The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 536 A New Beginning

From Kingston upon Thames, passing through the M1 highway, I came to Theobald Training Base in the south of Hertfordshire. The total distance is [-] kilometers and the time is about one hour.

This distance is obviously shorter than the distance from Kingston upon Thames to Southampton in the past. The latter basically takes about two hours to reach each time, and as the defending champion of the Premier League, he has two consecutive Champions League The champion's newly promoted giants, Tottenham Hotspur's influence is not comparable to that of Southampton.

The only fly in the ointment is that Luke Shaw's whole family are Chelsea fans.

Six years ago, when he was eight years old, Luke Shaw participated in the talent selection of Chelsea's Football Development Center in Guildford, but he was not selected for the selection of students at that time, because of the same reason as David Silva It was the same as what I encountered when I was selected for Real Madrid's youth training camp in [-]. They all disliked their bodies for being too thin.

But also in this selection, Luke Shaw was selected by the famous Southampton scout Pridbury, and was taken to Southampton. This went for six years. Until this summer, Southampton met Trouble, falling into bankruptcy crisis, and Tottenham Hotspur scout Peter Dewissel approached Luke Shaw and persuaded the Saints to bring him to North London.

This is his first visit to Theobald training ground this season.

Today is the first day of training for Tottenham Hotspur's new season. When Ye Qiu called him earlier, he expressed the hope that he could come to the team early, because he hoped to have a face-to-face meeting with Luke Shaw. comminicate.

"Hello!" The security stopped Luke Xiao's father's car and motioned them to roll down the windows.

"Hello, sir, I'm Luke Xiao's father. Mr. Ye Qiu called and asked us to come and meet him!"

The security guard had received the notice long ago, recorded Luke Shaw's name on the record, nodded, and said: "The first team is training, so we can't let you drive in, please drive the car to the security room later. Exterior car park at the back and walk in, thanks!"

Luke Shaw's father followed the instructions of the security guard, drove into the gate of Theobald Training Base, and turned right to the parking lot between the news building and the security room. This is a parking lot for external personnel. .

After getting off the car, the father and son returned to the main road and walked inside.

"It's like a garden here, Luke!" My father was a little surprised when grandma entered the Grand View Garden.

Luke Shaw is a little speechless. He never imagined in Southampton before that a training base can be built like a park. It's amazing, especially just thinking about it. The training base was the world's most advanced super luxurious super five-star training base, so he felt excited.

In the future, I will be in such a training base and have the opportunity to train and play with the world's top players such as Messi, Ribery, Fabregas, etc. This is simply a great encouragement for him.

It didn't take long for them to come to a fork in the road. Security guards immediately came up to lead them the way and told them directly that the training area of ​​the first team turned from the right, but reminded them to keep quiet because the first team is training for the new season.

Entering the first-team training area, they were naturally filled with emotion, and soon, they came to the training building, which was full of BMWs, and then their attention was attracted by the people in the comprehensive training area in the distance .

Like the first training of the season in previous years, Tottenham Hotspur's first training session of the season is in the morning, and it is open to the public, allowing all fans and reporters to come to the scene, but now it is afternoon, this training session It is closed, so when Luke Shaw and his son entered here, they found that everyone was meticulously warming up on the training ground.

"Luke Shaw?" Just as they were hesitating who to go to, someone called his name.

The father and son turned their heads, only to see Ye Qiu who was accompanied by several well-known coaches. Luke Xiao was almost stunned. It turned out to be like this when we met.

"Yes, Mr. Ye Qiu!" Luke Xiao was a little nervous.

Ye Qiu chuckled, turned his head to look at Tassotti, and suggested with a smile, "Mauro, don't we lack a left back? Why don't we just let him go up and try? It's a training class anyway!"

Tassotti chuckled, nodded in agreement, and looked at Luke Shaw, "Luke, how are you preparing? Do you dare to go up and try?"

