Chapter 35 I dug a hole for Cooper
At the turn of the century, many eye-catching teams emerged.
Van Gaal's Ajax, Juventus' three Champions League finals, Real Madrid's three Champions League wins in five years, Dortmund and Bayern Munich under Hitzfeld's coaching...
Valencia is the least impressive of these teams because they have reached the Champions League final twice but failed to score.
But Cooper's team is definitely worthy of recognition in terms of tactical value.
As a third-generation Atletico Madrid fan and a second-generation player, Cesar Mendiodoro knows the situation in La Liga like the back of his hand. Juanma Lillo has coached in Spain for many years and is also well aware of the situation in La Liga.
In their view, this is the result of a continuous inheritance from Ranieri to Cooper.
The last time Valencia won the La Liga title was more than 20 years ago during the Kempes era. Its most recent rise was in the mid-to-late 1990s, when Aragones was the coach and they won the league runner-up.
But throughout the 1990s, from Hiddink's first coaching of Valencia in 1991, to his second return in 1994, to later famous coaches such as Aragones and Valdano, to 1997, in just six years, nine head coaches were replaced.
This does not include Hiddink's second spell in charge, otherwise, it would be exactly 10 terms.
The continuous turmoil has shaken the position of club president Cortes and made many famous coaches stay away from Valencia. After all, no one is willing to take the risk.
So, in 1997, Cortes made a desperate decision and invited Ranieri from Serie A, who had just led Fiorentina to complete the Renaissance.
This is a notable watershed moment.
Before 1997, Valencia was a typical Spanish team, dominated by offensive football, and the team produced superstar players such as Penev, Romario, Ortega and Mijatovic.
But Ranieri, who came from Serie A, is good at defense. After coming to Valencia, he completed a very thorough reform of the entire technical and tactical system of the Bat Army, and also introduced many Italian players.
For example, he fired Ortega, which completely angered the Valencia fans.
In his first season as coach, Ranieri won the King's Cup, which was Valencia's first championship after many years, so Ranieri barely gained a foothold.
In the second season, the 98/99 season, Ranieri began to make further tactical reforms and boldly used young players. Angulo and others became the backbone of Valencia, and the use of Mendieta completely activated the Spanish midfielder.
The 442 tactics, defensive counterattack, and the cooperation of Lopez and Ilie in the front allowed Valencia to perform better and better on the field, especially in the league and the King's Cup, where they defeated Barcelona three times, which completely changed the Valencia fans' impression of Ranieri.
By this point, Ranieri's transformation of Valencia was a great success, and he also delivered a record of fourth place in the league and the King's Cup, making everyone very satisfied with him.
But at this moment, Atletico Madrid's old Hill took action.
In the summer of 1999, old Hill poached Ranieri from Valencia, hoping that he could transform Atletico Madrid like he had transformed Valencia, allowing the Colchoneros to regain the glory of the double championship period.
But everyone knows what happened next.
A forced melon is destined not to be sweet.
On the other hand, after letting Ranieri go, Valencia invited the Argentine Cooper, who had a brilliant coaching record at Real Mallorca and led the team to the Cup Winners' Cup final.
Cooper, who just created a miracle in Mallorca, is ambitious. Although he also plays 442, it is different from Ranieri's defensive counterattack and quick long passes after grabbing the ball. Cooper believes that this style of play has serious problems.
When facing strong teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid, Valencia can get more space for counterattacks because the opponents will actively press forward, resulting in a large gap behind them.
But in La Liga, not all teams are like Real Madrid and Barcelona. As a strong team in La Liga, Valencia must abandon its previous style of long passes and instead adopt a more Latin style and more Spanish-style layered passing and advancement.
Therefore, Cooper further transformed the team's midfield and frontcourt based on Ranieri's defensive structure.
Gerard, who came from Barcelona's youth training camp and was nicknamed Little Guardiola, began to become the main force of Valencia. Mendieta's potential was further unleashed, and the Argentine winger Kily Gonzalez was introduced on the left.
Valencia changed from the defensive counterattack of the Ranieri era to a 442 diamond midfield. Not only did it continue the solid defense of the Ranieri era, but it also made great progress on the offensive end, and the game became much more beautiful.
It is precisely with this set of tactical play that Cooper's Bat Army has been advancing triumphantly and unstoppably in the Champions League.
They even defeated the mighty Serie A champions Lazio 5-2 in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.
Interestingly, of Valencia's five goals, Lopez scored one, and the other four were all scored by midfielders, with Gerard even scoring a hat trick.
It can be said that Valencia is now in its heyday and is unrivaled.
The entire European football world avoids Cooper's bat army.
But Yang Hao is an exception.
…
"Valencia is a very strong team and very versatile, both offensively and defensively. There is no doubt about that."
