Chapter 435: The Middle

This was a match that took place at noon in late autumn.

When Webber blew the whistle to end the game, it was just after 3:00 p.m., and it happened that the weather in London had been good these days, a little hot, and coupled with the non-stop cheers of more than 30,000 fans at White Hart Lane for the past two hours, the temperature inside White Hart Lane could only be described as scorching.

But for some reason, when Wenger heard Webber's whistle, he felt a chill from the bottom of his heart.

When did the gap between his team and Tottenham Hotspur widen to this extent?

From the first half, the two teams were evenly matched, and even Arsenal was firmly in the upper hand at 1:1, to the second half, the game was full of twists and turns, and four goals were lost in a row, becoming 1:5. This made Wenger himself confused, because he really found that Tottenham Hotspur's strength had surpassed Arsenal without him realizing it, especially in offense.

With the departure of Vieira, Pires, Henry, Ljungberg and other old-generation stars, and the fall from grace of Gilberto Silva, Arsenal has gradually embarked on a youthful transformation. Compared with the mid- and lower-level teams in the Premier League, Arsenal does have a certain advantage with its skilled ball control system, after all, even the young players are quite strong.

But when it came to Tottenham, Wenger really found that he seemed a little helpless.

Standing next to Wenger, Pete Rice took in the professor's expression. He didn't think that the strength of Arsenal was 1:5 compared to Tottenham. If it was really calculated by strength, it would be at most 1:2, which was a reasonable score, but the key problem was that Arsenal fought too hard in the first half.

As Wenger's right-hand man, Pete Rice is very clear about Wenger's shortcomings. The professor's tactical literacy is definitely not worse than anyone else. He has outstanding tactical knowledge. At the same time, he is very good at building the team's passing system and offensive routines. Therefore, once Arsenal plays smoothly, it is often a devastating attack.

Of course, this has a premise, that is, it is based on Arsenal's smooth play.

But the problem is that unless you encounter a team that is far inferior to you or has made major tactical mistakes, otherwise, any opponent will make targeted arrangements based on your tactics, and even make some changes in the game.

Wenger belongs to the academic school and pays great attention to the integrity of the team's tactical system. Therefore, even if he makes substitutions in the game, he seems cautious, for fear of affecting the team's tactical system. Therefore, his substitutions are rare, and generally substitutions are made for positions that are not in good condition and do not perform well enough.

If you use more professional words to describe it, Wenger hopes to promote global changes through local substitutions.

But there is another type of head coach, whose substitutions are more structural, such as Ferguson, who is a genius in this area. He is weak in tactical system construction, but he has a very keen tactical sense, so after the treble, he directly introduced Veron to carry out continental reforms.

When Ye Qiu came to the Premier League and brought the four-line score reform, and concluded that by running without the ball, he could create one more person in the midfield than the opponent, this famous statement, Ferguson was the first to follow Ye Qiu to reform, and completely broke and rebuilt Manchester United's formation, but he did not follow Ye Qiu's direction completely, but explored and moved forward on his own to create Manchester United's own tactics.

In the past few years, you can say that Ferguson has taken a lot of wrong paths, but you have to admit that Manchester United has indeed found a football path of its own and has created tactics that best fit Manchester United's temperament and spirit.

Relatively speaking, Chelsea's head coach Mourinho is also very keen on tactical smell, but he is too adventurous and speculative, so his substitutions and adjustments may not be as experienced as Ferguson in many cases, and sometimes even counterproductive.

If Wenger is an academic who emphasizes tactical system with a little idealism, then Ferguson and Mourinho are relatively realistic. Unlike Wenger, they coach the team more for realistic purposes, and even the tactical system is not important to them. As long as they can win, they don't care what tactics they use.

Or it can be said that Wenger insists on being self-centered, while Ferguson and Mourinho tend to adapt to the enemy.

But there is another kind of head coach, who is very special and happens to be sandwiched between the academic and the realists. They attach great importance to the construction and maintenance of the tactical system, and have their own tactical concepts and stick to their own tactical ideas, but they will make appropriate changes and adjustments according to the opponent, and they also have excellent tactical sense.

Ye Qiu and Benitez belong to the middle school.

Looking at Ye Qiu and Benítez, they can be said to be the two head coaches who emphasize cooperation the most in the Premier League. Back then, Benítez's Liverpool and Ye Qiu's Chelsea were regarded as the teams that emphasized integrity the most in the Premier League. Now Mourinho has inherited this characteristic of Ye Qiu, and Ye Qiu has rebuilt a new whole in Tottenham Hotspur.

But the two are a little different. Benítez emphasizes meticulousness. His tactics are known for their very, very demanding requirements. Many people even think that his requirements for players are almost like robots, asking players to mechanically execute his tactical requirements on the court, and he is also meticulous in the arrangement of each game to the point of being cumbersome.

