Elland Road Stadium, home team dressing room.
George looked at his tactical board, crossed his arms, and smiled arrogantly.
"Is George stupid?" Chris Casper arched Colin McGee.
"You're the stupid one." McGee ignored Casper, replied and continued talking to Graveson.
George Li turned around and looked at his players. The morale of the players was not high. After all, they had lost two league games in a row. If they lost again, it would be a third consecutive defeat.
"Cheer up. There is still a gap between Bootsmouth's strength and ours today. We are just trying out a new formation. Everyone, please work harder and seize the opportunity."
In the last game against Tottenham, Leeds United lost 2-4 away and were beaten 3-0 by the opponent in the first half. George Li broke the pot directly in the midfield and tried a new formation, placing three defenders and six people in the midfield. Sure enough, in the second half, Leeds United brought the situation back, seizing the initiative in the midfield battle, using their numerical advantage to press high in the midfield and frontcourt, and achieved good results. But because the hole dug in the first half was too big, they scored two goals and conceded one in the second half, and still lost the game.
The Leeds United players cheered up a little after hearing George Lee's words, especially Milner, who usually played less, and Nigel De Jong, who had just transferred from Ajax and started today. very excited.
On the contrary, Leighton Bynes was in the corner, looking a little disappointed.
Originally, Baynes took advantage of Hart's injury and has been the team's starter. But in the last game, after George Lee changed to three defenders, Baynes suffered.
George Lee's three defenders are not three central defenders, but one central defender and two full-backs. The requirements for the two full-backs are relatively high. When defending the position, they are full-backs. When defending the opponent's counterattack, they must also serve as center backs.
Mills on the right is okay, 180 centimeters is not too short, and he can play as a center back or full back. But it is too difficult for Baynes to play as a central defender with his height of 170cm. The goal he conceded in the second half of Tottenham's last game was because Baynes failed in his aerial challenge and was scored by Robbie Keane.
Therefore, this game happened to coincide with Mateo's recovery from injury, so Li George arranged for Matteison, Mateo, and Mills to start as Leeds United's defensive line combination, and Baines could only sit on the bench.
Although George Lee talked with Baynes after the last game, Baynes is young after all, and it is definitely impossible to say that he has no ideas.
Today Leeds United's starting goalkeeper is still Paul Robinson. Robinson agreed to the proposal to transfer to Manchester United this summer. It can be said that he and Leeds United are on good terms. He is also preparing to play the remaining games seriously. After all, it is also Leeds. They came out of Lianhe Youth Training, so there is no need to make the relationship tense. Li also joked with him and asked him to perform well in the 34th round of the league against Manchester United to open the eyes of the new club.
Today, Leeds United's midfielder is quite strange. Except for the two wingers who are Grenchar and Milner, the other four players are in a square position, with Eric Buck and Thomas Gravesen serving as double midfielders. , the two central midfielders are Alan Smith and newcomer Nigel De Jong.
This is the new formation that George Lee tried in the second half of the last game. Other teams had a diamond-shaped midfielder position, but he was better, directly square, not even a disc.
When the team is attacking and there are many players on their own side, they stay behind and become the last line of defense with the central defender. But if you can step in, or when the opponent has an obvious opening, you can boldly step forward without worrying about leaving a central defender, because the team has two midfielders. Under the continuous pressure of the team's high position, you don't have to worry too much about yourself. The side behind him was directly hit.
When the two defensive midfielders are in the opponent's half, they can obviously have one more ball release point, making their team's offense smoother. When the opponent wants to attack deeper, let one of the midfielders retreat to the center back position to participate in the defense. This allows the team to maintain a four-back position, and the two full-backs do not need to lean too far in the middle. , exposing the wing to the opponent.
Finally, the team's lone forward is Norwegian Daniel Braaten. Oscarson can only watch the game in the stands today because of the flu.
Shaun Ellawi, Leighton Baines, Matthew Kilgallen, Gary Kelly, Morten Pedersen, Aaron Lennon and Jan Arneson were on the bench wearing substitute vests on the seat.
Leeds United's starting lineup is relatively young, and the substitutes are even younger. Except for Kelly, they are all young men in their 20s.
Looking at the team, George Li couldn't help but sigh, the Young Guards from back then are back.
After the start, Leeds United took the initiative on the court.
Although Portsmouth has a 352 formation, 2 of the 5 midfielders are wide. The only three people actually participating in the midfield competition are Patrick Borg, Gary O'Neill, and Amdi Faye. Among them, Borg was still the attacking midfielder, so most of the defensive tasks fell on O'Neal and Faye. The result was that these two people were miserable, and the ball basically couldn't pass through their feet, and then went to the frontcourt.
Leeds United's Smith, De Jong, Graveson and Buck are all aggressive players. Once Portsmouth's midfielder gets the ball, he will face at least two Leeds United players.
