The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 447 I want to give it a try!
Standing in the coaching area of ​​the visiting team at Stamford Bridge, Wenger's mind suddenly came up with a sentence that Ye Qiu once told him.

Not long ago, Arsenal beat Chelsea in the League Cup final, but this time it was their turn to be beaten by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and it was a very embarrassing reversal. In the words of the on-site commentator, Arsenal The performance of this game makes people worry about whether they have the ability to compete for the Champions League qualification next season.

Taking the lead in the first half, Drogba scored twice in the second half and reversed. Wenger's team was almost ravaged in front of the king of Côte d'Ivoire. If you count this game, Wenger's team has already Five rounds without victory.

All that was in his ears were the cheers of Chelsea fans who were celebrating the team's reversal after the game. Wenger felt very irritable. He had an urge to yell and vent his anger, but he knew that he cannot.

Sometimes even he himself wonders, what is going on with the team?

Why is there such a huge difference in performance between the first half and the second half of each season?
Since the beginning of the season, Arsenal has been leading the Premier League all the way, and was even far ahead at one point. After the winter break, it turned out to be unbeaten in five rounds in March. This round also directly lost to Chelsea. For the team, it is definitely a disaster, and everyone can even sentence Arsenal to death.

A month ago, Arsenal was the leader of the league, but now, a month later, they have fallen to fourth in the league. Is there a greater disaster than this?Is there a more deceitful result than this?
With the loss to Chelsea in this round, Arsenal still maintained 67 points, while Chelsea reversed smoothly and scored 68 points. Tottenham Hotspur defeated Portsmouth 2-0 at home in this round and scored 73 points. And Manchester United also successfully defeated their opponents and scored 75 points.

After Arsenal, Liverpool has 59 points and Everton has 57 points. Both teams are still a little away from Arsenal, and there are still seven rounds left in the Premier League. With such a bad record for the team for a month, there will be no suspense in losing the qualification for the Champions League.

A team that can lose [-] points in five games, who dares to say that their subsequent results will not be worse?

In fact, it is not that Wenger did not fail to see the team's problems. In recent years, Arsenal has always had a problem of losing the chain at critical moments, especially since Vieira left the team. There are problems, but more importantly, Arsenal have failed to find their soul core on the pitch.

From a tactical point of view, the core of Arsenal should be Arteta. The Spaniard has performed very well. He is excellent in organizing and passing the ball in Arsenal's midfield. He is active in running and hard-working in defense. Although he has lost his position, but he is a newcomer, and he is low-key by nature, so he is not a big name.

Captain Gallas is the biggest star in the team, but the central defender has a lot of problems. In this game against Drogba, Gallas had problems twice. It was chaos in the penalty area, and Drogba seized the opportunity.

How can such a player convince the public with such performance?

In fact, from the perspective of a team, the soul core players are not necessary. For example, Manchester United does not have a soul core. Ferguson is the soul of Manchester United, the core of Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur. The reason why the team can rise so quickly is not only the strength of the players themselves, but also because Ye Qiu built the team into what he wanted in the shortest possible time. He is the soul core of Tottenham Hotspur.

But as the core of Arsenal's soul, Wenger's character and temper are relatively soft, and his character is naturally transmitted to Arsenal, so many people say that Arsenal's football skills are more than enough, but their strength is not enough.

Since Campbell, central defenders have always been Arsenal's heart disease. Gallas and Kolo Toure are both of the kind of central defenders who help defend and fill in. High balls and frontal defense are their weaknesses, so Gallas used to Partner Terry, Kolo Toure and Campbell, they can all perform very well, but now the two are combined, and their performance is very bad.

Senderos was originally placed high hopes by Wenger, but this player has completely lost his confidence under the ravages of Drogba.

