Chapter 268 Kanter is everywhere, a little giant of 1.68 meters!
August 22nd.
Afternoon.
The King Power Stadium ushered in the second league game of the season.
The stands were still packed.
With their surprisingly competitive performance and outstanding record in the Premier League last season, the number of Leicester fans soared like a rocket.
In addition to the surge in the number of followers on official social media, the number of official fan membership clubs, season ticket purchasers, and team peripheral sales have also increased.
According to estimates from professional accounting institutions, if Leicester City can continue to remain competitive in the Premier League this season, its revenue will increase by at least 30%!
Of course, for fans, they don’t care much whether the team’s income rises or falls.
They buy season tickets, jerseys, and scarves, all to support the team and then watch the players contribute wonderful games on the field.
And this season, after the new coach took office, the football played by the team on the field made them all shine!
If last season's offense could be described as aggressive, it was like fire.
Then the offense this season is so fast!
This season, the team has reduced the high-position press in the frontcourt, choosing to shrink the defense and focus on defensive counterattacks.
At the beginning, football experts and commentators believed that such conservative tactics would seriously limit the offensive talents of the frontcourt players.
In particular, Ling Feng's freedom in the frontcourt will be greatly weakened.
However, the process and results of the past two games gave them a big mouth.
Such tactics did not limit Ling Feng's creativity, but instead allowed his core role to be infinitely amplified!
The pressing in the frontcourt has been reduced, but it does not mean that Ling Feng's personal possession of the ball has decreased.
On the contrary, he reduced the frequency of pressing and left more physical energy for offense.
In addition to positional battles, Ling Feng is also the team's first starting point and the absolute decision-maker during the counterattack phase when transitioning from offense to defense.
Once the ball is passed to his feet, it is up to him to decide whether to pass the ball directly or move forward!
He is still the most indispensable core of the Blue Fox formation!
Compared with last season’s tactical strategy of pressing in the frontcourt, forcing the opponent to make long passes from the backcourt, and making mistakes, this season now gives up possession of the ball. In order to score goals, the opponent will definitely use their formation to press the offense. .
By doing so, you will enter an extremely dense midfield area. When you are flanked, you will also be exposed to more gaps behind you.
In short, as the team's defensive position retreats, "luring the enemy deep" has changed from an occasional surprise move to a fixed routine for the team.
In order to score goals and win, it is impossible for the opponent not to attack!
Even if the opponent is a weaker team, they just come here to draw with Leicester City and they just control the ball and don't attack.
At that time, the team can also take the initiative to press in the frontcourt, forcing the opponent to transfer the ball to the wing, thereby intercepting the ball or being forced to attack from the wing.
What makes the fans very happy is that Ranieri's changes in tactics have allowed the team to maintain strong offensive firepower while looking much more stable on the defensive end.
Even facing the White Hart Lane youth team, which has the youngest average age in the Premier League, Blue Fox fans feel that with the team's current defensive level, there is no need to panic at all!
In the introduction of the stadium DJ and the cheers of the fans, the players from both sides lined up and entered the stadium.
“Welcome to watch the third round of the 2015-16 Premier League brought to you by Sky Sports. Leicester City faces Tottenham Hotspur at home”
“Ben game, the starting lineups of both sides.”
This season, under the leadership of Pochettino, Tottenham has set off a youth storm.
The 22-year-old Kane, the 20-year-old Eriksen and Lamela, the 21-year-old Dier, the 19-year-old Ali and Winks on the bench
Although the team is In the first two rounds, they lost to Manchester United and then drew with Stoke City, without a win.
However, many Tottenham fans are very optimistic that the team is still in the running-in period.
This game will be the beginning of a strong rebound for the team.
Even though we were facing the Blue Fox, who had full firepower in the first two rounds!
For this game, Pochettino's starting lineup did not change much compared to the previous round.
The goalkeeper is French goalkeeper Lloris, and the two central defenders are paired by the Belgians Vertonghen and Alderweireld. The two full-backs are still the England double winger Walker Garros.
Two defensive midfielders, Dell, who was transformed from a central defender into a defensive midfielder, and Algeria international Bentaleb.
The front four are still Eriksen in the center, Chadli on the left, Lamela on the right, and Kane comes forward!
With the referee's long whistle, Kane, who has changed to No. 10 this season, passed the ball back, officially starting the focus of the third round of the league!
