Chapter 44: I don't need to bully the fullbacks

Everton manager Roberto Martinez returned to his seat after shaking hands with Carlo Ancelotti.

He unzipped his coat and smiled confidently.

But in fact, he was a little uneasy in his heart.

In this game, Manchester United is the main team, except for the central defender position, Phil Jones replaced the injured Rojo, the other positions are the absolute main members of Manchester United this season.

Manchester United's performance in the Premier League this season has been so strong that Martinez is inevitably a little nervous.

Because of Everton's squad, Baines and Cleverley missed this game due to injury, and there are two absolute main players missing, which has a great impact on Everton. Thankfully, centre-back John Stones returned from injury and was in time for the game.

Although the media showed the data of the two sides before the game as a reference for this game. Manchester United's record at Goodison Park in the last two years has not been good. Manchester United's last three visits to Goodison Park have all been defeated without scoring a single goal.

But Martinez knew that the data didn't give him any reference value. Because Manchester United this season and Manchester United in the previous two seasons are not the same team at all, Ancelotti's Manchester United has built an offensive and defensive system around Li Qingshan, which has allowed them to win eight consecutive Premier League games in the past!

At this time, the players were already lined up on the court, waiting for a group photo before the game.

Martinez saw the black-haired Chinese at a glance.

His foreign trade and figure make him extremely conspicuous among the white and black people.

To be honest, until now, Martinez has not come up with any tricks to deal with Li Qingshan. This is actually normal, the other party has such personal ability. If you want to defend Li Qingshan, relying on some improvised tricks is more risky, and only by relying on the strength of collective defense can Li Qingshan be restricted.

Of course, if he wants to completely defend the other party and let Li Qingshan have no chance at all, Martinez certainly won't have the luxury of hope. But defensively, relying on the collective, as much as possible to cut off the connection between Li Qingshan and other Manchester United players, so that he has fewer chances to get the ball, this is what Everton is working towards.

As long as Li Qingshan has fewer chances to get the ball, naturally Li Qingshan will have fewer chances to shoot in the whole game. In terms of probability, the possibility of Li Qingshan scoring a goal has become less.

Football is not all a bunch of cold statistics, the state of the players, the momentum on the pitch will affect the outcome of a game.

Don't give Li Qingshan any chance at all, there should be no team in this world who can play this package ticket. So Martinez is betting, betting on a probabilistic thing. Li Qingshan has scored in eight consecutive Premier League games, and this is the ninth. Previously, Li Qingshan averaged 6.8 attempts on goal per game, 3.3 of which were within the range of the goal, and the average number of goals scored per game was 1.8. Li Qingshan's average shots per game is also ranked first in the top five European leagues, with Cristiano Ronaldo averaging 6.2 shots per game, Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero averaging 5.1 shots per game ranking third, and Barcelona striker Messi ranking fourth with 4.9 shots per game.

The number of shots on goal can also show the player's status in the team, and there is no doubt that Li Qingshan has unlimited right to fire at Manchester United.

For Martinez, this data is still useful, that is, Li Qingshan can score a goal with nearly four shots on goal. This goal efficiency is also the highest in Europe. Li Qingshan shot a lot, but he also went in a lot.

If Everton can successfully reduce the number of times Li Qingshan has the ball in this game, let Li Qingshan have fewer times to get the ball in this game, and let him shoot less in Everton's defensive key areas, it is best to let Li Qingshan not shoot more than four times in a game, so that in terms of probability, Everton's defense can be regarded as successful.

Of course, in addition to defending, attacking is also part of the game.

Martinez also has his ambitions when he faces a strong Manchester United at home.

Everton's attack will undoubtedly rely on the little monster Lukaku.

Before the start of the game, Martinez spoke to Lukaku in order to boost his morale.

It's just that what Martinez doesn't know is that even without his incitement, Lukaku is full of fighting spirit for the direct dialogue with Li Qingshan in this game.

For Lukaku, Li Qingshan is both an opponent and a target to catch up.

