Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

After winning three consecutive league victories, the Chelsea team finally ushered in a week of rest.

In fact, the schedule of the first few rounds of the new Premier League season is not intensive. Basically, after each round of the league, each Premier League team can take a week off.

Chelsea mainly played one more Community Shield game and one more European Super Cup game.

Therefore, the schedule burden at the beginning of the season will be greater than that of other Premier League teams.

In addition, there are indeed more veterans in the Chelsea team who transferred to Chelsea this summer. Chelsea's bench is no thicker than last year. Mourinho now also needs to re-formulate the rotation plan.

At the beginning of the season, the main players in the Chelsea team were able to get a relatively sufficient rest.

But it is foreseeable that in the second half of this season, Chelsea's first team will need to play more games than in the previous two seasons.

After all, the people sitting on the bench are different.

Last season, Chelsea's bench was filled with experienced veterans or mature players such as Drogba, Lampard, Ramirez and Mikel.

There are more young players like Loftus-Cheek, Zouma, Gnabry and Van Ginkel sitting on the Chelsea bench this season.

When the schedule is not too intensive in the first half of the season, Chelsea's coaching staff can rotate these young players on to practice more.

But in the sprint stage of the championship, continuing to reuse these young players is giving Manchester City and Arsenal a chance.

To fight tough battles, you still have to rely on the "mature men" in the team. Li Ang is about to turn 25, and he can barely be considered a "mature man" in his prime.

In the past two seasons, Chelsea's main lineup was actually not balanced in terms of overall age.

The veterans in the team are too old, the young players are too young, and there are basically no stars in their prime who are 26 or 7 years old.

If you look at it now, Chelsea is a team that is mature enough to harvest honors.

Thiago Silva, the oldest in the starting lineup, is not yet 31 years old.

The youngest Maguire is now 22 years old and is about to turn 23.

Among the midfield trio, Matic is 27 years old, Liang is 24 years old, and Kroos is 25 years old.

Suarez, the oldest of the front three, is 28 years old, and Hazard and De Bruyne are both 24 years old.

It can be said that the main players in the Chelsea team are basically in the golden age of their respective careers.

He can run and compete, has plenty of physical energy, recovers quickly, and has rich experience in top competitions.

If we only look at the age structure, Chelsea is now the most scientifically formed and most effective team in the Premier League.

none of them!

The Chelsea coaching staff has protected the young people in the team and allowed them to grow steadily for the past two seasons, and it is time to add more responsibilities to them.

Of course, Li Ang is not among the players who have been burdened because his burden has always been the heaviest~

Perhaps because he squeezed Li Ang too many times in the past two seasons, Lao Mu felt a little embarrassed and tried his best to give Li Ang as much time off as possible in the new season.

However, Li Ang only used the previous one-day holidays to be affectionate with his girlfriend Anastasia.

This time the team was on holiday, Li Ang only rested for an extra half day in the morning, and drove to the Cobham training base for additional training in the afternoon as usual.

Also arriving at the training base at an arranged time were three young guys, Zouma, Loftus-Cheek and Gnabry.

Their competition pressure is very low now. Apart from team training matches, they don't have many real-life battles with professional players in top leagues.

The coaching staff will arrange for them to play second-team games from time to time, but the training effect of such games is somewhat out of reach for them.

After much thought, Mourinho still left these three young men to Li Ang and asked him to help guide them during extra training.

Just like in the previous two seasons, Li Ang often trained with Lukaku, Ake and Van Ginkel.

Li Ang's additional training intensity is very high. Young players play less games anyway and have strong physical recovery ability. Training with him more has only advantages and no disadvantages.

For Gnabry and the others, being able to train and improve with Li Ang is naturally what they look forward to.

Except for being a bit too "devil" during the extra training and giving them all kinds of chicken soup to prevent them from easily stopping training and resting, Li Ang was very good to them in other aspects and fully played the role of a leading brother.

They would be given a feast, and when they performed well in extra practice, Li Ang would ask his manager assistant to take them to a nightclub to relax and have fun as a reward.

The three of them have long since grown up. In England's youth training environment, of course they have also played in nightclubs and bars.

But the youth training contract they had previously received was not enough to support their wanton indulgence in the gold-selling den of London, a big city.

