As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning.
Witnessed by tens of thousands of Blue Fox fans at the King Power Stadium, Leicester City took the most solid first step!
The upset victory over Everton in the first game made many people who were not optimistic about Leicester City feel unbelievable.
In their view, even with the advantage of home court, Leicester City, whose team strength is quite different from Everton, will lose to Everton.
But I didn't expect that Leicester City won with such a big score? !
Winning a good start in the Premier League also gave everyone in Leicester City a huge confidence.
Everton, fifth in the Premier League last season, scored four goals by themselves.
Does this mean that other Premier League teams ranked lower than Everton are weaker than Everton?
Of course, football cannot be calculated like this.
The league ranking can largely reflect the strength and stability of the team.
However, it is not so absolute.
This real-life showdown with Everton made the Leicester City generals realize the so-called "difficulty of the Premier League" and even gave them a little illusion of self-improvement:
The Premier League doesn’t seem to be as difficult as the legend says.
However, for head coach Pearson, the process and results of this game have made him more determined to focus on offensive football this season.
Of course he doesn't think that he can relax after winning a game.
On the contrary, during the post-match tactical review, he and the entire coaching staff agreed that if they adopted a defensive counterattack this time, they would not be able to withstand the offensive firepower of Everton's upper reaches of the Premier League!
If the frontcourt attack hadn't suppressed Everton's offense, their defense would have been crushed by Everton's wingers with outstanding skills at their feet!
Therefore, after this experiment, the Leicester City coaching staff headed by Pearson believes that the current tactics are on the right path!
Of course, using offense instead of defense does not mean that there is no defense.
As the saying goes, offense wins and defense wins championships.
The balance between offense and defense for a strong team is very important.
Whether it is strong in attack and weak in defense, or weak in attack and strong in defense, it means there is an obvious weakness.
What they have to do is to maintain the current offensive firepower and improve the defensive hardness as much as possible.
Although the first Premier League game was a victory.
However, there were many problems exposed during the game.
Visible to the naked eye, such as the midfield strangulation and frequent violations suffered by the team's core Ling Feng;
For example, right back Konchesky’s tracking speed;
Another example is the personal ability shown by Marty James in this level of competition.
The former does not need to be solved at all.
Because with Ling Feng's top golf intelligence, even without instructions from the head coach, he can read the game pattern and respond to it on his own.
The latter two are easier to solve.
As long as Konchesky and Matty James are substituted, and Schlupp and Cambiasso are started, the problem will be solved!
Konchesky is too old and his physical functions have declined drastically, especially his speed. He basically ranks at the bottom of the team, only a little faster than tall central defenders like Morgan.
Under Leicester City's offensive tactics, the full-back's insertion is very important.
However, Koncheski's physical fitness and speed destined him to only be a squatting full-back, and he could not go up and down like De Wright at right back.
The team's youth training player Schlupp's physical fitness is explosive, both strong and fast.
In the second half of last season, he replaced Konchesky and became the team's regular starting left back.
In the first game of the Premier League, considering the team's lack of experience, Pearson chose veteran Koncheski to start.
But it turns out that he can no longer keep up with the impact and breakthroughs of Premier League wingers.
The problem with Marty James is, simply put, lack of ability.
Although he has excellent physical fitness, covers a wide area, and has good frontal defense and stealing abilities.
However, under the high-intensity and fast pace of the Premier League, his slow reaction and hesitance to play the ball were fully exposed.
He was not calm enough when faced with pressing attacks many times and could only be regarded as a barely qualified engineer.
It's okay to be a substitute in the Premier League, but it's difficult to be a starter.
Fortunately, Leicester City is participating in the Premier League, Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup at the same time this season, so there are a lot of competitions for rotation.
. . .
The next day, all major media and newspapers put the goal battle between Leicester City and Everton on the cover of their sports pages.
And Ling Feng's domineering celebration after scoring the goal once again appeared on the covers of major media magazines and newspapers!
