The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 365 Change and change
Standing under the Irish sky and looking up, you can always see the dense clouds, so you don't know when it will rain.

But put your head down and look straight ahead, you will see a lush green prairie, especially in summer, dotted with a few tall and lush green trees, connecting with the cloudy sky at the far end, it will make people feel a kind of Very different feeling.

In fact, many people say that the British Isles like rain, which is true, but sometimes it depends on luck.

Tottenham Hotspur came to Dublin from London for a training camp. In the past four days, they haven’t seen a single drop of rain. It’s really good luck, because the weather has always been cool and cloudy, which is very suitable for the team Used for training camp.

Goalkeepers: Petr Cech, Joe Hart;

Defenders: Daniel Alves, Juan Manuel Vargas, Arbeloa, Thiago Silva, Brad Hangeland, Kompany, Michael Dawson, Gareth Bell;

Midfielders: Mascherano, Yaya Toure, Davies, Fabregas, Huddlestone, Lucas, Ribery, Asavin, Messi, Ashley Young;
Forwards: Van Persie, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cavani and Carroll.

This is the list of Tottenham Hotspur's first-team lineup for Dublin. Alan Lennon did not come to Ireland with the team. His agent has informed the team and hopes that the club can consider offers from Manchester United and Chelsea. In the end, Qiu didn't put him on the big list, but he refused to let go, saying that Alan Lennon was not for sale.

This time, Tottenham Hotspur's training camp is not in Dublin, but in Maynooth, a small town [-] to [-] kilometers west of Dublin. They stayed in an ancient castle hotel called Cotton Manor on the outskirts of Maynooth. .

This hotel is very old and covers a very large area. It is nearly two kilometers from north to south. All of the rooms are made of single-family castle buildings. The most famous thing about this hotel is that it has two worlds. Championship standard [-]-hole golf course and a luxurious spa center, and all the buildings of this hotel adopt a wonderful style and atmosphere formed by a combination of ancient and modern, but conflicting with each other.

In fact, Tottenham Hotspur's group of nearly 70 people all stayed in this hotel, and the cost was not high, because the hotel fully considered the advertising effect, so it was almost a half-buy, half-free way to invite Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs moved in, and even took the initiative to help Tottenham Hotspur contact the only open-air football field in Maynooth Town as a training ground for the team.

In fact, in Maynooth, there are green grass fields everywhere, and football can be played everywhere, but after all, it is better to have a professional training ground, so that the team's drills and training will naturally be more convenient.

At this very moment, Ye Qiu was standing in Maynooth's training ground, watching the chief assistant coach Mauro Tassotti explaining to the players the defensive movement and defense strategy with the tactical board.

During their stay in Dublin, Tottenham Hotspur had three training sessions and a tactical meeting every day. The intensity was very high. They had to get up early in the morning, rest for a period of time after eating breakfast, and perform a stretching training session, mainly to restore the body. Near noon, the second training session will be held, which is physical strengthening training.

Have a lunch break at noon and start a tactical meeting in the afternoon. The coaching staff will explain the tactical details and key points to the players, and the most important thing is to instill in the players, so that the players know what the head coach wants him to do and what he should do in the game. The last training session was in the evening, and it was devoted to technical and tactical training.

This season's Premier League kicks off on August 8th. Tottenham Hotspur's first game is an away game against Bolton. Before that, Tottenham Hotspur did not have any games, so the entire league preparation period has a full five weeks time.

Five weeks is not very long, but it is not very short. It depends on whether a team can run into shape well. Five weeks is indeed very urgent, but for a mature team , Adjusting to the state is simply a breeze, so Ye Qiu attaches great importance to preparing for the battle.

When he was busy with transfer operations and club management, the coaching staff had drawn up a very detailed pre-season preparation. Tottenham Hotspur had a total of six pre-season warm-up games, mainly in training camps. In the middle and late stages, one game after another is very close, because the team needs more games to inspect the team, find problems, and solve problems.

In the early stage of the training camp, the most important thing is to instill the team's tactics into the players.

Ye Qiu's tactical idea for Tottenham Hotspur this season is to bring the old with the new, which is indeed regrettable. Originally, he wanted to get Zambrotta and Thuram, and even made two offers for this. The package price of 500 million euros, and the commitment to pay the two players their annual salary at Juventus, has exceeded the current salary structure of Tottenham Hotspur.

Especially for Thuram, this veteran who has obviously gone downhill can get such a contract, which is a great temptation in itself, but they all chose to go to Barcelona in the end because Tottenham Hotspur could not play in the Champions League.

Edgar Davis is getting older, and his condition is getting worse day by day, but it is still available for the time being, but there is no guarantee, and Ye Qiu hopes that he can lead more young players in the team. Many young players in the team were teammates when they were at Chelsea. Now that they are in Tottenham Hotspur, they should naturally take care of each other.