The nightclub that Li Ang asked his agent assistant to take them to was one of the best "good places" in London.

As long as they don't go too far, Li Ang's manager assistant will follow Li Ang's instructions and help them settle the bill.

There are not many good brothers like this in the football world!

For example, those old Brazilian superstars who love to play may also bring a few young people who are pleasing to their eyes to go to nightclubs to indulge.

But someone like Li Ang, who personally leads young players to train and actually improves their strength, is a rare species.

Mourinho didn't say much after learning about this incident, because he believed that Li Ang knew the appropriateness.

This is indeed the case. Only when the performance of several young people meets Li Ang's expectations during additional training can they get the "reward" of going to a top nightclub to have fun.

Relax but don't indulge too much, otherwise it will hurt their wallets if they pay for it themselves.

After getting used to this process, the number of times they went to other nightclubs to hang out with friends was greatly reduced.

The training performance is getting better and better, and the growth rate can fully satisfy the coaching staff.

Although Li Ang spent some money, he is still rich enough!

Anyway, Mourinho feels that his decision to hand over young people to Li Ang is getting more and more correct.

As the fourth round of the Premier League is approaching, Mourinho has even begun to consider whether to reward several young lads with more playing time.

For example, it would be okay to let Zouma, who is slightly older, start once instead of Maguire, who has played several games in a row.

His physical condition is also very outstanding. Although he is sometimes a little unclear on the defensive end, with Thiago Silva watching, he should also be able to do a good job of defensive work.

The more Mourinho thought about it, the more he felt that this rotation plan was feasible.

In the last few days of preparation training, he also tried putting Zouma and Salah into the main lineup at the same time to see the effect of the training match.

It was not until the afternoon of August 27, two days before the start of the fourth round of the new Premier League season, that Mourinho temporarily extinguished his enthusiasm for tactical experiments.

Because the draw ceremony for the new season's Champions League group stage is about to begin.

After the training that afternoon, all the players in the Chelsea first team except Li Ang gathered in the team restaurant to watch the group draw ceremony of the new season's Champions League.

As for Li Ang who is absent?

He is already sitting at the UEFA Champions League group stage draw ceremony. After the draw ceremony is officially completed, he will go on stage to receive the annual UEFA Player of the Year award!

As early as the end of last season, Li Ang was unanimously recognized by the media as the biggest winner at the annual awards ceremonies of UEFA and FIFA.

No way, there was no World Cup or European Cup this past summer, and Messi also failed to lead his team to win the Copa America.

And Li Ang not only won two heavyweight championship trophies, the Premier League championship and the Champions League championship.

What's more important is that his personal data has also exploded. His personal performance last season was not inferior to that of Melo.

Now that the title of six-time champion has been won again, the media can't think of any other player who can compete with Li Ang this year!

The live broadcast of the lottery ceremony also frequently focused on Li Ang, who was wearing a formal suit. He completely ignored Cristiano Ronaldo and Neuer sitting next to him, which was a "clear statement".

Fortunately, the lottery ceremony started on time, and the shift of the camera made Li Ang feel much more comfortable. He once again turned his head to communicate with Ronaldo and Neuer.

This year’s Champions League group stage bracket rules have finally changed.

Compared with previous seasons, the teams in the first, second, third and fourth tiers were directly determined based on each team's European War points ranking.

This year's new Champions League classification rules take more care of the championship teams of other major major leagues.

Under the new rules, the defending Champions League champions and the champions of the top seven association top leagues in UEFA points will directly enter the first pot.

For example, teams like Benfica, Zenit St. Petersburg, Juventus and Eindhoven directly entered the pool of first-tier seeding teams according to the new tiering rules.

If we still divide the teams according to the old rules, more than half of these teams will fall into the second or even third tier pool.

Even though Juventus is now the hegemon of Serie A, in terms of total points in the European War in the past five seasons, they can't compare to Arsenal, who have steadily played in the Champions League.

Arsenal, which has always been ranked at the bottom of the first tier in the past few seasons, was directly placed in the second tier this year.

As wronged as Arsenal, there are Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid whose total points in the European competition in the past five seasons are enough to enter the first-tier pool.

