Shepchenko's spirit was to be encouraged, but the Ukrainians didn't seem to have room to play for the rest of the game.

Chelsea went on a rampage for 10 minutes and we definitely had to adjust the tempo, and no team can attack all the time, otherwise the energy will be quickly depleted.

Millwall took advantage of the time and regained the initiative.

When Zambrotta handed the ball to Jody Morris, Millwall went on an orderly attack.

Zhang Yang stood up from his seat.

'Foresight' can bring general information about the game, but for the team's 'dual-core' tactics, against Chelsea's performance, it is still necessary to carefully observe, every coordination, every detail of the attack, is extremely valuable for reference.

Chelsea's defence against Millwall is the same as last season, with a tight blockade at the edge of the penalty area, with three strong midfielders working together to form a strong defensive line from the penalty line to the halfway line.

Millwall's core players were also heavily defended.

Darren Bent, who has been 'taken care of' by Terry's marking, after Morris dribbled past the midfield, Lampard immediately pressed over, and Makelele and Essien also assisted in the defense on both wings.

With such a defense, Josh Simpson, who almost no one pays attention to.

In this game, Simpson and Morris partnered with a 'double core', and he became a key player in the team, Simpson gave the opponent the feeling of being more like an attacking winger, or a striker, rather than a core midfielder who drove the rhythm.

Zhang Yang believes that Simpson's ability is very comprehensive enough to serve as one of the 'double cores', and his style of attack is stronger than Morris's.

Simpson is still very young, very high growth, looking back two years ago, just promoted to the first team by Dennis Wise, the past year and a half, due to the lack of people on the Millwall wing, Simpson has been playing as a wing-back, but he is not a pure full-back, has not yet formed a unique style.

Zhang Yang hopes that Simpson can adapt to the position, and the encounter with Chelsea in this game will start Simpson to see the changes that Simpson can bring to Millwall by playing the core of the middle.

It's just a flamboyant idea.

In fact, among Millwall's veteran players, Darren Bent is the most concerned, followed by the next threat players, Jody Morris, Smitchell, and Simpson has also been 'hot' for a while, but does not give the opponent a 'strong threat' feeling.

Chelsea don't take Simpson seriously, especially when Simpson moves to the middle of midfield.

When Simpson got the ball, there was not even anyone around him, and it was still Kalou, who retreated, seeing that Simpson was unmarked, he hurried back a few steps to give Simpson some pressure.

Kalou didn't want to break the ball.

He's just a striker, a lot worse defensively, and he just wants to put some pressure on Simpson and force him to pass the ball to his teammates.

But after the football came, Simpson took a step forward, and then as if he had eyes behind his back, he didn't turn his head but accurately saw the situation behind him, he was about to pass the ball, and his body leaned to the side.

Kalou swung his right foot across the pass, but the next moment Simpson's body twisted back, and Kalou realized that he had been deceived.

Simpson used a small gesture to trick Kalou and continue to take forward, his speed was not fast, otherwise he would not need to shake off Kalou, and the ball was more than five meters away, and Essien ran over to help defend.

Essien was killed from the flank.

Essien joined Chelsea last season and his performances were unanimously criticised by the media, so this season he will be hoping to put in a good performance to reverse the criticism.

It would have been nice to have a defence that made a significant contribution against Millwall.

There is an opportunity in front of us.

Snatching the ball from Simpson's feet and stopping Millwall's attack was the biggest contribution to the game.

However, Essien's idea did not come to fruition, and Simpson did not continue to stick to the ball, and when he saw Essien running over, he passed the ball to Morris a little behind him.

Essien saw Simpson's pass and stopped.

The Simpsons kept running.

Seeing this scene, a smile appeared on the corner of Zhang Yang's mouth.

The Simpsons did well.

Dribbling the ball when it is time to dribble and passing the ball when it is time to pass is what a qualified core player should do, Simpson was not nervous in the game, facing the threat of Kalou, deceiving the opponent with feints, and decisively passing the ball in the face of Essien's hard grab.

This kind of performance can be described as 'mature and calm'

It's not easy for such a young player to be 'mature and calm'.

His future is bright.

In fact, it is normal for Simpson to perform well, although he is the first time to play in the middle of the midfield, but he has been the main force of the team last season, and the two games against Chelsea have been very good.

————

It soon became clear to many that Simpson had become a problem for Chelsea's defence.

Chelsea's defence was very targeted, but they missed Simpson's point, perhaps because they couldn't target two central players, which would be too much defensive work.

When playing against the general four-midfield formation, they are all aimed at a single core, assisted against another midfielder, the latter point can even be ignored, most of the 442 formation, the midfielder duo combination, one will be the offensive core, the other is a solid defensive back, the midfield's 'diamond position' is derived from this.

