Chapter 168 Three Consecutive Victories

World famous coach? Hiddink suffered humiliation in his first game in the Dutch League!

In a humiliating battle, Hiddink was completely beaten back to his original shape by the Ajax marshal!

PSV suffered a rare defeat in recent years, Hiddink was questioned by fans!

Sitting on a soft chair next to the beginner's pool in the swimming pool, Ye Qiu, who was wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, was still dripping with water, but he was looking attentively at the newspapers that Eliza had brought over and bought on the way.

In the swimming pool at his feet, a mermaid with convex and convex shapes was shuttled back and forth.

Hiddink became famous in the World Cup by bringing South Korea to the semi-finals of the World Cup. For a time, he seemed to be exaggerated by the media as one of the best coaches in the world, especially in the Netherlands, because Van Gaal failed to lead the Dutch national team to the World Cup. As a result, the Netherlands missed the World Cup finals, so the Dutch focused more attention on Hiddink.

There is no doubt that Hiddink's transformation of the Korean team was very successful, but it definitely did not reach the level of being regarded as a god. To a certain extent, Hiddink is still far from the top head coach in Europe. some distance.

Ye Qiu was a little surprised by the final result of this game. He felt that this game was a bit accidental, that is, Hiddink's PSV played too passively. When they contracted the three lines, they were too aggressive. Putting the initiative of the game in Ajax's hands, this undoubtedly contributed to Ajax's possession time.

Judging from the ball possession rate, Ajax is as high as 68.5%, and the passing success rate is 83.5%. Both numbers are very high. It can even be said that since Ye Qiu started coaching, The one who holds the ball the longest and is the most efficient at the same time.

What is the cause?

Half lying on a soft chair on the shore, Ye Qiu searched for the godfather's training system in his mind and went directly to the study room.

After three years of accumulation, the tactical books he had read about those famous coaches had filled the entire study room. He even had to spend more reward points to expand the space of the study room for storage. More books.

Although Ye Qiu came from 2013, he himself adopts a partially positive attitude towards Barcelona, ​​which was at its peak around 2013. He always believes that Barcelona's ball control system must have its own advanced concept that surpasses other opponents, but It is impossible for any team to copy Barcelona's approach, because every team has its own uniqueness.

In the past three years after time travel, Ye Qiu has seen the tactical thoughts and essence of many world-famous coaches and even some ordinary head coaches. He has understood many aspects of tactical thoughts and ideas, including conservatives, radicals, and tendencies. Instead of winning on defense, there is also the option of putting offense first. Whether it’s Capello, Mourinho, Guardiola or Bielsa, Ye Qiu watches them all.

However, Ye Qiu adopts a dubious attitude towards the tactical thoughts and concepts of these people. He may agree with some of the views and deny some of them, but this does not mean that the views that he agrees with are necessarily correct, and he may deny some of them. Those must be wrong.

There is no absolute right or wrong in this world. It is just like it is difficult to define whether a head coach is conservative or radical, whether he is inclined to attack or defend. Ye Qiu's selection criteria are always based on his own needs.

Regarding ball control, Ye Qiu admires Cruyff's ideas.

When many people mention Cruyff's thoughts on ball control, they always mention one sentence, "If we firmly control the ball at our feet and let our opponents have no ball control, then the game will be won."

This sentence is definitely taken out of context and is the result of typical media remarks. They just want to put a simple, easy-to-understand and easy-to-remember label on Cruyff's ball control concept, that is, extreme ball control theory.

Cruyff said that he felt that there were only two people in the midfield, which was too thin, so he liked to have three people in the midfield for better defense. "I like defense more than anyone thinks. You can’t win, but you can’t lose either.”

"There is an episode of The Simpsons about a football match. One team is very passive and keeps passing the ball, but they don't attack. They are addicted to passing the ball, addicted to their own ball control, and even everything they do. It’s all about possession of the ball, which is meaningless, because the reason why possession of the ball is necessary is to launch an offense and score goals through possession of the ball.”

"What I emphasize from beginning to end is passing. Passing constitutes ball control, but uncontrolled ball control is not the goal of passing. Simplicity is."

"It took me many, many years to discover that playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is very difficult!"

"Just like tiki-taka, the bullfighter wants to control the whole arena. He constantly uses various means and methods to tease the bull and provoke him, and then when it rushes up quickly, it is about to hit him. At this time, using the cover of the cloak and a beautiful and elegant turn, he passed by the angry bull and made him miss. "

"This is the essence of what real control wants to achieve. On the football field, the ultimate goal of the party controlling the ball is not to control the ball, but to make the opponent pounce like a bull and expose fatal flaws. The team in possession is like a bullfighter, using simple but very clever skills and screens to pass the opponent. "

"At that moment, the opponent's defense was the weakest, because they found that they had missed and exposed a flaw, and they were desperately trying to slow themselves down and fill the loophole, while the party in control of the ball saw through the opponent's loophole and desperately wanted to speed themselves up to take advantage of it. This fierce collision of fast and slow will bring a pleasing and exciting scene."

