Coaching legend

"George, how many times have we come here?"

Just after getting off the plane, Carl smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"Yes, yes. Boss, how come we have such a good relationship with Rome." A head suddenly popped up between George and Carl. It turned out to be Saniol who followed George. Since Saniol came to Blackburn, except for the first season, he has met with the club of Rome every season.

All Blackburn players think that Blackburn has a good relationship with the club of Rome.

"It's okay. It's better than us playing against Milan and Juventus."

"Yes, Boss. There are always beautiful memories in Rome." Saniol also nodded. Indeed, every time Blackburn plays against the club of Rome away, whether it is Roma or Lazio, Blackburn has a very good experience.

George smiled when he heard Saniol's words.

Just after getting off the plane, there were already many media around.

Although Blackburn's performance this season is not very good, it is now ranked third in the Premier League. But Blackburn is the Champions League champion last season after all. There are also many media coming to support.

George remembered what Sagnol said, so he smiled at the media. "Roma, it gave me a good impression. I like the city of Rome."

…………

"Hello, this is the second round of the 2002-03 Champions League Group B. This is the Olympic Stadium in Rome. The two teams are Blackburn from the Premier League and Roma from Serie A. These two teams can be regarded as the most familiar opponents in the European arena in recent years. Almost every season, Blackburn will meet Roma."

"This season, both Blackburn and Roma have some problems with their results. Blackburn's performance fluctuated because of the departure of two midfielders, Deco and Makelele. Roma's performance this season is much worse. Now it ranks seventh in Serie A."

Martin Taylor briefly introduced the two teams.

Maybe the attention of Serie A in recent years has been decreasing. Or it may be because the performance of Serie A teams in Europe has been getting worse and worse in recent seasons. Anyway, every time George goes to the Olympic Stadium in Rome, he feels that the atmosphere here is getting worse and worse every year.

The atmosphere at the Serie A site is really bad.

George has led Blackburn to many stadiums in the past few seasons.

Including those Eastern European clubs, as well as La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. But in terms of attendance, they are all more popular than Serie A. Even when George led Burnley to play in the English League One, the atmosphere was much better than the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

Looking at the number of fans on the scene that continues to decline year by year, George shook his head.

The enthusiasm of the fans continues to decline, and it is really unreasonable that Serie A does not decline.

After three months, Blackburn's tactics are becoming more and more mature.

George still arranged a double defensive midfielder formation, with Alonso and Hargreaves as partners in the middle. This season George discovered that Hargreaves is definitely a world-class defensive midfielder. It can even be said that Hargreaves is a defensive midfielder who is not inferior to a butcher like Gattuso.

Hargreaves looks average, but he is absolutely strong when defending.

He kicks quickly, defends fiercely, is not slow, and has a large defensive area. Sweeping the midfield, George thinks he is no worse than Mascherano later.

The front court is a combination of Pires, Kaka and Duff. Klose is the only striker.

George likes Kaka very much.

Not only because of Kaka's talent, but also because of Kaka's attitude towards his profession. Of course, Kaka can also easily integrate into the team and learn English quickly. After joining Blackburn for half a year, he can easily communicate with the players.

By this season, English is no longer a problem for Kaka.

Even better than Miku, who has been at Blackburn for four seasons. Although Miku also studied English hard, his language talent is really too poor. Fortunately, although he didn't speak fluently, he had no problem with general communication and listening.

At the beginning of the game, the Roma players could clearly feel the difference between Blackburn and the past.

In the past, Blackburn's midfield control was unprecedentedly strong. Even at Roma's home court. But today's Blackburn automatically retreated and gave the midline to Roma.

Roma is a very special team in Serie A.

It is also a very special team among the teams coached by Capello. Capello is a famous utilitarian football boss in Europe, so much so that Mourinho later publicly declared himself a believer of Capello. But Roma, coached by Capello, played a different kind of football.

At this time, Roma still played very beautifully.

The offense was also very good.

So after the game started, Roma relied on being at home and launched an attack.

But unlike other players, Emerson kept looking at Kaka. Emerson has a deep memory of this junior of his. In the Champions League group stage last season, Kaka became famous with one goal. At that time, Emerson was easily passed by Kaka, so Emerson always felt ashamed of the game at that time.

He actually let Kaka, a junior who didn't even get into the national team, play tricks. Shame.

Therefore, after the game started, unlike other Roma players, Emerson looked at Kaka firmly, wanting to avenge his previous shame.

