Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

Chapter 254 Returning to Camp Nou is like going home~ [Please subscribe, guys! 】

Li Ang's bold statement after the game against Arsenal quickly made Chelsea and himself the focus of discussion among fans across Europe.

His confidence and desire to win the championship have won the admiration and recognition of many fans.

Of course, on the other hand, some fans think that he is indeed very arrogant and does not respect his opponents enough.

However, it is indeed what Li Ang said.

When Chelsea won Arsenal strongly in the 30th round of the Premier League, Chelsea had enough qualifications to look forward to winning the championship in advance.

After all, in the next two rounds of the league, Chelsea will face Fulham, which is ranked last in the league, and Crystal Palace, which is sixth from the bottom in the league.

Of course it will be painful if the relegation team succeeds in counterattacking, but if they can defend well, it will be even more difficult for Fulham and Crystal Palace to upset Chelsea.

The schedule is favorable and their morale is fully boosted. No matter how you look at it, Chelsea does not look like it will overturn in the next two rounds of the league.

In comparison, Manchester City will be the more pressured side.

And Chelsea does not need Manchester City to lose. They only need to tie one or two games in the next schedule, which is enough for Chelsea.

Moreover, they have already reached the 31st round of the league, and if they are more secretive, they appear less confident.

So Mourinho and other Chelsea players simply showed off in interviews and clearly expressed their determination to win the Premier League championship this season.

However, after officially announcing the championship, Mourinho turned around and went to the training base with his coaching team with a serious expression.

They began to think about how to arrange the starting lineup for the next two league games.

The opponents Chelsea will face in the next extra round and the 32nd round of the Premier League are indeed not strong, but the schedule is relatively tight.

And after playing these two league games, Chelsea will go to Barcelona to prepare for the Champions League battle with Barcelona.

Therefore, rotation is necessary, the playing time of the main veterans must be reduced accordingly, and Van Ginkel, Karas and Oscar are bound to shoulder more tactical responsibilities.

Chelsea's first team players returned to the training base on time to report after a day's rest after playing against Arsenal.

After repeated thinking, Mourinho finally chose to rest all the main veterans in the extra game on March 26.

The likes of Ibrahimovic, Lampard, John Terry and Petr Cech will all get an extra day off.

In this case, after playing the game against Arsenal, these veterans will be able to get a full seven days of rest period, of which two days are purely personal rest time.

By March 29, they will be able to meet the challenge of Crystal Palace with a stronger physical condition.

After three days of rest, there will be a tough Champions League battle with Barcelona.

With this arrangement, the veterans will still have sufficient rest time, and their game status can be well maintained.

So on the afternoon of March 26, Chelsea, who went to challenge Fulham away from home, was an almost completely younger version of Chelsea.

The word "almost" is used because Chelsea's backup goalkeeper Schwarzer is already over 40 years old, and Ashley Cole is not young either.

The two of them are definitely not in the ranks of young people, but their experience is what Chelsea needs in this rotation.

In the extra match that day, Chelsea’s starting lineup is as follows:

Goalkeeper Schwarzer.

The defense is lined up with Ashley Cole, David Luiz, Gary Cahill and Azpilicueta.

In the midfield, Van Ginkel serves as the single defensive midfielder. Li Ang and Essien lined up on both sides of the midfield, and Ramirez came forward.

On the forward line, Lukaku and Oscar partner.

This diamond-shaped 442 position starting formation weakens some of the ability to attack on the wings, but it greatly enhances the stability of the attack and defense in the middle.

Li Ang has not played alongside Essien in the starting lineup for a long time.

After this season, Essien will basically leave the Premier League to find a retirement team, so Li Ang also cherishes the days when he can still play alongside Essien.

The opponent is very weak. Fulham has conceded 70 goals so far. The control of the midfield and the weakness of the backcourt defense are evident.

Therefore, after five or six minutes of trial and error at the beginning, Chelsea took over the rhythm of the game very smoothly.

Li Ang signaled Essien to participate more in the offense today, while he and Van Ginkel blocked Fulham's counterattack on the defensive end.

In most games in the Premier League, hitting the center line will not achieve very good results, but today is an exception.

Because whether it is Heitinga or Hangeland, these two central defenders who are both over 30 years old have no good way to restrict Lukaku.

