Chapter 210: Towards the Championship
In the 22nd minute, the team was two goals behind and Sarri on the sidelines was a little anxious.
At this time, the smell of tar on his fingers could no longer calm him down. If he hadn't known that there were cameras scanning him at any time, he would have wanted to insert his fingers into his nostrils and inhale them.
For him, he could accept that the referee of Serie A was a little blind, but the ban on smoking in the stadium made him speechless.
In previous games, he secretly hid a pack of cigarettes on the bench and took it out to smell when he couldn't help it, but he was fined by the league committee for this.
When he was coaching Chelsea, the first request made by club owner Roman Abramovich was to ban smoking in the locker room.
He once tried chewing tobacco for a while, but how could it be satisfying if you couldn't inhale or exhale smoke?
Although it is better than smelling fingers, since chewing tobacco is not allowed to be sold in most EU countries, there are certain legal risks, so I had to give up in the end.
When he was in the Premier League, a nosy British reporter asked him how much he smoked a day?
He himself said in a daze, "Three packs?" He only knew that he always had cigarettes in his mouth when he could smoke, but he never counted the exact number...
The Daily Mirror said he smoked four packs a day, while the Mail said it was at least five.
For this purpose, the reporter also interviewed his former subordinate Hamsik.
The Slovak star said that he had never seen anyone who smoked so much in his life. Except during the game, whenever someone asked Sarri what he was doing, the answer would definitely be "smoking". He even wanted to sleep with a cigarette in his mouth.
At this moment, he really wanted to rush back to the bathroom in the player's tunnel, smoke one cigarette happily, and calm his restless thoughts.
"That kid is undefendable, damn it!" assistant coach Martuscielo cursed.
Sarri sucked his fingers and yawned: "The real trouble is not the Slovenian striker, but the Asian midfielder!"
On the other side, Mourinho was full of confidence.
Facing Sarri, who likes the 4-3-3 formation and likes to separate the three midfielders, Mourinho directly played his trump card - the indestructible Chen Xiaoliang.
He gave Chen Xiaoliang complete freedom, especially on defense.
Faced with three misplaced midfielders, Chen Xiaoliang, who had no fixed midfield position at all, became the perfect solution.
Want to use off-ball running to counter-break?
That depends on whether you have the running ability to outrun Chen Xiaoliang.
At the same time, Sarri's three-midfielder misalignment itself is used to create space for the back line to pass the ball, while Mourinho rarely uses high-pressure pressing. When defending, he lets Cesco and Pellegrini retreat back at the same time to try to block the ball route between the defenders and midfielders.
As for the back-pass between Lazio defenders, just leave space for you to pass the ball as you like.
The fact is, even if you pass the ball back a thousand times in the backcourt, you won't score a goal unless you advance to the frontcourt.
Of course, even the best tactics have loopholes, and whether they can really be effective depends on the people.
But today, Roma's players were in surprisingly good shape, and luck was on Roma's side at this time.
Sarri knew that if he continued to attack like this, let alone equalizing or reversing the game, his team would most likely be beaten to pieces and the Rome derby would become a tragedy in Rome.
"Let's retreat and counterattack." The old coach frowned and said to assistant coach Martuscielo with a little helplessness.
Martusciello had no choice but to walk to the sidelines and give instructions to the Lazio players who were watching the other side celebrate.
Sarri was right, because even if they tightened their defense, there were still dangers in front of their goal.
Because they were tired of defending back and forth on the left and right sides of the court, and the reason for this was precisely because of Chen Xiaoliang, the "Asian midfielder" as Sarri called it.
In the 27th minute, Chen Xiaoliang received the ball on the right and Binya made a high-speed run. Pedro was afraid that Chen Xiaoliang would pass the ball behind Binya, so he quickly chased him closely and did not give up.
Unexpectedly, Chen Xiaoliang kicked the ball across the court, passing it directly from the right to the left at a 45-degree angle!
The ball bounced a bit on the ground as if it had been precisely measured, and then landed right in front of Malaysia.
Although there is a "Ma" in Marusic's name, it is obvious that he cannot outrun Malaysia, who can stop the ball and sprint in one go.
The Dutch left-back broke into the penalty area and shot at a small angle. The ball rolled towards the far post. Strakosha immediately fell to the ground to save the ball. The ball bounced off Acerbi's stomach and fell at Pellegrini's feet.
Roma's No. 7 shoots!
Unfortunately, the ball was hit too high.
Now not only Lucas Leiva, but even Milinkovic-Savic found it incredible.
The ball was passed horizontally and quickly, and before the Lazio players had time to move from the strong side to the weak side, Malaysia had already received the ball and rushed into the penalty area.
