When foreign capital acquires a Premier League team, some people try to accommodate the fans for fear of angering them, but some people are completely different.
Just like Chen Zhiyuan, a Malaysian Chinese from Cardiff City, who is also the uncle of the wife of superstar Andy Lau.
When he took over Cardiff City in 2012, the first decision he made was to change the color of the team's traditional jersey from blue to red. The reason is simple because red is more popular in Asia.
Needless to say, this sparked a huge backlash and angered local fan organizations.
Even Cardiff City's former captain Perry came out to accuse the new owner of selling out the soul of the team.
But money is very useful.
First, a 100 million pound capital injection plan was launched to pay off the 30 million pound debt of former owner Sam Harman, while at the same time improving the team's training facilities, expanding the home court, and strengthening the team's lineup.
After some manipulation, Cardiff City was promoted to the Premier League.
Suddenly, the wealthy boss from Malaysia transformed from a dragon into a brave man.
This boss from Asia is also very willing to spend money. In the first summer after being promoted to the Premier League, he invested more than 30 million pounds in transfers and introduced a group of famous stars including Medel and Cockell.
In addition, they also rented a talented player like Fabio from Manchester United, which was a huge investment.
But after 17 rounds, Cardiff City is ranked 15th in the Premier League, only 4 points away from Crystal Palace, which is 18th in the relegation zone. The situation is already precarious, and the position of head coach Ma Kai is also in turmoil.
At this time, Cardiff City ushered in Leeds United, who were in poor shape recently.
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To say that Leeds United's current situation is indeed not ideal, especially since the two weeks of national team matches in November, the team has been playing very poorly.
Lost to Arsenal 0-2 away, lost 3-1 away to Chelsea, drew 1-1 at home with Manchester City, lost 3-2 at home to Aston Villa, drew 1-1 away with Newcastle, lost 3-2 at home
To Tottenham Hotspur.
In the last six rounds of the Premier League, Leeds United has lost four games and drawn only two games. The league ranking has also plummeted, falling directly to ninth place.
If it hadn't been so eye-catching at the beginning, I don't know where it would have fallen by now.
Cardiff City also saw Leeds United's recent poor performance, and they wanted to score three points at home when playing at home.
This is called: taking advantage of your illness to take your life.
What's more, it's Boxing Day, and generally speaking, away teams tend to perform worse.
This is human nature.
But what surprised Cardiff City coach Malky Mackie and the 28,000 Cardiff City fans at the scene was that Leeds United, playing away from home, broke out into an astonishing state from the very beginning.
Especially the midfielder and frontcourt of this team are constantly launching attacks against Cardiff City.
In the 14th minute, Coutinho dribbled through a defensive player in the middle and sent a direct pass. Salah broke into the penalty area and shot low into the right rib, opening the scoring for Leeds United.
Just 7 minutes later, Felipe Anderson from the left forced a breakthrough, broke into the penalty area in front of the baseline, and passed diagonally back to the front of the small penalty area. After Harry Kane stopped the ball with his back, he passed the ball across, and Salah made it in one fell swoop.
One city, two to zero!
In the 27th minute, Felipe Anderson broke through again from the left and passed the ball across the left side of the penalty area. Harry Kane stopped the ball, passed the defender, and shot furiously. He won another victory, three to zero.
!
In less than half an hour, Leeds United scored consecutive goals and launched a wave of fast-break storms, which completely stunned the Cardiff City players and fans at home.
More importantly, the three midfielders headed by Fabinho, Kante and Coutinho helped Leeds United firmly control the situation, constantly create opportunities, and take turns attacking Cardiff City's goal.
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"What did you talk to Pochettino?"
In the stands where fans of the visiting team gathered at Cardiff City Stadium, Borrell curiously asked Gao Shen who was traveling with the team.
Gao Shen and Su Qing flew directly from Madrid to London with their son.
After playing in London for a few days, they set off to meet the team in Cardiff City.
While in London, Gao Shen watched the recent team game videos obtained from Leeds United, and also read various analysis reports provided by the big data center.
On the eve of the game, he was in the hotel and had a deep chat with Pochettino.
But no one knows what they talked about.
Except themselves.
"It's nothing. Isn't Brozovic injured recently? I would suggest that Fabinho play at the back. Rabiot and Bruno Fernandez are not suitable for this position."
Lucas and Borrell looked at each other and laughed in unison.
Gao Shen must have said more than this, but not saying it out loud is also a sign of respect for Pochettino.
This group of Leeds United players were all hand-picked by Gao Shen. No one knows the best position, development direction, and potential value of this group of players better than Gao Shen.
The problems Pochettino has encountered recently are actually mainly concentrated in the midfield and frontcourt.
