Green Journey

Chapter 211 Walking silently amid doubts!

A week later, on October 10, in the 24th round of the Premier League, Leicester City ushered in the challenge of Crystal Palace, who is sixth in the Premier League standings, at the King Power Stadium.

Crystal Palace is currently sitting firmly at sixth in the Premier League standings, and their strength has actually been recognized by the Premier League media.

Unlike Leicester City, Crystal Palace has played against Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham and other strong teams in the previous rounds.

In these four games, except for Crystal Palace's 2-1 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, the remaining three games were all small losses.

Although they lost the game, their strength on offense and defense should not be underestimated in the game.

Ranieri didn't know what was the reason for this game. He put Huth on the bench and let Chu Zheng start as the right center back.

Chu Zheng didn't have any reluctance, he knew that Ranieri was probably secretly practicing one of his ideas.

After the start of the game, the offensive and defensive transitions of both sides were extremely fast, defensive counterattacks, both wings flew together, and high-altitude bombing frequently appeared on the field.

Mahrez also returned to the starting lineup in this game.

The midfielder is Delint Walker and Kanter partner.

Although it doesn't have the strong midfield dominance shown by Chu Zheng and Kanter's partner, it is still very good.

Drinkwater, who is also both offensive and defensive, played extremely well. He cooperated with Kanter in the midfield many times to successfully intercept and block Crystal Palace's offense.

On the front line, Ranieri replaced Shinji Okazaki in this game, and replaced Ulloa and Vardy as partners.

Although the game was played extremely fast and fiercely, watching the adrenaline of the fans soared, but no goals were born.

Leicester City has a slight advantage in terms of ball possession rate, number of passes, number of attacks, and shots on target.

On the Crystal Palace side, they actually launched quite a few attacks, but it was a pity that Chu Zheng was in Leicester City's defense today.

Facing the attack of Crystal Palace, Chu Zheng teamed up with captain Morgan, Simpson and Schroop to defuse Crystal Palace's crosses from the side, long shots from the front of the penalty area, inverted triangles from the bottom, penetration from the ribs and other attacks one by one.

Especially Chu Zheng's personal performance shocked countless Leicester City fans.

This is the first time for Leicester City fans to watch Chu Zheng play as a central defender. They did not expect that they directly raised the level of Leicester City's defense.

In the 45 minutes of the first half, Chu Zheng used defensive methods such as steals, blocks, and clearances to prevent the equally fast-attacking Crystal Palace from getting a single shot on target, completely failing to threaten Schmeichel.

In the past, the defensive line was very easy to be confused once it was hit, which led to the phenomenon of missing people, but it didn't happen once in the first half.

Especially Chu Zheng's miraculous sense of position, he can block the ball in the most dangerous position every time.

As long as the Crystal Palace players shoot, only Chu Zheng is on this side, you will definitely see Chu Zheng on the line that the ball must pass.

The 51th minute of the game.

Kanter, Mahrez, and Simpson tried to penetrate the four-man defense zone on the wing of Crystal Palace through consecutive kicks on the right side of the offensive third area.

However, when Kanter pushed the ball straight to the right side of the penalty area, Mahrez failed to form a tacit understanding with Kanter, allowing Crystal Palace left back Martin Kelly to get the ball.

After winning the ball, Crystal Palace immediately launched a counterattack.

Martin Kelly crossed Cabaye, the right midfielder of Crystal Palace at the top of the arc in the middle.

Cabaye turned around after receiving the ball, trying to transfer the ball to the right half, but as soon as he turned around, he saw Vardy rushing from the top of the arc.

So he quickly passed the ball forward to the left, avoiding Vardy's grab in time.

In the middle, Crystal Palace midfielder Jason Ponjon took a few steps diagonally to the left half after getting the ball, and suddenly he kicked through.

Immediately, the ball went straight through Leicester City's midfield defense, and the ball passed between Kanter and Drinkwater impartially.

The moment Jason Ponjon passed the ball, Bakary Sakho, the Crystal Palace midfielder behind Simpson in the left half of the half, buried his head and sprinted.

In the rib area on the left side of the top of the arc, when Sacco caught up with the ball, Morgan was also in place in time.

At this time, Chu Zheng also settled in time, but there was Crystal Palace striker Fraser Campbell in his right rib after following up and outflanking.

