On August 29, at 15:00 pm London time, the fourth round of the Premier League match between Bournemouth and Leicester City officially started at Dean Court Stadium.
After the game started, Chu Zheng, who was sitting on the bench, kept his eyes on Kante, Drinkwater, and Andy King. He wanted to know the intention of Ranieri's sudden change of tactics and starting lineup.
But after watching for a while, Chu Zheng still had no clue.
On the field, after the team changed to the 4141 formation, the players' movements on the field were very flexible.
Sometimes when attacking with the ball, the formation on the field will become 433, and sometimes it will become 442 and 4231 when defending.
In short, Ranieri's tactics today were very elegant, very flexible and changeable.
Therefore, the positions of Kante, Drinkwater and Andy King are not fixed and will rotate among each other frequently.
Sometimes Kante even appears in the opponent's penalty area.
Although the flexible formation and changing player positions will make it more difficult for Bournemouth players to defend, Chu Zheng feels that there are pros and cons.
Through observation, Chu Zheng quickly discovered that there was a problem with the operation of his own midfielder on the field, that is, the authority was not clear enough.
In addition, there is another fatal point, which is the problem of the midfielder passing the ball forward.
Based on Chu Zheng's understanding of the passing abilities of Kante, Drinkwater and Andy King, he felt that these three were not as good as him.
Kanter is more biased than he was when he first arrived at Wolfsburg.
On the sidelines, Ranieri frowned unconsciously.
As a head coach, how could he not see the problems that Chu Zheng could spot.
He had considered the consequences before deciding to do this test before the game.
But compared to being able to liberate and fully stimulate Chu Zheng's offensive talent, he can't afford to lose a game.
But judging from the game situation in these ten minutes, he personally believed that the tactical experiment to liberate Chu Zheng that he had devoted himself to studying could be declared a failure.
On the field, when Leicester City started attacking with the ball at Bournemouth, the three midfielders Kante, Drinkwater, and Andy King occasionally had unclear responsibilities, resulting in occasional sudden concessions.
Bournemouth's attack suddenly hit from the center.
Fortunately, Kanter is here, and this guy's super defensive ability has begun to take shape.
Ranieri saw this and was filled with wonder and joy in his heart.
After getting to know Kanter during this period, Ranieri became more and more fond of the French midfielder.
His running skills, precise tackling, interception ability and game reading ability are top notch.
He looks short, but his body is really not bad. He often makes the opponent flip over when defending.
Just when Ranieri was in a mess, Leicester City's crisis suddenly broke out on the field.
In the 24th minute of the game, Bournemouth received a side kick on the left side of Leicester City's penalty area.
Bournemouth forward Wilson made a quick start and threw the ball directly to Bournemouth midfielder Lee Tomlin who moved from the ribs.
At this time, Leicester City is in a 442 defensive formation, with two lines of defense in the midfield and back, one retreating into the penalty area, and the other right at the top of the arc, and they are very closely connected with each other.
Drinkwater quickly followed up from the ribs after seeing it.
But before he could get close, Tomlin quickly turned to the right and used the outside of his right foot to knock the ball back to Bournemouth left center midfielder Andrew Surman in the rib area at the front of the attacking third.
Andrew Surman received the ball and looked for Gradel, who was standing in front of Huth on the left back line at the top of the Leicester arc and had already turned to drill to the left side of the penalty area.
But Andy King reacted quickly and quickly moved to the left, cutting off the connection between the two.
Andrew Surman was forced to pass back to the center.
After continuous passes tore through Leicester City's defense, the ball came to the center of the top of the arc.
Kanter quickly turned around and retreated, directly biting Matt Ritchie who was dribbling the ball laterally, and then scooped the ball out cleanly.
The ball fell to the feet of Drinkwater who was surrounding him.
At this time, the Leicester City midfielder's lack of forward vision and unclear authority were once again exposed.
Drinkwater, Andy King, and Albrighton passed the ball to each other in front of the top of the key, but they did not pass the ball forward.
In the end, Kante withdrew, and after getting the ball, he directly separated the sides, pointing out the direction of attack for Leicester City.