The midfielder is what Gao Shen said before. Brozovic is injured. Pochettino tried to use Rabiot and Bruno Fernandez to play this position, as well as Kimmich, but these players currently have some problems.
Gao Shen suggested that Fabinho play.
This is the starting deep midfielder for tonight's game.
But the real key is on the offensive end.
At the beginning of this season, Leeds United actually played quite amazingly, reaching fourth place in the league at one point. However, after the amazing performance, they were soon put to the test, and problems were gradually exposed among the players who had performed well.
In the past, many Premier League teams regarded Leeds United as a dark horse. After the heavy bleeding this summer, many Premier League teams still looked down upon Leeds United, so they all wanted to steal points from Leeds United.
However, after their eye-catching start, especially after finishing fourth in the league, all Premier League teams realized that Leeds United was still Leeds United, and their strength had not weakened at all.
This has certainly made many people admire the strategic planning of Leeds United's management, but it has also made more teams begin to adopt more defensive and cautious tactics when facing Leeds United.
In this way, Leeds United's problems were exposed.
For example, when three technical players, Felipe Anderson, Coutinho and Salah, have a center like Harry Kane in front of them, the three cannot form an effective division of labor and thus create synergy.
This caused Leeds United's offense to be somewhat unable to open up the situation.
Sometimes, Coutinho and Felipe Anderson can even overlap.
In Cardiff, the focus of Gao Shen's discussion with Pochettino was actually the division of labor among the four offensive players in the frontcourt.
For example, Salah, Gao Shen believes that Salah is a very calm player, very fast, and his shooting skills have also improved a lot. The important thing is that he is not tall.
Why call him Egyptian Messi?
It is because he has a low center of gravity, a short pace, good combination of man and ball, and can break through and pass others through fast-paced changes of speed and direction. Moreover, he has the excellent physical fitness of African players, and he is very good at holding the ball behind his back and passing and receiving the ball.
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But he also has a problem, that is, it is difficult to be effective in a densely defended space.
then what should we do?
It's very simple, amplify his advantages and cover up his shortcomings.
Needless to say, when it comes to quick counterattacks, in positional battles, you cannot forcefully attack his side.
On the contrary, Felipe Anderson on the other side is very good at taking the ball and breaking through, has strong one-on-one ability, and has the unique spirituality of Brazilians, so that many people say that he plays like Neymar.
"Neymar" is on the left, "Messi" is on the right, and "Iniesta" is in the middle.
Look, isn't this a proper poor version of Barcelona?
Therefore, Gao Shen's opinion is that the main point of attack should be on the left, let the two Felipe Andersons form an offensive advantage on the left, and then look for opportunities to move to the center and right.
Salah on the right should create more space for him, allowing him to use his impact advantage and his calm scoring ability on the right side of the penalty area.
For this game specifically, Pochettino adjusted the division of labor and positions of the four offensive players in the frontcourt, which indeed stimulated their offensive firepower.
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Throughout the first half, Leeds United played very passionately, especially in the midfield and frontcourt. They played very sharply and at a fast pace. In typical Pochettino style, Cardiff City was suppressed without any chance of fighting back.
Power.
After changing sides in the second half, Cardiff City made substitutions in the midfield, but to no avail and could not save the situation at all.
Especially in the subsequent games, Leeds United played consecutive fast breaks. Harry Kane scored two goals in a row. One of them was Coutinho's long shot that caused the goalkeeper to miss. Kane missed the goal and hit the shot.
.
The England center scored a hat-trick as Leeds United beat Cardiff City 5-0 away from home.
This victory did not reverse Leeds United's situation in the Premier League standings, because Newcastle, who were ahead, beat Stoke City 5-1 at home and continued to beat Leeds United with a 6-point advantage.
The White Rose are still ranked 9th, but this game greatly boosted Leeds United's morale.
Pochettino also benefited a lot from this game, especially Gao Shen's training of the team's offense, positioning of players, and the passion and offensive firepower displayed by the players after the team's tactical adjustments.
This amazed Pochettino.
However, the unlucky one is Cardiff City coach Malky Mackay.
The 40-year-old Scottish coach who led Cardiff City to promotion from the Championship was announced to be sacked by Cardiff City that night after a disastrous home defeat to Leeds United.
This caused an uproar the next day. Many Cardiff City fans came forward to protest, believing that it was irrational for the club to fire the meritorious coach and lacked respect for Ma Kai.
Even though this game was a disastrous defeat to Leeds United, Cardiff City still has not fallen into the relegation zone. Why should Ma Kai be fired?
After forcibly changing the color of the team's jersey, Chen Zhiyuan once again fell into a storm of public opinion.
Even Gao Shen himself did not expect that Leeds United won the game, which would result in Malky Mackay losing his job.
This made him feel like he was back when he was coaching Napoli.
