Chapter 100 Deco's Pass
In his previous life, he had been a football fan for more than 20 years and had written about football for more than 10 years. He had no idea how many biographies of various stars and coaches, as well as various tactical books he had read.
He thought he had a relatively deep understanding of football.
But after traveling through time and actually coming into contact with European professional football, especially after becoming the head coach of Atletico Madrid and personally taking charge of a La Liga team, Yang Hao realized that he was just a Zhao Kuo who talked big but did nothing.
No, he is not even as good as Zhao Kuo.
At least Zhao Kuo could talk about military affairs on paper, but what about Yang Hao in his previous life?
The football tactics in the eyes of fans and the media are completely different from the football tactics in the eyes of the head coach.
For example, Figo.
The whole world knows that Figo has strong personal abilities and is very sharp in dribbling.
In the eyes of fans, Figo's dribbling past opponents in the game is as easy as picking up a blade of grass.
Arrange tactics?
Just give the ball to Figo and let him dribble past the opponent.
But in the eyes of professional coaches, Figo's success rate in passing is high compared to other players.
What is the actual data?
There are no statistics at present, but no matter how high it is, it will not exceed 40%.
That is to say, out of 10 attempts to dribble past the opponent, he can succeed at most 4 times.
But it should be noted that Figo's data is still based on the premise that the head coach has created tactics for him and his teammates have created an environment suitable for him to perform.
If there were no such detailed arrangements and the ball was simply handed to Figo to let him do what he wanted, it would have been a disaster.
Even top stars like Figo, Zidane and others are like this, what about others?
Another difference is that Atletico Madrid is going to play Valencia in this game.
After Yang Hao consulted with the coaching staff, the goal was to attack Ayala.
Although Ayala is not tall, only 1.77 meters, he turns slowly, so he is very afraid of speed players.
When fans see this, the first thing they think is, this is easy, let the speed players rush to Ayala's side.
Hey, Atletico Madrid has a Vicente who is very fast, let him go for it.
That's it?
This is too rough.
If the head coach makes such an arrangement and asks the players to carry it out, there is a high probability that no results will be achieved.
The same point of attack is being targeted at Ayala, and Vicente is being used to rush forward. Professional coaches have to be very meticulous when arranging tactics, and even take various possibilities into consideration.
For example, Ayala is a central defender, and Vicente wants to play on Ayala's side. What about Valencia's veteran left-back Carboni?
Looking at Cooper's arrangement for this game, he obviously let Carbone stay in the backcourt to assist in defending Ayala.
What is Ayala's weakness? Doesn't Cooper know it?
People have already made sufficient preparations.
What should I do then?
Dig deeper into the details and design various scenes where Vicente faces Ayala directly.
For example, the left-back should move forward to contain Carboni; for example, Vicente should move closer to the center; for example, Adriano and Deco should pass the ball to Vicente as much as possible...
That's it?
No, no, no, that's not enough.
Whether it is Adriano or Deco, they are the targets of Valencia's key defense, and the midfield and backcourt are the areas with the most intensive defense of Valencia. How could they let Adriano and Deco easily connect with Vicente?
There aren't many secrets in football.
A game is worth hundreds of thousands or millions of euros, some are even worth tens of millions or hundreds of millions of euros. How can it be that simple?
Both sides are doing everything they can to restrain their opponents.
What you want, your opponent also wants.
What should I do then?
Then we have to design some methods that will prevent the opponent from effectively restricting us even if they think of it or know about it.
The personal ability of the star players is one of them, and even the best means.
This is why the biggest difference between top superstars and ordinary stars is...
A top superstar must possess the ability to still pose a threat even if his opponent knows about it or restrains him.
For example, the whole world knows that Drogba is very strong physically, but can they restrain himself?
The whole world knows that Irving runs very fast, can they restrain him?
The whole world knows that Beckham is very good at free kicks. Can they restrain him?
When a star player possesses such ability, and the team designs tactics and specially designs scenarios for them to bring out their ability, the opponent will not be able to restrain them at all.
This is why, in Yang Hao’s previous life, when Guardiola’s Barcelona swept across Europe, the whole world knew what tactics they were going to use, but it was difficult to restrain them.
Unless you adopt an ironclad defensive tactic.
And tonight, facing Valencia, Yang Hao also designed many targeted tactics for Ayala, and he was very meticulous.
One of them is that Adriano retreated to the right side of the frontcourt to receive the ball.
In Valencia's diamond midfield, only Albelda played as a single defensive midfielder, and Pellegrino's position was close to the left, which was the right side of Atletico Madrid.
Adriano retreated to receive the ball in this area with the aim of pulling out Pellegrino and tying up Albelda.
This doesn't seem like a big deal, right?
But note that Adriano is left-footed.
