The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 735 The Champion Among Champions
Ancelotti must not be able to shirk all the responsibilities in this game, because this is the first time he has faced the Tottenham Hotspur team after Ye Qiu's reorganization, and it is also his first time since taking over Newcastle. game, so it is understandable to follow the stable tactical framework of the Redknapp era.

And last season at St. James' Park, the tactics centered on Ibrahimovic did a good job of containing Tottenham Hotspur, but judging from the performance of this game, this It has obviously lost its effect.

As Cruyff said, the best thing about Tottenham Hotspur is not that they have the most outstanding tactical system, but that they are very good at learning and improving, and their tactical adaptability is very strong, which can guarantee them In the face of teams with different tactical styles, they are all able to do a job with ease.

Such teams are not without, such as Juventus and Bayern Munich at the beginning of the century, or Manchester United during the Triple Crown.

Are Tottenham like them?
The answer is that some places are similar, but some places are not.

As Sacchi said, a strong team must be a team with a balanced offense and defense. Looking at these teams, as well as the current Tottenham Hotspur, there is no doubt that they are both offensive and defensive. The defense has reached a very high level.

Regardless of whether it is Juventus, Bayern Munich or Manchester United, their ability to adapt to different tactics is very, very good, which is reflected in their comprehensive skills and tactics and the diversity of tactical methods. Today's Tottenham Hotspur The same is true, even they go one step further.

Guardiola once played in Italy, and he also had a deep understanding of the development of football tactics in the past and the changes in football tactics in the past few years. He is very clear that in the past and now, all the strong teams have never really Put possession at the core of tactics, even in Tottenham Hotspur now.

With the rise of Barcelona in the past few years, as Barcelona successfully relied on a high ball possession rate and completed the integration of offense and defense, many fans' understanding of football has become completely dependent on possession of the ball, but in fact , possession of the ball has never been dominant in football tactics, which is why Cruyff is not valued by other strong teams, because his ideas are too extreme, and Cruyff has never achieved this. idea.

That's not to say that teams don't value possession, that's wrong, all teams value possession, but possession, like running off the ball, is a whole bunch of factors, and it's all about the team winning the game, or for the team For some people who have a little bit of pursuit, it is a kind of wonderful game, just one of the means.

After Guardiola took over Barcelona, ​​he was influenced by the Spanish national team of Aragones, which made him realize that for a country like Spain, which is rich in players with small quickness, weak physical confrontation, but excellent technical ability , possession of the ball is undoubtedly a very suitable tactical style.

As Cruyff said, when you have the ball to the extreme and the opponent doesn't have the ball, your goal is safe.

This is actually very similar to Dortmund's Klopp's idea. Klopp felt that as long as I adopt high-intensity pressing and pressing tactics, I can run like this non-stop throughout the game, pressing and pressing. If you can't reverse and pass the ball smoothly, then you don't even think about organizing an effective offense, then I can take advantage of your mistakes to score goals.

Both philosophies are built on the same foundation, Barcelona must be able to control the ball, Dortmund must be able to run.

So gradually, everyone realized some problems. For example, when playing against Barcelona, ​​it is best to destroy their possession rate in the attacking half. La Liga giants like to control, and their own half. get more.

Playing Dortmund is not to compete with them, use fast passes to play with them, after seven or 10 minutes, the physical fitness will decline, we will clean them up and see how they continue to run.

Of course, the tactical details are very complicated, but the core is as simple as that.

Why is this happening?

Because you are too extreme!
Extreme tactics have always been a special case because of the lack of sufficient adaptability.

It seems that many people say that Guardiola's on-the-spot command ability is not enough, but as a person, Guardiola knows very well that this is not a question of his on-the-spot command ability, but whether he can respond.

Barcelona is dominated by possession of the ball as a whole, and everyone serves the possession of the ball, one link after another. Once the team performs poorly, who can they win?Winning any one will lead to a greatly reduced possession effect, which is fatal to Barcelona.

When a team can only play in possession of the ball, then as the head coach, all you can do is to keep piling up more possessions to maximize your chances of winning .

Another point is that Barcelona's adaptability is also a headache.

In order to ensure the ball possession rate, you have to pass short passes, because the more medium and long-distance passes, the less the team's ball possession rate. In theory, if you want to cover the same area, short passes will lead to The result is that the players run more, and the more players run, the more physical energy they will consume.

Therefore, in order to reduce the team's running, but at the same time maintain short pass control, the team must press up, and the three lines should be kept as compact as possible, even dense, so that the team is in a flat shape, even if there are a lot of people behind them. Flaws are spared, this is the price that Barcelona's possession system needs to pay.

On the other hand, Tottenham Hotspur, they don't care about short or medium or long passes, and they don't care whether the team presses up. Their formation can be stretched wide and compact from front to back, but it is not dense, even in the past. In a season, Ye Qiu doesn't pursue the ball possession rate, they don't need to have the ball possession advantage.

