De Rossi's training is mainly based on judgment and awareness, sharing his experience in the team's midfield and backcourt defense.
As a member of the Italian national team's European Cup coaching staff, he first talked to Chen Xiaoliang about the evolution and core of defensive tactics.
In Mourinho's new three-center-back defense system, the two defensive midfielders need to retreat to the penalty area under high-pressure defense. However, defending outside the penalty area and defending inside the penalty area are not exactly the same thing.
As a super backcourt sweeper, Chen Xiaoliang's interception and destruction abilities are naturally impeccable. He is also very good at judging the ball path and competing for high balls.
But once there is intensive defense in the penalty area, a very important subject is involved - zone marking.
As modern football places more and more emphasis on offensive movement and position changes, there will no longer be a situation where offensive players stand still in one position.
The center often drops back outside the penalty area to receive the ball, or pulls to the wing to engage the defense;
The wingers no longer cling to the wing, cutting inside and running forward to grab the ball are commonplace;
The initiator of the cross from the wing gradually shifted from the wingers to the full-backs;
Even when midfielders frequently advance and attack, for some teams that emphasize ball possession, the central defender has become the source of offensive organization.
As the old saying goes, there is no constant position in war, and there is no constant shape of water.
In the past man-to-man tactics, it was believed that "people" were dangerous. This defensive idea is still widely used today, especially when defending set pieces, where the team's high points will be specifically sent to defend the opponent's high points.
But it is obvious that in conventional defense, the central defender who is mainly defending the center forward cannot follow the opponent's center forward .
In this situation, the idea of ​​defensive marking has also changed, and the zonal marking tactics have emerged.
Zone marking considers those “zones” that are dangerous. As long as people are sent to guard the areas and prevent the opponent from attacking, the defensive purpose can be achieved.
The most typical example is the front of the penalty area that Chen Xiaoliang is responsible for protecting. As long as the front of the penalty area is not penetrated, the opponent cannot easily launch a through pass and penetrate the central defender;
As long as there is no open opportunity to shoot within 20-30 meters in front of the penalty area, the opponent will not be able to take a threatening long shot.
The zone marking system requires the entire team to act together to close the connection between dangerous areas on the court, either squeezing the opponent's controllable ball area or cutting off the opponent's passing area.
The first shift from man-marking to zonal marking was the birth of the Italian catenaccio, an innovation that reached its peak with Inter Milan under Elénio Herrera in the 1960s, winning two European Cups, three Leagues and two Intercontinental Cups. Italy, dominated by Inter players, also won its first European Cup in 1968.
But this change did not last long. The Netherlands' total attack and defense and AC Milan led by Sacchi pushed zonal marking to a peak again, proposed the concept of "high pressing", and expanded the defensive area from the backcourt to the frontcourt, which is very close to the concept of modern football.
In Sacchi's team, players have 4 reference points - the ball, space, the opponent and your teammates.
We must use the offside line to prevent the opponent from launching an attack, and also use oppressive high-pressure pressing to regain the ball.
The implementation of Sacchi's ideas completely changed the format of subsequent games. This was also one of the reasons why many former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia teams fell into decline instantly. At least it was far from the era of money-driven football.
In addition to factors related to the international environment, the failure to update football concepts in a timely manner has resulted in Champions League champions in the late 1980s and early 1990s such as Steaua Bucharest and Red Star Belgrade being completely left behind by European giants and never being able to catch up.
Zonal marking requires all players to not only know where the ball and the opponent are, but also to always know where their teammates are. Only when they control the connection between zones together with their teammates can it be called true zonal marking.
With such an evolution, even "goalkeepers" represented by Neuer were born. Goalkeepers also have areas other than the goal line and the small penalty area where they need to disrupt offensive organizations.
But in an 11-on-11 football match, there is only perfect execution, not perfect tactics.
Zonal marking also has its weaknesses, the two most important of which are:
First, it is impossible for 11 players to occupy all areas on the court. The opponent will choose to transfer the ball to areas that the defenders fail to cover to find opportunities, and use speed to mobilize the defensive formation or even destroy the formation.
