Volume 1: Playing football with me will break your legs Chapter 87: The No. 1 Butcher in English League Two!
"To be honest, I didn't expect Pochettino to start Adebayor."
After celebrating with his assistant, Adre sat back in his chair.
After all, it is the home ground of a Premier League team. The chairs on the bench alone are much more comfortable than those at the King's Meadow.
Cox feels the same way:
"Indeed, if we had to find a reason, Tottenham sent him out, it could only be to strengthen the fight for headers."
Adley rubbed his chin and reluctantly accepted this reason:
"Kane does lack some confrontational ability. If he wants to grab a header, wouldn't Soldado on the bench be more suitable?"
Cox shrugged.
"He only scored 16 goals in 70 games, 11 of which were penalties. Would you dare to start with a striker like him?"
Adre laughed in silence, and actually felt sorry for his opponent:
"There is only one reliable striker, Pochettino...it's not easy!"
…
It's really not easy for Pochettino.
Adebayor is the mess left behind by his predecessor's predecessor coach. His form is no longer comparable to that of his Arsenal days. Coupled with the general "lazy and unmotivated" mentality of African players, the former "Little Beast" is not even considered a rotation player.
Soldado is one of the seven players introduced after the high-priced sale of Bale. He was called the "Dragon Ball Project" back then. He scored 80 goals in three seasons in La Liga's "Bat Army" and once threatened Messi and Ronaldo in the scorer list. However, after joining Tottenham at a sky-high price of 30 million euros, he obviously couldn't adapt to the local environment and could only rely on penalty kicks to decorate the facade...
If it weren’t for Kane’s sudden rise, Tottenham wouldn’t even be able to find a reliable striker today!
But... after 30 minutes of the game, Kane still couldn't get a chance to shoot. Li Polo's prediction of the ball's path was far beyond his imagination, and he was able to intercept it just right every time. Even if Kane retreated to get the ball and then looked for an attack, he lost the ball in the last step due to lack of explosive power.
The most annoying thing is that Li Polo really likes physical collisions. As long as there is a chance of contact, he will use his strong body to severely bully brother Kane, who is 1.88 meters tall but weighs only 68 kilograms!
[I am a technical striker! I am a natural shooter! Not a physical fighting machine! ]
Kane wanted to yell, but was once again pinned down by Li Polo!
[Negative emotions from Harry Kane, +8! ]
…
Since the two forwards were ineffective, Tottenham quickly changed their tactics.
The two full-backs Kyle Walker and Danny Rose began to increase the frequency of forward attacks, using their strong physical fitness to ravage the aging Fuller and Smith.
Together with the two wingers Chadli and Townsend, the four fast horses attacked in turns on the wing, which made the captain and vice-captain of the Crazy Gang miserable. When Tottenham left a mess on the wing, they passed the ball to Elkeson at the front of the penalty area, allowing the core midfielder to show off a long shot!
Fortunately, Bulman was always closely defending, and as soon as Elkeson raised his toes, his sliding tackle followed closely and directly blocked the powerful shot. It was a pity that Dubis failed to grab the landing point in the first time, otherwise it would have been another great opportunity for a counterattack.
…
The score remained 1:0 until halftime. In the media box of White Hart Lane, BBC commentator Gary Lineker shook his head.
As a Tottenham legend, he was quite dissatisfied with the first half:
"Adebayor's appearance was a complete mistake. In the entire 45 minutes, he only caught one high ball, and he headed it directly into the corner flag area. Apart from that, I didn't even see him have a successful touch!"
He even took a swipe at his city rivals:
"I said a few years ago that Arsenal's players are weaklings and cannot be trusted at all!"
The legend has long forgotten that in the first season when "Little Beast" joined Tottenham, he delivered an outstanding statistic of 18 goals and 11 assists in 33 league games. At that time, everyone regarded him as the new hope for Tottenham's revival!
But just like he said, Adebayor is no longer suitable for the current role, and Pochettino made the decision to make a substitution in the locker room!
Adebayor out, Lamela in!
He would rather let the 22-year-old Argentine fellow practice his long-range shooting skills than see the African lazy guy walking around under his nose!
…
By taking off a striker and replacing him with a midfielder, the defensive pressure on Li Polo and Phillips was instantly reduced a lot, but the pressure on the midfield of the Crazy Gang doubled.
Although Lamela, who had a transfer fee of 30 million pounds, has not yet fully integrated into Tottenham's tactical system, his personal ability is beyond doubt.
This Argentine prodigy was selected as a key training target by the South American giant River Plate when he was 8 years old. He scored 163 goals in a season in the youth team, and even scored 17 goals in a single game. Judging from the statistics, he is far better than his predecessors Maradona and Messi...
At the age of 11, he led River Plate U12 to win the World Youth Championship, winning the Golden Boot and MVP of the tournament. At the same time, he signed a cooperation agreement with Nike, earning 8,000 euros a year for free, and became a household .
When he was 12 years old, Barcelona's youth training director personally invited Lamela to join, but was directly sued by River Plate to FIFA. Barcelona, which has always been successful in recruiting young players, was found to have lost the case this time and had to give up this fellow countryman of Messi.
Lamela, who became famous at a young age, possesses footwork skills that are far beyond the reach of English League Two players, but after having seen dribbling masters such as Coutinho and Januzai, Li Polo and his teammates seem to be somewhat accustomed to it.
[You dribble well, then I will just hit you! ]
[You are Messi's successor, but you are not Messi himself after all! ]
Although Lamela is 1.84 meters tall, like almost all South American geniuses, he is naturally afraid of physical confrontation and is no match for the rough English men in terms of endurance!
So in his first season at Tottenham, he suffered a serious injury and only played 9 times throughout the season, spending the rest of the time recuperating in the hospital!
In addition, his dribbling speed is a bit slow, and he has some independent characteristics. He will not pass the ball to his teammates easily unless he has to. This makes the difficulty of defense plummet!
In the 53rd minute, taking advantage of an opportunity to scramble for the ball, Libolo kicked Lamela directly at the instep of his feet. The Argentine genius screamed and curled up holding his knees!
There were boos everywhere in White Hart Lane, but Li Polo was completely unmoved.
This was a 50-50 fight. He kicked the ball away first, while Lamela was half a second slower and could only kick the air. If we really want to study the movements of the two carefully, we should still count Lamela as kicking Li Polo!
Anyway, there was no VAR replay technology at that time, and the referee did not impose any punishment on Li Polo except calling the team doctor onto the field.
Although Lamela was able to continue the race after receiving treatment, he always felt a little unbalanced when running. He glared at Li Polo fiercely, but there was nothing he could do.
[Sure enough, he is the best butcher in the English League Two! 】
[You don't study how to improve your personal skills and abilities, but only know how to destroy the opponent's core players! ]
[He is simply a football villain! A football hooligan! ]
[Negative emotions from Lamela, +5! ]
Feeling the malice from this talented young lady, Li Polo laughed instead of getting angry.
He even patted Lamela's thin back and said with a smile:
"Do you think I only implement killing tactics against the opponent's core players? Sorry, you may think too much, because you are not the core of Tottenham at all!"
He pointed at Erickson who was surrounded 20 meters away:
"Aren't your core players there?"
Lamela almost broke her teeth!
[Lamela, +10! ]
