Chapter 420 Is Leicester City a flash in the pan?

Author: Ant who loves watching football

Chapter 420 Is Leicester City a flash in the pan?

From the perspective of Pan Yi as a time traveler, in his previous life, a large part of the reason why Leicester City was able to win the championship in the 2015-2016 season was actually due to the weakness of the traditional powers of the Premier League.

Leicester City's winning score is only 81 points, only higher than Manchester United's 80 points in the 2010-2011 season, which is the lowest winning score in the Premier League in the past ten years.

What's even more frightening is that the scores starting from second place are only about 70 points.

This shows how chaotic the Premier League is this season and how unstable the performance of the strong teams is.

Let’s talk about Chelsea in the previous life. The aging defense made it difficult to guard against. Last season’s key players such as Fabio Francesco, Costa and Eden Hazard suddenly lost their form. The team was also in internal strife due to the team doctor’s incident. They only won four games in the first fifteen rounds.

The magic bird Mourinho is no longer magical. He resigned sadly after his second year in the palace. Chelsea fell out of the championship team early.

Then came Manchester United, who purged all their forward players before the season and only bought Martial at the last minute.

In the end, the offense failed, and the number of goals scored ranked in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League. In the middle of the season, they were winless in six games, giving up the initiative to compete for the championship.

Manchester City introduced European favorite De Bruyne, but suffered from injuries caused by an expensive lineup but the oldest in the Premier League, as well as rumors of coaching changes that have been spreading wildly, resulting in great fluctuations in form and too many losses. Finally, in February

After losing three consecutive games, they lost the initiative to compete for the championship.

As usual, Arsenal began to suffer from more injuries after the Christmas schedule and habitually collapsed. By March 15th, they had only five wins and began to compete for fourth place.

Tottenham have set off a youthful storm this season, ranking first in the Premier League on goal difference.

They clung to Leicester City after the middle and late stages, but suffered from the unstable state of young players at the beginning of the season and too many draws, which unfortunately led to them losing the championship.

Liverpool has been in turmoil this season. Benteke's instructions have been lost and he has been unable to integrate into the team. His tactics have been changing and his results have been declining.

After the coaching change, new coach Klopp lacked time for training, his state fluctuated greatly, and he quit the championship team early.

In other words, BIG6 each has its own difficulties and problems, which results in a "seventh person" taking advantage of the situation and taking away his position.

Even if one of these six strong teams performs normally, it doesn't have to be as disappointing as Manchester City's 100-point score. As long as it can score 80 points, Leicester City will not be able to successfully counterattack.

But it is precisely because of such a "coincidence" that the myth of a dark horse winning at a loss of 5,000 really emerged.

Of course, you need to be strong to strike the iron. BIG6 collapsed together, so why didn't Southampton or West Ham United win the championship, but Leicester City?

This is undoubtedly inseparable from Ranieri's command and the explosive growth of his players.

The reason why a dark horse is called a dark horse is simply because its pre-season performance was not optimistic, but its performance was amazing and unexpected.

But the biggest weakness of the dark horse is that the lineup is weak and lacks a deep bench like the traditional strong players. Once the main players are injured and absent, the team's strength will simply plummet.

However, Ranieri's team performed very steadily, with no major injuries to the players. Vardy, Mahrez, Schmeichel Jr., Kante and others under his command also performed phenomenally. In the end,

Win the championship.

Although the situation in this life is slightly different from the previous life, for example, Kanter was replaced by Mikel, and Vardy has become more mature after being tempered by Hamburger and Pan Yi, the overall situation is not bad.

It can even be roughly said that Mikel is weaker than Kante in the previous life, but Vardy in this life is stronger than the previous life, so it is even.

It is precisely because of this that Leicester City quietly climbed up after 15 rounds.

Of course, this time they have an unlucky point: that is, there is a team in BIG6 that is not so arrogant!

That is Pan Yi's Chelsea.

Not only did he not pull his shoulder, but he also broke Arsenal's unbeaten record and is still extending and expanding this record...

In other words, it is almost impossible for Leicester City to "replicate" the success of its previous life.

As for Ranieri and his Leicester City in this life, there is actually nothing to regret.

They don't have past life memories like Pan Yi, and they don't have the emotion of "gaining something and then losing it again".

After all, as a relegation team last season, they actually have a chance to compete for a Champions League spot this season. This is already a great success!

——

"Ranieri used suitable tactics for this team, coupled with the strong execution ability of the players, this Leicester City was completely transformed. We cannot take it lightly."

At Chelsea's Cobham training base, Pan Yi was also discussing the opponent's tactics with members of the coaching staff.

On the tactical board beside him, various circles and lines have been densely drawn, which represent Leicester City's players and running routes.

On the big screen in front of the conference table, videos of Leicester City's recent games were shown.

Before each game, Pan Yi will explain the opponent's tactical ideas to the coaches in detail, and then discuss the solution together.

The last step is to assign corresponding training tasks and let the players practice according to the latest tactical instructions.

This is what Pan Yi does before every game.

Today, since we are preparing to face what I consider to be the “most threatening opponent of the season,” I will be more prepared.

