What ball king, call me ball god

The 33rd round of the Premier League, Manchester United vs. Bournemouth.

Bournemouth is ranked 17th in the league and is stuck in relegation quagmire.

Although it has been said that the relegation team will be as powerful as the championship team at the end of the season, Bournemouth has been really unlucky recently. First, two main players were affected by the epidemic and could not play. The coach is also isolated at home and cannot direct on the spot.

Various factors directly prompted Ten Hag to decide to directly use the 3241 formation he had always wanted to use in this game.

This formation can be changed between 4141 and 3241.

This formation can greatly utilize the team's offensive strength.

Because there are two attacking midfielders, the offensive pressure in the frontcourt is extremely powerful.

However, it also places extremely high demands on the defense of the backcourt.

Ten Hahe’s idea is——

That is, the player who plays the right back position during the attack joins the midfielder to control the ball and cooperate, and even often inserts into the opponent's penalty area to disrupt the situation.Lin Kedi arranged four major attackers behind him: Rashford, Bentancur, De Jong and Perisic. They controlled the situation with short passes, mobilized the opponent's defense, and waited for opportunities to pass long passes or pass through to find gaps.

What's more important is that they all shoulder the task of directly attacking the goal. When one side cooperates with the pass and cut to break through, the other side actively enters the penalty area and looks for opportunities to directly attack the goal when Lin Ke's enemy attracts most of the defensive attention.

At this time, Manchester United has significantly improved in terms of the number and quality of their attacks, as well as their ability to break down their opponents' defensive defenses.Manchester United focuses more on passing and cutting from the wing or ribs to open up channels. The low ball can be passed to Lin Ke who is close to the goal, or to De Jong at the top of the inverted triangle penalty area.De Jong has more through balls, long diagonal passes and long shots.Manchester United's three-dimensional mobile attack has too rich arsenal. Under Ten Hag's vision, it is difficult for any team to completely defend this offensive combination.

The second is the strengthening of defense.

Use rush instead of defense and suppress in the frontcourt.

In terms of defense, three defenders are left. The right back player cooperates in the midfield or even pushes forward. Guimarães suppresses in the middle. In terms of defensive numbers, it is a bit small.But with this offensive lineup, the opponents almost always defended in their own half. Once the ball was lost, 3241 of the 241 players were in the frontcourt and immediately launched a counterattack, and even partially surrounded by multiple players.Without top-level ball control and quick coordination, it is difficult to get the ball out of the circle, let alone form a counterattack.

It is very similar to Barcelona of the previous Dream Team 3. It is also Guardiola's passing and control concept, and Ten Hag was the first to use it.

As long as the ball is at our feet, the opponent has no chance.Once the ball is lost, a counterattack is immediately organized. This kind of frontcourt pressure is difficult to break through.Even during quick transitions between offense and defense, opponents can easily become disorganized and be beaten back by Manchester United to break through the defense.

The way of confrontation is difficult, similar to the previous match against Barcelona, ​​the third dream team.One is the Real Madrid and Liverpool model, and the other is the Chelsea model.The Real Madrid-Liverpool model must have a midfielder with excellent skills, pass the ball quickly from the crowd and the surrounding circle, and invest enough people and speed in the counterattack to carry out an efficient and accurate rapid counterattack; the Chelsea model is to first establish a solid defense in order to succeed in the confrontation. The center with a higher rate is used as the fulcrum, and the defense directly passes through the midfield and is sent to the frontcourt, improving the success rate of the competition.

Of these two modes, one requires a solid and united defense. If it cannot be defended, there is nothing to say.Second, we also need a concise, fast, and effective counterattack.

Of course, the lineup envisioned by Ten Hag can advance, attack, retreat or defend.When playing against a weak team or facing a strong team with high intensity, the frontcourt pressure is used for half-court offensive and defensive drills.But you can also take the initiative to give up the ball. When defending, the player who moved up to the midfielder position returns to the right back position. The overall lineup changes from 3241 to 4141 and then recovers a front midfielder to the back midfielder position, becoming The 451 defensive formation has enough defensive numbers and maintains considerable counterattack sharpness.

In short, the 3241 formation can have two variations.

Ten Hag is very satisfied with his formation and tactics, and he is eager to try it.

In fact, it is a bit strange to say that this is Ten Hag's own formation. After all, Ten Hag stole it from Guardiola, but after all, Guardiola himself did not dare to use it, and Ten Hag was the first to use it. .

This formation drill and lineup switching have been in training for half a month since the game resumed.

Ten Hag is hesitating on one point now.

That is, whether to directly use a full-time right back like Dalot or Feltman for the role of right back, or to let a speedy center back play, this is a difficult choice.

Or let a defensive midfielder play as a full-back.

Because the key point of this position is that after he reaches the position of midfielder and midfielder, he must use his speed as a full-back to penetrate forward, press for counterattacks, and maximize the advantage of speed to play the position of midfielder, so This location is very important.

