Chapter 698: Lose the fight but not the battle

Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Marseille, Benfica, APOEL, these are the teams that have emerged from the Champions League round of 16 knockouts this season.

In terms of strength, even if APOEL defeated Lyon in the round of 16 knockouts, they are still the weakest team among the eight teams, because Lyon no longer has the strength that swept the French Ligue 1 field.

But unfortunately, this weakest team in the quarterfinals got the Real Madrid team for nothing, so that Real Madrid fans were almost happy, because they saw that they were sent to the semifinals, and the competition between Marseille and Bayern Munich was in the same half of the zone with Real Madrid.

In the other half of the zone, Barcelona also got a good draw. They met Benfica, which can be said to be the last team among the eight teams. The draw of the two La Liga giants can be said to have taken advantage of it, while the unlucky Tottenham Hotspur drew AC Milan in the draw, forming the only strong dialogue in the quarterfinals.

The Premier League is killing itself, Tottenham is killing itself. This immediately became the front-page headlines of major European newspapers the next day. Almost everyone felt that Tottenham was clearly going to be eliminated after encountering Serie A teams in a row.

As the saying goes, the Premier League beats Serie A, Serie A beats La Liga, and La Liga beats the Premier League. This is a consensus among many fans.

In fact, this is not accurate. To be more precise, the English style of play is more restrained by the Italian style of play, while the Italian style of play is restrained by the Western style of play. The Western style of play restrains the English style of play, which is a kind of mutual promotion and mutual restraint.

Tottenham is obviously not a British style of play. Manchester United and Chelsea are currently more inclined to the British style of play. Tottenham and Arsenal are both more technical. Even though Tottenham has introduced more powerful and balanced offensive and defensive players this season, the team still attaches great importance to interlacing, pulling, passing and receiving the ball, rather than a power-based style of play.

Italy's rigorous positioning is to restrain this kind of interlaced pulling and passing and receiving cooperation. They are like a wall, motionless as a mountain, letting you run, let you cut, let you pass. As long as he stands there unmoved, you can't do anything to him, you can only fight hard, so Italy's style of play is more restrained in this type of play.

Moreover, letting AC Milan and Tottenham Hotspur have a strong dialogue can not only increase the attention of the quarter-finals, but also increase the media's hype gimmicks, such as Pirlo's reunion with his old master.

A year ago, Pirlo was forced out of Milan by Allegri and Galliani using conspiracy and tricks, and now, Pirlo has returned with Tottenham Hotspur to revenge. This is simply the football version of the Count of Monte Cristo!

Therefore, after the draw results came out, almost all the media in the world were in a frenzy, hyping this game, because it is not only the only strong dialogue in the Champions League quarter-finals, but also the most gimmicky highlight.

As if it was destined, in the FA Cup match at the weekend, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Bolton 3:0 with a full substitute lineup, but a week later, when visiting Stamford Bridge, they were tied 0:0 by Chelsea away.

Chelsea's performance this season is not ideal. After entering the second half, Abrahimovic announced a change of coach, removed Villas-Boas, and assistant coach Di Matteo took over. As a result, the Italian head coach used reinforced concrete defense to make Tottenham Hotspur almost unable to launch an effective attack in this game.

Even though Chelsea is very embarrassed in terms of data, as Di Matteo said, "We got a point from Tottenham Hotspur, which is also a pretty good result!"

I don't know since when, getting points from Tottenham Hotspur has become a very luxurious thing, and you can even show it off like Di Matteo.

This is also Tottenham's seventh draw this season, and Manchester City has narrowed the points gap with Tottenham to four points with a 2:1 away win over Stoke City.

After being tied by Chelsea away, everyone realized that Tottenham was in trouble.

So a very interesting phenomenon appeared. The media stood in two camps. One camp was adding insult to injury, thinking that Tottenham went from 1:1 to 1:0 to 0:0, which was obviously getting worse. This North London team encountered problems, and its unbeaten record might be broken at any time and place, and it might even lose the league championship.

Many media were cheering for the world to be in chaos, calling on Manchester City to cheer up, and it would be best to win all the last few rounds to bring Tottenham down, so that this ambitious team that wanted to create an unprecedented four consecutive championships in the English top league would completely collapse.

Some people even think that if Tottenham Hotspur collapses, it may not only suffer a setback in the Premier League, but also in the Champions League, because Allegri's style of play has many similarities with Di Matteo. Both of them are Italian head coaches, and the reason why Allegri doesn't like Pirlo is that he hopes to form a powerful midfield combination.

But many people also think that Tottenham Hotspur's current situation does not explain the problem. The biggest problem of the North London team now is that they have played too many games. Some media have calculated that Tottenham Hotspur has played the most official games in the entire European football so far this season.

The Premier League teams themselves are at a disadvantage in this kind of schedule, because there is one more cup than other leagues and there is less winter break. When others are resting, the Premier League teams are rushing to play. This has led to the Premier League teams this season. The sluggish performance in European competitions and Tottenham Hotspur's poor performance until March are precisely a reflection of this long schedule.

