Chapter 367: This time is different, Manchester United has to adapt to playing in the Europa League
With the successful election of Li Ang as the 2015 FIFA Mr. Golden Ball, the British media who had previously helped him build momentum in the field of public opinion also ushered in a bumper sales harvest!
The whole of England, the whole of Europe, and even the whole world are discussing Leon!
And the risky transfer that shook world football two and a half seasons ago is a very correct decision for Leon in retrospect.
Of course, with Li Ang's successful victory in the Golden Ball Award, many people in the Chinese Football Association were quietly transferred from their original posts, or even directly hidden.
Countless Chinese fans strongly demanded that the relevant personnel who forced Li Ang to go abroad come out and apologize!
They are also extremely eager for Li Ang to return to the national team after the Football Association bows his head and admits his mistakes.
It is true that Li Ang may not be able to save the general decline of Chinese football.
But at least in the past few years at the peak of Li Ang's career, Chinese fans can still have some hope for domestic football!
It's a pity that the Football Association is facing such huge pressure from public opinion and still chooses to be a turtle with a shrunken head.
People who want to do practical things have no say in the Football Association, and those who have the right to speak are busy making money and covering up their past mistakes, how can they care about a few complaints from fans outside the system?
Leon knew about the uproar in the country calling for him to return to his country.
After all, he's also a high-intensity web surfer.
But to be honest, he doesn't have any expectations and illusions about the Football Association at all.
He remembers that in the next few years, the Football Association ushered in a wave of investigations, and as a result, the top leaders and head coaches of the Football Association went in, not to mention, but also implicated a large number of "talents" by the way.
On the contrary, it is Gao Hongbo, who has been sprayed by the fans, who is guided by Gao Hongbo.
In this case, Li Ang was really kicked in the head by a donkey before he chose to take the initiative to return to the national team again.
Let him go in and watch his obviously stronger national teammates sit on the bench, and some of the players who started first have more or less nepotism?!
I'm sorry, he can't do it!
So he just watched from the sidelines, and after seeing that the Football Association did not respond or issue any announcements, he completely forgot about this matter.
Just as the 21st round of the Premier League was approaching, the night after Leon won the Ballon d'Or, Chelsea hosted Everton.
Before the game, Leon faced more than 30,000 Chelsea fans at home and showed off the first Ballon d'Or trophy of his career.
At this moment, he had a warm smile on his face, and he seemed to be in a very good mood, but after the display, his eyes suddenly burned with fierce battle intent!
Feeling good?
That's just a façade.
He is very angry right now and urgently needs an outlet to vent!
Everton was unlucky enough to bump into a fiery Leon.
When the game officially started, Everton still wanted to slowly test the intensity of today's attack and defense with Chelsea.
As a result, Li Ang came up with a ferocious tackle!
Barkley, who was still advancing with the ball, fell to the ground decisively, but the referee did not have any intention of blowing for a foul.
Leon took the ball directly and pushed it to Everton's half, and Everton's old defender Barry signaled to his teammate Becic not to rush up recklessly, and to quickly return to defense with him first!
But in the small space left by the retreat of the two, Li Ang seized the opportunity and shot directly within his own range!
Everton's old goalkeeper Howard didn't dare to be careless, and in the face of Leon's heavy artillery long-range shot, he clenched his fists with both hands and knocked the ball out of the low line!
After landing, Howard kept roaring and signaling his defensive teammates not to give Leon a long-range shot so easily!
And Leon watched the ball finally hit the bottom line by Howard, but he had nothing to regret, but he more actively signaled his teammates to fight for the top and enter the Everton penalty area with him!
Commentators from all over the world praised Leon's enthusiasm for the game at this moment.
But a Leon who is in good shape and very aggressive in the game is a complete disaster for the whole Everton team!
After snatching another corner and eventually pushing the ball over the crossbar, Leon continued to shout at the home Chelsea fans!
He was signaling his fans to cheer and support the team more.
Everton's manager Martinez frowned from the sidelines, but he was relieved to think that Leon had only won the Ballon d'Or yesterday.