There is also the midfielder. After Vieira, when Gilberto Silva played in his prime, Arsenal's midfielder was not a big problem, but as Gilberto Silva gradually withdrew from the main position Afterwards, the performances of the young players who replaced him were not reassuring. Even Flamini is known for his running and mobility, and his defensive skills are relatively weak.

It is also technical, and Tottenham Hotspur's team formation is much more reasonable.

Ye Qiu's frontcourt actively focuses on counter-attacks on the spot, and the central and frontcourt uses running without the ball to effectively cut the opponent's ball as the main defensive method, but in the deep position of the midfield, there is Mascherano, Argentina Ren's defensive ability is very good. After cutting and intercepting in the midfield, if there is a fish that slips through the net, he can intercept it very well.

Once the opponent can pass through the midfield and reach the defense line, both sides have already settled. Hangeland is good at frontal defense, has excellent high-altitude ball ability, and excellent confrontation ability, even against Drogba. Let, and Thiago Silva was criticized for his high defense ability before, but his performance has also improved a lot in the recent period, obviously he is quickly adapting to the Premier League.

One tall and one short, the two central defenders of Tottenham Hotspur have a very reasonable match whether it is from physical confrontation, frontal defense, or assisting defense to fill in, turning around and chasing back, and there is a defensive area behind the defense line. Big, the Czech goalkeeper Peter Cech, who has performed almost perfectly in the past two years.

In such a reasonable layout from front to back, the strength of Tottenham Hotspur is definitely underestimated.

In contrast to Arsenal, in the past two or three years, due to the team's finances, Wenger had to take a younger route, reduce the team's salary expenditure, and tap some young players with potential. In addition, Wenger prefers technical players. The ability of the main lineup to fight tough battles is not very strong, and the thickness of the bench is seriously insufficient, which has caused Arsenal's current predicament.

Thinking of this, Wenger heaved a sigh of relief, turned his head and looked at his assistant Pete Rice. Both of them showed a wry smile at the same time, because Arsenal really didn't have money, but they didn't have money. money transfer.

The media once broke the news that Arsenal has enough cash, but as Ye Qiu said, which club does not have cash support?With Arsenal's current serious debts and the heavy pressure brought by the loans for Highbury's real estate development projects after the subprime mortgage crisis, there is not enough funds for reserves. If they are not careful, they may go bankrupt.

Pete Rice patted Wenger on the shoulder helplessly, comforting his old partner, because everyone can see that the Premier League champions this season have nothing to do with Arsenal, and the rest are Manchester United and Tottenham Tottenham's up for grabs.

At the beginning of the season, who would have thought that this would end up like this?

Wenger raised his head, looked at the night sky and muttered to himself, "Ye Qiu, hum, what a fucking bastard!"

Ye Qiu didn't know that someone was scolding him, because after playing against Portsmouth, he was busy summing up and evaluating Portsmouth's strength with the coaching staff, while Redknapp's team strength was still Pretty strong.

Pompeii are also Tottenham's opponents in the FA Cup semi-finals.

It is really surprising to say that Portsmouth's FA Cup quarter-finals eliminated Ferguson's Manchester United, and this year's FA Cup is really a hotbed of unpopularity. The other two teams are also from the British Championship. They are Barnsley and Cardiff. Among them, Barnsley is really the unpopular among the underdogs. They eliminated Liverpool and Chelsea successively, but the problem is that this team is currently in the relegation zone in the English Championship.

So, football is really weird sometimes, you can't figure out what is going to happen to him at all.

A week later, in the No.30 second round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur beat Newcastle 4-1 at home. The Magpies have long lost their true qualities as a strong Premier League team. Now the Magpies are still the most popular team in England with local fans. But the competitiveness is not as good as it used to be.

But when it comes to the decline of the Magpies, perhaps many people will still mention the famous Premier League decliner Souness.

It was also in this round that Arsenal finally played a tough game. After falling behind Bolton twice in the first half, they scored three goals in a row in the second half, completing a beautiful reversal and winning the last six games. The first three points since.

