Father Green

Chapter 1: Southampton's lack of attacking power

Icardi didn't know if Al Ganassi would pass the ball, but as a striker instinct he still tried to go forward.

But when El Ganassi actually passed the ball, the Argentine striker visibly froze.After realizing it, Icardi directly threw his body out, and fell to the ground with a shovel shot.

"Icardi!!"

Just when the Argentine himself was imagining the wonderful start of joining a new team and scoring goals in his first show, reality gave him a big mouth.

His tackle shot down the football, but the football did not fly into the goal but flew high over the goal crossbar and out of the baseline.

"This"

"Don't score an empty goal!! Icardi, the difficulty of not scoring this goal is higher than scoring." The on-site commentator at the St. Mary's Stadium sighed.

And the commentator of Sky Sports is much sharper: "I finally understand why the 19-year-old Argentine can't get a first-team chance in Barcelona, ​​even as a substitute. He was on the bench for half the season, actually spending most of his time with Sampdoria's youth team."

"Although the magical Charlotte has many magical abilities that ordinary people can't understand, such as the previously transformed Danny Rose, the introduction of Sturridge who was unable to play at Chelsea, the introduction of wingers from Belgium and the genius of Germany Goalkeeper...blah, blah. But what I want to say is that maybe Charlotte might have misjudged Icardi."

Originally, Charlotte was celebrating with her hands up high, but watching the football fly into the sky, she could only hug her head in regret.

Icardi, who missed the great opportunity, widened his eyes. He couldn't believe that he didn't score the goal.

And Allardyce and his Hammers breathed a sigh of relief. If the opponent is allowed to score first, this game will be difficult for West Ham.

Allardyce stood on the sidelines and yelled angrily at the court, obviously he was very dissatisfied with his team's defense.

The game restarted and West Ham started their attack.In fact, their offense is very simple. The two center forwards go to the core of the opponent's penalty area, and then the two full-backs break through from the side and make a cross. The football goes to the top of the two center forwards.

Then the two high center forwards, John Carew and Carlton Cole, decide whether to head the goal or pass it to their teammates, while Nolan and Nobile, the two outstanding central midfielders in the middle, will take turns to insert the ball to find the far goal. After doing a shot or responding to the center forward's header, he will hit the goal.

Charlotte understands the opponent's offensive system and naturally knows how to defend. Jose Fonte and Gary Monk are both central defenders with the best strength in the British Championship, and they have rich experience.They can do a good job of keeping an eye on the opposing two big centers, and Ter Stegen's ability to defend high-altitude balls also reassures Charlotte.

The only thing Charlotte is worried about is two points, one point is the position of the midfielder.The abilities of Nobile and Nolan are capable of serving as the main force even in the Premier League, let alone in the English Championship. The attack against these two will test the ability of Schneiderlin and Wanyama to sweep in front of the central defenders. .

At the same time, on the wing, Danny Rose was born as a winger after all, so he often subconsciously advances deep.The advantage of this is that one more offensive player can disrupt the opponent's defensive deployment when attacking, but the disadvantage is also obvious. The opponent can easily make a gap from the open area behind him.

But what makes Charlotte a little relieved is that the opponent's two sides are not players who are good at speed. It should be too late to return to the defense with the speed of Sterling and Danny Rose.

Compared with defense, Southampton's offense is worse.This statement may seem a bit ridiculous to others, because Southampton is currently the leader of the English Championship. No. [-] in the British Championship, when will such a sharp offensive team worry about offense?

But the facts are like this. The contributions of Sturridge and Lambert to the team are obvious. Without these two, Southampton's offense will be greatly reduced.

At the same time, Icardi has just joined the team, and he and his teammates have no tacit understanding at all.Take the ball just now as an example, if he and his teammates had cooperated tacitly, he would have moved forward resolutely just now, instead of being stunned for a while.After resolutely going forward, he can tackle the ball one step earlier. His tackle also hits the right part of the football, so the ball must be scored. The consequences of not kicking the right part later are obvious. up.

At the same time, Sterling's performance in this game was not good enough. The opponent's intensive defense prevented his speed advantage from being brought into play.After being caught in the opponent's "human flesh" battle, Sterling can easily lose the ball and give the opponent a chance to counterattack.

While Charlotte was thinking like this, the scene that worried him really happened.

In a Southampton attack, Sterling wanted to break through the side after taking the ball, but David Bentley directly posted it, and Nolan also followed up to defend.Sterling's space was cut off by the opponent. In a panic, Sterling wanted to look up for support from his teammates, but the football under his feet was cut off by Nolan.

Nolan passed the football to the frontcourt with a big foot. Carew took two steps back with his back to the attacking direction and leaned against Munch, then jumped up and pushed the football down.

