Super Marshal

Manchester United Carrington Training Base, West Manchester.

In the head coach's office, Ferguson and the coaching staff, who had just returned from an away game in London, were watching Manchester City's home game against Chelsea. During the live TV broadcast, referee Webber blew the whistle at the end of the first half.

The upper left corner of the live broadcast screen displayed a score that shocked everyone.

Three to zero!

International practice is that the home team goes first and the visiting team goes last.

Kaka scored his first Premier League goal, Cristiano Ronaldo passed and shot, Sanchez assisted twice, Benzema contributed a goal, and Manchester City performed very well.

Needless to say, the offensive players in the frontcourt are strong, and their strength can be felt from the statistics. The combination of David Silva, Modric and Xabi Alonso in the midfield also showed a strong performance. Organizational power.

The defense line Mascherano completely froze Robinho, Harvey Martinez and Kompany when facing Chelsea's offensive players. Their performance was also remarkable. On the contrary, it was goalkeeper Petr Cech who felt the whole first half. Somewhat idle.

The biggest highlight of this game is Kaka, who is starting in the Premier League for the first time.

As early as during the summer training camp, everyone was saying that Gao Han relied heavily on Kaká, but the Brazilian midfielder had surgery just after joining and was sidelined for several months, which was a huge blow to Manchester City.

But in fact, no one knows how big it is.

Many people even have doubts about Kaka, because it is obviously doubtful whether a player who has undergone major surgery can return to his best condition.

In fact, Kaká has not returned to his best condition. It is difficult for him to maintain the furious momentum of his peak period, but now he seems to be more restrained, smarter and more threatening.

I believe that after this game, no one will doubt Gao Han, doubt Manchester City, or doubt Kaka.

At least in the 45 minutes of the first half, the aloof Manchester City played an unprecedented smooth offensive and created a strong offensive firepower. Even Chelsea, known as the Premier League's first iron team, could not withstand it and conceded three goals in a row. .

Although every game on the football field is different and cannot be compared, Ferguson has to ask himself. If it were Manchester City in this game, Manchester United would probably lose worse than Chelsea in the first half.

Thinking of this, Ferguson sighed softly.

He once told Gao Han that he should teach Chelsea a lesson, avenge Rijkaard's shame and defend the dignity of the head coach, but he never expected that Gao Han would teach him a lesson so thoroughly that even he was afraid.

"Judging from the first half, Chelsea's midfielder completely lost power, let alone counterattack, and couldn't even defend against Manchester City's passing and penetration. If Scolari didn't adjust in time, I'm afraid there would be another one in the second half. lose."

Assistant coach Mike Perrin also sighed deeply and said somewhat helplessly.

Anyone who encounters a Manchester City team in such explosive form has to be blessed.

"Adjust? How to adjust? Compete with Manchester City for possession of the ball? Don't be stupid. You can't win it at all, but you will lose your position."

"Isn't that right? Chelsea didn't defend in the first half, but did they?"

"Manchester City's strength is indeed based on the midfield. Their pass-and-control style makes Essien, Lampard and Ballack just like flies scurrying around, unable to organize an effective defense at all. , this is a very serious problem.”

"Kaká's comeback is very important. It releases David Silva and Modric. Their running range is wider and their activity area is wider. This greatly activates their ball control and organization ability, and also makes them more capable. The penetration of Manchester City's entire midfield and frontcourt has become more difficult to defend."

“Then can we do the opposite and step up the attack?”

"attack?"

"Yes, strengthen the offense in the midfield and frontcourt, for example, replace Arshavin with the ball in the midfield and strengthen the offensive ability in the midfield and frontcourt."

"This is feasible. Mascherano retreats to the defense. I'm afraid Manchester City's midfield defense is thick..."

While everyone was discussing, Ferguson, who had been keeping his eyes closed and silent, suddenly shook his head and said: "This is impossible!"

impossible?

Everyone looked at Ferguson strangely, only to see the old Scottish man slowly opening his eyes.

"Your thinking logic is very similar to Scolari's. You are still stuck in past experience and have not seen through Gao Han's tactics at all. If Arshavin is replaced, Chelsea will probably die even worse with the Russian's investment in defense. , at least it won’t be better than the first half.”

Everyone looked at each other, wondering what Ferguson meant by this.

When Ferguson saw it, he sighed softly again, a little helpless, because he knew very well how advanced Gao Han's ideas were.

"Over the years, all the strong teams in European football have been eager to have a full-time defensive player like Essien or Mascherano in the midfield to consolidate the defensive hardness of the midfield and protect the midfield and defense line. role."

Everyone nodded in unison, almost all teams did, especially in the Premier League.

"But have you ever thought about it, Gao Han has been constantly trying to eliminate a full-time defensive midfielder over the years."

After Ferguson said this, everyone thought about it and felt a little enlightened.

When Gao Han coached Atletico Madrid, Xavi Alonso was behind, but there were also midfielders like Marcos Senna in the midfield. When Chelsea arrived, they also had top midfielders like Makelele.

However, whether it is Marcos Senna or Makelele, they both have good ability to get and play the ball.

