Chapter 148 The most worrying issue!
Chapter 148 The most worrying issue!
In an inconspicuous corner of a bar on the island of Great Britain.
Two middle-aged men wearing hats were arguing fiercely and spitting at each other.
"Conte actually believed your nonsense. Now the game is over!"
"What nonsense is this, Mourinho? Can't you see how exhausted Song Wen was in the first half? If Conte hadn't been impatient and insisted on attacking at the end, how could this goal have happened!"
“Haha, sorry Klopp, I only look at the results. Facts have proved that your theory has no effect at all. This kid is a monster. You have no way to deal with him, not even your Liverpool.”
No one noticed the two men sitting in the corner of the small bar.
But if they took off their hats, it might drive the fans who were watching the game intently crazy.
It’s just that the environment in the bar was too noisy. The fans were excitedly discussing Song Wen’s amazing goal, so Klopp and Mourinho’s voices were also a little louder.
Mourinho had a gloating expression on his face.
He is now somewhat glad that their Manchester United met Song Wen's team earlier.
Although he was under tremendous pressure and felt great shame after losing the game.
But it is always easier to have your head fall to the ground than to have it sticking out and waiting to be slaughtered.
If Chelsea loses again today, Song Wen will have defeated four top clubs in the English Premier League: Tottenham, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea.
Of the so-called big six in the Premier League, only Liverpool and Manchester City are left.
A newly promoted team that was just promoted to the Premier League this year challenged the big six, leaving these old and powerful clubs with no face.
How can the fans of their club accept this?
How will they be laughed at by the other four teams in the top five leagues?
They will go down in history as the most expensive backdrop in football history and will be forever engraved on the pillar of shame.
Chelsea's game today has been given the meaning of maintaining the dignity of the Premier League's top clubs by curious fans.
It is conceivable how much pressure Manchester City and Liverpool will face when they face Song Wen next.
According to the schedule, Guardiola will face Song Wen in the last game of the first half and has some time to prepare.
Klopp's Liverpool will face Ipswich Town in two rounds.
So Uncle Zha is obviously quite anxious.
After watching the first half of Chelsea's game, the two had different opinions.
In fact, this disagreement seems to be Mourinho's denial of Klopp's tactics.
In fact, Mourinho deliberately did it to severely undermine Klopp's confidence.
If we're going to die, we'll all die together. What's the point of you pretending to be cool by yourself at that time?
Judging from Chelsea's first half of the game alone, Klopp's tactics did play a certain role.
Song Wen's physical strength was being consumed at a rate visible to the naked eye in the first half.
Klopp is not wrong.
If Conte had not rashly ordered all Chelsea players to press forward in injury time in an attempt to score a goal in the first half, Song Wen would not have found this opportunity to counterattack.
In Mourinho's view, since the tactics have been executed, it would be better to just drag it out.
The longer the time goes, the more physical energy Song Wen will consume, and the more favorable the battle situation will be for Chelsea.
Although there was nothing wrong with Conte's idea, he wanted to change the passive situation after scoring a goal in the first half, so as to have more initiative in the second half.
But looking at it from another perspective, in that situation, which team is more eager to score?
Compared to Chelsea, Ipswich would definitely prefer to score a goal in the first half.
Based on the basic idea that if the opponent doesn't make a profit, I make a profit, as long as Chelsea doesn't let Ipswich score, then it's a profit.
By the 80th minute of the second half, Song Wen's physical strength was almost exhausted, and this should be Chelsea's chance to launch an attack.
No matter how freakish Song Wen is, and he really ran the whole field, the first half proved that no matter how much he ran, the quality of his teammates was always a burden to him, and Ipswich still couldn't score a goal.
Even if Chelsea didn't score a goal in the end, they at least got a draw, becoming the first big6 member to get a draw and a point under Song Wen.
To put it bluntly, Conte still hasn't let go of the face of his own top team. He feels that as a top Premier League club, it is too embarrassing to be beaten by a small team whose value is less than one-fifth of its own.
But only Mourinho knows that compared to losing face on the field, losing the game is the real loss of face.
After seeing that Klopp's tactics were indeed feasible, Mourinho naturally couldn't sit still.
Naturally, he wanted to attack Klopp verbally to prevent Liverpool from standing on Manchester United's head and shitting on them.
He didn't want to see Klopp's smug look.
Mourinho's rebuttal seemed to have some effect, causing the player to sigh and say:
"Let's not talk about whether my tactics are effective or not. We should discuss now, if you and I are on the field now, facing this situation, how should our team play in the second half?"
Hearing Klopp's words, Mourinho seemed a little absent-minded and replied perfunctorily:
"How else can we play? Since we are already behind, we can only counterattack. This is the only solution. Are we going to stick with the score of 0:1 until the end of the game?"
The next game between Manchester United and Ipswich will be in the second half of next year, so Mourinho is not in a hurry at all.
Klopp scratched his ears and cheeks anxiously and started muttering.
"Let's discuss it, let's discuss it... I think we must not rush now. We can't think about tying the score just because we lost a goal. Song Wen's physical fitness should still be at a very high level. If we rush to attack now and let him find a chance to score, then he will really have no chance at all."
"You still have to follow my thinking, that's right. Drag the score of 1-0 to the 80th minute... No, after 75 minutes, and then look for opportunities. I don't believe Song Wen is a monster with unlimited physical energy."
After hearing Klopp's words, Mourinho, who was sitting opposite, did not speak.
He also felt that this was indeed the way to deal with Song Wen at the moment.
But the problem is that now, whether it is him or Klopp, they are sitting in this tavern and giving orders.
A team that is one goal behind is not their team.
If I were on the field and faced with such a situation, would I be able to remain absolutely rational?