Portsmouth's players did not have an advantage when they shot the ball to the wing. The one on the wing among Leeds United's three defenders will definitely come up immediately. The two midfielders will also rush over to help with the attack. The other midfielder will retreat to the center back position and hand over his position to the deeper back. central midfielder.
Portsmouth's head coach, Croatian Velimir Zajec, looked at the report given to him by the assistant coach. The opponent's No. 20, who had just transferred, was called Nigel De Jong. How offensive was he? In the midfield, they all retreated to the defensive midfielder position. Angrily, Zayech crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it aside.
It was also the first time for De Jong to play. He played against Tottenham in the last game. De Jong had no arrangements to play when he arrived. He did not even go to London to arrange an apartment in Leeds.
Today he also seized the opportunity to cash in. He came from Ajax, and he knew that there were two big guys sitting on the coaching bench. He is also very satisfied when he comes to Leeds United. There are several fellow players in the team, especially Davis, who takes good care of him. Although the two positions are in conflict, De Jong knows that Davis will not play at Leeds United for a few years. . On the second day after he arrived, Van Persie invited him to a nightclub with a cane and a cast. When he went, it was said that the team's captain Smith was also there. Smith said that for Van Persie's sake, he would not play in the nightclub in the future. Will take good care of De Jong in the locker room.
But De Jong doesn't understand why Smith is the captain, but the captain's armband is worn on the arm of the team's No. 5, Mateo.
When the game reached 26 minutes, it was De Jong who fell to the ground with a precise sliding tackle and cut off the football from Patrick Berger's feet.
The Czech was shoveled to the ground by De Jong, but the referee was on the side and saw clearly that the football was touched first, and then signaled for the game to continue.
The ball was caught by Graveson, who made a long pass to the right and passed it to Mills.
Mills moved forward and then played a one-two with Buck, past O'Neal.
Then he arrived in front of Portsmouth's penalty area, but the opponent's defender defended him. Mills had no chance to go forward, so he chose to split the ball and let Milner come in from the wing.
Milner was almost dribbling the ball along the touchline when Portsmouth's defense pressed forward again.
Milner could only pass back to Mills, who then passed it to Buck. Portsmouth's defense changed the defensive target to Leeds United's midfielder Buck.
But today Leeds United had two midfielders, and Buck crossed directly to Graveson.
Gravesen played very comfortably today. He had a Nordic brother working with him in the defensive midfielder position to help with the ball and grooming, and shared some of the work that he should have done alone.
After Graveson received the ball, there were no defensive players around him. Graveson gave the ball to Grenchar on the left.
There was almost no one on the left side of Portsmouth. Previously, their defensive focus was on the right side. Leeds United only passed a few simple passes to shift the focus of the offense to the side with fewer defensive players.
After Grenchar got the ball, there was only one defender in front of him, Primus.
Leeds United forward Bratten cleverly ran towards the penalty spot and took away another defender Deziu.
One on one.
If Glenchard doesn't choose to take Primus alone in this game, he probably won't play in the Premier League anymore and will go back to his hometown to sell sweet potatoes.
Stop the ball to slow down, take small steps, move the ball and cut inside, hit the goal directly, and shoot into the far corner.
Grenchar did not use fake moves, but relied on speed and acceleration to get out of an angle and hit the goal.
Portsmouth goalkeeper Hislop fought hard to save, but the angle was too tricky, and the ball bounced in front of him, but he just didn't touch the football. He watched the ball roll past his hand, and even he You can feel the leather on the football with your fingertips on the glove, but you can't change the direction of the ball.
"Goooooooooooooooooal, Jesper Glenshall~." Sky TV commentator Andy Hinchcliffe shouted passionately.
"Leeds United changed the score in the 28th minute. The goal was scored by Leeds United's No. 7 winger Grenjaer from Denmark. He cut in very wonderfully and hit the goal." Hinchcliffe continued.
"Yes, a very exciting goal, but Leeds United also cooperated very often before. It took a short time to hit the ball from the right to the left, and then the player's personal ability was used to score the goal. Nice pass, nice shot," Hinchcliffe's partner Mark Pugachev said.
"We saw Leeds United players hugging each other to celebrate. The number 20 holding Smith outside was Nigel De Jong, who Leeds United had just introduced in the winter window, from Ajax. The goal just now was made by It started with his steal." Hinchcliffe introduced Leeds United's new signing to the fans.
"Yes, yes, we saw De Jong today. He performed very actively after coming on the field. He was present in both offense and defense. His presence reminded us of Davis, a midfielder also from the Netherlands. Now it seems Davis can rest in peace and recuperate."
In the stands, the head of Leeds United fans, the shirtless Mike, was leading other home fans in shouting Leeds United slogans.
"Marching on together!"
"Marching on together!"
"Marching on together!"
Behind Mike, Helen and Wendy also hugged each other, dancing and shouting slogans and singing songs.
Especially Wendy, who was originally shy, is no longer the way she used to watch the game silently.
If George Li saw this scene, he would definitely be shocked.
