Coaching legend

Just five days after playing Chelsea, Blackburn welcomed Shakhtar Donetsk, the opponent in the second match of the Champions League group stage, at home.

George would study every opponent carefully. Including Shakhtar Donetsk, whose name he had not heard much before.

Shakhtar Donetsk is the best team in the Ukrainian league besides Dynamo Kyiv. Shakhtar Donetsk certainly cannot be compared with Dynamo Kyiv, which is famous in European football. After all, Dynamo Kyiv was a Soviet powerhouse even in the Soviet era.

But in Ukraine, if Dynamo Kyiv is the boss, then Shakhtar Donetsk can say that I am the second.

Compared with Sparta Prague and young talents like Rosicky, Shakhtar Donetsk's players are basically composed of Ukrainian local players. Because there is not much money to recruit players, they don't even have the money to introduce Eastern European players who are close at hand.

And the Ukrainian league is not ranked in Europe at all. In addition, Ukraine is too cold. Those South American and African players will not go to Ukraine.

To put it bluntly, football is now a game of money.

If the Ukrainian club had money, not to mention Eastern European players, even South American and African talents would come voluntarily. But now there is no money, so everything is an excuse.

Therefore, Shakhtar Donetsk is very weak.

They can only collect local players in Ukraine. Ukrainian football is average, not to mention Shakhtar Donetsk, which is mainly composed of Ukrainian players.

Shakhtar Donetsk's style of play is very obvious that of Eastern European teams. The players are in good shape and the game rhythm is also very fast. Unfortunately, Shakhtar Donetsk forgot that the fastest game rhythm in the world is the Premier League. Blackburn, who trained in the Premier League, is least afraid of this rhythm.

So after the game started, Blackburn entered the state. It took Blackburn only seven minutes to lead one to zero with Pires' free kick. And Blackburn did not have any reservations. Just five minutes later, Drogba bumped and kicked the ball into the goal of Shakhtar Donetsk.

This is also Drogba's first goal in the European war.

It was also Drogba's fifth goal for Blackburn. But this goal was not scored by Drogba himself.

It was a long shot from midfielder Miku, which was saved by the goalkeeper and hit Drogba who was rushing forward, and finally rolled into the goal. And it hit Drogba's face, and Drogba hit it with his face.

After the ball went in, even Drogba himself was puzzled. When luck comes, it can't be stopped, and he can score in this way. After seeing the goal, Drogba also stuck out his tongue in surprise.

But with Drogba's goal, the commentator has begun to set the tone for this game.

"It seems that Lazio and Blackburn are set to appear in Group B. Lazio is currently leading Sparta Prague 1-0 at home. After two rounds of games, Lazio and Blackburn will both get six points. Sparta Prague and Shakhtar Donetsk have no power to fight back against Lazio and Blackburn."

"Now the biggest suspense in this group should be who will get the first place in the group, Lazio or Blackburn."

The commentator was right. At the end of the game, Blackburn ended the game with a high score of 5-1. Lazio also defeated Sparta Prague 3-0.

Both Lazio and Blackburn have six points, but Blackburn ranks first with an advantage of one goal difference.

From the beginning of the season to now, Blackburn has played a total of nine games. Blackburn has won nine consecutive games, which is the first time in Blackburn's history. Even in the 1994-95 Premier League championship season, Blackburn's performance cannot be compared with this season.

All media are highly praising the current Blackburn.

However, after the game, Williams talked to George about the contract renewal indirectly.

George soon understood. The news that Chelsea wanted to invite George reached Williams' ears. The football circle was not big, and any news could be spread. In addition, Chelsea's owner Bates was a famous big mouth among the bosses in the English football world.

Expecting him to keep a secret is like a sow climbing a tree.

Williams has been in the English football world for so many years, and his network of contacts is still very wide. Chelsea just invited George, and Williams got the news. As for West Ham United, Williams automatically ignored it.

Although Blackburn is not a big club in the English football world, its current situation is far better than West Ham United. What strength does West Ham United have to dare to compete with the current Blackburn for the coach. Therefore, Williams did not take West Ham United seriously at all.

But Chelsea is different.

Don't look at Chelsea's current results. It's not as good as West Ham United, and even its history is not as glorious as Blackburn. But Chelsea is a big club in London. No matter how you look at it, Chelsea has a better future than Blackburn.

