Coaching legend

With the referee's whistle, the first round of the 98-99 Blackburn Premier League officially began. It was also George's first Premier League game in his coaching career.

George had high hopes for this game, and everyone wanted to make a good start in their first time. Now that George has just taken over Blackburn, many people are looking for George's faults with a magnifying glass. Even Blackburn fans are mostly distrustful of George, and only results can change their minds at this time.

George has carefully studied the current West Ham United, which is a very typical English club.

George's hoarding of five people in the midfield is definitely not because of conservatism. It is related to George's transformation ideas for Blackburn. George put Deco, Miku, and Pires, three players with outstanding skills, in the midfield. He hopes to use their excellent skills to control the ball and play a kind of oppressive football.

The English team's style of play has always been to quickly pass through the midfield and then solve the problem in front. But George wants to do the opposite and control the midfield. Only by controlling the midfield, the team's victory will be easy to grasp.

English clubs have never set up the attacking midfielder position, which is related to the characteristics of English football. Even if there have been some outstanding attacking midfielders, they will eventually be in disgrace after arriving in England. Because they are not adapted to English football and cannot adapt to the rhythm of English football.

But George does not think it is the fault of those attacking midfielders, nor is it that they have poor adaptability. It is that after buying attacking midfielders, once they cannot adapt to English football in a short period of time, those clubs will soon give up these attacking midfielders.

And they will not design a formation specifically for those outstanding attacking midfielders to play their strengths. They still play their football habits, so that it is more difficult for those players to play their strengths.

Of course, as each team pays more and more attention to defense in the future, attacking midfielders will have less and less position. But at least in the current world football, the design of attacking midfielders is still very common.

However, the game did not develop according to George's idea. George's requirement for the team is to control the ball first. Don't rush to attack, and don't retreat. It is to let Blackburn midfielder control the rhythm of the game. Once the rhythm of the game is controlled, the following development will be logical.

But...

"Pires, oops...Pires lost the ball again. I don't know if he is in a bad state today or if he has not adapted to English football." Martin Taylor shook his head. "I have watched some Metz games before. Pires shouldn't be like this."

"Not only Pires, Miku also lost the ball several times. Neither of them has adapted to English football."

George frowned on the sidelines, blaming himself for underestimating the Premier League. During the training camp, George saw that although Blackburn had a short cooperation time, both Pires and Miku had a very high football IQ. The cooperation between the two was very tacit.

Even in the warm-up match, the performance of the two was the best in the team. Especially Pires, his performance was no worse than Duff on the right. He was like a fish in water on the left side of Blackburn, whether it was dribbling, passing or even shooting.

But George overlooked one point, that is, the difference between the warm-up match and the Premier League. When the warm-up match was arranged, it was just to test the tacit understanding of the team's cooperation. Forgot the difference in the English league.

English football, especially the Premier League, can be described in one word: fast. This is not just about the fast pace. In defense, English players are willing to use their bodies to collide, and they are also fierce and fast. They will not give the attacking side a chance to pass the ball and control the ball calmly. They often go to defend and grab the ball as soon as you get the ball.

Pires, Micoud, Deco, and Makelele have never played in England. Especially Pires, Micoud and Makelele are all from the French league, where many technically excellent players have emerged. But their game rhythm is very different from the English football game.

Pires, Micoud and Makelele, they are very uncomfortable with the English way of playing.

Especially Pires and Micoud, they both have a habit. Of course, this habit was developed in Ligue 1. After they get the ball, they will pause and look at the situation on the field. Anyway, their movements are very chic, but in such a fast-paced game in the Premier League, it is obvious that they are half a beat slower.

They just got the ball, and as soon as they paused, the opponent's players would press on. And they kicked very quickly, which was a rare situation they encountered in Ligue 1. They would lose the ball if they were just a little slower. This was definitely not because their skills were not good, but their skills were definitely top-notch in the Premier League.

As long as they were in high spirits, few people would be able to really grab their ball. They were just not used to the fast pace of the Premier League, which was too fast for them to adapt to, so they were intercepted by them.

For a while, Pires and Miku became the players who lost the most balls, even Klose, who was in the front, did not lose as many balls as them. Klose has been in England for three years and is not unfamiliar with English football. So after getting the ball, he would deal with it as soon as possible.

George was almost helpless off the court, because this situation could not be solved in a short time. They needed time to adapt to the English style of play, and also time to adjust their long-term playing style.

There are still Romedal, Gudjohnsen and Hargreaves on the bench now, and only Romedal can play on the wing. George does not plan to use Hargreaves in the midfield so soon.

What Miku and Pires need now is time. They need time to adapt to the Premier League. George must give them this time and cannot replace them just because they are not performing well now.

"Steady, steady. Don't be led by them, play your own way." George quickly pulled Sagnol on the sidelines. "Tell John and Robert not to worry. Just follow the usual training and play the way you should play."

George originally wanted to find Hendry, but unfortunately Hendry didn't know French. Pires and Miku's English is not good enough now, so George asked Sagnol to pass the message.

But the effect is still the same, and they finally got through the first half. During the halftime break, George has been encouraging the players, especially for Pires and Miku who often lose the ball, he didn't blame them too much.

But the effect was average. Less than 20 minutes into the second half, Makelele didn't handle the ball cleanly and was intercepted by Lampard. Then he passed it to Steve Lomas who came in from behind. Lomas entered the penalty area and shot low. Flowers was caught off guard and the ball rolled into the goal.

Upton Park suddenly erupted in thunderous cheers, and George could only sigh on the sidelines.

The most commendable thing about Makelele in the future is his position and his decisiveness. He rarely loses the ball in his position, and he is still not used to the rhythm of the Premier League.

Later, although George made personnel changes, he was still powerless to change. In the end, Blackburn lost 0-1 away.

"Congratulations, coach Redknapp." George rarely congratulated a winner so gracefully, especially when the loser was himself.

But George didn't blame anyone for this defeat. This is a process that a new team must go through.

"This is not like you." Redknapp laughed, but there was absolutely no pride after the victory in this smile. Although he was smiling, George did not feel that it was a humiliation.

"Then what do you think I should do?"

"You should turn around and leave with a gloomy face. Then you should not even attend the press conference."

"Haha, am I such a person?"

"Of course, go outside and ask a reporter. They will all say that to you."

George and Redknapp did not look like a pair of opponents who had just finished a game. Instead, they looked like old friends who had not seen each other for a long time.

However, Redknapp was right about one thing. When talking to Redknapp, George was very normal. He talked and laughed with Redknapp, and did not look unhappy at all. But after turning around, George was still very dissatisfied.

If a coach really doesn't care about losing a game, he is not a coach. George was very angry in his heart, but he would not show it. Because today's failure was just because the team was formed too quickly.

Therefore, in the subsequent press conference, just as Redknapp said, George said he was not feeling well and asked Evan Sawyer to go to the press conference instead of George.

Redknapp almost laughed when he heard Evan say George couldn't attend the press conference because he was not feeling well. When they just met, George was still full of energy, but suddenly he said he was not feeling well.

A reporter also asked this question, and Evan shrugged. "I'm not a doctor, you can go ask a doctor."

The reporters below were stunned. In fact, they had a lot of questions to ask George. And they wanted to teach George, who didn't give face to reporters, a lesson, but George didn't give them this opportunity.

The reporters below were secretly thinking about how to ridicule George, the arrogant young coach, in tomorrow's newspaper.

Redknapp didn't have much interest when he saw that George didn't come. After answering some questions casually, he left the press conference.