super storm

Chapter 815
After receiving the award from Zurich, Yang Yang and others returned to Madrid non-stop.

The team resumed training after a week of Christmas holidays, and will usher in the No.16 round of La Liga on the night of January [-], which is obviously a big challenge.

It was as if the Chinese New Year had just passed, the big vacation was over, and when they started working again, it was inevitable that they would be a little out of shape. Even on the first day of the team's resumption of training, everyone reported to the team doctor Carlos Dias. During the physical examination, many people were overweight.

This is not a big deal at all, and everyone is already used to it.

During the Spring Festival, when a professional player puts on three catties, it is basically difficult for professional players to maintain the self-discipline during the league. Coupled with eating and partying during the holidays, gaining weight is also a natural thing.

Not to mention others, even Yang Yang's statistics are not ideal.

But it’s not because he lacks self-discipline, but because he has been busy these days, either participating in club activities, or attending sponsor activities, and traveling long distances to Dubai and Zurich, causing his training and diet to become very irregular, which will naturally affect his body.

"It's okay, compared to you, this is pretty good." Carlos Diaz comforted with a smile.

"Carlos is right, adjust slowly." Yesterdan also comforted.

But Yang Yang still sighed deeply, he was somewhat involuntary.

He is now the number one star in the team. He attracts attention wherever he goes, and he is the front of the team. Naturally, there are many things outside the stadium. For example, the trip to Dubai this time was promoted by Real Madrid officials.

If not, he would rather stay at home, and live a comfortable life instead.

Obviously, the coaching staff is also mentally prepared for the players' situation. Before the holiday, they even made a recipe for each of them, but God knows how many people can strictly abide by it?

After Benitez received the player's physical examination report submitted by the medical team, his face became ugly, and he said a few words harshly, but he was not too harsh. The subsequent training was also mainly about adjustments, and he did not blindly increase the amount.

However, in the afternoon of the same day, the team conducted a tactical training session, the content of which was a defensive drill.

……

Benitez's tactical philosophy boils down to two words, balance.

The balance of offense and defense, the balance of side and center, the balance of fast and slow.

As a Spaniard, he played in Real Madrid, but he didn't play very well. After retiring, he became a youth training coach in Real Madrid, but the most profound influence on him was Italian football, especially the AC Milan coached by Sacchi.

A compact defensive formation, with the distance from the center forward to the last defender never exceeding 25 meters.

The team, as a compact unit, moves up and down the pitch, side to side.

This style of play is a bit similar to the feeling of the Roman phalanx, and it is this tactical concept that creates a comprehensive team like Liverpool that can attack, retreat, and defend.

Benitez's philosophy is to press and press through a compact overall formation, without giving the opponent any breathing room.

The benefits of this are very obvious. It can be said that Liverpool's brilliance in the past few years has been based on such a set of tactics, and Real Madrid also adopted this style of play when they beat Barcelona [-]-[-] away.

But there is a problem, that is, this style of play puts a lot of emphasis on the team's tactical execution and the availability of players.

When he was in Liverpool, some British media once criticized Benitez's defense, thinking that this zone-to-man defense system that combines zone defense and man-to-man defense has serious problems. Whether it is defending on set kicks or defending the opponent's offense, problems are easily exposed.

For this matter, the British media even discussed and criticized Benitez's zone-marking defense system at length. The most dynamic one was the Champions League game when Liverpool lost to Chelsea at home. Defender Ivanovic hit consecutive headers, which made Benitez almost everyone's sinner after the game.

……

"Liverpool have four defenders and their names are: everyone, someone, nobody and nobody."

"When Ivanovic needs to be marked, everyone believes that someone will do it."

“Anyone can do it well, and in the end no one does it. When no one does it, everyone gets mad because it’s everyone’s job. Everyone thinks someone is going to do it, but no one realizes that no one is going to do it.”

"The end result is everyone berating someone because no one did something that anyone could have done right from the start."

"So, Liverpool went home."

……

This was a joke that the media used to ridicule Liverpool at the time.

It's a joke, but it clearly dissects the problem of so-called zone marking, which is too complicated.

However, in the face of ridicule, sarcasm and sarcasm from the outside world, Benitez has repeatedly emphasized one thing, that is, Liverpool's zone-marking defense is the most advanced defensive concept. There are problems, but there is no need to criticize this style of play.

Zone defense will lead to gray areas on the pitch, because each player's coverage area is limited; man marking can eliminate gray areas, but the opponent's frequent movement will cause more people to be missed by the defensive players.

Combining man-to-man in zone defense is a defensive concept that is gradually being used by more and more teams. On this point, Benitez is not wrong.

