Football: A late bloomer, starting with Leicester City

Chapter 279 Save Soldier Chen Yufeng! Scored double figures in six rounds! (Ask for monthly ticket)

"Beep--!"

The referee blew the half-time whistle at the 46th minute of the first half.

Before returning to the locker room, Ranieri hurriedly waved to the bench and said, "Take Odegaard and Achraf to warm up. The heat will be better, and we will start the second half."

The assistant coach quickly greeted the two of them and took them jogging along the side of the court.

The eyes of the two young players were full of excitement and joy. Playing in such a crucial game is definitely what they dream of.

After the defeat against Chelsea in the last round, there is not a day when they are not looking forward to new opportunities.

"Jose, give him the tactical instructions I will arrange and let them know what to do after coming on the field!" Ranieri's voice came from the far end again.

The assistant coach made an OK gesture, then demonstrated the movements for the two of them and said, "Did you see the problem in the first half?"

The two young players shook their heads slightly. They could only see that the team's defense was doing well and did not give Manchester United too many chances.

As for the offense?

There didn't seem to be any big problems in playing. Is it because Manchester United's defense was in such good shape today?

"Mourinho is the master of space strangulation. He used the most brutal method today, which is to accumulate numerical advantage."

The assistant coach pointed to the right side of the court and explained to the two: "When Chen Yufeng gets the ball, four Manchester United players will quickly tighten the defense."

"Not only does it limit Chen Yufeng's breakthrough, it also limits his transfer passing."

"This is a relatively extreme style of play. The Manchester United players on this wing will suffer huge physical losses, but they still do it."

The assistant coach looked at the two men with high hopes in his eyes, "You must not bet on when the opponent will finish their physical fitness during the game. We must respond."

"Achraf, after coming on the field, keep an eye on Rashford. When he comes up to attack, you retreat. When he goes back to defend Chen Yufeng, you run up with him and push forward to take him away."

"Odegaard, use the space behind Herrera to move forward and let Herrera or Bailly mark you."

Having said this, there was some confidence in his eyes, "As long as the number of defenders around Chen Yufeng is around two, he will have a chance to create a threat. Do you understand?"

"Yeah!" There was some determination in the eyes of the two people. Although this is a green leaf-like role, they are willing to be green leaves for captain Chen Yufeng!

They enjoy this feeling very much. Through their own efforts, they can free captain Chen Yufeng and let him lead the team to victory.

What is this called?

This is called Saving Soldier Chen Yufeng!

…………

"Beep!"

The second half of the game started fifteen minutes later. Odegaard replaced Drinkwater, and Ashraf replaced Fox, who had average offensive attributes.

Both of these two players are forward-penetrating, and their appearance actually confirms Ranieri's ambition from the side.

A draw is not enough. While focusing on defense, Leicester City must play out, create the threat it deserves, and strive for victory for the team!

"Captain! I'm here!" After Odegaard came on the field, he greeted Chen Yufeng with a smile.

"Pass two."

Chen Yufeng waved towards him, somewhat looking forward to Ode's ability to pass and threaten the ball.

How well these two young players can perform today is the key to whether he can complete the task.

Football is a team game. No matter how good a person is, he cannot escape from the team.

No matter how top-notch a star is, he cannot lead the team to victory every time he is placed on a weak team.

If one person can do everyone's work and pass the opponent's defense and score a goal every time, that's not playing football, that's fantasy football.

"Pogba! Take on the defensive task and lean over here!"

Mourinho on the sidelines also predicted Leicester City's intentions after the game started. He waved to Pogba at the other end to approach Chen Yufeng.

When defending, continue to increase the number of people at the left back position of the team!

Pogba, who was still the world's top midfielder at this time, received this instruction and approached Chen Yufeng during defense.

However, it's hard to believe that his nerve-wrenching attributes can stabilize the defense here.

"Oh!"

In the fifty-fourth minute of the game, Manchester United's right back position was attacked by Leicester City.

Odegaard's transfer ball passed to the feet of Mahrez, who quickly broke through Valencia.

Wadao is an offensive linebacker who has defensive ability, but definitely not much.

Despite Mahrez's harassment, he quickly surrendered his position.

Immediately, Mahrez aimed at Klose in the center and sent a high-altitude pass.

The football passed through Manchester United's defense, then passed over De Gea, who was attacking, and fell towards Klose's head.

The one competing with Klose for the top spot is Manchester United centre-back Bailly.

"Klose!!"

A shout sounded behind Klose, "Leak!!"

Klose pretended not to hear, jumped high and rushed towards the football. At the same time, he used his body to squeeze Bailly's jumping height, making it difficult for the opponent to get the ball.

The moment before he touched the football, Klose tilted his head back and missed the football.

"Bang!!"

Before landing, Klose heard a sound of touching the ball, followed by a second one - "Whoa!"