The answer is simple. Tottenham Hotspur has only one core purpose, to control the game and win more offensive opportunities.

Controlling the game does not mean controlling the ball. Possession of the ball is just one of the means of controlling the game. Defense can also control the game. Running without the ball can also control the game. This is only part of it.

To win more offensive opportunities, this is divided into two parts, one part is to minimize the opponent's offensive opportunities, then he will create a tactical system without obvious weaknesses and shortcomings, and then use a rigorous defensive system to contain your offense, but At the same time, he worked hard to try various offensive methods and routines, and was willing to take risks and even pay for such attempts.

Just like Pirlo gave Hazzard the overhead kick just now, if he didn't lower it, Hazard would not be able to catch it at all, but if he lowered it, the possibility of being cleared by Ziglinski is very high, but Pierre Luo dared to try, he pressed the ball so low, the risk was too great, but it succeeded, it was a very delicate strike.

This kind of risk is hard to see in Barcelona and Xavi, because he will consider more successful passes.

But Guardiola is sitting in the stands, he knows better than anyone else, when he saw Pirlo pass the ball, the feeling of being too excited to speak, the feeling that cannot be described in words Amazement is something that cannot be given by the ball that is passed purely to ensure the success rate.

And this kind of passing, this kind of adventure, makes the team feel a kind of surprise and passion all the time, because they know very well that unexpected surprises may appear anytime and anywhere.

But this kind of surprise and the passion brought by it cannot be seen in Barcelona, ​​because they are a backwater, so after staying in Barcelona for a long time, it is easy to lose the passion and fighting spirit of the game.

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"How do you feel?"

After the game, all the players took a shower and changed clothes in the locker room. Ye Qiu returned to the stands of St. James' Park. Guardiola was still sitting here. What Ye Qiu expected, the Spaniard held like a student. The scene where the notepad recorded the experience of the game did not happen, which made him a little disappointed, jokingly disappointed.

"Too many mistakes!" Guardiola said his experience with a wry smile.

After hearing this, Ye Qiu laughed loudly, stood up, and grabbed the iron fence of the second-floor stand, "You are right, there are too many mistakes, but don't you think that mistakes are also part of a player's outstanding performance?"

Seeing Guardiola's stunned look, Ye Qiu smiled again, "If you are a player, you appear on the field, and you keep telling yourself that you can't make mistakes, you can't make mistakes, you can't make mistakes, you can Imagine the pressure on the players, and don't you think it's mechanical without turnovers?"

"The pursuit of the assembly line in the manufacturing plant is zero error, but what do you think the consequences are?"

Ye Qiu embodies another way of thinking. He is completely different from Guardiola. What the Spaniard pursues is to minimize mistakes and control the risk of the game as much as possible in his own hands, while Ye Qiu is the opposite. , He allows mistakes, even encourages mistakes, and at the same time he will create an effective mechanism to make up for mistakes.

"You don't understand human nature, Pepe!" Ye Qiu leaned against the iron fence, facing Guardiola sitting on the chair, and said with a smile: "Everyone has self-respect and dignity, they don't Machines, especially professional players, should not treat them as workers on an assembly line and use them mechanically."

"You may think that mistakes are terrible, but can you also think about it from another angle? When a player makes a mistake, the teammates around him help him to make up for the mistake. What will he think? I I believe that as long as he is a person with a little sense of responsibility, he will put more energy and efforts in the next game."

"Then do you think this mistake is not good?"

"Conversely, the pursuit of zero mistakes is too mechanical. Everyone is afraid of making mistakes, and they don't want to make mistakes. In the end, they lose the courage they should have, a kind of courage to take risks and try!"

"In this era, no one is smarter than anyone else, and no one knows how to calculate better than anyone else. What you can think of, your opponent can also think of it. So if you are too mechanical and serious, your routine will soon be outdone by yours. On the contrary, if you bravely take risks, try, and break your own routines, your opponents will also be caught off guard."

"You will never try to figure out a person who is constantly changing randomly!"

Ye Qiu's words made Guardiola fall into deep thought and touched him a lot, because he has always been a cautious character, since he was promoted to the first team, and in the hands of Cruyff After achieving outstanding performance, until he became the head coach of Barcelona, ​​he was cautious in everything, for fear of a slight leak.

But now, Ye Qiu told him that he can't be cautious, can't always want to hold everything firmly in his own hands, but should let go of his arms, trust his players, and let them create whatever they want. This is very inconsistent with his past football philosophy, or even completely different.

"Pepe!" Ye Qiu suddenly thought of a very interesting question, "Do you think your way of going to Bayern Munich is suitable? Can they adapt to your style of possession?"

Guardiola was taken aback for a moment, he understood what Ye Qiu meant, he did not want to change, and going to Bayern Munich was just asking for his own death in the end.

