When it comes to pressing and oppressing at high positions, the first thing many people think of is Guardiola and his Dream Team 3.

But in fact, Benitez is also a master-level head coach in this area.

How long can be traced back to the specific time? This requires someone to study, but in Yang Yang's impression, from Benitez to Guardiola to Klopp, and then to Simeone, these head coaches can be said to be believers of high-level pressing and oppression.

Benitez's Liverpool and Real Madrid, Guardiola's Barcelona, ​​Bayern and Manchester City, Klopp's Dortmund and Liverpool, and Simeone's Atletico Madrid, these teams seem to play completely different styles, and their ideas for achieving high-pressure and oppression are also different, but in fact they have the same end.

They only have one purpose of using high-level pressing and oppressing, that is, to use an overall meticulous formation to oppress the opponent, and quickly launch a counterattack after grabbing the ball as close as possible in the shortest time.

Benitez believed in double midfielders during his time at Liverpool and Real Madrid. Xavi Alonso and Mascherano were the key to his high-pressing and oppression. However, in the next few years, Real Madrid gradually gave up their double midfielder style. The reason is very simple, and football skills and tactics are changing.

Benitez most often uses four, two, three, but in fact, under the opponent's targeted tactics, it often evolves into four, two, four, that is, three and one in the front, which is out of touch with the four in the defense line, because the double midfielder cannot fully control the midfield.

At this time, Guardiola adopted a 433 formation, with the midfield in an inverted triangle, which means Busquets dragged behind.

There is a very obvious change that among Benitez's double midfielder, Xavi Alonso and Mascherano are basically protecting the defense line and playing the role of the team's passing transition, so it is easy to cause tearing. However, Guardiola's Barcelona's high-level pressing and pressure are even pressing the back midfielder and even the entire defense line directly.

The benefits of doing this are obvious. They can maximize the threat of high-pressure and pressure, and grab the ball as soon as possible, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, once the opponent can pass the ball behind the defense line, there will be a large gap.

Klopp and Simeone do not have a particularly fixed formation. They have played 433, 442, and sometimes they even play double midfielders. They often use the players' active running to achieve oppression on their opponents.

Moreover, during the period in Dortmund, Klopp's men, whether they were Lewandowski, Gotze and Reus, had strong propulsion capabilities and excellent tactical execution, allowing them to quickly instigate a counterattack after grabbing the ball.

But there are gains and losses. Klopp's playing style is too demanding on physical fitness, which leads to the fact that his team is running short every sixty minutes later, which makes him seem a bit out of the way.

Even in the late stages of coaching Dortmund, when the team couldn't run, his performance plummeted.

Guardiola also snatched hard, ran a lot, and consumed a lot of physical fitness, but his team often had strong ball control ability, so after grabbing the ball, they often slowed down the pace as soon as possible, pulled the opponent by controlling the ball, and also gave their players a breathing time.

But even so, when Xavi and Iniesta grow old, Barcelona's midfielder still can't stand it.

Atletico Madrid's high-pressing and oppression are not as radical as Guardiola and Klopp. Simeone was born in the Serie A league and pressed and oppressed at high-pressing and oppression by organizing strict tactics and overall formations. Their creed is to give priority to maintaining the overall formation compactness and meticulousness at all times.

Many times, Atletico Madrid is not snatching the ball, but oppressing the opponent, or forcing the ball-holder to go to the direction of the trap he has set, basically on the wing.

The advantage of this is that although Atletico Madrid is also pressing and oppressing at a high position, their physical energy consumption is actually much smaller than that of Klopp. This is very similar to the team coached by Benitez, and it is related to their strong Serie A characteristics.

...

Yang Yang has always been an open, tolerant, but at the same time very steady person. He did not specifically say who to learn, but was looking for which one is more suitable for Ajax?

But one thing he saw very clearly is that it is the trend of midfield players.

When Benitez coached Liverpool and Real Madrid, players like Mascherano were still very good at playing. He made very little offensive contributions, but his defensive ability was superb. He was a pure defensive player, that is, a ball grab machine.

At that time, Liverpool also had beastly waist characters like Mohamed Sissoko.

But gradually, in recent years, the trend in European football has changed.

An obvious phenomenon is that simple defensive players no longer exist.

The midfielder's ball grab machine is no longer popular. In Real Madrid, Casemiro debuted as a central defender, with a strong ability to pass and insert the ball. Even Kante, who was a ball grab machine in the Premier League, was asked to participate more in the team's passing and organization after coming to Real Madrid.