Leading a top club is an honor, but at the same time, it also means enormous pressure.
Can you accept that your team, which is worth several times more than the other team, is always passive on the field? If Mourinho were to play against Manchester United and himself, he would be furious and kicking mineral water bottles while cursing at the players' incompetence.
Now, whether Chelsea can walk out of Portman Road with glory seems to really depend on Conte's thoughts.
As the two of them were paying attention, the second half of the game between the two sides began.
The camera gave Conte a high-definition shot directly, and it can be seen that the Chelsea coach was frowning and looking worried. It was obvious that he was very dissatisfied with the score in the first half of the game.
After Ipswich kicked the ball, they started to pass the ball directly in the backcourt.
Leading by one goal, they did not have any pressure to attack.
This forced Chelsea players to find ways to press forward and high up the pitch.
But even so, what surprised Song Wen was that Conte still chose to let three defenders and midfielder Kante stay back when falling behind, and did not move forward to pose any threat.
In the pub, seeing Chelsea's position, Klopp grinned excitedly.
"Oh! Look at Chelsea's choice. Yes, Conte still chose to believe me. To be honest, I have to admire his ability to keep a cool head in this situation. See, Mourinho, Conte's idea is the same as mine."
In the Douyin live broadcast room, Zhan Jun said:
"We saw that in the second half, Chelsea had to choose a very high-pressure defense when they fell behind. But at the same time, Conte seemed to be restrained, and the four defenders including Kante were still in a relatively backward position."
Fan Zhiyi, who was once a professional player, was very sensitive and noticed something was wrong, so he said:
"I feel like Conte is a little too calm. To be honest, have you noticed that although Chelsea's players seem to be pressing high up the pitch, they don't seem to be putting in enough effort?"
After hearing Fan Zhiyi's words, Zhan Jun was stunned for a moment and also looked at it carefully.
In fact, Conte's task for Chelsea's frontcourt is simple.
It is true that there is nothing wrong with high-pressure pressing, but there is no need to really steal the opponent's ball. His purpose is only to force Ipswich's passing space.
Because Conte knew that the Ipswich players, except Song Wen, were not very capable.
In this high-pressure situation, the only way for Ipswich players to deal with it was to kick the ball to the midfield.
If Ipswich get the ball into midfield then two scenarios can occur.
One is that Song Wen gets the ball.
However, Conte deployed four people on the back line. Their purpose of not participating in the attack was to prevent Song Wen from breaking through.
The other situation is that Chelsea gets the ball.
The situation on the field did not surprise Conte.
Under the high pressure of Chelsea players, Ipswich was soon forced to the point where they had no way to pass the ball.
Chambers passed the ball back to the goalkeeper, who chose to kick the ball to midfield.
But the goalkeeper's pass was obviously a little inaccurate.
He originally wanted to find Song Wen, but his kick was a little too far.
This allowed Kante to get the ball easily.
Kante, who got the ball, was not in a hurry. Instead, he started to pass the ball back and forth like Ipswich.
The fans looked confused watching this scene.
Chelsea fans were even more dissatisfied and started cursing.
They are leading by one to zero, so why are you passing the ball when you are behind?
Chelsea's behavior is obviously incomprehensible to many people.
Even the Ipswich players found it a little funny.
They are in the leading position, so if you want to pass the ball back, go ahead. I don't need to go forward to press you. Anyway, we are not the ones who need time.
But Chelsea obviously wouldn't be that stupid.
They have been trying to find opportunities on the wing, but once they see that the opportunity is not very good, they will decisively make the most conservative choice.
What kind of opportunity is not good?
It was difficult for Ipswich players to block Chelsea players' one-on-one attacks in a one-on-one defense.
Only when Song Wen came to assist in defense, it was considered a not-so-good opportunity.
As soon as Song Wen starts running, as soon as he is halfway through, and the Chelsea players see that he intends to assist in defense, they will immediately choose to pass the ball back.
This rogue behavior lasted for nearly ten minutes, and finally made many people realize what Chelsea wanted to see.
Fan Zhiyi frowned and said:
"Conte is such a sinister person. He is trying to consume Song Wen's energy on purpose."
Zhan Jun also echoed:
"You can't play like this anymore. Song Wen can't keep running like this. If you keep running like this, you definitely won't be able to hold on."
Hearing Zhan Jun's words, Fan Zhiyi couldn't help but ask back in annoyance.
"But if Song Wen doesn't run, how can we play this ball? Ipswich can't defend Chelsea alone! As long as Song Wen doesn't get through, Alonso and the others will just start to cross the ball from the bottom. Can you defend him in the Ipswich penalty area? You can't, you just need to let him go to the bottom, it's okay once, it's okay twice, but if it happens three or four times, Ipswich will definitely lose the ball."
Fan Zhiyi’s words made Zhan Jun sigh.
There is nothing wrong with what Lao Fan said.
Given Ipswich's current strength and the fact that they are facing a club composed of all the world's top players, the pressure can be said to be all on Song Wen alone.
What if you don’t run?
You can score a goal without running to the other side!
Conte's move can be said to be very smart.
"Conte, Conte, this is a clear move. This situation is very uncomfortable for Song Wen. Don't you think Conte is unethical? I know I can't do anything to you, Song Wen, so I will start with the people around you."
Fan Zhiyi's brows were already in a knot that couldn't be untied. He thought for a moment and then said:
"Do you know what I am most worried about now?"
Zhan Jun was stunned for a moment, then asked:
"what?"
Fan Zhiyi sighed.
"My biggest concern now is not just the outcome of this game. It's that Song Wen may encounter this situation in every game he plays next! How can he play football then!!!"
(End of this chapter)