Chapter 320 Winning Streak

Ye Qiu has always felt that there are two types of head coaches.

One type considers the team's problems from the perspective of the club's interests, like Arsenal's Wenger; the other type considers the problems from the perspective of the team's interests, like Ferguson.

I believe that many Manchester United fans will be dissatisfied with Ferguson's support for the Glazer family's acquisition of Manchester United, but Ye Qiu is not surprised at all that he did so, because Ferguson first considers the team itself, not the club.

If a team is likened to a sandwich cookie, the head coach is the cream between the two cookies, and the players and management are two cookies. Both sides want to squeeze towards each other, and the head coach is sandwiched in the center, so he can only withstand the pressure from both sides and keep each other in a state of balance.

Ye Qiu couldn't say which type he belonged to, but it was obvious that he clearly separated the team and the management, so the conflict between him and Abramovich would not affect his coaching of the team. This is his professional ethics.

As long as he is the head coach of Chelsea, he will work hard to lead the team and try his best to win every game, instead of using the team as a weapon to threaten the management like some other heads coaches do. That is not only a betrayal of his professional ethics, but also a betrayal of all the players who trust him.

Ye Qiu still remembers clearly that Bobby Hams once told him that if he wants to manage a team well, he must treat his players sincerely, understand them seriously, find out what they want, and then guide them based on this and try to meet their needs.

In fact, this sentence can also be generalized, that is, as long as Ye Qiu understands what the club management wants and he can bring what Abramovich wants, then his position as head coach is very stable.

Of course, if one day he feels that he can't do it, he will choose to leave without hesitation.

This is why he always asks for a clause of free termination of the contract in his contract!

The Premier League black money case had some impact on Chelsea, but Ye Qiu was able to control the locker room well and was not affected too much. After all, Pini Zahavi had never been able to reach into Chelsea's locker room in the past year or so, so his accident had little impact on the locker room.

On January 8, Chelsea faced Scunthorpe from the English League Two in the FA Cup Round of 64. As a result, they defeated the English third-tier league team 3:1 and successfully advanced to the next round.

In this game, Ye Qiu still used a large number of new players and substitutes, but Robert Huth performed very badly in the game. The German central defender, who has been frequently involved with Bayern Munich recently, was obviously in poor condition. The goal loss was related to him to a certain extent, but Ye Qiu did not blame him.

To be honest, Ye Qiu has always been very tolerant of young players' mistakes.

Compared with Chelsea's easy victory over their opponents, Manchester United was tied 0:0 at home by an amateur league team, which made the Red Devils fans at Old Trafford very angry. They directly booed the team during the game to vent their dissatisfaction with the team, believing that this was definitely not the performance that the Red Devils Manchester United should have.

Many fans know very well that if Manchester United wants to say goodbye to the embarrassment of not winning the championship in the Premier League, Chelsea is far ahead, and the FA Cup and League Cup are undoubtedly the places where the team should focus the most.

Ferguson's idea is obviously the same. He obviously did not give his all in the FA Cup, but in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final against Chelsea four days later, he gave his all to fight, striving to take advantage of the home advantage in the League Cup and directly kill Chelsea.

Perhaps because the team has been under great pressure recently, or perhaps because of the team's targeted tactical arrangements, Manchester United played very tough in this game, and it can even be said to be barbaric and unscrupulous.

Beep~~~~

With a crisp whistle from the referee, the ball was judged to be out of bounds, close to the Manchester United penalty area!

Drogba didn't get this point just now, he looked a little depressed, without waiting for his teammates to catch up, he rushed out of the boundary line and came to the billboard, wanting to send out the ball as soon as possible and resume the game as soon as possible.

Recently, the outside media have begun to hype the news of Shevchenko joining Chelsea. Rumors that he didn't score many goals and was not worthy of Chelsea have also appeared in the media, which has become the most eye-catching focus besides the black gold case.

Although Ye Qiu personally called him to the office a few days ago and promised him that he was still Chelsea's center forward, as long as he was still in Chelsea, no one could shake Drogba's position. This promise made Drogba feel relieved.

But he also knew that when the head coach promised him, Ye Qiu himself was also under great pressure, so Drogba kept telling himself that he must score more goals and work hard to score goals, so that he could resolve the suspicion and doubt from the outside world.

It has to be said that the Ivorian is a bit naive on this point, because he doesn't know that even if he scores more goals than Shevchenko, the Ukrainian is still a superstar, and Drogba will still be questioned.

Cristiano Ronaldo rushed out of bounds just now to fight for the ball, but failed to grab the ball, giving Chelsea a chance to get close to the penalty area. He was very depressed and kicked the ball directly, hitting the billboard and bouncing back. At this time, Drogba ran over quickly and bent down to pick up the ball.

When Cristiano Ronaldo saw Drogba trying to pick up the ball and Chelsea players were already pressing up quickly, he immediately kicked the ball behind him, leaving Drogba empty.

