Mister Legend

Chapter 510 Great Britain-Russia War
The kick-off time of this Anglo-Russian battle is at 6 o'clock in the evening on June 24th, and the location is Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, a city that is both painful and happy for the Three Lions.

The reason why it is called happiness is that there are many ways for British fans to choose to go to the stadium, and the distance is very short, which is far more convenient than flying across the English Channel to reach the European continent.In this way, the number of supporters who went to the game site to support can be imagined. Naturally, it can bring support to the Three Lions for home games.

But why is there still pain?The answer is simple. The attitude of the Scots towards the English is not very good. Since the two neighbors formed a unified British Parliament in 1707 because of the needs of their interests, the title of the United Kingdom was born. Bilateral relations Scotland, which has always played the role of the younger brother in China, has fallen into a bottleneck period in its development.Although it still enjoys legislative and other powers, its status in the international arena is increasingly marginalized, and it is often regarded as a subsidiary of the evil neighbor in the south, which has aroused strong dissatisfaction among many people.

After entering the 90s of the last century, the Scottish people's idea of ​​seeking independence began to rise. When Tony Blair, who was born in Edinburgh, the capital of the country, was elected as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, this situation was also supported by ZZ. develop.

In 2014, Scotland even held a referendum on whether to officially secede from the United Kingdom of Great Britain. As a result, 55.8% of voters gave a negative result, which is quite different from the data obtained in previous polls.Afterwards, another incident of vote counting fraud broke out, and the result was nothing.

Although the independence referendum ended in failure, it is clear that a considerable number of Scots no longer consider themselves British. It is said that he hates it, at least he has a full sense of resistance.Now that the other party actually came to his door to play a life-and-death battle, how could he not teach those arrogant and hateful British guys some lessons.

Three hours before the start of the game, the Hampton Park Stadium, which can accommodate 52500 spectators, was already full, of which nearly two-thirds were fans from England, and about one-sixth of the local people. Obviously it was to add to the obstruction of the Three Lions.Members of the fighting ethnic groups who were warned by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and restricted entry by British customs only joined a cheering team of about 8000 people. However, judging from their past "merits", the British police are ready to enter the battle at any time in a state of preparation.

Looking at it this way, the situation outside the field is indeed more tense than on the field. Britain and Russia, two countries rich in football hooligans, meet head-to-head, and it is still in the case of extremely large numbers of people. I was shuddering with excitement.

Returning to the game, unlike the fans who confronted each other in the auditorium or even off the field, Li Moody showed a very calm state when facing the opponent who was about to face-to-face with his team.The tactics to be used and the coping strategies that should be implemented when encountering certain special situations have been clearly explained to the players in the training and analysis meeting a few days ago.

Hmm... It seems a little inaccurate to say that, because he doesn't know Russian, and the members of the Russian national team are all from the domestic league, and they basically don't know other foreign languages. The daily communication can only be through a translator or a team leader who is fluent in English Smirnoff is here.The former is better, but when the latter speaks to the players, Li Modi always feels that he is either exerting pressure or trying to beat everyone up. His tone of voice is so impassioned and generous that he can be evaluated!Just looking at his lecture-like posture, the content of the translation seems to be completely out of line with what he, the head coach, expressed.

Fortunately, from the last tactical drill before the game, Li Mudi still saw that his efforts were not in vain. He knew that if everything goes well, the Russian men's football team should have a chance to let the World Cup runner-up, especially the opponent's head coach, do well. Drink a jug.

Southgate, the former England iron guard, used to build a team with David Seaman, Tony Adams, Gary Neville and Stuart Pierce in the 1996 European Cup. A solid defense line, and helped the England team, which has always been willing to be soft in the competition, reach the semi-finals of that competition, tying the best result in history.