The six-time champion Barcelona is a good example. Opponents often see Xavi and Iniesta making continuous short passes in a very small space, or cooperating with the retreating center forward, or moving to the wing and cooperating with the wingers, and then attracting the defensive players to form a one-sided strong side, and then suddenly transfer the ball from the strong side to the weak side.
In this situation, if the defensive players increase their troops and multiple people appear in the same area to disrupt their short pass coordination, the area they originally occupied will be missed; if they do not press forward, it is obviously unrealistic to expect one player to defend two super midfielders in one area.
Mourinho chose the third method at Inter Milan and Real Madrid. He simply gave up all dangerous areas in the front and midfield and deployed all his forces near the back penalty area. He allowed Barcelona to pass the ball as they pleased in the midfield and only compressed the defensive space in the backcourt to try to prevent the ball from passing in.
Second, the opponent can occupy an area by deploying multiple forces in that area.
This is very common in modern games. When the winger is dribbling the ball and preparing to attack the opponent's full-back, his own full-back will press forward at the same time, resulting in a situation where there are two attacking players in a single area on the wing.
Once the winger cuts inside and the opponent's full-back chooses to defend, the team's full-back will be left open and have space to pass the ball.
If the winger cuts inside and the opponent's full-back still chooses to zone mark and does not follow him but instead defends his own full-back, the winger can then rush into the penalty area and face the goal directly.
Therefore, in today's football, almost all head coaches have absorbed the advantages of both and adopted a compromise defensive approach, which is a combination of zone marking and man-to-man marking tactics.
Take Chelsea, who won the 2021 Champions League, as an example:
Whether it is 352 or 3421, the team's formation remains consistent, which also meets the basic requirements of zone marking.
First of all, initiate high-pressure defense on the forward line, which is also an important reason why the two German players Havertz and Werner can thrive in Chelsea under the leadership of German head coach Tuchel.
They are already used to this style of play and have the physical strength to back it up.
Although high-pressure pressing is used by more and more teams, this defensive strategy is based on the team's absolute superior running ability and super physical strength.
If your players' physical strength is not as good as that of the opponent, then using high-pressure defense is tantamount to suicide.
In other words, this is also the reason why some top head coaches advocate this tactic, because the players they bought at high prices themselves have superior comprehensive abilities, especially the German head coaches Klopp and Tuchel, who particularly like to use this tactic.
In Chelsea's midfield, they adopted zonal marking, emphasizing Kante's intercepting role, closing the opponent's passing route from the middle and forcing the opponent to turn the offensive direction to the wing.
On the wing, wingbacks such as James and Alonso adopt man-to-man tactics, keeping a close eye on the opponent's wingers, while the nearby central defenders and defensive midfielders are responsible for cutting off the connection between the winger and other teammates.
Among the three central defenders, once an attacking player from the opposing team advances with the ball, the nearest central defender will be responsible for pressing forward and switching to man-to-man defense, while the other two will further shrink, maintaining zonal marking and reducing the offensive space.
In contrast, Mourinho's defensive tactics require the Portuguese to conserve his players' energy in order to launch threatening and quick counterattacks.
Especially the forwards, who spend all their energy on high-pressure defense. When a quick counterattack requires long-distance running, they are bound to be exhausted.
And Roma's frontcourt does not have the ability to press high.
This means that Roma is still adopting the defensive strategy of giving up space in the midfield and frontcourt and starting to press from the midfield and backcourt.
At this point, De Rossi began to talk about the tactical points that the defensive midfielder needs to pay attention to under this tactic.
As an all-around midfielder of the 2006 World Cup champion and a central defender of the 2012 European Cup runner-up, De Rossi has his own unique understanding of both positions.
In his eyes, Chen Xiaoliang's physical fitness is comparable to his own at his peak at the age of 24, which surprised him very much, except that his current weight of 71 kilograms is slightly lighter, but this is also consistent with his age of 17.
You should know that Camavinga, the 19-year-old defensive midfielder bought by Real Madrid for 40 million euros, was 182 cm tall and weighed only 68 kg when he first arrived at Real Madrid.
You can gain weight, but you can’t buy talent.
