This is a contest in the third round of the FA Cup, and it is in this round that the Premier League teams all go into battle to compete for the oldest trophy in the world.
It is no exaggeration to say that the FA Cup is the oldest football competition.
As early as 1871, they completed the first competition, and the Rangers defeated the Royal Engineers 1:0 in the final to win the championship.
And what year was 1871? It was during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty...
By the way, the Rangers club that won the first FA Cup championship is still there, but it is in the 15th level league...
Therefore, compared with cup competitions in other countries, the FA Cup has a relatively high status in English football, and many teams will try their best to achieve better results.
Some strong teams will also work hard to win. After all, the champion can also qualify for the Europa League!
So, which team has won the most championships in the history of the FA Cup?
It's Arsenal!
So far this season, they have won 12 FA Cup championships, especially in the past two seasons. This is where the name "Thermos Cup" comes from.
However, if we go back to this game, the attention itself is not very large.
It’s not about how much importance the two sides attach to the FA Cup, especially the attitude of Chelsea, which aims at the Premier League and Champions League, but based on the comparison of strength.
After all, Chelsea is now a giant in the Premier League with a 20-game unbeaten streak, while Watford is just a Championship team.
Even though Pan Yi often uses a rotating lineup in such games, the strength gap between the two teams is still obvious.
The scene where Dortmund was beaten by Chelsea's substitute is still vivid in my mind.
Moreover, Chelsea is playing at home this time!
This also avoids to the greatest extent the occurrence of low-probability events like York City's upset victory over Chelsea in the rain.
However, due to the recent Lingard transfer incident, all media and fans have still focused their attention on this game.
Everyone is concerned about whether Lingard will appear in this game?
After experiencing the turmoil during this period, can he perform to the level expected by Pan Yi?
After the game started, everyone discovered that Pan Yi had indeed made a substantial rotation in this game.
Absolute main players such as Lukaku, Hazard, and Kanter all sat on the bench.
Or in other words, all the players in the last game against Manchester United took turns.
So, what to do with the four wing-backs?
Didn't Pan Yi send all four wing-backs to deal with Manchester United? If we have a day off today, wouldn't there be no wing-backs?
Pan Yi's answer is simple - then there is no need for a wing-back formation!
Chelsea's formation today is an equally weird 3-3-3-1.
The three central defenders in the backcourt are led by captain Terry and two young men, Christensen and Zouma.
The middle three are three midfielders in an inverted triangle position, with Cheek and Ramirez on the left and right serving as pseudo-wingers, while Mikel sits behind to occupy a midfielder position.
There are three in the frontcourt, Gnabry is on the left, Willian is on the right, and standing in the midfield is the new aid Lingard!
Pan Yi still threw Lingard directly, and he also started using it immediately after completing the transfer procedures.
This will be Lingard’s first game for Chelsea, and it will also be his official appearance at Stamford Bridge!
Another one who made his Chelsea debut is today’s goalkeeper Martin.
For now, this FA Cup match is his battlefield!
The center forward is Bamford.
This 3-3-3-1 formation is a relatively unpopular formation in world football and is an evolution of the 3-4-3 formation.
This is a more offensive formation, and Argentina head coach Bielsa was the first to propose the use of this formation.
In fact, Bielsa is a believer in the space theory of Michels, a famous Dutch coach. In a sense, his tactical philosophy can also be regarded as total attack and total defense football.
Michels believes that 4-3-3 is a formation that can maximize the space on the court. However, Bielsa questioned, why should my formation cover all the space on the court?
As long as the defenders are not too stretched, it is no problem for the three defenders to focus on the opponent's two forwards at the first time. My formation does not need to cover the space in the backcourt at the first time.
So, after his research, a 3-3-3-1, or 3-3-1-3 formation (the position of the winger determines whether it is 3331 or 3313) was born.
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Although it seems that there are only three people on each side, in fact, this formation is not a formation that lacks width as many people take it for granted.
Four people in the frontcourt form a diamond-shaped pressing team, that is, 1 center, 2 wingers and an attacking midfielder. They press the frontcourt immediately. After the opponent breaks the pressure, they must retreat and defend.
The two people on the side of the midfielder should each hug one side. When attacking, they should step forward to support the winger. When the opponent is organizing, they should suppress the opponent's wing. When defending, they should position themselves as a full-back or full-back. They need to run up and down and one person to support them.
A side road.
