Chapter 304 The Premier League is starting to get upset!
If the performance of the strong teams in the first two rounds of the Premier League this season was pretty good, the third round of the Premier League, which was held on August 30 and August 31, showed a different scene.
.
The "mysterious mid- and lower-tier teams in the Premier League" collectively showed off their power!
In this round of games, there was only one strong dialogue between the big6, and Tottenham Hotspur, which had maintained a complete victory in the first two rounds, suffered a disastrous defeat to Liverpool at home with a score of 0:3. p>
Red Army captain Gerrard, Brazilian starlet Coutinho, and the not-so-happy "happy boy" Sterling each scored a goal to help Liverpool win.
Tottenham's loss to Liverpool seems relatively acceptable, but the other strong teams are a bit uncomfortable.
In particular, Manchester City, which was gaining momentum, unexpectedly lost to the "Sky City" Stoke City at home!
Manchester City was sieging the whole game but never achieved anything. Instead, Stoke City gave up a high ball in the 58th minute. "Old striker" Crouch headed the ball a little, and another striker Briam Diouf hit the ball.
Go in and hand Manchester City their first defeat of the season.
Arsenal also failed to win Manchester United away from home.
After being taught a lesson by Pan Yi's Chelsea, Leicester City organized a better defense when facing Arsenal, making it difficult for the Arsenal generals to find more and better opportunities.
In the end, Vardy and Sanchez scored a goal each and the two teams shook hands 1:1.
Another big6 team is Manchester United, who still cannot win their first win of the season.
They fought hard against newly promoted Burnley for 90 minutes in the away game, but ended up with a goalless draw and a 0:0 draw.
In other words, among the five big6 teams that played in the early stage, except for Liverpool, which won the "civil war", all the other teams failed to win!
Since Chelsea achieved four-goal wins against Burnley and Leicester City, this comparison makes it even more obvious how powerful Chelsea is under the leadership of Pan Yi this season!
Therefore, the media began to be optimistic about the next away game between Chelsea and Everton.
However, Chelsea seems to have been infected by this "cold wind".
------------------
On the evening of August 31st, Goodison Park Stadium.
In the third round of the Premier League, Chelsea's away game against "Toffees" Everton is underway.
Now the time has reached the second half, and the score between the two sides has reached 2:2!
Chelsea also has no way to take the lead!
Judging from the current score, this game seems to be an offensive battle, but in fact it is not.
Chelsea is still the main attacking side, they control the rhythm of the game, and Chelsea is far ahead in terms of ball possession rate and number of shots.
But Everton also performed extremely tenaciously at their home court.
Being able to rank fifth in the Premier League last season proves that they have a certain level of strength.
In this game, their Spanish head coach Robert Martinez also adopted a defensive tactic, which made Chelsea's offense somewhat difficult.
After all, Chelsea scored eight goals in the first two rounds!
It is impossible for the head coaches of the Premier League teams not to be afraid of such attacking power.
So Robert Martinez also doesn't dare to be too big.
But even so, Chelsea's aggressive attack still achieved results.
In the 20th minute of the game, after Hazard got the ball on the left, faced with double-teaming by two defensive players, he just took the ball to the baseline and passed it crosswise to the goal, assisting Kante who had already inserted into the middle.
Pushed the goal and opened the scoring for Chelsea.
But this lead did not last long.
In the 25th minute, Everton took advantage of a counterattack opportunity, and the extremely fast "Cheetah" Eto'o got a single shot and succeeded easily.
After failing to get a new contract offer from Chelsea at the end of last season, Eto'o gave up joining the Dutch giants Ajax and instead moved to another Premier League team Everton on a free transfer.
This was also a goal he scored against his old club, and it was also the first goal Chelsea conceded this season!
After that, the two sides entered into a stalemate for a period of time.
Chelsea kept pushing and penetrating, while Everton defended the city and fought back.
In the 38th minute, Chelsea scored again.
After receiving the ball on the right, Seat B shook continuously. After running horizontally for several meters along the penalty area line, he suddenly took a shot from the far corner and the score became 1:2, giving Chelsea the lead.
