Rebirth 1994: Football Situation

Chapter 700

On August 30th, St. James' Park was crowded with people. For the first Champions League game of the new season, Newcastle fans poured great enthusiasm. The most important championship for Newcastle in the past [-] years was won in the Champions Cup. In the minds of old-fashioned England fans, the FA Cup is the most important, and the league is the second most important, but for Newcastle fans, they began to have a special feeling for the Champions League, after nearly half a century Since then, only in last year's Champions Cup did they feel unreserved ecstasy!
What's more, winning the Champions League last season made up for a vacancy in Newcastle's history-they have won England's top league titles, two cup titles and the UEFA Cup. , In addition to the European Cup Winners' Cup, which has become history, Newcastle has won all the championships that a European club can win!

This is why the current Newcastle fans are so concerned about the Champions League game-they are eager for the team to relive the wonderful moments of last season in this game, and Mourinho's early victory declaration is even more impressive. Another spoonful of oil was poured on their enthusiasm-it burned even hotter.

Compared with last season, Monaco's strength has indeed dropped a lot. The departure of the four frontcourt kings left Deschamps to re-establish an offensive combination. The combination of Chevanton, Caron and Saviola sounds good. , but what kind of level he can play in the game is still unknown. On the defensive line, the main right back Ibarra, who was on loan last season, returned to Porto, and the main midfielder Cisse returned to Paris Saint-Germain. Maicon filled Ibarra's gap and was crossed by Newcastle. Deschamps could only use Norwegian defender Fakiri and Italian midfielder Blasi to fill their positions.

This is the tragedy of Monaco. Three of their absolute main players last season were loaned from other teams, and their outstanding performance made their clubs unwilling to let them go, just like Real Madrid. Owen still forcibly took Morientes back. As Monaco's opponent in the league, Paris Saint-Germain will not continue to use their own players to enhance their strength, and it is really difficult for Deschamps.

In the world of football, there is such a big difference between having money and not having money. Those who have money can keep their important players after a season of outstanding performance, while those who have no money can only let them go. This made last season's champions and runners-up in the Champions League on an unfair starting line at the beginning of the game.

But this cannot be said to be unfair-for a club, whether the funds are strong or not is also a manifestation of the overall strength of the team, and it also accounts for a large part.

Why is the Premier League getting more and more prosperous?It is because they have a good development environment and overseas consortiums are willing to invest in, so in later generations, mid-range teams can spend tens of millions of pounds to buy people at every turn. Why is Serie A declining?It is because their own economy can’t make it, and the local consortium is unusually xenophobic. They don’t welcome foreign consortiums to invest. If they don’t have money, they can’t raise good stars, and their level will naturally decline—the best in the world in the 90s of the last century. The stars are basically concentrated in Serie A, but after the new century, the stars began to gradually lose to other leagues. It is no wonder that they are not declining.

In short, money is the last word.

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Compared with last season's Champions League final, the lineups of both sides in this game have changed a lot.

Newcastle's lineup looks like this: goalkeeper Petr Cech, defenders Maicon, Dawson, Lucio and Bernard, midfielders Makelele, Essien, Nie Fei and Ribery, forwards Ibrahimovic and Drogba .

Monaco's lineup is goalkeeper Roma, four defenders Fakiri, Rodriguez, Give and Evra, three midfielders are Chikos, Blasi and Bernardi, three forwards Chivan Don, Caron and Saviola.

Compared with the lineup for the Champions League final last season, Monaco replaced five players in the lineup, while Newcastle replaced more. In addition to Dawson and Bernard, who did not start that game, Newcastle replaced a total of seven players. !

But the only difference is that Monaco's replacement players are passive substitutions, which are substitutes after the main players leave, while Newcastle's substitutions are active substitutions. The seven newcomers have all become starting candidates through their own efforts— —Look at the players who have been replaced. It is hard to imagine that Fakiri, who has been a substitute in Monaco for two years, can replace Ibarra, the best right back in the European Champions Cup last season. Lacy can run non-stop on the field like last year's Cisse, and although the three new forwards have good personal abilities, they will definitely not have the tacit cooperation of the four kings of Monaco's frontcourt last season...

After having this difference, the two teams that were originally evenly matched and with a limited gap, their performance on the court is very different.

