Coaching legend

Old Trafford was buzzing. When the on-site commentator revealed the names of the Manchester United players, the audience burst into violent cheers.

"The highlight of the eleventh round of the Premier League is finally about to begin. The two sides of the game are Manchester United and Blackburn."

"Neither Keane nor Giggs from Manchester United can play. Manchester United's starting lineup is goalkeeper Barthez, the back line is Sylvester, Stam, Brown, Gary Neville, and the midfielder is Scholes. , Philip Neville, Butt, Beckham, and the forward line is Andy Cole and Solskjaer.”

"Blackburn is unable to play because Blanco and Klose are unable to play. The starting lineup is goalkeeper Cudicini, the defense is Riise, Ferdinand, Pazzini, Sagnol, and the midfielder is Pires, Deco, Mi Ku, Makelele, Duff, Drogba is the forward.”

"Klose heard that he had some minor injuries during training, so he was not able to play. I just didn't expect that George would choose Drogba as the starting forward. In fact, there are experienced players like Davor Suker on the Blackburn bench. forward."

"Let's talk about these two teams. Blackburn, who were in particularly good form at the beginning of the season, have been in a bit of a slump with one draw and one loss in the last two league games. Manchester United, on the other hand, has won two consecutive games."

Martin Taylor will introduce to you the recent situation of the two teams.

Martin Taylor was confused that George kept forwards like Davor Suker and chose Drogba instead.

Although Drogba has improved a lot, he is still not strong enough to serve as the main force of a Premier League club. George's use of Drogba is more among weak opponents. Letting Drogba play is more about containing the opponent's defense and giving opportunities to a few people in the midfield and frontcourt.

George lets Drogba play, but he will never let Drogba play the role of frontcourt terminator. Because Drogba's scoring ability is too poor.

Of course, the second half of the game is intense. When the opponent's defense is weakening, it is very effective to let Drogba rush up. There are not many defenders who can face Drogba head-on because Drogba is too strong.

However, George has never let Drogba start in an important game like today.

Not only was Martin Taylor confused, but Drogba himself was also confused.

Drogba is not young anymore. This year is already twenty-two years old.

Klose, who is a few months younger than Drogba, has already become one of the top forwards in the Premier League. But Drogba is still the club's substitute. When Klose scored more than 20 goals last season, Drogba only scored four goals.

Drogba is not a genius. He doesn't have the arrogance of Pires, nor the self-confidence of Pires. On the contrary, he was a little trembling.

Going from the Ligue 2 to the Premier League has already made Drogba very cautious. Last season, George gave Drogba, a newcomer, many opportunities. Drogba played more than 20 games at Blackburn last season. There are more than a dozen games just for starting opportunities.

Drogba is already very satisfied with the fact that he has just arrived in a high-level competition like the Premier League and still has 20 games left.

This season, George's reuse of Drogba is even more obvious.

But even so, Drogba did not expect that George would choose him in this game. Drogba is self-aware. With his current strength, he is definitely not as good as Davor Suker. Don't look at Davao Souk's age, but his skills at his feet have not fallen behind at all.

After the game started, the two teams immediately got into the rhythm of the game.

Although Bart and Philip Neville also belong to Manchester United's 92 generation, their dominance in the midfield is not at the same level as Keane. As long as Roy Keane is on the court, he can put strong pressure on his opponents.

Keane is one of the few defensive midfielders in the world who can control his own penalty area to the opponent's penalty area.

And Keane is an even stronger midfielder. When he stands there, he scares a lot of attacking players.

Now Keane has been suspended for several games because of a real fight with Arsenal's Freddie Ljungberg. This is a very good thing for Blackburn. At the beginning of the game, Blackburn midfielder took control of the situation.

Philip Neville and Bart both stepped back.

Moreover, Scholes was placed on the left, which is completely different from Giggs. Although Scholes plays on the left, he mostly runs to the center.

Since then, the pressure on Sylvester has increased greatly. Defending a Duff is already very difficult. Sagnol also came to attack from time to time.

"...Sagnol, cross...Drogba, no, Stam pushed it out."

"...Drogba was intercepted by Stam!"

"Drogba is still.... Although he has strong physical fitness and good speed, it is a pity that he is too inexperienced. He has no chance at all against Stam."

Martin Taylor shook his head.

Drogba's foundation is too poor. Especially the ball stopping technique, what matters in the penalty area is fast speed. Especially the reaction, you have to do other actions at the moment you stop the ball, otherwise the defender will not give you any other opportunities.

But because Drogba's stopping skills are so poor, even if he wanted to make a move, Stam would not give Drogba time to make a move.

In addition, even if it is a header, it cannot be beat by Stam.

