Football’s First Defender

Although the 2-2 draw with Juventus in the Champions League interrupted Hiddink's five-game winning streak in all competitions since he became Chelsea's "firefighting" coach, Hiddink is not the kind of person who cares about such records. The most important thing is that the team constantly uses the schedule to adjust to the best state, and strive for the next Champions League and FA Cup champions!

Although he is very dissatisfied with his team's defensive attitude and defensive enthusiasm in the Champions League, Hiddink is also very pleased with his team's offensive performance!

And as the season enters the second half, when the team needs to grit their teeth and exert strength most, Chelsea's lineup is becoming more and more organized. The timely return of Malouda and Essien from injury is the best addition to the team lineup. Chelsea was able to fight with the most complete lineup in the last two months!

Especially Essien's comeback is particularly critical for Chelsea! After suffering a serious knee injury in the national team at the beginning of the season, Essien has only recently resumed systematic training after half a year of recuperation! Although Mikel played conscientiously in the midfield for most of the season when Essien was injured, Hiddink is still willing to give Essien, the former main midfielder, more opportunities! Because Essien has a good ability to play the ball in addition to his excellent defense, and purely on the contribution of the defensive end, Essien is also slightly stronger than Mikel, covering a larger area, and Chelsea's defense has indeed improved. !

In the weekend match against the newly promoted local tycoon team Manchester City, Essien finally ushered in his first chance to start after his serious injury!

In this game, Hiddink adjusted his starting formation to 442 against the 532 formation that Manchester City has been using in the league. On the other hand, it is also necessary to run in the next team's lineup! After all, at this stage of the league, Chelsea is nearly 10 points ahead of fourth place Arsenal. The previous Champions League team, Aston Villa, has begun to show signs of decline due to injuries during this period and has gone downhill. Arsenal just won the last round and surpassed it in the standings to become fourth!

If the fifth place is Aston Villa, then it will be easier for Chelsea to guarantee their qualification for the Champions League. No one thinks that they can't keep their 11-point advantage over Aston Villa!

In this game, Hiddink, who is aiming to train troops, sent Drogba and Anelka's double forwards in the forward position! The defense and goalkeeper positions have not changed, and the midfield has sent Essien, Lampard, Ballack, and Deco four generals!

Since Hiddink took office, he has been experimenting with different midfield combinations, hoping to use the existing personnel to form a midfield combination that is both offensive and defensive, and possesses top European strength on both the offensive and defensive ends!

When facing weaker teams, in order to score more goals faster, Chelsea can choose a 433 attack formation, with three forwards to play the main offense. But in the UEFA Champions League and the next FA Cup semi-finals, when facing a strong enough opponent, if you need to attack, the 433 formation is a bit extreme. When facing a strong team, the backcourt leaves a huge The space is not a good thing. Hiddink actually prefers to use the 442 formation when facing tough battles!

Although Chelsea does not have enough reserves for wide players, but in the past Mourinho era, Chelsea has not had too many wing assaulters, usually with a breakthrough player, and the other side is completely relying on full backs to step forward and assist. Wide pass!

In this regard, even if Hiddink has changed, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, so he can only follow Mu Niao's old path, at most a slight change in the position of the central player!

Fortunately, there is Yang Feng, a central defender who is good at defending wide open spaces. Hiddink can make the full-backs attack more forward when necessary, which can be regarded as a disguised improvement on the offensive end!

In fact, as long as Lampard, Ballack, and Essien ensure their own game state, they must be the inevitable choice of the four midfielders in Hiddink's mind. As for the other position, in terms of both offense and defense, Deco, who just joined Chelsea from Barcelona this season In fact, he is a very suitable candidate, but Deco's physical condition and game state are what Hiddink is most worried about!

He doesn't want to delay the team's tactical run-in because of Deco's personal status!

As for Malouda, Joe Cole, Mikel, etc., they all have their own advantages and disadvantages, whether they are inclined to attack or defend, and they all have their own characteristics and corresponding tactical functions. Or the situation on the field, come and use it as a surprise soldier!

As for this Manchester City team, Chelsea reluctantly regard it as a sharpening stone for grinding their own lineup!

In fact, although Manchester City has received a huge capital injection from the Abu Dhabi consortium this season and has also bought big-name players like Robinho, football is after all an eleven-person sport, and one or two superstars cannot be as thorough as basketball. Change a team!

