Midfielder

Barcelona has no secrets, but that doesn't mean Chelsea won't study them.

Mourinho had already started collecting information about the top 16 teams before the match order was finalized. For opponents like Barcelona, ​​this is a must-do homework.

As Brito said, Mourinho sometimes has a very strange feeling about the future, especially when guessing what team he will play against, he has an amazing intuition.

It can be said that they have collected the most complete information about AC Milan and Barcelona, ​​which is also due to the fact that they fought each other last season, and the two teams have not changed much this season.

Unlike Rijkaard's confusion, Barcelona's formation has become increasingly stable since last season.

This is also the main reason why Barcelona can beat Valencia and Real Madrid in the league.

A stable lineup is what Rijkaard needs most. They can lead the league all the way because of their stability. It can be seen that the Dutchman has absorbed Chelsea's experience in the league.

If you want to have no worries about the league, use a stable lineup and performance to get ahead.

Then focus on the European arena. Chelsea was able to win all the way last season because these guys locked the championship early in the league and did not show weakness in the later stages of the Champions League.

Chelsea's state of grabbing points right from the start this season also reminded Rijkaard that if he wants to restore the power of the Barcelona dream team, he must first determine the ownership of the league championship.

Although Barcelona is not as far ahead as Chelsea in the league now, the nine-point advantage is enough for them to free up their hands to give it a try in the Champions League, and Rijkaard has tasted the sweetness.

However, Rijkaard is still not as smooth as Mourinho. His stable performance in the league has won him a lot of advantages, but that is only in front of the La Liga team. Barcelona has not changed much in the Champions League this season, and the main lineup has almost not changed.

Mourinho doesn't have to spend too much effort to analyze their starting lineup. Maybe one or two positions will change, but most of them are still the same faces from last season. Eto'o is still the striker, but this season they have added Messi, and Ronaldinho's position is more free.

Giuly faded out of the main lineup, and Messi, who was selected from the youth training camp, took his place. This in and out shows that the Catalans trust their players more.

No matter how useful the outsiders are, there is always a gap between them. Instead of using others, the people they have trained themselves are more loyal and reliable. At least they will not work without effort.

Moreover, Giuly's physical condition and competitive level have declined significantly this season, and he is also entangled with injuries.

Even if his breakthrough power is still there, he seems to be unable to cope with the impact of the new generation.

It took Messi less than ten rounds of the league to secure his position as a main player, and Giuly, whether injured or healthy, can only return to the bench to look for opportunities, and has gradually been marginalized.

Mourinho is not sure how powerful Messi is. After all, the defensive strength of La Liga is different from that of the Premier League. The Spanish league tests the technical ability of players more than their physical strength, and Barcelona and Real Madrid are much stronger than other teams.

Even if Valencia and Villarreal have risen rapidly recently, they cannot fundamentally shake the foundation of the two Spanish giants, and Deportivo La Coruna has fallen very quickly recently.

Basically, the league is a battle between Barcelona and Real Madrid. This has been the tone for the past few decades. Occasionally, one or two teams can come out to stir up trouble, but they cannot change the overall situation.

La Liga is still the same La Liga. There is no change from when Mourinho was the translator. The duet between Barcelona and Real Madrid has to continue, and there will be no changes in the short term.

Even if Real Madrid is obviously weak now, Mourinho dares to bet that they will definitely rebuild a more luxurious team in a few years. After all, it is a wealthy team in the capital of Spain. They cannot lack money or the attraction to stars. It is only a matter of time before they start to reorganize.

There are no decent opponents in China, which also puts a question mark on the quality of the new players. In the video recordings of the games that Mourinho has observed, Messi gives him the feeling of being agile. The Argentine short man is very fast, and his frequency of movement and high-speed low-center-of-gravity change of direction are his killer.

Brito and Faria's conclusions are similar, "fast, solid technology, and good ability to penetrate the frontcourt. When facing the defender's defense, his breakthrough is very threatening."

And Brito is a little worried. Chelsea's central defenders are all tall and strong. If they face this kid's breakthrough, they will suffer a little in terms of defending the opponent's turn, especially Friedrich and Terry. It may be necessary to consider Carvalho's assistance in the combination of central defenders.

If this little guy is taken out alone, Mourinho is not too worried. After all, there are many players with good skills. No matter how strong the ability to work alone is, that is, Lin Yi's level, the most terrifying thing is the degree of integration.

After watching so many games, Mourinho knew that this kid who came out of the La Masia youth training camp could become a regular starter in less than a season, relying on running-in.