Monaco has a strong desire to win, not only to avenge the one-shot revenge in last year's final - revenge must be avenged, but there is not that much enmity between the two teams. The outcome of the game is normal, but Mu Rinho's provocative words before the start of the game not only angered Deschamps, who was depressed because his generals left, but also made the Monaco players feel that they were underestimated.

Mourinho's words were nothing more than hoping that Monaco would lose their calm and make Newcastle's victory a little easier. Now it seems that his words have worked.

Monaco launched a fierce attack against Newcastle's gate at the beginning of the game. Although the three forwards are not enough to form a tacit understanding, but these three forwards are all players with excellent personal abilities. The impact, speed and skills are excellent. There is not much cooperation between them, which also caused a lot of trouble for Newcastle's defense.

However, Newcastle's defense, which was tested by last season's Champions League, is no longer as frightening as it used to be. Mourinho's transformation of the defense has never stopped-not only the changes in players, but also the change in mentality. .

Although the dexterity of the opponent's three forwards caused a lot of trouble for Newcastle's defense, they had few chances to get close to Newcastle's goal under the sweeping back and forth of the two defensive midfielders with exceptional defensive ability, and their kicks were quite quality. The long-range shots were also saved one by one by the tall and long-armed Cech.

Seeing Petr Cech soaring into the air, his slender figure stretched out in the air, and using a standard side attack like a textbook to firmly grasp Chevanton's shot from the front of the penalty area, Mourinho couldn't help but click. nodded.

Mourinho, who was born as a goalkeeper, can be described as "bleak" in his career, but he was born in a goalkeeper family after all. He has a very good judgment on the goalkeeper's ability. Cech is indeed very good, tall , quick response, and when competing with him, Ji Wen has no advantage at all.

Shay's height is the only factor that restricts him from becoming the world's super goalkeeper. In the past, the average height of Newcastle's defense line was not high, and he suffered from the opponent's high-level play. With Mi Qi's tall goalkeeper, this chronic problem in Newcastle's defense will no longer exist.

After defending the opponent's three axes, Newcastle began to counterattack. Nie Fei and Ribery took turns to organize the attack in the middle. Coupled with Ibrahimovic's retreat, Monaco's defense in the middle was under great pressure. The winger's winger was inserted by Maicon and Bernard in turn, and was almost blown away.

Evra's left flank is okay, Nie Fei often appears in the middle, and it's not a problem just against Maicon, but Fakiri on the other side is miserable, being ravaged by Bernard and Ribery in turn, especially Ribery Here, crosscuts, bottoms, breakthroughs, crosses, shots... everything is good, and the Norwegian is about to be tortured crazy.

Deschamps quickly noticed the flaw here, and he could only ask the defensive midfielders to pay more attention to the right. Seeing Maicon rushing up and down the right of Newcastle with plenty of energy, Deschamps was about to regret it. died.

In the America's Cup, he also noticed this Brazilian right-back with excellent physical ability and both offensive and defensive capabilities. Monaco was also the first European team to introduce him, but in the summer transfer period, he was in order to make up for the front four. The defect that the attacker left was so busy that he really didn't have time to go to Brazil to contact the player in person. He just handed over the transfer to the staff of the club. Who knew that Maicon had already been picked up by Mourinho when he intervened. The sincerity shown by Ao was moved, and Monaco could not compete with the rich and powerful Newcastle in terms of personal treatment, so they could only watch Maicon being bought by Newcastle.

There is nothing more painful for a head coach than a player he once had his eyes on but performed well against his own team. If Maicon was snatched at that time, why did he let a player play in Monaco for two years? Substitutes, assists but no assists, and the right back who is not very defensive is suffering from the torture of Ribery and Bernard on the field, and at the same time torturing the head coach off the field!

Looking at Maicon on the field, there is also a Trabelsi with excellent assist ability and Kufuor with excellent defense ability off the field, Deschamps can't help but lament, the same is the head coach, and the same young and promising European continent Why is the gap so big?

This season, although the new chairman Pastor gave Deschamps the largest transfer budget since he took office - 2000 million euros, for Deschamps, he would rather have no transfer budget this season, and also keep The other main players other than the three loan players.

People compare to people, sometimes it is really annoying.

(End of this chapter)