The happiest was Wenger, who was full of praise for this victory, and even put on the slogan of an epic reversal.

But the outside world is not satisfied with Arsenal's current state and situation. You must know that this team was the leader of the Premier League more than a month ago, but now it has been reduced to even beating Bolton, who is entangled in the relegation zone. The extent to which the team needs to reverse, may I ask, how can Arsenal fans be happy?How can you be satisfied?
After finishing the No.30 second round of the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League once again ushered in the first round of the quarter-finals, the most eye-catching of which was the match between Tottenham Hotspur and AC Milan. Countless fans placed high hopes on it, thinking that it would be a wonderful duel.

But just like all high-profile games that are highly anticipated by fans, the more such games are, the more unsightly they are. In the end, the two sides drew 0:0, and the best player in the game was the main force of AC Milan. Central defender Maldini.

From the fact that Maldini was selected as the best player in the game, it is not difficult to see the advantages and disadvantages of both sides in this game. Even in the away game, Tottenham Hotspur still actively play their own advantages instead of taking defensive counterattacks. Because Ye Qiu knew very well that offense was Tottenham Hotspur's strong point, and he also wanted to test the level of AC Milan's old defense line.

Before the game, many media broke the news that Tottenham Hotspur's preparations were centered around the Premier League, and the Champions League had been put on the back burner. In fact, Ye Qiu did not do enough at the San Siro Stadium. Full strength, but a proper rotation, such as Arshavin replaced Cesc Fabregas, Yaya Toure replaced Mascherano in the starting lineup.

AC Milan's team structure is aging very seriously. This team is currently only ranked fifth in Serie A. Whether it can enter the Champions League next season is a problem, but in the Champions League it relies on Excellent performance with a wealth of incomparable experience.

Their experience in this game once again played a key role. They successfully adopted the strategy of using slow to control fast and static to stop, making it difficult for Tottenham Hotspur's offensive to have a chance to directly create a threat. Thanks to AC Milan's very solid chain defense, especially the cooperation and positional sense between the players, they are all very accurate.

This situation did not reveal a little confusion until the end of the second half, but at that time Tottenham Hotspur had been exhausted by AC Milan and was unable to play an effective fast attack.

In fact, AC Milan eliminated Manchester United last season by adopting a strategy of playing slowly and quickly, which made Manchester United lose its spirit. But a year has passed, and AC Milan a year ago still has the ability to fight back, but a year later. AC Milan no longer has the ability to organize an effective counterattack.

Even in order to keep the tie, AC Milan's main defender Nesta went all out due to injury, and it is still unknown whether he can participate in the second round of the game.

For Tottenham Hotspur's away draw, the outside world is generally disappointed, but they are also full of expectations. They hope that Tottenham Hotspur can return to White Hart Lane and kill AC Milan in one fell swoop, and Ye Qiu is also on the ball. On the morning of the second day after the team returned to Theobald training base, a meeting of the coaching staff was held immediately.

"I want to try it!"

In the coaching room, facing his core coaching staff, Ye Qiu said this sentence. It should be said that everyone present could almost guess it, so after he finished speaking, everyone laughed. And no one was surprised.

"When we were having breakfast in the restaurant just now, Roland was still saying that there must be a meeting!" René Meulensteen looked at Roland Shepas with a smile. This Dutch fat man is called Ye Roundworms in Qiu's stomach.

Disgusting is a little disgusting, but he guessed Ye Qiu's mind really well.

"The current situation is very favorable to us, even far beyond our expectations, isn't it?" Ye Qiu explained with a smile why he suddenly decided to change the original game plan, because the situation is always changing, if he doesn't It would be a pity to stick to the plan drawn up before, but to change.

Roland also stood up at this time, "There is only one week between the first round and the second round. We are going to play the FA Cup semi-final against Portsmouth. We can arrange a substitute lineup for this game. Fight, gather all the main players to prepare for the second round in the middle of next week."