Although both sides adopted a 4231 tactical formation.
However, the tactics used by both sides are different.
In this young Tottenham team, the real core is not the England striker Hope Kane at the front, nor the talented Danish midfielder Eriksen behind him, but the standing Belgium international Moussa Dembélé in the defensive midfield position.
He is the player with the best ability to control and protect the ball in the team, and is also the metronome of Tottenham's midfield and backcourt.
He can play a great role on both offense and defense, advancing, breaking through, retreating and stealing.
And his biggest role on the court is to control the team's rhythm.
Unfortunately, Dembélé is slow and a bit slow in dribbling the ball. He is too obsessed with his skills at his feet.
In positional battles, his dribbling skills can help the team open gaps.
But once the team wants to launch a quick counterattack after seizing the ball, his handling will be a little sloppy.
So, Pochettino did not choose to start him in this game, but paired Bentaleb with Dier.
This season, with the transfer of Alderweireld from Atletico Madrid, Tottenham has assembled a central defender partner for the Belgian national team.
Although we conceded three goals in the first two rounds.
However, the state and tacit understanding shown by the two in training made Pochettino feel at ease.
Ever since, Pochettino had a sudden idea and directly moved Dell from the central defender position to the defensive midfielder position.
And this divine stroke turned out to be his most correct decision of the season.
Dell's defensive ability is excellent and he has a long pass.
When he came to the defensive midfielder position, his main focus was to squat. No matter how the defensive midfielder partner around him intervened in the offense, he would stay in the area in front of the defense line to protect the defense line.
Then it can also help the backcourt to a certain extent, using diagonal long passes to quickly transfer the ball to the two wings.
For a long time, Tottenham's tactics have focused on wing offense.
Especially the two-speed full-backs who frequently provide assists, which is equivalent to giving wings to Tottenham's offense.
Crosses from the wing are their main scoring opportunities.
When the winger really can't find a chance to cross, pass the ball to the center, let Eriksen pass a very penetrating through ball, find Kane in front, and then complete the finish .
However, against Leicester City, who were not afraid of crosses from the wing at all, Tottenham's offense was a bit louder and lighter.
Since the beginning, Tottenham has controlled 60% of the ball possession rate.
They were not polite and directly followed the tactics, dividing the sides and constantly attacking the two full-backs of the Blue Fox.
However, Tottenham's offense looked very lively. The two wingers repeatedly attacked the Blue Fox's backcourt area, and then either made passes from the bottom or directly from 45 degrees. However, almost all high ball passes were either directly blocked by the full-backs or easily cleared by Huth and Morgan.
Even Kane, who is 1.88 meters tall, could not grab the first point under the attack of two strong men, Huth and Morgan.
Moreover, even if they wanted to launch an attack in the middle, Kanter, who started the game, became the busiest person in the game.
The Ligue 1 steals king, who is only 1.68 meters tall, is running all over the field.
Wherever there is danger, it will be there.
Ericson, in particular, was even more guarded against doubting his life.
The Danish genius's dribbling and physical confrontation abilities are average. As long as Kanter is close to him, he cannot easily get rid of or pass the ball.
Let alone organizing an attack.
With inaccurate passes from the wing and the center being locked up, Tottenham's offense did not pose any test to the Blue Fox's defense.
After attacking for more than ten minutes, although Tottenham made as many as six successful crosses, none of them could reach Kane's feet or head!
Seeing that the high ball pass was of no use, Tottenham coach Po Fatt shouted to his disciples on the sidelines:
"Inverted triangle!"
"Low ball!"
"Move in the middle and take long shots!"
However, this decision made the team's formation more pressing, giving
Seeing this scene, Ranieri, who was standing on the sidelines with his arms folded, frowned.
He knew that the opportunity to counterattack was coming!
In the 35th minute of the game, Tottenham once again pressed the Blue Fox in the half court, and then Bentaleb's kick passed the ball to Walker who came in from the right.
Facing the 1.9-meter-tall Blue Fox left back Fuchs, Walker made soup without saying a word!
Just kidding, I’m England’s second fastest runner!
It doesn’t matter if you can’t outrun Ling Feng, that guy is a monster and cannot be compared with normal people.
But isn’t it casual to blow up an old guy like you? !
