Chapter 40: The pride of the Golden Boot vs. the will to remain undefeated
Old Davis stood at the free throw spot.
The Rangers' moving wall appeared in the opponent's penalty area again.
This is one of their most common and effective ways to score goals.
However, Leicester City is not one of those mid- and lower-level underdogs in the Scottish Premier League. In terms of headers and set-piece attack and defense strength, it is second in the Premier League and no league can claim to be first.
There used to be a team like Stoke City under Tony Pulis, which never missed any opportunity to launch an attack in the air and even threw the out-of-bounds ball into the penalty area. It was called the "Sky City" by the world.
It is common for Premier League teams to use high points to compete for headers.
Old Davis raised his hand to signal, and Goldson and Balogun started running in the penalty area!
Old Davis touched the ball with his right foot, but it was a low ball!
Pass the ball directly to Barisic who was ambushing in the middle!
Barisic shot the ball fiercely, but because there were too many people in the penalty area, the ball hit Tavernier's back and bounced up!
Schmeichel attacked, jumped high to grab the ball, then threw it to the unguarded right side with a toss!
Albrighton, who had been waiting for a long time, ran at full speed after receiving the ball and crossed the midfield line in just a few steps!
Schmeichel's powerful lob clearly inherited his father's unique skill!
Chen Xiaoliang, who was beside Barisic, had already run after him!
Speed?! Now that's his strong point!
Albrighton, who was running with the ball, naturally couldn't outrun Chen Xiaoliang who was chasing back at full speed, but he seemed to be waiting for Chen Xiaoliang to come over, and only passed the ball horizontally to the middle until he was about to be caught up.
A blue shadow flashed through the middle, and the ball landed at Vardy's feet! When he took the free throw just now, he was hiding in the center circle!
The other Rangers players ran desperately towards their own half, but they were still at least 20 meters away from Vardy.
At this time, the only one in the backcourt who was responsible for set-piece defense was captain Tavernier!
After receiving the ball, Vardy took a few steps and was about to come into direct combat with Tavernier. He pushed with his right foot and kicked with his left foot, making the same change of direction as Chen Xiaoliang, and passed Tavernier cleanly!
Chen Xiaoliang was shocked!
In terms of speed, I can't compare to Vardy at his peak, but I will definitely not lose to him who is now 33 years old.
But the starting speed of these first few steps, with an explosive attribute of only 10 points, is far from comparable to Vardy!
Vardy took a few more steps and one foot had already stepped into the penalty area. Tavernier turned around and was about to catch up, but the ball had already been shot out!
The ball flew out from the outside of Vardy's right foot with an obvious spin and hit the upper left corner of the goal!
1-0! Leicester City took the lead 3 minutes into the game!
In the live broadcast room, Zhan Jun also sighed:
"The unbeaten first in the Scottish Premier League met the third in the Premier League. I thought it would be a fierce battle, but I didn't expect that after a simple offense and defense rotation at the beginning, Leicester scored a shot on the first counterattack!"
Zhang Lu: "Hehe, this counterattack really showed its own characteristics. It's not easy for Vardy to have such speed at the age of 33. Many people think he is old and not the same player as when Leicester City won the Premier League title, but don't forget, he was the Premier League Golden Boot winner last season."
Zhan Jun: "Coach Zhang is right! And looking back at the process of the goal, Albrighton could have passed the ball in advance in an open area, but he insisted on dribbling the ball and waiting for Chen Xiaoliang to catch up. If this was intentional, it means that Rogers has made special arrangements for this amazing young player!"
Compared to Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu's euphemisms, the comments were much more straightforward:
[This is just like walking the dog]
[Not only is it a waste of running, but it also wastes your energy]
[Physical strength competition? Who can beat Chen Xiaoliang? ]
[Stop bragging. Even an iron man can’t run like this all over the field, okay?]
[Rangers, come on! Chen Xiaoliang will be leaving at the end of the season. If you don’t win some trophies this season, what will you do next season?]
[Are you stupid? Who will still watch the wanderer after Chen Xiaoliang left?]
[Yes! I will be a die-hard fan of whichever team Chen Xiaoliang joins! ]
Leicester City's attack continues!
Even with a one-goal lead, they kept harassing the Rangers' defense like a pack of hungry wolves.
In a two-leg home and away match, a one-goal lead is totally not enough!
If we can't open up a big enough lead at home in this game, anything can happen in the next game in Glasgow!
However, the continuous attack that lasted for 15 minutes did not pose any substantial threat to Leicester's goal except for making the fans of the King Power Stadium scream like a climax.
Most of the time, Leicester kept shifting the ball to the two flanks, with Rogers standing on the sidelines repeatedly reminding the players on the field to maintain their formation.
Especially the two defensive midfielders, as soon as the ball reaches the wing, they immediately step forward to provide coordination and support to ensure that the ball can be transferred as soon as possible.
At the same time, Chen Xiaoliang ran back and forth between the two flanks like a meat grinder.
However, the number of steals and clearances in his statistics remained at an embarrassing 2 and 0.
As long as he presses on the strong side, Leicester will immediately transfer the ball to the weak side.
How can you steal the ball if you can't even touch it?
Without steals, how can there be counterattacks?
Rogers once led Swansea City, which had just been promoted to the Premier League, for a season.
In the 11-12 season, this newly promoted team's ball possession rate was second only to Manchester City and Arsenal, and its pass success rate was tied with Manchester City for first place in the Premier League.
This gave Swansea the reputation of being the Barcelona of the Premier League.
Although he doesn't rely too much on ball possession, Rogers is absolutely adept at it.
As a top team in the Premier League, although Leicester does not have the star-studded big names like the BIG6, their ways of launching attacks are more diverse. The absence of absolute big names means that everyone in the team is a balanced member.
All five midfielders are capable of making a through ball, and forward Vardy is a typical opportunist who often only touches the ball a few times in a game.
Therefore, the sticky tactics used against Celtic are completely useless against Leicester.
Rogers saw this, and Gerrard naturally knew it as well.
He let Davis and Aribo defend the flanks on the left and right, and also asked Kent and Haji to frequently retreat to defend.
The center was handed over to Chen Xiaoliang, and it was entirely up to him to decide which wing he would go to to assist in defense.
After all, this kid's ability to predict the ball's path seems to be innate, and artificial settings will limit his ability.
Facing the relatively dull scene, Zhan Jun asked in the live broadcast room:
"Coach Zhang, what do you think of the current situation?"
"I think, hehe, Leicester City is like a fancy swordsman, dancing twice on the left and swinging the sword twice on the right, but never attacking the vital points.
They are waiting, waiting for the stray players, especially Chen Xiaoliang, to lose their physical strength, their running speed and coverage area to decrease, and they become careless about this kind of fake attack, and then the real killer move may come out. "
Zhan Jun: "Coach Zhang is right. Chen Xiaoliang on the field now reminds me of former Manchester United star Park Ji-sung, who also ran at full speed and was often arranged by Sir Alex Ferguson to intercept the opponent's important goals in the midfield.
The most classic one was the full-court marking of Pirlo against AC Milan! At that time, people gave him the nickname "Park San Lung"!
Recently, everyone has seen that Chen Xiaoliang endorsed a well-known Chinese medicine brand in China. Some netizens have jokingly called him Chen Sanshen! I wonder if this century-old Chinese medicine can keep him running like crazy! "
Zhang Lu: "Hey, I'll have to ask Cheryl."
The screen is full of comments: [Hahahahahaha]