The football was rubbed behind him by him. Carl rushed out and caught Jose Fonte with his hands. After receiving the football, he took two steps into the penalty area and hit the goal directly.

Due to Wundt's interference, the quality of his shot was not high, so Ter Stegen easily got the football.

Ter Stegen, who got up from the ground, held the football and didn't send the ball out immediately. It was just a counterattack by the opponent, and not many troops were invested, so most of the opponent's players were still in their half.

Such a quick counterattack is meaningless, so Ter Stegen slowed down the rhythm and gave a thumbs up to Captain Feng Te, who had defended very well before.

Both sides wasted some opportunities throughout the first half, especially Southampton wasted the most. Icardi didn't know if it was his own problem or he really didn't understand the team. He wasted two excellent opportunities in total.However, West Ham United did not get many opportunities under Southampton's excellent defense, and wasted twice, which made "Big Sam" Allardyce furious on the sidelines.

Taking advantage of a dead ball, Charlotte pulled Danny Rose down to teach him the opportunity.

Then in the director's footage, "Black Rose" ran onto the stage and secretly pulled Sterling and Adam Lallana over, and then covered his lips with his hands and said a few words.

When the game entered stoppage time in the first half, Southampton launched the last attack of the first half.

Schneiderlin blocked the position accurately and cut off the passing route of Nolan who dribbled the ball.Wanyama directly knocked Nolan down with a steal. The referee could see clearly that Wanyama touched the football first, and then Nolan hit Wanyama and fell, so this is not a foul. .

Nolan sat on the ground and raised his hands exaggeratedly to signal a foul, and asked the referee for a low ball in the frontcourt, but the referee didn't mean to blow the whistle at all.

Wanyama got up from the ground, and then quickly passed the football, not giving Nobile a chance to fight back.

The football found Sterling once again. Sterling, who had the ball, just wanted to dribble along the wing, but the opponent's full-back David Bentley and full-back O'Brien stepped forward to block Sterling. up.

This scene was seen too much in the first half. Once Sterling was entangled by the opponents, he would lose the ball most of the time.There is no way for him to be sudden without space, and at the same time, his serious lack of experience will allow the opponent to easily get the chance to steal the ball.

So everyone thought it was another conceded goal, and even Allardyce on the sidelines was waving towards Southampton's half, signaling his players to press out and prepare to plan a counterattack.

Just when Sterling was blocked by the two opponents, Lallana did not know when he had pulled to the side to meet Sterling.

Southampton's vice-captain ran past Sterling and raised his arms: "This way, Raheem!!"

O'Brien was shocked, he didn't know when Lallana came over.Since the opponent's attack is a counterattack by using an offensive steal from the midfielder, the two central midfielders in the middle have not yet returned to their positions. .

After seeing team-mate Bentley already entangled Sterling, O'Brien cut inside Sterling's passing lane and followed Lallana.

Seeing that the opponent's defense was missing one man, Sterling immediately passed the ball, but instead of passing the ball to Lallana who raised his hand to ask for the ball, he knocked the football behind him with his heel.

After passing the football, Sterling immediately started his speed, bypassed Bentley from the outside of the touchline and then returned to the pitch.

At this time, Danny Rose, who came in, didn't have extra possession of the ball, and kicked out the rolling football that Sterling passed through with his feet.

The football flew over the heads of Bentley and Sterling and went to the front field.Danny Rose's pass is very comfortable. Sterling caught up with the football after two steps, and he didn't need to adjust his pace to take a step and follow up.

Sterling easily killed a bloody path on the left side of his side and the opponent's right side. At this time, he had a variety of options, either passing the ball to his teammate Icardi who advanced and followed up in the middle, or Cut inside with the ball.

Icardi was squeezed between two central defenders in the middle, but he pointed to a position about three yards in front of him and motioned for Sterling to pass the ball in front of him.The Argentine is very confident that if Sterling passes the pass well, he can get the ball over the two defenders in front of him, and then take advantage of the opportunity to enter the penalty area and have a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

In fact, after Wanyama steals and transfers the ball, Icardi has already advanced to the front of the center.Because he remembered a sentence that his young and ugly head coach told him before the game: "Mauro, you have to remember that you are the only striker on the field, and you have to be at the top of the team. Whether it is Respond to the pass from your teammates or give the ball to your teammates, you have to appear in your own position, the midfielder will be handed over to Adam and Victor, you don’t want to retreat!"

Charlotte was worried that Icardi and his teammates would not cooperate tacitly, so he said this.Because Southampton's counterattack is very fast, if the center forward in the middle is not at the forefront in time, there will be one less counterattack force invested, and there is no way to contain the opponent's defensive force in the middle.