After all, from the point of view of body shape, Lukaku and Li Qingshan, they are about the same height and weight, and they are the same age, and they both play the position of center forward.

There is no doubt that Lukaku's starting point is higher than Li Qingshan, when Li Qingshan was in the amateur league, Lukaku was named "Drogba's successor" by Chelsea, and by the way, he was nicknamed "Little Monster".

At that time, when Li Qingshan entered professional football, the achievements he achieved were beyond Lukaku's reach.

Champions League winners, Champions League top scorers, Champions League best players, La Liga winners, La Liga top scorers, La Liga single-season league goal record holders...........

Although Lukaku is very confident in his strength, he will still unconsciously be a head shorter in front of Li Qingshan, who is staring at so many halos of honor.

This mentality of his own made Lukaku feel very angry. But how to vent this anger, in a game, defeating Li Qingshan head-on is the best opportunity!

Therefore, Martinez's pre-match efforts are destined to be in vain, because Lukaku's fighting spirit has already burned, and where is Martinez needed to add this firewood.

...........

During the handshake between the players of the two sides before the game, Lukaku's heartbeat began to accelerate when he approached Li Qingshan.

This is the opponent he wants to chase and defeat!

After Li Qingshan stretched out his beard, Lukaku also stretched out his hand.

"I'll beat you!"

As he stretched out his hand, Lukaku said with a determined gaze.

But the sound at the scene was noisy, and Li Qingshan did not hear what Lukaku said to him clearly. He was about to turn around and leave, but suddenly he heard Lukaku say something, so he turned around and asked with some uncertainty: "Huh?" What did you say? ”

Lukaku's eyes froze.

He had been looking forward to this moment for a long time, and he even simulated this scenario before the game. The speed with which his hand was outstretched, the tone of his voice. He even specifically practiced the phrase he uttered.

I'll beat you!

In order to be able to tell the momentum, he also specially referred to similar episodes in many movie plots, imitating the expressions of the characters in them, the speed of speech, and so on.........

He originally imagined that this would be like the meeting of two lifelong enemies in the movie, what a ceremonial moment it was. How did you think that Li Qingshan's reaction was actually this?!

Li Qingshan turned his head with a surprised and puzzled expression, and inadvertently ruined Lukaku's pretending to be forced.

Lukaku decided to adjust his form and do it again, but Phil Jones, who was next to him, let out a snort, once again making Lukaku pretend to fail........

The referee had already begun to urge the players of both sides to hurry back to their respective halves, and Lukaku could only glare at Phil Jones, and then let go of Li Qingshan's hand, which he had been holding for several seconds, and ran back to his own half.

Li Qingshan pursed his lips and turned around and ran towards his own half.

"What did this fool just say?" Li Qingshan turned his head to Phil Jones and asked.

"He said he was going to beat you." Phil Jones shook his head and laughed.

Defeat Li Qingshan?

To Phil Jones, this is simply delusional. As a teammate, he knows Li Qingshan's strength best.

Li Qingshan also laughed and didn't take Lukaku's words to heart.

.........

"Oh!! What a fierce confrontation!! The commentator screamed and Lukaku and Phil Jones collided and the referee's whistle didn't blow, which he thought was a reasonable collision.

Lukaku quickly regained his centre of gravity and regained control of the ball. Phil Jones didn't show weakness either, and quickly posted it.

Neither side complained about the referee, and no one sat on the ground and raised their hands in protest.

This kind of body collision is really too common and normal in the Premier League.

Lukaku took the ball with his back and pulled the ball with his right foot, turned around and fired a shot straight at goal, which was confiscated by De Gea.

As soon as the game began, Lukaku had a shot on goal.

"Lukaku looks very excited, he has a strong desire to shoot today!"

Although the goal was missed, Lukaku's attempt was met with a full house of fans.

Lukaku didn't regret the football after seeing it confiscated by David De Gea, and he didn't expect a tentative shot like this to break the back of the net from De Gea's handle.

Everton, who played at home, were very positive, but Manchester United did not enter the form at the beginning.