He has been rooted in Spain since he was a child, living in the soil of Catalonia. He has no sense of strangeness. He can have enough tacit understanding with his teammates when he goes on the court. This is the most terrible thing.

This tacit understanding makes it easy for him to find the passing route of Barcelona's midfield. This kid can even seize opportunities better than Eto'o. Once he is given space, he is likely to score goals.

La Liga has just passed the halfway point, but Messi has already scored seven goals and four assists.

For someone who has just established a foothold in the first team, this is not a miracle, but it is also a very rare data. No wonder those Catalans regard him as a future superstar.

There are even Barcelona fans shouting, "Your Lin Yi is not as perfect as Messi!"

This time, Barcelona's mouthpiece media publicly declared, "Chelsea can rely on Lin Yi's performance to win the Champions League, so why can't we expect Messi to create miracles? Why not?"

Although Lin Yi and Messi have not met yet, there are already people who are good at warming them up.

For this kind of comparison, Lin Yi has always been very low-key, and this kid knows that even if Messi is now popular in Barcelona, ​​Ronaldinho is still the most difficult organizational core of the entire Barcelona.

If there is a real competition, it will be between him and Ronaldinho. As for Messi? Let's wait a little longer. At least this season he has no way to surpass his big brother. In the Barcelona team, Ronaldinho is the well-deserved boss, and the others still need to stand aside.

"Special person to defend, at least when he is close to the penalty area, there must be someone around him to defend."

Although Mourinho also knows who the opponent's core is, he will not take such a highly watched person lightly. Mourinho's caution is not just a casual remark to lead the team to win the five championships. Even before the game, he marked Messi as the key to defend.

Beware of ten thousand, just be afraid of one. Mourinho does not want to fall on a little guy. He has made many teams suffer from Lin Yi, so he does not want to be a test subject this time.

And Barcelona also has a slippery "cheetah" Eto'o, who is also a difficult character.

No matter how the opponent arranges his forward line in this game, as long as it is a three-forward formation, Chelsea's defensive pressure will definitely not be small. The fierceness of the Barcelona team lies in its offense.

So many Barcelona supporters believe that under this pressure, Mourinho will definitely continue the last season's defensive tactics, fight with Barcelona, ​​and then strive to win at home.

Of course, this is also the reason why they despise the translator of the former team. This kind of shameless defense is also the most hated method of the Catalans. It is simply killing the beauty of football.

But Chelsea eliminated them in such a way without any aesthetics last season.

But this season, Barcelona fans are clamoring for revenge and want to let the other side know how powerful they are!

And Mourinho is very depressed that Larsson has also run to Barcelona. This Swedish bald guy who once caused trouble for him in the League Cup seems to be ready to take action again this time.

The old man who is still alive is a thief. This sentence is now more appropriate to describe Larsson. How many people can score six goals in La Liga as a substitute in half a season when they are thirty-four or thirty-five years old? This old goblin is now more and more efficient, and it seems that he still has spare energy. God knows whether he has left this spare energy for Chelsea. Mourinho has to guard against it.

After all, this old guy has never changed his assassin nature in the European arena, and he is very threatening.

Compared with the forward line, which has not changed much, Barcelona's midfield may have changed slightly.

Albertini is missing in the midfield, but Motta and Edmilson can take over the Italian's position.

And these two guys are not as old as Albertini, and they lack the ability to control the situation, but in terms of running and stealing, they can be said to be better than the Italian.

The cooperation between Deco, Xavi and Iniesta has become more and more smooth. If they play their usual 4-3-3 formation, perhaps these three people will hold the midfield and cause a lot of trouble for Chelsea, especially the increasingly mature Xavi and Iniesta. Their skills and overall view are very troublesome. Even Mourinho said that Xavi is a genius in the organization and mobilization of the midfield.

These three people and Ronaldinho, who can retreat to get the ball at any time, can echo each other and form effective control in the midfield. Mourinho also noticed that Barcelona's current pass success rate is very amazing, often in a La Liga game, it can reach 60-70% of the ball possession rate.

The subtext of this extremely high ball possession rate is that there will be fewer mistakes in the game and fewer opportunities for the opponent to counterattack. Often, even if the first shot misses, the team can still use the frontcourt siege and timely return knocks to control the ball under their feet, and then form a second wave of attack until they are able to score.

Control is not the same as scoring a goal, but it is not much different from scoring a goal. If the ball is always at the opponent's feet, even if you have Ronaldo and Zidane, you can't score a goal. This is why Barcelona can have an advantage in this season's national derby. Their ball control is too sharp.