Chu Zheng didn't even look at Campbell, but stared at Morgan and Sacco who were about to confront each other.

On Morgan's side, he rushed back and slammed into Sacco, trying to push Sacco away with his body.

But Sacco's body is not weak, Morgan didn't bump all of a sudden, but he was pushed forward by the force of the rebound, almost lying on the grass.

After Morgan pulled his center of gravity back with his strong waist and abdomen, he turned around and blocked in front of Sacco.

Crossing the end line of the penalty area, Sacco saw that Morgan was not up for grabs, and Chu Zheng also cut off his connection with Campbell on the right side of the penalty area.

Just as Sacco was about to forcefully swing the angle to hit the goal, he suddenly found that Chu Zheng Chu Zheng didn't seem to completely block his pass to Campbell.

Although Chu Zheng cut off their horizontal connection, he can choose to pass the ball forward and diagonally to the front of the upper right corner of the small penalty area.

Sudden discovery of another option with a high success rate, Shaco's heart suddenly became excited.

The next second, he lifted his left foot and suddenly stuffed the ball over.

However, the moment he passed the ball, Chu Zheng suddenly took a step forward, and then accurately intercepted the ball at his feet.

At this moment, Sacco realized that he had been fooled, and that route was deliberately left for him by Chu Zheng.

Seeing Chu Zheng's wonderful interception, the King Power Stadium immediately burst into warm applause.

On the sidelines, Ranieri nodded.

He let Chu Zheng play central defender, in fact, he wanted to see how high Chu Zheng could improve the defense.

But Ranieri didn't expect that Chu Zheng's effect as a central defender would be so good that the fast-attacking Crystal Palace could not threaten their goal at all.

Seeing Chu Zheng's wonderful performance at the central defender position, Ranieri has more confidence in the upcoming fierce battles with the Premier League giants, and has a more secure tactical choice.

After the game against Arsenal, Ranieri realized that Leicester City's defense could not withstand the attack of the Premier League giants.

If you continue to attack those giants like the game against Arsenal, even with Chu Zheng in the midfield, you can play a lot of gorgeous offenses that are not inferior to the giants, but this still cannot make up for the lack of Leicester City's defense.

Ranieri doesn't want to compete with those giants who score more goals, he hopes that the team's defense can be stabilized.

Therefore, under Ranieri's various considerations, the scene of Chu Zheng playing central defender today came about.

Of course, this does not mean that Chu Zheng will definitely appear as a central defender in the match between Leicester City and the Premier League giants.

Ranieri will make a choice in their favor according to the situation!

After a while, Ranieri put away his thoughts and continued to pay attention to the game.

At this moment, the first and only goal of the game came unexpectedly.

In the 61st minute of the game, Chu Zheng broke the ball again on his right rib at the top of the arc, and then calmly returned to the penalty area.

Schmeichel kicked the ball to the middle circle of the frontcourt.

Crystal Palace right center back Scott Dann took off quickly ahead of Vardy and ferried the ball to left center back Hangeland in front of the arc in the center circle.

Hangeland didn't stop the ball, trying to pick the ball that bounced off the ground in front of him directly to Martin Kelly on the left front.

As a result, he overestimated his skills and underestimated the spin of the ball. He even missed the kick and picked the ball to Mahrez.

Seeing Mahrez take the ball, Vardy, who instantly realized the opportunity, immediately moved forward along the middle.

In the next second, Mahrez sent the ball to the sprinting Vardy with a well-timed through ball.

Entering the penalty area from the top of the arc, facing the attacking Crystal Palace goalkeeper Hennessy, Vardy lifted the ball lightly.

Seeing Vardy pass the goalkeeper, the King Power Stadium suddenly fell into a sea of ​​carnival.

In the next second, Vardy resisted left Scott Dann and calmly pushed the empty goal.

In the end, Leicester City won the Crystal Palace from afar with a score of 1-0.

But although they won the game, Leicester City was still publicly questioned by the English media that the team did not have the strength to compete for the Premier League championship.

Many media have conclusively stated that Leicester City's current tie for first place with Manchester City is just an illusion.

Once they encounter rich teams in a row, the bubble advantage that Leicester City has now created due to the friendly schedule will burst quickly.

Chu Zheng also heard about the media's doubts!

'Moving forward silently amidst doubts' he left an inexplicable message on his personal ins.

(End of this chapter)