First of all, Chelsea is in the metropolis of London and has a large number of fans. It has all the conditions to become a strong team.

That's why Williams asked George about this matter.

George originally signed a three-year contract. This season is the last year. In fact, according to general practice, everyone will start negotiations when there are about half a year left in the contract. But now Chelsea's sudden joining makes Williams a little anxious.

Williams certainly doesn't want to let George go. That's why he talked to George about the renewal.

George smiled and told Williams that he could start talking about the renewal now. Williams was very happy to hear George's assurance.

The renewal negotiations between the two sides don't need to be so urgent. But George just used this attitude to tell Williams that he had no intention of leaving Blackburn.

Williams thought again in his heart that George's performance was so good. Even if he couldn't give George an annual salary of 3 million pounds, it should be about the same.

But George shook his head.

It's fine, why is Bates crazy. Even Williams came to ask him this question. I guess the newspapers and media will know about this soon. It's really a troublesome thing.

The media did report this matter, but it soon subsided. Because Chelsea's official website announced that the tinker Ranieri became the new Chelsea head coach. George is really grateful to Ranieri. This time Bates acted quickly and did not cause George too much trouble.

Ranieri, you have also come to the Premier League.

…………

On September 21, Blackburn finished the second game of the Champions League group match against Shakhtar Donetsk. On September 23, Blackburn challenged Bradford away.

Bradford competed with Burnley for the last relegation spot last season. Although it was difficult to relegation in the end, the performance this season has not improved. So far, it has only won one game, which was to defeat Chelsea, who was in a worse situation.

However, apart from defeating Chelsea, it was either a loss or a draw. Now it is still ranked at the bottom of the Premier League.

Although the schedule is intensive, George is much calmer.

George is becoming more and more familiar with how to rotate the lineup. Facing Shakhtar Donetsk and Bradford, both are very weak teams. George will not be mechanical and rigid in the rotation lineup like before. Either a full main lineup or a full substitute lineup.

George now knows how to deal with fighting on two fronts.

When playing Shakhtar Donetsk, George used Drogba on the front line and let Klose rest. And he used McAllister in the midfield and chose to let Deco rest. He used Bellamy and let Duff rest.

McAllister is very satisfied to play in the Champions League.

When McAllister gave up Liverpool and came to Blackburn, in addition to the two-year contract given by George. What attracted McAllister the most was the Champions League. McAllister is old, and his weekly salary is not high at the age of 35.

Liverpool and Blackburn will not give McAllister a high weekly salary.

McAllister himself does not have much requirements for weekly salary. McAllister cares more about proving himself at the end of his career. Now George lets McAllister play in the Champions League, which makes McAllister very satisfied.

McAllister also performed very well. He perfectly replaced Deco's role.

Deco has rested well. He can play in this game.

George's rotation took effect, and several players who did not play in the last game performed very well.

Klose, who is in excellent form this season, received a long pass from Deco in this game, and successfully scored his fifth goal in the league this season after offside. It is also Klose's seventh goal for Blackburn this season.

Duff also counterattacked in the second half and scored the second goal of the game.

In the end, with the goals of Klose and Duff, Blackburn defeated Bradford 2-0 away. So far, George's Blackburn has won seven consecutive league games, and has won ten consecutive games since the start of the season.

Blackburn's performance certainly shocked the English football world.

Because in the seventh round of the Premier League, Manchester United was tied 3-3 at home by Chelsea, who had just changed their coach. And Arsenal was also tied 1-1 by Ipswich away. Liverpool, who has been on a strong momentum of three consecutive wins recently, was also tied 1-1 by Sunderland.

In this way, after seven rounds of the league, Blackburn actually left behind its direct championship rivals Manchester United by six points, Arsenal by seven points, and Liverpool by eight points.

Everyone sighed that Blackburn was really unstoppable this season.

When Manchester United and Arsenal were relatively weak, Blackburn emerged as a dark horse. Although only seven rounds of the league have passed, many football commentators say that Blackburn will be the league champion this season.

Blackburn is really too strong this season. It completely subverted everyone's pre-season predictions.

The Daily Telegraph even wrote a big headline "Who can stop Blackburn?"