http://www.chelseafc.com/article.asp?id=179034
A game of two halves…
Monday, Dec 29, 2003
Normal service has (thankfully!) been restored at the Bridge. It’s been
said many times before but yesterday’s encounter was definitely a game of two
halves: Portsmouth being the happier in the first and Chelsea winning the
second. Both managers were unanimous on that point.
“I was thinking after Frank hit the post that maybe today we don’t find
the net,” said a philosophical Claudio Ranieri reflecting on the midfielder’s
powerful shot just before half-time.
The 41,552 crowd, second only to that at the Manchester United game,
watching the Portsmouth rearguard deal with everything thrown at them, would
surely have agreed with him.
“First-half, we were a little anxious and Portsmouth started very well.
They played with one striker and five midfielders and we played with Gronkjaer
and Geremi wide and suffered a lot in the middle. Against three of them, I had
only Makelele and Lampard,” continued the Chelsea head coach.
Harry Redknapp’s game plan was simple: flood the midfield and stop the
Blues from playing.
“Today we’ve played that way for the first time, with five across
midfield. I wanted the two wide people to push on and meet their full-backs
high up the park. Their spare man was going to be one of the central defenders
and my spare man was going to be one of my central midfield players. First-half
, it worked a treat,” he explained.
“At half-time, I thought there was something in the game for us. I
thought we’d done our job closing them down. They were causing us no problems.
I felt very confident we wouldn’t get beat here today. And just after
half-time, we had a great chance to score as well.”
From Chelsea’s point of view, it was just a pity that we had to play the
first-half. With a 12.30 kick-off, Blues fans would have been better off with
the extra hour in bed.
After a dismal first-half performance, the Tinkerman resisted the
temptation to change personnel and, in fact, for the first time this season,
the eleven that started also finished the game. What he did, however, was
switch to 4-3-3, pushing Gronkjaer up with the forwards and tucking Geremi
into a more midfield role so that Chelsea were three against three in midfield.
Dismissing suggestions that it was Marcel Desailly’s poor performance at
Charlton that had given William Gallas a start alongside John Terry, Ranieri
explained: “If I was looking to change players because of the Charlton
performance, then I would have nobody. But with two matches so close together
, it’s difficult when you are 34. Also today Portsmouth didn’t play
Sheringham. Your recovery takes a little longer than the younger people.”
Redknapp’s tactics were dealt a savage blow when, seven minutes into the
second-half, another veteran, Steve Stone, excellent in the first-half, came
off with a hamstring injury.
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※ 編輯: JamesCaesar 來自: 203.67.126.151 (12/30 01:28)