Because Manchester City was just a Premier League lift team before, the foundation is really not strong. There are no top players and stars. If they want to develop into a giant, they still need to continue to invest heavily in the next few seasons. Only by replacing some mediocre players in the current team with top players in their positions can they occupy a place among the Premier League and the big players!

In Yang Feng's understanding, Robinho and Sabaletta are still familiar with Manchester City's current starting lineup. The absolute best candidate in the background, Joe Hart, who would be fooled by anyone who sees him, is still honestly working as a substitute goalkeeper!

During the game, Chelsea, sitting at Stamford Bridge at home, faced the slightly conservative Manchester City team, and did not rush to attack as soon as they came up. There are four midfielders how to coordinate between offense and defense!

Although the degree of running-in of this lineup is not enough, it is more than enough to suppress this slightly civilian Manchester City team at home!

And Essien's first game after his comeback brought a surprise to the team!

Although Essien has always been famous in world football for his excellent defensive ability, his ability to handle the ball is actually not bad either! It's just that its offensive strength is overshadowed by its world-class defensive ability!

Just like Kanter, the Chelsea midfielder, Essien can also play well in different tactical systems. He can not only rely on his excellent defensive ability, but also be a full-time defensive midfielder and join the offensive system when necessary. In the game, complete the task of hitting the ball and even hitting the goal!

When Manchester City's five-back defense line was strictly guarded against Chelsea's frontcourt players, Essien, who was in a lagging position, turned out to be an idle person with no one to guard him!

Essien took advantage of the team's big advantage on the scene anyway, so he dribbled the ball up and took a long shot!

As a result, Manchester City's five-back defensive system restricted many of Chelsea's offensive players in the 20 minutes of the half, but it was directly broken by Essien's long-range shot!

Essien, who has to score a few goals for the team every season, took the first goal of this season against Manchester City!

In the following games, maybe it was the exhaustion of double matches for a week, or Chelsea's four midfielders really needed to run in for a period of time to cultivate a tacit understanding, but Chelsea's offense after taking the lead tended to be a bit flat!

Of course, there is also a big reason for the problems in the offense. The opponent has the world's top winger Robinho, which makes Chelsea's full-backs only firmly nailed to the defensive position and dare not step forward to participate in the attack. , in case Robinho is not given too many chances!

Due to the full-time defense of full-backs, even if Manchester City's defensive team successfully completes the defense in the middle, it is difficult to pass the ball to Robinho's feet!

It is difficult to pass Yang Feng's defense in general high ball and long pass, most of them are directly controlled or cleared by Yang Feng!

For passing the ball on the ground, Robinho has to face double interceptions from Chelsea's full-backs and midfielders!

After the whole game, Robinho hardly took the ball and appeared in Chelsea's core danger zone! For such a situation where there is only one absolute core on the offensive end, Chelsea's iron wall defense is enough to firmly restrict it to death!

During the game, Yang Feng had only one direct conversation with Robinho at close range, and that was at the end of the first half!

The opponent's counterattack long pass, this time finally passed a pass out of Yang Feng's control range, Robinho took advantage of his speed, got it from the wing, and directly passed Ashley who was in charge of defending him Cole, break through and face Yang Feng directly!

Although Yang Feng did watch a lot of Robinho's offensive videos and learned a lot about Robinho's surmounting methods, he still seemed a bit embarrassed when facing Robinho directly!

The Brazilian's free-wheeling attack method and the attack method he chose were too unexpected. Yang Feng's judgment on his defense couldn't keep up with Robinho's rhythm at all!

A series of movements of stepping on a bicycle proved that he was worthy of the title of a bicycle boy, and then after a certain movement, he suddenly accelerated in disguise, making it impossible for Yang Feng to successfully defend 1v1! Fortunately, Yang Feng wasn't fighting alone. Since Manchester City didn't have enough people to attack, Yang Feng only needed to block for a moment, and his teammates could rush over to help him defend!

Although Robinho passed Yang Feng in the end, his route was also seen through, and Terry, who was driven over, directly shoveled the football!

In the end, in this game that neither side involved in the league rankings, Chelsea, who was at home, won the victory with a score of 1-0!

Chelsea's fiery state continues!