Crystal Palace's opponent in this game, Birmingham, has also introduced many good players during this summer transfer period.

Benefiting from Mourinho's purge at Chelsea, Birmingham took the opportunity to pick up many high-quality and cheap players.

Among them are winger Glenjar, Dutch defender Melchiot and Finnish forward Fussell.

In addition, they also introduced England international forward Heskey from Liverpool, midfielder Anderton from Tottenham Hotspur, midfielder Izet from Leicester City, and Chen Ran allowed free transfer

Former Crystal Palace midfielder Gray.

In addition, the team also has England international center back Upson. At least judging from the strength on paper, Birmingham is not a weak team that can be exploited by others.

Because after this game, the Crystal Palace can have five days of rest, so Chen Ran does not need to think about the subsequent games for the time being and sent all the main players to play.

center toney

Left midfielder Ronaldo, right back Ribery

Defensive midfielder Yaya Toure, defensive midfielder Modric, defensive midfielder Simeone

Left back Chiellini, center back Southgate, center back Vidic, right back Maicon

Cech

Birmingham's head coach Bruce also carefully studied Chen Ran's tactics. As soon as he saw Crystal Palace's main lineup, he knew that Chen Ran was adopting a defensive counterattack style.

However, Bruce remained unmoved and still resolutely implemented the bus tactic he had arranged before the game.

Except for forward Heskey, who was bought generously from Liverpool and stayed in the frontcourt, the other players were arranged by Bruce to defend in their own half.

Birmingham set up a 541 formation from the beginning. In order to defend against Crystal Palace's twin tower tactics, Bruce simply sent in three central defenders.

Following the referee's whistle, Chen Ran quickly discovered Bruce's arrangement.

He pinched his eyebrows, feeling helpless in his heart.

Now when these teams meet Crystal Palace, they all huddle behind the bus. This is completely the way to treat a strong team.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for Crystal Palace to use defensive counterattack tactics.

Seeing that Birmingham was resolutely defending, Chen Ran returned to the bench and sat down.

According to his usual style, any action would have to wait until the second half.

However, Chen Ran's habit has been noticed by many interested people, including Bruce from Birmingham.

Seeing Chen Ran's actions, Bruce was relieved. At least in the first half of the game, Crystal Palace should not launch an offensive.

Since Bruce deployed three central defenders early, Chen Ran knew that the opponent must be prepared for Crystal Palace's twin tower tactics.

In this case, Chen Ran did not send Crouch again during the halftime break.

Instead, Fabregas was used to replace Yaya Toure, and then Modric was pushed to the attacking midfielder position. The team changed to Guardiola's tactics.

On the other side, seeing that Chen Ran did not send Crouch, but replaced Spanish teenager Cesc Fabregas, Bruce immediately felt bad.

The Chinese didn't use the twin tower tactic this time? Then there might be something wrong with his arrangement.

In order to deal with Toni and Crouch of Crystal Palace, as well as the possible emergence of tall players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, the defenders chosen by Bruce are all tall and strong.

There is no problem for these players to defend headers, but their shortcomings are also obvious, that is, they are slow, slow to turn, and their bodies are not flexible enough.

Now Chen Ran replaced Cesc Fabregas and pushed Modric into the attacking midfielder position. It was obvious that he wanted to adopt a short pass penetration style, which immediately hit the weakness of the Birmingham defender.

Bruce knew something was wrong, and if he didn't make adjustments, something might happen.

So, he immediately called New Zealand international defender Clapham from the bench and replaced the tall defender Cunningham with him.

Seeing Bruce's substitution, Chen Ran felt happy. This guy had finally been fooled.

Birmingham's tall central defenders are just these three on the field, and there are no big men on the bench anymore.

Now Bruce has replaced one of them with the 175cm tall Clapham, which immediately reduced Birmingham's air defense ability a lot.

Chen Ran immediately called Crouch from the bench. After a brief warm-up, he immediately replaced Modric on the court.

The team's style of play has also changed from Guardiola to Southgate.