But in the world of professional football, results rule everything.

Whether you do it right or not, as long as the result is wrong, you must be wrong!

Today, the situation facing Real Madrid is the same.

Benitez's zone-to-man defense system is too complicated. There are both zone defense and man-to-man, how to define, how to effectively switch, how to teamwork... Too many problems were all pushed to Real Madrid players.

So sometimes it can be seen that Real Madrid's conceded goals are consecutive conceded goals in just a few minutes.

In response to this situation, the coaching staff can't come up with a more effective way, and can only repeatedly emphasize training and running-in.

How could the ailments accumulated over the years be completely resolved in just a few months?

What's more, whether it is Ramos, Pepe or Vermaelen, they are all young players, and they are not stable enough in experience.

However, in this post-Christmas training camp, Benitez and Yesterdan still took some new measures.

During the tactical training in the afternoon, Benitez organized the team into two groups, each with ten people.

When the coaches move anywhere on the court, they will pass the ball to each other. When the ball reaches a certain coach, ten players on the court will quickly approach the coach and press him.

At the same time, Benitez, Yesterdan and others will closely observe the team's formation on the sidelines, especially focusing on the player's position change, whether the overall formation is kept compact and orderly, and whether there is a gap between the three lines...

Once a player makes a mistake, Benitez will stop immediately and go over to give guidance immediately.

Obviously, this is a brand-new training method that Benitez came up with during the Christmas period. The purpose is to help Real Madrid players familiarize themselves with and implement his zone-marking defense system as soon as possible.

In addition, Benitez has also made a lot of preparations, giving the players a tactical lesson every day, hoping to improve the players' tactical understanding and tactical literacy on the court as soon as possible.

Yang Yang, Harvey Alonso, Arbeloa and Mascherano are all old courtiers of Benitez in Liverpool. They also know the team's defensive system very well, and they also help analyze and explain to teammates on weekdays.

And Pepe's injury made Benitez decide to put Arbeloa on the right back, and let Ramos return to the center back to partner with Vermaelen. Although the two center backs are not tall and have limited air defense capabilities, they have strong mobility, a wide range of motion, and good foot skills. It is another combination.

However, the specific effect still needs to be tested in actual combat.

…………

…………

On January [-], La Liga reignited the flames of war.

Barcelona played against Villarreal. After Pedro scored at the beginning, Villarreal equalized the score in the second half, and finally drew with the Yellow Submarine [-]-[-] at home.

The next day, Real Madrid challenged Osasuna away.

Real Madrid had an overwhelming advantage in the away game, but after 10 minutes of hard work, they were still unable to break through Osasuna's goal, and finally brought back a point from the away game with a score of [-]-[-].

The team was rather disappointed with this result, because everyone originally hoped to take advantage of Barcelona's loss of points to further expand their lead. After all, they will face a two-line battle in the Champions League.

For Real Madrid this season, the Champions League is very important.

Because the Champions League final is held at the Bernabeu!
……

In the middle of the week, the knockout round of the Spanish King's Cup.

Real Madrid played against Racing Santander at home, and Benitez played with a half-main and half-substitute lineup, and the result was a two-to-two tie at home.

Six and 61 minutes in the second half, conceding two goals in just 5 minutes.

Real Madrid's defensive ability was once again questioned by the media.

……

On the weekend, the No.17 round of La Liga.

Real Madrid ushered in Real Mallorca at home.

Yang Yang received an assist from Sneijder in the 7th minute and opened the scoring for the team.

At the beginning of the second half, Real Madrid's attack again worked, and Yang Yang assisted Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score.

In the end, Real Madrid defeated Real Mallorca [-]-[-] at home.

However, it was also in this round that Barcelona beat Tenerife [-]-[-] away.

Messi scored a hat-trick in this game and successfully chased his personal La Liga goals this season to [-] goals, only one goal behind Yang Yang, surpassing David Villa and Ibrahimovic.

This also made people feel Messi's outbreak.

……

Three days later, the second round of the knockout round of the Copa del Rey.

Real Madrid once again drew with Racing Santander [-]-[-] in the away game. The final total score was [-]-[-], but unfortunately they were eliminated because of away goals, which immediately made the outside media question again.

Fortunately, Barcelona also scored [-]-[-] at home and [-]-[-] away, with a total score of [-]-[-]. However, the number of away goals was small, and they were eliminated by Sevilla. This can be regarded as saving Real Madrid.

But after the winter break, Real Madrid has not been able to find their status, which has become a concern for everyone.

(End of this chapter)