super storm

Chapter 345 It Doesn't Work

Yang Yang didn't mean any disrespect to Ronald Koeman, but he really felt that the team's tactics were indeed somewhat conservative, which severely limited the team's attack power and creativity in the frontcourt.

Ronald Koeman himself is a defensive head coach. What he is best at is grasping the defense. It has never been his strong point to adjust the offense. The turning point of the team last season was to win Wesley Songk, push Pienaar to the left forward, and Garasek and De Jong partnered as double midfielders.

It can be said that this turning point completely changed the trend of Ajax in the second half and stabilized the defense.

But when it comes to offense, Ajax's goals are the worst among the four strong teams, even worse than Feyenoord.

It is unreasonable that Yang Yang's goals and assists alone account for half of Ajax's total.

From Yang Yang's point of view, this is of course very cool, but the characteristic of the professional league is that if you don't change, your opponent will change, and you won't be able to, so you have to constantly change and improve.

Yaya Toure also played as a midfielder in the Donetsk Metallurgical Team. Ronald Koeman valued him and obviously hoped that he could replace the veteran Garasek and partner with De Jong as a double midfielder.

But this Ivorian player is obviously different from Garasek. The Czech veteran has very good ball and organization skills.

But Yaya Toure is different. He has stronger maneuverability, wider coverage, fast speed, good foot skills, strong ability to drive the ball, and his willingness to defend is as strong as his awareness of forward offense.

In a private chat, he once told Yang Yang that he performed very well during the Arsenal trial training, but Wenger and his team believed that his role on the field could not be well positioned, and that his characteristics were not suitable for Arsenal.

This is not difficult to understand, Arsenal's midfielder is the type of Vieira and Gilberto Silva, or creative players like Cesc Fabregas and Pires, Yaya Toure is obviously not.

Stronger than Vieira, he has to shrink back and play at Arsenal, and cannot move forward to participate in the offense as he pleases.

With the characteristics of Yaya Toure, it is not surprising to say that there is no place in Arsenal.

But Yang Yang felt that Ajax's three midfielders could use him, and he should even be given more tactical freedom.

"Wesley is alone in the front. He has to organize and sort out the midfield, pass and assist the frontcourt, and even often retreats to get the ball. I think he is under too much pressure, especially as the opponents pay more and more attention to us."

Yang Yang's analysis was also approved by Sneijder.

"In my opinion, Nigel is a reliable midfield defender. He not only has a large defensive range, but also has a strong confrontation ability. Whether it is an interception or a steal, he has a high success rate. What's more, his passing ability is also very strong."

For a long time, fans have the impression of Nigel De Jong as a brave fighter, and many people even think he is a rough guy.

But in fact, this far underestimated him.

As a direct descendant of Ajax's youth training, it is definitely not easy to play the main force in the Ajax first team. Without solid basic skills and passing skills, it is difficult for him to gain a foothold in Ajax's pass-and-control style of play.

Among the team's internal data, De Jong not only has eye-catching defensive data, but also has a pass success rate of over 90.00%, which in itself is enough to prove that he is a trustworthy midfield player.

And more importantly, De Jong's average number of passes per game is only [-], that is to say, it takes him three games to be passed by the opponent twice. This statistic is really rare in European football.

Combined with De Jong's characteristics and advantages, Yang Yang believes that as De Jong continues to grow and improve, Ajax should further release the vitality of the midfield instead of continuing to adopt the previous double midfielder play.

"Yaya Toure can play a strong defensive role no matter whether he is placed in the front or at the back, but he also has an advantage in that he has delicate footwork and outstanding skills, and can attack directly from the hinterland of his own side. His ability to dribble forward has not been valued by us."

"Another point is that his physical fitness is very good. Combined with his footwork, I have noticed several times. He handles the ball at the front of the penalty area very calmly and has an advantage."

Both Ronald Coman and Luther Carroll understood what Yang Yang meant.

Luther Carroll's eyes lit up even more, and he nodded loudly: "I think it's feasible."

Yang Yang meant to activate the offensive firepower of the midfielder.

Yaya Toure is not Garasek after all. The characteristics of the two are very different. Copying the tactics of last season will indeed have problems, but if Yaya Toure is allowed to play the role of an all-around midfielder similar to the B2B penalty area to the penalty area, the offense will be solved.

Charisteas is a high center forward, very intimidating in the penalty area. Let him stand at the front and suppress the opponent's central defender. Yang Yang gets more freedom to launch an offensive on both wings and ribs, and Pienaar supports him.

