Football giants

Chapter 455
When Yang Huan returned from the stands where the Saints fan club was located to the chairman's stand at Sunshine Stadium, the game was about to start.

Under the leadership of the head coach, both sides stepped out of the player channel one after another.

Barcelona played with all their main players in this game. The new head coach Vilanova inherited the tactical framework from Guardiola's period, and there was not much change on the whole.

Alexander Song and left-back Alba, introduced in the transfer market this summer, are counter-strengthening signings.

Barcelona's starting lineup for this game is goalkeeper Valdez, the defense is Alba, Pique, Puyol and Alves, and the midfielder is the iron triangle combination of Iniesta, Busquets and Harvey.

The frontcourt offensive combination is Villa, Messi and Sanchez.

Southampton is also the main force here.

Goalkeeper Neuer, the defense is Alaba, Harvey Martinez, Varane and Azpilicueta, the three midfielders are Modric, Toni Kroos and Vidal, and the front trident is Neymar, Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale.

Russell was a little surprised when the players of the two teams lined up in their respective halfs.

"Why Gareth? Bale is still playing on the right?" Barcelona chairman asked a little strangely.

When Gareth Bale was at Tottenham Hotspur, he played as a left winger. He became famous by attacking Inter Milan's world's top right back Maicon on the left side of the Champions League.

But after coming to Southampton, Bielsa placed Gareth Bale on the right.

Judging from the effects of the previous warm-up games, Gareth Bell's effect on the right was not ideal.

"Players are used to playing on the left, but as a left-footer, playing on the right has an advantage, and this will make Bell more comprehensive!" Yang Huan explained with a smile.

After hearing this, Roselle also nodded.

The winger is against the foot, which is also a common phenomenon in European professional football.

Real Madrid chairman Florentino, who came here specially to participate in the International Champions Cup final, saw Modric wearing a Southampton jersey and appearing in the midfield area, with a look of envy and hatred.

This Modric is definitely the top controlling midfielder in the Premier League, very comprehensive.

Judging from the past few warm-up matches, he is also slowly establishing a tacit understanding with his teammates.

On the contrary, Real Madrid missed Modric and Strowman, and the midfielder is still adjusting.

This also led to Real Madrid's poor performance in the International Champions Cup and was eliminated early.

"With Luka Modric and Toni Kroos in midfield, okay? Would it be too thin?"

Yang Huan smiled and said nothing, but Bielsa's words couldn't help appearing in his heart.

At the beginning, some people in the team were also worried about this. They believed that Modric and Toni Kroos were both technical players. Although Vidal was in the midfield, the position was obviously earlier. In this way, how to ensure Southampton's midfield defense?
You know, the Premier League is famous for its quick whirlwind, which is too powerful. Once the midfielder is not hard enough, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the opponent. How can the game continue?

But Bielsa gave a very positive attitude. He believes that the defense of modern football has undergone tremendous changes from the past.

As far as Barcelona's midfield is concerned, is the combination of Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta hard enough?
It is obviously soft, and it can even be said that it is a soft persimmon!

But what about Barcelona's defense?
I believe that all opponents who have played against Barcelona will give a thumbs up.

How did they do it?

The orderliness and integrity of the defense!
To put it simply, it relies on forming a numerical advantage in a local area to compress the opponent's player's room for movement.

In the scramble, they don't pay attention to physical confrontation, but more to complete the defense by blocking the opponent's ball line.

This kind of orderly overall defense is much more effective than individual combat in the past.

Not only that, the advantage of being equipped with a technical midfielder with a balanced offense and defense is that they play with their brains and know how to use awareness and anticipation to achieve defensive effects.

After the team steals the ball, the technical midfielder's game awareness and advantages in reading the game can ensure that the team can complete the offensive and defensive transition in the shortest time, maximize the counterattack effect, and even complete the goal.

These are not available in traditional physical midfielders, even top midfielders such as Vieira and Roy Keane.

But this tactic also has particularly high requirements for midfielders.

The first point is tactical execution, which means being able to understand and implement the head coach's tactical intentions.

There is to be able to run!
Running is really important to modern football, especially running with purpose.

It can even be said that the movement of players is equivalent to the vitality of a team.

Of course, the combination of Modric and Toni Kroos is also an experiment.

No more, there is still a Matic in the Southampton team.

The Serbian midfielder is definitely a wonderful flower among the many top midfielders in today's football!
Just like Yaya Toure, he is also a wonderful flower among midfielders!
It's just that the tactical role between the two is different!

Yang Huan didn't speak, and Florentino and others couldn't say anything more, so they could only calm down and watch the game.

At the beginning of the game, Southampton still insisted on playing offensive football in the past.

Bielsa's team pressed heavily from the first minute of the game, keeping the three lines tight.

This game was the first time Zlatan Ibrahimovic met his former owner after leaving Barcelona, ​​so the Swedish center looked very excited, especially when he saw that Gerard Pique was defending him in front of him, he couldn't help but sneered.

This big mouth who once humiliated himself and Southampton on Twitter and WeChat!
Gerard Pique looked at Zlatan Ibrahimovic, feeling quite apprehensive, not daring to be careless at all.

