In mid-July, Chelsea's summer training camp officially began.
For Chelsea, the first game of the new season is the Community Shield against Arsenal on August 2, so the training time this season is still relatively tight.
But there's nothing we can do about it. Who allowed the Champions League to be scheduled later last season, and then the Copa America? Players must have a good rest.
Although now there are suddenly two less Brazilian internationals, and only one David Luiz has returned to the team...
When the team regrouped, Wolfart also led the medical team to conduct a return physical examination for each player.
The report submitted to Pan Yi showed that each player's physical condition was in good condition, and their weight, body fat rate, etc. were all very good.
Pan Yi also looked at Lukaku's weight and found that it was still "only" 97 kilograms and had not really increased to 200 kilograms.
This is what Pan Yi specifically told Hanhan not to gain any more weight, because it is enough now.
If you are overweight, although your ability to carry people in the penalty area will be stronger, it will also reduce the player's sensitivity and speed, which is what Pan Yi does not want to see.
A flexible fat man on the front line is more useful than a pure tower!
Why is Haaland such a bug, both in reality and in the game?
In addition to necessary technical indicators such as shooting skills, it is because he is tall, fast, strong and flexible...
This is really hard to guard against!
Lukaku and others are not overweight, which also shows that this group of players are relatively moderate even if they are on vacation.
Professional qualities are good!
There will be no change in the selection of captains for the new season. The captain is Terry and the vice-captain is Ivanovic.
Both players have been with the team for a long time, are highly respected by the players, and are leaders in the locker room.
Terry, in particular, can be said to be a natural leader, and his temperament is convincing both on and off the court.
On the first day of training, Terry began to fulfill his duties as captain. He came to the locker room early, prepared everything, and took the initiative to lead his teammates to warm up before training, playing the role of a captain well.
It can be said that it saves Pan Yi a lot to have such a captain. Even if Terry's competitive status declines, he still has to stay in the team for two more years. This is definitely good for the growth of the team's young players.
After training and games last season, Chelsea's overall tactical framework has basically taken shape.
Although Pan Yi soon announced that he would focus on practicing the formation's style of play in training, due to the fact that different three-back formations are actually very similar;
Pan Yi even used the switch in some games last season, allowing Bamford and Lukaku to attack the opponent's defense on the court at the same time, so everyone adapted quite quickly.
And this time, Harry Kane, who is more capable and more comprehensive, is used to partner Lukaku, and everyone has more confidence.
The area that needs the most change is the midfield.
Those players who played as wingers last season, such as Hazard, Gnabry, Lingard, etc., need to start practicing more playing in the center and playing as an attacking midfielder.
But this is not a big problem, because Pan Yi has high requirements for wingers to cross positions and move in, and they often played like this last season.
In addition, many of them are originally from attacking midfielders, so the problem becomes even less serious.
Pan Yi asked for the biggest change in Seat B.
He not only has to play in the attacking midfield position, but also retreats to the back of the midfield, or even the defensive midfielder to organize the series.
In Pan Yi's arrangement, Seat B should often stand in front of Kanter in the new season to play as a pseudo-winger, which is somewhat similar to De Bruyne's role in Hamburg.
At this time, his advantages of comprehensive skills and no obvious shortcomings can be fully utilized.
In this formation, Seat B's task on the field is to support the front line with passes and advances after completing defense, and to tear apart the opponent's defense line by breaking through or making through balls near the penalty area. The open space behind the center is his exclusive area.
Although his personal defensive ability is not outstanding compared with Kanter and others, Seat B is better at actively implementing pressure awareness, attacking defense and grasping the timing of pursuit, which allows him to play any position in the midfield.
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Therefore, although Ramirez and Mikel, the two midfield generals, were sold in the summer window, as the B seat is getting better, no one will worry about the midfield problem.
Especially the newly joined Goretzka.
For this tall German midfielder, everyone inside and outside the team basically understands him as Mikel's perfect replacement, thinking that he can take on the defensive tasks of Chelsea's midfield like the Nigerian.
But this judgment is only half correct.
Pan Yi's positioning of Goretzka is indeed a defensive midfielder, but he is similar to Kante and is not a pure defensive player.
It can be said that he and Mikel are even two different types of players and there is no comparison.
This was quickly realized as preparations for the season began.
From a technical point of view, Goretzka's biggest advantage lies in his forward speed and scoring ability.
On the other hand, he also has a strong sense of the ball and the ability to control the ball at his feet, and has very good dribbling skills.
During training matches, Goretzka impressed his teammates many times with his precise shots from outside the penalty area.