This game was even more unexpected than another "Red Devils" Manchester United's upset loss to "Swan" Swansea at home.
"The Blue Fox's true core shows its prowess for the first time, but the little monster can't score a goal and save the savior!" 》——The Times
"Leicester City: Premier League, we are back!" 》——The Independent
"The Prince of Leicester City?" ! 》——Mirror
The "Daily Mail" even described Ling Feng's performance on the court as a "master-level"
"Three assists, three different passes."
"This young man, with his consistently dominant performance, gave a loud slap in the face to all those who doubted his ability to adapt to the Premier League!"
The most noteworthy thing is that as Leicester City defeated Everton 4-2 in the first round, they actually topped the real-time standings!
In the first round of the Premier League, there were only three teams that won with a goal difference of two.
In addition to Leicester City, they were Manchester City, which won 0-2 away, and Chelsea, which won Burnley 1-3 away.
According to the Premier League's competition system, when the points are the same and the goal difference is the same, it depends on which team has more goals in total.
Teams that score more goals are ranked higher.
Therefore, Leicester City, which scored four goals, actually beat last season's Premier League champion and third runner-up and temporarily ranked first!
Seeing that their team ranked first in the league, the Blue Fox fans were smiling and did not forget to use their imagination. They took screenshots and tweeted:
"I declare that the Premier League season is over!"
"We are ranked higher than last season's champions, so we are hard-power champions!"
“The Premier League, that’s it?”
Since the team had a good start in the Premier League, head coach Pearson specially invited the chef from the Chinese restaurant where Ling Feng took everyone to come to the base to cook a sumptuous meal for the players.
Chinese seafood fried noodles, braised pork, dumplings, pot pork
Sitting by the window, Ling Feng read the fans' posts on his mobile phone with great interest.
What impressed him most was that a fan put his head on the body of Manchester United's King Cantona, and then wrote:
"Come and pay homage to Lester Lingfeng I!"
I have to say that the fans’ ability to make jokes this time is quite good!
Just as Ling Feng secretly chuckled, Mahrez sat down next to him with a dinner plate in one hand.
"What are you looking at?"
Glancing at Mahrez's full plate, Ling Feng raised his eyebrows:
"By the way, can you eat so much?"
He picked up a seafood dumpling with a fork and put it in his mouth. Mahrez explained while chewing:
"Just now the physical fitness coach told me that I need to gain a few kilograms to better adapt to the intensity of the Premier League."
Mahrez is slightly shorter than Ling Feng and has a slimmer build.
As a winger, flexibility and speed are very important.
However, in the fiercely competitive Premier League, core strength is also very important.
Therefore, how to increase your core strength while maintaining your current flexibility and speed is a required course for every Premier League winger!
Mahrez's words reminded Ling Feng.
In the last game against Everton, he clearly felt the intensity of the Premier League.
He was repeatedly bumped into by Barkley, McCarthy, and Barry, and was unable to maintain his balance calmly and handle the ball well.
Although he had long expected that his confrontation ability would not be able to cope with the fierce competition in the Premier League, he also figured out a way to deal with it.
However, this is only a temporary solution that treats the symptoms rather than the root cause.
Even Barkley, McCarthy and others can't handle it. How can he ensure that he can protect the ball at his feet in the confrontation with top defensive midfielders such as Matic and Yaya Toure? !
Besides, he can't always avoid confrontation!
Fortunately, the biggest difference between him and technical players such as Mahrez, David Silva and Cazorla is that he has better physical fitness!
Height of 1.8 meters and 69 kilograms.
For normal people, this is considered normal.
But for a Premier League professional player, he is still too thin.
Therefore, he must increase his muscle content and improve his core strength, so that he will not be so passive during confrontation!
As his thoughts were spinning, team captain Morgan suddenly came over and said:
"Ling, the coach is looking for you."
"Oh well."
Coming directly to the head coach's office, Ling Feng knocked on the door and pushed in:
"Coach, are you looking for me?"