"First team training session?" Luke Shaw was a little surprised, he had just arrived.

"Yes, Marcelo participated in the Confederations Cup final, and he will join us in the United States tomorrow, so this afternoon we will play team training, one less left back, you can play this position, even though you are only 14 years old, But give it a try!" Mauro Tassotti also found this interesting.

Football clubs don’t actually have too much red tape, so it’s not a big surprise that Luke Shaw directly participates in training as soon as he arrives at the team. After all, it is very common for the first team to temporarily transfer players from the youth team to participate in training. It's just that the youth team has not started training today, and Luke Shaw has been caught.

"Is there a problem?" Ye Qiu looked at Luke Xiao.

The latter looked at his father, who was about the same height as him, and felt the joy and encouragement from his father, then looked at Ye Qiu, and nodded heavily, "No problem, I am willing to try!"

Ye Qiu immediately called a staff member over, and asked him to take Luke Xiao to the locker room, change clothes quickly, and warm up along the way.

The locker room in Tottenham Hotspur's training building is very spacious. Luke Shaw swears that it is definitely many times larger than the locker room in Southampton, and the various facilities are very complete, including a shower room , massage chairs, projectors, tactical boards and a series of equipment and props that are only found in the locker room of the court, all of which are available here.

"This is Marcelo's replacement training suit. You guys are about the same size. Try wearing it!" The staff found a set of training suits and arranged a wardrobe for him to store his own things.

The training uniform is the iconic Adidas, but the logo on the chest is Vodafone, which is Tottenham Hotspur's training uniform sponsor for the new season. The contract was signed not long ago, and the total sponsorship fee is said to have reached 1000 million euros .

The sponsor of Tottenham Hotspur's chest advertisement in the new season is Qatar Airways. The sponsorship fee they provided to Tottenham Hotspur is a sky-high sponsorship of 3000 million euros a year, but because of this huge sponsorship, It made Tottenham Hotspur's plan to split the jersey sponsorship of the league and the cup fell through, and it was all packaged by Qatar Airways.

As for the jersey sponsor Adidas, the annual sponsorship fee also mentioned 500 million euros. This is the price increase given by Adidas after Tottenham Hotspur left Messi, because Tottenham Hotspur currently only has Sponsored by a giant of Tottenham Hotspur.

With the two major sponsors and one jersey sponsor, Tottenham Hotspur’s income from jerseys and training uniforms is as high as 500 million euros a year. This income has exceeded Manchester United’s 7000 million euros and has become The highest income in the Premier League is also the highest income team in Europe, and this has a lot to do with Tottenham Hotspur's successful defense of the Champions League.

As soon as he thought of this, Luke Xiao's immature face was full of excitement and blood red. He quickly put on his jersey and shorts, walked out of the locker room under the leadership of the staff, and ran to the In the comprehensive training area, he didn't even say hello to his father when he passed by his father who was waiting outside.

On the first day of Tottenham Hotspur's training camp, there were many fresh faces. Except for a few players that Ye Qiu transferred from the youth team, such as Nastasic, Varane, Pogba and other players, they are going to be on loan. Eriksson who went to Ajax, Neymar, Coutinho, Lucas Jr. and other players who are on loan at Santos are also impressively in the team.

It is said that they will also participate in this trip to the United States with the team and conduct pre-season training with the team for more than a month.

However, there are currently many Brazilian and Spanish internationals in the team who have participated in the Confederations Cup, so Cesc Fabregas, David Silva, Thiago Silva, Alves, and Marcelo are not there. The captain's armband was worn on the arm of England's legendary superstar Beckham. When he saw Luke Shaw walking in, he immediately ran over and took him to Peter Brandt for warm-up.

Tottenham Hotspur's warm-up is not a simple warm-up, but targeted, specially arranged for today's training session, as well as the physical and technical characteristics of different players, so Luke Shaw feels very fresh when he first arrives .

