After Mourinho dismissed get out of class, Grant, who succeeded him, did not have a happy life.
As a technical coach who was placed in the locker room by Abramovich, Grant and Mourinho were originally on equal footing with each other. Although Mourinho was unhappy with this because he did not feel that he needed to be coached, but To a large extent, Mourinho is also very good at being a good person. He did not put his dissatisfaction on the surface. The two of them cooperated well at work. However, the conflicts between Mourinho and Abramovich began to become prominent. After the locker room was divided into two groups, Grant's position was very embarrassing. After all, he was the boss's man. After Mourinho dismissed get out of class, he succeeded as the head coach, and his position was even more embarrassing - standing beside Mourinho. Drogba, Essien Lampard and other direct descendants of that group will think that he is the culprit for Mourinho's dismissal. Terry and others who were on the side of boss Abramovich at the time were obedient to the boss and would not regard him as the main culprit. He saw it in his eyes
Fortunately, Chelsea players are still very professional, and Grant also adopted the tactics used by Mourinho when he was here. This allowed Chelsea's results to stabilize, but even so, when changing clothes, When he was arranging tactics in the room, the players listened expressionlessly. After listening, they went to the field to play and win - want to use words to boost the players' fighting spirit? That's not as effective as Grant saying before the game, "I'll fucking quit if I win this game"
Such a head coach¡¯s job is indeed boring, not to mention that the income is not much higher than when he was a technical director. This is an injustice in Grant¡¯s heart.
With such emotions, Grant still has to work hard to make the players perform better. After all, this is also an opportunity to win a championship. Although Chelsea does not lack such championships this year, Grant also hopes that he can lead the team. Get a championship.
Dick led the team to arrive in London two days in advance, and Chelsea itself is based in London, which is slightly advantageous for them.
"What do I think about this game? It's exciting, coming to a new league and having the opportunity to win the first championship It makes me excited every time something like this happens, really. A lot of people say the League Cup is just It is a make-up game, but it can be played by 92 teams in the English league system. The standard is still quite high. The team that wins the League Cup can still say that it is the number one in England this season. I'm very interested in this title."
Dick said in an interview before the game that his words made everyone in the Football League very happy - after all, this cup was established to counter the FA Cup controlled by the Football Association. However, after so many years, in important situations, The degree is still not as good as the FA Cup. After all, the status and reputation of the FA Cup are not so easy to shake, and this time Dick said this, which also added a bit of luster to their faces.
For Chelsea, they have great expectations to defend the League Cup. This is the third time they have entered the League Cup final in the past four years. They won the first two times - in fact, Chelsea's results last season It¡¯s really not bad. They won the League Cup and entered the FA Cup final, but they lost in the end. In addition to being runner-up in the league, it was a pity that they were eliminated early by Inter Milan in the Champions League. They are fully capable of breaking Manchester United. record, creating an unprecedented four crowns - the only pity is that in the end they only won one League Cup
It is also very necessary for Grant to prove his strength and win in such a game.
Historically, Manchester City and Chelsea have never played against each other in the finals - this of course has a lot to do with the poor performance of these two teams in history. They have participated in fewer finals of important games. If you want to meet a team with the same few teams, it will naturally be very difficult.
As two teams with money invested by local tycoons, Chelsea naturally appears to be more established, while Manchester City only became rich this year. It is inevitable that there will be some comedy in the match between these two teams. At least Chelsea fans will not be afraid of each other. Manchester City fans won't hear the other side's sarcasm about their nouveau riche status by mocking you for having only money and chanting "We're just fucking rich" in the stands.
However, both clubs really have the characteristics of nouveau riche. Manchester City came to London two days in advance. The club arranged for a five-star hotel closest to Wembley for Manchester City players to stay. Chelsea was not to be outdone. Although Chelsea It is located in London, but they still arranged to stay in another five-star hotel near Wembley, and the aura of rich people is coming.
The time soon came to February 24th. Tens of thousands of fans from both sides poured into Wembley Stadium. From this aspect, it is also appropriate to rebuild Wembley Stadium. It is almost an important event in England.Cup matches will all be held here, including the finals of the promotion play-offs of all levels of leagues, the finals of the League Cup and FA Cup, and the Community Shield Cup. Both teams are playing locally, and the fanaticism of English fans is also It is world-famous, but the stadium is smaller and cannot accommodate many people.
Two hours before the start of the game, the media got the starting list for this game.