In the end, Ten Hag decided to use Dalot to play the right back position.

The reason is also very simple. Since December of this season, Dalot has increased his goals significantly and regained the main position from Feltman. He is 12 meters tall, very fast, and has good forward penetration. Attack-minded and skilled with his feet.

Taken together, these points allow him to move up to the midfielder position and kick the right midfielder, which is also fully formed.

Of course, taking shape is taking shape. How it really plays needs to be seen in detail during the game.

Therefore, the formation arrangement for this game is——

Goalkeeper De Gea.

The three central defenders are Luke Shaw, Ruben Dias and De Ligt.

Double midfielder, Guimarães on the left and Dalot on the right.The two attacking midfielders are Bentancur and De Jong.

Two wingers, Rashford on the left and Perisic on the right.

The one at the front is Lin Kedi.

The formation before the game showed that Manchester United directly displayed this formation 3241.

After the game started, because the opponent was really weak, it was just as Ten Hag had imagined at the beginning.

This game is basically a half-court offensive and defensive battle, with five attackers in the frontcourt, including two defensive midfielders who keep getting in.

As a direct result, Bournemouth basically never played in their own half.

And this situation directly led to a brutal score.

In the first half, Manchester United led 4-0.

Lin Kedi scored 1 goal, De Jong, Rashford and Bentancur each scored 1 goal.

In the second half, Bournemouth started to make some counterattacks, but Manchester United had too many people in the frontcourt, so they counterattacked and pressed the ball easily and then launched a wave of attacks. .

So, in the second half of the game, Manchester United scored 5 more goals.

Among these 5 goals, Lin Kedi scored 1 goal and scored twice.

Then Perisic scored 1 goal, Guimaraes and Dalot each scored [-] goal.

In the end, De Ligt also scored a goal.

The five frontcourt players, including two defensive midfielders, and the central defender all scored goals, and they were in full bloom. This is definitely brought about by the 5 tactic!
After the game, the excited Ten Hag said a lot during the post-game interview.

"Yes, this is a new tactic." Ten Hahe said happily.

"The origin of this tactic is not my own idea, but stems from a conversation I had with Pep. That conversation made me very happy. Pep introduced me to a novel tactical concept. I listened in detail After listening to his explanation, I couldn't help but sigh at the exquisiteness and practicality of this tactic. However, Pep also clearly told me that the implementation of this tactic requires a very high configuration, so Manchester City did not adopt it immediately. But in my opinion , Manchester United’s current staffing may not yet reach this high standard. However, we have a very talented player in Lin, and I think we can take the risk and try this new tactic. Practice has proved that this tactic suits us very well and it successfully Helped the team to win. But what I want to tell you is that we only showed half of this tactic in today's game. Because one of the characteristics of this tactic is to constantly switch formations during the game. Yes, we The 3241 formation can be switched to the 4141 or 451 formation at any time. These changes provide us with more tactical options and can flexibly respond to the different characteristics of the opponent. But why should I directly talk about this tactical change? The reason is very Simple, I learned this tactic from Pep and I feel I have nothing to lose by disclosing these details."

Meanwhile, inside a villa in Manchester.

Guardiola watched Ten Hahe talking loudly on TV, and thousands of grass and mud horses galloped past in his heart.

"This is my idea! My tactic! But the first person to use it was not me!"

Guardiola didn't know what to say.

In fact, in Guardiola's vision, this formation will be activated with two formations. One is the player who turns the right back into a midfielder.

The other eye is the center, because with this center, we can better play the role of the four attackers behind the center. If there is no center, or the center is not strong enough, then the four attackers behind him will not be able to play as well. effect.

Guardiola watched this live game from beginning to end, and he realized that Lin Kedi was the center he wanted most and the center most suitable for this tactic.

It can even be said that with Link behind enemy lines, the 3241 tactic no longer has two positions, but only one, which is the center position.

It's a pity that Manchester City does not have such a powerful center now.

Guardiola had a lot of thoughts in his mind. After thinking about it, he called Begiristain.

"I won't say any more. I need a center, a high center, a strong center, yes, a main center!"

Begiristain was still surprised why Guardiola suddenly asked for someone to come, but after hearing Guardiola's request, he immediately nodded in agreement.

Back here in Ten Hag.

Ten Hag accepted a half-hour interview at the press conference after the game, and it ended with a satisfying talk.

But the next day, when the players rested and the coaches had a meeting, Ten Hag still conveyed a thought to the coaching staff.

"I think our focus in this summer window is on two positions. One is the midfielder. We need to find a player who is better than Bentancur. He can play as an offensive midfielder and as a defensive midfielder. , a player like Manchester City’s Gundogan. The other is a player on the wing. He must have speed to break through, but he must also be able to pass the ball and control it. I am still more optimistic about Grealish for this player!” ( End of this chapter)