There needs to be a "gate" in the middle of the midfield to sweep in front of the defense and help the ball out of the backcourt when attacking.
Three central defenders are generally used to deal with the opponent's two forwards. When facing a single center forward formation, it becomes two central defenders, and the extra one is mentioned in the midfield.
The prerequisite for using this formation is to have enough generalists so that it can adapt to various changes on the field.
Obviously, the players currently in Chelsea's squad meet this need.
Of course, in addition to letting the four wing-backs in the team take a break, Pan Yi used this formation today for another important reason, which was to give Lingard the best "experience".
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He knows that Lingard can only perform at his best in the attacking midfielder position, and Lingard has only been at Chelsea for a day or two, so it is too early to transform into a winger, so he still lets him play.
The most comfortable position is better.
The success or failure of the first show is very important for building a player's self-confidence! This is especially true for Lingard, who has been caught in the whirlpool of public opinion.
This is a different situation from Gnabry’s last game.
Gnabry was originally a winger, so it was natural for him to plug and play when he moved up to the winger position, making the connection seamless.
In addition, although this 3-3-3-1 formation is a variant of the 3-4-3 formation, after all, Chelsea generals have never really used it in actual combat.
Today we play against the weaker Wadford, which is also a good time to practice.
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After the game started, Wadford played very pragmatically and set up a barrel formation in front of the penalty area.
They don’t care whether you are 3331, 3313, or 343!
In fact, Wadford's team does not lack some capable players, such as Mexican international Layun, Fabbrini who has been selected for the Italian national team, and Nigerians, future Chinese Super League stars and Manchester United stars.
Yin Haruo...
The lineups of the English Championship teams are often better than those of the teams in the lower reaches of the other four major leagues. This is no joke.
However, today they face Chelsea.
Facing the Premier League leader, the Big Mac, away from home, as a British Championship team, they only have one option: stick to this one option.
Defend to the end, defend to the end, the whole 0:0, and then see if you can steal one, or even tie the game and try again for a penalty kick to see their character. This is their only way to win.
And obviously, their strategy seems to be successful.
The game lasted for more than eighty minutes, and the score was still zero to zero.
Neither side scored a goal!
However, Pan Yi is not very anxious about this.
The FA Cup, like the League Cup, is also a place for training.
In fact, although the players on the field were a little unaccustomed to today's formation, Chelsea still played very well overall.
Sometimes when watching a game, you can’t just look at the score.
How to evaluate whether the tactics used by a head coach in a game are appropriate?
In fact, it depends on the chances created by the team, or the data "expected goals".
If an opportunity has been created but failed to score, sometimes it can only be attributed to bad luck. After all, the coach cannot personally kick the damn ball into the net!
Just like today's game.
Chelsea's tactics today were very aggressive in execution, and Lingard also played well in the attacking midfielder position.
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He is not the kind of player who has extremely delicate footwork and can make incredible moves in a small space (such as Iniesta), but his positive fighting attitude, strong running ability and deft positioning ability,
It is very suitable for the requirements of this 3-3-3-1 for the attacking midfielder.
In the 2002 World Cup, Argentina's coach at the time was Bielsa, so why didn't he recruit Riquelme?
Obviously, it is because Riquelme's running ability is insufficient to fulfill Bielsa's frontcourt pressure requirements.
Therefore, he chose Veron as the front midfielder. He not only has the running ability and can execute pressing tactics, but also has an excellent overall view.
Now Lingard is the "Veron" of this Chelsea team, but unlike him, he has to assume the responsibility of the team's offensive core.
Because in this Chelsea, it is not a simple single core or dual core, but distributed cloud computing! There is no absolute core, but everyone can play a core role.
This makes Chelsea's offense difficult to guard against and creates a large number of extremely threatening shooting opportunities.
However, in today's game, their luck is indeed a bit bad.
Just like this attack in the 84th minute.
Gnabry got the ball from the wing, cut in diagonally, and after encountering the interception, used the arch of his foot to push the ball to Chik, who immediately knocked it to Ramirez.
Ramirez fired a high ball into the penalty area.
Wadford's Jamaican defender Doyle secretly pulled Bamford's jersey, but still failed to stop his opponent from taking off.
Bamford jumped up high and competed for the header.
Under Duo Yin'er's interference, he was restricted from taking off and his position was not very good. Finally, he rubbed the football with the back of his head.
Peng!