Chelsea have no experience of dealing with a 'double core'.

The current situation on the field is that it is not easy for Chelsea to make adjustments, Lampard and Terry have one-on-one defensive tasks, and another central defender, Carvalho, must sit in the backline, Makelele and Essien, both need to take care of the wings, because Millwall's wide starters - Pire and Smitchell are both experienced and skilled players, so that they can directly face the fullbacks, it is easy to give enough support to the forward, and behind them, there are Koncheski and Zambrotta, who can also come forward to support, A certain threat is formed.

That's the problem.

Chelsea found they were running out of defenders.

The striker can retreat to defend, but it will probably be a bit tragic to let Kalou limit Simpson, Shepchenko and Drogba have been in front for a long time, and there is no intention of retreating to defend at all.

What to do?

The situation on the pitch made the Chelsea players a little helpless, such as the captain on the field, John Terry, who did not know how to command.

Let Shepchenko retreat?

No kidding!

That Ukrainian doesn't speak English well, maybe he doesn't understand what he said at all, not to mention that even the head coach Mourinho is a little helpless about Shepchenko, and he must arrange for him to start, and he is a captain on the field to direct Shepchenko to retreat to defense?

If Chelsea don't score for a long time, the blame may fall on their own 'blind command', when the media will say, "Terry actually let Shepchenko defend!" It's overkill! ”

Terry thought about it or forgot it.

Drogba?

Didier Drogba would have been able to retreat, but with Shepchenko up front, Millwall might be able to attack with impunity, right? When the time comes, their backcourt players dare to rush to the front line to assist, and the defensive manpower will be even more insufficient.

Terry had a headache and he couldn't help but look to the sidelines, where Mourinho was standing, his brow furrowed and he seemed to be annoyed by the situation.

Mourinho hasn't figured out what to do yet.

Millwall's 'dual core' is too much of a headache, before the game started, he didn't quite believe what the media said 'Millwall adopts dual core', now seeing is believing, he can't help but admire Zhang Yang, "How did you come up with this tactic?" Crucially, the Millwall players seem to be comfortable with the duo and don't have any problems with the mix. ”

Tactical genius!

Mourinho sighed in his heart, he knows that he has never been a tactical genius, and he doesn't think that tactical genius has any meaning, because to be a good manager, you need many aspects of ability, and tactical ability is only one part of it, look at Liverpool coach Benitez, known as the 'tactical master', isn't that it? He led Liverpool to win the Champions League, which may not be bad, but it is still worse than himself.

Looking at the game on the pitch now, Mourinho's mind has changed a little.

Chelsea have little to do to deal with Millwall's two-core style of play for the time being, and may have to continue to limit the opposition by compressing the formation.

Millwall is a tactical suppression!

Compared with Chelsea's style of play, Millwall's tactical division of labor is more detailed, and the coordination style of play is also more high-end, and the dual core makes the coordination more fluid, even if the lineup is not better than Chelsea, but it can still use the attack to suppress Chelsea.

Mourinho took a deep breath.

He knows it's not the time to praise his opponents and he has to figure out how to deal with it, otherwise things are in jeopardy for Chelsea.

————

As the game progressed, the Chelsea players found themselves underestimating Josh Simpson.

When Morris was targeted and limited by the opponent, the attack led by Simpson threatened the Chelsea defense again and again, and Chelsea did not have any special ways to deal with it, and they could not give up the defense of Morris and switch to defending Simpson.

In the 24th minute, when Simpson won the ball again, Frank Lampard gave up on Morris and tried to run towards Simpson, before Millwall launched a textbook attack.

Simpson got past Frank Lampard and handed the ball to Pire, Carvalho stepped forward to create pressure, and Morris did not stop the ball and moved it directly to Pire on the wing.

Pire stopped the ball.

With Bridge's entanglement, Pire pushed the ball across the middle and Morris was transferred to Simpson.

Millwall's successive passes lured Carvalho out of the box and left Lampard unsure of what to do as he continued to mark Simpson, who had already pushed the ball sideways.

Livermore rushes forward and volleys hard!

"Danger!"

With the shouts of the commentator, the football was punched out by Cech, Darren Bent saw the opportunity and rushed up to make up the shot, but Terry took the first step and squeezed Darren Bent hard to kick the ball off the field.

Chelsea escaped!

The failure to produce a goal also sent the Chelsea players in a cold sweat.

Millwall's offensive was too threatening.

In the face of the attack just now, they can almost only follow the ball, there is no other way, they feel that they are not playing against Millwall, the opponent seems to be ...... Barcelona?

Although it is very different from Barcelona, Millwall's offensive has played a Barcelona-like threat!