"Leonardo da Vinci said that the most complex is the simplest. I believe that the pursuit of all football coaches is the same, that is, to score goals and win in the simplest way, which is also my pursuit!"

Ye Qiu has seen many tactical ideas of world-famous coaches, but he really found that no coach's entire tactical thinking can be as systematic as Cruyff. He has a complete set of tactical thinking system.

This is also Ye Qiu's impression of him all the time. He may not be a great coach, or a likable guy, but he is definitely a great football thinker, because he is almost always thinking about a philosophy of football.

Simple, is it difficult? Not difficult!

Simple, is it easy? Not easy!

Just like we eat, drink water, and sleep every day, it's very simple, very simple, as if we can do it with just a gesture, but does anyone still remember when they just started to learn to use chopsticks to pick up food and learn to drink water from a cup?

Don't forget that we spent decades, or even a lifetime, to practice to make eating, drinking, and sleeping simple. If we don't spend so much time, will these things still be simple?

The simplest, but also the most difficult, because only after mastering the most complex skills, things will become simple.

So, ball control is not the ultimate goal, simplicity is!

Back to this game, Ye Qiu felt that Ajax's ball possession rate was a bit high, about 60%, because if you don't give your opponent more opportunities, it's like not letting the angry bull rush up, then they may not reveal any flaws at all.

Another thing that made Ye Qiu dissatisfied was that Arteta's passing was too accurate and lacked the spirit of adventure.

In this game, Arteta made a staggering 101 passes, which has never happened in Ajax in the past few years. Among them, there were only 5 mistakes, which is very scary, because Sneijder only made 61 passes and made 11 mistakes, but he created a total of 5 threatening passes.

Ye Qiu has always believed that without taking risks, there will never be any creativity, because the emergence of creativity itself is a result of taking risks. If there is no risk, there will be no creativity.

Sneijder's creativity is good. Ye Qiu did not overly suppress his risk-taking, giving him more freedom to pass and let him play. Arteta himself is a little too obsessed with the success rate of passing, and he is afraid of mistakes.

John Cleese, the most creative comedian in the UK, said, "Creativity is not a talent, but a way of behavior. Creative people have a certain emotion that allows their creativity to work. Anyone is fully capable of doing this."

Beckenbauer said, "A head coach must be more creative than a player, because a player's creativity can only allow him to play on the court, but a head coach's creativity is to make every player on the team more creative on the court."

Because he has seen a lot, Ye Qiu knows a lot. He is constantly improving his tactical ideas and concepts. He is constantly looking for the most suitable path for himself, but he has always maintained a humble attitude to learn, even if he looks arrogant in many cases.

It seems that three years have passed, and he still hasn't changed his habit of going into the study room and reading all kinds of books whenever he has time. He is still absorbing knowledge from all aspects all the time and constantly adding value to himself.

In Ye Qiu's opinion, if Arteta's passes can be more adventurous, although Ajax's pass success rate will decrease and the overall ball possession rate will also decrease, Ajax's passes will be more sudden and changeable, which can create more threats to the opponent.

After understanding this, Ye Qiu also knew where the team's improvement direction was in the next stage.

…………

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On August 18, 2002, Ajax welcomed Utrecht at the Arena Stadium.

In the Eredivisie, which was held one day earlier than Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord both defeated their opponents 2:0. Hiddink and Van Marwijk obviously did not miss, but maintained a steady start.

Ye Qiu also sent out all the main players in this game.

Goalkeeper Van der Sar, the back line was Abidal, Kivu, Lucio and Maicon, the three midfielders were Arteta, De Jong and Sneijder, and the front trident was Robben, Ibrahimovic and Van der Vaart.

The game started with the same aggressive style of play that Ajax had used in the past, and Robben's goal in the 5th minute sounded the clarion call for Ajax's attack.

But it is obvious that after taking the lead, Ajax played with more rhythm.

After the team pressed forward as a whole, Arteta controlled the ball about 30 meters outside the opponent's goal, and Sneijder's cruising and running in the opponent's 30-meter area echoed each other, making Ajax's midfield organization very threatening.

Utrecht started by keeping three lines tight, using forwards to retreat to harass Arteta, but over time, their tactics were somewhat compromised, after all, they could not maintain this pressure for a long time.

In the 31st minute, Arteta passed the ball to Sneijder, and the Dutch midfielder made a quick stop and got rid of it, then pushed the ball forward with his left foot. Ibrahimovic used his body to overpower the Utrecht central defender, forcibly knocked open the opponent's defense with his body, and volleyed the ball from the front of the penalty area. The ball went into the net, 2:0!

After scoring two goals in a row, Ajax looked unstoppable. In the second half, they frequently threatened Utrecht's penalty area, but the latter's defense was well organized, blocking Ajax's attack outside the penalty area.