In addition, the endurance and covering ability demonstrated by Chen Xiaoliang in actual combat are even better than Gattuso.
His tackling technique and accuracy are impeccable, and his anticipation and enthusiasm for the ball are second to none.
Heading is also quite good, but not top notch.
The only two weaknesses are his ability to control the ball and his understanding of zonal marking.
According to De Rossi's evaluation, Chen Xiaoliang's defense is like a ball-grabbing machine, but once he falls into the positional defense in the penalty area, with the dense crowd of people, there is no wide space outside the penalty area to run back and forth.
In this case, running around randomly will disrupt the defensive position of the entire back line, causing overlapping positions of other defenders or ineffective marking.
He cited the third goal scored by Tottenham in the match between Roma and Tottenham.
At that time, Chen Xiaoliang should have chosen to occupy the man-marking area in advance and press Skip as soon as possible, but he did not do so. Instead, he waited in the middle to support his teammates.
As a result, Skipp passed the left center back Ibanez, and Cristante failed to make timely coverage, resulting in no defensive players in the left center back's defensive area, giving Kane the opportunity to occupy the area.
After Kane received the ball, Chen Xiaoliang went to defend again, which resulted in no defenders in the middle. Son Heung-min took the opportunity to occupy the middle and scored after receiving Kane's inverted triangle pass.
De Rossi pointed out incisively that Chen Xiaoliang's man-marking is still at the stage of one-to-one marking.
In addition, when defending in positional warfare, Chen Xiaoliang likes to choose his target based on his inner judgment of the threat level of the opposing players. He will mark whoever he thinks is more threatening, without considering his own position or the position of his teammates.
This works really well when playing against mid- and lower-level teams, because the opponent will only have one outstanding offensive player at most, and some teams don't even have any particularly outstanding players on the entire team.
When facing first-rate teams or even giants, there may be more than two star players in the opponent's midfield and frontcourt. When they launch attacks at the same time, Chen Xiaoliang will be unable to focus on one or the other.
Once his man-marking judgment criteria are discovered by the opposing head coach, the opponent will deliberately use that player to tangle with Chen Xiaoliang and lead him out of the area he should be defending.
Football is a sport for eleven people. While trying your best, you must also leave the responsibility to your teammates.
De Rossi said a lot, and while he was talking, he used the placement of cones at the front of the penalty area to explain to Chen Xiaoliang the various factors that need to be considered when filling in the positions.
On another large training ground, some players were whispering just now.
Pellegrini and others could tell at a glance that it was the old captain De Rossi who gave Chen Xiaoliang special treatment.
After the training, the players who had been teammates of De Rossi went over to say hello and pay tribute to this legend and team soul.
Wu Lei, Cesco, Abraham and third goalkeeper Poll also continued to stay and practice with Chen Xiaoliang. Young central defender Trippi also took the initiative to stay, but today there was an extra legend to pass the ball and give them guidance.
De Rossi also specifically instructed the two center forwards on how to receive the ball with their backs to the goal when under pressure from the defenders, and how to shoot at angles that would make the defenders and goalkeepers uncomfortable when blocked by the defenders.
Mourinho was in his office, watching them from afar through the floor-to-ceiling windows, feeling indescribably satisfied and happy.
They practiced for a long time until everyone was hungry, and then they stopped.
Chen Xiaoliang accompanied him all the way to the parking lot.
De Rossi, who hadn't exercised for a long time, only felt some soreness in his old arms and legs. There was nothing he could do, time is unforgiving.
"Sir, is there another chance for me to ask you for advice?"
De Rossi twisted his neck, making a bone-crunching sound. "If you have any questions, call me on the phone. I won't take a dime from Jose, and I don't want to work for him for nothing."
"Thank you! I learned a lot today! Welcome to come back to the club more often if you have the chance! You are the flagship here!"
De Rossi, who opened the car door , had clearly waved goodbye. After hearing this, he seemed to hesitate for a moment, then stood up and said, "Kid, you know what? When I was young, there was no such thing as online videos. I searched all over the world for Liverpool videotapes just to watch Gerrard play.
This lasted for several years until I developed my own style of playing football.
