The Young Lion

Millwall's pre-season training kicked off. Aldridge was on the team's training ground almost every day, personally supervising the players' training in various items, and instilling tactical ideas into the players during the rest and relaxation. Discuss with each player individually their position on the field, the development of technical characteristics, and he does not need a translator directly in the communication, he has learned all the main languages ​​​​used in Europe in the past eight years, in addition to football training courses , although not proficient, but more than enough to communicate with the players.

The young players here have extraordinary talents, and Aldridge’s guidance can only make them avoid detours. For example, Vieira, at the age of 18, still feels that he is the material to play a traditional center forward, and Makelele also took the initiative to enter. In the role of full-back and so on.

Aldridge is patient and uses the effects of the training process to verify the correctness of his transformation of players, but perhaps it is only his sincerity of diligently being with the players every day that has moved the players. In a short time, Aldridge Odd has established a good relationship with the players, which is a good foundation.

In daily training, Aldridge will join a short 15-minute confrontation game.

After 15 minutes, the game went straight to a penalty shootout.

This makes many players feel dissatisfied.

After the daily confrontation match, the players would always ask Aldridge with unsatisfied desire: play for another half an hour? 20 minutes? 10 minutes is fine!

Who can play for 15 minutes?

Even if ordinary people play football, is it called playing football for 15 minutes?

Such a short match is to keep the players' hunger for the game. If you are exhausted and exhausted during training, the excitement of the official game will be greatly reduced. Football training also needs to be suppressed first and then raised. Players' desire to play, and then let them completely release on the green field, and let them explode to their heart's content!

So when the players asked for an extension of the match, Aldridge always shook his head with a smile, and then picked up the football from all over the training ground with other coaches and put it away. Although there are special workers in the club training ground, Aldridge As long as he is free, this kind of idle work will be taken care of, which makes the atmosphere inside the club harmonious.

There are still two or two weeks before the opening of the English Premier League. During these two weeks, the club arranged three friendly matches to warm up. The opponents were Birmingham, Oxford United and Pittburg United.

These three teams were all relegated to the second division last season. Aldrich found this underdog to train, naturally to build confidence for the boys.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, the stands of the Lion's Den Stadium were packed, probably because the stadium is too small, with a capacity of less than 20,000 people. Naturally, the audience were all fans of Millwall.

On this field, Aldridge ushered in the first opponent of the friendly match, Birmingham.

Aldridge walked out of the tunnel with his colleagues on the coaching staff early, came to the coaching bench of the home team and sat down.

For a warm-up match, the tactical layout has been issued yesterday, and the list of players has also been finalized. It can be regarded as the stable main player in Aldrich's mind this season.

Goalkeeper: Caserli Keller.

Defenders: Thuram, Stam, Southgate, Lucas Neal.

Midfielders: Schneider, Makelele, Nedved, Pires.

Forwards: Larsson, Trezeguet.

This roster,

What is more surprising is that 17-year-old Trezeguet appeared in the starting list instead of 21-year-old Solskjaer.

There are six forwards in the team, the youngest is Trezeguet, the oldest is Larsson, followed by Solskjaer and Kevin Phillips.

Solskjaer was recognized by the coaches and players on the first day of team training, and even joked that the free-signed striker was the next Shearer picked up by Millwall.

But Aldridge can only reluctantly make a choice for this kind of happiness. Solskjaer's technical characteristics overlap with Larson's. In England, Aldridge needs a player who can stand firmly in the penalty area. Heel striker, originally Aldridge pinned his hopes on the king of the small penalty area, but Ruud van Nistelrooy's feeling in training somewhat disappointed Aldridge. Many players need a recognition time, Chacha Luca Toni and Ruud van Nistelrooy don't seem to be getting the hang of it yet.

However, Trezeguet, who is only 17 years old but physically strong, brave and courageous, showed impressive impact in training, which probably has a lot to do with his early entry into the professional league in Argentina to participate in the confrontation.

Aldridge sat on the coaching bench and chatted casually with Jenson. Jenson has seen and trained some stars in Ajax. He said that the current Millwall is full of expectations, although he regrets the distance from Ajax. There is still a gap in the talents of Ajax's stars, such as Overmars, Seedorf, Kluivert and other stars who are now shining in the Ajax first team.

After hearing what Jenson said, Aldrich thought about it carefully, but he couldn't refute it.

