The Godfather of Football

Tottenham Hotspur is still confident about the long-term plan proposed by Ye Qiu within the coaching staff to return to the top of Europe after three years of adjustment. This is not only because the team is getting better and better, but more importantly, there are a group of outstanding stars within the team.

Just like after two weeks of national team matches, the eighth round of the Premier League rekindled the war. Tottenham Hotspur challenged Fulham away on the afternoon of October 16th. In this game, Ye Qiu did not arrange players including David Silva who played the whole game in the national team, and the center forward in the front court was arranged to replace Cavani.

However, Messi, Ribery and other players also started, because this time they all returned to the team early, and Ye Qiu had previously negotiated with the Argentine and French national teams to use several players in the team slowly.

This round is the graveyard of strong teams, because after two weeks of national team competitions, the team's state and rhythm have been disrupted, so Manchester United, West Ham United and Chelsea have all encountered draws, which makes many people worry whether Tottenham Hotspur will be like Manchester United and other teams.

But Ye Qiu made it clear before this game that he was satisfied with the team's current state.

Tottenham Hotspur's rotation in this game is also not small. The goalkeeper is Cech, the back line is Alba, Kompany, Thiago Silva and Kyle Walker, the midfield is Coutinho, Yaya Toure and Fabregas, and the front trident is Ribery, Raul and Messi.

At Craven Cottage, when the referee Mike Dean just blew the whistle to start the game, Tottenham Hotspur's frontcourt Raul kicked the ball to Messi in the middle circle, Messi passed it back to Yaya Toure in the midfield, and the latter knocked it back to Kompany on the back line. The whole process is exactly the same as all the previous games.

Fulham's players quickly penetrated into Tottenham's formation, ready to put pressure on Tottenham at the first time, preferably to make it difficult for the North London team to form a fierce offensive at the first time, after all, Tottenham's offense is the nightmare of all opponents.

Many people admire Chelsea's offense, but in fact Chelsea's offense relies heavily on Drogba, but Tottenham's offense is different. This team has many offensive points and rich offensive routines. Whether it is a ground ball or a set piece, they have enough means to score goals. This team's offense is more difficult to defend than Chelsea.

The ball fell to Kompany's feet, and then passed to Coutinho who retreated to the left area to get the ball. It took about 20 seconds.

I believe that at this moment, Fulham's players must still be adjusting the rhythm, guessing when, from what angle, and in what way Tottenham will launch an attack.

But at this moment, Coutinho suddenly made a low long pass, and the ball flew across a large area of ​​the field at a very fast speed, almost touching the ground, with a slight arc, and flew directly to Ribery who was pulling to the left.

Fulham's Northern Irish right back Baird reacted, but it was impossible to get close to Ribery, so he quickly made a scissor-foot sliding tackle, hoping to intercept Coutinho's through ball with his legs, but his feet did touch the ball, but it was just a light touch, and he couldn't even change the direction of the ball.

For Coutinho, this was indeed a risk, but it was successful, so it was very beautiful.

Ribery rushed to the front, dribbled the ball quickly, and entered the penalty area diagonally. At this time, Fulham's two central defenders had quickly returned to the penalty area. Ribery saw that the angle of his shot had been blocked, so he chose to stop the ball and knock the ball horizontally to the middle from the side of the opponent's central defender.

Raul was slower than Ribery, but this slowness was reflected on the court, at most within one or two seconds, so when Ribery's pass came to the middle of the penalty area, Raul was already in place, but in front of him was Fulham goalkeeper Schwarzer, who had opened his arms and was ready, and there were defensive players on both sides, so he seemed to have only one choice, that is, to force the shot, and this shot would definitely be caught by Fulham defenders and goalkeepers.

Fulham's defensive players seemed to have seen this prospect, so they were all waiting for Raul to shoot.

But just when they thought Raul would force the ball, they saw Raul suddenly pass the ball and knock the ball behind him with his left heel, and he rushed forward without stopping, directly blocking the sight and movement direction of goalkeeper Schwarzer and the two defenders of the other side with his body.

In this case, Schwarzer could not see the situation behind Raul at all, and the two defenders of Fulham could not rush over in time and effectively. Even now, they have not had time to figure out how Raul found Messi behind him, and how he guaranteed Messi to appear?

Perhaps this is a secret of Raul, but Messi appeared in the most fatal place at the best time.

Raul's heel came in front of Messi, the Argentine stopped to his left, took a step forward, and shot a curve ball with his left foot directly to the left side of the goal. The ball almost did not deviate from the track set by Messi, and hit the goal post and hit the goal, 1:0!