Drogba has height and bounce, but he is completely inferior to Stam in judging where the ball will land. Stam is no match for position.

Plus, Drogba does not have the passing ability of Klose, so he cannot provide enough support to Miku, Pires, and Duff in the frontcourt. And every time the ball is passed to Drogba, Drogba will lose the ball when he enters the penalty area.

George shook his head on the sidelines. Drogba's current strength is really poor, and the effect as a single striker is not very good.

George hopes that Drogba can control the high-altitude balls in the frontcourt and give some support to Miku and the two wingers. But George was wrong.

A single striker has the advantages of a single striker, but the requirements for a single striker are very high. Unfortunately, Drogba cannot meet George's requirements now.

Drogba is also very depressed. Facing Stam, he was intercepted as soon as he got the ball. In the penalty area, even a high-altitude ball cannot be compared with Stam. Therefore, Drogba can only withdraw from the penalty area.

Stam did not follow.

Manchester United's defense line just maintained the formation. If Klose played, then once he retreated to get the ball, there would definitely be a defender following him. But Drogba...

"... Pires, he passed the ball to Drogba... Drogba and Pires really don't have a tacit understanding."

In fact, Pires wanted to do a one-two with Drogba. So after giving the ball to Drogba, he moved forward. As long as Drogba passes the ball between Neville and Brown, it will be a perfect one-two.

And once it is passed, it will completely penetrate the Manchester United defense.

Pires used to play this kind of one-two with Klose. Especially when there is no one defending, Klose can often pass this fatal ball.

But Drogba didn't pass it at all. It's not that Drogba didn't want to pass, but Drogba is self-aware. Knowing that with his own strength, he can't pass it at all.

Although Drogba got the ball near the top of the penalty area, Stam didn't push forward. He just kept a certain distance from Drogba to prevent Drogba from making the next move easily. For Stam, Drogba's skills are rough and it is impossible for him to break into the penalty area alone.

And now Manchester United has Bart and Philip Neville in the midfield, and Bart will come to defend Drogba's current area.

After Drogba got the ball, he saw that Stam did not come up immediately. And Bart has not come to defend yet. Drogba was a little angry in his heart, they looked down on him too much.

"Drogba, how will he deal with this ball. Drogba... he is going to shoot!"

Drogba saw that there was some space, and he raised his foot and shot a long shot. It was still 24 meters away from Manchester United's goal.

"... Barthes... he couldn't save the ball. It was so unexpected that Drogba actually had the ability to shoot a long shot. The ball was very fast, Barthes didn't expect it at all!" Martin Taylor said very unexpectedly.

Not to mention Barthes didn't expect it, even Manchester United's defense line didn't expect it.

Even George on the sidelines didn't expect it.

Drogba's long shot was like a cannonball, flying past at a high speed. The distance of 24 meters was in front of Barthes in an instant. Although Barthes tried his best to save it, he didn't touch the ball at all.

Stam stared at the ball in the goal, blaming himself. If he hadn't underestimated Drogba and given him space to shoot from a distance, how could Drogba have scored this goal? But Stam did have reasons to underestimate Drogba.

Drogba is now very rough even in the basics of stopping and dribbling. Not to mention shooting. It is common for Drogba to miss a single shot in front of the goal. How could such a player have such a wonderful long-range shooting ability?

I didn't expect that Drogba would score such a beautiful goal after a little neglect of him.

"One to zero. With Drogba's long-range shot, Blackburn leads Manchester United away from home."

"Drogba was brought to the Premier League from the French Ligue 2 by George for 100,000 pounds last summer. He has been criticized for a long time, but everyone understands. After all, Drogba's value is only 100,000 pounds. But the goal scored in today's game against Manchester United is much more expensive than 100,000 pounds. Just this goal has earned back the 100,000 pounds."

Looking at the Blackburn players celebrating the goal, George clapped his hands and said to Carl in surprise: "It seems that Didier has never practiced long-range shooting in our training. Is this practiced or just a fluke?"

"Of course it's practiced. Didn't you see that Didier's long-range shooting posture is very standard?" Carl grinned.

"How could I not know."

"Extra training. Didier is very hardworking. After the team practice, he will practice shooting. I see that he is strong and has strong leg strength, so I let him practice long-range shooting." Carl was very satisfied with the effect of his training Drogba.

George nodded. He was very grateful to have an assistant like Carl. Of course, there was a little bit of guilt in his heart. George always thought that Drogba's basics were too poor, so he always arranged for Drogba to practice the basics. But he forgot that Drogba was a striker.

Only by scoring goals can Drogba's self-confidence be enhanced. More shooting training should be arranged.

"Okay. Karl, after returning, give Didier more shooting training. He is always a striker."