Ye Qiu is the opposite. When he was at Chelsea, he had high requirements for tactical details. But after coming to Tottenham Hotspur, he began to build a more open tactical platform. He emphasized purpose and creativity. He advocated that all players can adopt an open mindset to guide the game when the team has unified goals and ideas.

But whether it is Ye Qiu or Benítez, they are very persistent in their core concepts, and they also have a strong sense of tactics, and they are even willing to take risks for this.

Ye Qiu's starting tactics in this game were very passive. He was indeed suppressed by Wenger, but he soon grasped the biggest weakness in Wenger's tactics, which is that the physical consumption will be very large, especially considering that there are no players with superior physical fitness in the Arsenal team. Using such tactics will be very passive in the second half.

If it is a normal head coach, he should take a blocking approach, that is, to curb Arsenal, but Ye Qiu did the opposite, letting you control the ball and attack. I have only one purpose, that is, to drag you down and further consume your physical energy. It doesn't matter how many goals you lose in the first half. The most important thing is to drag you down.

This is a very risky approach, because Tottenham may not be able to defend in the first half, but Cech's outstanding performance saved Tottenham twice in the first half, so Ye Qiu won the bet.

In the second half, Arsenal's physical strength had been almost exhausted, and Ye Qiu replaced two people in the 55th minute, which made Wenger hesitate, but these two substitutions were premeditated and there was not much risk, because Arsenal's physical strength had been almost exhausted at that time, and the substitutions were for attack.

For Ye Qiu at that time, as long as the attack could work, the pressure on the back line could be ignored.

Relatively speaking, Wenger's substitutions seemed a bit cautious, even conservative. Substituting Alexander Song was to strengthen the defense, but the Cameroonian international did not show his level in the face of Tottenham's attack, and replacing Bendtner also did not put pressure on Tottenham on the offensive end.

But at the same time, we must also see that Arsenal's bench is indeed too weak, which has become the biggest bottleneck of Wenger's team. Because there is not enough bench thickness, you can perform well when the main lineup is complete, but once the winter break comes, you will encounter the biggest test.

Benítez is a bit opposite in Liverpool. The Spaniard always likes to rotate from the beginning. The lineup changes every day, and the players also change back and forth, which makes people unpredictable. However, this team always exerts its strength in the second half because of the effect of rotation, but it is also easy to cause Liverpool's unstable performance in the first half and lose too many points.

Ye Qiu attaches great importance to the rationality of the team's construction. If you carefully analyze Tottenham's lineup, it is not difficult to find that the team's bench thickness is actually very strong. Although it is not as star-studded as Chelsea's bench, its strength is also good.

Ruud van Nistelrooy left the front line, but there are two newcomers, Cavani and Carroll. Carroll is regarded as Shearer II or Ruud van Nistelrooy II. Cavani has good skills, is very motivated in the game, has a large running range, and has good shooting ability.

Gareth Bale, Arshavin, Ashley Young and Marcelo are on the wing. Gareth Bale and Marcelo can play on the left, whether it is a winger or an offensive full-back.

Yaya Toure and Lucas are in the midfield. This season, Modric, who changed the situation in this game, and Ramsey, a young player from Cardiff, were introduced. Tottenham Hotspur has a strong midfield bench.

The same is true for the midfield and backcourt. Kompany and Mike Dawson are substitute central defenders. Arbeloa can play on both sides of the left and right wing, and he is a defensive player, which allows Tottenham Hotspur to adjust the team's defense anytime and anywhere.

When Pete Rice thought of this, he couldn't help but think of Steve Lawley's high evaluation of Ye Qiu.

The Arsenal chief scout believes that in today's football world, Ye Qiu must be ranked first among the coaches with the best comprehensive abilities such as being good at discovering young players, building team lineups, and creating team tactical systems.

Of course, Pete Rice also knows the current situation of Arsenal and the troubles Wenger has encountered, so he can only feel helpless about many things, and the problem is not entirely Wenger's.

"Let's go, Arsene!" Pete Rice patted Wenger on the shoulder and sighed.

"5:1 is definitely not a reasonable score that can reflect the performance of both sides on the field, because we did not perform badly!"

At the press conference after the game, Wenger was obviously a little depressed about losing this game, but refused to admit that the team was not strong enough, because he felt that his team performed better in the first half.

"Tottenham is a very good team, I never deny that, they now have the strength to compete with the top teams in the Premier League, but I don't think there is a gap in strength between us and them, I think this game has a certain degree of randomness."

"Of course, the game is over, we lost, we should accept the reality!" Wenger also said with obvious disappointment that he can accept losing, even a crushing defeat, "We are a very young team, and losing is also a learning process for us."

"From the day players enter professional football, they must learn how to face setbacks and failures, because only one side will always win on the football field, so they must learn to accept him, face him, and then overcome it. he!"

As for Tottenham Hotspur, Wenger said that the team's current ranking is not a reflection of their true strength.