But this lead was not maintained until the end of halftime.
When the first half of the game entered injury time, Everton won a free kick from outside the frontcourt.
Naismith took the penalty and hoisted the ball directly into Chelsea's penalty area.
Courtois abandoned the goal and hit the ball with both hands, but he collided with Everton's center back Distin.
The referee awarded Everton a penalty without hesitation!
The reason he gave was that Courtois hit Distin before hitting the ball, so it was considered a foul.
But this penalty is actually a bit far-fetched, because Courtois was in the small penalty area at the time, and his hand hit the ball first, and then collided with Distin.
This made Courtois and other Chelsea players unhappy, and captain Terry also expressed his dissatisfaction to the referee.
But there was no way, the penalty was not changed, and the penalty kick was still awarded.
This penalty kick was still taken by Eto'o. He steadily scored the penalty and equalized the score for Everton!
After scoring the goal, Eto'o also ran to the fans' stands of the visiting team Chelsea and made an "old man standing on a crutch" celebration gesture, which caused bursts of boos.
2:2, this is the score at the end of the first half.
After changing sides in the second half, Chelsea continued to attack Everton, but scoring was still a bit difficult.
In fact, Chelsea can create some threats in almost every attack, but it is a bit lacking in the ability to seize opportunities.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Chelsea's center today is Forband, who performed well in the previous round. As a reward, Pan Yi let him continue.
But today he seemed a little impatient under the close defense of Everton players.
Several of his shots in the first half failed to hit the right spot. Some of his shots were shot, but they were bravely saved by the opponent's goalkeeper, American goalkeeper Tim Howard.
This also made him more and more anxious and affected his performance on the front line.
In the 30th minute, Bamford even received a yellow card for pulling down the defender Jagier who was guarding him in the opponent's penalty area.
The commentator also said:
"Judging from the current trend of the game, Chelsea seems to be a little unlucky today."
"Although they have scored two goals, Chelsea has created five to six very good scoring opportunities in the first half alone. The young Chelsea forwards still lack the ability to seize opportunities." "Now on the bench, Pan Yi only has one center at his disposal, the equally young Lukaku. He and Bamford played one game each in the first two rounds and performed very well." p>
"In today's third game, Pan Yi chose Bamford to continue. But now Bamford is struggling on the court, so will Pan Yi give Lukaku a chance?"
"The question now is that Lukaku is also a forward with average ability to seize opportunities in front of the goal. Can he give enough help to the team, or even help Chelsea turn the tide?"
"At this time, will Pan Yi regret letting go of the veteran Eto'o who was originally in the team? After all, Eto'o is now in the opponent's formation and has already scored two goals! And in this stalemate situation
, the veteran will obviously be more experienced and not as impatient as the young players!"
"Everton's defensive counterattack is still very good now. Although the absolute chances they created are far lower than Chelsea, they just seized the only two scoring opportunities and evened the score twice." p>
"This also forces Pan Yi's team to have to be careful about their backside while attacking aggressively. After all, Everton has also shown their threat on counterattack!"
"To a certain extent, Chelsea can push Everton to this extent on the road, which in itself is a reflection of the team's strength. After all, Everton is not a newly promoted team like Burnley or Leicester City.
, they were also fifth in the last Premier League, and they still have certain strength."
"It's just that if Pan Yi wants to take away three points from the away game today, then he will definitely have to show more skills."
"Of course, the good news is that even if Chelsea can only take one point at Goodison Park in this game, they can still rank first in the Premier League standings..."
"Oh, sorry, let me correct what I just said. Since Swansea defeated West Bromwich Albion 3-0 in the game that just ended, they have now won 3 games and accumulated 9 points." "In other words, if Chelsea cannot win, their ranking will drop to second place..."
At this time, the TV broadcast also showed the camera to the visiting team’s coaching bench.
Pan Yi's face now is not as relaxed as in the previous two games.
He also felt the difficulty of the Premier League!