But that was almost the highlight of his international career in less than nine and a half years.After that, Southgate never got a stable main position in any World Series or even the qualifiers. The successive rise of Sol Campbell and later Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and other world-class central defenders made this This veteran can only sit on the bench of the national team when he is in his prime.Although the record of 57 appearances can no longer be said to be very small, looking at his entire international career, it can't be said how successful he is, and at most he can only give a moderate evaluation.

Southgate, who has never been able to play for a giant in his career, has taken over the coach of Middlesbrough as a player and head coach since 2006. A year later, he officially hung up his boots and became a full-time coach, but his coaching performance is also mediocre. That's all.He was known for his traditional British tough style when he was a player. After he changed careers and became a head coach, he also upheld the style of daring to fight, but he didn't know that he had gradually lost touch with modern football.

After the 2008-09 season, Boro fell into the British Championship, creating the club's worst record in 11 years.But the high-level still gave enough trust to the team coach, but what they got in return was deep disappointment.Just three months into the second season, Middlesbrough, who was aiming to return to the Premier League, had to make a decision to change coaches, because the team's performance was so bad that there was no hope.

After suffering this blow, Southgate finally learned from the pain and decided to spend some time studying the development trend of modern football tactics to recharge himself.As a result, this precipitation took a full four years. Until 2013, he was selected by the FA as the coach of the U21 National Youth Team. During this period, he developed the habit of bravely using young players.

In September 2016, he replaced Sam Allardyce, who was forced to resign due to the solicitation of bribes, as an interim head coach, and became the new captain of the Three Lions, and became a regular after leading the team for four games. There has been widespread controversy in the country.

However, Southgate's entry suddenly made the England national team seem to have opened up the two lines of Ren and Du, and their performance showed a substantial improvement.In the unfavorable environment of unexpectedly losing to Iceland in the first knockout round of the 2016 European Cup and being out of the game, the new Three Lions under the leadership of the new coach suddenly regained the feeling of a world-class team. In the next World Cup qualifiers, he played an unbeaten record of 8 wins and 2 draws, and the right to appear was determined early.In the final stage of the competition held in Russia, they reached the semi-finals all the way. Although they lost to Belgium twice and only won one runner-up in the end, the fans have already seen an extremely bright future.

If you analyze it from a specific aspect, the England coach is actually quite skilled. In the past ten years or so, no matter how many head coaches the Three Lions have changed, they have always used a four-back formation. Southgate's hand was broken.

Although in most of the European Cup qualifiers in the two years of 2016 and 17, England still played more in the 4-2-3-1 position, but in some warm-up matches, the three-back system has begun to gradually experiment , but the results were not ideal.

Who knows that after entering 2018, Southgate directly defied all opinions and determined the extremely aggressive main formation of 3-5-2.At the same time, a very bold decision was made at the time: right back Kyle Walker, who played for Manchester City Club, was placed in the middle and became a member of the three backs. This new tactic was activated in one fell swoop, allowing many young players The vitality of the players can be maximized.

In the friendly matches and warm-up matches before the World Cup, the England team, which used a three-back formation, defeated the Netherlands, Nigeria and Costa Rica one after another. If it hadn’t been for conceding a goal at the last minute of the game, the game against Italy should have been able to win. The performance has improved qualitatively from before.Relying on their outstanding performance at this stage, they have become one of the favorites to win the championship in the eyes of the outside world, and their status as a football powerhouse has finally begun to slowly recover.

However, the subsequent World Cup runner-up (tied for the second best result in history) and 12 goals in a single event (team history record), in fact, does not prove that this team is really qualified to beat strong teams such as Brazil and Spain. , because while possessing many advantages, Suoshi Sanshi also exposed many shortcomings, and the distance from perfection is obviously still quite far away.

The first is the stubbornness of the head coach, or rigidity. Since the establishment of the three-back position, Southgate seems to have no other flexibility. Facing a team that is not as strong as his own (or just thinks that This is the case) is 3-1-4-2, when facing a strong enemy, it is 3-5-2, let the three central midfielders participate more in defense, other than that, there is no trick.