"Unless you can make Bayern Munich's midfielders shorter by five centimeters, or even ten centimeters!" Ye Qiu laughed, because when you need to use short passes to ensure your possession rate, flexibility becomes The basic factors that players must possess, while taller or powerful players are often poor in flexibility.

Guardiola understood what Ye Qiu meant, and laughed along, but it looked more like a wry smile, because he knew very well that his set of ideas only applies to Barcelona, ​​and may not apply to other teams.

Therefore, to go to Bayern Munich, he has to seek changes, look for changes on the original basis, add more unique characteristics of Bayern Munich, and then evolve a tactical play that belongs to Bayern Munich.

If he succeeds, his title of famous coach will be considered solid, but if he fails, then he will have to start all over again.

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There were two big upsets in the first round of the league.

In one game, Liverpool lost 0:3 to West Bromwich Albion. The bloomers played Liverpool in their own home. It was really embarrassing, but Chelsea's new Warcraft Lukaku who was on loan at West Bromwich Albion performed well. Very eye-catching.

Another game was Manchester United's 0:1 away loss to Everton.

It is reported that Ferguson hand-picked Moyes to take over his class at Manchester United, and this game Moyes killed Ferguson, it seems to want to prove one thing, that is, he is better than blue.

Relatively speaking, Tottenham Hotspur's 2-0 away victory over Newcastle did not attract much attention. More people felt normal about the result of this game. After all, Tottenham Hotspur's The strength has already been affirmed by everyone.

Unbeaten in 89 games, Tottenham Hotspur's legendary record continues.

Because they want to participate in the UEFA Super Cup, Tottenham Hotspur's third round of the league was temporarily adjusted to the middle of the week. They defeated Norwich City 2-0 at home, and it was still very stable without too many surprises. It even gives people a feeling of lack of passion.

Interestingly, in the first and second rounds, Ye Qiu changed four starting places. Except for Messi, Cavani and a few players, many positions were changed. Further strengthen the team's rotation.

On August 25th, the second round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur continued to welcome West Bromwich Albion at their home court, Messi and Vidal scored goals, still 2:0, Tottenham Tottenham once again defeated their opponents and won three consecutive victories.

Eden Hazard, who temporarily replaced Franck Ribery in the starting lineup, has qualified for the starting lineup in the past three games and performed very well. Although he only scored one goal, he had three assists and became the team's striker. An important member, and even many media have predicted that Hazard is likely to put Ribery on the bench in the new season.

But for this point, Hazzard politely said that he respects Ribery very much, "Frank gave me a lot of help on the training ground, we have a lot in common, for example, we are very fast, both feet are good. Flexible, so a lot of his experience is very valuable to me."

"No one can replace Frank in the team, he is injured, I get more games, but it doesn't mean anything, and we have a very competitive team, and Neymar is also an outstanding talent. , I don't think I've been able to firmly occupy a place in the starting lineup."

After playing the second round of the Premier League, the Tottenham Hotspur team rushed to Monaco to participate in the UEFA awards ceremony and the UEFA Champions League group stage draw ceremony.

Tottenham Hotspur had a resounding victory at the awards ceremony.

Messi won the title of the best player in Europe, and in the rankings, Pirlo and Cristiano Ronaldo tied for second place, which can be regarded as an affirmation of the Italian midfielder. Everyone almost agreed that Pirlo Lowe was one of the biggest contributors to Tottenham's eye-catching performances last season.

In addition, Ribery ranked fourth, Cech ranked sixth, former Chelsea player Drogba who moved to Tottenham Hotspur in the new season ranked seventh, Cavani ranked ninth, and the top ten In the roster, Tottenham Hotspur occupy six seats, and Messi also won this important award, the team can be described as a bumper harvest.

However, adhering to the consistent tradition of UEFA in the past, a slap in the face has just made Tottenham Hotspur famous and rich, but turning around has brought huge troubles to Tottenham Hotspur.

Fans who are familiar with the UEFA Champions League must know that the most terrifying death group in the history of UEFA Champions League football is Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Barcelona and Brondby in the 98/99 season. The three top European giants gathered in the group stage. Such scenes are rare.

But now, in the draw of the group stage, although Tottenham Hotspur did not draw such a terrifying combination of giants, they were unfortunately drawn to the championship team.

Premier League champions Tottenham Hotspur, Serie A champions Juventus, Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund and Ligue [-] champions Montpellier, the champions of four of Europe's top five leagues are in the same group , such a scene is really spectacular.

Even the serious former superstar Weah couldn't help but smile wryly when he drew Montpellier, and at the same time comforted the champion-studded group, "We are the Champions League, and you are the champions of the Champions League. I think the eventual champions are likely to emerge from this group and I like Tottenham Hotspur!"

(End of this chapter)