Chapter 304: Chelsea and Barcelona Got the Tactical Script Wrong

Since the end of the 10-11 season, after returning to Real Madrid and getting a starting position, Li Ang has maintained a record of at least two encounters with Barcelona every year.

Unlike the Real Madrid players who were suppressed by Barcelona for several seasons, Li Ang has never experienced the taste of losing in the game against Barcelona.

So when he revealed to the media that he was looking forward to returning to the Nou Camp again, it was really difficult for Barcelona fans to feel a little "friendly" from him.

Li Ang actually expected that he might cause a public opinion storm before the game, but he just wanted to stir up the emotions of Barcelona fans.

To be honest, it has been so many years since his professional debut, and Li Ang did not feel anything special when playing against other clubs.

Only in the game against Barcelona, ​​he was excited.

Only when he played against Barcelona fans did he find it interesting~

On February 16, with the "friendly" greetings of a group of Barcelona fans online, Li Ang flew to Barcelona with the team.

Although the match time has changed compared to last year, the preparation process is still the same. The entire Chelsea team still came to the Spanish training base to warm up and maintain their condition.

As one of the first teams to appear in the Champions League quarter-finals this season, Chelsea's current residence and training ground were directly surrounded by reporters.

On the morning of February 17, the entire Chelsea team completed the last pre-match training.

At the same time, Xavi also expressed his determination to win the game in the pre-match interview with reporters!

Xavi is now naturally qualified to express such determination.

Because before this round of the Champions League quarter-finals, Barcelona had won eleven consecutive victories in the La Liga and King's Cup!

Such a hot game state that many Spanish media have come out to claim that Barcelona has successfully returned to the top.

Previously, Barcelona's double victory over Atletico Madrid in the two rounds of the King's Cup quarter-finals also gave confidence to many sports media in Catalonia.

Now Barcelona is still the top of the La Liga.

Although it is only one point ahead of Real Madrid, which is ranked second, the top brother has to show his momentum anyway.

So compared to the slightly nervous Barcelona fans, the media in the Catalan region seem much tougher.

Before the game, they challenged Chelsea openly and claimed that now is the best time to break Leon's unbeaten record against Barcelona!

The British media was naturally unwilling to be outdone and directly fought back, listing the dazzling data of the two teams' confrontation in the Champions League last year.

The media on both sides went back and forth, and after the fans left the field, the gunpowder smell became even stronger.

Of course, compared with the verbal battle between the media and the fans, the players and coaches of the two teams did not have too many extra ideas.

No matter how strong the gunpowder smell between the fans is, Chelsea will definitely not take the initiative to use too much confrontational actions in the first round of the match with Barcelona.

After all, they are playing away, and no one can predict the scale of the referee's whistle on the day of the game.

Another thing is that Barcelona's strength has indeed declined a lot in recent years, but they are still one of the most successful clubs in European football.

UEFA will not give less home whistles. In this regard, all the participating clubs basically enjoy basic rights.

Don't win the game away from home, but let the important players in the team get yellow cards.

The Champions League knockouts have just begun. If Chelsea's core players accumulate yellow cards and are suspended in the quarter-finals, it will be a real loss.

Mourinho is still quite cautious, but he certainly didn't expect that his opponent today is more cautious than him.

Enrique became the head coach of Barcelona this season as he wished.

When he first took office at the beginning of the season, he wanted to establish his authority and power, and made many mistakes, even to the point of being opposed by many senior players in the Barcelona team.

Fortunately, he adjusted his tactics and communication attitude with the players in time afterwards.

After firmly establishing Messi's offensive core position and reusing Neymar, Barcelona's record is finally back on track.

The current wave of 11 consecutive victories can be regarded as a complete consolidation of Enrique's position.

But Enrique's mind is very clear. He knows that under his seemingly impregnable position, there is still a powerful bomb hidden.