In this game, Everton's head coach Martinez has obviously done his homework.
Chelsea's performance in the first two rounds was amazing, but it also exposed Pan Yi's latest tactics to all Premier League coaches.
And how many people who can become the head coach of a Premier League team are mediocre?
Martinez, who later led the Belgian national team to the semi-finals of the World Cup, obviously also has good tactical ability.
He also carefully created a set of defensive counterattack tactics for Chelsea.
The most correct thing he did in this game was to gather a large number of troops on the two wings for defense, making it difficult for Alonso and Azpilicueta to fly on the wings.
Therefore, even though Chelsea's two wingers Hazard and B are still performing well, they seem a bit helpless without support from behind, and they rely more on their own personal abilities to break through and obtain shooting opportunities.
In addition, Everton's two central defenders Jagielka and Distin today are very strong in physical confrontation, making Bamford's defense a bit difficult.
After all, Bamford weighs only 71kg. Although he has strong running ability and is very active in fighting, it is a bit difficult for him to really fight for position with an opponent who is 193cm tall and weighs 88kg.
So...
Now Pan Yi's choice is very simple.
That is to use heavy to make heavy, to use strong to fight strong!
At this moment, we just need someone who can break through Everton's defense like a bull!
That is, the man who combines "one high and one fast"!
At this time, Pan Yi breathed out a heavy breath, looked at the time again, turned and walked to the bench.
"Come here!" Pan Yi pointed at the big black guy on the bench and shouted.
Yes, it’s the big black guy Lukaku.
Now the young version of him, although his weight is not as terrifying as the 103 kg in his later period, it has already reached 97kg. He has been an out-and-out heavy tank since he was a child.
Lukaku looked around, then realized that Pan Yi was calling him, and quickly jumped up from his seat and came to Pan Yi's side.
Pan Yi naturally put his arm around Lukaku's shoulders, pointed to the court and said:
"You're going to warm up later, and replace Bamford in five minutes. You've been watching the game off the court for so long, so you should be able to see where his problems are on the court, right?"
"Understood." Lukaku nodded, "I suffered too much in physical confrontation, and it was difficult to get into the best position when shooting, resulting in poor quality shots."
"Very good." Pan Yi nodded appreciatively.
This seemingly naive guy still has the ability to read the game.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
It seems that his training during this period was not in vain.
Pan Yi continued to order: "After you go up, you still have to pay attention to how you use your body."
"Remember, your biggest advantage is your body! In this game, we are playing against their defense, so there won't be much depth for you to run, so don't think about your explosive kick.
Got it!"
"You need to rely more on the opponent's central defender to take the ball and make plays. At this time, you must always stay focused and calm, and always pay attention to the position of the opponent's defender."
"Including always knowing where you are and the distance to the penalty area, so that you can judge where is the most suitable position to receive the ball, and after receiving the ball, whether to shoot yourself or pass the ball to your teammates."
"We all know that the further away from the penalty area, the less defensive pressure you will receive, and the greater the space you will gain. The closer you are to the penalty area, the greater the marking pressure you will receive, the narrower the space will be, and the opponent's defense will be tighter.
Aggressive."
"So at this time, you have to use your body more to protect the ball. Also, when receiving the pass from your teammates, you have to leave a little lead, block the position in advance, block the opponent's defender, and let the ball come to you. This way you can get more
The space to handle the ball, understand?"
Pan Yi spoke very carefully, almost teaching Lukaku step by step how to play a real center.
After all, when Burnley played against Burnley in the first round, the opponent had not yet figured out Chelsea's offensive routine, and Lukaku had not been tested too much at that time.
Now, it is obvious that Everton is well prepared, and their central defender is much better than Burnley. This requires Lukaku to pay more attention to his technical details in order to defeat the enemy and win.<
/p>
"Finally, after you come on the field, I will let the two wingers give you more high balls to break the opponent's dense defense."
"When you take off to compete for the top, you must remember to observe the position of the defender first, and don't take off blindly! You must master the best take-off point and timing, otherwise, you will be interfered by your opponent when you take off, and it will be difficult to find the third place.
