the thickness of the lineup, what we are fighting for is willpower, and what we are fighting for is the medical level of the team
Coupled with the upcoming three-line battles in the league, League Cup, and Europa League, it will definitely be necessary. Make lineup rotations.
Therefore, the substitute players in the team did not feel like sitting on the bench, but secretly vowed in their hearts that they must perform well in training and limited playing time, so as to strive for more Opportunity to play!
Compared with the Blue Fox, which has won two consecutive victories in the spring breeze, defeated many wealthy teams such as Manchester City and Manchester United, and continues to remain at the top of the standings, another team in the Premier League wearing blue jerseys has been struggling. It's not easy.
Perhaps influenced by the team doctor incident, Chelsea, who came to Manchester in the second round of the Premier League, lost cleanly 3-0 under the roar of boos at the Etihad Stadium!
The defending champions have lost their first two games, casting a visible shadow over the third year of Mourinho’s coaching career at Chelsea
No one could have imagined that before the season The favorite to win the championship will be in such a bad state.
However, most people believe that Chelsea's decline will not last long.
After all, the team’s strength and lineup are there, and they will rebound strongly soon.
At the same time, most media and football experts also believe that Leicester City's hot state at the beginning of the season is also short-lived.
Last season, the Blue Fox, who returned to the Premier League, also started very fiercely.
Moreover, the opponents in the first two rounds are average in strength. Sunderland is a relegation team and West Ham United is only a mid-table team.
Isn’t it normal that these two teams cannot beat the Blue Fox, which ranked fifth in the league last season?
It is worth mentioning that the early Premier League schedule this season is very friendly to the Blue Fox.
The opponents in the first five rounds of the league, except for Tottenham in the third round, which is considered a strong team, the others are all mid-to-lower teams.
The opponent was not strong at the beginning of the season, which also gave Ranieri time to adapt new tactics and new players to integrate into the team.
Everyone believes that the White Hart Lane youth army led by Pochettino is the first test of the Blue Fox this season!
(End of this chapter)