Three minutes into the game, Roma returned without success.

Five minutes into the game, Roma still hadn't been able to create any good opportunities.

Cassano, who performed very well when they met last season, was also very depressed in this game. Because Hargreaves always follows Cassano. Hargreaves is a player who has frozen Owen in the Premier League. In this game, George let him show his ability of plaster.

Roma's attack was unsuccessful again and again.

Their attack was unsuccessful, and Blackburn's counterattack began.

Blackburn's counterattacks all passed through Alonso. Capello emphasized Alonso, so when Alonso got the ball, Tomasi had already come to defend. But Alonso, who has been trained in the Premier League, reacted much faster than Tomasi. He passed it directly to the left side of Pires.

After Pires got the ball, he flicked his right foot lightly and shook a small gap from Cafu. Then he passed the ball to the middle.

When Alonso passed the ball, Blackburn's frontcourt players were already prepared. Therefore, when Pires passed the ball, Kaka started to move and went to get the ball.

Emerson saw Kaka start and immediately came up to him.

Emerson's idea was very simple. He must not let Kaka pass this time. It had happened once, and there must not be a second time.

Kaka saw Emerson coming, turned sideways to Emerson, and pushed the ball over with his right foot. Then he turned quickly and ran past Emerson.

"Kaka... the ball-pass, it was wonderful. This was not a ball-pass during high-speed running, but a sideways breakthrough."

Martin Taylor was a little surprised.

Kaka has been able to play frequently in Blackburn. Therefore, these commentators also know a lot about his characteristics. But such a wonderful passing on the spot is rare. So Martin Taylor was surprised.

In fact, this ball was entirely Emerson's fault.

Emerson is very strong. There should not be such a mistake. It is mainly because Emerson always thinks that the game last season was a shame and wants to make a comeback.

Facing a player like Kaka, Emerson should have two ways. Either they should keep a certain distance, which is conducive to defending Kaka from making further moves, or they should block Kaka's passing route.

Another way is to get completely close to Kaka and use their body to hold Kaka back, so that Kaka can't make the next move.

But Emerson neither defended at a certain distance nor got completely close to Kaka. Instead, he was very close to Kaka and rushed too hard. Kaka turned around and completely left him behind.

When Emerson was left behind, the entire Roma defender was in front of Kaka.

And Pires, Duff, and Klose shot at the same time, pulling the entire Roma defender away. Kaka had a smooth road ahead.

Kaka's dribbling is very characteristic, with high step frequency and large stride. Moreover, Kaka has a strong ability to grasp the ball and has a good touch of the ball, because Kaka's dribbling method is very easy to make the ball wide, but Kaka does not, because Kaka has a good grasp of the power and direction of each touch of the ball.

Therefore, although Kaka's absolute speed is not among the top few in European football. But Kaka's speed of running with the ball is not the fastest in the world football, but he is also one of the top three players.

Therefore, after Kaka started running, other Roma players could not keep up with him at all.

"... Kaka... This is Blackburn's counterattack... This is a four-on-four situation... What will Kaka choose?"

Yes, it is a four-on-four situation.

Pires on the left side restrained Cafu, Duff on the right side restrained Candela, and Klose restrained Samuel behind. Therefore, in order to defend Kaka's advance, Panucci stepped forward to prepare for a steal.

Seeing Panucci coming out, Kaka changed his line and prepared to break through Panucci.

"... Panucci... Kaka, break through on the right... No, pass the ball!"

Kaka did not slow down and made a breakthrough on the right. But suddenly, he made a straight pass with his right foot and passed it past Panucci. The moment Kaka passed the ball, Klose, who was still entangled with Samuel, appeared in Kaka's passing route like a ghost.

Kaka's pass and Klose's running were completely seamless. The two had a strong tacit understanding and completed this wonderful cooperation.

"... Klose, shoot!"

Klose's ball at this angle is fatal to any opponent. The moment Klose got the ball, he shot directly with his right foot.

"GOOOOOOAL!!!!" Martin Taylor shouted. "Wonderful, this ball is really wonderful. From Alonso's pass, it only took eleven seconds for Blackburn to score."

"Kaka, the skills and speed he showed in the counterattack are completely the style of a superstar. Kaka, in one year, has become the prince of Blackburn."

Today is the college entrance examination. I wish all the students taking the exam can achieve their wishes.