This obviously provocative action made the Ivorian a little annoyed. After standing up from the ground, he pushed Cristiano Ronaldo to the ground with both hands. The Portuguese was caught off guard and was pushed to the ground by him, while the ball was picked up by Drogba and caught in his hand.

"A good-looking guy!" Drogba cursed angrily and turned away.

But just as he turned around, Ronaldinho also got up from the ground, rushed over, and pushed Drogba from behind.

The Ivorian was not mentally prepared for this sneak attack, and was pushed so hard that he staggered and almost fell down. He immediately turned around and glared at Ronaldinho like an angry tiger, ready to rush forward.

At this moment, Fortune rushed in between the two. This South African player was abused by Drogba a lot in this game. At this moment, he stood in front of Ronaldinho and reached out to push Drogba again, "Hey, don't be so arrogant, this is Old Trafford, not your Stamford Bridge!"

Drogba was in a rage and was pushed again. He immediately went to the nearest Fortune and slapped his hands away. Then he stretched his hands forward and directly grabbed his throat, "Fuck your fucking Old Trafford!"

Fortune was pinched by Drogba so hard that his neck was almost broken. He couldn't breathe. Fortunately, at this moment, Lampard, Ronaldinho and many other Chelsea players rushed up and pulled Drogba away with all their strength. Keane also pried Drogba's fingers apart at the first time.

The reborn Fortune obviously realized at this time that not everyone can stand up for their teammates!

The referee ran over quickly and immediately separated the players of the two teams who were gathered together. He called the two captains, Keane and Terry, and said, "You all go back and look at your teammates carefully, especially Manchester United..." Perhaps seeing Keane trying to explain, the referee shook his head and said, "I saw it clearly, no need to explain, OK?"

Keane and Terry both nodded in agreement, and then the referee walked over and showed a yellow card to Drogba, Ronaldinho and Fortune respectively, and specially left Fortune, "Not giving you a red card doesn't mean anything. I hope you can control your temper. If it happens again, I will give you a red card!"

Drogba and Ronaldinho were obviously excited. At this time, anyone should stop them instead of adding fuel to the fire. If Fortune rushed up just to block the two people, or to separate the two people, he would not get a card at all, but he obviously pushed Drogba, which caused his foul.

However, it is obvious that Manchester United fans are not satisfied with the referee's decision. They think that the referee is biased towards the visiting team. So when a dead ball happened, the fans directly confiscated the match ball and refused to return it. Even when Chelsea players went up to ask for the ball, the home team fans in the stands responded with abuse and booing, which was really a bit ridiculous.

Ye Qiu kept signaling the players to stay calm and not be provoked by the opponent. At the same time, he asked the team to add two more wing attacks, which quickly opened up the situation for Chelsea.

After Ronaldinho got the ball, he quickly dribbled the ball from the left, but Manchester United seemed to be prepared for this. Keane blocked him here, but it was not so easy to cut off the Brazilian's ball. When Ronaldinho saw Keane, he immediately chose to stop and pass the ball to the left side of the penalty area.

Drogba quickly pulled to the side to receive the ball and suddenly started to go down the bottom. He broke through Gary Neville and Ferdinand and made a cross. Lampard quickly inserted and scored with a header from close range. Sylvester and goalkeeper Howard were unable to react. 1:0!

After the goal, Lampard and Chelsea players rushed out of Manchester United's penalty area one by one, running and cheering around the stands under the Old Trafford Stadium. They wanted to use this method to respond to the boos and abuses given to them by Manchester United fans just now.

"We scored a goal!!! Look carefully, we scored a goal!!!!"

Drogba and other players rushed to the camera on the sidelines, poked the Chelsea team logo on their chests, and shouted loudly. This scene was also captured by the big screen at the scene and presented to Manchester United fans, which immediately caused a wave of boos and abuses from the Red Devils fans.

But Chelsea was obviously unmoved. After temporarily leading 1:0 in the first half, they counterattacked again at the beginning of the second half. In the second half, Fortune made a malicious flying tackle on Drogba, but luckily escaped the referee's punishment. Ye Qiu was so angry that he kept waving his hands on the sidelines, protesting the referee's consideration for the Manchester United player who already had a yellow card.

If Fortune had followed this action, he would have at least been given a yellow card, or a red card and sent off.

However, Ye Qiu also felt that Ferguson was really risking his life in this game, because Manchester United had no hope in the league, and the opponent they met in the Champions League was AC Milan, and the possibility of winning the championship was not great, so they wanted to compete for the League Cup and the FA Cup now, especially the League Cup, which had already reached the semi-finals.

But what Ferguson didn't expect was that Ye Qiu was also determined to win the League Cup!

Last season, because the team's bench was not deep enough, and he was new to the team, Ye Qiu had to shrink the front line and strategically save strength in the League Cup and the FA Cup, but now Chelsea is strong and has a deep bench, so Ye Qiu naturally wants to fight on multiple fronts.