De Gea threw the ball hard and tossed it to Fellaini.

However, Barry, a 33-year-old veteran in the Everton team, took advantage of the moment when Fellaini stopped the ball a little bigger, and stepped forward to poke the ball away!

Romelu Lukaku is the core of Everton's attack, but his style is not the same as Li Qingshan, despite his height and body, Lukaku's header is not too good.

Lukaku's range of activity is also greater than that of Li Qingshan, and he pulled to the wing, stretched out one hand, and leaned on full-back Sandro.

In terms of physical confrontation, Lukaku may not have much advantage against Hummels or Phil Jones, but if he pulls to the wing and bullies the full-backs, then he has a lot of advantages.

That's how Romelu Lukaku plays.

Barry passed the ball to Lukaku, who faced Sandro's defence and forced his opponent with his body and speed. Although Sandro's physicality and pace were not too bad at full-back, Lukaku gave him a physical confrontation and immediately turned to the bottom, and the unprepared Sandro was still passed by Lukaku.

Lukaku turned the ball back to goal after a successful pass, and Ross Barkley, who followed up in the middle, was ready to shoot, but Hummels reached out and kicked the ball off the other sideline.

'It's been less than five minutes since the start of the game, but we can all see Romelu Lukaku who is quite active. In fact, Romelu Lukaku has scored seven goals in eight Premier League games, ranking behind Li Qingshan and joint second on the scorer list with Manchester City's Sergio Aguero. Perhaps it's because Li Qingshan's terrifying statistic of scoring fourteen goals in eight rounds is on top of it, making us all ignore Lukaku's ability. In fact, he is a top striker in the Premier League, and Manchester United cannot let their guard down on this Belgian! ”

The commentator was full of praise for Lukaku's performance.

Before the game, many media compared Lukaku and Li Qingshan, but the data gap between the double reversal and anti-dumping was too big, and this topic was not stirred. No one is going to do a multiple-choice question between Lukaku and Li Qingshan - a fool knows how to choose.

Lukaku hugged his head and regretted it for a while, and then he glanced at Li Qingshan with some smugness.

Although Li Qingshan has scored more goals than him, Lukaku does not think that Li Qingshan is better than him everywhere. For example, just now Lukakula made a threatening pass after he went to the wing, and Li Qingshan rarely showed such a performance.

Compared to Lukaku, Li Qingshan prefers to stay in the middle and stay in the opponent's penalty area.

Li Qingshan is indeed impressed by Lukaku's just series of performances, at least in his heart, Lukaku is no longer a "passerby", but an opponent worthy of his attention.

However, he was unimpressed by Lukakula going wide to bully the full-backs.

Because, Li Qingshan's body is strong enough, he doesn't need to bully the fullbacks, because Everton's central defenders can't help him.

Everton's touchline ball was cleared, but the attack quickly went to naught. United got the ball back.

........

In the eighteenth minute, Manchester United passed the ball all the way from the back to the front.

Mata stuffed the ball to Li Qingshan, and Stones followed, not daring to be careless.

Stones didn't want to have any physical confrontation with Li Qingshan, but Li Qingshan didn't take the initiative to lean in as he wanted.

When he knocked Stones with his back and didn't react, Li Qingshan took the opportunity to complete the turn and took the ball to face the goal.

Then Li Qingshan made a gesture with his right foot to push out, and then pushed the ball to the left with the inside of his right foot, and shot directly with his left foot.

Stones desperately tried to block the ball with his head. But he didn't make it.

The left foot is not Li Qingshan's main foot, so the power of the shot is not as great as his right foot. But even so, the ball is still very fast.

Everton goalkeeper Howard struggled to his right, only to watch as the ball slipped around his palm.

Then it went into the back of the net.........

‘GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL！！！！！！！！！！！！ ”

Accompanied by the roar of the commentator, Li Qingshan opened his arms and celebrated the goal.

He glanced at Lukaku, who was a little frustrated.

Lad, I don't need to go to the side.

Because, I can bully your centre-backs.