Once it hit the spot."
"In short, what I have been emphasizing is that you should use your physical advantages as much as possible to suppress your opponent, just like what you show in training, do you understand?"
Lukaku nodded solemnly, "I understand."
Of course, Pan Yi is involved in these contents in the training. Now he only emphasizes them emphatically, and he emphasizes them non-stop!
Because in Pan Yi's previous life, Lukaku didn't play like a center, and he was getting further and further away from Drogba's standards. In the end, no one called him "Little Warcraft".
He can even be used as a pure winger. In the combination of "one high and one fast", he is the "one fast" one...
This is such a waste of his good body.
It's better to leave it to Hazard to break through from the wing and let these little guys do it.
You can indeed pull wide, but I can't let Hazard or B sit in the middle of the penalty area and fight for headers.
There are only so many players on the team, and everyone must make the most of them!
Therefore, from the first day when Pan Yi transferred Lukaku to the first team, Pan Yi trained and required him according to the standards of a high center forward. Once he had any thoughts of making a fuss, he would directly stop him.
Destroy!
And Pan Yi made it very clear to Lukaku that I asked you to join the first team to compete for the main center position. If you want to play as a winger, just sit on the bench.
Because of this, Lukaku is indeed working hard on his center skills every day and has made great progress.
He was indeed a center when he debuted, otherwise why would he be called Little Monster?
But later on I didn’t know which string in my head was wrong, and as I kept kicking, it became less and less effective as a fulcrum.
Now that Pan Yi is taking care of him and letting him focus on the path of center, naturally it will not be easy for him to go astray.
"That's about it. You go and warm up first. Come on!" Pan Yi finally encouraged.
Lukaku grinned and was about to run over when Pan Yi suddenly remembered something, "Wait a minute."
Lukaku turned back in front and looked at the head coach confused.
Is there anything else that hasn’t been explained?
Pan Yi said: "If your teammates have a chance to shoot...you must pay attention to your position and don't block their shooting route!"
"Ah?" Lukaku looked confused.
What does the boss mean by saying something like this suddenly?
What idiotic forwards would block their teammates’ shots! They’re crazy!
"Okay, it's okay, you can go." Pan Yi waved his hand.
Alas, if Pan Yi hadn't seen Lukaku's "Pestrel King" skills many times in his previous life, blocking his teammates' shots at critical moments many times, why would he bother to do this?
I just hope he will be more witty in this life!
At this time, Everton's defense has become tighter and tighter, and they hope that if Lukaku can come up and disrupt their defense, then Chelsea will have a chance.
------------------
"Come on!"
When Bamford was substituted, he high-fived Lukaku and hugged him.
Bamford was naturally a little frustrated about being replaced.
Which player doesn’t hope that he can stay on the court and make contributions?
But Bamford also knew that he would not be able to do well in the face of the tough defense of Everton players.
Therefore, it is natural for head coach Pan Yi to make tactical adjustments at this time.
He can only hope for the next time!
Of course, since most of Chelsea's players are young players now, everyone knows that Pan Yi decides who to play based on the player's status and tactical arrangements.
Therefore, everyone in the team has more of a healthy competitive relationship, and will not get angry because of a failure or being substituted!
This also determines that the atmosphere within the Chelsea team has always been harmonious and united.
So Bamford not only didn't show any emotion when he came off the field, but instead encouraged Lukaku, who came on as his substitute.
The team's victory is the most important!
When Lukaku ran into the stadium quickly, he received half the boos and half the applause from the Goodison Park stadium.
Of course, the boos were all made by Everton fans, which were a "meeting gift" dedicated to the visiting team players.
And among those who applauded him, in addition to Chelsea fans, a considerable number of them were Everton fans!
This is precisely because in the last season, that is, the 2013-2014 season, Lukaku performed outstandingly during his loan period at Everton.
In a total of 33 appearances, he scored 16 goals and 6 assists. His efficiency can be said to be amazing.