"But AC Milan is obviously not good. They will play Juventus on the weekend. The Bianconeri are currently ranked third in Serie A, while AC Milan is ranked fifth. Both teams need to work hard to qualify for the Champions League next season. I will not keep my hand easily, and this situation is obviously beneficial to the second round of next week, that is, as AC Milan's opponents!"

After hearing this, Peter Brandt also nodded and said: "AC Milan's roster is seriously aging. Such a team often reaches the second half, and physical fitness is a problem, especially when the schedule is intensive. We can all see it. In the battle last night, AC Milan's players obviously didn't have much physical fitness at the last moment, if they play Juventus at the weekend and try their best, how much combat power can they play at White Hart Lane in the middle of next week?"

The San Siro Stadium is an away game, and Tottenham Hotspur's away performance in the Champions League is relatively average. This has something to do with the team's lack of experience, but the team's combat effectiveness at the White Hart Lane Stadium is something no team dares to underestimate. Yes, because Tottenham Hotspur is the most offensive team in Europe this season.

The two right-hand men both produced evidence to support themselves, and Ye Qiu also smiled confidently, "If we give it a go, I am very confident that we can kill AC Milan at White Hart Lane!"

Although this is the first time that Tottenham Hotspur has participated in the Champions League in recent decades, from the UEFA Cup last season to this season's Champions League group stage, Tottenham Hotspur's performance has always improved rapidly, and The combat effectiveness of this team is not bad, it is far from the kind of team that is an expert in civil wars and an amateur in foreign wars.

This is also due to the fact that the team's coaching staff has extremely rich experience in the Champions League, which makes them very good at pointing players.

Of course, players are still required to play the game, but with the guidance of an experienced coaching staff, this makes Tottenham Hotspur's progress very fast. In addition, the team itself has enough strength, so Ye Qiu said to Killing AC Milan at home is not surprising. On the contrary, if Ye Qiu is not confident in this situation, then that is a big problem.

"Really defeated AC Milan and entered the semi-finals. This is the best Champions League result in the history of Tottenham Hotspur!" Peter Brandt said with a smile.

Tottenham Hotspur once participated in the European Champions Cup as England's top league champion team in the 61/62 season. At that time, only the league champion could participate in this cup, and there were very few participating teams. Also reached the semi-finals, but was eliminated by the Portuguese Super League team Benfica.

"The opponents in the semi-finals are still hard to tell. Chelsea drew 1-1 with Liverpool in the first leg. It's hard to say who will win, but if you meet Benitez again, are you sure?" Roland purely wants Make fun of Ye Qiu.

Ye Qiu shook his head helplessly and amusedly. Losing to Liverpool in the Champions League final was indeed the worst loss in his coaching career, and Tottenham Hotspur's performance against Liverpool this season was not satisfactory.

If Tottenham Hotspur's number one opponent this season is Manchester United, because Tottenham Hotspur met Manchester United with a two-game losing streak, followed by Liverpool, both teams are difficult opponents.

"Let's make it to the semi-finals!" Ye Qiu chuckled, "Liverpool's offensive problems this season are very serious. After the introduction of Torres, the team's problems have not been fundamentally resolved, so they have so many draws in the Premier League. , and no matter whether we meet Liverpool or Chelsea, I firmly believe that we can reach the final!"

At least Ye Qiu has this kind of confidence. As long as it is a Premier League team, Tottenham Hotspur are not afraid of anyone, even Manchester United!

Hearing what Ye Qiu said, the group of assistants present didn't say anything more.

The pressure on Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League is not small, and they have to chase Manchester United. If they really try their best to play in the Champions League, it may really affect the performance of the league. The team is a huge temptation for any head coach, because frankly speaking, the possibility of reaching the Champions League final is really greater than the possibility of winning the Premier League.

Of course, the premise is to get rid of AC Milan!

(End of this chapter)