Is the midfield the focus of today's battle between the two teams?
The answer is definitely "yes".
It's just that at the beginning of the game, both teams discovered that the opposing team had deployed multiple defenders in the midfield, so they wanted to bypass the midfield during the attack.
As the game progressed, the two teams gradually began to fight in the midfield.
In the 5th minute of the game, just when Robben tried to dribble from the right to the middle, he was knocked to the ground by his former teammate Lampard who was chasing him from the side.
After the foul, Lampard wanted to pull Robben up, but Robben immediately slapped his hand away.
In the 8th minute of the game, this time it was an old teammate from Leeds United who took action.
No, it's a step down.
When Scott Parker was competing for the second half of the ball with Lampard, he was one step slower than the opponent and stretched out his leg to trip Lampard.
However, this time Parker did not reach out and try to pull Lampard up, but turned over and left the scene of the incident. However, after taking just a few steps, the referee who caught up showed him a yellow card.
In January 2004, Parker joined Chelsea led by Ranieri for a fee of 10 million pounds. Facts have proved that Parker's choice was wrong. The old-fashioned Ranieri did not trust Parker, and the arrival of Mourinho did not change the fate of Parker's iron bench. Parker was pushed to the bench by Makelele and only played 4 times in the league. The brilliance of the former best rookie in the Premier League was gone.
Later, through the introduction of current Leeds United chief scout Walsh, George Lee bought Parker, who was frustrated at Chelsea. Parker, who had just arrived at Leeds United, competed with Graveson for the position. Later, after "Wild Boar" Davis left and Smith's position changed, Parker completely secured the position of Leeds United's starting midfielder.
It was also Parker's stable performance in the midfielder position of Leeds United, which helped Leeds United win multiple championship trophies in the past few seasons and was also selected for the England national team many times.
Today, Parker gritted his teeth and wanted to perform well in front of his old club, so that those who once looked down on him could see who blindly let him go.
In the 13th minute of the game, Essien and Barton collided while fighting in the midfield, and both fell to the ground.
However, Barton stood up after sitting on the ground for a while, while Essien kept rolling on the ground holding his calf.
With the support of the team doctor, he came to the sidelines to receive treatment.
Chelsea chose to make a substitution here, replacing Essien with Makelele, who was already unable to play on the sidelines.
Li George saw Chelsea's substitution on the sidelines. He began to think of countermeasures and wanted to make good use of Chelsea's passive substitution to make a fuss.
According to the previous practice, if Leeds United has Sneijder today, then Lee George will definitely arrange for Sneijder to try to play behind Makelele more; if Smith is here today, then Lee George will definitely arrange for Smith to attack Mark. Lai Lai on both sides. Both of these purposes are used to continuously consume the 35-year-old Makelele's physical fitness, so that Makelele can become a loophole for Chelsea in the final stage of the game.
However, it is unfortunate that the two players that Leeds United need from George Lee are sitting in the stands.
"If I had known earlier that Essien was going to leave now, I would rather not play Button but let Pedersen or Sigurdsson play, so that I could at least try to hit the Chelsea midfielder with a long pass."
"According to the thinking before the game, the focus of our offense in this game is on the two wings. Now it seems that Chelsea are not ready to attack the two wings today. Belletti and Bridge are back to defend. The offense on both sides is almost in a vacuum, basically we are attacking and they are defending.”
While George Li was still thinking about what to do next, the game on the field was interrupted again.
This time it was because when Robben received the ball and counterattacked, he was too far forward, so the linesman raised the flag to indicate that he was offside.
After Robben was deemed offside by the linesman, he did not obey the referee's decision. Instead, he went to the linesman and complained that he was not offside at the time.
This scene also attracted the attention of the referee on duty. He paused the game and came to the sideline to signal Robben to leave quickly.
Who knew that Robben was a little over the top? Not only did he not leave, but he even more aggressively approached the referee.
Finally, after being shown a yellow card by the referee, Robben left and began to retreat.
"This can't go on like this."
Li George began to talk to himself again. Although Leeds United has the upper hand in the current scene and they are taking the initiative to attack, two players in the team are now carrying yellow cards. If this continues, it will not only affect the players' mentality. The changes also allowed Chelsea to focus on attacking.
Just like the previous few times, Chelsea players here wanted to pass the ball to Parker.
^^^
The game continued, and George Li found a way to deal with it in the following period.
That is to arrange for Kuyt to return to the midfield to organize the team's offense. The job that was not suitable for a forward originally became very suitable for Kuyt.
Because Kuyt had increased his retracement and passing training before he was injured in the previous stage. Unlike general forward passing training, which involves holding the ball behind the back, Kuyt added forward passing training in previous training, and the training effect was pretty good.
Now, George Lee asked Kuitra to return to the midfield to help sort out the team's offense, and let the two wingers move closer to the center and use them as forwards.
This has two advantages. First, after Arnesen and Robben move closer to the center, Makelele's position cannot move closer to Ballack and Lampard. In this case, Leeds United will threaten Chelsea's defense from both waists. Secondly, once Makelele's position is fixed in front of the defense, Leeds United will regain the advantage in the midfield. After all, Leeds United's number including Kuyt is four against two.
In addition, Arnesen and Robben gave up the wings, giving Bale and Black more opportunities to advance forward, and the overall formation was able to press forward to a very comfortable position.
In the 36th minute of the game, Leeds United launched a very threatening attack.
Ballack was a little overconfident when facing the siege of Button and Barry. As soon as he took an extra step, he was immediately forced to the wing by Patton who was squeezing over. He was about to turn the ball back and regain control of the football, but he didn't expect Barry to come out from behind.
The two kicked their feet on the football at the same time, but because they had just made contact with Button, Ballack's second kick was not as fast as Barry's, and Barry snatched the ball away in advance.
As soon as he stole the ball, Barry passed the ball to Kuyt who was retreating.
This pass was passed behind Kuyt, who was running back, so that Kuyt could turn around and face the opponent's goal.
The Dutch forward turned around comfortably and took the ball. Then he passed the ball to the left before Makelele grabbed the ball.
Arneson had already started running diagonally from the left. After receiving Kuyt's pass, he immediately accelerated and passed the ball through the joint between Carvalho and Belletti.
Facing the attacking Chelsea goalkeeper Cudicini, Arnesen chose to lob.
However, his lob shot was slightly higher than the crossbar because he did not control the intensity well.
