This is of course one of Pan Yi’s tactics!

A big reason for the draw with Manchester United last time was that the midfielder's fighting was not fierce enough, allowing the opponent's Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger to have too many opportunities to hold the ball.

Needless to say, "Little Pig" Schweinsteiger, if he is not put under enough pressure, he can pass the ball very fatally in the midfield.

Since Schneiderlin transferred from Southampton this season, he has also won the trust of Van Gaal with his excellent defensive ability and occupied the main defensive midfielder position.

Whether he is frontal blocking, chasing tackles or aerial confrontations, it can be said that he is top-notch in the Premier League. If he is allowed to get the ball comfortably, he also has the ability to accurately long pass and transfer the ball.

Therefore, Pan Yi decided to take the right medicine in today's game and use Matic and Goretzka to deal with them.

In fact, there is no real "beast midfielder" in the current Chelsea team. It can be said that they are all versatile midfielders.

Are Matic and Goretzka's passing, forward penetration and shooting poor?

However, compared to Azar and Seat B, they are still more suitable for doing some "dirty work".

As a result, Chelsea's offensive tactics today were very hard and aggressive.

There is only one purpose, to use offense to suppress Manchester United and to use offense against offense to provide protection for the defense.

Of course, for such an arrangement, some background checks have been done in advance.

That is, today’s referee is Atkinson, one of the “Four Blinds in the Premier League”.

What are the four blind men? The wealthy hunter Clattenburg, the damned Atkinson, the North London sniper Mike Dean, and the blind man Oliver.

While the average number of yellow cards issued by most Premier League referees is close to 4 per game, Oliver and Atkinson only receive 2. Obviously, in terms of penalty standards, Atkinson and Oliver are among the few in the Premier League who have looser penalty standards.

referee.

Atkinson's average number of fouls called per game (15) is the lowest among the 20 referees in the league.

Therefore, Pan Yi asked his players to be more active in fighting before the game so that they could use more of their bodies!

In this way, the strong Goretzka and the tall Matic will be more useful.

Facts have proved correct. Atkinson didn't say much about Chelsea's first two fouls.

Soon, Pan Yi's arrangement gave Manchester United a headache.

Van Gaal immediately discovered that Manchester United's established tactics of attacking at the beginning were basically difficult to organize an effective attack when faced with Chelsea's tough interception from the midfield.

Chelsea's midfield interception was very fierce and even very aggressive, and Manchester United lacked the necessary preparations for this.

Suddenly, scenes of people falling on their backs frequently appeared on the field, which also made Manchester United a little confused.

Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger were completely locked in a physical battle with Chelsea.

That's fine with Schneiderlin, but Schweinsteiger was even a little afraid of physical confrontation after several fights.

After all, he is already 33 years old this year, and he is no longer the little pig he was back then who could fight to the death and still stay on the field!

Chelsea's tactics are very simple. The three midfielders try their best to tear apart Manchester United's midfield and protect the two wide midfielders, while Lukaku and Harry Kane are roaming in the frontcourt, ready to attack at any time.

Chelsea quickly seized on a mistake by Manchester United in the chaos and launched a successful counterattack.

Schweinsteiger struggled with Goretzka and was forced to transfer the ball to Depay.

Depay was just about to receive the ball when he was surrounded by Kante and Matic. He chose to pass it back to Ashley Young, and then the ball was intercepted by David Luiz midway.

Chelsea quickly launched a counterattack.

David Luiz's through ball found Cancelo who was advancing forward. After the Portuguese full-back dribbled the ball and attracted the defense of many Manchester United players, he suddenly separated the sides.

Harry Kane, who dropped back to receive the ball, took two horizontal steps and fired a powerful long-range shot directly outside the penalty area.

The shot was very powerful and the ball was very fast. De Gea did not dare to hold the ball and chose to hit it outwards.

Lukaku, who was ambushing in the penalty area, got the ball in front of Smalling. He first smashed the ball to avoid Smalling's steal, and then distributed the ball to the right.

Chelsea right back Azpilicueta stepped in and fired a low shot.

The ball hit the net!

"Azpilicueta! Beautiful shot! Chelsea's offense is very aggressive. Both full-backs are very high, and Azpilicueta on the right has already rushed into the penalty area and grabbed the ball ahead of Darius.

Mian scored a goal before!"

