In the crowded Bernabeu Stadium, Barcelona took the lead and within 30 seconds, Zidane, Carlo and Hierro all realized something was wrong.
The starting lineup is nothing special.
Goalkeeper: Valdes.
Defence: Alba, Puyol, Pique and Alves.
Midfield: Busquets is deep, Iniesta and Xavi are in the middle.
Forwards: Neymar, Aguero and Messi.
The only surprising thing is that Messi returns to play as a right winger, which is rare in recent years.
Since being coached by Guardiola and serving as the team's pseudo-forward, Messi has rarely returned to the right wing, but this time he was actually assigned to the right wing position by Martino, which is indeed a bit surprising.
But it's nothing.
As early as before the game, when they got the Barcelona squad and saw Aguero starting, Gao Shen and the coaching staff were guessing how Aguero and Messi would arrange their positions.
So what if Messi plays on the right?
A player's position on the field changes at any time and at any time.
The key is what Martino wants to do.
The reason why Zidane and others felt something was wrong was because of a long pass from Pique.
After the kick-off, Real Madrid did not take the initiative to attack, but adhered to the same tactics as in the past. Benzema retreated to pinch Busquets, and the entire team focused its forces on its own 30-meter area to the midline.
The two central defenders, Pique and Puyol, were basically released.
The central defender has many opportunities to get the ball, but he does not dare to push past the center line easily.
Obviously, Barcelona suffered a lot in the four games last season, and they all know what kind of strangulation situation they will face once they cross the halfway line.
After 20 or 30 seconds of back and forth, Pique made a long pass, trying to find Aguero in front.
The Argentine forward also used his body to block Pepe, desperately trying to stop the ball, but Pepe was not a fuel-efficient light, so Aguero had to move his position, and in the end he failed to hit the ball.
But Pepe was well prepared and passed the ball back to goalkeeper Casillas.
This defense earned Pepe a round of applause from the Bernabeu fans.
On the sidelines, Gao Shen and the coaching staff realized something was wrong.
…
From Guardiola to Vilanova, Barcelona actually dislikes long passes and even hates them.
This comes from a gene deep in their bones, they are risk-averse.
But things in the world often have two sides.
The blind passing of short passes and the blind emphasis on player coordination have resulted in the team's offensive rhythm becoming very single. Many times, the team can only rely on the individual abilities of the players to change the rhythm.
But when these routines are figured out by the opponent, the effect they can exert becomes smaller and smaller.
Therefore, this has led to an embarrassing situation in the past. Everyone has discovered that Barcelona is good at controlling the ball, but it just keeps controlling the ball. Especially when facing teams with excellent defensive capabilities, Barcelona even has the desire to control the ball.
And the feeling of controlling the ball.
Why?
Because they can't pass it in!
When the pass fails, or the risk of losing the ball is very high, Barcelona's choice is to fall again and pull again.
This situation is particularly obvious when players' physical fitness declines and they cannot run.
When other teams face Barcelona's passing and controlling style of play, their favorite thing to do is to shrink back and engage in defensive counterattacks.
As Gao Shen has always emphasized, Barcelona's defense is really poor.
The opponent either doesn't have the strength to counterattack. Once the opponent has the strength to withstand Barcelona's pressure and then counterattacks, Barcelona will be very dangerous, and they may even hit each one accurately.
Barcelona's defense is basically like this, with just these few people. Martino probably doesn't have any good methods, and it doesn't fit with Barcelona's tradition and genes.
So Martino wanted to start with rhythm.
If you want to change the past style of play that was easy for opponents to figure out the rhythm, then you must try to add more changes.
For example, more mid- to long-distance passing.
In Gao Shen's previous life, Martino did just that.
"I still remember, when Martino first took over Barcelona, I said that if he wanted to bring about any change, it must be to change Barcelona's passing and possession system."
When Gao Shen said this, he seemed particularly confident.
Zidane, Hierro and others also nodded.
This is what Gao Shen said when Martino took office.
But Gao Shen also said at the time that this would bring about some new problems.
The first is that medium and long-distance passing will cause Barcelona's passing success rate to decline. In a strong dialogue, especially when encountering some teams with weak ball control capabilities, Barcelona's ball possession rate will decline, and it may not even have a clear advantage.
.
Once the ball possession rate drops, Barcelona's defensive problems will be exposed.
Another point is that the effect of Barcelona's mid-to-long-distance passing may not be good.
why?
Because of the player's body.
Barcelona players are generally not tall and their strength is not strong. This means that they can play small and quick coordination in the frontcourt, but they cannot stably receive mid-to-long-distance passes, especially long passes and high balls.
Just now, Pique made a long pass to find Aguero, and the Argentine forward was directly pushed out of position by Pepe. This is the best proof.
Pepe didn't even need to take off, he let the ball fall directly behind him, then turned around and passed it back to the goalkeeper.
"Barcelona is really conflicted now."
The game is still going on, but Gao Shen is observing and chatting with Zidane and others, looking very relaxed.