Even though the coach emphasized Walker's speed before the game, Fuchs was mentally prepared, but he was still eaten alive by Walker.
The key is that this animal is not only fast, but also incredibly strong.
Even if the experienced Fuchs squeezed with half of his body and pulled at the same time, he couldn't stop Walker from flying past.
Is this the speed and confrontation of the Premier League? !
“Wow!”
“Walker looks unstoppable!”
After passing Fuchs, he dribbled the ball all the way down the field. Walker took a look at the big At the top of the penalty area, Eriksen was found already in place.
Without hesitation, he directly swept through the inverted triangle!
The ball clung to the turf and flew straight to the top of the penalty area.
“Cross from an inverted triangle!”
However, just when Eriksen had already prepared his bow and arrow and was about to take a long shot, a blue line that had long been aware of the danger The sexy figure was one step ahead and appeared on the passing line!
It is Kanter wearing the No. 14 jersey!
Kanter stretched out his leg and poked the ball away, and then he was like a small electric motor running at full power, driving the ball forward.
At the same time, Ling Feng in front, Albrighton and Mahrez on the left and right, and Vardy at the front all rushed forward immediately.
Four arrows fired together!
Advancing a few meters forward, Kanter passed the ball in time before Bentaleb was about to foul him.
And this ball was passed very well, right on Ling Feng's path.
Seeing that Ling Feng was about to catch up with the ball, Dell, the defensive midfielder who stayed behind, immediately chose to rush forward.
Even if the ball passes, people can’t!
However, when he went down to put the shovel, Ling Feng seemed to have expected it. He easily avoided Dell's sliding shovel with just a change of direction and acceleration.
Immediately afterwards, he immediately sent forward a silky smooth kick through the instep!
The ball just slipped past the feet of Tottenham defender Alderweireld, and then with some spin, it came right in front of Vardy.
Faced with this very comfortable pass, Vardy did not stop the ball, but looked at the position of goalkeeper Lori, and then took advantage of the situation and shot!
And Alderweireld, who was half a beat too slow, could only go down to the ground and put down a shovel, stretching his legs as much as possible to block the shooting angle, but there was nothing he could do.
With a "bang", the ball turned into a black afterimage, flew past Lori's head and hit the white net.
The distance was so close that Lori, who was standing on the goal line, didn't even have time to react with a save. He just subconsciously raised his hands in a very standard Gallic military salute!
The next second, the entire King Power Stadium suddenly burst into deafening cheers.
"The ball is scored!"
"This is the fifth goal of the Blue Fox No. 9 in the league this season!"
"What an outstanding shooter!"
After the goal, Vardy ran directly to the corner flag area and celebrated with a passionate fist pump, releasing his inner passion and excitement.
With the tempering of his first season in the Premier League, Vardy has become more and more sharp in his second season in the Premier League!
After completing the celebration, he turned around, pointed at Ling Feng who was running towards him with a smile, and raised his hands to give him a high five.
"Man, that pass was so comfortable!"
"Hehe."
Of course Ling Feng has not forgotten the great contributor to this goal.
I saw him pulling Canter to him, hugging his shoulders, and praising loudly:
"N'Golo, do it beautifully!"
It can be said that without Kanter's steal and distribution, this goal would not have been possible!
Facing the praise from Ling Feng and other teammates, Kanter just smiled shyly, revealing a row of white teeth.
Looking at the Blue Fox generals and the Tottenham youth team who gathered together to celebrate, they looked at each other in shock.
If you fail to attack for a long time, you will be punished!
This is one of the laws of football.
However, what they couldn't figure out was why their opponents penetrated their own goal with just a few passes.
What makes them even more puzzled is why this Blue Fox is so different from the one last season.
Especially on the defensive end, the Blue Fox seems to have become the indestructible Blues team last season!
After another kick-off, Tottenham's generals, who were lagging behind, pressed forward without hesitation.
However, every time their offensive pushed past the center circle, they would be frantically attacked by the Blue Fox.
Especially the short black midfielder wearing No. 14, who is almost everywhere!
He runs tirelessly, always appearing where it is needed most at the right time, and then working with his teammates to intercept the ball!
In Tottenham's aggressive attacks one after another, the most frequent name on the commentator's lips was "Kante"
No one would have thought that this short and thin black man The midfielder actually has so much energy!
(End of this chapter)