The reason I didn't retire in Rome was because I followed that guy. He went to the United States and I went to Argentina.
In the last few years, I chose to keep my best side in my home team, rather than waiting until I was too old to run and was hated by the fans before leaving. "
Chen Xiaoliang couldn't quite believe it. Although Gerrard was indeed a super legend, De Rossi's historical status in the fans' hearts and his personal abilities were not much different from Gerrard's.
"Sir, are you acquainted with him?"
De Rossi smiled: "Not familiar. I once told the media that Gerrard is the symbol of an all-round player. At one moment, you see him defending and intercepting in his own penalty area, and the next minute, he runs to the opponent's penalty area to shoot. Midfielder, defender, forward, there is no difference to him.
To be honest, I am willing to teach you today because I am curious and want to take a closer look at how many legs and lungs this young man, whom he admires so much and even says will surpass him in the future, has. "
"Hey, how much do you think I still need?"
"You? Haha, you're not even close!"
This time De Rossi really sat in the driver's seat and closed the car door.
"Win the league title for Roma first before you think about surpassing both of us!"
After saying that, he stretched out his right hand and shook it, then stepped on the accelerator and sped away.
League champions...
The two legendary all-round midfielders stayed in their respective home teams for 18 seasons, spending their entire careers without winning a league title.
Although Boca Juniors, where De Rossi played in the last year of his career, won the Argentine League championship that season and he made five appearances to qualify for the championship, he had already announced his retirement due to injury and left Argentina.
And this championship is not what he really pursues.
【Dong Dong Dong】
Um?
Chen Xiaoliang, who was walking back to the locker room, found that the system was ringing.
The rewards from the previous league game have not been collected yet. Has the system reminded you?
He opened the panel.
[Legendary Player One-on-One Guidance Achievement Achieved]
[Achievement Reward: Marking +1]
On the attribute panel, marking also increased from 10 to 11.
This is a small but memorable gift.
Although the team's lineup still has some flaws, who says that winning the league championship is impossible?
Let’s go! Go home and practice more!
After packing up my things in the locker room, I didn't even take a shower. I stepped on the accelerator all the way and arrived home in 10 minutes.
He originally lived near the Trigoria base, and spent 5 minutes signing autographs for fans outside the base gate.
When I got home, I found the light was on.
Is it that Riise is pressing me with the sponsorship contract again? Or is it that David is back today?
When Chen Xiaoliang walked into the room, he found Wu Mi sitting there in a daze.
"Hmm? Why are you here, Xiao Mi?"
As soon as Wu Mi saw Chen Xiaoliang, she burst into tears and threw herself into his arms.
Ouch... I should have taken a shower in the club earlier... Now I smell like sweat...
After being questioned for a long time, Wu Mi didn't say anything. He just said that he was bullied. He didn't say who bullied him or how he was bullied.
She just said that someone "said" a few words to her.
Chen Xiaoliang thought, this was probably racial discrimination. This kind of thing was not uncommon in the city.
He was a celebrity in Glasgow at the time, and whenever he met a drunk walking down the street he would be called a monkey or a banana.
He used the remaining ingredients at home to cook a bowl of noodles for Wu Mi. He wanted to comfort her for a while and then send her home, but... she didn't want to go home at all...
Well, plans can't keep up with changes, it seems that tonight's extra training plan will have to be postponed...
The two chatted and talked, of course, in Chinese.
Chen Xiaoliang said that his teammates at the club taught him a lot of Italian, and he learned to speak it naturally after a while...
However, Wu Mi's purpose of coming today obviously had nothing to do with language. She seemed to have endless things to say and wanted to drag Chen Xiaoliang to keep talking.
The two talked about their childhood growth, their respective families, how they came to a foreign country alone, and how they spent that time.
They chatted until very late, and only when the crying Wu Mi slowly fell asleep did Chen Xiaoliang carry her into the house to rest.
As he was about to go out with the team, he quickly went to David's room and fell asleep.
When he woke up early in the morning, he saw that his usual suitcase for away games was already prepared in the living room, but Wu Mi was nowhere to be found.
When I opened my phone, there was only a short two-word message: Thank you.