"Well, sit down."
"Ling, you performed very well in the last game! However, I hope you focus on improving yourself and don't be satisfied with the status quo. Because, in my opinion, your limit is far beyond that!"
"Thank you for your trust in me, coach. Don't worry, this is just an ordinary Premier League game."
Nodding with satisfaction at Ling Feng's answer, Pearson immediately got to the point:
"The main reason I called you here is to tell you one thing. After research by the coaching staff, we believe that your ability to fight on the court is still a little weak. It's time to start building muscle!"
As soon as these words came out, Ling Feng was not surprised at all and nodded directly:
"I feel the same way. I think the competition in the Premier League is more intense and I have to become stronger to handle the ball better."
"Hmm. So starting from tomorrow, after the team training session, you will follow Andrew (the physical fitness coach) for half an hour of strength training."
"Only half an hour?"
"Let's take it slow first. Don't do it too hard at first. Your body isn't fully developed yet."
"You only need to gain another five or six pounds and increase your muscle content, and you can significantly improve your resistance ability without affecting your flexibility and speed!"
"I understand. But coach, I still have to practice stopping the ball and long-range shots with Riyad. Can I finish the practice before going to the gym?"
As soon as these words came out, Pearson lowered his head and thought for a moment before replying:
"Yes, but you have to exercise caution and don't break your body!"
"I see."
Watching Ling Feng leave the office, Pearson suddenly shook his head and smiled self-deprecatingly:
"I'm such a fool, I still doubt his enterprising spirit."
As a result, starting from August 18, Ling Feng would practice stopping the ball and long-range shooting for half an hour after the team training session.
After the extra training, he will come to the gym.
Then carry out strength training under the hand-by-hand guidance of a physical coach.
In order to make his muscle-building plan more effective, Ling Feng also used the [Training Acceleration Card], which can last for three months, on the major attribute of [Body].
In this way, within three months, when he trains on the major [physical] attributes, the related minor attributes can increase steadily!
The major attributes of [Body] include eight minor attributes: [Explosion] [Speed] [Strength] [Balance] [Reaction] [Bounce] [Endurance] [Physique].
The attributes related to confrontation ability are [Strength] and [Balance].
His current [Strength] attribute is only 58, and his [Balance] attribute is 68.
In Ling Feng's opinion, if the [Strength] attribute is raised to 70 and the [Balance] attribute is raised to 80, he will basically be able to compete with most Premier League players without falling behind.
Ling Feng is looking forward to the day when he can carry top midfielders such as Yaya Toure and Matic, carry the ball all the way, and enter the penalty area to score a goal.
. . .
The curtain of the 2014-15 Premier League season has begun.
After the first round, some people were happy and some were sad.
After an unexpected upset in the first round and a good start, Leicester City's coaching staff and generals naturally set their sights on their opponents in the second round:
Chelsea led by "Madman" Mourinho!
It is worth mentioning that Leicester City’s schedule is extremely unfriendly!
When the Premier League schedule was just released, Ling Feng heard Vardy complain to him:
I don’t know which bastard arranged the schedule, but Leicester City’s first five games are all tough battles!
First round, Everton!
Second round, Chelsea!
Third round, Arsenal!
Fourth round, Stoke City!
Fifth round, Manchester United!
Except for the relatively weak "defeated" Stoke City, the other four teams are not easy to chew.
The three opponents in the first three rounds were all the top five teams in the league last season!
Manchester United, which ranked only seventh last season, has a new coach taking over this season and has made frequent moves in the transfer market.
I don't know if the team's strength will be greatly improved, but there are stars in every position.
After an upset loss to Swansea in the first round, Manchester United will definitely acquire the much-rumored "Angel" Di Maria in the remaining time of the transfer window.
By then, they will face Manchester United, who have four major stars including Falcao, Rooney, Di Maria and Robin van Persie on the court at the same time!
I’ll post one chapter first, and I’ll do another chapter tonight.
(End of chapter)
