Chapter 206: Hazard’s transformation plan, No. 9 and a half?

After winning Norwich, Chelsea's league ranking rose one place, which is a very happy thing for the whole team.

Mourinho's way of celebrating for everyone was very simple, drinking, and Mourinho even personally took the players to drink in Cobham.

Not only Mourinho, but also the team's assistant coach Brown, fitness coach Rozovic, and of course physiotherapist Sean, they all joined the celebration party at the Cobham base.

It has to be said that as the team's coach, Mourinho's approach was very smart. He took the players to drink, which not only eased the conflict with Terry before, but also improved his impression in the minds of other players.

This is like using food to train circus animals. If you do well, you will be rewarded with food. Mourinho gave the players a psychological hint through alcohol: If you play well, I won't stop you from drinking.

Moreover, there is another advantage of drinking with the players. Hazard drank a few bottles and Terry drank a few bottles. These were all witnessed by Mourinho. There is no way Mourinho would let these guys get drunk.

"Come on, Jose, cheers!"

Terry clinked glasses with Mourinho while holding a glass of Riesling wine, which seemed like an apology for what happened before. Mourinho did not refuse and drank three glasses of wine with Terry.

"for Chelsea!"

"Cheer!"

Although the two had some unhappy friction in the locker room before, these were nothing compared to the future of the team. Terry has played in the Premier League for so many years, and he still knows the truth of respecting the coach.

After toasting with Terry, Mourinho asked Brown to fill his glass, then walked straight to Jiang Yuan: "Mr. MVP, our Player of the Month, can I toast you a glass?"

"Of course!"

Jiang Yuan picked up his own small cup, and the dark red liquid inside was the familiar blood orange juice!

Gurgling.

Jiang Yuan drank it in one gulp, then put the cup aside: "Jose, do you remember our previous agreement..."

"whats the matter?"

Mourinho was stunned for a moment, then reacted: "Oh! You are talking about that, of course I remember it, don't worry, since you have completed the goal I set, I will definitely let you go"

If Jiang Yuan hadn't reminded him, Mourinho might have forgotten their previous agreement.

Mourinho said at the time that if Jiang Yuan scored double digits, he would allow Jiang Yuan to return to China to play. He was actually joking. He was actually looking for an excuse to keep Jiang Yuan in Cobham. He didn't expect that this guy's number of goals really reached double digits.

And it's not just about reaching double digits, 13 goals in 13 games, 2 more than Aguero, who is second on the scorer list.

It’s hard to imagine that Jiang Yuan is Chelsea’s new signing this season.

"I've taken a look. We have four games in January. You can take a look at the schedule then. You can still participate in some of the games. As for which specific games you will play, you can let Mendes and our management discuss it. You don't have to worry about the management not letting you go. With your results, those old guys won't dare to say anything."

Mourinho gave his advice.

Jiang Yuan could understand Mourinho's concerns. Chelsea was now at the most critical time in the league, so he should try to play as many games as possible.

According to Jiang Yuan's idea, he might be able to fight on two fronts like he did in Porto before. After all, the U23 Asian Cup is not a high-intensity competition. For Jiang Yuan, it is just a training class.

So Jiang Yuan took the wine glass from Mourinho, poured almost one-third of it into his own glass, and then drank it all in one gulp.

"Wow! Boy, didn't you say that minors can't drink?"

"This glass of wine is for Chelsea and you. Blood orange juice is delicious, but it doesn't have the same meaning as wine. I promise you that I will play in any game I can."

"it is good!"

Mourinho put his hand on Jiang Yuan's shoulder, his face slightly red. The Portuguese's alcohol tolerance is average, maybe even not as good as Jiang Yuan's, but this does not affect his enthusiasm and love for alcohol.

At noon the next day, Jiang Yuan called Zhao Yang and made it clear that he could participate in the competition.

"That's great. Don't worry, the Football Association will reimburse you for your airfare. Just buy a first-class ticket!"

When Zhao Yang learned that Jiang Yuan had obtained permission to participate in the competition from the club, he was extremely happy.

"The airfare is a small matter, I will pay for it myself. But don't be too happy, the club still gave me some restrictions. My current situation is that I can definitely go to Qatar, but I am not sure how many games I can play. You know, the club will put pressure on me."

The reason why Jiang Yuan had to pay for it himself was because the several thousand pounds for a first-class cabin was nothing to him, and instead of asking the Football Association to reimburse him, it would be better to do him a favor, which would be of great benefit to his reputation.

“Understandable, understandable”

Zhao Yang responded repeatedly, saying that his job was to get Jiang Yuan on the roster, and that it had nothing to do with the IOC as to how many games Jiang Yuan would play. What mattered to the IOC was whether the U23 team could get into the top three and get a ticket to the Rio Olympics.