Messi excitedly raised his left hand and rushed to Raul at the first time, while Ribery, Coutinho, Fabregas and others also rushed up at the first time, and they celebrated directly in Fulham's penalty area.

"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"

Andy Gray exclaimed excitedly because this goal came too fast and too suddenly.

"The game had just started for less than 40 seconds, and my god, in less than a minute, Tottenham Hotspur turned the tables and scored first against Fulham. This was undoubtedly a blow to the home team Fulham. It was too surprising. They will have a very, very difficult game. After all, they lost the ball less than a minute after the start. This was too demoralizing!"

The live broadcast on TV and the big screen in the stadium were repeatedly playing the goal just now. From the slow-motion replay, Messi and Raul obviously had an interaction. When Coutinho passed the ball, Raul was closer, so he rushed to the front, and Messi deliberately slowed down because he expected Ribery to pass horizontally if he didn't kick it himself, so he had to form an offensive depth with the two teammates in front of him. If he rushed forward, he would squeeze his own people.

Facts have proved that Messi's decision was correct. Ribery's horizontal pass was obviously anticipated by Fulham's defensive players, but they did not expect that Raul would choose to knock back with his heel. This was a very beautiful assist!

When many people mention heels, they must think of Raul's best friend Guti, but what they never thought of is that Raul also had many heel assists and even goals in his career, and this is just one of them.

As Andy Gray said, the home team Fulham lost the ball just after the start, which undoubtedly put them in a very embarrassing passive situation, especially for Mark Hughes who returned to work this season. He has always wanted to prove himself again in Fulham and tell everyone that Manchester City's failure is not because of his ability.

The impression of Fulham's start this season is that there are too many draws. They have won six draws and one victory in the first seven rounds. So Mark Hughes can proudly say that his Fulham remains unbeaten in the league. This is the only team that remains unbeaten in the Premier League this season except Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, and this also gives Mark Hughes the confidence to challenge Tottenham Hotspur with the home advantage.

Unexpectedly, Tottenham Hotspur hit Mark Hughes with a blow right at the start, which made the English people very angry and dissatisfied. This is Craven Cottage, not Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane!

So, after losing the ball, Mark Hughes walked to the sidelines and shouted at the players on the field, "Kill those North London bastards for me, don't let them walk out of this stadium alive!"

"Attack, attack non-stop!"

Mark Hughes, dressed in a suit and tie, obviously lost his original demeanor. He could not accept such a loss, so he had to save his face and continue to win the confidence of Fulham fans, and this required scoring.

After Tottenham Hotspur scored the first goal, they played leisurely, especially after seeing Fulham actively pressing out to attack, Tottenham Hotspur's group of players were very experienced and began to consciously pull Fulham out.

"Mark Hughes should stay calm, especially the players on the field, don't be too aggressive, they are facing Tottenham Hotspur in this game, the most powerful team in Europe!" Andy Gray said with some concern for Fulham.

But just after he finished speaking, he saw Tottenham Hotspur's long pass from the backcourt again. Thiago Silva made a long pass, Messi quickly shook off the left back defending him, rushed to the right side of Fulham's penalty area, caught up with the slowed ball, and made a cross with his right foot.

Ribery, who was attacking the left side of the opponent's goal with Messi as a corner, quickly caught up, swung his left foot to meet the ball, and his shot was also very smart, slightly over the goalkeeper, and hit the right inner side of the goal, 2:0!

"Let me tell you, you are too anxious and too aggressive. If you are anxious, you will lose when you meet a team like Tottenham Hotspur!"

"2:0, Fulham's start is simply terrible. We saw that Mark Hughes' team could not stop Tottenham Hotspur's attack again and again. They scored two goals with three shots. In this kind of game, with such scoring efficiency, how can Fulham stop it? Especially Mark Hughes also adopted an offensive tactic of pressing forward. Isn't this courting death?"

Andy Gray was a little disappointed. After all, it was so fast. In less than seven minutes, two goals were lost. This almost sentenced Fulham to death in advance, because it was difficult for Fulham to get back these two goals from Tottenham Hotspur while not being scored by Tottenham Hotspur. This is almost a nightmare!

"Perhaps now, for Mark Hughes, the safest tactic is to stabilize the situation first!" Andy Gray suggested.

But it is obvious that Mark Hughes has no such plan, or the Fulham players on the court do not have such an idea.

In fact, Tottenham now has enough game experience. They are smart and know how to use their advantages. They are also good at using the opponent's psychology to defeat the opponent.

So, after the team scored two goals in a row, they continued to maintain offensive pressure on Fulham, but not as sharp as before, and they did not press so close, but patiently used their technical advantages to control the game.