When he retreated to receive the ball and turned sideways to his left side, it was difficult for either Pellegrino or Albelda to steal the ball from his left foot.
If Pellegrino and Albelda double-team at the same time, Deco's position will be empty.
Mendieta is the core of the team's midfield. In Cooper's tactical system, he rarely retreats to a deep position to defend. Evra is much faster than Mendieta. Once he moves forward at high speed, he can restrain Carboni on the wing.
Then Vicente can face Ayala directly on the left rib area.
This is just one of the playing styles. There are many other tactical combinations and changes derived from different situations. It is difficult to describe them in detail one by one.
But the key still depends on the cooperation of the players.
…
Yang Hao stood on the sidelines, waiting patiently.
When the players made mistakes, he kept encouraging them, telling them to be patient and keep trying.
As long as the defense remains stable, he believes that the team's style of play will work.
Cooper obviously knew that Atletico Madrid was targeting Ayala and had made some targeted arrangements, but he had no choice.
We can't disrupt the team's entire offensive and defensive system just to block Ayala, right?
What's more, Valencia is also taking advantage of Atletico's weaknesses, such as the full-backs' strong attack but weak defense, and Lucio's preference for tackling and forward runs, to arrange their targeted tactics.
The key is to see who can show results earlier.
It was not until the 23rd minute that Belletti dribbled the ball on the right and made a long pass to the frontcourt to find Adriano.
The latter retreated and blocked Pellegrino with his body, then stopped the ball with his chest, skillfully controlled the ball with his left foot, and cut inside with the ball sideways.
In this situation, it is impossible for Albelda to let Adriano run around with the ball.
As soon as Valencia's defensive midfielder left his position, Deco ran into the open space to receive the ball.
As soon as the ball stopped, Deco made a straight pass.
This kick was a great one!
Its route was right between Ayala and Carbone, giving both defenders a chance to grab it.
So, Carbone abandoned Evra on the left, and Ayala also left his position, and the two of them double-teamed Deco's passing line at the same time.
The beauty of this kick is that Deco accurately predicted Vicente's speed and explosiveness.
Just as two Valencia defenders were about to grab the ball, Vicente rushed all the way at lightning speed, got to the position first, and pushed the ball forward.
The football rolled forward at an accelerated speed, but Vicente continued to charge forward and passed directly between two defensive players.
Ayala was completely left behind in an instant, while Carbone turned around and chased after Vicente.
But the Italian veteran was no match for the young Vicente. He watched helplessly as Vicente rushed to the front of the penalty area, caught up with the football, and then waded into the left side of the penalty area.
Facing Cañizares who was attacking near the small penalty area line, Vicente calmly shot the ball into the far corner, sending the ball into Valencia's goal, and then turned around and rushed out of the field.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
The entire Calderon Stadium exploded in an instant!
Yang Hao on the sidelines was also so excited that he jumped up, cheered loudly, and waved his fists continuously.
The moment Deco passed the ball and Vicente received it, he knew that the ball would definitely go in.
Even if Carbone got a good position, it didn't matter if Vicente had no chance. As long as he could protect the ball, Evra would appear in the left corner of the penalty area to support him, and Adriano and Joaquin were ready to compete for the header.
Especially Adriano, he left Pellegrino behind.
It can be said that when Deco passed the ball and Vicente grabbed the ball, scoring a goal was a high probability event.
Because Valencia's defense was broken!
Yang Hao excitedly turned around to face the Atletico Madrid fans and raised his fists high.
He was greeted with cheers from the audience.
Atletico Madrid's players gathered together on the sidelines and celebrated the goal wildly.
"Deco's pass was really clever, and the line was just right. It seemed like he knew everything about it. Vicente's speed also left a deep impression on us."
"This is Atletico Madrid in the new season!"
“It’s very impactful, very aggressive, but at the same time it’s very delicate and well-coordinated.”
After everyone finished celebrating, Yang Hao walked to the corner of the coaching area and high-fived and even hugged each of the players who were walking back to the court to prepare to kick off again.
He also reminded his players to be careful.
"Mauricio."
Yang Hao hugged Pochettino and got very close to him, almost leaning over to talk in his ear.
"Remind Lucio that Valencia is targeting him tonight. Tell him to be careful. If he can't handle it, we will control the second landing point. But remember, don't let them enter our penalty area easily."
Yang Hao was talking about John Carew.
The Norwegian giant was 8 centimeters taller than Lucio, which allowed Lucio to fully enjoy the pressure brought by the Nordic giant.
"And Juan Sanchez, he's also a very important scorer, so be careful."
Pochettino kept nodding to show that he understood.
Yang Hao stood on the sidelines with a serious expression.
The next test for Atletico Madrid will be defense.