The two sides fought back and forth. In terms of strength, Manchester United is indeed not as good as Chelsea, but the Red Devils played at home and performed very tenaciously, and their actions were also relatively large, but Chelsea was not bad either. They were provoked by Manchester United and followed suit.

Both sides lost their minds to some extent, became full of gunpowder, and the game was out of the control of the head coach.

Finally, in the 67th minute, Drogba overpowered Sylvester and Fortune in the penalty area and headed Maicon's cross into Manchester United's goal, scoring another goal for Chelsea, 2:0!

But soon after, Manchester United also scored a goal, Giggs' goal changed the score for Manchester United to 1:2!

Ye Qiu and Ferguson both saw that it was not going to work, especially Ye Qiu, who immediately replaced Drogba with Gudjohnsen, then replaced Ronaldinho with Joe Cole, and replaced Rooney with Messi, completing the replacement of the frontcourt offensive combination.

Ferguson also made substitutions, replacing Fortune, Cristiano Ronaldo and Van Nistelrooy successively.

After the successive substitutions, neither side was able to score again. In the end, Chelsea defeated Manchester United 2:1 away, won the first leg of the semi-finals, and laid a foundation for advancing to the final.

But surprisingly, at the press conference after the game, both Ferguson and Ye Qiu chose to deal with the conflict in the game coldly. They attributed the conflict in the game to the conflict caused by the players' excessive pressure, and the referee's penalty was no problem and was respected.

This also made the media who were looking forward to seeing the two head coaches fight feel extremely disappointed.

But Ye Qiu and Ferguson have their own considerations. Even if Chelsea is in good shape now, the players have just experienced the Christmas devil schedule. The entire winter break has such a dense schedule and the players are under great pressure. It is useless to provoke such unnecessary disputes at this time.

Ferguson's team has not been in good shape recently, and he doesn't want to cause more trouble now, so it is better to deal with it coldly.

Facts have proved that the choices of Ferguson and Ye Qiu are correct.

After the first round of the League Cup, the Premier League ushered in the 23rd round.

Ferguson brought his Red Devils to Anfield to challenge Benítez. As a result, Manchester United, which has been in poor form recently, defeated Benítez's Liverpool 1:0 away. You know, Liverpool has won all the games except the one against Chelsea in the entire Christmas schedule, and its ranking has been rising all the way.

Ye Qiu observed this game, but he became more determined about Liverpool, that is, Benítez's team is afraid of defense and counterattack.

Or it should be said that no team is not afraid of defense and counterattack, but the problem is that Liverpool's offense is not good, and the problem of ball advancement has greatly restricted the Red Army's offense.

When playing against strong teams, they play defense and counterattack, and can use Xabi Alonso and Gerrard's long pass counterattacks, plus the counterattacks of forwards such as Pongler, Cisse and Baros, to cover up the problems and defects in ball advancement to the maximum extent.

But when playing against weak teams, the problem of poor offense caused by the broken ball advancement will be exposed by the team with excellent defense.

In this game, Manchester United just shrank their defense, and Liverpool was unable to do anything to Manchester United throughout the game. In the end, they were defeated by Manchester United's counterattack. This has to be said to be a great warning to Ye Qiu.

There is a saying that is very true: a clay pot is hard to break away from the well, and a general is bound to die on the battlefield.

A good swimmer drowns in water. Liverpool's defeat is not only a warning to the Red Army, but also a warning to Chelsea.

Although Chelsea is now in a booming situation, all fronts are advancing in parallel, which is very glorious, but in fact, the glory covers up many problems of the team. Often, the more glorious the situation is, the more you need to stay calm and rational, otherwise, once the problem is exposed, it may be fatal.

Not long after Manchester United defeated Liverpool, Chelsea defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2:0 away. Lampard and Ronaldinho's goals helped the Blues capture the White Hart Lane Stadium. The team finally tied Arsenal's best record of 14 consecutive wins in the Premier League.

On the other hand, Arsenal lost 0:1 to Bolton in an away game. Although the Gunners still maintained the second place in the league, the points gap between them and Chelsea quickly widened to 14 points. Everyone knows that this is a gap that is unlikely to be caught up.

Of course, the premise is that Chelsea will not capsize due to carelessness.

After playing against Tottenham Hotspur, Ye Qiu said in a high-profile interview with the media that the team will continue to work hard.

"I have made no secret of my desire to create a record of consecutive wins in the history of the Premier League. I believe the players do the same. We hope to create history, and we also hope that the team can continue this winning streak and unbeaten record."

"Many people have said before that our unbeaten season is a coincidence. I will not refute this, but now we have won 14 games in a row. We will not only challenge the historical winning streak record, but also the 57-game unbeaten record created by Arsenal!"

"This is one of my goals, and it is also one of the pursuits of all our Chelsea players!"