"They have two games less than all the teams and one game less than Liverpool, so the current ranking is not because they are not strong. On the contrary, I think if they can adjust the team well to fight on multiple fronts, especially It’s the pressure of fighting on two fronts in the Champions League and the Premier League, and they should be able to achieve better and better results.”

Regarding his old friend Ye Qiu, Wenger believes that he can lead the team to overcome these problems. "He has very rich experience in the Champions League. He has even won two Champions Leagues. His experience in these aspects is no worse than anyone else. I think he Able to handle it well.”

After being affirmed by Wenger, Ye Qiu reciprocated the favor.

"Yes, the score is not a reasonable reflection of the strength of both sides. I think Arsenal are better and more effective than last season. There is no doubt about this. And sometimes, losing is not good for a team. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, on the contrary, losing can make you see yourself more clearly.”

"I often tell my players, for example, we lost in the first and third rounds at the beginning of the season, but I tell my players that losing is a must for any team. It is a test, but the scariest thing about it is not the loss caused by losing, but that you have to understand why you lost, and how you can get out of the shadow of losing in the shortest time after losing and let the ball go. The team rebounds, this is the standard that tests whether a team is truly strong!”

Ye Qiu also said that he believed Arsenal could come out of the shadows soon.

Although both head coaches deliberately wanted to keep a low profile after the game, the fans of both sides have been sworn enemies of each other for nearly a century. Such a harmonious atmosphere is obviously not what they want to see. Therefore, after the game, as the winner's supporter, Tenham Hotspur fans started a round of carnival to celebrate the team's 5-1 home victory over Arsenal.

This victory not only sent Tottenham Hotspur fans into a frenzy, but also made Arsenal fans extremely frustrated. It also shocked the media in the UK and around the world. Many people even couldn't figure out what Tottenham Hotspur fans were doing. Why were Tottenham able to beat Arsenal, or why did Arsenal perform so differently in the first and second halves?

Many reporters said when writing reports that Beckham's free kick before the end of the first half assisted Hangeland's goal, which helped Tottenham Hotspur regain their morale and greatly dampened Arsenal's fighting spirit.

But more people still felt that Ye Qiu's two substitutions had an effect.

Regarding the public opinion of the outside media, Tottenham Hotspur did not pay too much participation or attention, because after beating Arsenal, the team immediately ushered in the first game of the Champions League group stage and challenged Valencia away. , the result was a 1:0 victory by the Bat Legion, and Tottenham Hotspur lost at the Mestalla Stadium in their first group match.

It was David Villa who scored the goal for Valencia. The Spanish striker received a through ball from David Silva on the left and knocked on Cech's goal, scoring the final goal for Valencia. Smash.

Ye Qiu also felt helpless about the defeat in the first game of the group stage, because the game against Arsenal four days ago was too fierce. Although the team defeated the opponent, the main players also consumed a lot of physical energy, which made Tottenham Hotspur rushed to Spain and encountered a sniper attack from Valencia.

This defeat dropped Tottenham Hotspur to fourth place in the group, because Slavia Prague defeated Steaua Bucharest 2:1 at home, but this was only the first round of the group, and the current ranking is not very convincing. force.

Back in the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur ushered in the seventh round of the Premier League and challenged Bolton Wanderers away. With the beautiful offensive of the front trident in the first half, Tottenham Hotspur completely pushed Bolton Wanderers into the abyss of relegation. , a score of 3:1 allowed Bolton to only get three points in the first seven rounds of the league, ranking at the bottom of the league standings.

Tottenham Hotspur relied on this game to score nine points with three wins and two losses, ranking tenth in the standings, but this is also because Tottenham Hotspur has fewer games than its opponents. Two rounds.

Currently ranked first is Arsenal, who lead the league with 16 points, followed by Manchester United with 14 points, and Manchester City with 13 points, but they have already played their full games. There are seven league rounds, and Liverpool has one game less and has 12 points, ranking fourth.

Mourinho's Chelsea did not have an ideal start to the season. It could even be said to be a bit bad. They had three wins, two draws and two losses in seven rounds, and only scored 11 points. Especially in the seventh round, they lost 0:2 away from home. Manchester United, which put a lot of pressure on Mourinho.

In the middle of the week, in the top 32 knockout rounds of the League Cup, Ye Qiu decisively chose to give up the League Cup this time and arranged for all young players to play, including Aaron Ramsey, Eden Hazard, Kyle Walker, Carroll, Kompany, Lucas, Gareth Bale and other players have all qualified for the starting lineup.

Although everyone knows that Ye Qiu played the League Cup with youth team players in order to give the main lineup a rest and train this group of young players, the young players still performed very well and defeated Hull City 4:0 away. Carroll became the team's best striker and scored twice.

This wonderful performance made everyone curious about Tottenham Hotspur's youth team. Many of the players are still studying in school, and many of them are playing for Tottenham Hotspur for the first time. Such an outstanding performance also made many Tottenham Hotspur fans full of expectations for the future of their team's youth training.

But three days later, in the eighth round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur was once again defeated by Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa at White Hart Lane!