On the other hand, when Bruce saw Chen Ran driving Crouch away to warm up, he knew that things were going to be bad, and he was afraid that he had been fooled.

"Fxxxk!"

This Chinese is so cunning.

Bruce glared fiercely at Chen Ran in the distance.

But now he no longer has a tall defender to replace, and there is nothing he can do to make up for it.

what to do?

Just when Bruce was hesitating, Crystal Palace's offensive had already started.

Because Birmingham still retains Heskey's presence on the field, Chen Ran did not do as extreme as he did against West Bromwich Albion in the last game.

He just pushed the two full-backs Chiellini and Maicon up, while the two center backs stayed behind to guard Heskey.

Even so, crosses from the two wings began to be sent to Birmingham's penalty area.

The twin tower combination of Tony and Crouch finally showed its due power.

One shot after another began to threaten the Birmingham goal guarded by Taylor.

Bruce on the sidelines was anxious.

He knew that if the Crystal Palace was allowed to continue bombing like this, the gate of Birmingham would be lost sooner or later.

There is a saying that goes, "Sickness leads to medical treatment." Bruce's eyes accidentally caught sight of Heskey, who was doing nothing in the frontcourt, and he suddenly had an idea.

"Emil!"

Bruce shouted and gestured, calling Husky over.

"Don't stay in front now. Come back to our penalty area. You will be responsible for grabbing headers. Do you understand?"

"Okay, boss."

Heskey also knew that the team was in a difficult situation. After receiving Bruce's instructions, he immediately ran towards his penalty area.

On the other side, Chen Ran, who watched Bruce's every move on the sidelines, immediately understood Bruce's intentions.

This is to use the center as a defender.

Chen Ran thought to himself that Bruce was probably confused.

If he left Husky in front, he would still have some scruples and would not dare to attack with all his strength.

Hehe, now I feel embarrassed.

So, Chen Ran called Southgate over from the sidelines.

"Gareth, just like in the last game against West Bromwich Albion, you asked Vidic and Chiellini to go to Birmingham's penalty area to grab headers, and you stayed to guard against the opponent's counterattack. Do you understand?

"

"I understand, boss."

Not long after Heskey returned to his own penalty area, Crystal Palace's Vidic and Chiellini followed suit.

At this moment, Bruce was stunned.

He realized that he seemed to have made another mistake.

Heskey's return to defense certainly gave our team a high point to compete for headers, but at the same time it attracted two high points from Crystal Palace.

Calculated in this way, not only did Birmingham's defensive thickness not increase, but it also gave Crystal Palace more attack points.

The gains outweigh the losses in this special meow.

Just when Bruce wanted to let Heskey go back to playing forward, Crystal Palace had already broken through the goal guarded by Taylor.

This time it was Cristiano Ronaldo. After receiving a pass from Fabregas, he dribbled the ball along the left wing and passed the two of them and sent a high-quality cross into Birmingham's penalty area.

At this time, the Birmingham restricted area was crowded with people.

Birmingham's defenders strictly followed Bruce's arrangements and conducted man-to-man defense against several tall men from Crystal Palace.

However, due to Cunningham's dismissal, the one assigned to guard Chiellini now happened to be Clapham, who had just been substituted.

187cm versus 175cm, Chiellini completely crushed him.

And the ball landed exactly in the area where Chiellini was.

So, Chiellini easily grabbed the spot, made a beautiful lion's head, and headed the ball into the Birmingham goal guarded by Taylor.

"Goal..."

After a battle of wits and courage, Crystal Palace finally broke the deadlock on the field and led Birmingham 1:0.

Seeing the Crystal Palace players hugging each other to celebrate, Bruce really wanted to slap himself hard.

Because of his successive stupid moves, Crystal Palace scored. According to Chen Ran's tactical style, Crystal Palace will definitely retreat to defend and counterattack.

With Birmingham's strength, Bruce himself had no confidence in getting the score back.

Sure enough, after Crystal Palace took the lead, Chen Ran immediately called on his players to take the initiative to reorganize their formation and start defending.
To be continued...