Van Nistelrooy is currently the only striker that Ye Qiu can trust and rely on. Van Persie is very strong and has no problem adapting, but he needs to strengthen his physical strength. Cavani's body is still too thin and his confrontation ability is insufficient. Carroll is too young to play as a substitute.

Judging from the past few days of the training camp, Ye Qiu has already vaguely formed a rudimentary form in his heart that he is trying to get used to.

Petr Cech in goal, Vargas, Hangeland, Thiago Silva and Alves in defense, Yaya Toure, Mascherano and Fabrega in midfield In Si, the striker trident is Franck Ribery, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Messi.

Van Nistelrooy belongs to the kind of scorer who stays in front and waits for his teammates to pass the ball. His scoring ability can definitely surprise you, as long as you can create enough opportunities, and the most important thing for Ye Qiu now is to let the team have a chance as soon as possible. A set of stable tactics to cope with the upcoming league.

Franck Ribery is very strong, and his outstanding performance in the World Cup also made him full of confidence. Although Cesc Fabregas and Messi are young, their strength is good, especially Fabregas, who is very mature and stable. His organization is still a little immature, but his passing is very threatening, and his ability to see the overall situation and sort out the midfield is also very good.

Mascherano will delay and protect the defense line. This is his duty at Ajax and he has done a good job. Yaya Toure still plays more of his characteristics of running and pressing in a wide range to fill in the middle There are loopholes in the field, and he needs to take care of them at any time.

Ye Qiu's tactic is actually not difficult to understand, that is, both wings fly together.

Use Ribery and Vargas on the left, and Messi and Alves on the right to attack the opponent's flanks in turn, tear apart the opponent's defense from the flanks, and then create points for Ruud van Nistelrooy in the penalty area Chance.

Of course, this is just a framework, but there are many details in it. For example, Ribery and Messi can switch positions anytime and anywhere. Ribery is a very good player with both left and right feet. Under Ye Qiu's supervision, his right foot ability is not bad. The two of them frequently switch positions, or cooperate to break through the bottom, or get the ball to catch up with teammates, or dribble inside to pass the ball. Develop a variety of offensive routines to enrich the team's offensive methods.

What's different from Chelsea is that this time Ye Qiu not only has to control the tempo, but also fights for possession of the ball, but one thing remains the same, that is the high defense!

Even after four days, the players' defense on the training ground still looks like a mess.

Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Messi, Ribery, Mascherano, Yaya Toure and Thiago Silva are the players who know Ye Qiu's tactical intentions best, because they played in Chelsea Both Ajax and Ajax play high-post defense. Even though Ajax's high-post defense is different from Ye Qiu's requirements, it is not difficult to adapt, because some things are the same.

The biggest difference between high position defense and ordinary position defense is that the normal position defense usually requires that all players return to their positions as soon as possible except for the players who are close to the ball holder. bit.

But the high defense is different, because there is a large space behind you, so once you lose possession of the ball, the next few seconds are very critical and important. You must try your best to regain the ball. And even if you can't get it back, you must not be able to make the opponent form a quick counterattack, because you can never run faster than the ball.

Therefore, one of the most important points of high-post defense is to press and counter-attack in the midfield. This requires players not to get into position as soon as possible, but to quickly close up and defend the nearest player, and other players will surround them immediately to form a local area. The numerical advantage will maximize the possibility of seizing the ball.

This requires players to adjust and change their awareness, ideas, and playing habits, which will take some time to adapt.

Also, many head coaches have always misunderstood high-post defense, thinking that high-post defense requires a lot of prerequisites. For example, some people say that they must have excellent technical and tactical awareness like Barcelona, ​​while others say that they need a crazy midfielder. Pressing and robbing, but in fact, none of these were mentioned to the core.

The core of the high defense is in the midfield.

An interesting characteristic of all teams that have played high defense is that they have flexibility in the midfield.

For example, in Benitez's Valencia, the Bat Corps has two double midfielders Baraja and Albelda with excellent interception and running abilities. So what should the double midfielders do when defending at a high position?
When the team is attacking with the ball, they lag behind and always keep cruising around the 30-meter area. They don’t easily enter the 30-meter area, because when all teams playing high defense attack, the opponent’s 30-meter area will become smaller. Crowded, because you have already pushed up, and the other party has retracted all three lines, is it still not crowded?

At this time, there is a requirement for the midfielders. They can neither let the frontcourt players fall into a helpless situation, nor can they create congestion for their own offensive players. This will undoubtedly test the wisdom of the midfielders.

Therefore, for all teams that play high defense, midfielders generally do not easily enter the 30-meter area, but once they enter this area, they will definitely be able to pose a threat, either threatening the opponent, or counterattacking after being intercepted by the opponent. threaten.

This is the time to attack with the ball, but what about the time to defend when the ball is lost?

Press it!
Some people say, you are stupid, there is such a big gap behind you, you still press forward?

This undoubtedly requires skills, not to press forward blindly, but to predict the possible ball routes of the opponent when the frontcourt players surround the opponent's ball holder for the first time, and strangle these ball routes in time .