Contracting defense requires that the distance between defensive players should be shortened, and the opposing player with the ball who enters the offensive third zone of their own half should be double-teamed, forcing him to lose the ball or pass it back.
If the team with the ball goes to one side, the overall defensive formation will naturally move towards that side.
This is the so-called "strong-side", while the side without the ball and with fewer people is the "weak-side".
But now Chen Xiaoliang started to make long side passes, which made it impossible for the full-back who had retreated into the penalty area on the weak side to concentrate on assisting the central defender in defending the penalty area. He always had to be nervous and guard against the ball suddenly coming from the strong side, and he had to rush out to defend immediately.
Just like Marusic just now, he was originally in the middle of the penalty area, ready to help the central defender defend at any time, but the ball was suddenly passed to him, and by the time he rushed out to defend Malaysia, it was too late.
How can a person be as fast as the ball?
"Is Mourinho so amazing?! How did this kid improve so quickly under him?! How did he train him?!"
"The defense is still strong, the crosses are getting better and better, and the level of receiving the ball has also greatly improved. Now he can also make a long pass."
"This thing tests not only your footwork, but also your overall view and vision of the positions of both sides on the field at all times."
Milinkovic-Savic has a thousand questions in his mind.
However, at this moment, Mourinho was also asking himself:
"Who taught him this?! Gerrard?! Did the brat discuss tactics with Gerrard on the phone again?!"
"No, no, Gerrard is too busy at Aston Villa to be distracted. Besides, this kind of technique can't be mastered just by listening to a phone call!"
"Are all geniuses like this? Can they learn by themselves without a teacher just by practicing?"
Mourinho and Milinkovic-Savic asked the same question at the same time.
One is a coach and the other is a midfielder.
Of course, they had no way of knowing that Chen Xiaoliang had just activated the skill of [Good at passing the ball from one side of the court to the other].
As a basic technique of football, long pass is used by almost all players in the game.
There are often stories about some legendary players, such as Beckham who could make many consecutive long passes accurately into a trash can 50 meters away, or Scholes who once kicked Gary Neville's butt while he was peeing in the woods from 50 meters away.
Although these past events indirectly prove that these players have solid basic skills, in essence these abilities can be mastered through repeated and hard practice, and are not enough to make these players football legends.
What really makes them legendary is that they find the best way and use this technology most effectively at the best time.
This is what shocked Milinkovic-Savic, the overall view and vision of space.
Manchester United has not been without long pass experts in recent years. As a key player in France's World Cup victory, Pogba's basic skills are definitely outstanding among contemporary midfielders.
But why can't he play like Scholes?
Because after he gets the ball, he always likes to dribble a few times, stick to it for a while, or even think about passing it to someone else, or simply ignore the movement of his teammates.
It is not difficult to pass the ball accurately, but the difficult part is to be able to see the running of teammates and pass the ball accurately in the first time so that teammates can receive the ball in the right position and create a threat.
To put it in an analogy, it's like a high-speed moving target in shooting.
This kind of vision and overall view is something that many players will never learn in their lifetime.
Many people now know the term "attacking midfielder", but when Pirlo, who was still playing as a striker and attacking midfielder and moving around Italian teams, he was still struggling to find his way out.
Finally, when he was loaned to Brescia, coach Mazzone began to try to move Pirlo back and play him as a central midfielder, gradually activating the midfield master. This was later borrowed by AC Milan coach Ancelotti and Italy coach Lippi, who simply moved him to the defensive midfielder position.
At that time, the competition in AC Milan's midfield was very fierce. In addition to Pirlo, there were also Rui Costa, Rivaldo and Seedorf. But in the end, the youngest Pirlo became the one with the most stable position.
In the area closer to the midfield and backcourt, Pirlo can play to his advantages of long passes, broad vision and strong ability to read the game, making Pirlo a true midfield commander.
This "front midfielder and back midfielder" style of play also became a pioneering innovation in football techniques and tactics at the time, and Pirlo was therefore selected into UEFA's list of "19 People Who Changed Football History".
Why is this tactic rarely seen nowadays?
Because players like Pirlo, midfielders with the same broad vision and superb ability to read the game as Pirlo are gone.
Of course, the physical confrontation requirements of modern football for players in every position also make it increasingly difficult for players like Pirlo to become famous in top clubs. More templates are midfielders like Toni Kroos and De Bruyne, who have certain confrontation capabilities and can frequently insert themselves into the attack.