However, Mahrez's first kick after receiving the ball widened the ball, causing Andrew Surman, who was retreating along the middle, to fall and sweep the ball back to the left front edge of the top of the arc.
After Gradle got the ball, he quickly turned and split to the left.
Bournemouth left back Charlie Daniels stepped in and took the ball directly down the pitch, and then without saying a word, he passed the ball low.
De Laet was in position very quickly. He rushed to the baseline in time and raised his foot to touch the ball.
However, it was his touch that caused the ball to rise directly to the center of the small penalty area.
Wilson was right at the landing point. When he saw the ball falling, the guy fell back and hooked the ball directly into the Leicester City goal.
The moment the goal was scored, countless fans in the stands on all sides of Dean Court stood up with their arms raised high, causing the stadium, which could only accommodate more than 10,000 fans, to be greeted by waves of terrifying noise.
On the sidelines, Chu Zheng directly covered his face. This goal was really unfair.
Kante intercepted the ball just now, and Drinkwater should have played the ball forward as soon as he got the ball.
Chu Zheng could see clearly that there were three lines on the field the moment Drinkwater took the ball, but it was a pity that this guy didn't see any of them.
On the sidelines, Ranieri also smiled helplessly.
After the halftime break, before the start of the second half, Ranieri decisively replaced Drinkwater and Andy King with Chu Zheng and Shinji Okazaki.
With the emergence of Leicester City's classic 442 formation, the horn of attack has officially sounded.
The changes Chu Zheng brought to Leicester City after he came on the field are gratifying.
Problems such as the blind forward ball and lack of clear responsibilities in the first half disappeared, and the Leicester City fans in the stands cheered up.
On the court, Kanter also felt extremely relaxed.
In the first half, Kanter felt like a headless fly in the midfield with no one to point him in the right direction.
It's okay now. As soon as Chu Zheng came up, these problems disappeared without a trace. He only needed to defend behind Chu Zheng.
In a word, if there is a tall person in front of him, he will not panic!
In the 49th minute of the game, Mahrez picked up the ball from the wing and saw that Vardy in front had pulled aside and was looking back at him, so he stuffed the ball directly.
But Bournemouth left back Charlie Daniels saw through Mahrez's intentions and intercepted the ball in time.
But in a hurry, he stopped the ball wide.
Chu Zheng was right in the ribs, quickly sprinted to meet the ball, and stabbed the ball to the side before Charlie Daniels. Then he turned a blind eye to the oncoming Charlie Daniels.
Then Charlie Daniels was directly knocked to the ground by Chu Zheng.
After killing Charlie Daniels, Andrew Sullman, who was behind Chu Zheng, also came over.
On Chu Zheng's side, after catching up with the ball, he directly used an action similar to the Marseille slalom to successfully complete the turn, trapping Andre Sulman behind him.
Then Chu Zheng sent out a very penetrating kick to the ribs.
At the moment of passing the ball, Vardy penetrated from the sideline of the penalty area and shot directly into the far corner of the goal.
"Whoa!"
The ball successfully bypassed Bournemouth goalkeeper Boruc's fingers, hit the lower edge of the crossbar and bounced into the net.
"The ball has been scored!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Zhan Jun's voice suddenly became louder and louder.
"This is Chu Zheng, the powerful Chu Zheng!!"
"As soon as he came on, he immediately sorted out Leicester City's chaotic midfield and launched a fierce offensive!"
In the LeTV live broadcast room, Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu were overjoyed to see Chu Zheng's wonderful performance.
Leicester City fans were also celebrating at the scene. They all believed that Leicester City could overtake the score and win the game.
However, this was actually the last goal of the game.
After equalizing the score, although Leicester City attacked very fiercely, Bournemouth focused on defense and used a dense formation to deal with Leicester City.
So much so that the six shots planned by Chu Zheng were either saved by the goalkeeper or blocked by defensive players.
In the end, Leicester City had to regretfully make peace with Bournemouth.
After the game, the Leicester City Evening News directly criticized Ranieri for being a monster in this game, accusing Ranieri of neglecting the already formed and capable lineup and insisting on conducting some messy tactical experiments.
Ranieri didn't say a word, but sincerely admitted his mistake on his personal social media platform, which made the media punch the cotton in the face.