"When you get on the court, don't be nervous, and show your strength as you want!" Beckham patted Luke Shaw on the shoulder before leaving, encouraging him. He said the same to Kyle Walker and the newly joined team. The team's Phil Jones said.

After more than ten minutes of warm-up, Luke Shaw returned to the training team and started training with the team.

When he was standing on the sidelines just now, he already felt that Tottenham Hotspur's training focused on training with the ball. Everyone was holding the ball, performing a variety of basic movement training, and some quick passing and catching. Many of them are even difficult to cooperate with, and the whole training pace is very fast.

Luke Shaw's skills are good. He is young and his hands and feet are very nimble. This kind of training is a bit strenuous for him, but he can barely handle it. However, after finishing, he has already been sweating profusely without knowing it. .

Only then did he realize that if he hadn't fully activated his body during the warm-up just now, it would be impossible for him to complete such a high-intensity training, and this also made him realize more clearly that everything about Tottenham Hotspur It's all very scientific.

Then there were two games, the monkey and the wall, which are also Tottenham Hotspur's iconic games.

With the rise of Ajax, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, these two games have long been imitated and borrowed by countless teams. Even in Southampton, they have also learned these two games. Luke? Shaw played too, but it was clear they were quicker and more precise at Tottenham's training ground.

"The common problems in England's youth training have been very well verified by Phil Jones and Luke Shaw!" Mauro Tassotti said with some regret as he watched the training beside Ye Qiu. .

Both Ye Qiu and Tottenham Hotspur's scouts and coaching staff have made a summary of England's youth training system. It is difficult to have specific advantages and disadvantages between large-field youth training and small-field youth training. There is a technical gap. It is not completely irreparable. After all, England has also begun to pay attention to the technical details of players in the past few years. Many people find it strange that why England's youth players generally give people a sense of power, whether offensive or defensive. What about the rough feeling?
This is mainly because of problems with their own sense of game space.

A player's sense of game space is a comprehensive quality, including the judgment of the ball path and landing point during the game, whether they can maintain an appropriate distance from teammates, whether they can find loopholes in time according to the situation, or cut to ask for the ball, Or to help teammates cope with transitional advances, whether they can predict and accurately arrive at the position that needs to be filled first when defending, and so on.

For a long time, England's youth training has done very badly in this aspect. Even Terry and Ferdinand, who are known as England's strongest central defenders, still lack a sense of space in the game. During the defensive process, there was no timely early warning of danger signals.

The reason why they can become top central defenders mainly depends on their physical fitness, not their game awareness, so although they can also have some extremely amazing performances, they will also have some reckless deductions from time to time.

Of course, it is impossible for any central defender to be perfect. It can only be said that the sense of space in the game is a big common problem of English players, and this common problem makes the training English players receive during the youth training stage, such as poor movement. Standardization, insufficient awareness, rough technique, etc., are all reflected more vividly during the competition.

So we can see that in the Premier League, all teams that can play fast and smooth passing and receiving are basically teams with more foreign aid, such as Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. The teams are almost all teams with foreign aid accounting for the vast majority, and local players have almost no place to stand.

A very important reason is that English players will greatly reduce the smoothness of the team's passing and receiving cooperation. Back then, Tottenham Hotspur's Carroll and Ashley Young, and even Gareth ? Bell is such a type.

So, does it mean that there is no way to solve this problem at all?

Ye Qiu doesn't think so, because in the past few years, Kyle Walker has made great progress. After the latter joined Tottenham Hotspur, Ye Qiu and the coaching staff focused on passing and receiving the ball. Observing the game situation As well as interactive support and other aspects to help him improve, and constantly remind him to pay attention to changes in the situation, teammates' movements, and opponents' pressing.

It can be seen that he has improved a lot now than in the past. He has become more confident and calm in handling the ball on the court, and he has made more reasonable use of technology. He has further optimized his sense of space, physical fitness and coordination, and sharpened his offensive and defensive skills. The overall awareness and further refinement of basic skills have made Kyle Walker's progress in the past few years very obvious.