Especially with the increasing popularity of high-pressure defense, it is easy for the opponent to break and steal the ball when the body cannot effectively fight. Players like Pirlo
Even Barcelona's young player Gavi is 17 years old, 173 cm tall and weighs 68 kg. His playing style is extremely tough and he is not afraid of confrontation.
The defensive midfielder position is more reserved for "pure defensive midfielders" like Casemiro and Kante who focus more on defensive ability.
However, the living fact now is that this young man from the Red Country, with the defensive abilities of Gattuso, Kante and Makelele, is actually starting to do the work of Beckham, Scholes and Pirlo.
How can the opponent sit still?
Sarri was also silent.
But he still had some doubts.
However, 3 minutes later, when Mancini headed out Alberto's long pass, Veretout controlled the ball and passed it to Malacia on the left. Malacia was double-teamed by Milinkovic-Savic and Felipe Anderson and passed the ball to Chen Xiaoliang who was supporting on the wing. The Reds again made a long pass from the left side of the court across the court for 50 meters and passed the ball directly to Binya who was on the right.
And it was the same long, flat and fast pass, not the kind of high, long pass that flies very high and falls very slowly, giving the defense enough time to react.
Now, Sarri, Mourinho, Milinkovic-Savic, and everyone else understood that Chen Xiaoliang was not guessing.
Before the game, Lazio's coaching and analysis teams did not find any Roma player who could stably and repeatedly make long lateral passes. There were many vertical passes behind the back, but the defense could retreat to break the pass. How to break the lateral transfer? Could it be that the two wingers always stuck to the wing and did not move inward, spreading the formation very wide?
Sarri finally figured out that in addition to cigarettes, there was also a person called Chen Xiaoliang who became his nemesis.
Last time he used a super long shot to turn 3 points into 1 point, this time it was simply fatal.
"Should we tighten our marking on him? Whoever is in that area should be assigned someone to mark him."
Assistant coach Martusciello told Sarri.
Sarri turned around and asked him: "Tell me which area he is in? This kid is everywhere! Do you want the whole team to man-mark him? Then the other Roma players in this area will be ignored?"
Martuscielo was speechless, but Sarri knew what he wanted to say was "So what?"
Sarri was silent for a while: "Let Lucas Leiva and Alberto retreat together, leave Milinkovic-Savic in front, and the full-backs on both sides move inwards to defend against breakthroughs but not against passes. If you can't defend against crosses from outside the penalty area, don't defend them, but the ball entering the penalty area must be blocked."
Martuscielo nodded. He understood what his boss had said in three words:
Park the bus.
On the court, after receiving the ball, Binya took a few steps but failed to get past Hisai, who poked the ball out of bounds.
At this time, Martuscielo walked onto the scene and shouted loudly, reminding the players to change their formation.
The Lazio players were inevitably disappointed to see that the head coach had just ordered the full-backs to press forward and prepare for an attack, but now asked them to tighten their defense.
But these professional players are also aware of the situation on the field.
Faced with the "stage-crazy" Rome today, if you continue to waste time, you will really end up killing yourself.
Viña threw the ball from the sideline, Pellegrini came over to receive it, took the ball, turned around and took a few steps back to avoid Pedro's pressing, and when he looked back he was stunned.
What the hell! What's going on? Is this my head coach going to work across the street?
Lazio's wingers on both sides returned to the backcourt to defend, as if they were playing the role of wing-backs, while the full-backs moved into the penalty area and fought together with the two central defenders. There were also two defensive midfielders blocking the middle, and only Milinkovic was running and sweeping in front of the defensive midfielders.
In the center circle, Immobile was alone, with only two Roma players in red clothes beside him. He seemed completely disconnected from his teammates.
If you say this is 6-3-1, there will definitely be people who believe it. Even 8-1-1 is not an exaggeration.
Pellegrini kicked the ball back to Mancini behind him for reorganization, and then he wandered back to the penalty area, looking for possible space.
Mourinho on the sidelines naturally noticed Lazio's changes first.
He knew that Sarri didn't want to fight anymore, and if he continued, the only goal difference would be lost.
The league is not a cup competition, and what matters is not the victory or defeat of one game. You have to look at the overall situation and focus on the whole year to achieve the greatest benefits.
He was confident because Smalling and Ibanez were two gates tailor-made for Immobile today. Ibanez was close to him and Smalling was behind him, so they could double-team him at any time once the ball was passed from Lazio's backcourt.
30 league rounds, 10 UEFA Europa League games, 3 Italian Cup games, most of the season's training and the addition of new players in the winter window have made this team one of the best teams in Italy when playing with its main lineup.
With two months left, Mourinho is full of confidence and ready to move towards the championship.
