Mister Legend

Chapter 578

On the last Wednesday of November, the Real Madrid coach, who led the team to the Serbian capital, adopted a drastic rotation strategy, allowing players such as Oyar Sabal and Vinicius who had not played in the league three days earlier to enter the starting lineup. Also appearing at the same time as them is Dybala, who is basically determined to leave the team in the winter window.

This time Li Mudi directly pushed the Argentine veteran to the center position. There are two advantages to doing so. One is to minimize the possibility of him sticking the ball. La's activity area is basically limited to the inside and outside of the opponent's penalty area, and there are few opportunities for people to control the ball for a long time.

Second, the defenders of the Belgrade Red Star team are all tall and strong. They are very good at physical confrontation and header competition, but it is still a bit difficult to deal with dexterous attackers, which happens to be very flexible. Dybala used his imagination and skills like a magician.

The result did not disappoint the Real Madrid coach. The towers of the home team whose various names end with the word "odd" are in front of Real Madrid's flexible and swift teamwork and individual assault. The extent of the performance also made the audience extremely dissatisfied, and there was even a lot of boos in the second half of the game.

3 to 1, although the central defender Melai received a second yellow card for a reckless tackle in the No.703 minute and was sent off, but the Galaxy Battleship, who played one less player, still relied on the accumulation of the previous time. With the advantage, they easily achieved the expected victory and continued to beat Bayern Munich to the top of the group.

As long as they defeat Ajax in Amsterdam two weeks later, who are already doomed to miss the knockout round, then in the [-]-to-[-] draw, Real Madrid will have a great chance of getting a relatively ideal opponent, which will help them continue to advance Still big.

But before that, the team's attention will be completely shifted to the national derby that will start this Sunday night, so the players who rushed back to Madrid overnight only after a night of rest, it is convenient to appear on Thursday afternoon On the training ground in Valdebebas Sports City.From their faces, the coaching staff can easily find that in addition to a little fatigue, there are also complex emotions mixed with fear and excitement.

Since winning the title of La Liga champion in the 2021-22 season, Real Madrid has been crushed by rival Barcelona for two consecutive years in various domestic and foreign arenas.Just looking at the results of the league, although they won a runner-up and a third place in succession, they were beaten by double-digit points each time by Basara, who had completed two consecutive championships.

Especially last season, the 18-point gap created the largest record between the two sides in 31 years-in the 2002-03 season, Barcelona, ​​which was going through the last dark period before the Dream II Dynasty, seemed to be under a spell from the beginning of the season. The performance was unimaginably bad.If it weren't for Serbia's famous coach Antić who was ordered in the face of danger and led the team to a wave of winning streak in the closing stage, perhaps the magical record of never being absent since the birth of the three major European cups would come to an end.That year, Real Madrid won the La Liga championship with 78 points, while Barcelona only scored 56 points and squeezed into the top six in the final round.

Coupled with the consecutive defeats in direct dialogue in the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup, the Galactico seems to have suffered from "Paranaphobia", which has brought tremendous pressure to the players who have experienced the previous few seasons.

But on the other hand, the team's performance in the new season has given everyone a lot of confidence. Even if there is no factual basis, everyone will inevitably feel that this time they will be able to make a successful comeback. Amid the tension comes a certain anticipation and confidence.

The time came to the day of the game when Spain focused all its attention on the national derby and didn't care about other news. The coaches of both sides attended the pre-match press conference in the multi-function hall of the Bernabéu stadium together.

The first to take the stage was the head coach of the visiting team, Harvey. This former world legend midfielder almost copied the old man Guardiola's path after retirement. The opportunity to take the reins of the first-team came quickly, and the process and even the end result were similar.

In the summer of 2022, Barcelona, ​​which lost to the league championship, relieved the former coach Argentine Matijević from his duties and strengthened their own direct descendant Xavi, who also proved to the club's senior management in almost the shortest time. How wise is their decision.