If Pan Yi hadn't taken over and decided to promote Lukaku to play center in the first team, Everton would have spent more than 30 million euros in real money to buy him out.
So today, like Eto'o, he played against his old boss, but they just switched positions.
This is actually one of the reasons why Pan Yi did not send Lukaku at the beginning.
Whether it is the two central defenders Jagielka and Distin, or the left back Barnes, or the right back Coleman, Everton's entire defense line has been playing for the team for many years. Last season, he played with Lukaku.
We also trained together for a whole year.
Therefore, Everton's defenders are very familiar with Lukaku's characteristics, and they also know how to defend to make this little monster feel more uncomfortable.
And Pan Yi wants to take a gamble now.
He just wanted to make a bet that Lukaku would become a "familiar stranger" to Everton's defenders, not to mention that after the past two months of training, not to mention he had undergone a radical change.
.
Stronger post-playing ability, better awareness of the ball, and better ability to grab points, this is the magic weapon that allows Lukaku to play his role in front of these old acquaintances!
------------------
At this time, the game has reached the 60th minute.
Lukaku tried to catch the ball for the first time after coming on the field, but it was not smooth. Distin behind him quickly got around and intercepted the ball first.
Everton's defender is indeed very familiar with Lukaku's playing style!
They know that Lukaku will be a little inflexible and even a little clumsy when getting the ball, so they will seize the opportunity and directly attack.
Not to be outdone, Lukaku once again stood near the top of the arc during the next attack to receive a long pass from his backcourt teammate.
This time, he caught it, but he stopped a little too long. When he wanted to catch up quickly and protect the ball, Jagielka next to him had already taken the lead and poked the ball out. p>
The Goodison Park stadium burst into warm applause and cheers, which was dedicated to the wonderful clearance of our defender.
"Don't worry! Stay focused! Don't compete with them!" Head coach Pan Yi's scolding came from the sidelines.
At this stage, Lukaku's feet are still a bit rough, and his passing and receiving skills still need to be improved.
But that’s okay.
As a fulcrum center, he doesn't need to stop the ball very well.
As long as he can grab the first point and then pass the ball to nearby teammates, half of the task will be completed.
But after coming on the field, he failed to touch the ball twice in a row, which may have a little impact on Lukaku's psychology.
So Pan Yi, who sees this, of course needs to give Lukaku a certain reminder on the sidelines, so that he can concentrate on his work and not do unnecessary technical actions for the sake of "revenge".
Hearing Pan Yi's call, Lukaku glanced at the sidelines and nodded quickly to express receipt.
He also took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
He also knows that as the center forward, he will not have much space to get the ball.
He must think of the next move when the ball flies towards him, and cannot let the ball linger at his feet. He must move in and out quickly, and touch the ball with one kick!
Due to Chelsea's offensive in the second half, the next pass came dozens of seconds later.
This time, Lukaku's national team teammate Hazard took the ball from the left and when he tried to cut into the ribs, he was blocked by Coleman and was forced to pass it back to Marcos Alonso.
After the Spanish left wing-back caught the ball, he habitually glanced ahead and saw that Lukaku had already run to the center.
According to Pan Yi's adjustments in the second half, this is the moment when he needs to cross!
So, Alonso quickly sent a pass to the right side of Lukaku, who had his back to the goal.
At this time, Distin, who was behind Lukaku, once again stuck up and was ready to stretch his foot to destroy Lukaku when he stopped the ball.
But this time, Lukaku had no intention of stopping the ball.
He took a step forward to meet the ball and blocked Distin's path with his strong body. Then he turned around and swung his long left leg to deflect Alonso's kick.
The cross was passed directly to the goal!
At this time, Distin almost instinctively shrank his body and let the ball fly past his chest without any reaction time.
The main reason is that Lukaku's pass was so sudden that he was completely unable to react! At this time, he was still blocked by the black tower in front of him!
At this moment, Azpilicueta, the right wing-back, had already inserted himself diagonally into the back point like a ghost. He directly poked the ball from Lukaku into the penalty area.