He didn't have time to think about it. After washing up and eating a few mouthfuls of breakfast, he immediately went out to meet up with the team and rushed to the airport. He flew to the eastern Dutch city of Arnhem to play in the Europa League match against Vitesse.
On the way, he was still worried about Wu Mi's situation and sent him a text message to ask about it, but the replies were all saying that he was fine and nothing was wrong, and told him to play the game well, so he didn't think about it any more.
Vitesse finished fourth in the Eredivisie last season, significantly behind PSV Eindhoven and AZ Alkmaar which were ranked second and third, and 27 points behind Ajax which was at the top of the table.
This season, after experiencing personnel changes, the team failed to continue last season's form. In the first five rounds of the league, it only achieved 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, ranking 9th in the league.
In the first round of the group stage, they defeated Slovenian team Mura 0-2 away and are currently ranked first in Group G.
In Europe, such teams belong to the existence of many top clubs that rent young players to level up and gain experience.
The Red Army player Zhang Yuning joined the team in the summer window of 2015 and won the Dutch Cup final with the team in the 2016-2017 season.
But this does not mean that the team is a weak team. This kind of away cup competition is the most likely breeding ground for upsets.
After a day and a half of adaptive training, the competition started on the evening of September 30.
Before the game, Chen Xiaoliang collected the mission rewards from the previous league game.
In addition to winning the game and keeping the opponent scoreless, he also won the undisputed best player of the game with 8 steals, 4 successful headers, 3 clearances and 1 assist.
A total of 10 hours of training value and 2 physical recovery cards were obtained.
Adding the 11 hours of intermittent training over the past three days, the training value increased from 33 to 54, and the physical recovery card increased from 3 to 5.
He originally wanted to keep the physical attribute with a training value of more than 15, but after being pointed out by De Rossi, he realized that he had to improve his man-marking in order to better integrate into the team's defensive system.
However, there were only 54 training points in total, and he used 40 points to increase his man-marking from 11 to 13.
Training value 54 → 14.
However, attributes only determine technical ability, just like your full 20 in steals, which means that you have the ability to tackle steadily, accurately, fiercely and swiftly, and the skill of [Good at ground tackles] further strengthens this ability.
But when and from what direction to kick, whether to steal the ball before others or adjust your steps before stealing, all this depends on your judgment of the situation on the field and the practical experience you have accumulated.
The same is true for man-marking.
To acquire abilities, you must also learn how to use them.
Therefore, De Rossi's experience sharing and the growth of panel attributes are equally important.
After coming on the court, Chen Xiaoliang unexpectedly discovered a phenomenon that had not existed before during defense.
When an opposing player approaches him, he can tell where the player is going to run next!
However, it can only be discovered when the distance is very close, and the predicted direction is only a very short approximate direction.
This simply means that I have become a weakened version of a human radar!
The opponent's strength did not exceed Mourinho's expectations, but the progress of the game had some minor twists and turns.
In this game, Mourinho continued to experiment with the three-center-back system, but he let Mancini return to the starting lineup, gave Smalling a rest, Trippi replaced Smalling at the center back position, and Ibanez, who had not missed a single game, continued to be a model worker.
The defensive midfielder's partner was replaced by Cristante. Although the Italian was not as good at running as Veretout, his ability to confront and compete in the penalty area after retreating to the defense line was better than that of the Frenchman.
In the 14th minute, Roma scored the first goal.
Mkhitaryan, Carles Perez and Abraham played a multi-player cooperation in the middle. Mkhitaryan, who continued to play as the right wingback, rushed into the right side of the penalty area and swept in front of the goal. Carles Perez's shot was blocked. Abraham got the ball in the melee and scored with a shot in front of the half-empty goal!
0-1! Roma leads away from home!
However, soon after, in the 30th minute, in a corner kick defense, Vitesse's 190cm tall Danish defender Rasmussen, who was loaned from Florence, headed the ball past Cristante to score.
1-1, Tevez equalized the score.
Mourinho was speechless again.
At this time, the shot ratio on the field was 1 to 5, the shot on target ratio was 1 to 2, and the ball possession rate was 40% to 60%.
Playing at home, Tevez was completely at a disadvantage.