Without much hesitation, Martinez directly made tactical adjustments and signaled his disciples on the field to shrink the formation first.
If you can control the ball, you must control the ball first, and if you can't control the ball, don't give Chelsea too much space to press forward.
At first glance, Martinez's tactical adjustment is still no problem, but in fact, such an adjustment has allowed Everton's players on the pitch to completely expose their defensive shortcomings.
Martinez's defensive tuning has never been excellent, and since last season, Everton have directly become a team in the middle and bottom of the Premier League because of the problem of conceding too many goals.
Everton have not been able to improve their defensive woes this season, with the centre-back duo of Giagielka and John Stones having conceded 29 goals in 20 games!
This puts Everton in the bottom six of the Premier League in defensive efficiency, and fifth in the Premier League for goals scored, so it will be very interesting to watch Everton play.
Often the key factor in determining whether they can win a game is whether they score faster or concede faster.
So at this moment, when Martinez decided to put aside the team's offense for a while and stabilize the defense first, they were doomed to be passive on the field.
Leon did not panic at all as he watched Everton's tactical changes, still staring at the midfield area on Ross Barkley's side.
Even if Everton is fully defended, Barkley will not settle down.
After all, Leon can be regarded as teaching Barkley all the way to see him grow up, and he still has the confidence to see this point!
Sure enough, less than 5 minutes after Martinez made tactical adjustments, Barkley was ready to hold the ball again!
Leon saw the timing and made another accurate downed tackle, and Barkley also fell crisply, but the referee still didn't mean to blow for a foul.
Kroos won possession and decisively sent a long diagonal ball from midfield.
Hazard, who was waiting for the opportunity, cut in at high speed along the sideline, and after unloading the ball, he faced the marking of Everton's right wing-back Oviedo, and he only used a small change in rhythm to directly dunk the kicking Oviedo and successfully cut inside!
After a little observation of the movement of the players in the Everton penalty area, Hazard decisively sent a pass!
It was a pass that looked like a shot and made it difficult for defenders in the Everton box to deal with.
At the critical moment, Suarez stepped forward and shook his head slightly against a trace of the ball, changing the running route of football!
But Howard was also like Buffon possessing him at this moment, and he forcibly stabbed the football out of the goal with his fingertips at the last moment!
The ball that Howard saved was right on Salah's path, but Jagielka also took the first step to get stuck in the defensive position at this time, and did not give Salah too good a rebound angle.
In the blink of an eye, Salah caught a glimpse of a blue figure in the middle of the Everton penalty area!
He didn't even have time to confirm which teammate was cutting forward, so he decisively knocked the ball back again!
And Martinez, who was standing on the sidelines at the moment and was anxiously watching the development of the situation in his own penalty area, was also shocked!
"Stop his shot!"
He's roaring and shouting!
Stones, who has the reputation of a talented defender in the Everton penalty area, also decisively rushed towards Leon who was forward at this moment!
But Li Ang didn't give him time to intercept at all, Li Ang directly chose to meet the ball without adjusting his feet and shooting angrily!
Choosing to shoot so close to the goal is either you have no choice or you are unusually confident in your footwork.
Leon obviously belongs to the latter, Howard played well enough today, but in the face of such a close-range blast shot, he can only do nothing!
The ball crossed the goal line without any suspense and crashed into Everton's net!
Li Ang put his hands behind his ears in the next moment, and ran passionately to the corner flag area to listen to the cheers of the home fans!
The anger in his heart temporarily disappeared with the production of this goal, but one goal is not enough!
After celebrating with his team-mates, Leon returned to half-time to encourage the rest of the Chelsea starters to keep up the good work!
Mourinho stood on the sidelines and watched Leon work so hard, and he didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm, so he simply made tactical adjustments to let the whole Chelsea team continue to press forward!
As a result, Everton, who conceded the first goal before 10 minutes into the first half, was then suppressed by Chelsea and had no power to fight back.
Martinez knew at this time that he had to take the initiative to attack in order to survive, but it was too late, and his team could not organize a decent counterattack.