But after Chelsea, Gao Han took a year off. It is said that during that year he calmly thought about future football trends. After his comeback, when he coached Inter Milan, the three midfielders were Cambiaso, Veron and Felipe. Go, Cambiasso is alone behind.

I still remember that back then, many people doubted whether Gao Han's three-midfield combination could work, and were worried that it would be blown out every minute. But as it turned out, facts proved that this combination was not blown away, but actually won everything for Inter Milan. .

If there was a dark and tough Yaya Toure during the Inter Milan period, then at Bayern Munich, he seems to be going a step further, transforming the original winger Bastian Schweinsteiger and introducing Modric , promoted Vidal.

Among the three, Vidal's range of activities is quite advanced. He was introduced as a versatile player in the backcourt, but was used by Gao Han as an attacker in the frontcourt, making the Chilean midfielder famous in one fell swoop.

There is news that the reason why Sanchez chose to join Manchester City without hesitation after receiving Gao Han's call was because Vidal praised Gao Han in front of him more than once, which made Sanchez's heart beat.

But now, in Manchester City, Gao Han has pushed all this to a higher point.

Xabi Alonso, David Silva, Modric and Kaka do not have a full-time defensive player. It can even be said that they are all offensive players who attack the strong and defend the weak.

But in this case, how can Manchester City ensure the defense of the midfield?

Looking back on the previous rounds of the league this season, Manchester City's defense has always been very solid. Some people even criticized Gao Han for his conservative one-to-zero doctrine, which refers to Manchester City's offense, not defense.

Ferguson paid attention to the expressions of his assistants and sighed deeply after seeing that they all seemed to have gained something.

"Compared with the mainstream style of play in Europe's top leagues, Gao Han's defensive philosophy is obviously a step above. What he pursues is accuracy. Whether it is offense or defense, he requires every player to be able to run in time when he should appear. s position."

"To put it bluntly, football games are not complicated at all. No matter how many offensive and defensive tricks are played, the essence is still to emphasize one point, that is, how to create a numerical advantage in a local area, and use the local numerical advantage to compress the opponent's offensive space when defending. , when attacking, we use the local numerical advantage to expand our team’s offensive space.”

"And we all know that when there is space on the court, you have choices. If you lose space, you have no choice even if you have the ball."

"The presence rate that Gao Han pursues is that all players on the team can appear where they should appear in a timely manner, thereby creating a local numerical advantage."

"When defending, with the local numerical advantage and the coordination of the players, it doesn't matter whether they are full-time defensive players or not. Whether the team's defense is strong depends on the whole team; but on the offensive end, this group of attackers has outstanding skills and creativity. Players can make a huge difference, especially if they create a local numerical advantage."

Ferguson's words were like a revelation, shocking the Manchester United coaching staff.

is not that right?

Nowadays, mainstream styles of play have begun to pursue running distance, and many data analysis companies have begun to include running distance among the most important data. Unexpectedly, Gao Han has gone beyond this category.

Or it should be said that running distance is the basis of his tactical concept, rather than pursuit. What he really pursues is accuracy.

And if it is true as Ferguson said, then this Manchester City team would be too terrible, right?

"Scolari has no first-line coaching experience in club competitions. He has been coaching the national team for many years, which makes his philosophy far behind the pace of the times, let alone catching up with Gao Han."

Ferguson didn't seem to be interested in Scolari at all.

"He thought that with Ballack, Essien and Lampard, the team's midfield would be as stable as a rock. This might be useful for other teams, but it doesn't work at all when facing the cold. It doesn't even need to be Manchester City, which is cold. Teams like Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, Chelsea have to play through.”

The tactical development of the national team lags far behind that of the club league. This is a fact recognized by everyone.

The UEFA Champions League represents the most advanced technical and tactical level in world football, even far exceeding the World Cup and European Cup.

Scolari has been coaching the national team for a long time and wants to use the technical and tactical concepts of the national team to coach Chelsea in the Premier League. This is undoubtedly asking for trouble and cannot be played at all. He is falling behind!

Ferguson asked himself that he could not catch up with Gao Han, and his Manchester United could not reach the level of Manchester City. However, he had been competing with Gao Han for a long time and had been coaching in Europe's top leagues. The trend was somewhat clear.

"Just wait and see. If Scolari is more conservative in the second half and sticks to halftime, maybe Chelsea can save face in this game. But if he really risks his life by replacing Arshavin as you say, then he will die. It’s even worse.”

"In the final analysis, this is a battle that is no longer on the same dimension."

As soon as Ferguson finished speaking, the live game camera returned to the City Stadium.

After a fifteen-minute break, the players from the two teams walked back to the court under the leadership of referee Weber. After exchanging venues, they each took their positions.

This time it was Manchester City who kicked off first.

But everyone noticed that Scolari made a substitution.

Ballack, who had a sluggish performance in the first half and did nothing, was replaced by Russian international Arshavin.

Having guessed the first half correctly, Ferguson sneered.

He also wanted to know with great anticipation whether he could guess the second half correctly.