Gao Shen still underestimated the thickness of the politicians' skin.
When meeting Juan Carlos I, the Spanish king shook hands with Gao Shen with a smile and expressed his full expectations for Real Madrid under Gao Shen's coaching. He even said without blushing: "
I like your stubbornness!"
There were many people in the box, including Florentino and Butragueno, and they all looked at all this with a smile.
Gao Shen really wanted to say: In that case, let's talk about the handover of the throne!
But in the end, he still resisted the urge because he didn't know what the consequences would be if he offended the King of Spain.
Why bother?
Juan Carlos I is truly the number one pseudo-fan of Real Madrid. He has been watching football for decades and still doesn’t know much about football. He only knows that Real Madrid has played well in the last few games. He encourages Gao Shen to continue to do so.
This set of tactics defeated Barcelona in the Champions League final.
Gao Shen agreed perfunctorily with a smile on his face, but secretly cursed: Damn, those are Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Messi. Where were the cabbage in the palace garden at that time?
But overall, this meeting was quite pleasant.
…
"The king has an exclusive box here all year round. Originally, he was not eating here tonight."
After leaving the king's box, Florentino took Gao Shen and Butragueno back to his own box, explaining to Gao Shen the reason for Juan Carlos' arrival along the way.
"But when he heard that I had invited you to dinner, he came suddenly and said he wanted to meet you. I had no choice but to arrange it."
Gao Shen didn't think there was any problem.
It's somewhat of an honor, after all, he is also the king of Spain.
But such a meeting is actually not much fun. If possible, he would prefer to meet in private, such as talking about his fifteen hundred mistresses, or that he does not have a beautiful granddaughter.
"Tonight, in addition to the three of us, I also specially invited Valdano and Sacchi. Both of them are very experienced head coaches and have always wanted to find an opportunity to meet you." Flo.
Lentino laughed.
When Gao Shen heard it, he became interested.
These two are both seniors in football.
Jorge Valdano, Maradona's teammate, was the hero of Argentina's World Cup victory, and is also recognized as the world's king of football aesthetics. His column has also been sought after by countless media and fans, and is very thoughtful.
If Barcelona's columnist is Cruyff, then Real Madrid's is Valdano.
Of course, unlike Cruyff who was mainly critical, Valdano was more of a tactful admonition, which was also a key factor in his ability to become Florentino's right-hand man.
As for Sacchi, there is no need to talk more. This name's status in football is absolutely supreme.
Gao Shen himself has read many of Saki's books and even learned his shadow training methods. Now that he can see him in person, he is naturally eager to get started.
As soon as he entered the box, Gao Shen saw two middle-aged men in suits and leather shoes. They both had very conspicuous signs.
Sacchi had a bald head and was wearing a black suit and a white shirt, while Valdano had slightly curly slicked-back hair and was wearing a dark blue suit with a light blue shirt underneath.
When Gao Shen and others pushed the door open, they didn't know what they were discussing. The conversation stopped abruptly the moment they opened the door.
"Hey, Gao!"
When Saki saw Gao Shen and the others, he immediately laughed and stood up to say hello.
In comparison, Valdano seems more tactful.
This can also show the different personalities of the two seniors.
Florentino politely introduced Gao Shen to two football seniors and his personal assistant Manuel Redondo. The latter asked Gao Shen to pay more attention, but soon confirmed that he and Gao Shen
Real Madrid stars have nothing to do with it.
Gao Shen had always been curious as to why Florentino invited him to dinner, but until the host and guest sat down, he still had no answer. Florentino had no intention of dominating the scene, and instead let the topic fall naturally.
Come to Real Madrid.
Real Madrid has been very topical in recent times, especially Gao Shen.
But the issue that famous coaches are most concerned about is not the technical and tactical aspects of the team, but Gao Shen's management and motivation of the locker room.
They all believe that this is what Gao Shen has done best so far, even impeccably.
In the past two months of coaching Real Madrid, Gao Shen has actually made a lot of mistakes. Some were forced by opponents, and some were inadvertent. As the saying goes, the authorities are obsessed with it, and bystanders know it. Sacchi, Valdano and Butragueno were all beside him.
See more clearly.
If you look at it purely from a coaching perspective, Gao Shen is actually still very immature.
In front of the two masters, Gao Shen actually rarely had the opportunity to imitate each other. He listened more and occasionally answered their questions. For example, he made no secret of the fact that he was deeply influenced by Sacchi, including using shadow training methods in training.