The Dutch team, playing in a traditional 343 formation, had no chance, but they broke Roma's defense with their first set-piece shot.
After practicing positional defense for several days, I finally seemed to have made some progress, but I forgot the set-piece tactics again...
These guys are really hard to lead...
During the attack, Chen Xiaoliang, who was under little pressure in ground defense, used precise crosses time and time again to pass the ball from the backcourt to Abraham in the frontcourt.
Abraham also used actual combat with the opponent's central defender to practice holding the ball with his back to the goal and his role as a fulcrum in the frontcourt.
Mourinho had hinted to him a few days ago that whether he likes this style of play or not, as long as the team needs it, he must work hard to practice his ability to take the ball with his back, otherwise the starting position will be given to Cesco.
Fortunately, Vitesse's defense line has limited capabilities. Those who are fast are not strong enough, those who are strong are not tall enough, and those who are tall are not fast enough. No matter who Abraham fights with, he can always gain some small advantages with his tall body.
In order to defend him, Vitesse's three central defenders each paid the price of a yellow card.
In the 55th minute of the second half, Vitesse's central defender Doki was sent off again after receiving a yellow card for pulling Abraham during a header.
Just three minutes later, Mkhitaryan made a beautiful through pass to Carles Perez. Vitesse goalkeeper Schubert, who was already one man down, saw that the defense was completely penetrated and chose to abandon the goal.
After Carles Perez received the ball, he was about to pass it to Abraham in the middle to shoot into the empty goal. The German goalkeeper who transferred from Schalke 04 might have listened to "Ode to Joy" too much, but he turned into a happy boy outside the penalty area, jumped high and opened his arms.
The ball hit Schubert's hand squarely, and the referee decisively took out the red card, allowing him to go home early and listen to Schubert's songs, but the song might have to be changed to "Boyhood and Death".
This Dutch team, whose average starting lineup age was only 21.5 years old, eventually paid the price for its youth.
With two fewer people fighting, they could no longer hold on.
In this situation, Roma also played a rare beautiful combination of passing the ball in a small area and then making a straight pass without the ball.
In the 66th minute, Abraham received a through pass from Carles Perez and scored.
1 to 2! Roma takes the lead again away from home!
In the 75th minute, Wu Lei, who came on as a substitute, received a pass from Karsdorp, who also came on as a substitute, on the right during a fast break and shot into the near corner of the goal without any pressure, adding another point.
1 to 3!
This is also Wu Lei's third goal in this year's European Cup!
In the 88th minute, during a corner kick, Ibanez took advantage of the chaos at the back post to score another goal.
1 to 4!
Roma won a big victory!
But in another match that took place at the same time, Tottenham Hotspur beat Mura 5-1 at home. Kane scored a hat-trick and Son Heung-min scored twice. The two of them scored five goals!
Because of the disadvantage of goal difference, after two rounds, Roma ranked second in Group G with 4 points, Vitesse ranked third with 3 points, and Mura conceded 7 goals in two games and ranked last with 0 points.
Everyone returned to Rome without stopping to prepare for the league game against Empoli three days later.
However, before the pre-match press conference, the Serie A organizing committee announced that Roma club coach Mourinho was fined 5,000 euros and suspended for two games because he had repeatedly and unreasonably criticized the league's schedule in public!
Boss Dan Friedkin urgently convened a meeting of senior club officials and strictly ordered Mourinho to be careful with his wording and not to mention anything related to the tournament organizing committee in subsequent press conferences.
Mourinho had no choice but to admit defeat, and he knew that this was not the first time such a thing had happened in his career.
He has been sent to the stands for various reasons at Porto, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United.
But whether you are complaining about the referee giving your team a red card, a yellow card, a penalty kick for the other team, or not giving your team a penalty kick, not giving the other team a red card or a yellow card, in short, it is all because of complaining that the trouble is caused.
Even in the warm-up match, he had the shocking experience of yelling at the referee and being sent to the stands...
The game at Empoli cannot be lost, as it is a game that must be won on the road to the top four, but the more fatal thing is that in the next game against Juventus, he will not be able to command from the sidelines!