"That's it. By the way, don't rush to announce my participation in the competition. The club and my agent still have some negotiations to do."

"Of course, if the negotiations are over, Mr. Jiang, remember to call me. Any time is fine, don't consider my time, just call me whenever it's convenient for you."

……

"Who should I call?"

Hazard licked the salad dressing on his hands and cast a puzzled look at Jiang Yuan. In Hazard's memory, Jiang Yuan always used English or Portuguese when making phone calls. This was the first time he heard Jiang Yuan communicate in Chinese.

"Nothing, keep eating."

Jiang Yuan shook his head and pointed at the half burger left on Hazard's plate: "You still haven't finished the other half!"

"I'm eating now, don't be in a hurry. Eat slowly."

As he spoke, Hazard carefully grasped the outer edge of the burger with his left hand and put it into his mouth.

Monday: Angus beef burger + salad dressing, Tuesday: Angus beef burger + ketchup, Wednesday: Angus beef burger + salad dressing...

And so on, a cycle of two days, this is what Hazard eats every day at noon in addition to the food customized by the nutritionist.

Originally, Hazard ate the simplest McDonald's fried chicken burger, but later, Mourinho considered Hazard's health and asked the chef at the base to add a special dish for Hazard, which is the Angus beef burger in the hands of the Belgians now. This thing is a bit expensive, selling for 35 pounds each in London (with a cup of Coke), but it is considered the healthiest among all burgers.

"correct!"

Azar licked the salad dressing on the corner of his mouth and suddenly said, "Jiang, remember the new Asian guy in the cafeteria last month? He made a new dish. I tried it and ate it with condensed milk. It tasted good."

"What dish?"

Jiang Yuan knew that there was a new Asian chef at Cobham. He was very excited at first, but later he found out that this so-called Asian chef had lived in Canada since he was a child and couldn't speak Chinese at all, which made Jiang Yuan lose all interest.

“Chinese style sugar-free bread!”

"What?"

After saying that, Azar ran to the front desk of the restaurant, greeted them and brought back two plates, along with a dish of the chef's secret thick condensed milk.

After taking a closer look, Jiang Yuan finally understood what this so-called Chinese sugar-free bread was.

Isn’t this just a steamed bun?

"Jiang, this is for you!"

Hazard handed over the plate in his hand.

The ceramic plate worth £120, paired with a small white steamed bun, looks quite incongruous.

Hazard carefully picked up the "Chinese sugar-free bread", wrapped it in condensed milk and put it into his mouth, while constantly muttering words like "good" and "nice".

"Um... Actually, we usually eat this in the morning, and we don't use condensed milk."

"Do you want to eat it directly without adding condensed milk? The taste of this thing is a bit bland, but it still has some sweetness when you put it in your mouth and chew it directly."

Hazard blinked, and from his expression it seemed that he wanted to go to the front desk and ask the chef to make another one.

“We usually have soy milk... and fried dough sticks”

"Soy milk? Fried dough sticks?"

Hazard uttered these words with difficulty and was about to get to know Jiang Yuan in depth, but was called away by Mourinho who suddenly walked into the cafeteria.

"Eden, come to my office for a minute, you're alone!"

???

Looking at Hazard opposite him, Jiang Yuan frowned: "Eden, did you go to the bar outside to drink?"

"How can it be!"

Hazard spread his hands with an innocent look on his face.

"Stop talking, just go. When you come back alive, I will tell you what fried dough sticks and soy milk are."

……

The head coach's private office is on the second floor of the main building at Cobham.

"Eden, sit!"

Mourinho smiled and motioned Hazard to sit down on the sofa opposite him. The two had known each other for a while, so Hazard didn't refuse and sat down next to Mourinho.

“Are you comfortable playing as a left winger?”

? ? ? In terms of the art of speaking, apart from the Dutch coach Ten Hag, Mourinho is definitely the number one now. The first sentence he said after sitting down directly confused Hazard.

"Jose, I am a left winger, why do you ask me if I am comfortable playing?"

Hazard frowned, but he didn't seem as nervous as imagined. On the contrary, Mourinho, the Portuguese coach, was now sweating profusely.

"If I asked you to go to another position, would you agree?"

"hiss--"

Hazard took a breath and said: "You want to put me on the right? To be honest, I don't have much opinion on what position to play. Judging from the performance this season, Jiang should have the right to choose the position first. But you should know that I won't have any outstanding performance on the right. I'm not a two-foot player, which is crucial."