No matter what tricks Mourinho wants to change to deal with Barcelona, ​​the midfield stranglehold is indispensable.

Only by completely disrupting the opponent's rhythm can you gain a foothold in the midfield, otherwise, everything is off the table.

However, compared with their own strong midfield and frontcourt, Barcelona's transformation of the back line this season is not very successful. Their defenders still attack more than defend, and the goal conceded rate is similar to last season.

They just added an Oleger to the full-back, which is more stable, and Max's physical condition has been good recently. Although his partner in the middle with Puyol is more passionate than rational, his performance has been very stable. Only Van Bronckhorst and Sylvinho are a little unreliable.

Full-back assists have always been a tradition of Barcelona, ​​but this time they have to face the impact of Robben and others.

Rijkaard really thought about whether to let these guys continue to charge. If it's the same as last season, who knows if they will collapse again. This is definitely not a joke.

Anyway, no matter what, Mourinho has basically listed Barcelona's basic lineup and possible substitutes. Compared with Rijkaard who is still confused, he has taken the lead again. In such a well-matched duel, sometimes taking the first shot is an advantage.

And before the start of this game, Mourinho's maze continued, and this time it was even more amazing. He didn't even let Lin Yi play. Cassano led the midfield, followed by Essien and Makelele.

The two wingers are Wright-Phillips and Maniche, and Mourinho also arranged a weird three-back formation for this game, with Bosingwa and Bridge on both sides, and Carvalho defending the middle.

The goalkeeper is not Cech, but Cudicini, and almost everyone is a substitute player.

Crespo was the striker, but Lampard was lurking behind him. With such a mixed lineup, they still showed off their power in front of West Bromwich Albion and won three points with 2-0.

With this lineup, they were able to shoot 17 times in the whole game. You can imagine what kind of scene this is. West Bromwich Albion was still at home, and they were still playing with the full main lineup, but the gap between the two was so big that the opposing fans were a little trembling and distressed. Although they have been cheering for the team with all their lives, this can't change the course of this game at all.

Cassano launched attacks on the wing twice, one successfully created Crespo's header, and the other time he passed the ball to Lampard to win a direct free kick near the penalty area. This Italian naughty boy took this free kick himself. His strongly rotating arc ball also reminded many old Chelsea fans of Zola's style. Many people said that Cassano has become more mature, and this kid is in this state recently. Not to mention the club, he is also a main player in the national team!

The Italian national team is really good at taking advantage of the situation. Lippi, the old stubborn man, has also relaxed recently.

The issue of letting Cassano return to the national team has officially begun to be discussed. In the absence of creativity in the midfield, the Italians are also trying to make some changes. It is no wonder that Cassano has been in hot form recently.

This scene probably made Rijkaard even more confused. This guy may have been cursing in his heart, "Is this going to end? Is there still such a thing? This one is the main force?"

Not to mention Rijkaard's melancholy, it is estimated that among the top 16 teams, those potential competitors who are trying to reach the top and lift the Champions League are all depressed this time. Just look at Chelsea's lineup. How can they compete with them?

Damn it! There are more than 20 people, and any one of them can play a role. What the hell is this!

However, Mourinho didn't seem to have enough fun. When he led the team to Barcelona five days in advance, he didn't seem to have determined the final starting list. His closed training was peeped by Spanish reporters, but this peeping didn't matter. The personnel combination of the group confrontation made Rijkaard even more confused. Lin Yi, Lampard, Drogba, Gerrard, none of them played.

And running on the training ground were Anelka, Cassano, Maniche, Duff, and Ribery, the main player of the French youth team who transferred in the winter and only occasionally showed up in the last game against West Brom, plus a lot of substitutes. What is this doing? Confusing the audience?

But this is too weird! And this is already the last training, and these tricks are still being played?

The entire Barcelona coaching staff is now looking at each other. They really don't know what the bold Mourinho is going to do. If this is just a simple confusing tactic, it shouldn't be so troublesome, right? Or is this guy really planning to put out a surprise at Camp Nou?

Perhaps all the speculations can only be revealed when the game starts. Is Mourinho deliberately creating confusion or does he really want to give his old club a surprise? No one knows.

But when the Chelsea coaching staff watched the Barcelona media speculating about Chelsea's starting lineup, these shameless guys all had a faint smile on their faces.

Sometimes, the weird thoughts of a group of old men are harder to guess than the spring heart of a young girl. . .

(Automatically updated...)