More importantly, Tottenham Hotspur has just encountered a devilish schedule, and all players are experiencing continuous strong dialogue, which makes it not surprising that their performance declined after March.

The media supporting Tottenham Hotspur believe that judging from Ye Qiu's performance in the past few years, and that he probably has a clear plan now, the current situation of Tottenham Hotspur does not exceed Ye Qiu's expectations. In addition, because this North London team did not suffer any serious injuries, the personnel lineup is very neat.

Therefore, they all believe that Ye Qiu will definitely be able to lead this North London team out of the trough.

After playing against Chelsea, the entire Tottenham Hotspur team went to Milan to challenge AC Milan away from home.

Before rushing to the away game, Ye Qiu not only announced the team's eighteen-man roster at the pre-match press conference, but also answered some questions from reporters. He was inevitably asked about the current situation. He said that the team currently has no problems. .

"I can understand the behavior of some people. They need to concoct some news to attract attention from the outside world and promote their sales, but I want to say that none of these can become a reality!"

Regarding the upcoming away game, Ye Qiu also said that he knew that the game was very difficult.

"It will definitely not be an easy game at the San Siro Stadium. This is a very difficult team, but my players and I are ready to deal with the difficulties. I believe we can win from the San Siro Stadium with all our strength. And retreat!"

But soon, the reporter asked another question, and that was about Allegri’s cage theory.

AC Milan's head coach joked at the pre-match press conference that he had compiled a special iron cage for Tottenham Hotspur, "We will try our best to keep Tottenham Hotspur's stars in this cage." Disappearing completely during a game is like being locked in an iron cage!”

Ye Qiu laughed after hearing this, "Then let's see how we successfully escaped from the San Siro prison!"

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Some people say that Italian head coaches are very tactically literate because they are immersed in Italy's highly tactical football environment. Those who stand out are basically tactician masters.

Allegri does have the traditional characteristics of a very typical Italian head coach, that is, he can also adapt to the situation and tailor things to suit the situation, but he also has the disadvantage of a very strong new head coach, that is, he is only good at one kind of skills. tactics.

It must be mentioned here that many fans are struggling with the so-called 442 or 433 position. They will think that a certain head coach is only good at a certain tactical formation. This is completely unreasonable, because when it comes to In the game, any tactics will be disrupted, so the core concept of a head coach is the essence.

Just like Ye Qiu, from Ajax to Chelsea to Tottenham Hotspur, he has always used 433, but would anyone say that Ye Qiu's tactics are not good? In other words, Ye Qiu is only good at using 433?

No one who really understands football would say that, because Ye Qiu's tactical concepts have improved a lot over the years, from the youthful days of Ajax to the domineering days of Chelsea, to Tottenham Hotspur. His maturity, restraint and strategizing during the period show that he has made great progress on the tactical level.

The current Tottenham Hotspur does not pay attention to the formation at all. Ribery, Cavani and Messi are running around during the game. Even Ramsey, Vidal and Pirlo in the midfield often leave their own areas. There is no fixed position, but everyone can quickly understand their responsibilities after running into a position.

This is in line with the essence of total offense and total defense!

Allegri actually has his advanced points, that is, his core thinking is actually similar to Ye Qiu, especially in the midfield. He uses some offensive and defensive players in the midfield to attack and suppress the opponent, and then uses the opponent to attack and defend. Use the holes in transition to create your own counterattacks and attacks.

Of course, you can also say that this is a mainstream idea now, especially after Tottenham Hotspur's drastic reforms this season, which has pushed this all-around midfield style to a whole new level.

But the difference between Allegri and Ye Qiu is that he believes in strength more, while Ye Qiu strives to find a balance between strength and technology. Of course, this cannot be said to be that Ye Qiu is better than Allegri. , but Ye Qiu has the resources and ability to do this, but Allegri has no other way.

No one is better than anyone else when it comes to the core concepts of football, and famous coaches are not necessarily smarter than grassroots coaches. Otherwise, Bielsa would not be worthy of so many people's respect. Therefore, the biggest difference between famous coaches is that they have successfully practiced themselves. concepts, or in other words, use your own concepts to practice and achieve success, while other head coaches may not, such as Bielsa.

Allegri's ability to build a defense is undoubted, and in this game he not only followed the tactics of fellow Italian Chelsea coach Di Matteo at Stamford Bridge a few days ago, but also borrowed Ferguson's tactics.

Ferguson's tactics were to attack first after the game started, to boost the momentum of the game, to dampen the spirit of Tottenham, and then to organize a tight defense. Therefore, in the first ten minutes before the game, Tottenham, who played away, could not find their own rhythm. Even though Pirlo was very familiar with the stadium, Tottenham still failed to control the situation under the restriction of AC Milan's fierce midfielders.