Mourinho's words would cause a storm in the hearts of any other Chelsea player, but not Hazard. It's not that this guy has a strong heart, but he is just like that. Even when he was eliminated from the Champions League last season, he didn't shed a tear.

There are two things whose personalities are very similar to Azar. One is the capybara in the zoo, and the other is the giant Buddha in Lingyin Temple. Like Azar, they will not respond to external stimuli.

When the team suffered three consecutive defeats at the beginning of the season, more than a dozen newspapers across Europe pointed at Hazard and cursed him, but Hazard acted as if he couldn't hear them. He drank when he was supposed to drink and ate hamburgers when he was supposed to eat. The comments of the reporters had nothing to do with him.

"No, no, no, I'm not asking you to go to the right, I mean, I want you to play in William's position"

Seeing that Hazard was in a stable mood, Mourinho maintained his straightforward way of speaking.

"Attacking midfielder? When I was in the youth training of Lille Club, my coach at that time asked me to play as an attacking midfielder. It turns out that I am not good at this position. I don't have long-range shots, and I don't have the dispatching ability like William."

Mourinho touched his nose and said: "It's not a complete attacking midfielder, it's a 9 position. You don't need long-range shooting ability in this position. You can dribble through the middle. As for the frontcourt dispatch... this thing can be trained very quickly."

"Jose, so you want me to play as a 9? A 9 needs to cooperate with two strikers and a top striker. We have two strikers, Jiang and William. But Diego... he is not a signature striker, his fulcrum effect is not strong."

Hazard's view is relatively objective. Diego Costa has strong shooting skills, but his height of 1 meters is still not enough in the Premier League. You must know that many central defenders of Premier League teams are around 88 meters. In this case, Costa, who is just over 1 meters tall, cannot attract too much defense in the frontcourt.

The No. 9 and a half player needs to dribble the ball forward in the middle, but this tactic cannot be implemented if the team's center forward is not attractive enough to the defending players.

In addition, Hazard himself does not have the ability to pass the ball in the frontcourt like William, so playing in the No. 9 and a half position is undoubtedly a self-defeating move.

"Don't worry, I'm just telling you what I think. You don't need to rush. Go back and finish the remaining quarter of the burger."

Mourinho waved his hand, signaling Hazard to go back, but when the Belgian stepped out of the office door, Mourinho suddenly remembered something and added: "By the way, you need to train with William for half an hour every day from now on!"

After Hazard left, Mourinho, sitting on the sofa, took a big gulp of beer. There is no doubt that this was a risky negotiation.

If they are ordinary players, such as Falcao and Kennedy, Mourinho can directly let them change their positions, because they are substitutes themselves, and changing positions in the middle of the season will not have much impact on the team's current results.

But Hazard is different. He is Chelsea's main force, even the core, and a top player whose technical characteristics are almost perfect. For such players, there are almost no examples of transformation in football.

Ferguson transformed Ronaldo? That was when Ronaldo first transferred to Manchester United, and he was only 18 years old at that time. But Hazard, the Belgian superstar, was already 25 years old, and at this time he changed from a left winger to a No. 9 and a half. If the transformation fails, Chelsea will definitely collapse this season, and Hazard will probably also rot.

Of course, if Mourinho really wants to transform Hazard, he will face many obstacles. First of all, the players themselves, people's hearts are very complicated. Hazard looks indifferent on the surface, but if Mourinho really does that, Hazard will definitely resist.

Then there is the management. According to the way Abramovich manages the team, if Mourinho really wants to put his ideas into practice, he will definitely be blocked by Abramovich.

"Hey……"

Thinking of this, Mourinho sighed.

It’s really hard to be the head coach of a wealthy club!

……

From players to coaches, the entire Chelsea team has their own little ideas.

Two flowers bloom, each showing its own beauty, and everyone's little thoughts have to be put aside.

Because Chelsea's Champions League group stage is coming!

11:25 am, November 3th, Beijing time, Sammy Ofer Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel.

"Zhuangdianertai, Zhuangdianertai!"

"Here is a live broadcast of the 2015th round of the 16-5 UEFA Champions League Group G match between the Super League team Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Premier League team Chelsea."

"The last time the two teams met was at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge. At that time, Chelsea defeated their opponents with a hat trick from the team's striker Jiang Yuan. But today, the two teams meet at the Maccabi Tel Aviv Stadium. What will be the final result? This is still unknown."

"The referee is already looking at his watch!"

"The game begins! Let me introduce the starting lineups of both teams. First up is the home team, Macca Tel Aviv, wearing yellow and blue striped jerseys, attacking from the right side of the screen to the left side."