Looking back, Chen Yufeng had already rushed to the side of the court surrounded by Odegaard.

This ball obviously caused Manchester United's defense to miss someone. Blind did not predict that Klose would really leak the ball, allowing Chen Yufeng to easily send the ball into the net from the back point.

The ball went in!

Two to one!

Chen Yufeng’s tenth goal in the Premier League this season!

Double figures in six rounds!

This is a terrifying statistic!

"Yeahhhhhhh...!" The Leicester City Expeditionary Force celebrated. Chen Yufeng raised his right hand high on the wing and made a three sign.

This represents his ambition. He will not be satisfied with one goal, he will strive for the opportunity to score consecutive hat tricks!

"Unbelievable! This is Chen Yufeng's tenth goal this season!"

In the Sina commentary seat, Zhan Jun started his commentary excitedly, "Chen Yufeng's goal helped Leicester City take the lead!"

"We can obviously notice that after entering this season, Chen Yufeng has become the main target of major teams, which has hindered his assists from the wing."

"Other teams will not give him too much baseline space, allowing him to easily pass the ball into the penalty area."

"But this kind of pathological targeting also led to the release of Mahrez on the other side. This is Mahrez's seventh assist this season!"

The coach Zhang Lu next to him shook his head and started to sigh: "Hehe... Manchester United is actually quite embarrassed. They took the initiative to let go of Mahrez and wanted to kill Chen Yufeng."

"Unexpectedly, in the end, it was not only Mahrez who successfully seized the opportunity to break through the defense, but also Chen Yufeng who scored the goal."

"Walking around in circles and then coming back, it doesn't seem to have any effect."

"However, this tactic must be continued. If Chen Yufeng, who has been in great form recently, can play again, he may have to score two or even three goals."

After the two men finished their explanation, Chen Yufeng had already ran back to his position, waiting for the ball to kick off again.

His behavior didn't seem like he had just been ahead, but rather he was lagging behind significantly.

After all, there may not be many people who are so anxious after taking the lead.

Mourinho himself was very speechless on the side of the court, and he was even more angry after seeing this.

He pointed at Chen Yufeng, turned around and said, "Does this kid really want to complete three consecutive hat tricks?"

After making an exaggerated shrug, Mourinho turned around again and observed the situation of the game.

He also subsequently made substitution adjustments. Rooney and Martial came off the bench successively to strengthen the stability of the frontcourt position and wait for opportunities to create threats.

In fact, there is a very important point. Perhaps in the eyes of outsiders, Leicester City can achieve a good record in the new season mainly due to the wonderful performance of Chen Yufeng and others.

But aside from these, their offensive and defensive balance is the key.

This is a very difficult team to deal with. Any team's top offensive players will feel difficult when facing their defense.

To break this line of defense, you may have to make some defensive sacrifices.

Yes, after sacrifice, with the abilities of many top players, you can break through Leicester City's defense, and they are not invincible.

It's possible to score three or four of them in a game.

But what about defense?

If you want to enter Leicester City three or four times, how much defensive focus do you have to sacrifice?

How many goals can Chen Yufeng, Mahrez, Klose and others score if they seize an opportunity like yours?

This may be the case in football, where the polar trends of yin and yang are very obvious, and any operation may lead to collapse in other aspects.

Any top football coach will struggle with this problem every day.

The game continued like this. After the substitutions, Manchester United gradually stabilized the ball control in the midfield and frontcourt. They were sometimes able to create some threats.

Pogba also seems to have found some offensive feet at this time, and can often play wonderful conductive cooperation with Rooney, Martial and others.

But at the same time, Leicester City's counterattacks gradually became sharper, and they seemed to be able to create good opportunities every time, but they missed the final kick.

In the next ten minutes or so, the two teams combined to shoot more than six shots.

It seemed that they were not far away from scoring a goal.

At the 74th minute of the game, it was gradually approaching the end.

Rooney, a veteran who has been playing for Manchester United for many years, played his role.

His through ball forced Morgan to drag Rashford on the left, creating a well-positioned free kick opportunity for Manchester United.

"Come on young man, I saw your free kicks in training, take them like your idol Cristiano Ronaldo."

Rooney picked up the ball and handed it to Rashford.

Rashford took a deep breath, carried the football to the penalty spot, and faced Leicester City's wall and goalkeeper Schmeichel.

"Beep!"

The referee's whistle sounded quickly, and Rashford stood very straight, indeed a bit like Ronaldo back then.

When Rashford was a child, Cristiano Ronaldo, who was still a young Ronaldinho at that time, once interacted with young players in the youth training camp, and he showed off his fancy dribbling in front of Rashford.

At that time, Rashford didn't know anything, he just thought it was cool. When he got older and more mature, he also began to imitate the way Ronaldo played at that time.

That top-level elevator shot was what he had been practicing day and night on the training ground.

(End of this chapter)