Sneijder is responsible for organizing and delivering the ball, as well as running in from the back, while Yaya Toure takes on more tasks of advancing from the backcourt and suddenly running in from behind, plus Maxwell and Maicon on the two wings.

Ajax's offensive problems can indeed be well resolved.

"But in this case, what about defense?" Ronald Koeman asked, frowning.

After all, he is a defensive head coach, which is also his consistent characteristic.

"Our traditional advantage is to fight back on the spot. As long as the players maintain a high degree of overall coordination and tactical discipline, the problem of defense will not be a big problem." Luther Carroll said.

As long as you open up a new way of thinking, you can find solutions to many problems.

Ajax's current frontcourt players, whether it's Charisteas, Yang Yang or Pienaar, all have strong tactical execution capabilities.

Yaya Toure's physical advantage and defensive ability can further improve this.

…………

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At the end of the symposium, the coaching staff did not clearly express what they would do, but Ronald Koeman stated that he would try.

Sure enough, during the next day's team training, the coaching staff began to use the idea proposed by Yang Yang in the group confrontation, allowing Yaya Toure to take on more offensive tasks on the substitute side.

This change really activated Yaya Toure's role in the midfield, and the Ivorian began to play more threateningly.

Several times he dribbled the ball from the backcourt all the way to the frontcourt, which was eye-catching, and he did have an advantage in taking the ball at the front of the penalty area, and he handled it calmly, which further confirmed Yang Yang's previous point of view.

The players themselves are also communicating and coordinating their interactions on the court, especially Yaya Toure and Sneijder.

Everyone is very clear that there is no problem with the strength of Ajax's players. They were able to win the championship last season, and this season will only be stronger, because everyone is one year older and mature.

The question now is whether the team's offense can be played out.

Since the Amsterdam Invitational was finished, there were only four days before the Dutch Super Cup, and Ajax did not make sufficient preparations, so Ronald Koeman did not boldly adopt the new style of play suggested by Yang Yang in the end.

As a prelude to the Eredivisie, this year's Dutch Super Cup is scheduled to be held at the Amsterdam Arena.

The league champions Ajax played against the cup champions Eindhoven, and the two sides staged a Dutch national derby.

Eindhoven did not spend a lot of money on signings this summer, but instead sent away the core midfielder Van Bommel.

The PSV midfielder moved to Barcelona on a free transfer to play under Frank Rijkaard.

Van Bommel's departure dealt a severe blow to PSV.

In this game, Hiddink arranged for Theo Lucius and Dimi Simmons to partner with veteran Cocu to form a three midfielder, and the frontcourt was a combination of Farfan, Hesselink and Afella.

Ajax's formation is relatively safe.

Ronald Koeman still has a trident combination of Pienaar, Charisteas and Yang Yang in the frontcourt, Sneijder advances in the midfield, Galasek and De Jong partner in double midfielders, the defense is Maxwell, Vlaar, Heitinga and Maicon, and the goalkeeper is Stekelenburg.

At the beginning of the game, both sides played very fiercely, especially in the first 10 minutes, Pienaar and Afeilai were warned by consecutive yellow cards, which shows that both sides fought fiercely with each other, and no one was willing to give in.

Ajax is still an old problem. Yang Yang's state has not been adjusted yet, and he seems not excited enough. He is closely marked by his opponents, and his offensive end seems a bit sluggish.

With only Sneijder in the midfield, it is difficult to sustain the situation.

The combination of Garasek and De Jong's double midfielders guaranteed the team's defense, but the front offense still couldn't open the situation.

This situation continued throughout the first half.

The two sides ended up with a zero-to-zero tie, and neither of them could break the opponent's goal.

After changing sides and fighting again in the second half, Eindhoven began to increase their offensive efforts, especially on the two wings.

In 1 minute, Afeilai's forced breakthrough gave Eindhoven a corner kick.

As a result, central defender Alex Ferry headed the ball, assisted Bouma to score and scored a goal for PSV.

This made more than 5 Ajax fans in the audience feel a little dissatisfied.

From the warm-up match, to the Amsterdam Invitational, and now to the Dutch Super Cup, for a full month, the team seems to have never been able to work out a smooth style of play, especially on the offensive end.

Last season was all dragged by Yang Yang alone, but now Yang Yang needs to adjust his state and take some time to activate his state.

Could it be that without Yang Yang, Ajax would not attack?
Could it be that the team has no way to help Yang Yang?
The restlessness of the fans could be heard faintly from the stands, and everyone knew that they had begun to feel a little dissatisfied.

Coach Ronald Koeman has also begun to realize that the team really needs some changes.

What happened last season will not work this season.

(End of this chapter)