On the defensive end, Goretzka's advantage lies in his quick pursuit, and this kind of immediate pursuit often has good results.
Because for a team like Chelsea that pays attention to constant vertical impact, Goretzka's arrival will greatly help the team's offensive and defensive balance.
In defense, another characteristic of Goretzka is that he likes to tackle. His speed is fast and decisive, and the opponent usually encounters a steal when he is not prepared.
Generally speaking, Goretzka has high tactical execution and excellent running ability. He can use active movements to fill the gaps in the team's defense.
Of course, for Goretzka, who has just turned 20, he still has some shortcomings and there is room for improvement in the future.
The first is his confrontation ability, which is not outstanding for a German player.
The main reason is that his current physical strength is slightly insufficient. He is 189cm tall and only weighs 76kg, which is really not enough.
So not long after Goretzka joined the team, Pan Yi asked Wolfat and Pintus to arrange special strength training for him to increase his muscles!
You know, in Pan Yi's previous life, Goretzka transformed from a slightly skinny appearance into a muscular man in just a few months after joining Bayern.
At that time, he gained a total of 15kg in weight!
A 90kg midfielder was born, and the muscle gain also gave Goretzka strong confrontation capabilities, including core strength needed for stealing, aerial contention, ball protection, etc., as well as stronger self-confidence.
On the other hand, Goretzka's passing awareness is good, but his passing accuracy is actually average.
Especially for the kind of passes to the core position, the landing point is often not accurate enough, so he still needs to be patient in polishing these aspects.
Of course, Pan Yi also has a way to deal with this.
First of all, of course, let Gretzka practice passing more, and also let him familiarize himself with the running habits of his teammates faster.
In addition, tactically, Goretzka is required to try not to pass the key ball himself, but to hand the ball to Kanter or Hazard, B seat and others in front of him to handle it.
This takes time.
And as long as Goretzka's body and passing skills improve, he will truly become an all-around player who can do anything in the midfield!
By then, Chelsea will have two midfield barriers in Kante and Goretzka, plus Van Dijk behind them. Pan Yi believes that Chelsea's defense will be even greater than last season.
Moreover, even if Kanter is absent for some reason, Goretzka can step in and serve as the sole defensive midfielder, and the team's overall offensive and defensive rhythm will not even be affected.
This is the biggest reason why Pan Yi decided to introduce Goretzka!
——
There must be training, and of course there must be competition.
Chelsea has only scheduled three official warm-up matches this summer, all of which are in the United States. They also have a title, euphemistically called: International Champions Cup.
This is actually a commercial event. It was once named the Guinness Cup and is divided into North America, Europe, Dragon Country, Australia, Singapore and other competition regions. Like the Emirates Cup, Telecom Cup, etc., it is one of the mainstream warm-up matches.
Of course, as far as participating teams are concerned, they are still worthy of the name "Champions Cup".
For example, this year, the participating teams in the Dragon Country Division are Real Madrid, AC Milan, and Inter Milan, while the participating teams in the Australian Division are Manchester City, Roma, and Real Madrid.
Chelsea participates in the North American division, including Chelsea, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Fiorentina, Mexico America, Benfica, Barcelona, Los Angeles Galaxy, New York Red Bulls, San Jose Earthquakes, etc.
Of course, this kind of friendly cup competition is relatively loose in terms of competition system, and there is no strict group stage plus cross-elimination competition.
The only special thing is that if the game ends in a draw at 90 minutes, a penalty shootout will immediately determine the winner.
Chelsea's opponents are the New York Red Bulls, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona. After the game is over, they will be ranked based on points and win the championship.
Since both Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona were opponents that Chelsea defeated in the Champions League last season, and Barcelona even played a historic game with Chelsea in the final, it can indeed be said to be a championship battle;
Therefore, this group of games still attracts quite a lot of attention.
After arriving in New York, Chelsea also received a warm welcome from local fans. Everyone rushed to see Pan Yi, the top coach in Europe, and the many stars in the team.
A strong Premier League team like Chelsea has a lot of fans in the United States, and now that Chelsea has come with the title of new Champions League champion, it is naturally even more popular.
After the game against the New York Red Bulls started, Chelsea broke the deadlock in the 26th minute. Hazard passed the ball from the right side of the penalty area, and new aid Harry Kane took the ball in a roundabout way and shot away from the angle and scored from 14 yards.
Chelsea rotated 10 players in the second half. Mbappe, Abraham, Goretzka, Van Dijk and Amelia all played, and many people made their Blues debut.
However, the New York Red Bulls took this opportunity to equalize the score.