This new binning rule has both advantages and disadvantages, but it is foreseeable that the Champions League death groups, which were relatively difficult to appear in previous seasons, may appear more often in the future.

As the defending champion of the Champions League, Chelsea directly became the first seeded team.

Originally, Li Ang was relatively relaxed at the beginning. Chelsea's luck in group draws in the past two seasons has been relatively good, and basically they will not encounter qualifying competitors that are too difficult to deal with.

But when the easier teams in the second pool were drawn out one by one, and only Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid were left, the expressions of both Leon and Neuer began to change.

Because there is no second-tier opponent in the first-tier pool yet, only Chelsea and Bayern Munich are left!

On the surface, Leon and Neuer were still smiling awkwardly at the camera, but in fact they were already scolding UEFA for causing trouble!

Could this be a coincidence? !

The two toughest teams in the second pool, Madrid, will be attacked by Bayern and Chelsea, the strongest teams in the first seed, right?

"Well, UEFA, if you don't punish Arsenal this year, you won't punish us. Why are the London teams messing with you? They keep catching you every year..."

Li Ang complained fiercely in his heart, but as soon as his complaint ended, the draw guest Maldini drew Real Madrid into Group G where Chelsea was!

"God! Chelsea and Real Madrid really met in the group stage!"

"UEFA really dares to cause trouble! Will Lafayette scold Infantino to death?!"

"The little lion is going home! The script I have been waiting for for two years is finally staged today!"

"Are you sure you are going home and not bringing people to cause trouble? But I like this kind of game! I want to see blood flowing like a river!"

"The strong dialogue between Bayern and Atletico Madrid is also very interesting. Will there be two death groups this year? Looking forward to it!"

When the exciting lottery results finally appeared, the fans who watched the live broadcast of the lottery ceremony instantly set off sports forums in various countries!

Chelsea vs Real Madrid!

Bayern Munich vs Atletico Madrid!

It can be said that this is the civil war between the four best performing super teams in the Champions League in recent seasons!

Among them, the showdown between Chelsea and Real Madrid has become even more topical!

Li Ang and Ronaldo smiled wryly at each other and shook hands.

Neuer sat next to Li Ang and curled his lips helplessly.

However, the subsequent draw of the third-tier teams made Neuer feel a lot better.

Because the group where Bayern and Atletico Madrid are in drew Olympiacos, a team recognized as a weak team in the third tier.

What's more, the group where Chelsea and Real Madrid are in directly selected the recognized tough players among the teams in the third tier.

CSKA Moscow!

Although it is very immoral to base happiness on the pain of others, Neuer still wanted to say this with a smile at this moment:

"Comfortable!"

Yes, not only him, but also the players of other Champions League teams who are watching the draw ceremony in front of the TV at this moment also feel comfortable!

This season's Champions League death group has been born in advance!

CSKA Moscow is a tough team with its own magic attack!

Li Ang and Ronaldo looked at each other again.

Although they didn't say anything at the moment, they knew that they must have tacitly thought of the Champions League game they went to Moscow to play together many years ago.

"It's winter in Moscow, and there's still artificial turf! This is so fucked up..."

Li Ang has accepted his fate, there is nothing he can do if UEFA wants to play this way.

When Wolfsburg, another strong player in the fourth-tier team, was drawn into Group G, he even had an inexplicable smile on his face.

The title of the death group of Group G is now firmly withheld.

Chelsea, Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow plus a Wolfsburg!

Even if they are confident that they can break out of such a death group, Chelsea and Real Madrid will have to suffer a lot, and they will no longer be able to easily qualify as the first place like in previous seasons.

In the players' restaurant at the Cobham training base, Chelsea's first-team players all complained about the current lottery situation caused by UEFA's troubles.

Mourinho didn't know what to say, he just kept shaking his head at his coaching staff.

He had long thought that it would be very difficult to lead Chelsea to defend the Champions League this year, but he did not expect that UEFA would set up such a big obstacle for them!

However, after complaining, Mourinho felt confident again when he saw Li Ang winning the title of Best Player in Europe in the live broadcast!

Artificial barrier?

It depends on whether the signing arranged by UEFA is tough or whether Chelsea's strength is tougher!

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