Super Marshal

Some people say that professional football is a war without smoke.

But fans are often easily immersed in this war game and greatly ignore the cruelty of the war itself.

Professional football has always been cold and cruel, with no room for warmth.

Even Chinatown, which has been highly respected by world football and fans in recent years, brutally eliminates a large number of young players every year. At best, they are just more responsible than other clubs, which naturally makes them look more tender. .

As the saying goes, soldiers have no constant potential, and water has no constant shape.

There is no fixed way to win in war, and the same is true in professional football.

Therefore, a variety of different technical and tactical styles of play have naturally emerged. It can be said that a hundred flowers bloom, each is good at winning. This has also directly led to the prosperity of European football and attracted various types of football from all over the world. Talent gathering.

But precisely because a hundred flowers bloom, conflicts will inevitably arise between them.

For example, Gao Han and Mourinho both made their debut on the Barcelona coaching staff and both studied under Louis van Gaal, but there are irreconcilable philosophical conflicts between them.

The same situation applies to Van Gaal and Cruyff.

As masters of Dutch football concepts, the two have never been in contact with each other.

On the surface, the conflict between the two originated from when Van Gaal was coaching Ajax. Cruyff, as a famous Ajax player, had repeatedly accused and criticized Van Gaal’s coaching in the media, and Give some suggestions of your own.

It is not difficult to imagine that with Cruyff's popularity at Ajax, his suggestions would inevitably put pressure on Van Gaal, and even the management would find it difficult not to listen to Cruyff's opinions. For Van Gaal, who has a tough style, he naturally couldn't accept it and immediately counterattacked. The two formed a feud from then on, which became more and more intense later on.

The conflict between the two people is difficult to say which is right and which is wrong, because the same thing has been happening repeatedly in European football. For example, Van Gaal once criticized Ajax during Koeman's coaching period. Conflicts arose, and Cruyff's relationship with many Barcelona coaches was not ideal.

But if you get to the bottom of it, it is not difficult to find that the contradiction between the two comes from their differences in tactical concepts.

Professional football has developed for so many years, and tactical theoretical research has long become a systematic system.

As early as decades ago, Lobanovsky, a famous tactical theorist from Ukraine, proposed the overall football theory, believing that individual skills should serve the whole. Tactics are not about arranging the best eleven, but about letting everyone Players all follow the head coach's arrangements and put the team's interests first before considering their own performance.

During Michels' coaching period, Hungarian football reached its peak. They advocated positioning, made full use of every inch of space on the court, and excellent overall coordination, which brought a strong impact to European football at the time. Michels On the basis of the predecessors, the concept of total offense and total defense was created.

As the name suggests, total offense and total defense means that all players participate in offense and defense. Players have no absolutely fixed positions and are full of fluidity. They only have relative positions to each other. The benefits of this are obvious, especially the wave offensive system. It also made the team full of offensive power, but the forward pressure of the defense line was too large, and excessive use of offside tactics caused the team's defensive risks to become more and more obvious, and began to be gradually exploited by opponents.

It can be said that Michels' total offense and total defense laid the foundation for the development of modern football, and also profoundly influenced many latecomers, such as Cruyff, Van Gaal and Rijkaard, who all came from the same school. They all admire the ball-playing ability of the midfield and backcourt, and they all advocate the core-free frontcourt offense, that is, not setting up a No. 10 attacking midfielder, etc.

Under the premise that Michels' concept of total offense and total defense is continued and that individuals should unconditionally submit to the whole, Cruyff and Van Gaal have an irreconcilable difference and conflict, and that is Cruyff, who was a superstar player. It is natural to believe that the team's skills and tactics should be based on serving the players and maximizing the players' strength.

However, Van Gaal does not agree with this. He believes that the individual performance of players is very unstable and will inevitably be accompanied by ups and downs in a long season. Formulating techniques and tactics around players will inevitably lead to dependence on the team's performance. It will also be affected. Only by cooperating with the eleven members of the team through a clear and rigorous division of labor and ensuring the strict operation of the entire technical and tactical system can the team's competitiveness be stabilized. Even if the core players are absent, they will not be greatly affected. Influence.

This has something to do with the fact that Van Gaal's career as a professional player was not brilliant.

This disagreement between the two people appeared when Van Gaal was coaching Ajax, but this time it ended with Van Gaal's great success at Ajax and reaching the peak of his coaching career.

However, during his subsequent coaching of Barcelona, ​​Van Gaal also had problems with this concept when facing Barcelona, ​​which was full of superstars. Both coaching ended in failure, especially the second coaching, and the club management was in chaos. Under the circumstances, it even suffered a humiliating failure.

Later, Rijkaard, Van Gaal's former disciple, but his philosophy was closer to Cruyff, became very successful in Barcelona, ​​so this game ended with Cruyff winning.

But what's interesting is that Rijkaard's early success in coaching was inseparable from the role of assistant coach Tenkat. The latter is known for his tough management and his philosophy is more inclined to Van Gaal.