But in the 67th minute, Robben used his personal skills to force a breakthrough on the left, quickly cut into the penalty area, and passed the ball to the back point. Van der Vaart followed up in time and shot, further expanding the score for Ajax, 3:0!

At this moment, Utrecht had completely lost its determination to fight to the end. Seeing that the overall situation was decided, Ye Qiu also made substitutions. Huntelaar, who replaced Ibrahimovic, scored in the 86th minute, locking the score at 4:0, and also won a big victory for Ajax in the first round of the new season.

With a 4:0 victory at the Arena Stadium, Ajax jumped to the top of the league standings.

On the second day, major Dutch newspapers published reports on Ajax, believing that this Ajax team, whether from the pre-season or the first round of the league, has shown a very different tactical style from the past Ajax.

"The previous Ajax was very aggressive, but lacked change. The current Ajax is obviously more changeable and sudden. They can play very quickly and create a lightning attack at the beginning, but they can also play very slowly and follow your slow pace in passing and transferring the ball."

"If you think you can relax and be careless because of their slowness, you are wrong. Whether it is Barcelona or Manchester United, or Juventus and Eindhoven, they are paralyzed by their slowness, because as long as they find a flaw, they often only need one pass to completely tear open your defense."

"Everyone once thought that the loss of Gilberto Silva and Seydou Keita would cause huge losses to Ajax's midfield and weaken its strength. However, from the current situation, Ye Qiu did not damage the strength of his team. On the contrary, Arteta's joining made this Ajax more changeable and threatening."

A week later, Ajax challenged Vitesse away.

Still a rush after the opening, Ajax knocked on Vitesse's goal in the 16th minute by Ibrahimovic.

This was also the second consecutive league goal scored by the Swedish center forward, and Ajax's offense was very good.

After losing the ball, Vitesse played a steady defensive counterattack at home, which caused Ajax a lot of trouble. Until the second half, with two goals from Maicon and Kivu, Ajax defeated the opponent 3:0 again away from home and won two consecutive Eredivisie victories.

It was also in this round that Hiddink's team finally defeated Groningen at home in the 92nd minute with a goal from Vogel, and escaped by luck and got 3 points, but Van Marwijk's team was not so lucky. They were twice ahead away from home, but were equalized by Roda JC twice, and finally tied 2:2.

Many media outlets have criticized and doubted Van Marwijk's falling behind, believing that Feyenoord will fall out of the championship group from now on, while Ajax and PSV will continue to advance triumphantly.

Sure enough, in the third round of the league, Feyenoord defeated Rotterdam's SBV Elite 4:1, while PSV defeated Alkmaar 4:0 away, with Kezman scoring twice, and Hiddink's training of PSV initially showed results.

But as the championship rivals won one after another, Ajax also did not fall behind. Ye Qiu's team challenged Groningen away, with Van der Vaart scoring twice, and Robben and Lucio's goals helping Ajax beat Groningen 4:1 away.

After this round of matches, Ajax and PSV Eindhoven both won three consecutive games. Ajax took the lead in the Eredivisie with the amazing data of 11 goals and 1 goal conceded in three games, while Hiddink's PSV Eindhoven followed closely behind. It is worth noting that PSV Eindhoven, which lost Nikiforov this season, only lost 1 goal in the first three rounds of the league.

Feyenoord followed closely with two wins and one draw, ranking third in the Eredivisie, which is not surprising.

As many Dutch media speculated, although Hiddink took over strongly this season, Ajax's performance was once again surprising, especially after the departure of Gilberto Silva and Seydou Keita, two powerful players, Ye Qiu's team was not weakened at all, but its combat effectiveness and offensive capabilities were improved.

"If nothing unexpected happens, this season's Eredivisie title will still be a battle between Ajax and PSV Eindhoven. Van Marwijk may still have a chance. Although this team is obviously not as competitive as Ajax and PSV Eindhoven, if Van Marwijk can stick to the Eredivisie while Ajax and PSV Eindhoven are focusing on the European arena, then he may not have no chance!"

This is also the concern of many media people about Ajax. They think that Ye Qiu shouted out his ambition to win the Champions League too early, which will bring pressure to the players. However, they don’t know that within Ajax, the players’ ambitious shouts to the head coach show strong fighting spirit and desire.

Ibrahimovic, Lucio, Robben, Van der Vaart...

This group of players are the main players of the top four of the Champions League last season. They continue to stay in Ajax with only one purpose, that is, to achieve better and more brilliant achievements than last season. If they can’t do this, how can Ajax keep them?

Ye Qiu’s shouting may have put him in the spotlight and made him the target of many European media attacks, but it once again consolidated the unity within the team and inspired the players’ fighting spirit and desire to win.

The three consecutive victories at the start of the Eredivisie are undoubtedly the best evidence!