It's like two people are dueling, one is impatient and the other is calm. The former tries every means to kill the other in the shortest time, but the latter is sure to win, and patiently plays guerrilla warfare with you, grinding you and consuming you, slowly grinding away your patience and consuming your physical strength.

In the fifteenth minute, Fulham, who finally couldn't bear it, once again exposed a problem that shouldn't have occurred.

Messi was trying to make a breakthrough with the ball on the right side, but the Mexican left-back Salcido was well positioned. After intercepting the ball from Messi's feet, he kicked it forward, anxious to clear the ball out of the dangerous 30-meter area. But at this time, Kyle Walker caught up, rushed forward after getting the ball, attracted Salcido's attention, and passed the ball directly to Messi, who had already run behind Salcido and entered the penalty area.

Facing such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the Argentine used his right foot to shoot a powerful shot about 17 meters away from the goal. The angle and strength of this shot were well controlled, and the goalkeeper Schwarzer made a good position and squatted down to hold the ball.

But just as Schwarzer made a move, the ball bounced a little when it landed, causing the ball to pass through the only tiny gap between his side and the goal post and hit the goal line, 3:0!

"Tottenham Hotspur is playing well no matter how they play. They are in great form!" Andy Gray was a little helpless. They had already scored three goals. If the trend continued, Tottenham Hotspur might be able to win a big victory.

"If you are a Tottenham fan, you will definitely find something very interesting. That is, since last season, Tottenham players have obviously made great progress in their shooting skills. Let's take a look. The three goals in this game were scored with very good footwork!"

"Last season, Tottenham's center forward was Rodamel Falcao. The most impressive thing about this Colombian center forward was his unparalleled shooting skills, which obviously stimulated the group of superstars in the Tottenham team, so they all practiced their footwork. Let's look at Ribery's lob just now and Messi's shot now. The footwork is very good and very reasonable!"

Andy Gray's commentary is professional, which is also his most popular style. He is now full of expectations for Tottenham's outbreak in this game. Perhaps, if he can enjoy a wonderful goal feast, he will feel good, especially when the goal is scored by Tottenham, who always has a gorgeous style.

The game went as Andy Gray had expected. After Tottenham got into a good state, they scored goals no matter how they played. Although Fulham tried their best to stop them, they were unable to stop Tottenham from scoring again, even if they shrunk to their own 30-meter area.

When the game reached the 36th minute, Tottenham's frontcourt attack was curbed. Messi rushed into the penalty area and shot, but was blocked by the opponent's defender. After Raul received the ball at the front of the penalty area, he saw that there was no chance, so he protected the ball and knocked it back. Fabregas retreated to receive the ball and passed it horizontally to Kyle Walker on the right.

After receiving the ball, the English right-back took a big step forward. After chasing, he saw Messi blocking the opponent's left-back Baird with his body in the penalty area, so he made a strong pass and passed the ball to Messi at the fastest speed.

In recent years, the Argentine has been asked by Ye Qiu to strengthen his upper limb strength, which can really help him complete physical confrontation. After he blocked the left-back Salcido with his body, the latter's interference and squeeze behind him did not affect him, but Messi also had difficulty turning around. However, when Kyle Walker's pass came to Messi's feet, the Argentine received the ball very steadily and almost did not let the ball bounce on his feet.

When Messi received the pass in the penalty area, it would be a nightmare for any defensive player of any team, so the surrounding Fulham defensive players almost did not hesitate to rush to Messi, but the Argentine failed to turn around, but chose to knock the ball back to Raul who entered the penalty area from outside the penalty area.

When the Spanish veteran faced Messi's pass, the Argentine's calmness was reflected in the direction of his pass, which happened to be to Raul's left side. This angle made it very easy for Raul, whose main foot was left-footed, to shoot directly, so the Spanish veteran did not waste the opportunity and swung his left foot directly for a clever shot.

Raul's shooting technique was also very good. The angle was so good that Schwarzer was desperate. The ball almost hit the post and went into the goal. 4:0!

As Andy Gray said, when Tottenham Hotspur plays smoothly and like crazy, they can score goals almost any way they play.

Watching Tottenham Hotspur score another goal, Fulham goalkeeper Schwarzer had lost four goals in a row in just over half an hour. He was so ashamed that he hunched his back, his head on the grass, and kept hammering the ground. He really wanted to dig a hole and bury himself.

I believe that at this moment, many players in the Fulham team are still puzzled. What happened in this game?

How come the defense that they usually organize well was so easily broken by Tottenham Hotspur's attack in this game?

Perhaps, this is a question that even Mark Hughes can't find the answer to!