12: Targeted Rocky!

"Hello everyone, welcome to the second round of the Premier League, the Hammers help West Ham United against the Blue Fox Leicester City."

"Presumably, many viewers in front of the TV are like me, waiting for this game for too long."

"Tell you something that, Rocky, is still the starter today. You can watch it with confidence."

Two commentators who were half awake began explaining.

After all time difference is something really annoying.

Hearing their words, many fans who were sitting in front of the TV, ready to drink or two while watching the game, laughed happily.

Especially.

"Our son is really promising now."

"I didn't expect him to do something so bold. I guess he inherited it from you."

At Rocky's home, his father nodded with satisfaction, he never thought that his son would have such an achievement.

"After all, we spend money to play football here, while abroad they spend money to let him play football. Complicated things like this is not something people like me can understand."

"In addition, isn't he assisting the senior in the last game? It's a relief that he's playing today."

Rocky's mother, looked lovingly at Rocky's face on the TV, her tone was full of pride.

Now all the colleagues in their unit knew that they have a good son who has gone abroad to play football.

Colleagues who had been disgusted when they heard Rocky playing football before had changed their view of him since last match.

After all, for all asian parents, only study will keep you earn a stable job and life.

What sports! It's a waste of time and money.

Of course, by chance if someone got lucky and has permanent ability to survive then he'd be stable for life.

"It's on, the game is on."

Abhishek, Rocky's father was about to say something, his expression became serious, and he turned to look at the TV.

...

There was no difference between Leicester's starting and last game.

And West Ham United was a 5-3-2 formation.

The defender plays as a midfielder, and the two protective midfielders are responsible for sweeping and assisting their team core Payer to pass the ball.

This tactic had the same effect as the tactic just laid out by Ranieri.

That was to allow the midfielder who was the core of the team to pass the ball comfortably, organize the attack, and even shoot.

But West Ham manager Slaven Bilić was more straightforward.

It can be said that he almost handed over the entire team's offense to Payne alone.

The rest just need to be responsible for playing with Payne.

With the referee's whistle, West Ham United, who got the right to kick off, officially kicked off.

The players on both sides moved quickly to take positions.

And Rocky also found something wrong.

West Ham United's two midfielders, Noble and Kouyaté, completely gave up the idea of marking others, and stuck to him.

Noble and Kouyaté and Rocky kept a distance of less than half a meter.

This distance was very comfortable, they can easily come up and press his ball, forcing him to fail or lose the ball.

And they can also receive a pass from a teammate and start an attack quickly.

It had to be said that the head coach of West Ham United, Bilić, had an idea.

Apparently he watched Leicester and Sunderland.

He found that one person couldn't completely restrain Rocky's passing, so he sent two midfielders directly.

At the same time, he also understood that this would give other Leicester City players a better chance, so he arranged a five-back formation to face Leicester City.

Whether it's Mahrez, Vardy, or Shinji Okazaki, without Rocky's help, they can't break through the defense of these five people at all.

On the sidelines of the coaching bench, Bilić clasped his hands and was proud of the tactics he had thought about.

He turned his head to look at Ranieri.

Old man, I made a move, now let's see how you deal with it.

On the other hand, seeing Rocky, who was double-teamed by two West Ham United midfielders just after the start of the game, Ranieri's expression was very ugly.

In his tactics, Rocky was undoubtedly the absolute core, controlling the direction of the team's ball possession.

But being so targeted by Noble and Kouyaté, Rocky was unable to bring the ball to the frontcourt, and could only pass back and cross some nanny balls.

This greatly reduced his passing ability.

Coupled with the formation of West Ham United's five backs, Ranieri could rely on fast horses on the wing, and Mahrez can't gallop.

"Bilić gave me a problem."

Ranieri looked at his assistant and sighed.

For a while, Ranieri didn't know what tactics to deploy to deal with Bilić's targeting and free Rocky.

"Boss, what should I do?"

Andy looked at Ranieri, and he could see the team's predicament. If Ranieri couldn't do anything, then it was only a matter of time before Leicester City lost the ball.

"Look first and see how they respond."

Ranieri touched his forehead, and he didn't know what to do.

...

On the field, Rocky only felt that he was playing very hard.

Noble and Kouyaté were left and right, looking at themselves like two goalkeepers, not letting themselves dribble the ball easily.

In the frontcourt, Vardy, Okazaki Shinji, and Mahrez couldn't find good opportunities to face the five backs of West Ham United. Their running was almost useless.

Sometimes Rocky sees good opportunities and struggles to get the ball out, but neither Vardy nor Okazaki could get it.

Rocky's pass looks like it's a pass to the opposing team.

"It can't go on like this."

"You must find a way."

As soon as Rocky had such thoughts, he saw that something happened to Mahrez on the wing.

Cresswell, who was in charge of defending Mahrez, saw Mahrez's idea of passing him.

A direct shovel grab.

Mahrez was caught off guard and was shoveled to the ground.

But because Cresswell tackled the ball first, it wasn't a foul.

Cresswell, who got up from the ground, rushed forward with the ball at high speed.

Noble and Kouyaté, who were originally beside Rocky, abandoned him in an instant and rushed towards the penalty area of Leicester City.

Soon, Cresswell hits a snag.

Schlupp appeared in front of him.

Cresswell passed the ball to Noble, who took two steps and passed to Kouyaté.

Kouyaté was only fifteen meters away from the goal at this time.

He faked a real pass, dunked the ball, turned over to block Morgan, and passed the ball to Payne in front.

After Payne got the ball, he exerted force on the spot, and the inner side of the arch formed a perfect arc.

Little Schmeichel jumped high, trying to catch the ball.

but...

The ball rubbed Schmeichel's fingertips and flew into the goal.

The ball went in.

Twenty minutes later, West Ham United scored the first goal at home.