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Chapter 309 A New Beginning

New season, new beginning.

CCTV Sports Channel often uses this sentence as the opening remark when preparing to broadcast the new European League season. However, although this sentence is old-fashioned and straightforward, it is a big truth. For all clubs and teams, the new season is always a new start worth looking forward to. The giants want to win the championship, and the mid-range teams yearn for the European League. The difference is that where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

For the new season, the Hoffenheim club also has higher expectations. They shocked the world in the first Bundesliga season, and they qualified for the European League in the second Bundesliga season. This season, they obviously asked for more.

Fight for the top three in the Bundesliga, participate in the Champions League, aim for at least the quarter-finals of the Europa League, and win the German Cup - these are the goals of Hoffenheim in the new season.

For this reason, the boss Hope decided to open his pockets. As long as the head coach Rangnick asks, he will never be stingy.

Under such circumstances, Rangnick still appears to be very rational. The team's lineup is already very complete. If a few stars are forced into it, it may have counterproductive effects. Abramovich's decision to buy Shevchenko back then is the best example.

All he has to do is to slowly select the most suitable players. Now the team has a good atmosphere, and he doesn't want to spoil this atmosphere, and what Rangnick needs is a player who can thoroughly implement his own tactics. It is important to know that Rangnick is a famous student coach, and his requirements for players are also the strictest.

For example, the first confirmed candidate in the summer transfer, the striker Long Bisheng from China, fits Lannick's requirements very well - excellent physical fitness, strong tactical execution ability, hard work on the field, and will not cause any trouble off the field. At the same time, his impact can also make up for Hoffenheim's lack of offensive ability in the frontcourt.

After Ibisevic was injured, the status of this blockbuster center seemed to be greatly affected. Although he still performed very well in Rangnick's tactical system, he scored [-] league goals last season.

And Long Bisheng scored [-] league goals in the first two seasons—even though it is a low-level league, being able to score so many goals already shows that he has a pretty good offensive ability. Maybe he can't replace Ibisevic and Obasi for the time being, but he can bring more vitality to the striker.

Hoffenheim is a young team. The oldest players in the team are German goalkeeper Tim Hildebrand and Croatian defender Simunić. They are only 31 and 32 years old. For goalkeepers and defenders, just in their early 30s is still an age with a lot of room for development, and it can even be said to be their golden age.The other players were all born in the 80s, and more than half of them were born after [-]. Rangnick likes to use young players not only because their value is often not too high, but also because young players are more obedient and easier to implement the tactics he arranges.

The No.2 player transferred to Hoffenheim this season is also a young player.

They poached the German star of hope from Bremen at a price of 300 million euros, the small winger Marco Marin who was the same year as Long Bisheng!As soon as this transfer came out, it immediately caused a sensation throughout Germany.

Although Germany's recent youth teams have gathered a lot of good players, Marin is definitely one of the best. Even many FM fans have rated him, Ozil and Toni Kroos as the three monsters of the German youth generation.

Of course, this may be related to the fact that Bremen did not perform particularly well last season. They only ranked seventh in the Bundesliga and failed to enter the European competition this season. An ambitious young player like Marin is naturally more willing to show his abilities in the European arena.

After the introduction of Marin, Hoffenheim's midfield can be said to be perfect-the Brazilian midfielder Eduardo and Gustavo are already one of the first-class midfield combinations in the Bundesliga.

After buying the two players, Hoffenheim did not make much action, so that the German media are speculating whether Hope has some financial problems. You must know that although 800 million euros were spent on Marin and Long Bisheng, compared with last season, Hoffenheim’s expenditure seems to be a little less. After entering the European League, Hoffenheim’s investment is actually less than last season.

Rangnick doesn't see it that way. Although the transfer fund given by the boss Hope this season is 3000 million euros, Rangnick prefers nothing. Although he feels that there are still some problems in the defense line, he has no suitable candidates, so he would rather use last season's main lineup.

Now for Rangnick, the most important thing is to allow the two new players to integrate into the team and become a real part of his tactical system.

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It has been a week since Hoffenheim's training camp for the new season. Long Bisheng has been working hard on the training ground. His training has been very hard. Even in the Bundesliga, which is known for its rigor and discipline, his effort and self-discipline are not inferior to any player.

Rangnick is a very special coach, his particularity lies in his legendary coaching experience.

In 98, Rangnick was still a rookie coach of a Bundesliga second team. Before that, his playing career was mediocre, and he had never played in the top league. His coaching career was only two Bundesliga teams. Compared with those famous coaches, he is equivalent to an ant in front of a dragon.

But it was this ant who began to challenge the scavenger defense system and the traditional German tactics that focused on willpower, leadership and team spirit that were regarded as the golden rule by top German coaches at the time, such as Vogts and Hitzfeld.

In a TV lecture, the rookie coach Rangnick held a magnetic tactical board and vividly talked about his four-back parallel tactics and comprehensive oppressive style of play.

Although the German national team suffered a defeat in the World Cup in 98, no one thought it was the reason for the sweeper tactics, and no one thought that German football was regressing-and Rangnick’s statement was obviously challenging all the veteran German coaches.

After that televised lecture, Rangnick got a nickname-the unpopular "Football Professor". The title of football professor on Wenger is the respect of others for him, but on Rangnick, it is a satire on him-it means that he can only talk on paper, but it has no effect in real coaching.

Rangnick is not from a professional background, but he indirectly learned from the former Italian coach Sacchi, the Czech legendary coach "Madman" Zeman, and the former Ukrainian coach Valery Lobanovsky. You can see Baker and Li Jie rushing to the frontcourt to participate in the attack-every player has no fixed position. After a game, Hoffenheim is equivalent to twelve people playing against their opponents.

This tactic of course relies on the long-term accumulation in normal training. Hoffenheim was able to shock the entire Bundesliga with its smooth attack and oppressive style of play after entering the Bundesliga for the first time.

After a week of intensive training, Long Bisheng felt that this tactic was quite to his liking.

His strengths are excellent physical fitness, but his skills at the feet are only average. Hoffenheim's tactics can just give full play to his strengths-every player has to run non-stop on the field, and can avoid his shortcomings-players don't spend much time with the ball under their feet.

Long Bisheng trained very hard, very hard. He knew his new players, and at the same time he was not a superstar whose new team teammates would surround him as the core. Only through hard training in the training camp could he quickly form a tacit understanding with his teammates, integrate into the new team, and welcome a new beginning.

(End of this chapter)