host must win

On the morning of the match day, in the conference room of the hotel where Manchester United stayed, the coaching staff was conducting the last tactical preparation meeting before the game. Ferguson and the coaching staff wanted to instill a unified idea for tonight's game to all the players.

The assistant coach Queiroz was in charge of explaining, while Ferguson sat quietly aside.

Queiroz focused everyone's attention before he said: "Looking at the past few seasons, the losses experienced by Ancelotti's AC Milan can often be classified into three situations. The first Just hit fast."

After finishing speaking, Queiroz immediately played a video, which was the classic battle where Deportivo defeated AC Milan 4:0.From the very beginning, Irueta's team tried their best to catch AC Milan's right-sided attack, and the continuous fast break made AC Milan hard to defend.

"The second is the 2005 UEFA Champions League final. After AC Milan led 3-0, they became slack. Many people may think this is strange. After all, it was the UEFA Champions League final, but I want to tell everyone that this is not accidental. According to our collection and statistics, this kind of problem often occurs in AC Milan, and the performance difference between the first half and the second half will be quite obvious, and the reason for this is precisely their tactics."

"And the third situation is that the whole game played very well, and they were relatively stalemate with each other, and finally died of accidental factors. For example, last season we played against AC Milan in the second round of the quarter-finals..."

"In the past few seasons, we played against AC Milan. I think everyone remembers it very clearly. It can be said that these three situations were combined. I won't do more analysis here. Next, I will focus on some other situations of theirs. .”

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As soon as Queiroz's voice fell, the following PPT immediately turned into some statistics of AC Milan.

"Barcelona's godfather Cruyff once said that Ancelotti's AC Milan can be called an alternative to Italian football. Pirlo, as a front midfielder, was placed behind the midfielder, which is also regarded by the world. In order to be a revolutionary change, the partners Seedorf and Gattuso formed a classic three midfielder configuration."

Pirlo, Seedorf and Gattuso have a very clear division of labor, a very balanced offense and defense, and their performance is indeed remarkable. It also allows Pirlo to leave the opponent's key defensive area and focus on organization and passing. .

It can be said that such a configuration is quite classic.To some extent, this is the most classic and strongest midfielder in Europe right now.

Although many people say that Manchester United's midfielder is the strongest in Europe, whether it is Ferguson or Queiroz, they are very clear that Manchester United's midfielder is only stronger than Yin Jun, and the overall strength is still not as good as AC Milan. of midfield.But Yin Jun is so good, his existence conceals the weakness of Manchester United's midfield.

Queiroz continued: "In the past 20 years, AC Milan has produced three great teams. Sacchi is known for his offensive oppression, Capello is known for his overall defense, and Ancelotti is known for his overall defense. Known for its holistic transmission and control."

After hearing this, everyone present nodded their heads in agreement.But anyone who is familiar with Italian football will agree with this point of view.

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Queiroz looked at the players and said again: "But all of us know that there is a threshold for passing and controlling. For any team that wants to play passing and controlling, in addition to having a group of technical players, the most important thing is to The most critical element is running."

"Only when players run can they have the opportunity to pass and receive the ball, and running is based on physical fitness. The average age of this group of players in AC Milan is the highest in the Champions League, so in many cases, they can only control the game Part of the time, such as the first half, or the second half."

When Yin Jun heard this, his eyes lit up.

He thought of Arsenal.

Although it is said that Barcelona's pass control is the strongest in Europe, on the one hand, Yin Jun will not have a chance to play against Barcelona, ​​just one time in last year's Champions League final; It was a few years later that Guardiola's Barcelona did not develop Barcelona's pass control to its peak.

In fact, in current European football, Wenger's Arsenal is the best at passing and controlling.

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As early as 2002, when he first joined Manchester United and played against Arsenal for the first time, he noticed a very interesting phenomenon, that is, Arsenal's players were running very actively, and everyone was running.

At that time, Arsenal's midfield was a classic four midfielder, Pires, Vieira, Gilberto Silva and Ljungberg.

It stands to reason that such a configuration is a bit reluctant to play pass control, especially the double midfielder of Vieira and Gilberto Silva, but Arsenal has played well. A very important factor is that they Players run a great distance.

With the technical strength of the Premier League players, as long as the passing distance is controlled within ten meters, any team can play pass control, and can guarantee the team's pass success rate.

But don't underestimate the distance of ten meters, and don't think it's as simple as running to the distance of ten meters from the ball holder.This requires the team's overall off-the-ball running and support. Those without the ball must not only run, but also consider the pass of the player.

It can be said that this is not only a test of physical fitness, but also a test of players' thinking ability.

After several games against Arsenal, Yin Jun clearly realized that the Gunners performed very well in the first half of every season, but collapsed in the second half, the main reason is their team's playing style superior.

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To maintain this meticulous pass-and-control style of play, players must pay an extremely astonishing amount of running, and the price is physical exertion and injuries.

In the first half of the season, the players' physical fitness was not bad and could be maintained, but in the second half, they couldn't run immediately.

If the players can't run, the mistakes in passing and possession will increase. The more time the opponent holds the ball, the more pressing and pressing will naturally be.
This is the case with Arsenal, and the same is true with AC Milan.What's more terrible is that the average age of AC Milan players is a bit higher than that of Arsenal.

The player's body is very strange. Before the age of 30, there is no feeling, but after the age of 30, there will be a decline every year. This is not based on anyone's will or any technological means.

The reason why Maldini and others were able to serve as the main force in AC Milan was due to the team's pass and possession style in the frontcourt.

But in many cases, once the player's running can't keep up, AC Milan immediately reveals its true colors.

For example, in the world-famous Istanbul night, many people wondered why AC Milan collapsed in the second half?This is not only because Liverpool performed too well in the second half, but also because of AC Milan's own slackness, coupled with physical consumption, so the second half was not as active as the first half, and the result was directly beaten.

Manchester United under Ferguson has also attached great importance to pass control in recent years, so naturally they are very aware of the tricks.