After the twelfth round of the Premier League, Chen Ping won another honor on November 6, 2004.

Premier League Coach of the Month.

Because West Ham won four consecutive Premier League games in October, Chen Ping once again won the Premier League Manager of the Month. Franck Franck Ribery won the Premier League Player of the Month award with a spectacular performance in October. The biggest topic of conversation throughout October was West Ham's overtaking Arsenal to become the top spot in the Premier League, and the biggest topic in November was West Ham's continued position at the top of the Premier League.

The FA has a headache for coaches like Mourinho and Chen Ping, but they also like it.

The headache is because these outside coaches are restless.

Mourinho is a real big mouth, a real personality coach, and there is no one he doesn't squirt. Starting with the FA, all clubs, referees, coaches, as long as he can't look at him, he will spray. Mourinho has just come to the Premier League and has already offended many people. Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, the two most prestigious coaches in the Premier League, have been sprayed the most by Mourinho. Including the Premier League schedule, he is also very dissatisfied and publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the Premier League schedule.

In comparison, Chen Ping has no less topics than Mourinho, but Chen Ping is not like Mourinho, offending so many peers. Especially the Premier League coaches, Mourinho offended the most, but Chen Ping did not have much conflict with those managers in the Premier League. Chen Ping is currently talking about a lot of topics, mainly because of West Ham's good results and Chen Ping's high goals. So there are many topics around Chen Ping.

Of course, although Chen Ping did not directly conflict with others, he also liked to provoke contradictions very much. Let's talk about the biggest thing in European football recently, that is, Chen Ping's statement about the decline of Italian football. The Italian media concentrated their fire on criticizing Chen Ping.

But either way, it's restless.

But the FA also likes Jose Mourinho and Chen Ping, as coaches like this have brought the Premier League more and more attention. The increase in exposure is also increasing the commercial value of the Premier League. In the past, the Premier League was basically a two-man battle between Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, but since this season, there have been a lot of excellent coaches in the Premier League.

Mourinho, Benitez, and Chen Ping have made more and more topics in the Premier League and are also improving the strength of the Premier League. The influx of these high-level coaches into the Premier League is itself an indication of the appeal of the Premier League. And what Mourinho and Chen Ping like more to the FA is that both of them have cultivated talent for the England national team.

Since Jose Mourinho took charge of Chelsea, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole have all been given plenty of opportunities, and they have improved rapidly. Chen Ping is even more so at West Ham. Carrick, Lambert and Martin Antony are all new homegrown players in the Premier League. Lambert and Carrick are already players in the England national team, and based on Martin Anthony's current performances, his entry into the England national team is not too far away.

So for coaches like Mourinho and Chen Ping, the FA really loves and hates.

Of course, the FA doesn't have time to care what Chen Ping thinks, because West Ham have too many games in November, and the schedule is too dense. Just five days after the twelfth round of fixtures in the Premier League, West Ham will play the Carabao Cup. Therefore, Chen Ping did not have time to rest at all.

After winning the Premier League Coach of the Month trophy, Chen Ping immediately began to study the next opponent. Of course, Chen Ping is not studying the opponent of the League Cup, but the league opponent behind him. Because the opponent of the League Cup is not worth Chen Ping's study.

West Ham and Southampton have a long history.

The twelfth round of the Premier League was West Ham's away game against Southampton, and four days later West Ham and Southampton met again. Because on November 11, 2004, West Ham played Southampton away in the fourth round of the League Cup.

The choice is exactly the same on both sides.

Southampton's current relegation situation is in jeopardy, and they are one of the Premier League's biggest relegation favourites. Therefore, for Southampton, relegation is the first thing, and the League Cup is nothing. West Ham, on the other hand, will be in the Premier League three days after the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. So for West Ham, the Carabao Cup is also not important. If it is said that for West Ham last season, the League Cup is still a good thing, Chen Ping is chasing the League Cup title. So for West Ham this season, the League Cup is a chicken rib, and it is not worth Chen Ping's waste of energy at all.

