My light shines on Arsenal

Chapter 116 Change of Concept
"So, this is the era we're in. It's like some of the previous eras, but it's unprecedented."

Chen Yao closed the text in his hand, "The last five years were the five years of Spanish control. What happens after that? The answer to this question is ours to answer."

Some of the players were staring at the screen, some were flipping through technical reports, and some were staring at the coach in a daze.

Each of them is both a bystander and a witness to the changes in football.

It's just that most of the time, the witnesses themselves don't realize it.

For example, Kieran Gibbs, out of the narrow space of the full-back, did not realize that he was capable of satisfying a new style of play.

For example, Jorginho and Verratti don't know yet that football in the future will usher in an era where high-position pressing will become popular, and the game on the court will be fierce from the middle and backcourt.

And the characteristics of both of them will be a sharp weapon to break the press in a high-pressure environment.

Another example is goalkeeper Szczesny. At this time, the Polish genius was still eager to improve his goal-line skills, but he did not expect that in the future, football would suddenly have greatly increased requirements for goalkeepers' footwork...

"Before the pre-season starts, I want to talk to everyone again, what kind of team I want to see."

Bergkamp pushed over a movable whiteboard, and Chen Yao took out a pen and drew a timeline on the whiteboard.

"Our stages on the court can be abstracted into three: defense, transition, and offense."

He drew two vertical lines in the middle of the axis, dividing the time axis into three segments.

"Europe's strong teams are pursuing less transition time, falling from attack to defense, or from defense to offense. The less time-consuming and ineffective actions in this process, the more powerful they can be on both ends of the offense and defense."

"So, what if the transition phase approaches infinitesimal?"

Chen Yao erased the two vertical lines and replaced them with a single line.

"Or to exaggerate a little bit, there is no stage distinction?"

He erased that line too.

"Coach, is this possible?" Rosicky frowned, "If it's like you said, then our offense is defense, and defense is offense - what is this state?"

"Good question." Chen Yao smiled, "Thomas, let's give an example. You used to play for Dortmund, right?"

"Yes, I played there until 2005 and then came to Arsenal."

"Thomas, do you know what Dortmund is like now?"

"Of course, Dortmund now is Jurgen Klopp's team. We played against him last season. What this guy loves most is to press high."

"That's right, high position pressing." Chen Yao nodded, "Whether it's Klopp or Guardiola, they are both exploring ways to press high positions."

"There's no right or wrong way to press high. Klopp and Pep Guardiola do it differently, but that fits their football philosophy."

"This is a more aggressive defensive approach. Our defense takes place closest to the opponent's goal, and we can cut off the offense from the source."

"From defense to offense, when we grab the ball, we are very close to the opponent's goal, and the opponent is still in the same position when attacking, leaving us a lot of space. The moment we succeed in defense, we can enter danger Offensive status.”

Chen Yao tapped the whiteboard, "Switch? The switch was completed the moment we grabbed the ball."

"Okay, coach, you have a point, but what if we don't get the ball?"

"Good question." Chen Yao drew three lines on the whiteboard. "If our high defense is penetrated, we need to immediately position ourselves to defend. We need to compete with our opponents for speed, because we are out of position most of the time. "

He tapped on the whiteboard, "This is the most classic double-chain defense system. We have compressed the depth to an extremely low level. No matter whether the opponent penetrates from the side or from the center, they will encounter two layers of defense."

"Suppose we are in position in time, and then what happens after the opponent is intercepted by us?" Rosicky asked with all his heart.

"Counterattack, I need your eyes only on the goal."

"I see." Rosicky nodded thoughtfully.

"Coach." Arteta raised his hand and asked, "I have a question."

"Mikel, tell me."

"If we're in a high position -" Arteta pointed to the whiteboard, "say the opponent is in a 4-2-3-1 formation, then they have six players at the back."

"Seven," Chen Yao said, "and the goalkeeper."

"Yes, even if the full-backs have the premise, they still have a lot of people. Then the number of people we invest in high positions cannot be much less than them."

"Yes."

"At the stage when we are switching from defense to offense," Arteta pointed to the double-chain defense pattern, "As you said before, the counterattack efficiency of each team is declining, but the counterattack is still intensive. One of the only answers defense has.”

"Correct."

"Then, in addition to bypassing the defensive cross and heading the ball, we must improve the efficiency of the counterattack, so we should also invest more people in the counterattack."

"That's right, Mikel." Chen Yao looked at the players, "Mikel pointed out a problem, that is, both offense and defense require a large number of players to complete."

"But we only have eleven people, and we have the same number as our opponents." Some players said.

"Then, everyone needs to run, a large number of players press up, and a large number of players return to defense..." Jorginho muttered.

"Total Attack and Total Defense." Bergkamp laughed, "This is the gift that Michels and Mr. Cruyff brought us."

"This is too difficult." Koscielny shouted, "Coach, this means that the players on the offensive line must have the same pressing ability as the defenders, and our defenders must have the same pushing ability as the midfielders."

"You're right, Laurent." Lillo said blankly, "You need to have plenty of physical fitness and comprehensive skills, which is almost impossible. But we can try our best to get closer."

Koscielny shrank his neck. This new assistant coach was different from Pat. Pat always smiled, but the Spaniard looked like a little old man, not smiling.

"But there is another question." Verratti, who loves to think, also raised his hand to ask, "Coach, everything you said above is based on compression conversion, but if we end up falling into a positional attack, what can we do about it?"

"Marco, your question is also very good." Chen Yao smiled gratifiedly, "I am very glad that everyone can ask meaningful questions."

"Should we learn from Barcelona? Or Spain?" Arteta said. "Pass control? No striker?"

"No, Mikel, we won't imitate them." Chen Yao shook his head, "First of all, what we pursue most is to play a beautiful transition attack. The space on the court is limited, and the success rate of many versus many will never be as good as that of less versus less. , and more versus less.”

"Pep's team is actively seeking to put themselves into a many-versus-many offensive state. On the one hand, this is because this style of play has a very high fault tolerance rate, and Barcelona's skills and awareness are enough to allow them to maintain a very high level. Possession of the ball, and as long as the ball is in your hands, it is almost impossible to concede the ball."

"This advantage is fully demonstrated in the league. When it comes to scoring goals, Pep likes to mobilize the opponent's defense from the outside through constant transmission to consume."

"The way to break through the defense is also very simple, which is to rely on sudden changes in rhythm to penetrate the defense - the most direct way is to let Lionel Messi suddenly speed up and break through the defense..."

"This kind of strategy of repeatedly mobilizing, looking for loopholes, and then using star players to guide breakthrough defenses is commonly used by Pep, but we don't use it."

Chen Yao smiled, "We will use our method, the most Arsenal method left by Wenger."

(End of this chapter)