Super Prophecy Master

Chapter 266 Christmas Intensive Schedule
In the 36 rounds of the Premier League, Millwall won 27 games, drew [-] games, scored [-] points, and scored [-] goals. The results can be regarded as perfect, completely surpassing Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, the three traditional 'final four teams', are only one point less than Chelsea, the league leader. Considering that Chelsea lost to Manchester United, Millwall defeated Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool respectively. There is no difference in the results of the two teams. After a closer look, Millwall's performance is even better.

In terms of grades, it is enough to prove Zhang Yang's coaching level.

Millwall is still just a newly promoted team. Before the start of the season, the lineup was quite unfavorable. It was considered by many media as a team that must be relegated. Now it has achieved such results, which is beyond everyone's expectations.

Millwall fans watched the team’s rise step by step. They also felt incredible during the process, but they were more relieved. Many fans still thought about the vote at Christmas last year, so they could talk about it excitedly, " I knew from the beginning that Zhang Yang would be an excellent head coach, so I decisively voted for him!"

"I also chose Zhang Yang! But I just think it's very interesting."

"He's a great manager, I've seen it that way for a long time, he's really young but he's trustworthy and when he came to Millwall the team kept winning!"

"Zhang Yang is the head coach elected by the fans. He is the result of 'democracy'! This further proves the importance of 'democracy'!"

"..."

In addition to the Millwall fan group, many other people are also proud of their own vision. The most representative figure is Old Grigory.

Grigory is the chairman of the Millwall club.

Grigory's chairmanship is not bad. During his tenure as the chairman of Millwall, the team rose from the third tier league to the second tier league. Because of the wide network in football, many people know Grigory, But the achievement of being the chairman of the club is actually not a big deal. As a London team, with the development of football in the London area, Millwall has raised the league level by one level in more than ten years, which is not something to brag about. .

But promotion to the Premier League is different!

In the past, Grigory always thought that when he retired one day, it would be great if Millwall could stay in the second-tier league. Wall quickly promoted to the Premier League and also made a pretty amazing start.

And so Grigory had something to say.

Whenever meeting old friends or talking about Millwall with others, Grigory would proudly say, "I knew Zhang would be an excellent head coach! I dug him out of the BBC." , Let him be the football coach. You know, he was just a small employee of the BBC at the time, and his work had nothing to do with football. He didn't even have a basic coaching certificate."

I don't know how many times Grigory has said this sentence.

Many "old friends" had their ears calloused, and when they saw Gregory, they wanted to change the topic to other places, but they had to admit in their hearts that Gregory had a lot of bragging rights, and it was hard to imagine a year ago. What does the BBC staff have to do with professional football coaches? Grigory discovered publicity, which is a well-known thing in English football. Therefore, many media praised 'Old Grigory has a good eye'.

That's something to brag about.

Often at the age of Grigory's generation, I am already very tired of what I want to do. If I am older, I can only wait for retirement. The only thing I can do is to train young people.

Grigory discovered a young Chinese coach who led Millwall to achieve amazing results that are enough to be written in the history of the Millwall club. In the future, some fans will talk about Zhang Yang's early coaching experience, and Grigory will definitely be mentioned "It was Grigory who brought Zhang Yang to Millwall and started his brilliant football coaching career!"

That's really enviable.

In the affirmation of Zhang Yang's coaching ability, there is a role that is the villain of "Lying Gun".

That's Frederick Lawton.

When Millwall publicly voted for the head coach, Frederick stood on the opposite side of publicity. As a result, whether it was an external fan vote or an internal player vote, Frederick lost without any suspense.

Many people talked about that vote with relish, and they couldn't help saying, "Fortunately, I didn't vote for Frederick!"

"I thought about Frederick, too, but he's not very pleasant!"

"Yeah, that fat dumpy!"

"If he had been Millwall manager, we would have dropped into the third tier!"

"..."

As the role of "Lying Gun", Frederick will probably feel very bitter, but fortunately no one mentions it in front of him, and his teaching assistant job is also doing well.