Seeing Zlatan Ibrahimovic sneer at himself again, I couldn't help but feel a little hairy.

"why are you laughing?"

Ibrahimovic pointed to the sky, and the banter in the sneer sounded even worse.

Pique raised his head and looked at the night sky, full of stars, a little puzzled, what do you mean?
"Wait and remember to hold your head up and see what Southampton from the stars is called!"

Pique was taken aback, what do you mean?
Southampton from the stars?
But soon, he remembered, isn't this what he said when he humiliated Southampton two years ago?
Damn the Swedes, they still remember!

"Hey, Gerald, watch out, it's coming!"

Puyol, who was not far away, saw that Pique was a little distracted, and immediately shouted a reminder.

Pique looked up and saw the ball passing back and forth between the two players in the Southampton midfielder, and it had already passed half-time.

"Damn it, don't try to distract me!"

"To deal with you, I don't use those tricks!" The Swede smiled disdainfully.

This time Pique couldn't help being a little annoyed.

Damn, I know you are the world's top center forward, but are you as arrogant as you are?
Do you really think I'm dead?

"Wait a minute, don't cry when I score a goal over your head!"

Pique is really angry and wants to score a goal over my head?

just you?Also match?
"Gerard, don't talk to him, he is deliberately distracting you!" Puyol shouted again from the side.

Ibrahimovic chuckled and looked at Puyol, "Be careful with the top of your head, shorty!"

Damn, this is simply a personal attack!

What Puyol hates the most in his life is when others ridicule his height!
The reason is simple, his biggest scar is his height.

He had imagined countless times that if he was taller, he would definitely be the best and most perfect central defender in the world.

However, God joked with him and gave him such a height of less than 1.8 meters, which is sad enough!
Therefore, every time he sees a tall and tall high center forward, he feels envy and hatred in his heart, especially for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has almost a perfect center forward body.

Now, to be called a dwarf in person?
Too much!

It's really unbearable!
"You are dead, Ibrahimovic!" Puyol immediately became angry.

Ibrahimovic still had that sneering expression, as if he didn't pay attention to Puyol and Pique at all, which made them even more annoyed.

Suddenly, Modric's midfielder dribbled the ball forward, and after attracting Busquets' attention, he gave it to Neymar, who quickly cut in from the left. After the latter stopped, he rubbed his right foot.

I saw an overhead ball, drawn an arc, and fell behind Pique.

The ball came very suddenly, and Pique adjusted his position in a hurry, and jumped up in a hurry, but the ball rubbed against his head.

It even missed the top!
All the fans in the audience were in an uproar!
I saw Ibrahimovic suddenly start and pass by Pique.

When Pique turned around after landing, Ibrahimovic had already stopped the ball at the front of the penalty area and could not catch up.

Puyol is relatively small, but his body is very flexible, and he has been paying attention to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, so he followed him.

But what's the use of that?

I saw that as soon as the Swede stopped the ball, his tall and strong body directly crushed him.

This simple and rude action almost made Puyol burst into tears.

Damn you, bully me not as tall as you, not as big as you?

Puyol is small in stature and flexible in body, knowing that head-to-head confrontation is too disadvantageous.

But the problem is, now people take the initiative to bully you, if you don't follow up, you will lose your defensive position.

He felt a huge force coming, like Mount Tai pressing down on the top. Puyol almost tried his best to push it up, but he almost couldn't hold it.

He also didn't expect that the 30-year-old Swede would still maintain such good physical condition after two years of absence.

so horrible!

But soon, Puyol felt that the strength was light, which made him feel relieved.

But he immediately noticed something was wrong.

Sure enough, when he reacted, he saw that Ibrahimovic had already relied on his long legs to suppress Puyol, then skillfully dribbled the ball, pulled out an open space, and kicked directly under Puyol's nose.

All the fans in the audience cheered!

Too strong!

Simple, rough, direct, but enjoyable!
The ball slammed into the goal guarded by Valdes like a cannonball.

The Barcelona goalkeeper tensed his nerves, his eyes fixed on the fast-moving ball whose direction was still a little uncertain.

At the critical moment, he made a judgment, moved his body quickly, and raised his hands upwards.

"Wow!!!!!"

"Only less than 1 minute into the game, Zlatan Ibrahimovic shot a heavy shot from the front of the penalty area. Valdez couldn't catch the ball and was forced to lift the ball over the crossbar!"

"It's a pity, Ibrahimovic's shot was too powerful!"

"Neymar's long-distance pass is also quite beautiful!"

"Southampton gave Barcelona a big shot at the start!"

"It seems that the scene that many fans predicted before the game that Barcelona will ravage Southampton may not happen. Southampton will use the first attack after the opening to create a threat to tell Barcelona the next sentence!"

"We Southampton are not soft persimmons!"

After completing a high-quality long-range shot from a heavy artillery, Ibrahimovic couldn't help curling his lips when he saw that he hadn't scored, and made a grimace at Puyol and Pique who was chasing after him.

"Our boss, Master Huan, said that a big man must have great wisdom, take your time, there is still a lot of time!"

Puyol and Pique looked at each other and wanted to cry!

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(End of this chapter)