This season, he led Barcelona to regain at least one heavyweight championship trophy, and his position can be truly stabilized.

Before that, all the beautiful visions promised to him by the Barcelona executives were just illusions.

He knows better than anyone the fact that Barcelona's midfield control has dropped significantly.

In order not to be eliminated early in the Champions League, Enrique has no choice but to have a better understanding of Chelsea in a limited time and choose the game tactics more carefully.

And with the "previous lesson" of his predecessor Martino, who coached Barcelona last year but was eventually defeated by Chelsea.

Enrique never considered letting Messi retreat to the midfield to strengthen the ball control from the beginning.

Because that is a helpless choice that only treats the symptoms but not the root cause.

If Barcelona wants to win against a strong opponent like Chelsea, it must let Messi give full play to his ability.

Guardiola's original style of play cannot be used.

Because Iniesta and Xavi can't run as fast as they did four or five seasons ago.

Why did the Dream Team Barcelona achieve such great success?

The groundbreaking tactics and advanced passing and controlling style are important reasons.

But many people tend to ignore the huge protective effect of Barcelona's high-pressure and strong-grabbing tactics that led the football world on Barcelona's midfield and backfield defense at that time.

At that time, Barcelona played on multiple fronts throughout the season and lost very few goals.

But this does not mean that Barcelona's backfield defense and goalkeeper are top-notch.

The active counter-grabbing on the spot after Barcelona lost the ball in the midfield and frontcourt is the fundamental reason for Barcelona's efficient defensive performance!

The lost balls were basically re-grabbed by Barcelona's midfield and frontcourt players. Barcelona's midfield and backcourt defense was not tested several times in a game. How could the defense be bad? !

Barcelona could play this set back then, and the guys in the backcourt really had to line up to thank their teammates in the midfield and frontcourt.

Now, Xavi and Iniesta can't run all over the field like before.

Messi and Neymar can't spend a lot of energy to defend in a game.

Forcing the previous tactics again, wouldn't it force their own team to collapse?

If the frontcourt can't grab the ball, the defensive pressure in the backcourt will naturally be greater.

Enrique doesn't want to find a dead end. On the contrary, he wants to win the game and beat Mourinho to further prove his coaching level!

So in the first round of the home game, he chose the tactical style that is most suitable for Barcelona now...

On the evening of February 17, in the noise of cheers and boos at the Camp Nou, the players of Chelsea and Barcelona completed the final warm-up before the game.

The starting 11 of the two teams was basically disclosed by the media in advance.

Chelsea's main players are all out, while Barcelona's Enrique chose Rafinha to start today, and Xavi was on the bench.

The starting players in the rest of Barcelona's positions are exactly the same as the media's pre-match speculation.

After the time came, the players of both teams walked through the opening ceremony quickly. Except for the captain who guessed the side, the other players trotted back to their own half and waited for the game to start.

Li Ang appeared in the position of central midfielder today. He basically would not play against Messi in the opening stage of the game.

But his eyes were still directly cast on Messi, who was fixed on the right winger this season.

Under his butterfly effect, Suarez did not get sick and bite Chiellini in the 2014 World Cup, so Liverpool did not give up on him.

In addition to Gerrard's sincere retention, Suarez is still playing in Liverpool and did not go to Catalonia.

Barcelona lacked a key link in the middle arrow and did not form the MSN attack line combination. For Li Ang, it is now a "strange" team.

Messi and Neymar have performed very well this season, and they have now led Barcelona back to the top of the La Liga.

But their current team performance and strength are still not enough to compete with Chelsea.

So Li Ang was very curious, in this realistic and embarrassing situation, what kind of tactics would Enrique use to compete with Chelsea?

"Keep playing pass control, you all don't play pass control, then I will be very disappointed..."

Li Ang muttered in his heart, and the referee blew the whistle to start the game!

Barcelona, ​​who took the lead in kicking off, quickly deployed a three-midfield formation.