When Azpilicueta kicked the ball into the goal, the Stamford Bridge stadium erupted in huge cheers.

The cheers were so shocking that even outside the stadium, the huge sound could be felt, like a volcano erupting.

"One to zero! Chelsea leads Manchester United one to zero, they won the first victory!"

Van Gaal was furious on the sidelines. He was very, very dissatisfied with the team's defense.

Azpilicueta is completely missing.

"I feel like, are we pressing too close?" said assistant coach Giggs.

Van Gaal snorted and said nothing.

Of course he knows the reason.

Manchester United's tactic is to press out and attack, especially relying on the two wings, especially Darmian's left wing, which is the focus. This makes Darmian frequently press out. This time, Chelsea hit the space behind Darmian.

.

But now Van Gaal has no particularly good solution.

Falling behind, Manchester United wants to attack even more.

The only thing we can do is to make the players pay more attention to the space left by their own full-backs after assists, and let the center backs and midfielders fill up their positions.

The game that followed was in a state of anxiety.

Chelsea's fighting in the midfield seems to have become more fierce.

Goretzka even brought down Ashley Young and Martial twice in five minutes.

The referee Atkinson believed that Goretzka did not commit a foul when he brought down Ashley Young. However, he was deemed to have committed a foul the second time and gave Goretzka a verbal warning.

Van Gaal was so angry that he questioned the fourth official on the sidelines and held out three fingers: "That guy has fouled three times, three times! Why is it just a verbal warning? At least he needs a yellow card!"

The fourth official kept a straight face and asked Van Gaal to calm down before speaking.

"If you can't get a yellow card for shoveling like this, how can you get a yellow card?"

Van Gaal's voice was so loud that even the referee Atkinson was attracted and came over to warn the coach: "I know my standards well. Please return to your position."

Van Gaal wanted to say something else, but Giggs quickly stepped forward and dragged him away.

Otherwise, Goretzka did not receive a yellow card, but Van Gaal might be in danger of receiving a red card directly...

However, it seems that Van Gaal's complaints had an effect.

After Atkinson returned to the court, his enforcement standards indeed became stricter in the following period!

It just so happened that the anger aroused by Chelsea on Manchester United's side began to explode.

In the remaining five or six minutes of the first half, Manchester United players fouled Chelsea players one after another.

Then, within just a few minutes, Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin each received a yellow card!——

Finally, at the end of the first half, Chelsea led Manchester United 1-0.

Pan Yi smiled.

Bastian Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin are the main defenders of Manchester United. Both of them have received yellow cards, which will definitely make Manchester United timid when defending.

This way, we can play better in the second half.

Pan Yi's tactical goal on the field was basically achieved: the team scored, Manchester United's offense was contained, and key players were carded.

During the halftime break, Pan Yi first praised the players' performance, and then reminded the players with a serious expression to be careful of Manchester United's counterattack in the second half.

"One to zero is not safe. We will continue to strengthen our offense in the second half of the game. We must have at least two goals in hand to be relatively safe."

When the second half started, Pan Yi was surprised to find that Manchester United did not press forward to attack, but instead shrank the defense a little, seemingly preparing to counterattack Chelsea.

After Pan Yi thought about it for a moment, he understood what Van Gaal meant.

Obviously, after the tactics of the first half were contained by Chelsea, Van Gaal made decisive changes and gave up the offensive tactics of the first half.

The most important thing is that after both of his defensive midfielders received yellow cards, if he continues to fight with Chelsea in the midfield, he will obviously not gain anything.

In this case, it is better to temporarily give up control of the midfield and switch to counterattack, maybe there will be a better chance.

The main reason is that Manchester United now has Rooney, especially a counterattack player like Martial, who can really make a sneak attack.

Martial this season can be said to be at his peak since his debut, but he is not at all like the future "electronics factory director". His dribbling and speed cannot be underestimated!

However, Pan Yi is not prepared to make any adjustments.

Chelsea is now leading the score and is not afraid of the opponent shrinking.

If you shrink, I will control the ball and slow down the offensive and defensive rhythm. This will steadily tilt the balance of victory to our side.

However, sometimes, the situation on the court cannot be controlled by whoever controls the ball well.

Unexpected things always happen on the court.

In the 67th minute, Manchester United received a frontline ball.
To be continued...