Dick still sent out his 433 formation, with goalkeeper Hart, defenders Richards, Samuel, Kompany and Barnes, midfielders Barton, Parker and Yaya Toure, and forward Ribery. , Torres and Di Natale, while Grant also adopted a 433 formation - to say that Abramovich was not bad at him, the two forwards Shevchenko and Adriano have both declined this season. In a very good situation, Chelsea introduced Anelka in the winter to refill the vacancy in Chelsea's forward line.
Goalkeeper Petr Cech, defenders Belletti, Terry, Carvalho and Ashley Cole, the midfielders are Essien, Ballack and Lampard, and the forward on the right is Wright Phillips. On the left are Anelka, who joined in the winter, and center Drogba.
In Chelsea's starting lineup, two of them are old players from Manchester City - Wright Phillips and Anelka are both important players after Manchester City returned to the Premier League. Of course, they both left before Dick took charge. And now facing his old team in such a game, what Grant is thinking about is certainly not because they are more familiar with Manchester City. After all, no one from the Manchester City team when they were there is still in the main lineup. He once played with Phillips. Sun Jihai, who formed the top right wing, has now been reduced to a substitute. Dunn, the main central defender at the time, did not get a few playing opportunities this season. The other players all joined Manchester City after they left. The only one who has played with them The only teammate is midfielder Button.
When the players from both sides came on the field, the fans in the stands immediately cheered and cheered for their teams.
Dick did not shake hands with Grant, because he and Grant really had nothing to say, they were not familiar with each other, and they had no friendship. Even Grant himself had nothing to dislike about Dick, although there were rumors that Abramovich would take Dick away next season. Grant was poached, but Grant doesn't plan to coach Chelsea again next season. Whether he comes or not has nothing to do with him.
He just wants to get some honors before leaving Chelsea, that's all.
Chelsea was the first to kick off, and after Chelsea kicked off, Manchester City immediately started pressing in the frontcourt - Chelsea's current overall framework has not changed, but without Mourinho's encouragement and command, in some key places It is still greatly weakened, especially in terms of defense. Both Belletti and Cole are full-backs with strong assist abilities, but Belletti's defense is far from as good as Cole's. In the first round of the match, Manchester City focused on attacking Belletti's side and took the initiative. Now Dick will not let go of such an opportunity.
Under Manchester City's fierce pressing from the very beginning, Belletti made a bad return pass error. His pass was intercepted by Di Natale, and then he immediately took a long shot from the front of the penalty area, and the ball It hit Terry and changed the line, flying out of the baseline.
Corner kick, when Ribery walked towards the corner kick, Manchester City's defenders rushed forward. Except for Barnes, who stayed behind, Kompany, Samuel and Richards, who had excellent headers, all rushed forward. Entering Chelsea's penalty area, only Barnes, Parker and Button were defending in the backcourt.
"Manchester City showed a strong desire to attack right from the start! Will this corner kick put any pressure on Chelsea? Oh! Torres grabbed the first header and then Samuel followed up What a pity. ! The shot seemed a little hasty, Samuel's close shot went over the crossbar, and Chelsea escaped! "
The Manchester City fans sighed and then applauded enthusiastically in the field. Samuel shook his head and sighed while running back - Chelsea's counterattack will come soon.
Cech took a goal kick, Cole received the ball and drove forward, and then passed it to Anelka in front. Anelka began to dribble the ball along the wing to launch an attack. There is no doubt about the Frenchman's talent, as well as his personal ability. Extremely powerful, as he said himself, "What Henry did at Arsenal, I did it when I was eighteen." Unfortunately, his too willful character made him a failure in every club. There won't be very good results.
But at this time at Chelsea, Anelka was still in his honeymoon period. Every time he joined a club, he always performed very well at the beginning, that is when he started to get tired of it or his brothers started to want more money. , he started making all kinds of noises.
??Button, who came to fill the position, was beautifully shaken off by Anelka, and Richards caught up with him.?'s physical fitness and reaction were excellent. Anelka did not continue to break through with the ball. Instead, he made an emergency stop and distributed the ball to the center. Lampard followed up and directly shot the ball from a long distance. Slightly higher than the beam.
"Chelsea also launched a counterattack It seems that in this game, both sides have a strong desire to attack!" The commentator said nonsense. In such a final, defense alone is definitely not enough, and both sides are about the same strength and have both offensive capabilities. He is relatively strong and will rarely just use defense to survive the ninety minutes. Dick will not do this even more, because in his opinion, there is no need to use such embarrassing tactics to deal with the current Chelsea, as long as he plays normally and catches the opponent. Weaknesses, it is not difficult to win.
Grant is definitely not as good as Chelsea. As a result, Chelsea's tactical changes and on-the-spot adjustments will become very rigid. Although they still have many stars, they are unable to display their true strength. !