After two seasons, two La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey title, one Big Ears Cup, one Club World Cup title, and one Spanish Super Cup title, this heavy achievement is the rich return that the new Barcelona coach brings to all supporters.

And not only has such outstanding performance in terms of grades, as a pure-blooded Barcelona native from La Masia, Harvey pays much more attention to his own youth training camp than his predecessor. More and more young players get the opportunity to debut in the first team.

Although legendary superstars such as Messi, Harvey and Iniesta have been difficult to meet for more than ten years or even decades, with La Masia's reputation in world football, there are countless little stars who are regarded as geniuses every year. Players come to join with their dreams, and their potential values ​​are all above 140 at worst, and one or two of around 160 can appear every year.

The fundamental reason why there were no outstanding new stars in the past few years is that the team did not provide them with enough opportunities. Without the actual training of La Liga and the Champions League, how can we expect young players to grow by leaps and bounds? .

And the current team coach Harvey is willing to provide such opportunities to those boys, and naturally he will get far more than his predecessor.

So Harvey, who has only a little more than two seasons of official coaching experience, soon became the most highly praised coach in Spain, none of them.If Guardiola hadn't also created outstanding results in Manchester City, then the title of the first local coach might have begun to tilt towards the current Barcelona coach who is not yet 45 years old.

For such a legendary figure, even the media in Madrid do not want to embarrass him too much. In addition, Harvey's character is very kind, and he rarely speaks ill to other people or the team, so when he is the protagonist For more than half an hour, the atmosphere in the hall was still relatively unrestrained, and there was no tension between the two clubs that wanted to play the dog's brains.

However, when Li Mudi sat in front of the stage, the reporters from the Catalonia region did not choose to treat each other with good words, because the Real Madrid coach had repeatedly made aggressive comments on some of Barcelona's status in the past few months. remarks.And in the last few days, he has repeatedly stated that he will let his opponents cry and leave the Bernabeu as a counterattack for Real Madrid's 0-3 away defeat at the Nou Camp this season, which made Barcelona very unhappy.

This is not to say that Li Moody, who had always shown himself as a good old man, suddenly became a madman like Mourinho, who likes to spray everywhere, but that the new chairman Pique, who just took office, really likes to show off How firm my "anti-Real Madrid will" is, and I often launch all kinds of cynicism against the Galaxy Battleship, which is annoying.

But on the Real Madrid side, Chairman Raul is a standard gentleman (at least in public, this guy always maintains his aristocratic elegance, as for private...), he never confronts others outside, and Hierro, another club boss, was unable to participate too much in the refutation due to his "seniority" and status, so the team coach felt that it was necessary for him to stand up and protect the club's reputation.

At the press conference, faced with the difficulties of some reporters, Li Mudi once again emphasized that he has the confidence to lead the team to kick Barcelona in the ass, which can be regarded as setting a flag and paving the way for the next big event.

Before the official start of the game, the players of the visiting team who lined up to enter the Bernabéu stadium, which was full of seats, came to an end. The deafening boos suppressed the notification delivered by the DJ through the amplified microphone, and all 22 players on the field were in a The extremely stern face also indicates that this battle will never be the kind of feast that fans use to enjoy the charm of football.Following the sound of the referee's whistle signaling the kick-off, the two sides started a bloody bayonet-like hand-to-hand combat, as if they were vying for a strategic location that was a matter of life and death.

Barcelona under Harvey naturally uses Tiki-taka tactics as the most basic concept, but he also added many new tactical routines on top of it, such as fast wing assaults and more deep forwards, making the team His style of play seems to have many similarities with Manchester City.

The reason for this change is naturally that Guashuai's tactical system is really strong, but it is more of a helpless transformation, because after the Dream Team also collapsed with the departure of Messi and others , the team can no longer find a player who can play the core role in a complete tiki-taka tactic.

Even though the 28-year-old Brazilian midfielder Arthur is the top passer in today's world football, there is still a big gap from the level of Harvey and Xiaobai, and after losing the plum ball like a nuclear weapon After Wang, neither the French star Malcolm nor the Argentine Barco can revitalize the offensive line of the entire team by themselves, so the transformation is inevitable.