But ten minutes later, Tottenham found the rhythm and stabilized again, but AC Milan had already begun to shrink their defense at this time. They even gave up possession of the ball. Once they found that the ball was not played well, they did not fight for it. The first thing they did was to retreat and first set up the defense in front of their own 30-meter area.

One thing has to be admitted. If the Italian team defends tightly, any team will have a headache.

When AC Milan shrank their defense, they arranged their defense line at the front of the penalty area, but if necessary, they could even retreat to the penalty area, even to the penalty spot, and then adopt a three-line compact blocking tactic to compress Tottenham Hotspur.

Faced with this tactical play, Tottenham Hotspur's offense has been slow to find an effective means of attack, because Allegri has almost made the 30-meter area in front of his own goal into an unbreakable iron cage, leaving you almost no gaps, tightly blocking every running route and passing route, making it impossible for you to attack.

Tottenham Hotspur has all the advantages and the ball possession rate. Tottenham Hotspur's ball possession rate once reached 65.7%, which even Ye Qiu found a headache. They just let you take the ball, let you pass the ball, and let you advance to the hinterland, but only in the hinterland. Going forward, it is a piece of iron.

Another point is that AC Milan did everything they could to put pressure on Tottenham Hotspur at home this time, even tampering with the grass.

As early as yesterday afternoon, when the team arrived at the San Siro Stadium for familiarization training, Ye Qiu noticed that the grass quality of the San Siro Stadium was too poor and too dry, so in the morning, when the representatives of both clubs met with the referee and UEFA representatives in accordance with UEFA regulations, they proposed that the other party water the field before the game.

AC Milan agreed, but judging from the game, they did not do so. Even during the halftime break, when Tottenham Hotspur sent representatives to protest, they still did not water the field.

"This time Galliani doesn't even want to be moral!" Ye Qiu stepped on the grass under his feet. It was not only dry, but also obviously longer. When he stepped on it, it really had a poetic feeling of seeing cattle and sheep when the wind blew the grass low.

The grass of San Siro Stadium is obviously longer, at least four centimeters longer than the grass of Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane Stadium. The reason is very simple. Long grass is not conducive to passing the ball because the resistance is relatively large.

Mauro Tassotti shook his head helplessly after hearing this, "Perhaps, this is also what Allegri said, part of the iron cage. Now many teams have their own magic weapons and secret weapons when they meet us!"

This can be regarded as a tactic when weak teams meet strong teams, just like Everton. Every time the damn Moyes meets a strong team at Goodison Park, he will pour water into the venue in advance and turn on the geothermal heating, so that the entire Goodison Park is always in that kind of wet, hot and oppressive feeling as if it had just been fished out of a washing machine.

As for AC Milan, it also has its own weapons. He had played two consecutive away games before, so for this Champions League knockout match, he did everything he could. At least he obviously let the grass grow desperately without taking care of it.

Boateng, Ambrosini, Nocerino and Van Bommel, AC Milan this time fielded a combination of four tough midfielders, plus a typical Italian defense, Nesta and Mex partnered as central defenders, Antonini and Abate formed the two wings, Allegri really created an unbreakable iron cage in the midfield and backcourt.

The forward line is a combination of Cassano and Pato. It is not difficult to see from this that Allegri has the ambition to counterattack. Even in the second half of the game, he still has no intention of replacing the two forwards.

AC Milan's midfielder has Van Bommel. This midfielder has an average of 10.4 successful long passes per game this season, with a long pass success rate of 86.4%. Although the number of successful long passes is not as good as Pirlo's 11.7 times, the success rate is higher than Pirlo's 84.2%, and Van Bommel can improve the defensive hardness and strength of the midfield, which is indeed what Pirlo cannot give.

This is not to say that Van Bommel is worse than Pirlo, but that he is more suitable for Allegri's tactics.

"Allegri is not giving up. If he doesn't give up, we still have a chance!" Ye Qiu never believed that there was an iron cage in this world that he couldn't break.

"You mean..." Mauro Tassotti guessed Ye Qiu's idea, but it was not very clear.

"Let them attack!" Ye Qiu said very confidently.

Mauro Tassotti was a little surprised. The result of 0:0 away from home was not good, but at least it was not bad. However, if AC Milan was allowed to attack, the risk would be relatively large. Although they might score a goal, what if they failed to score and were scored instead?

"Are you afraid?" Ye Qiu felt that this was another weakness of Mauro Tassotti, that is, he was very cautious and careful, which was common among Italian coaches. This could be said to be an advantage, but also a disadvantage.

Mauro Tassotti curled his lips and said nothing, but it was considered as tacit agreement.

"We must maintain this momentum. 0:0 and 0:1 don't make much difference to us, but this momentum is our most powerful weapon and bargaining chip to swallow up our opponents in the next game!"

In the words of Ye Qiu's hometown, it is better to lose the battle than the battle!

"Besides, I believe that even if someone is exhausted, he is still thinking about how to score and win."