In England, the League Cup is at the bottom of the list. Chen Ping is the Premier League champion, and he doesn't even care about the League Cup and FA Cup, what is the League Cup.

How could Chen Ping make the main players tired for the League Cup. So this time the choice was more straightforward than playing Lazio in the League Cup, and the main players did not come at all, and they all rested in London. Chen Ping came with a full bench lineup, plus a few young players from the youth team to form the game lineup.

Southampton are more crisp than West Ham.

They were all substitutes, and the starting line-up also had a mix of youth players. They don't want to spend the energy of their main players in a cup game like this, and even the meaning is very obvious, which is that we have to give up this game. The substitutions on both sides come on the field, which reflects the depth of the lineups of both sides. Although West Ham are substitutes, they can field veterans like Hasselbaink, international-level players such as Benayoun and Repka, as well as talented players such as Leo Koke, Glenn Johnson, Marc Noble and Anton Ferdinand. Many of them have the strength to play in small and medium-sized teams in the Premier League.

As soon as they met, Southampton's substitutes, who had little fighting spirit, lost in a big way. Many of West Ham's substitute players are powerful and have the strength to chase the main position. For Chen Ping, he could ditch these cups and specialize in the Premier League. But for these substitutes, this kind of game is the best stage to show their quality. They want to impress Chen Ping with these cup performances, so as to compete for the main lineup. So they all worked very hard.

Six to zero.

West Ham's substitutes easily solved Southampton's bench lineup. In particular, the veteran Hasselbaink maintained his form really well, completing a hat-trick in the game. Although he has been a substitute this season, the 32-year-old Hasselbaink has performed very well and is a very strong addition to West Ham's forward line.

Chen Ping was actually more distressed.

Why?

I obviously don't want to continue to play in the League Cup, but I have already given up the League Cup in my heart. However, the opponents of the League Cup are weaker than the other, and each is less serious than the League Cup. In the fourth round of the League Cup, they once again encountered a weak team like Southampton, and directly gave up the League Cup for relegation. West Ham didn't make much effort to easily pass Southampton and enter the fifth round of the Carabao Cup, that is, the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.

And the opponent in the fifth round also made Chen Ping very funny. UU Library

Because the opponent in the fifth round of the League Cup is Watford, the only Championship team in the League Cup quarterfinals, and it is also the weakest team in the League Cup quarterfinals. In the just-concluded fourth round of the Carabao Cup, Watford beat Portsmouth 3-0 at home to relegation-struggling Portsmouth.

Sometimes that's it.

The more Chen Ping wanted to give up the cup and focus on the league, the more the situation did not go in the direction Chen Ping wanted. The League Cup has not played any strong teams, not a team in the lower leagues, or a team that gave up the League Cup for relegation, so that West Ham has easily entered the quarterfinals of the League Cup. The quarter-finals are against Watford in the Championship, and a win against Watford will see them reach the last four of the Carabao Cup. Once you're in the last four of the Carabao Cup, you're just three games away from the Carabao Cup title, two Carabao Cup semi-finals and one Carabao Cup final. Do you value the League Cup, or do you give up the League Cup?

It's all a matter of balance.

After all, no matter how low the gold content of the League Cup is, it is also a championship.

In this regard, Chen Ping still admires Wenger's decisiveness. Arsene Wenger said that the League Cup is a stage for young players, so the League Cup is a stage for young players. Even reaching the Carabao Cup final, Arsene Wenger would put out a bunch of young players to play and not take the title seriously in the slightest. If it weren't for the fact that there was no champion, Arsene Wenger wouldn't have changed his mind.

But it's still a long way to think about it. Because the semi-finals of the League Cup are all at the beginning of next year, there are three months to go. No one can say what will happen in three months.

The same goes for the League Cup.

I didn't pay much attention to it, but it was already two wins in a row. Because there are only four games played in the group stage, the top three will be able to break through. So for now, West Ham have a good chance of making it out of the UEFA Cup group stage.

Sure enough, luck was really on West Ham's side in November, and it was really on Chen Ping's side.