Busquets, who received the back pass from his teammate, avoided Ibrahimovic's grab and quickly passed the ball to Rafinha to the right.

And Rafinha did not hesitate to pass the ball directly to Messi's feet as soon as he got the ball.

After gradually getting rid of the trouble of injuries this season, Messi's personal performance can be said to have greatly improved compared with last season.

Although in terms of scoring, because he had to give up the right to fire to Neymar, Messi's total number of goals so far this season has just reached 20.

But his assists have risen sharply.

At the end of last season, Messi's assists reached 14, and this season so far, Messi's assists have risen to 13!

From the front line to the core of the frontcourt attack, Messi has adapted well to his new role in the team.

Barcelona seems to need to rely more on Neymar on the front line, but from the inside, their dependence on Messi is even more serious.

Faster transition of the midfield organization and transmission, Messi in the frontcourt to instigate the distribution of cards, this style of play has already explained a lot of problems.

Barcelona's first attack after the opening was Messi holding the ball from the right and cutting in, then Neymar quickly started and wiped Azpilicueta's reluctant shot.

Li Ang saw the pass connection between Messi and Neymar.

But he didn't say much. After receiving the pass from Kroos, he also personally held the ball and launched Chelsea's first counterattack of the whole game.

Neither team put in full effort in the offensive test at the beginning.

In the offensive and defensive contest between the two teams, the fans in front of the TV soon discovered the great difference between the current Barcelona and the previous one.

"Barcelona doesn't pursue ball possession anymore? Where are their flank penetration and through passes? Why do I feel that Barcelona today is more like a defensive counterattack team compared to Chelsea?!"

"Enrique wanted to play like this. He almost broke Barcelona at the beginning of this season. Don't you know?"

"Looking at it now, Enrique is obviously successful. Barcelona has a good record, and I think they are not inferior to Chelsea on the field today."

"This feeling is too strange. Chelsea pursues more delicate offensive cooperation, but Barcelona chooses to quickly transition the midfield to strengthen the counterattack on both wings? Mourinho and Enrique didn't get the script of today's game tactics?!"

...

Many fans discussed enthusiastically on the Internet.

On the sidelines, Mourinho, who saw Enrique's tactical thinking at this moment, also scratched his head.

"This guy is interesting! If Josep was watching today's game, would he feel angry?"

Mourinho inexplicably thought of Guardiola.

There is no way. After Guardiola left, two consecutive Barcelona coaches basically continued his tactical style to continue coaching Barcelona.

Enrique is very bold. Not only did he not lead Barcelona to continue playing passing and controlling football, but he also "deviantly" played defensive counterattacks? !

Mourinho instantly became interested in Enrique.

He knew that this guy was probably a practical person like him.

To deal with such a head coach who didn't care about public opinion or even the opinions of his own fans, there was no need to use too many tactical traps.

Because the opponent, like him, was also completely focused on getting points in the game.

So be practical, and use whatever tricks you have. Hiding them would only create obstacles for your own tactical adjustments.

Thinking of this, Mourinho shouted to attract Kroos' attention, and then he drew a gesture of tactical adjustment!

At this moment, less than 5 minutes had passed since the game officially started.

But Mourinho made the first tactical adjustment of the game so decisively!

Kroos did not hesitate and quickly conveyed Mourinho's adjustment ideas to his teammates on the field.

After rushing back to his own half, Leon nodded after confirming with Kroos, and then retreated slightly.

Chelsea changed the 4231 starting formation at the beginning of the game and directly changed to 433!

After Barcelona gave up more midfield transmission and chose to counterattack, Chelsea also took over the initiative of midfield control and played passing and controlling football at Camp Nou!

For a moment, fans from all over the world who watched this game were also silent by the game scene.

Barcelona played at home and Chelsea counterattacked?

This world is too crazy!

There is another chapter, which may be after midnight. Those who can't wait can watch it tomorrow morning.