This difficult header went backwards, but the ball hit the crossbar directly, making a muffled sound.
Then, the ball was kicked out of the sideline by the panicked Wadford defender.
This is the fourth time Chelsea has hit the door frame today!
This feeling cannot be described as bad luck, it is simply a bit metaphysical!
The goalposts at Stamford Bridge don’t recognize their owner!
The game then entered 90 minutes, which was also injury time.
Chelsea is also launching its final offensive opportunity.
Of course they don't want to play a rematch. After all, this consumes a lot of players' physical strength and may even affect subsequent games.
At this time, Mikel's long shot was blocked by the opponent's defender with his body. Ake, who had already pressed forward, picked the ball into the penalty area.
Bamford headed the ball towards the goal again, but it was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper.
Gnabry got the ball first, but he immediately found that Lingard was in a better position in the middle, so he immediately pushed with the arch of his foot and passed the ball to Lingard.
Lingard controlled the ball in the penalty area where there were many people. He flexibly moved the football horizontally and then took the shot.
"Block his shot!" shouted Wadford's Brazilian goalkeeper Hilario Gomez.
Their two central defenders stretched out their legs almost at the same time to block the shot.
However, Lingard just dunked the ball, avoided their blockage, and then swung his foot to shoot.
All!
At this time, the referee's whistle sounded.
Lingard's shot was also incomplete.
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This is because Layun of Wadford pushed Lingard directly from behind in panic!
"Penalty kick!"
This is a penalty kick without a doubt.
The referee pointed directly to the penalty spot.
At the same time, Layun was shown a second yellow card for the foul.
La Yun's two yellows turned into one red and he was sent off with a red card.
In fact, in this game, the Wadford team has already paid the price of seven yellow cards in order to prevent Chelsea's attack. It is amazing or lucky that only one person was sent off at this time.
Watford head coach Jokanovic put his head in his hands and looked frustrated.
His team resisted tenaciously for almost the entire game, but seemed to fall short at the last minute.
Although a Championship club generally does not have any strict requirements for FA Cup results, if it can draw its opponent against Chelsea, what an honor it would be.
This might bring him to the attention of Premier League teams...
This is Chelsea, who just beat Manchester United with eight goals!
Of course, he still had a glimmer of hope, that is, Chelsea would not score the penalty kick.
Therefore, Jokanovic turned his attention to his own penalty area, wanting to see who from Chelsea would take the penalty kick.
But now on the court...
No one took this penalty!
Because Chelsea's first penalty taker is Hazard, who is not on the court.
The second penalty kicker was Lukaku, who was also not on the court.
The third penalty taker is David Luiz...also not here!
Oscar and Schürrle, who were relatively high in the pecking order, have also left the team, which made everyone suddenly wonder who should take the penalty.
Then, everyone turned to look at the coaching bench.
"Whoever created it will be punished!" Pan Yi shouted loudly, "You little bastards, do you still want to ask me about such a trivial matter?"
Although it seems reasonable for Pan Yi to call the young players on the court "little bastards", considering that there is Terry who is older than Pan Yi on the court, it sounds a bit funny.
But Terry doesn't feel dissatisfied. He has long been accustomed to calling this young head coach "boss" and "boss". Does he still care about being called "little brat"?
He was also the first to pick up the football from the ground and put it into Lingard's arms: "Come on, relax and put it in!"
Lingard nodded.
He is actually pretty good at taking penalty kicks, and his psychological quality is also good. He often took penalty kicks when he was in the Manchester United youth team.
It's just that he was asked to take the penalty kick in his first game on behalf of Chelsea today, which still put him under a bit of psychological pressure.
What's more, it's a crucial penalty kick at this point in the game!
But Lingard also understands that this is the opportunity given to him by coach Pan Yi.
The coach hopes that he can perform well in today's debut and also enhance his self-confidence!
Therefore, he cannot retreat!
Lingard carried the ball to the penalty spot, kissed the ball gently, and then put it down.
The referee's whistle blows.
Lingard took a breath, took a run, and shot!
He didn't make any fake moves or think too much, he just aimed at the lower right corner of the goal!
Although Wadford goalkeeper Hilario Gomez judged the right direction, the angle was too tricky and he was still unable to prevent the ball from entering the net.
The ball went in!
Chelsea fans in the audience burst into cheers.
"gooooooooooooooollllllllllll!"