Players like Modric and Tony Cross, who are both offensive and defensive, have begun to become mainstream. Even geniuses like Isco must put down their figure, strengthen their defense and stealing abilities, and actively run to cover them.

This situation happened very early, such as Deco of Barcelona Dream 2, Xavi and Iniesta of the cornerstones of Dream 3. These three players are not purely technical players at all, because they have a lot of defensive tasks.

Later, Dortmund had a midfielder with both offense and defense, such as Gundogan and Shahin, and the defense line also had a central defender like Hummels, which made Atletico Madrid even more outrageous.

Simeone's team is centers like Diego Costa on the forward line. Even Griezmann is required to actively participate in pressing and oppressing, and the midfielder is a player with both offense and defense, Tulan, Coke, Saul, Gabi...

Many people think that this is an engineer-type player, which is not difficult to understand, because the skills of these players are indeed incomparable to Xavi, Iniesta, Modric and others, but it is unfair to say that they are engineers. Because their technical abilities are not bad, Atletico Madrid can also play smoothly in passing and cutting, but they are not willing to.

The advantage of building such comprehensive players in the middle and frontcourt is that when implementing high-level pressing and oppression, no matter where the ball is, there are Atletico Madrid players around them actively investing in high-quality pressing and oppression as soon as possible, and the players' execution ability is very high, which ensures the overall competitiveness of the team.

Of course, this also sacrifices the organization and creativity of the midfield to some extent.

There are gains and losses, and the head coach must make choices.

But one thing is definitely correct, that is, the development trend of football skills and tactics in recent years, the requirements for players' comprehensiveness are getting higher and higher, and it is difficult for students to get involved in the current football world.

This returns to the issue of overall competitiveness of the team.

According to the bucket theory, the shortest wooden board determines how much water a bucket can hold.

This is the case for the team as a whole, and the players who make up the team as a whole are the same individually.

…………

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Yang Yang's first game after coaching Ajax was a warm-up match, and his opponent was a professional team in Switzerland.

Ajax played not ideally, and the team lost away, one to two.

But Yang Yang didn't care at all and still focused on encouragement and affirmation.

The day after the game, Yang Yang called Frankie DeJong and Van DeBak to his office during the training. With the help of laptop videos, picture albums and hand-drawn pictures, he explained his tactical ideas to Frankie DeJong. One of the important points is his understanding and requirements for the team's high-level pressing and oppression.

As the team's midfielder, the two of them are the key to Yang Yang's hope that the team will control the midfield.

In the past, Ajax emphasized high centers, but now the team needs to emphasize midfield and control the midfield.

Whether it is Frankie DeJong or Van DeBak, it is the first time that they have heard such a clear analysis of the current and future football technology and tactics. They are also a little at a loss, not knowing whether they can fulfill Yang Yang's requirements.

"In the future, no matter what opponent we encounter, whether it is strong or weak, it is best to get the ball control. Whether it is a defensive counterattack tactic, the most important thing is to control the midfield. Those who win the midfield will win the world. This sentence is not fake."

Afterwards, Yang Yang presented many more examples and further explained his ideas to the two players.

For example, for Van der Beck, Yang Yang believes that he needs to master the scale of forward insertion, when to forward insertion, where to go, and when to come back, this requires him to have a clear judgment on the situation on the field.

In Ajax's 433 formation, Jovic is at the forefront and often pulls the edges. Van der Beck's back insertion is crucial. It creates a threat on the offensive end and blocks and delays the opponent when pressing and pressing at high positions are all his tasks.

Frankie DeJong is a defender and Yang Yang also gave him a heavy task.

"Ndongbele's physical advantage is very obvious, with active running, good strength and defense. He has a live foot and strong ability to drive the ball, so I need you to do a good job and make up for him at any time. When he goes up, you come back and you start playing a role like Barcelona Busquets, who is a drag-back organizer, and protects two central defenders at the same time."

Frankie De Jong nodded uncontrollably, Yang Yang's tactical positioning of him was completely different from before.

"We have three ways through the midfield, two wings and the middle wings. In this way, as long as we transfer in time, the opponent will not be able to stop us at all. As long as the ball reaches the frontcourt, we must suppress the opponent on the one hand, and at the same time transfer the ball at the right time, and then pull the opponent's defense."

"Jovic, Neres, Sancho, and Odgao can all hold the ball, either cut in the two sides, or Jovic's pull-out and insert the ribs in the back, or Van der Beck's back row, we all have rich enough offensive methods."

"As long as our cooperation can play smoothly, I believe we are not afraid of any opponent!" Yang Yang said confidently.

Van der Beck and De Jong looked at each other and nodded in the same way.
Chapter completed!