"Water a lot of water and spread sand on the turf to reduce the friction of the ball during movement, thereby reducing the success rate of the opponent's ground attack... Jose, this guy, has no creativity at all, and the tricks are still the same." He stretched out his hand and felt it. Looking at the state of the turf on the court, George curled his lips covertly, "No need to guess, that guy must have thought that I would send Alger (Robben) and Xavi (Alonso) in this game, so he would use the ones he used before. The tactics used to deal with Barcelona were directly used to deal with us."
Against a team like Barcelona that lacks aerial firepower and whose offense relies too much on ground advancement and passing and cutting, Mourinho's set of tricks is indeed quite effective. However, wanting to use the same method to deal with Tottenham and tilt the balance of victory more towards Chelsea, George could only say that Mourinho might have taken too many sleeping pills and was still awake.
The slippery turf limited the players' ability to use their feet, forcing players from both sides to choose a simpler and more crude way to complete the offense. But unlike Barcelona, Tottenham, which sent Klose as the starting center for this game, is among the top in Europe in terms of its ability to work at heights. Coupled with the fact that Arshavin and Cristiano Ronaldo are delivering shells from both wings, and Gerrard and Davis who are inserted in the middle, they also have excellent long-range shots. Tottenham is fully capable of reducing the frequency of ground attacks like Chelsea. , use a more direct way to attack the opponent's door!
With the stadium turf restricting the two teams to almost the same degree, Tottenham, which was slightly better in the pre-match exchange between the coaches of both sides, clearly had the upper hand!
In terms of positional defense, Mourinho's carefully crafted main lineup is definitely the top in Europe. The defensive area of Makelele, Lampard and Essien is enough to cover the entire midfield, causing huge trouble for Tottenham's offense. However, Mourinho's extensive targeted training before the game caused a crack in Chelsea's strict defensive system in this game!
For example, as midfield engines, Alonso and Davis have very different technical characteristics. The former has a better overall view and is excellent at long passes and long shots, but his ability to escape and break double-team defenses is quite average; the latter has excellent fighting ability and a more fierce style of play. At his peak, he holds the ball and moves forward. The ability to escape in place is also top-notch. These differences in technical characteristics between the two were enough for the Chelsea players who were originally responsible for defending Alonso to make wrong judgments when the defensive target became a Dutch wild boar!
Lampard, Essien and others are indeed very capable of self-regulation, but it takes time to get the body out of the state of memory inertia. And this period of adjustment time is enough for Tottenham to find opportunities to tear open Chelsea's defense and turn the invisible advantage into a score advantage!
Sure enough, just three minutes into the game, Davis used a clean turn in the frontcourt to break through the pressing defense of Lampard and Essien and then dribbled the ball forward, forcing Makelele to step forward to make up for it. Defend!
"Lampard and Essien made serious mistakes! Their attack was too reckless, leaving a huge vacuum in Chelsea's defense at the front of the penalty area!" Lineker, who served as the commentator for this game, saw This scene suddenly became exciting. He did not expect that Tottenham's offense had successfully threatened Chelsea's goal just after the game started. "This is a very good offensive opportunity. Makelele was forced to go over to cover, otherwise Davis could break into the penalty area directly..." …Now, Chelsea’s defensive strength at the top of the penalty area is extremely empty, and Gerrard is already there and ready!”
This is the difference between Davis and Alonso. If it is to get rid of the latter who lacks the ability, even if the double-teaming of Lampard and Essien cannot successfully steal the ball, they can still force the Spaniard to pass the ball back to the backcourt, slowing down Tottenham's advancement while creating counterattacks for his teammates. Take the opportunity. But Davis is different. The Dutch wild boar, tempered from his childhood World Cup days, is fully capable of breaking through the opponent's double-team, and in turn tearing apart Chelsea's midfield defense!
Davis, who noticed the movement of his teammates, deceived Makelele with a fake pass and passed the ball to the unguarded Gerrard!
Terry immediately stepped forward to block Gerrard's shooting angle. His experience in many Premier League matches and working with the national team for many years told him that if Gerrard is allowed to hit the goal comfortably in this position, even if he is guarding The man who owns the gate is the genius goalkeeper Akinfeev, so it is difficult to guarantee that the gate will not be lost!
However, Gerrard also made a false shot. Noticing Terry's action, he faked a shot and passed the ball. Cristiano Ronaldo quickly cut in from the right to receive the pass. Gala, who was responsible for defending on the left, had been thrown away by him several positions before he knew it! Single sword!
At this time, Tottenham's rich offensive level and effective use of court space were most vividly reflected - while Ronaldo dribbled the ball into the penalty area, Davis entangled Makelele, Gerrard and the newly arrived Mascherano ambushed at the top of the penalty area with one left and one right, restraining Terry and the chasing Essien and Lampard; Arshavin was eyeing the far end of the penalty area, making Ferreira dare not act rashly; at the same time The forward penetration of Klose also put Carvalho and Akinfeev in a dilemma!
Use midfielders with excellent athletic ability and wide coverage to increase the team's defensive thickness and expand the defensive area. It is stipulated that the frontcourt players must also actively return to the defense to participate in the defense, which can always form a small area in their own half. Playing less and using a defensive method called "iron defense" by the media and fans forces opponents to engage in positional warfare and a war of attrition. This is the most terrifying thing about Chelsea and the most troublesome thing for other teams. Therefore, when Tottenham took advantage of Chelsea's defensive loopholes and formed a situation in the penalty area where they were playing more and less, Chelsea's strongest point had been completely destroyed by Tottenham!
Carvalho is indeed a very outstanding central defender, but in a two-on-two situation in the penalty area and one of his teammates is his own goalkeeper, he can only choose to let Akinfeev and Ronaldo duel. He went to mark Klose and did not give the German a chance to easily hit an empty goal.
At the same time, after luring Akinfeev to the near corner of the goal as much as possible, Ronaldo, who had been paying attention to the movement of his teammates, was not greedy for credit and directly passed the ball to Klose who was advancing along the middle of the penalty area!
Although Klose is not as strong as Drogba and can overwhelm defenders with his strength, he won the World Cup Silver Boot four years ago with just his header skills. He is not the same as the Portuguese in aerial work. The national team can handle it easily. I saw Klose taking advantage of the opportunity to leap into the air and pin Carvalho under him, and then directly swung his head towards the goal and smashed the ball into the far corner of the goal that was beyond Akinfeev's reach!
One to zero! Less than four minutes into the game, Tottenham took advantage of Chelsea's defensive mistakes and scored first, successfully seizing the opportunity in this peak showdown!