"Lingard calmly scored the penalty kick! Chelsea led 1:0! Lingard also scored in his Chelsea debut!"
"Considering that the current game time has reached the last moment of injury time, this goal can be said to have completely killed the game!"
"This penalty kick was created by Lingard, and he scored it himself. This can be said to be the best reward for his good performance today."
"You can imagine how much psychological pressure he was under after his disastrous performance on behalf of Manchester United against Chelsea and his immediate transfer to Chelsea."
"If he can't come out of the shadows in today's game, or even perform poorly, it will be a big blow to him."
"Fortunately, Pan Yi still trusts him, and all Chelsea players trust him. Lingard played a good game today and scored a key goal."
"Obviously, Lingard also understood this. He rushed to the coaching bench immediately after scoring the goal and hugged Pan Yi. Considering everything that happened in the past few days, this was really an emotional scene.
!"
"Maybe we can really see Lingard, a kid who grew up at Manchester United, get a new life at Chelsea..."
In the end, with Lingard's penalty kick created and scored, Chelsea defeated Wadford 1:0 at home and successfully entered the fourth round of the FA Cup.
At this point, the terrifying Premier League Christmas schedule has come to an end.
Starting on December 23rd and ending on January 5th, Chelsea also achieved an excellent record of four wins and one draw in 5 games within 12 days!
In addition to Chelsea, there is another Premier League team that also has four wins and one draw, and that is Manchester City.
In these five games, they were 3:0 Crystal Palace, 3:1 West Bromwich Albion, 2:2 Burnley, 3:2 Sunderland, and 2:1 Sheffield Wednesday.
Although it is not as big a score as Chelsea's 8:0 Manchester United, after all, it still scored a lot of points.
This has caused the two top teams to further widen the gap with other teams in the standings. After all, not many teams can escape from the Christmas schedule!
Not to mention Manchester United's disastrous defeat to Chelsea, Arsenal first drew with Liverpool, and then lost to Hull City 0:2...
Therefore, Chelsea is now first with 58 points, second is Manchester City with 46 points, and third is still Manchester United with only 37 points!
Precisely because Manchester United was still in third place, Van Gaal managed to hold on for the time being and did not dismiss the get out of class immediately...
At the press conference after the game, Pan Yi also praised Lingard:
"He performed so well, it didn't even feel like he was playing for Chelsea for the first time."
"In the attacking midfielder position, he brought out all his characteristics. If it weren't for his bad luck, he might have scored in the first half."
"Yes, I like this player very much. Not only does he give his best on the court, but he is also a pistachio off the court."
"Can you believe it? On the first day he came to the team, he made Kanter laugh several times. This is a target that will take us a month or even three months to complete!"
"Your evaluation of our winter window operations? It's perfect. The three players we added can perfectly fill the vacancies left by the players who left the team."
"Don't forget Martinez, who also made his debut today. His performance was also very good! Of course, he didn't make a single save in the game. It's not his fault... It would be nice to get a clean sheet bonus!"
"Are there any other operations in the winter window? I think our current lineup is strong and complete enough. Unless there are still players leaving, I think our winter window may be over."
"Will Lingard be used in the next Premier League game against Newcastle United? I'm not sure yet. Let's just wait and see..."
Pan Yi's last answer is not a slap in the face.
After all, the strengths of the mid-range teams in the English Championship and the mid-range teams in the Premier League are different.
Therefore, the difficulty of playing against Watford is naturally different from playing against Newcastle.
If he hadn't taken a two-goal lead early against Manchester United, Pan Yi might not have let Gnabry play so quickly.
Therefore, if Lingard wants to play against Newcastle, he needs to perform better in training.
After all, even if Lingard performed well in the last FA Cup game, it was against a Championship team, and it was in a 3-3-3 system tailor-made for him.
-1 formation.
If Pan Yi wants to change the formation to 3-4-3, then Lingard will have to play at the left and right winger positions. Can he still perform to his own level at this time? This is a question mark.
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This is not to say which formation Pan Yi will definitely use, but under his command, his players need to adapt to each formation and each style of play. This is a basic requirement.
Just like Oscar, who just transferred to Shanghai SIPG, his best position is actually the attacking midfielder, but he has also found his own position in this Chelsea team.
In short, just based on one FA Cup game, it is still not certain whether Lingard has really adapted to Chelsea.
It still depends on whether he can adapt to Chelsea's training and Pan Yi's training!