The decline of the midfielder's ability to control the ball also makes Barcelona unable to be calm and unhurried when facing the opponent's fierce high-position press. They must adopt special methods such as striker recovery to deal with it. Today at the Bernabeu, this is the case situation.

The mighty trident of Mbappe, Rodrygo and Asensio accelerated into the visitors' half after kick-off, launching a fierce attack on Barcelona's midfield line of Arthur, Coutinho and others. shock.Among them, because Ku Bird's flexibility and speed ability have declined significantly after he got older, his role in the team has also undergone a considerable change, retiring from the previous midfielder or left forward position to the midfield. Part of the metronome and organizer duties are shared by his Brazilian brother Arthur.

In Harvey's system, the center of the three midfielders will be a defensive central midfielder. Therefore, when the visiting team encounters obstacles in passing the ball, there are basically two solutions. One is to control the ball. The area is placed at the back, and the second is the temporary recovery of the two wingers.Facing the number one mortal enemy today, it is not surprising that Barcelona, ​​which does not want to be overwhelmed in momentum, chooses to implement the second plan.

The left winger today is the Danish star Dolberg, who is tall but has excellent sprinting ability. The choice of the Barcelona coach is actually a bit unexpected. After all, Barko is in good condition, and he is also the team's first set kick. Hand, should have been the team's number one candidate at this position.However, due to the consideration of offensive impact, Harvey still pulled Dolberg, who played more of a center forward, down the wing, and he and Malcolm, who mainly plays on the right, are absolutely top in the world in terms of personal skills Yes, with their recovery assistance, Real Madrid's pressing strategy can be resolved to the greatest extent.

Only in this way, when the visiting team is trying to advance the front line, there will be too few players in the frontcourt, and they need to wait until the support players come up before they can launch an offensive. The efficiency is definitely not high.

Moreover, Real Madrid, relying on the advantage of playing at home, gradually increased the intensity of physical confrontation from the 5th minute after the trial after the opening. The absence of Barko, who is good at touching porcelain and has a super free kick skill, raised the competition level of this game to another level.

Because in this regard, the home team with better physical fitness can take a lot of advantage. When you meet an opponent with good skills, you have to use your strengths and avoid weaknesses to play with him physically. This is the winning concept of smart people.

Under the leadership of the home team's tough attitude, the actions of the Barcelona players also began to become "bold and unrestrained". They successively physically violated the Real Madrid players on the defensive end, which attracted waves of boos.It's just that the two sides can still keep their sanity in their hearts at this stage, and they didn't make too much moves. In addition, the referee Manzano's penalty scale today is really not strict, and some slight actions that are suspected of fouling They were all let go, so the process of the game is relatively coherent, which also brings a higher viewing experience to this national derby.

However, when the formations of the two teams are the same and there are many similarities in tactics, in the end it was Real Madrid who fought at home and had the right location and advantages. After a fierce hand-to-hand fight, Real Madrid took the lead.

No. In 14 minutes, they made a simple long-distance transfer. As a result, Mbappe used his double 19 speed and acceleration ability to forcefully overwhelm Barcelona left-back Mark Cuculera, and then cut diagonally into the penalty area After that, before Umtiti's defense was in place, he knocked the ball across the middle. Rodrigo, who rushed to the horse, did not stop the ball and volleyed vigorously at the top corner of the near goal. Ter Stegen singled it out. The palm rests out of the beam.

After that, Asensio quickly took a tactical corner kick. Odriosola's cross was rubbed by Varane towards the back post. As a result, the ball almost flew out of the baseline against the outside of the post.Real Madrid made consecutive killing moves in front of the opponent's goal, but unfortunately they all missed the goal in the end, but this performance was enough to arouse the excitement of the home team supporters in the stadium. For a while, crazy cheers and cheers resounded through the Bernabéu, bringing It has put huge psychological pressure on Barcelona players and coaches.

(End of this chapter)