Today, Lukaku, who almost exclusively had the right to fire on the front line, has also transformed and seems to have really become the little overlord of Chelsea's front line.

With Essien and Ramirez constantly feeding him the ball, and Oscar's offensive restraint, Lukaku scored two goals in the first half, directly bringing the game into "Chelsea time."

Originally, before the game started, the Fulham team was a little happy to see such a large-scale rotation from Chelsea, and also had some unrealistic fantasies.

However, he was stunned by Lukaku's small explosion, and Li Ang's steady defensive end provided cover for his teammates.

Fulham, who were already in trouble, quickly lost their nerve and almost surrendered with a white flag.

Li Ang was replaced by Mikel by Mourinho in the 60th minute of the second half.

David Luiz, who had just returned from injury, was also replaced by Karas.

Lukaku played the entire game today, and Mourinho also wanted to fulfill his wish of scoring a hat trick.

But unfortunately, most of the passes sent to him by his teammates behind him were thrown by him.

So until the end of the game, Lukaku also assisted Oscar and scored a goal, but he was still far away from his third goal of the game.

Chelsea finally won Fulham 3-0 without any blood.

After the extra round, Mourinho told Li Ang with a smile that Li Ang could sit on the bench and take a rest in the next round of the league.

Li Ang naturally has no objection to Mourinho's arrangement. He has not used physical recovery potion recently, and he just feels a little tired.

Therefore, it is a better choice for him to take a rest in the league and then prepare well for Barcelona.

So three days later, at Selhurst Park, Li Ang took the bench beyond the expectations of the media.

The person who started in his place was naturally Van Ginkel.

The three midfielders composed of Van Ginkel and Essien Garampard are not very effective against Crystal Palace.

On both offense and defense, the overall strength of this midfield trio is relatively balanced.

In addition, Ibrahimovic, Hazard and De Bruyne all started today, but few reporters and fans would think that Chelsea could not break the half-time bus of Crystal Palace.

At the beginning of the game, it was indeed in accordance with Chelsea's pre-match tactics.

Mourinho guessed that Crystal Palace would use the three defensive midfielders they are good at.

Therefore, in the opening offensive test, Mourinho gave Essien and Lampard more long-range shooting privileges.

Even Ibrahimovic can find an opportunity to try a long shot after pulling out of the penalty area.

It is not necessary to use a long shot to penetrate the Crystal Palace bus and score a goal. Being able to get a corner kick is also a threatening opportunity for Chelsea.

Under constant long-range and high-altitude bombing. Ivanovic, who started the game today, once again reversed successfully!

He stepped up from a corner kick and once again became a key player in breaking the deadlock.

Originally, after this goal was scored, Chelsea's advantage was already established. After that, it would be more appropriate to stop after scoring a few goals.

But God just wanted to make a joke with Chelsea.

In the stoppage time of the first half, Crystal Palace forward No. 7 Bolasie went down and sent a powerful sweep pass.

Their center Jerome almost grabbed a point, but in fact he did not touch the football. Instead, Terry made a mistake during the clearance and accidentally shoveled the ball into his own goal!

The picture of Terry scoring an own goal and Cech looking at Terry in surprise quickly spread across the Internet as the halftime of the game came.

To put it bluntly, this was just an unfortunate mistake.

If Chelsea's game progresses smoothly in the second half, it will have no impact on Terry at all.

But the bad thing was in the second half of the game. Crystal Palace, who had narrowly escaped death, defended even more resolutely. Their midfielder Jedilak also exploded and played at an extraordinary level!

After Chelsea switched to a ground attack, Jedilak seemed to have turned into a hard stone wall that could not be broken in front of the Crystal Palace penalty area.

In the first 20 minutes of the second half, Yedirak used 4 steals and 5 successful aerial challenges to defuse Chelsea's ferocious offensive!

When Mourinho saw this, he didn't dare to delay any longer, and directly called Li Ang to warm up!

The more than 20,000 Crystal Palace fans in Selhurst Park saw Leon warming up on the sidelines and booed loudly!

However, their actions obviously cannot stop Li Ang from playing.

In the 71st minute of the second half, Li Ang replaced Essien and brought Mourinho's latest tactical instructions with him when he came on the field.

"Let's use more wings and pay attention to the combination of wing and center. Zlatan should stop frequently pulling out of the penalty area. You just press in their penalty area and leave their midfielder to me!"