After watching the game video, Yang Hao talked about his views on Valencia to the coaching team.
He has a broad view of the overall situation, and the coaching staff needs to understand his intentions, instill them into the players during the subsequent training and preparations, and conduct targeted drills.
"There's no need to talk about the defense, let's look at the midfield. Gerard is nicknamed the little Guardiola, he's good at both offense and defense."
If this player had not transferred back to Barcelona after playing for Valencia, his fame would definitely not have reached the point where no one knows him in 2023, because in 2000, he was really too popular!
He was so popular that Barcelona was willing to pay 21.6 million euros for him, which was a huge price at the time.
The two wingers are Kily Gonzalez and Mendieta, and the attacking midfielder is Javier Farinos. These three players are all all-round fighters who can attack and defend well.
This is also the biggest difference between Cooper and Ranieri.
Ranieri's tactical style was to wait and then counterattack with a long pass after winning the ball.
But Cooper prefers the South American and Spanish style, advancing layer by layer after grabbing the ball.
Obviously, the latter has higher requirements on the passing ability of the midfielders.
"But if you look closely, among Valencia's diamond-shaped midfielders, apart from Gerard, the other three have one thing in common: they have good technique but not very refined; they have good passing ability but not strong organization; they actively participate in defense but are not fast and lack physical strength."
"Kili González is relatively good, while Mendieta and Farinos are very obvious."
The so-called omnipotence can often be seen as mediocrity.
If he is an all-round and outstanding player, I'm sorry, he is definitely a world-class player.
For example, Deco, Modric and Xavi are all versatile and outstanding, and they are hard to come by.
Mendieta was once very close to becoming a world-class superstar, but after moving to Serie A, he completely lost this opportunity.
He was able to handle physical confrontations with ease in La Liga, but unfortunately, he simply couldn't adapt to Serie A.
This is not a coincidence.
Farinos also failed in Serie A, as did Florentino de la Pena. These Spanish midfielders found it difficult to gain a foothold in Serie A.
The most crucial point is that they cannot adapt to the defensive intensity of Serie A.
Not to mention the foreign players in Spain, even in Italy, a front midfielder like Pirlo has to switch to playing as a defensive midfielder.
"Except for Angulo and Lopez in front, who have decent speed, the speed of Valencia's four midfielders is not outstanding, especially Farinos and Mendieta, who both lack speed."
Both players are not tall, about 1.73 meters, but their speed is really not fast.
Spain has many players of this type, just like Isco in Yang Hao's previous life.
This will bring up a problem: if the speed is not fast enough, how can we launch a counterattack?
Ranieri's strategy is to pass the ball long and play to the speed of the forwards, but Cooper doesn't do that. He likes to advance layer by layer.
Cooper understood elementary school math formulas, so his strategy was to press forward as a whole.
The speed was slower, but the formation was more advanced, the ball-grabbing position was further forward, the distance was shortened, and the counterattack was still very smooth.
This was actually the prototype of the 4231 formation that Benítez later used when he coached Valencia.
It's just that a striker was taken away and turned into a defensive midfielder. After Farinos transferred, he introduced Aimar. After selling Gerard, he introduced Baraja and promoted Albelda who is now on the bench.
This makes Valencia's entire midfield more oppressive, and Aimar can fully unleash his offensive talent.
And the most important thing is that after the departure of Lopez, Benítez brought in his old Tenerife player, center forward Mista.
It can be said that Valencia's entire tactical style, from Ranieri to Cooper to Benítez, is consistent, advancing layer by layer, and the lineup has been repeatedly adjusted and innovated.
This ultimately led to the emergence of the Bat Army at the turn of the century, which amazed the entire European football world.
But now, since Yang Hao has appeared, it is hard to say whether Valencia can reproduce the glory of Yang Hao's previous life.
Especially now that Atletico Madrid is in dire straits, Valencia is a tough nut to crack.
Everyone else is wary of Valencia, but Yang Hao is not.
Because he knew that in the not too distant future, in the much-anticipated Champions League final, Cooper's Valencia would expose their most fatal weakness.
Even the fact that they failed to reach the Champions League final for two consecutive seasons and failed to break through the last hurdle was due to huge flaws in their lineup.
Insufficient ability to attack!
So, after losing the 2000 Champions League and selling Lopez to Lazio, Valencia signed center forward Kalou. After selling Farinos to Inter Milan, they signed Messi's idol, Aimar.
But in the Champions League final, Valencia was ultimately defeated by Bayern Munich, the iron chariot coached by Hitzfeld.
"Everyone!"
After Yang Hao figured it out in his mind, he looked directly at the assistants in front of him.
"For the next week, I want you to help me dig a huge hole for Cooper and his Valencia!"
"A pit Cooper had to jump into!"