Three days after the fourth round of the League Cup, on 14 November 2004, West Ham hosted McLaren's Middlesbrough in the thirteenth round of the Premier League. This is the first time the two teams have met in the league since they met in the Carabao Cup final earlier this year.

West Ham, who are in great form, are getting better and better.

Facing Middlesbrough, who finished runners-up in the League Cup last season, West Ham played with ease. McLaren is a more interesting person. He is actually very typical of England coach, and he was very good when he was an assistant coach to Alex Ferguson, and he received the highest praise from Ferguson. So much so that many people say that when Manchester United won the treble, McClaren contributed a lot.

Ferguson's own style of play is 4-4-2, and McClaren, as Ferguson's assistant coach, is also the most familiar with this style of play. McClaren has a deep understanding of England's 4-4-2 style of play. But why is McLaren funny? That is, as the most typical English coach, the person who is most familiar with the English style of play, he is not trying to promote his strengths. Instead, after coming to Middlesbrough, he has been looking for a breakthrough. What he was most dissatisfied with was that people said that the England coach would not be flexible and would only play 4-4-2.

In European football, England's homegrown coaches are not well-known.

Everyone despises the level of English coaches and thinks that English coaches have little tactical ability. McLaren has been trying to change that since he left Alex Ferguson. So McLaren gave up his best style of play and started making a lot of changes at Middlesbrough.

Reinforcements can be seen.

The introduction of technical players such as Mendieta and Juninho is to change Middlesbrough and break through themselves. In the Premier League, technical reform and taking the technical path are actually not a wrong choice. Because the teams that have carried out technical reforms over the years have basically achieved good results.

Starting with Arsene Wenger's change of Arsenal, Newcastle under Robson and Chelsea under Kembetz have all tried to reform the team's tactics. It is mainly to absorb some technical and tactical play styles from the European continent. On the whole, the results are very good, and they have achieved very good results.

Middlesbrough is also trying to follow this path.

Against some teams in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League with relatively low technical and tactical content, the effect is good. There are reasons why Italian football looks down on English football, including the coaches of Serie A clubs who look down on the middle and lower teams of the Premier League, and many coaches who look down on the Premier League, which is well-founded.

At present, the teams in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League are very backward in terms of technique and tactics, and they are still the most old-fashioned 4-4-2 style of play, and even there are very few changes. Compared with the middle and lower reaches of Serie A, the tactical changes are very rich. Those coaches in Serie A are all studying football tactics and have very good tactical abilities. In terms of European football at the moment, Serie A teams have changed the most.

Starting with a back three, there are four back plays, and five back plays.

It's a pity that Middlesbrough has changed this kind of change, and it's okay to play the middle and lower teams of the Premier League, but it's useless to face strong teams, and even a little chicken. Because Middlesbrough is not as rich as Newcastle, Chelsea and Arsenal, they can pile up a lot of players they need. Even with a strength like Newcastle, their technological reforms are pseudo-technological. Newcastle had their best performances, but they also had poor results against the Premier League's top teams. All because of their tactical reforms, which are only half done.

Not to mention Middlesbrough.

McClaren's Juninho and Mendieta are both very good players, but they can't perform at all in the face of strong teams in the Premier League. When playing against West Ham, Juninho and Mendieta, facing Carrick and Mascherano teamed up to strangle, there was no way at all.

If Middlesbrough plays two wings, Chen Ping will be worried.

Because Middlesbrough currently have Viduka in the front line, as long as the ball is passed into the box, it will be pressure for the West Ham centre-backs. But Middlesbrough insisted on playing with technology, and instead did not perform well.

Carrick stepped forward to stand up to Juninho, who couldn't stand up to his small body at all. The whole game was not played properly. Juninho is the core of Middlesbrough's midfield, and if he doesn't play, then the whole Middlesbrough attack can't play.

West Ham travel to Middlesbrough and continue to lead the league table with a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough thanks to goals from Arshavin and Michael Carrick. However, there is only one thing that the media is most concerned about at this time, and that is the fifteenth round of the Premier League, West Ham's away game against Arsenal.