Chapter 3 Who is the boss?
A ruthless character like old Hill, even at the age of 67, can still be very powerful when he is furious.
Yang Hao, who was the first to be hit, was startled, and Xiao Xier and Cerezo, who were sitting next to him, also became nervous.
Little Hill, in particular, was always ready to step forward and dissuade him, for fear that old Hill would get angry and hit someone.
He has a history of this.
In March 1996, he had a heated argument with the general manager of Compostela Club at the gate of the Spanish Football Association, and directly attacked him with fists and feet, which was severely criticized by the Spanish media and fans.
This move has greatly damaged Atletico's image.
Yang Hao was well prepared. He smiled easily and asked calmly, "Did I say something wrong?"
He looked directly into the sharp eyes of the angry old Hill and refused to give in.
Because he knew that Little Hill would stop him in time.
"Come, let me show you this set of data."
As he spoke, Yang Hao took out a document from his briefcase, spread it on the desk, and pushed it towards Old Hill opposite.
In a rage, Old Hill still grabbed it and took a look.
Yang Hao's document compiled all of Atletico Madrid's game data in the La Liga over the past few years, including the number of goals scored and the number of goals conceded. It also analyzed the data of each season in detail and compared it with other teams.
The final conclusion is that Atletico Madrid's offense is very dependent on superstars, but the problem is not big.
League results always depend on the quality of their defense.
For example, in the season when they won the double championship, they scored 75 goals and conceded 32 goals, making them the best defensive team in La Liga at the time.
So far this season, they have conceded 53 goals in 32 rounds, making them the team with the worst defense in La Liga.
Yang Hao's data not only counts Atletico Madrid, but also the performance of other La Liga teams in each season, especially the strong teams.
Real Madrid and Barcelona have always had strong offensive firepower, but their defense has actually always been good too.
In recent years, Real Madrid has had European-level central defenders like Hierro and Sanchis, and world-class defensive midfielders like Redondo in the midfield; Barcelona also has excellent central defenders such as Nadal, De Boer, Ronald Koeman, Abelardo, and Guardiola in the midfield.
But what about Atletico Madrid?
Over the years, Atletico Madrid has never had a clear plan for team formation.
He invested heavily in players in the midfield and frontcourt. From Paul Futre to Kiko, to Vieri and Hasselbaink, old Hill never hesitated to introduce frontcourt stars.
But in the midfield and defense, Simeone finally came, but after playing for two years and winning the double championship, he went to Inter Milan.
Specifically for this season, the team's midfield is not short of talent.
For example, Radek Bejbl from the Czech golden generation, who is also the team's main midfielder.
There is also Spanish midfielder Ruben Baraja. Yes, he is the one who later transferred to Valencia and formed the strongest double defensive midfielder in Europe with Albelda. At the age of 25, he is now a substitute.
Uruguayan midfielder Pablo Garcia, who later performed very well in Osasuna and was transferred to Real Madrid, is also in Atletico Madrid now, but he was placed in the second team and has played 0 minutes in the first team this season.
This is a very strange phenomenon.
In Yang Hao's previous life, these players showed outstanding strength after Atletico Madrid was relegated this season and transferred away from the team, including Belleron, who had not played well in Atletico Madrid in the past two years, and Argentine winger Solari.
At present, Atletico's defense consists of Santi Denia, who cannot enter the Spanish national team, and two Paraguayan internationals Carlos Gamara and Celso Ayala.
Please note that this Ayala is not the Ayala in Argentina.
These players have one thing in common, which is that they are all around 1.8 meters tall.
In last night's 1-4 defeat to Deportivo La Coruna, center forward Roy Makaay scored a hat trick.
Two weeks ago, in the away game against Numancia, the team lost 0-3, with center forward Jorge Delgado scoring twice.
At a time when tall center forwards are popular, the disadvantage in confrontation caused by the height difference makes Atletico Madrid's defense particularly vulnerable.
And what about the midfield?
From Ranieri to Antic, all believe in the 442 tactics.
Although the golden boy Jose Mari was sold at a high price during the winter break, the team still has Dutch sharpshooter Hasselbaink, Spanish Prince Kiko and Uruguayan Maradona Fernando Correa.
The more difficult the team's situation, the more it needs backbone players like Kiko.
Therefore, two centers became the standard.
With four defenders and two center forwards, we can only have four midfielders.
What about the traditional No. 10 attacking midfielder Belleron?
Therefore, he had to be paired with a partner, namely Beibul.
Players like Baraja and Pablo Garcia naturally lack playing opportunities.
The problems that followed were obvious. When Belleron was unable to provide adequate protection in the midfield, the defense was easily exposed to the opponent's firepower. Coupled with the central defender's physical disadvantage...
Atletico Madrid has become the worst defensive team in La Liga this season.
If it weren't for the attacking Hasselbaink in front of them, Atletico Madrid would have performed even worse this season.
So far this season, Atletico Madrid has scored 41 goals in La Liga, with Hasselbaink contributing 23 of them.
He played in 7 of the 8 UEFA Cup games and contributed 7 goals.
And the King's Cup.
