46: Ranieri's Tactics!

The first half was over shortly after Van Dijk scored.

The players of Leicester City were in a good mood and walked into the team's locker room talking and laughing.

They almost dominated the game in the first half, with only a lapse in corner defense that allowed Van Dijk to score a goal.

Other than that, they had no other worries, in their opinion.

They didn't score in the first half, in addition to Van Dijk's excellent performance, it also had a lot to do with their luck.

After all, Van Dijk can't defend everyone by himself.

Fuchs and Albrighton also had good chances.

But in the end, it was either obtained by the goalkeeper, or he was in the stands.

...

"In the second half, Ulloa come on, your task is not to score, but to contain Van Dijk."

"Vardy, you and Ulloa pay attention to changing positions flexibly, let Ulloa deal with Van Dijk, and you go to Wundt."

"Wundt just played a full Euro Cup play-in four days ago, and then he came to England non-stop, his physical fitness will definitely not keep up with your physical fitness."

"We have to admit that Van Dijk is a good centre-back, but he's also just a centre-back."

"He can guard one, he can guard two, but he can't guard three. Four."

"Mahrez, you go out to warm up and I'll play you in the second half."

"This game, my goal is to take away a point."

"If you can take away three points, this is the best thing."

In the locker room, Ranieri arranged tactics according to the situation in the first half.

Relatively speaking, the atmosphere inside Leicester's dressing room was very relaxed.

It's not that they were inflated. After all, from the perspective of the first half, Southampton's tactics were basically no.

The only goals scored were opportunities created by Mane and Van Dijk through their individual abilities.

Throughout the first half of the game, Leicester City's shooting data was 13 shots on goal, with five on target.

Southampton had two shots on target, two on target and one goal.

But looking at it this way, it was obvious that Southampton is more powerful and had a stronger grasp.

But anyone who watched the first half of the game would think that Leicester City would take away the final victory of the game.

Because they have players like Rocky Vardy, Mahrez, Albrighton, Kante.

And what about Southampton? If it weren't for Van Dijk's wonderful performance, I'm afraid Southampton would have lost the ball long ago.

...

The second half began, with Leicester City players re-emerging on the pitch.

Unlike the first half, Ranieri directly replaced two players at halftime.

Making substitutions in midfield doesn't require substitutions, but not many coaches in the world do.

But he did it anyway.

As for Okazaki Shinji, will he be unhappy?

Ranieri doesn't care.

Just a mere Okazaki Shinji, he thought he was Rocky?

Ulloa replaced Okazaki Shinji, Mahrez replaced Schlupp, and Fuchs, who had previously played at left-back, moved back to play at left-back.

In this way, Leicester City's lineup was formed.

Ulloa was a very obedient and good player. At the beginning of the game, he and Van Dijk "posted" one-on-one so that Van Dijk had no chance to help Wundt in defense.

In terms of physical fitness, Ulloa, was definitely not much worse than Van Dijk.

In addition, after the consumption of the first half, Van Dijk's physical energy consumed a lot, so for a while, he really couldn't get rid of Ulloa's entanglement.

In desperation, Van Dijk could only ask the referee for help.

But the referee on duty for the game, Paul Tierney, couldn't do anything about it.

After all, Ulloa did not foul Van Dijk, nor did he make any outrageous moves.

He was only a little closer to Van Dijk. As a referee, Tierney will naturally not give Ulloa a yellow card because of this.

And verbal warnings were nothing to Ulloa at all.

In this way, Ranieri's substitution had achieved results, at least in the next ten minutes, Van Dijk will not be able to get rid of Ulloa.

"Despicable! Despicable tactics!"

"Why not give this player a yellow card?!"

"He's interfering with my players, keeping my players from playing!"

After Koeman, who was standing on the sidelines, saw this scene, he came to the fourth official with a sense of crisis and scolded him angrily.

The fourth official just glanced at Koeman and ignored him.

This made Koeman even more angry.

He scolded a few swear words directly, and then saw Paul Tierney, who was on the court, running towards him.

Without any hesitation, Tierney took out a yellow card from the pocket of his shirt and showed it to Koeman.

"Next time, it's a red card."

Leaving this sentence coldly, Tierney returned to the court.

Koeman, on the other hand, held back his anger, glared fiercely at Ranieri who was not far away, and returned to his coaching bench to think about countermeasures.

After all, Van Dijk was so important to Southampton.

Koeman was sure that Wundt, who was old and physically unable to play the full game, was definitely not Vardy's opponent.

Soon, Koeman's worries became a reality.

Kante slipped to the ground in his midfield and broke the ball from Mane's feet.

Then, Kante got up and passed the ball to Mahrez who was waiting.

Although a little tired, Mahrez, who was still light, passed Cedric Suarez directly through his crotch.

Then, Mahrez came to Southampton's penalty area line.

Mahrez, who was going to shoot directly, glanced at the defender in front of him. His left foot shot couldn't bypass Wundt not far away, so Mahrez passed the ball directly.

Not far away, Vardy, who was firmly leaning on Wundt with his back, successfully got the ball.

However, under the restrictions of Wundt, Vardy had no way to turn around and shoot.

In addition, Cedric Suarez, who had just been passed by Mahrez, also came up to help defend, so Vardy passed the ball directly.

About three meters away from Vardy, Rocky was coming.

Rocky looked at the incoming ball, first a La Croqueta ball passed over Cedric Suarez who came up to press.

The poor Southampton right-back was passed twice in just one minute.

After that, there was no more interference in front of Rocky, he kicked the ball without hesitation.

This time, it's not a Curve ball, but an extremely violent shot.

"Boom!"

A loud bang came out.

Then, Southampton goalkeeper Kelvin Davis saw a white shadow flashing in front of him.

When he reacted, the ball had been scored.