This set of tactics seems to enhance the team's ability to control the midfield. It is similar to the style of play used by Moody Li in the later period of coaching the Turin team, but in fact there are still very different ones. The biggest difference is the offensive method. lacking.

This England team does not have a clear organizer, and there is a huge lack of ability in this area. As a result, they cannot attack the opponent's penalty area through sports warfare when facing the weak team's iron barrel formation, and can only rely on long-range shots and headers. As well as the traditional British football style of set-pieces to get the chance to score goals.

And when they were suppressed by the opponent and turned to counterattack, although they were not much worse than other strong teams in terms of player speed and connection, but the tactical strategies they could adopt were extremely scarce. Two strokes.Either the long pass from the midfield to find the wingers on both sides, or they want to use the personal abilities of Sterling, Ali and others in the chaotic battle to make it very easy for the opponent to carry out targeted defensive deployment.

To sum up, this team is too immature, neither the coach nor the players have matured in the true sense.Even though two years have passed since the 2018 World Cup, except for the fact that they have grown in age and some people's skills have improved or declined, there is almost no major change from the World Cup in Russia, which makes Li Moody very happy. Confidence used the Belgian's method to deal with this opponent.

Compared with two years ago, the current Three Lions basically maintain the configuration at that time in the starting lineup, except that the veteran Ashley Young who served as the left midfielder was replaced by Danny Rose because of his age , the rest of the main force is no different.This is also the biggest advantage of this group of players, that is stability and tacit understanding.

Of course, even though this England team has the above-mentioned shortcomings, its strength should not be underestimated.Although in most positions, they do not have the world's top player configuration, but a group of Premier League giants come together, and the synergy they can form is extremely impressive.

Coupled with the 27-year-old Harry Kane who is in the golden period of his player career in the team, the Tottenham star has maintained a super high score in the Premier League and European competitions in recent years Even if the national team's offensive routine is very simple, as long as he is there, scoring goals will not become a difficult problem.

Therefore, before the game, Li Mudi focused on arranging the full-backs on both sides and the defensive midfielder Roman Zobnin. He must always pay attention to the running position of the opponent's top center, and always mark the latter with the highest standard, hoping to use crowd tactics. Confining a top marksman who is all-around capable, with occasional help from Lady Luck.

This strategy did have a very good effect in the opening stage. Due to the active retracement of the Russian team, the England team could only launch a positional attack that they were not good at without taking the initiative.And because the defensive side has gathered heavy troops in the middle, Southgate can only shift the focus of attack to the two sides. Sterling, who can't play the advantage of speed under the crowd, began to pull frequently to the rib position. After that, he The two starting wingers Terpil and Danny Rose sent four crosses successively, but none of them could help Kane get a chance to create chaos.

It is difficult to pass the defender's interception in the low pass, and defending the high-altitude ball is the best ability of the tall Russian defender, so this tactic was quickly declared invalid and was abandoned by the Three Lions.

The positive ground penetration style of play should logically be a weapon against teams with poor flexibility, but even though the Premier League is currently the league with the highest overall strength and the most diverse tactical styles, English players, no matter how they learn and train, It can't reach the level of delicacy of players from Latin countries.Gascoigne and Joe Cole are different after all. Even if Ali, Lingard and Henderson are already famous players all over the world, they are far from the top level in terms of passing skills and awareness. difference.

Coupled with Li Moody's key targets, this road is not very smooth for the Three Lions.

Fortunately, they did a good job in long-range shots today. They forced Akinfeev to make flying saves twice in the first 10 minutes. In addition, they also made three corner kicks, but unfortunately they couldn't grasp them. live.

So from the perspective of the scene, England did take the initiative on the field, but the effect was not great, and the balance of victory did not tilt in the slightest because of this.

　Thanks to the book friend yangbo23 for the monthly ticket, and to the book friend Mengjuecheng Jiaming for the reward, thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)