On the defensive end, Stones' immaturity has become a key point for Chelsea's forwards to exploit!
There's no mistake to say Stones is a genius, and the future potential of Maguire's best friend from childhood is limitless.
But even for the most talented player, he has a growing process of adapting to the top league.
There is no big problem for Stones and Jagielka to play in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League.
But when he comes up against top teams like Chelsea and Manchester City, his inexperienced defensive flaws are infinitely magnified.
In the 24th minute of the first half, Suarez leaned on Stones and stabbed the goal when he grabbed the point!
In the 36th minute, Salah forced an inside cut from the right side and wiped past two Everton defenders, Baines and Stones, to score a goal!
With a three-goal lead at half-time, Chelsea can be said to have played this game directly!
But after the start of the second half, Chelsea showed no signs of stopping.
Today's hot Leon took the lead in the 61st minute of the second half to score from a distance, and in the 69th minute, Leon picked up a pass to assist Suarez to score twice!
It wasn't until the five-goal win that Leon felt comfortable and airy and no longer encouraged his teammates to continue to put pressure on Everton.
And at this moment, Stones, who has been taught a lesson by Chelsea's attacking players in turn, has long been kicked unconscious.
Not to mention Martinez, even Mourinho looks a little pitiful for this young guy.
So in the 73rd minute of the second half, Mourinho directly replaced Leang, Suarez and Hazard in one go.
This substitution adjustment of Mingjin's withdrawal can be regarded as a relief for Everton fans who want to cry without tears.
The Everton players did not set off the final offensive after being knocked out of their hearts, and the score of the game was fixed at 5-0!
Leon's first game after winning the Ballon d'Or was extremely impressive, and the sports media in various European countries also touted Leon.
But for Manchester United, who are going to play against Chelsea in the next round of the league, Leon's explosive performance is a lifeline.
After all, Manchester United's recent performance is very far from the line, they have lost two and drawn one in the last three rounds of the Premier League, and the losing teams are still Stoke City and Swansea.
Only the 3-3 draw with Newcastle was a relief, but it was not a win either.
Poor performances in the last three league games have also seen Manchester United drop from sixth in the Premier League to seventh in the Premier League.
It now seems that United's lavish recruitment in the summer window last year and Louis van Gaal's promise to return to the title have become a joke within the Premier League.
When Manchester United's top management didn't invest money, Van Gaal led the team to fight for six, and now that Manchester United's top management has invested money, Van Gaal led the team to fight for six!
Angry and embarrassed Manchester United fans scolded the unprofessionalism of Manchester United's top management, and at the same time sprayed Van Gaal for taking money and not doing anything!
The players who should be bought have been bought for you, and the senior management of the Anthony Martial club, who is only 19 years old and costs 36 million pounds, has also bought it for you, and now the team still can't produce results, don't blame you for who to blame?!
Van Gaal, as an insider, is actually qualified to cry out for himself, but Manchester United fans don't buy it at all, believing that he is being hard-mouthed, and they continue to ridicule him for his rigid tactical style of play.
In this case, Van Gaal, who led the team to face Chelsea, was ruthless and directly put out the main offensive formation of 4231 at Stamford Bridge!
Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial, Wayne Rooney and Jesse Lingard all start!
Carrick, who was delayed, was responsible for organizing the team, and Fellaini was responsible for most of the interceptions!
Such a midfield set-up is completely top-heavy, and playing against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge?
Mourinho doesn't know what Van Gaal thinks, but in the face of a Manchester United team that is willing to take the initiative, he can't ask for it!
Chelsea had no worries about attacking Manchester United, and the final score of 4-1 also disgraced Manchester United's players!
However, in the post-match interview, Leon still said a few words for Van Gaal:
"The main problem for Manchester United right now is obviously not with the coaching staff and the players, and in addition to identifying this major problem and improving it, I would advise United fans to lower their expectations and mentality about the team's results.
It's not the same time anymore, and United may have to take the initiative to adapt to playing in the Europa League for a long time......"
(End of chapter)