When Zhang Yang convened the coaching staff to discuss the position change of Josh Simpson and Braniff, Frederick put forward a very logical opinion, "Based on the current situation of the team, we do not lack capable players." For strikers who score goals, midfielders need to supplement personnel, and changes in player positions can also be considered from this perspective."

Frederick said very methodically, "I think Kevin's position can be changed to the midfielder and let him adapt to the right midfielder. In the game against Manchester United, he performed well."

"If Kevin plays right midfielder, we can also restore the formation to 442, and then send two forwards, the rotation pressure on midfielders will be much less."

"In addition, the midfielder can be reduced. I remember, Zhang, you said before that we can try to play a 433-[-]-[-] formation. This formation only needs three midfielders. Three forwards and three midfielders are enough. It can minimize the pressure on the midfielders to play."

Zhang Yang's eyes lit up when he heard Frederick's methodical statement.

He considered the position changes of Braniff and Josh Simpson before, because he felt that Simpson is also suitable to play forward. Braniff has a balanced ability and can perform well in other positions. Simpson can skip it. Playing in the midfield, Laniff can reduce the competitive pressure in the frontcourt, give other strikers opportunities to play, and at the same time increase the depth of the midfield configuration. For example, Josh Simpson has played a lot because the team has no other suitable right. avant-garde.

Frederick helped to expand his thinking: Since the home court is not thick enough, reduce the appearance of midfielders and increase the number of appearances of strikers.

The 4231 formation is equivalent to five midfielders. The pressure on the midfielders is a bit too great. Adjusting the formation to 442 or 433, with four or three midfielders and reducing the number of players, will be the most direct and effective way.

However, the 'direct and effective' method is not easy to achieve. Millwall's tactical purpose is to improve the performance of all players on the field. The tactical purpose is different from other teams. They want to change the formation and let the players adapt. New positions are not easy things to do, there are many things to consider, and great changes to be made.

This adjustment has to be adapted gradually step by step.

The whole process will take one month as short as it takes, and two months, three months, or even more time if it is as long as it takes. The one-month period is still a bit short, mainly because of the upcoming schedule: when the time enters December, The schedule has also become denser.

In addition to the ten days of free time in early December, Millwall will then prepare for the intensive Christmas competition.

From December 24th to January [-]nd, in just [-] days, Millwall had seven league games to be played, with an average of one game over three days.

Before Christmas, Millwall had to deal with three opponents, namely Blackburn, Everton and Newcastle United; after Christmas, the opponents were Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic, Charlton and Chelsea.Among the seven opponents, except for Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic who are a little easier to deal with, the rest are very difficult bones, especially Everton and Chelsea, who are quite strong opponents.

The game against Chelsea is the last game of the Christmas war, and it is also the battle between the top of the league table and No.2. The time has just entered December, and the media has already begun to report in advance. Millwall must also be prepared to deal with it. Before the game, the team must also be in good condition.

Zhang Yang gathered everyone on the coaching staff, including the captain and vice-captain Jody Morris and Smicer, to study how to play the next game, so as to win more games and keep the team in good shape .

In an intensive Christmas schedule, if there are a lot of injuries, even if all the halfway games are won, the second half of the game will become extremely difficult, and the results may plummet.

This is the biggest problem facing Millwall at the moment.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is the depth of the bench. If each substitute player can also play the strength of the main force, the team does not have to worry about the intensive schedule at all, and the rotation of one game is enough.

But the team does not have enough bench depth, and the starting lineup for each game must be carefully considered.

By this time, Zhang Yang felt that the ability of "spiritual divination" had lost its effect. Apart from knowing the team's game luck and having a mental preparation in advance, it was useless, because even if a good formation was divined, some players had to To rotate rest.

After some discussion, the coaching staff just determined which players need to rest and which players can play more.

This is still referring to the suggestion of physical coach Joe Derick.

Many discussions have no substantive results, and Zhang Yang can only breathe a sigh of relief. What needs to be done now is to try to ensure the physical condition of the players.

Then... take a step and look at it.

(End of this chapter)