Therefore, the high defensive midfield defenders generally cannot be wide-range running midfielders like Essien and Gattuso, but those interceptors with excellent awareness, strong sense of position, and sufficient predictive ability.

Therefore, the core of high-post defense is not whether the technique is fine or not. Of course, you must have the ability to catch and pass the ball in narrow gaps. Otherwise, what kind of high-post defense do you play?
But the technical requirements are only limited to this. On the contrary, there are very high requirements for the team's midfielders, as well as the rigor of the team's overall system from front to back, as well as players' awareness and execution.

Why Benitez's Liverpool and Ye Qiu's Chelsea are called the two teams with the highest tactical execution ability, because they both want to play high-post defense, without excellent overall tactical execution, playing high-post defense is purely courting death .

Why can't Manchester United play high defense?

Don't you want to be Ferguson?He thought, thinking crazy, but the problem is, Manchester United players are not suitable!

After Ye Qiu came to Tottenham Hotspur, he directly sold Defoe and Robbie Keane because they were not suitable for this set of tactics, and Alan Lennon was very important to Ye Qiu. It is not necessary to stay, because he may not be suitable, because his side breakthrough is more about speed.

Ye Qiu was on the sidelines looking at the training situation of the players full of mistakes and omissions on the court, listening to Mauro Tassotti calling the player's name, pointing out his problems in the movement and support during the game, while the goalkeeper coach Lance Hawk kept pointing Cech and Joe Hart in front of them, indicating that they should take the initiative to expand the defensive range.

All of this made Ye Qiu full of hope for the future.

While Tottenham Hotspur was in intensive training and preparations in Dublin, Eliza Moon in London was running the team in an orderly manner, making some necessary repairs to White Hart Lane, and Contact sponsors for the team, find ways to increase the team's operating income and so on.

And one week after the team started training camp, the transfer rumors of Alan Lennon, who failed to go to Dublin with the team, finally came to an end. For the eagerness to further improve his wing strength, he felt that he was sitting on Duff, Wright? Chelsea, who were still dissatisfied with Phillips' two generals, finally got Alan Lennon for 500 million euros.

Tottenham Hotspur also announced the end of the transfer market for this season after the transfer was completed. According to outside speculation and calculations, Tottenham Hotspur made a total profit of 3000 million euros in the transfer market. But only the high-level inside Tottenham Hotspur, such as Eliza Moon and Ye Qiu, knew that Tottenham Hotspur made a profit of 6000 million euros.

This sum of money will be used by the team to build the Theobald training base in the north of Enfield, and strive to build the Theobald training base into the top and most complete training center in the world within two to three years. .

Two weeks after arriving in Dublin, Tottenham Hotspur finally ushered in the first warm-up match against the Irish league powerhouse Shamrock Rovers. This team is a strong team in the Irish Premier League, but They were relegated from the Irish Premier League last season, but the team itself is not weak.

Facing this team, Tottenham Hotspur played a sharp offensive football in Dublin. The breakthrough of the two wingers was very fast and sharp, and the overall rhythm of the team was also very light and fast. A typical Premier League team However, they obviously hope to play more delicate coordination, but they lack tacit understanding and their tactics are a bit disordered.

But even so, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Shamrock Rovers 2:1 with Ruud van Nistelrooy's two goals.

In this game, Tottenham Hotspur got 68% of the possession rate, and the overall strength occupies an absolute advantage, but the team still has obvious deficiencies in offense, and some problems have also been exposed in defense. That is the tacit understanding between Hangeland and Thiago Silva in the division of labor and cooperation.

According to Mauro Tassotti, any defense is not a problem for central defenders. The problem lies in whether the construction of the defensive system is reasonable.

Some people will say that a tall and strong player like Hangeland, who has excellent frontal defense and air defense capabilities, is afraid of fast players breaking through, but the question is, how can you clearly know this when arranging defense, and insist Let him face the players he fears?

If you encounter a player with fast speed, let Thiago Silva go up and stare at him, and Hangelande delays to assist in the defense, which not only forms the defensive level and depth, but also avoids Hangelande's disadvantage , to play to his advantage.

Of course, everyone knows that the opponent knows your player's weakness and will definitely use it. Therefore, whether the defense is strong or not is not only the player's personal ability and strengths and weaknesses, but also the degree of cooperation between the system and the players. In fact, Ferguson admires the latter very much, so he has been reluctant to introduce defenders.

After three days of playing Shamrock Rovers, the team ushered in another warm-up match, this time against the University of Dublin, a team in the Irish Premier League, which Tottenham Hotspur defeated again 3-1 Opponents, Van Nistelrooy, Ribery and Van Persie who came off the bench scored successively.

After two warm-up games, Tottenham Hotspur also ended their three-week training in Dublin, Ireland, returned to London, and soon ushered in a game with real team value. Milan!

(End of this chapter)