From a technical point of view, the stars under him are really not comparable to the large number of shining new stars in Ajax. Just Overmars's seamless combination of technology and speed as a winger is simply gorgeous.

Aldrich shook his head and smiled wryly, probably because of the football atmosphere and characteristics of the English league. He really deliberately avoided the kind of gorgeous and skilled players in signings. What about master stars?

However, in terms of the intensity of the physical collision, if you want to land in Serie A, the physical cost is not lower than that of England. The Italian concrete defense and fierce collision are like steel impacts, but England is slightly behind in terms of skills and tactics. It's just rough, the most basic physical confrontation in football is fierce, it's the same.

While chatting, Aldridge suddenly stood up from the coach's bench, and he suddenly noticed the weird atmosphere in the stands.

In his memory, the stands of the Lion's Den Stadium were full of noise and people's voices. If you listen carefully, there will be a lot of songs arranged in foul language to attack your opponents. There is never a moment of peace.

But today, he found that the stadium stands were too calm.

He stood on the sidelines and looked around the stadium, and found that the fans were sitting quietly in the stands. Except for some fans holding up the commemorative scarves of the new season with Aldridge's name on them, expressing their support for the new head coach and owner, most of them Fans still enjoy football, but in the past fans were easily infected by the surrounding environment. In recent years, English football has achieved good results in combating football hooligans, at least in the Premier League and the First Division. As for the key teams, the most active ones are only extreme fan groups like the Bushwackers.

Probably Aldridge stood up and appeared on the sidelines. There were sparse applause from the stands at first, and then it lasted for a long time.

And in the stands in the southeast direction of the stadium, Millwall's team song sounded: No one likes us, I don't care! (Noone like us we don't care)

Aldridge looked around the stands and sat back. He knew that most of the fans still supported him, but many of them took a wait-and-see attitude. After all, Aldridge directly destroyed their stable team lineup in recent years. .

Soon, the players came out of the player tunnel. This was just an ordinary friendly match, not even broadcast on TV. The club's master of ceremonies held a microphone next to the player tunnel and announced the list of players one by one.

Cheers and applause erupt from the stands every time a player's name is heard throughout the stadium.

They don't care how old these players are or where they used to be, as long as they know that they are wearing Millwall jerseys and working hard for victory, that is enough, support, support to death!

Aldridge walked over to shake hands with the head coach of Birmingham politely, and did not talk much. Even Aldridge secretly thought in his heart: It is best not to see him again in the future!

Birmingham will play in League Two next season. Unless it is a cup game, Aldridge certainly doesn't want to see the opposing coach again.

The game started soon, and Aldridge sat on the coach's bench and watched the game quietly, as if he had settled down, and then remained motionless for a long time.

The other coaches also watched the game, but showed anxious expressions.

The average age of Millwall's lineup is only in their early twenties, and the players on the opposite side of Birmingham are old guys who have experienced battles. As soon as they come up, Birmingham has the upper hand on the field, wave after wave of simple long passes. Hanging created tremendous pressure on the Millwall defense.

After Birmingham's offensive ended, Millwall's counterattack was not good, with frequent mistakes. Even Schneider and Pires, who were technically delicate, made low-level mistakes in passing and receiving the ball.

The scene was very passive, and Jansen leaned close to Aldrich's ear and asked, Should I remind them, they are too nervous.

Aldridge didn't blink, and said calmly: They haven't entered the rhythm of the game yet, you see, it's only fifteen minutes, Schneider is gasping for breath, and when he came up nervous and sprinted desperately, he almost let his brain run out. Oxygen, nothing, let them find their own feelings first, it is only a friendly match, but our defense line is very stable, which surprised me, it is a good sign that we can not concede the ball.

The combination of Stam and Southgate, with Stam in the air defense, although occasionally he is a bit frizzy, but Thuram, who was converted from a central defender to a full-back, and Southgate, who has an excellent defensive awareness, help him make up for it. , the danger on the defense line is just a false alarm, and Makelele Ganedved in the middle is top-notch in defending and fighting. Aldridge has no reason to worry.

The warm-up match is to let them recover the feeling of the game and get used to the rhythm of the game. In terms of integrating the team's offensive and defensive coordination, Aldridge's first priority is naturally defense. As long as the defense has no tactical defects, he does not need to go to the sidelines to give players Otherwise, Southgate, Thuram, Nedved and other players with stable performance may mistakenly think that the head coach is dissatisfied with them.