"Ranieri's tactics have always been characterized by a strong Italian style - tough and steady, defense first."

"After coming to Leicester City, Ranieri infused Italian defensive ideas and modern high-pressing into England's traditional long-pass counterattack."

"Defensively, take the initiative to give up the ball. Except for Vardy, every player in the frontcourt retreats to their own half-court area to reduce the distance between each other."

"The players formed a group of two and quickly carried out a flanking attack, pressing the football to the side, forcing the opponent to attack from both wings, and passing the ball into the penalty area from both sides."

"At this time, the defensive players accumulated in the penalty area have long been prepared for this. The two traditional central defenders have strong and steady headers. It is difficult for the opponent to rely on high balls to enter the penalty area to gain scoring opportunities."

In fact, Ranieri's tactical thinking is simply defensive counterattack.

After all, there is definitely a gap between the team's strength and traditional powerhouses, and the team now has a counterattack weapon like Vardy, so there is no need to use it in vain.

Even when Leicester City faced teams outside of the BIG6, such as relatively weak teams like Southampton or Bournemouth, they still defended counterattacks steadily and did not rush forward at all.

So far, Leicester City's possession rate ranks... 18th in the Premier League.

A team ranked 2nd ranked 18th in ball possession rate, which seems outrageous at first glance, but it also shows how resolute Ranieri is in his defensive tactics.

Of course, Ranieri also has his own set of ideas. In order to achieve the tactical goals Pan Yi just mentioned, especially the defensive ideas, he also actively made a lot of preparations before the season and introduced a number of players who can adapt to him.

Tactical player.

For example, the traditional tall central defender Huth;

Shinji Okazaki, a tactical forward whose defense is more important than scoring goals;

Full-back Fuchs, who has a great cross but never easily assists;

And, an important midfield troublemaker - Kante in the previous life, and Mikel in this life.

Of course, if Leicester City could only defend but had no counterattack efficiency, it would definitely not reach its current heights.

Pan Yi immediately began to explain the key points of Ranieri's anti-counterattack tactics.

"Once the Leicester City backcourt players intercept the ball, within just a few seconds the Leicester City players will enter a counterattack state, switching from defense to attack as fast as the Premier League."

"The player who steals the ball will not hesitate to make a long pass to find Vardy who has already started or Mahrez who is running in at high speed on the other side, and quickly form a counterattack with more hits and fewer hits."

"Shinji Okazaki, who starts from the midfield and follows up quickly, will press the opponent's defender on the other side, attract their attention, and create space for the second group of attacking players behind him."

Vardy, Mahrez, and Shinji Okazaki, these three are Leicester City's most important offensive points.

Generally speaking, Shinji Okazaki is responsible for feinting (if you don't guard him, he will attack), Mahrez is responsible for breakthroughs, and Vardy is responsible for quick sprints and shots.

To defend against Leicester City's attack, we must defend against these three people.

Compared to ranking 18th in ball possession rate, there is another even more outrageous statistic: Leicester’s passing success rate is the lowest in the Premier League, ranking 20th!

what does that mean?

This means that Leicester City's offense this season mostly relies on long passes and counterattacks.

Because of the short passes at close range, there are relatively few reverse kicks in the backcourt. Many of them are simple and crude passes to the back, threatening the ball, and the success rate of the pass is naturally low.

In a positional attack, Leicester City's back line is extremely deep and never presses forward easily.

The two full-backs Simpson and Fuchs did not attack at all without Ranieri's instructions.

In this case, Leicester City's offense relies on the interspersed movement between the frontcourt players and the dribbling and flash of personal ability.

Relying on the explosive performance of Mahrez this season, Leicester City ranks at the forefront of the Premier League in terms of individual dribbling opportunities created, and Mahrez's passing data also ranks second in the Premier League.

Once the ball is lost in the frontcourt, a group of runners led by Vardy will immediately press and defend. Drinking water god Linkwater and Mikel will organize a second pressing line behind him to support and prevent the opponent from forming.

Attack and force the opponent to make passing errors.

Because of the rapid counterattack in the frontcourt and the resolute execution of the players, it was difficult for Fox City's opponents to adapt to such a determined and highly oppressive frontcourt counterattack.

Once the frontcourt counter-attack fails to seize the ball, Leicester City players will immediately retreat under Ranieri's tactical arrangements to defend and return to the routine of forcing the opponent to attack from the wing.

Likewise, Schmeichel gets the ball in the backcourt and counterattacks quickly, which is sometimes quite effective.

Leicester City's tactical system is not complicated. The offense relies on strong counterattacks, and the defense relies on on-the-spot counterattacks in the frontcourt and traditional head-on mass accumulation in the backcourt.

But relying on Ranieri's strong ability to combine and the surprisingly strong tactical execution of Leicester City players, they have achieved their current results.

"So, how to break such a team that is determined to play counterattack?" Arteta asked at the right time. "It feels like they are a bit like Atletico Madrid. They defend rigorously, give up ball possession, and emphasize simple and efficient defensive counterattack strategies.

"

"That's right, you can think of them as Atletico Madrid in the Premier League. They are really just driving the bus a lot of the time." Pan Yi nodded, agreeing with his apprentice's view.
To be continued...