Li Ang's tactical explanation was very clear, and his words were full of confidence. It sounded like he didn't take Crystal Palace's outstanding defensive midfielder Yedirak into consideration at all.

But in fact, Li Ang had already come to a conclusion when he was observing from the sidelines.

This Yedilak is a powerful person, and his ability is not weak.

But now Chelsea urgently needs another goal to break the deadlock, so Li Ang also needs to give his teammates more confidence and motivation.

He will give Yedilak enough attention in his heart, but verbally, he must make his teammates feel his strong confidence!

Soon after taking the field, Li Ang took over the important task of sorting out the team's offensive line.

After establishing the offensive strategy of playing more wings and stretching the Crystal Palace defense more.

Li Ang also frequently used his long passes to help Hazard and De Bruyne take turns to attack Crystal Palace's wing defense.

Jedilak played very well in the middle, but he alone cannot fully assist the two full-backs to withstand the defensive pressure.

De Bruyne is actually okay. His willingness to force a breakthrough today is not strong.

But Azar, who was holding his breath in his heart, had abnormal abilities.

Crystal Palace right back Mariapa, who has been in the English Championship for many years and only returned to the Premier League last season, is no match for Hazard.

In the 78th minute of the second half, Hazard stunned Mariappa with two consecutive changes of direction, then sent a pass directly near the baseline, trying to connect with Ibrahimovic.

Crystal Palace's central defender Delany used all his strength to compete with Ibrahimovic for the top position. In the end, neither seemed to gain control of the football.

But when the football flew outside the Crystal Palace penalty area, Li Ang had already taken advantage of his excellent running position and prediction of the football's landing position to occupy a favorable position to grab the second point.

Yedilac naturally refused to give in, and had a fierce physical confrontation with Li Ang before the football fell.

However, Jedinak still underestimated Li Ang's determination and excellent confrontation ability.

After a fight, he ended up at a disadvantage!

The moment the football fell, Li Ang decisively hit the ball with his head. Then he drove the ball directly to the front of the Crystal Palace penalty area!

Yedilac did not dare to let go easily at this moment. He grabbed Li Ang's jersey and approached his own penalty area with Li Ang.

Originally, Yedirak thought that Li Ang would take advantage of the opportunity to enter the Crystal Palace penalty area and shoot or pass the ball.

But he didn't expect that the moment Li Ang approached the Crystal Palace penalty area. Then he directly used his left foot to shoot!

Crystal Palace goalkeeper Speroni reacted quickly.

The moment Li Ang hit a long shot, he also made a timely save.

But his goal-line skills and reactions are still inferior to the first-line goalkeepers.

Li Ang's long-range shot is very powerful, it can be said to be powerful!

Many fans in front of the TV seemed to have just missed the birth of this goal in the blink of an eye!

When the football plunged into the net above the far corner of the Crystal Palace goal, the entire Selhurst Park fell silent!

After Speroni fell from the sky, he roared and questioned in anger.

But the Crystal Palace teammates in front of him were powerless to do anything about the goal.

After all, Li Ang caught the opportunity during the clearance process and forced his kick to hit a long shot.

Yedilac has also tried his best to stop Li Ang. There is no way he can knock Li Ang down in front of the penalty area, right?

That would only bring him a severe penalty of a yellow card or even a red card, and then give Chelsea a threatening free kick from close range.

So he had no choice but to blame Li Ang for being too determined and too tricky with his long-range shot this time!

Mourinho and his assistants were overjoyed on the sidelines!

However, his mind was still very clear and he was not overly excited. After celebrating happily, he immediately arranged for several defensive players on the bench to warm up.

At the last moment of the game, Mourinho decisively used substitutions to disrupt Crystal Palace's counterattack rhythm, and maintained the 2-1 score until the end of the game!

A nearly perfect start, an ups and downs process, and a near-miss result.

Chelsea finally achieved another two-game winning streak in the league and achieved their short-term goal.

And Li Ang, who once again beat his opponent with force, sparked a big discussion in English football and probably made Barcelona fans sleepless for the past few days.

Li Ang is still looking forward to returning to Camp Nou to play against Barcelona.

After all, he has won many times in this stadium.

Returning to Camp Nou feels like going home. It felt great to win here!