"Thirty minutes have passed, and they haven't even taken one shot. What on earth is he trying to do?"
In front of Man City's bench, Estiarte said impatiently.
The "he" Man City's assistant coach was referring to was, of course, Chelsea manager Di Matteo.
Half an hour had already passed, yet Chelsea had not taken a single shot. It was simply outrageous.
Why was this happening?
Because Chelsea was unwilling to commit players to the attack. Juan Mata found it difficult to launch attacks under Zabaleta's close marking, while Lampard was focused mainly on suppressing Busquets and could not get forward either. As a result, Chelsea had no one up front capable of holding the ball and starting an attack.
Drogba was therefore left isolated up front. Against Pepe and Kompany, he was even more helpless, like one man fighting four hands.
In fact, even at his peak, Drogba would have struggled to gain an advantage over Pepe and Kompany in a one-on-one situation, let alone now, when he was long past his prime and facing two defenders at once. The Ivorian was in an even more miserable state.
Since his teammates could not get the ball to him, and he could hardly gain an advantage over Pepe and Kompany himself, Drogba was no fool. He immediately moved wide, running to the right flank—Man City's left—and specifically targeted Marcelo.
Damn it. If I can't beat Pepe and Kompany, can't I at least bully Marcelo?
More importantly, Marcelo often surged forward. Though he was nominally a left-back, he actually played more like a left midfielder, or even a left winger. As a result, Man City's left flank—Chelsea's right—was basically empty.
Ramires followed Marcelo forward, leaving the entire right flank open. Drogba ran over just in time to receive his teammate's long