If the combination of Rijkaard and Tenkat neutralizes the ideas of Cruyff and Van Gaal, then with Guardiola, one person combines the strengths of both companies, achieving a brand new high.

By this time, Gao Han had already proven with continuous success in European football that the individual and the whole are two inseparable factors in skills and tactics, and only by complementing each other can success be achieved.

Cruyff has been away from coaching for a long time, but Van Gaal has always been there, especially in 2014, when he led the Dutch team to the World Cup runner-up, which made Van Gaal famous and retired after a successful career. Later, he was once linked with teams such as Chelsea and Bayern Munich, but Van Gaal ultimately failed to make the trip and has been idle at home.

Although he is unemployed, in fact Van Gaal has never been idle. He often goes to coach training classes in Chinatown to teach, and he has always kept in touch with Gao Han, often exchanging coaching experiences and insights.

This time Gao Han came to Ajax to watch the game and specially invited him to the Amsterdam Stadium.

Although Van Gaal was silent throughout the whole process, Gao Han could feel a strange look in his eyes, which was desire.

The desire to return to first-line coaching.

…………

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"Louis, I'm currently planning to acquire a team."

Taking advantage of the intermission, Gao Han approached Van Gaal who was sitting next to him and whispered.

Since Gao Han specially invited him to the Amsterdam Stadium, Van Gaal already knew that Gao Han must have something important to discuss, but he couldn't guess what it was because Valverde did a good job in Chinatown and the team is currently ranked second in La Liga. , with such a young lineup and such results, no one can imagine that Valverde will be dismissed.

Van Gaal knew that Gao Han was not trying to replace Valverde, but he was still surprised.

"A European team?" Van Gaal asked quickly.

Gao Han curled his lips and shook his head: "No, of course not. I have no intention of going against UEFA. It is a Chinese team. The negotiations are nearing completion. It is estimated that the agreement will be reached in October. The former head coach It's Zaccheroni, but he's out of class now, so if the acquisition is completed, we have to look for a new coach."

Chinese team?

Van Gaal's first reaction was to resist, because he had no intention of leaving the European front line. This is the core of world football. Going to distant China almost meant that he was going to retire. Although he was already sixty-five years old, he still No idea of ​​retirement.

Gao Han has been paying attention to the changes in Van Gaal's expression. He knows very well how could the arrogant Van Gaal accept to coach in the Chinese Super League? He must be eager to prove himself again in Europe. How could he be willing to stay away from the core stage of football?

With Van Gaal's current reputation and status, I believe there is no shortage of interested teams. The reason why he is idle is just waiting for a better coaching opportunity. After all, at his level, it is more serious to rather lack than to waste.

"I understand what you are thinking, Louis, but you have already received the supreme lifetime achievement award. I feel that in European football and in the Netherlands, it is difficult for you to prove yourself again, and in this era... I believe you I understand."

Gao Han didn't speak clearly, but his meaning was clear.

There is no doubt about Van Gaal's ability, but his coaching after leaving Ajax was not very successful. There are many reasons, the most important of which is the club's structure and coaching environment.

Of course, it is inevitably caused by his own personality.

The reason why Gao Han favors Van Gaal is that he has a very complete and strict inheritance of the Dutch technical and tactical system, and Van Gaal himself is very good at discovering and cultivating young players. This is similar to Gao Han's next move. The business ideas are very consistent.

Yes, Van Gaal's current ideas are no longer advanced in European football, but they are still very advanced, and they cannot be used by any team. But if it comes to the Chinese Super League or the Asian League, this is simply dimensionality reduction. A blow, and it was reduced by two or three dimensions.

China's football reform has begun with great fanfare, and Chinese Super League teams have begun to invite world-famous coaches to coach, bringing with them various advanced training methods and coaching plans. However, famous coaches like Van Gaal have Not yet.

Lippi is undoubtedly a bigger name than Van Gaal, but at this point, he is still slightly lacking.

"You know, the reason why Michels is great is not only because of the height of his tactical concepts, but also because of everything he has created for the Netherlands and Barcelona. It can be said that he has profoundly changed the system of European football."

Van Gaal also did this in Barcelona, ​​but it is not well known. For example, the most typical one is goalkeeper training. Frans Houck’s goalkeeper training program completely subverted the training and training system of Spanish goalkeepers, and it is still used today. It is also widely used in Spanish football and has trained top goalkeepers including Valdes, Casillas, Reina, De Gea and so on.

"Our Chinese football team is now in a state of poverty and is full of waste, but we have the largest population in the world. Our Chinatown has built seven of the world's top youth training centers in China, and is considering building ten more in the future. Each year we will train more There is a steady stream of football talents, and the government has also begun to make great efforts to launch youth training reforms..."

Having said this, Gao Han looked deeply at Van Gaal and spoke word by word.

"We need a Michels who has advanced football concepts and tailors a football tactical system for us."

He believes that this is a temptation that Van Gaal cannot refuse.