Maccabi Tel Aviv (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Rajkovic
Defenders: Elie Daza, Tal Ben Haim, Carlos Garcia, Ben Harouch
Midfielders: Nosa, Alberman, Dor-Peretz

Forwards: Tal Ben Haim, Zahavi, Rican

Head coach: Jokanovic

"Then the visiting team Chelsea, wearing pure black jerseys and pure black shorts, attacked from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen!"

"..."

To be honest, Maccabi Tel Aviv's home stadium is a bit small, with a total seating capacity of just over 2.

This kind of small stadium will make the field look a bit small, as if playing 9-a-side football. Of course, it only looks small, as the Sammy Ofer Stadium is an 11-a-side stadium that complies with FIFA standards.

The 20th minute of the game!

Chelsea, with a possession rate of up to 62%, now has the ball. Fabregas decisively passed the ball to Matic, who then passed it to Hazard.

"Fast! Fast!"

Mourinho was urging Hazard from the sidelines. He wanted Hazard to run faster, and Hazard was very strong. He started to accelerate directly after a kick of his right foot.

"Get to the front!"

William waved his hand, signaling Costa to press forward, while he followed closely behind Hazard on the right, ready to receive the ball at any time. As an organizing midfielder, this is what William needs to do.

Having just played against each other last month, Maccabi Tel Aviv has not let down its guard against Hazard, so when Hazard gets the ball, Ben Haim returns to defense as quickly as possible and defends with Nosa, with the aim of reducing the possibility of Hazard completing an explosive attack on the left as much as possible.

But using this tactic can only mean that Jokanovic was taking things for granted. It is true that Chelsea is a team that is good at utilizing the individual abilities of its players, but you absolutely cannot ignore the players' ability to cooperate.

"Azpilicueta moves forward. The distance between him and Hazard is very close now. Look at Hazard's choice. He passes the ball back to Baba, who passes it to William. William passes it straight and Hazard gets the ball again!"

"Beautiful! Chelsea's midfield played a quick pass between three players on the left, helping Hazard get rid of Nosa and pass the opponent's half! Now Hazard is approaching the baseline"

"Look at the middle and right lanes. Costa and Jiang Yuan are running forward little by little. William in the middle slowly runs to the left lane and makes a crossover with Jiang Yuan."

"Hiss - this season, we often see William and Jiang Yuan crossing positions. This tactic is not uncommon in the top leagues, but it has to be said that it is very effective. Once the crossing positions are formed, the offensive players who take the initiative to run will be in a state of no one guarding them for a short period of time."

"Hazard is at the baseline, one-on-one with Eli Dasa, trying to go inside, Maccabi's defense is shrinking little by little"

"Inverted triangle pass, Jiang Yuan stopped the ball before Albertman and shot directly with his left foot!"

"Wow!"

The home team fans at the scene breathed a sigh of relief as Rajkovic saved Jiang Yuan's volley.

Chelsea's corner kick opportunity is taken by Matic!
If you watch football often, you will find that when defending corner kicks, Maccabi Tel Aviv has more defensive players on the left. This is not accidental, but a deliberate arrangement by head coach Jokanovic.

Because Hazard has no heading ability, Chelsea basically does not kick Hazard's position when attacking from corners, which is the front point in this corner kick.

However, since the opponent focuses all their defense on the front point, it is necessary for Matic to look at the back point.

The referee blew the whistle and Matic raised his hands and started to run.

Later point!

The Blues players on the field received the signal and started running back. Hazard knew that he could not win the header, so he simply ran out of the small penalty area to give Zouma and Costa more space to run.

"Snapped!"

As expected, the corner kick taken by Matic flew to the back post. In an instant, there was chaos in the Maccabi Tel Aviv penalty area, and players from both teams began to push each other.

At the front position, Zouma jumped with Ben Harouch on his shoulders, but unfortunately he misjudged the speed of the falling ball, and his head did not reach the ball after jumping up.

But it doesn't matter, because Costa successfully got the ball to his left. As a center forward, Costa's first reaction must be to shoot directly, but because of Ben Haim's presence, his shot was interfered, so Costa passed the ball to Hazard on the left, Hazard passed it back, and the ball came to William's feet.

Just give it a kick!
The ball hit Garcia's ankle, refracted, and then fell in front of Zouma.

Seeing that he was about to be offside, Zouma let go of Garcia and rushed directly to the ball. He was already out of bounds, but he flicked the ball with his left foot and passed it directly to Jiang Yuan behind him.

!!!

Seeing the opportunity, Jiang Yuan's forward sense told him that he could not hesitate. He aimed at the far post and wrapped the ball with his right foot.

Shoot directly!

……

(End of this chapter)