.
Sacchi gave a lot of tips and opinions, such as some of his unique training methods.
"Actually, your experience coaching Real Madrid is very similar to mine."
Saki is like a natural speaker, he can talk about anything, and he is very interested in the profound.
Perhaps because of what he said, both of them had a very similar experience.
In Italian football, Sacchi has a nickname, called country bumpkin.
As the name suggests, he came from a rural town and had three ideals since childhood: director, screenwriter and football coach.
Fortunately, he did not become a director or screenwriter, but became a head coach.
He actually had no football talent. He worked as a salesperson in his father's shoe factory as an adult, which honed his eloquence. There was a team called Luco in his hometown. With his strength at the time, he was simply not good enough to join this team.
team, but he became the head coach of this "strong team" by chance.
He was twenty-six years old at the time.
The players in the team are generally older than him, for example, the goalkeeper is 29 years old and the forward is 32 years old.
But unlike Gao Shen who shined in his first coaching appearance, Sacchi's debut was not ideal and showed no talent at all.
"I was fascinated by the Netherlands' Total Attack and Total Defense, and I also liked the football of Real Madrid and Brazil. I liked to study and think. I wanted to understand how their players played on the court and how the entire team played.
In operation, this is a dynamic system that is worth studying."
Many people now say that Sacchi's ideas back then were very advanced, but he believes that there were already a lot of discussions in this regard in Italy at that time.
In the 1960s, AC Milan, coached by Swede Liedholm, achieved impressive results in European football, which in turn led to changes in the entire Italian football tactics and made free men the standard configuration.
By the 1980s, almost all of Serie A was playing free agency.
Juventus lost to Hamburg in the Champions League final, which triggered a reflection on the free agent tactics in Italian football at that time. Although the Old Lady soon won the championship at Heysel, it was ultimately difficult to resist this wave.
Liedholm, who promoted the libero tactic in Serie A, was the first to make changes. He began to adopt a hybrid zone defense in Roma, but Sacchi at the time believed that this was not a good approach.
Liedholm's Roma seems to be defending in a zone, but the players are actually marking in their own defensive zone.
Sacchi believes this is because Liedholm is unwilling to completely abandon free-players and man-marking.
Therefore, after he took over the coaching position of AC Milan from Lidholm, he completely set off a revolution. This was the era of the Milan Dynasty that many people later talked about.
"Child, you have to know that no matter how big it is, it can be a country, a team, or a person. In fact, it all has its own unique character. We in Italy have a defeatist complex. We are used to being weak. For example, Brera said
, because of our eating habits, our health is worse than others, so we can only adopt defensive tactics."
"But when I was young, I traveled to many countries with my father. I don't agree with this view. We even do better than other countries in other sports fields. Why do we say that our bodies are not as good as others?"
"The real problem lies here." Saki pointed to his temple, indicating that he had a mental problem.
"Laziness in character and a conservative mentality constrain us and make us unwilling to change ourselves."
Sacchi's words were certainly talking about the football atmosphere in Italy at the time, but they were also talking about the current Real Madrid. Gao Shen even thought of the football in his home country.
"In my football philosophy, greatness is something beyond trophies and medals."
"Back then, Van Basten once asked me a very interesting question: Why do we not only want to win, but also win convincingly? I couldn't give a convincing answer at the time, but now, I can."
"French Football Magazine once selected the ten greatest teams in football history. World Football also made similar selections, and my AC Milan ranked fourth. The first three teams were Hungary in 1954,
Brazil in 1970 and Netherlands in 1974 were both national teams."
"That's my answer to Van Basten, that's why!"
This was the first time that Gao Shen heard what his seniors had to say at such a close distance. Although he could see some things from the tactical library, it was far less shocking than hearing the accounts of the parties involved on the spot.
What's more, Saki himself is a very good speaker.
"I have concluded that all these great teams have a common characteristic. They control the ball, control the field, control the rhythm, and can even control the opponent."
"In other words, when attacking, they can control the ball, and when defending, they can control the space."
When Gao Shen heard this, he couldn't help being shocked.
Saki's words undoubtedly speak the truth.
This was the case with his Milan dynasty, and the same was true later with Guardiola's Barcelona Dream Team.
These teams are all great, and they all have this in common.
And this should be the goal that all ideal head coaches pursue together. Although there are very few teams that can achieve it throughout the ages, it does not prevent everyone from working hard towards this goal.