Of course, it is impossible for Kyle Walker to become a skilled player, but at least he can be an excellent right back in terms of technology, awareness and intelligence. Opportunity to be top notch.

To do this, whether it is Kyle Walker, Phil Jones or Luke Shaw, they all need to quickly enrich their lack of tactical literacy since they were young, and cultivate them through more games and training. Based on his own experience in dealing with complex and changeable situations, he gradually cultivated his own sense of game space.

With the end of the game, the two sides began to fight in groups. Ye Qiu deliberately placed Phil Jones at the right back, while Luke Shaw played on the left, and Kyle Walker played at the right back of the main team. England player.

The other two players who joined this season were Coentraang and Romedal Falcao. The former was arranged by Ye Qiu to play left back in the main team, while Falcao was arranged to play center forward in the substitute team.

During the group training, the main players and the substitutes played very openly. Neither of the two sides held back, not only because this was an internal training match, but also because this was the first training session of the new season. good impression.

Needless to say on the main side, everyone tried their best, and relying on their strong frontcourt trident of Franck Ribery, Cavani and Messi, as well as midfielders Ramsey, Yaya ?The combination of Toure and Beckham quickly established an advantage, launching waves of attacks non-stop, breaking through the goals of the substitute team again and again.

The substitute side is losing ground, which is also related to the fact that the substitute side is generally filled with young players. Neymar, Falcao, and Eden Hazard form a trident. Eriksson, Borg Ba and Coutinho form the midfield, Phil Jones, Varane, Nastasic and Luke Shaw form the defense, and Joe Hart serves as goalkeeper.

The huge disparity in strength between the main force and the substitutes made the substitute team frequently passively beaten.

The substitute players are very fighting spirit, they must fight for every goal, and they are very fighting spirit. After all, they are juniors in the team, and they know very well that they can only have a chance if they fight hard, so they have no timidity at all and directly confront the main team.

Neymar, Falcao and Eden Zaha also frequently created some counterattack opportunities, especially the cooperation between Neymar and Coutinho. In the vicinity of the midfield, Neymar made a long pass At the top, it landed precisely behind Ziglinski, while Falcao used his speed to forcibly overtake, rushed into the penalty area before Ziglinski, and shot low into the net.

Neymar's pass won the applause of Ye Qiu and the coaching staff. Don't underestimate this pass. It reflects the insight of reading the game, and Falcao's performance in the first internal match He was also very eye-catching, with a total of five kicking opportunities, and he scored four goals, the efficiency is not terrible.

What surprised Ye Qiu and the coaching staff the most was Falcao's calmness in the penalty area and his handling of the ball, especially the one before the shot, which allowed him to go from handling the ball to following The whole process of adjustment and kicking is very skillful and smooth, without the slightest blockage.

And everyone knows that as long as there is no blockage, it is difficult for the defensive player to prevent him from kicking the ball.

Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie, Van Basten, etc., almost all top shooters have this quality, and Falcao also has this quality. This is an important factor for his scoring efficiency. More importantly, He is well-balanced with left and right feet. Although he is not tall, he has excellent header ability and is a very comprehensive and efficient shooter.

Ye Qiu is very satisfied with the current team's talent pool. Neymar will not be able to join Tottenham until next summer, but he is already very familiar with the team's tactics. They have been training with the first team for a long time.

Although Gareth Bale left this season, Messi stayed, plus Eden Hazard and Falcao, the frontcourt was hardly affected. The biggest test for Ye Qiu is, It is necessary to help Falcao integrate into the team's frontcourt attack combination as soon as possible during the summer training period and find an effective offensive routine.

Whether it is Cavani's main force or Falcao's main force, we have to watch the progress of the warm-up match for the time being to know!
(End of this chapter)