"Their core combat effectiveness is this passing and controlling system, but they are constrained by this passing and controlling system. If they want to break free and break through, they must break this passing and controlling system. Once it is broken,
The passing and controlling system will affect Barcelona's core combat effectiveness..."
Gao Shen is actually not unfamiliar with this situation at all.
This is the difficult choice that many large companies face when transforming their businesses.
If you want to survive, you must change, but seeking change will affect your survival.
That’s why it appears that the bigger the company is and the stronger its core business is, the more difficult it will be to transform.
There are very few people who can truly make a big breakthrough and achieve success.
Most of them still die slowly, or fall into a pit and die during the brave transformation and change.
In fact, even when it was time for Gao Shen to travel through his past life, Barcelona could not come out.
That’s why there’s a very interesting aspect: Barcelona plays well in the league, but is frequently bombed in the Champions League.
Looking back at Real Madrid at that time, they were doing well in the Champions League, but they were still unable to win the league.
In the final analysis, the two tracks are still different.
But the current Real Madrid is no longer the Real Madrid of the previous life.
When Gao Shen came, everything was different.
…
As the game began, Gao Shen figured out Martino's tactics and he immediately made adjustments.
Gao Shen noticed that Barcelona's two midfielders, Xavi and Iniesta, played different roles in the game, so he also made adjustments and asked Modric to push Iniesta out to maintain the confrontation.
Iniesta's high defense.
He even took advantage of the dead ball opportunity to call Modric to the sidelines and asked him to keep an eye on Iniesta.
"My request is very simple. Every time he gets the ball, you must block him in front of me. Don't let him go forward and force him to retreat to his own half."
Modric understands the coach's request.
Not only that, Gao Shen also asked Benzema and Di Maria to cooperate with Modric to attack Iniesta from behind and from the side if they had the chance. The purpose was to prevent the Barcelona midfielder from taking the ball calmly.
Once Iniesta retreats, it will be difficult for Barcelona's frontcourt to complete an effective series.
In addition, Real Madrid has four players in the backcourt, which can effectively separate Neymar, Aguero and Messi, allowing them to fight alone.
Once a player falls into individual combat, no matter how strong his ability is, his ability will be greatly reduced.
If Modric's task is to press forward, then Toni Kroos's task is to drop back, take on the task of receiving and delivering the ball, and is also responsible for helping to defend Xavi Alonso.
The German midfielder has a very big advantage, that is, his passing ability is very stable and he basically never loses the ball.
After Gao Shen's adjustment, he will be used as the axis to run the entire midfield.
Except for suppressing Iniesta, Modric is like a free man at other times, moving around at will.
The biggest difference between Real Madrid and Barcelona is that Real Madrid players have better physical confrontation and are faster.
At the same time, Real Madrid's counterattack also became sharper.
…
When the game reached the 16th minute, Barcelona once again passed the halfway line.
The defense once again pressed to the outside of Real Madrid's 30-meter area, but Real Madrid's retreat strategy made it impossible for Barcelona to pass the ball.
After playing back and forth with Puyol twice in the backcourt, Pique spotted the right opportunity and directly passed the ball to Messi on the outside of the penalty area.
Basically no one in Barcelona's frontcourt can hold the ball, and in the end it has to rely on Messi.
But it didn't work for Messi this time.
Pique's kick was given very quickly and with great force. Under the pressing pressure of Ramos behind him, Messi found it difficult to stop the ball and stopped it directly high. Then Toni Kroos and the defender returned.
Di Maria and Di Maria attacked from both sides.
Three people double-teamed and successfully grabbed the ball.
After Di Maria stopped the ball and passed it to Toni Kroos, he turned around and rushed to the left sideline, sprinting forward as quickly as possible.
Barcelona organized a counterattack on the spot, but Toni Kroos leaned on Messi with his body and passed the ball to Benzema in front. He also ran forward to get into space and pointed out the direction to Benzema.
Benzema understood the situation well, and after retreating to block Pique, he headed the ball towards the space pointed out by Toni Kroos.
The German midfielder rushed over, stopped Benzema's pass, and then shot a long pass.
At this moment, Di Maria on the left was completely soaring, very fast.
The entire Bernabeu Stadium was on fire in an instant!
It was also at this moment that Barcelona coach Martino shouted in front of the visiting team's coaching bench, "Why is he on the left?"
God, where is Cristiano Ronaldo?
Before the last sentence was shouted out, everyone had already seen it.
Benzema retreated and Ronaldo stepped forward.
Di Maria quickly advanced along the left wing, caught up with Toni Kroos' long pass, and strode into the left side of the penalty area with the ball, forming a beautiful two-on-two with Ronaldo.
Puyol pulled out and Busquets followed Ronaldo, but how could he be as fast as Ronaldo?
Di Maria made a low pass. Cristiano Ronaldo stepped in from the right side of the penalty spot, caught up with Di Maria's cross at the edge of the small penalty area, and directly pushed the ball into Barcelona.
on the right side of the goal.
From intercepting the ball to counterattacking and scoring, it only took 10 seconds!