Terry's backpass was weak, Amelia failed to tackle, and Rivera intercepted the ball and scored into the empty goal, 1-1.
The New York Red Bulls became more and more courageous as they fought. In the 69th minute, Rivera made a pass from the right, and Adams rushed into the net from an unguarded 10 yards to take the lead, 2-1.
In the 73rd minute, Matic blocked the opponent's pass, but Terry failed to clear the ball in time. Sean Davis shot from 14 yards and scored, 3-1.
Chelsea closed the gap in the 75th minute. Hazard passed a low free kick from the left to the edge of the penalty area. The unguarded Mbappé shot into the lower left corner of the net, 3-2.
In the 77th minute, Zuma failed to clear the opponent's pass. Sean Davis shot from 12 yards on the right side of the penalty area and passed between Terry's legs and into the net, 4-2.
Later, Chelsea continued to waste scoring opportunities. Mbappe and Abraham each failed to score a single goal. Before the end, a 12-yard push shot from the B seat also missed.
In the end, Chelsea lost the warm-up match, which also made the tens of thousands of New York fans at the scene ecstatic.
After all, they defeated the Champions League champions!
But Pan Yi didn't care about this.
In an interview with reporters, he said: "The purpose of the warm-up has been achieved, and I am very satisfied."
"Harry Kane and Mbappe both scored goals in the game, which will be very helpful for them in the new season."
"Many young players also performed well in the game. I believe they have adapted to Chelsea's rhythm and they will get better and better in the future."
"Did Mbappe and Abraham miss a single shot? This is normal. And they will sum up their gains and losses in this game. As I just said, they will continue to improve and get better and better..."
Then it's time to play Paris Saint-Germain.
Due to the fact that Paris Saint-Germain's bid of 110 million to buy Lukaku was rejected, this game also attracted a lot of attention.
But the game itself was lackluster, because both teams came here for the purpose of warming up, and they were not really playing in the Champions League.
In the 25th minute, Paris Saint-Germain broke the deadlock. Augustin's low shot with his right foot in front of the penalty area bounced out of the post. Ibrahimovic's left foot shot from 13 meters away from the left rib of the penalty area hit the net. Paris led Chelsea 1-0.
Chelsea equalized the score in the 65th minute. Kante dropped the ball into the penalty area. Moses shot in front of the penalty area and scored. Chelsea 1-1 Paris.
After both sides made extensive player changes, the scene became even more dull. Within 90 minutes, the two teams drew 1-1 and directly entered a penalty shootout.
Both sides were almost flawless until the seventh round. Thiago Silva's penalty kick was saved by Courtois. Then Courtois personally took the penalty kick and scored, leading to a penalty shootout for Chelsea.
Defeat PSG.
And when it came time to play against Barcelona, it was almost the same as playing against Paris Saint-Germain.
Of course, it is impossible for them to do what they did in the Champions League final a month ago. Barcelona's Messi, Neymar, and Suarez, who participated in the Copa America, did not even appear.
In the first half, Chelsea took the lead in the 10th minute. Zuma passed the ball and Hazard passed 4 people before breaking into the penalty area and shooting from the left.
In the second half, in the 52nd minute, Barcelona equalized the score. Mathieu's diagonal pass caused Azpilicueta's header to clear the ball. Munir shot into the empty goal. Zuma made a clearance at the goal line. The ball hit the crossbar and bounced out, but the referee
The penalty kick was judged to have crossed the goal line first, 1-1.
In the 66th minute, Barcelona took the lead and Sandro shot from the left side of the penalty area into the far corner of the goal, 2-1.
In the 85th minute, Chelsea equalized the score. Gary Cahill's header from a free kick went into the empty goal, 2-2.
The two sides entered a penalty shootout again.
On Barcelona's side, Halilovic hit the crossbar, Pique's low shot was saved by Courtois, and Chelsea scored all penalty kicks to win.
So Chelsea completed this trip to the United States with a record of one loss and two wins, and also completed all the warm-up matches for this summer training.
Although the next two games were won by penalty kicks, first of all, the opponent was relatively strong, and secondly, Chelsea's condition was obviously adjusted well, and each game was better than the last. This also made the outside world full of expectations for Chelsea's new season.
There is another important factor, that is, people all over the world now know that Pan Yi does not attach great importance to the results of the warm-up matches. How he performs in the warm-up matches has nothing to do with his performance in the main game.
Next, Chelsea will return to the UK immediately to prepare for the upcoming Community Shield Cup!——
PS: There should be another update at noon, so try your best.