The FA Cup match, for a Leicester City side aiming for promotion to the Premier League this season, was somewhat like chicken ribs.
Tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away.
Not to mention, the opponent was the Premier League giant, Chelsea.
Even if the opponents adopted a full squad rotation, Leicester City’s chances of winning this game would not be high.
Considering the high number of matches in the Championship and the extremely dense schedule.
After the coaching staff’s analysis, Pearson decided to undergo a massive rotation for the FA Cup.
Winning would be best, but losing was fine too.
“For this match, we’ll use a 4-2-3-1 formation, mainly revolving around Ling to organize our attacks…”
“Ling’s passing is our advantage, we can let him handle the corner kicks and free kicks in this match, utilize set pieces more…”
“Mahrez has been playing better and better, we can attack more down the right flank and have Ling link up with him more often…”
“Then who do you plan to start in the striker position?”
Hearing this question from his assistant manager, Pearson paused.
Among the personnel allocation for all positions in the Leicester City first team, the striker position was undoubtedly the most abundant.
Besides the stable starting forward partnership of Jamie Vardy and David Nugent, there were four other strikers!
Namely, Kevin Phillips, who won the Premier League Golden Boot and European Golden Shoe at Sunderland over a decade ago and was still grinding in professional football at the ripe age of forty; Gary Taylor-Fletcher, an old striker who spent years in the lower leagues; Chris Wood, the tall New Zealand center-forward; and Tom Hopper, a young striker promoted from the youth team.
Among these guys, some were too old, some were too young, and they were only adequate to play as substitutes in the Championship.
To actually have them start against a giant team like Chelsea would basically be equivalent to surrendering without a fight!
After thinking about it, Pearson made the final decision: “Since we’re adopting Plan B, let Jamie (Vardy) play!
Let’s see if he can have better chemistry with Ling Feng playing as the lone striker…”
…
Meanwhile.
London, Cobham Training Centre.
Inside the tactical room.
The Chelsea coaching staff, led by José Mourinho, was also holding a tactical meeting for the FA Cup match a few days away.
However, compared to the serious faces of the Leicester City coaching staff, the Chelsea coaching staff looked very relaxed.
Even if Leicester City was the leader of the Championship, they didn’t take them seriously.
You must know, they are “The Blues” Chelsea!
Sitting at the head of the table, wearing a blue Chelsea training tracksuit, Mourinho was looking down intently at the scout report on Leicester City.
Returning to Stamford Bridge after six years, “The Special One” Mourinho was a bit more calm and reserved compared to his unbridled arrogance when he first arrived in England.
And his black hair had long since turned gray.
Having won the Treble at Inter Milan and the title with 100 points at Real Madrid, Mourinho on his second stint was still the helmsman trusted the most by the team owner Abramovich!
And Mourinho did not disappoint the expectations of the team owner and fans.
Although the team had a rough start at the beginning of the season due to integration issues.
However, after entering December, as the team meshed together and the tactics gradually perfected, the team got back on the winning track.
Since their two-to-one victory over Crystal Palace in the sixteenth round, the Blues under the Portuguese manager went on a terrifying run of six wins and one draw around the incredibly dense Christmas schedule!
In the last league match, the Chelsea led by Mourinho defeated the “Red Devils” Manchester United with a score of three-to-one, witnessed by forty thousand people at Stamford Bridge.
Besides consolidating their third-place position, they were also in hot pursuit of league leaders Arsenal.
With a chance to fight for the league title and having entered the Champions League knockout stages, Chelsea’s situation this season could be described as excellent.
However, amidst their high morale, a hidden crisis lurked.
Because with Chelsea’s current squad depth, they simply couldn’t handle competing on multiple fronts.
After going through the devilish Christmas schedule, most of Chelsea’s main players showed obvious signs of physical exhaustion, and a few players also suffered from injuries.
Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup…
At times like this, choices had to be made.
And as one of the most successful managers in world football today, Mourinho couldn’t be more familiar with this kind of situation.
Slowly raising his head, he very easily made his decision:
“For this FA Cup game, we will do a full rotation!”
With the premise of having a chance to fight for the Premier League title, naturally, they had to focus their energy on the league.
As for the FA Cup and League Cup, just fielding substitutes and youngsters to gain experience would be enough.
If they accidentally made it to the semi-finals, it wouldn’t be too late to send out the starting lineup then.
Drawing the “Blue Foxes” in the FA Cup was the first time Mourinho would manage a team against Leicester City.
Although he didn’t know much about this opponent.
However, no matter who the opponent was, Mourinho never let his guard down.
Casually putting down the pen in his hand, Mourinho looked up, his sharp eyes shooting towards his assistant José Morais: “José, let’s begin!”
Hearing this, Morais, sitting opposite him, nodded, stood up, went to the computer, and started operating it.
Soon, match footage began playing on the projection screen.
The footage being played was exactly the highlights of the latter half of the last match between Leicester City and Stoke City!
After playing that, assistant manager Morais continued playing another match video.
And this video was the highlight reel of Leicester City defeating Leeds United away a few days ago.
While playing the videos, assistant manager Morais paused the playback from time to time to analyze and explain to the rest of the coaching staff:
“In these two matches, their number 23 player Ling Feng came off the bench in the second half.
And after he came on, Leicester City’s formation changed from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1…”
“This eighteen-year-old youngster is brimming with talent.
Especially his passing, which is very threatening.
In one cup game and two league games coming off the bench, he was able to average two key passes per game…”
“According to my analysis, in the upcoming FA Cup match, this number 23 is very likely to start, and will definitely become the core of their tactics…”
“So, we absolutely must not drop our guard!”
Listening to his assistant’s analysis, Mourinho, watching Ling Feng’s match footage for the first time, was already deeply captivated by Ling Feng’s on-pitch performance!
Ripples were already forming in his heart!
In his eyes, this Leicester City number 23 was absolutely a genius with extraordinary potential!
Extremely rational positioning, broad vision, highly creative passing, and the demeanor of a general when controlling the team’s tempo…
All of these made Mourinho silently marvel.
He even mentally compared Ling Feng to the top midfielders he had managed in the past.
Deco, Sneijder, Özil, Xabi Alonso…
Then, he was surprised to find that this eighteen-year-old youngster’s passing, vision, and off-the-ball runs were not inferior to those top midfielders at all.
At this point, a hint of doubt couldn’t help but rise in Mourinho: In an England filled with rough-and-tumble players, there is actually such a creative player?!
(END CHAPTER)