This is also the only commendable thing about Atletico Madrid this season, that is, reaching the semi-finals of the King's Cup.
Next Wednesday, Atletico Madrid will host Louis van Gaal's Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final.
It is precisely because the team focused more on offense than defense in recruiting players that the team's offense and defense were unbalanced, serious problems arose, and affected the results of this season. Coincidentally, Hill was imprisoned, and the team was in panic.
Under such circumstances, if the team had a backbone who could stand up and stabilize the morale, the problem would not be too serious, such as Hierro of Real Madrid, or Nadal and Guardiola of Barcelona.
But there is no such player at Atletico Madrid.
In the past few years, stars have come and gone like water, seriously weakening the influence of local players such as Kiko and Aguilera in the locker room. The frequent changes of head coaches have also made the locker room extremely loose and lacking a core culture and cohesion.
Under such circumstances, a financial crisis broke out, all the management resigned, the club was in panic, all the problems erupted like a volcano, and the team's performance collapsed all of a sudden.
…
Yang Hao's data is very detailed, and he also accurately points out Atletico Madrid's biggest problem at the moment.
That's defense.
This is completely different from what Antic said before.
Antic said in an interview before that there is no problem with Atletico Madrid's defense, the biggest problem is offense.
Old Hill actually read the materials Yang Hao handed to him patiently, looked deeply at the young man in front of him, sat down again, and still looked at Yang Hao coldly.
This made Yang Hao and Xiao Xi'er look at each other secretly, and a hint of joy flashed across their faces.
There's hope!
"Maybe your analysis is correct, but so what? Pointing out a problem and solving it are two different things."
After a pause, Hill smiled and said, "Compared to you, a rookie with no coaching experience, why shouldn't I continue to use Antic?"
"If Antic could solve these problems, why did they fail to win a single game in the past six league rounds?"
These words obviously made Old Hill's heart skip a beat.
He has been dissatisfied with Antic for a long time.
After the team won the double championship, Antic failed to bring satisfactory results for two consecutive seasons. Later, when Sacchi was replaced as coach, the performance was even worse, so old Hill invited Antic back midway.
The unemployed head coach, who had received a buyout clause from Atletico Madrid, had a simple request: a contract term of one and a half years.
Old Hill gave it to him and the team avoided relegation , but last summer he let Antic leave with compensation for one year's contract and invited Ranieri.
Who would have thought that Ranieri did a worse job than Sacchi.
When Hill lost control of the team, the trusteeship group once again invited back Antic, who was still receiving the club's severance pay.
This time, the Serbian again asked for a contract of one and a half years.
The whole incident caused an uproar among Atletico Madrid fans, who all felt that Antic's request was a bit excessive.
Hill Jr. said that Hill Sr. even cursed at Antic at home.
From the perspective of a worker, Yang Hao felt that Antic's request was understandable.
But Antić really can't reverse Atletico Madrid's current decline.
"I'm different from him. He has a contract. Even if the team is relegated this season, no one can blame him. He will get the money he deserves."
Yang Hao looked directly at Old Hill and went straight to the heart of the matter.
"But I'm different. I've been waiting for a long time and desperately need a coaching opportunity to prove myself, so I'll go all out, even at the cost of everything!"
Old Hill stared at Yang Hao deeply for a moment, then asked, "But what gives you the right to coach Atletico Madrid? Just because you have a coaching certificate? Or because you studied sports management at the Cologne Sports Academy?"
Yang Hao smiled freely, spread his hands, sat down directly opposite, and looked at Old Hill without any fear.
"I can't prove this, you can only gamble!"
"You know, our era is completely different from the past. Football nowadays emphasizes division of labor and cooperation. There are fitness coaches for physical training, scouts for opponent research, tactical assistants for tactics, and even assistant coaches for training..."
"The most important thing for the current head coach is... here!" Yang Hao pointed to his temple.
Old Hill was silent.
He had to admit that the young man in front of him was very bold and courageous, daring to speak so freely in front of him.
Florentino really got this point right.
If it was before he went to jail last year, he would have kicked him out without hesitation.
But this imprisonment, especially the turmoil in the past three months, made him deeply feel the problems in Atletico Madrid.
Yang Hao's words further cleared up the mystery for him.
This made him reflect for the first time on everything he had done for Atletico.
Is this young man in front of me worth taking a gamble on?
And his own son.
Old Hill turned and glanced at the nervous young Hill. He knew his son too well and was well aware of what he and Cerezo were planning, but he didn't care.
Because, this is his son.
…
Yang Hao sat there leisurely because he knew that there would be people who were more anxious than him.
That is Little Hill opposite, and Cerezo who seems to always be sitting on the Diaoyutai.
Since the beating incident in 1996, Hill has been the biggest obstacle to Atletico Madrid's development.
Whether it is Cerezo, who followed old Hill to join the Atletico Madrid board of directors in 1987, or young Hill, who has served as the club's general manager since 1992, if they want to be the number one player in Atletico Madrid, they must first remove the mountain above their heads.
Yang Hao knew about this, Little Hill and Cerezo knew about it, and Old Hill also knew about it.
He is 67 years old.
