"If Barcelona is so good tonight, we might even get double digits from them."
On the evening of February 16, at Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium, Gao Shen stood in the stand area of one of the boxes, holding on to the guardrail and watching the game in the stadium. He said calmly and confidently.
At this time, this battle that attracted worldwide attention had just begun.
The international referee Bjorn Capers from the Netherlands has just blown the whistle.
The reason why Gao Shen dared to say something so confident at the beginning, and even if it was spread out that would shock countless people, was definitely not because Leeds United beat Barcelona 9-0 in this stadium last season, and this season they want to go further.
.
There is no such thing on the football field, and football scores are never a matter of calculation.
The key is that Barcelona did not show that aggressive momentum from the beginning tonight.
What does it mean?
When Haaland kicked the ball to Declan Rice, who stopped the ball and passed it sideways back to Militao, it was obvious that the Barcelona players were moving forward slowly.
Gao Shen noticed something, even Militao seemed a little surprised. When he got the ball, he even stopped for a second or two.
At this time, Messi, who was at the forefront of Barcelona, had just left the center circle and was forced to reach Declan Rice.
The entire back line did not receive any pressing pressure from Barcelona.
This is very outrageous.
Let alone a team like Barcelona, no team would adopt this style of play even in the current Premier League.
Not to mention the slow pace, and the game was played with no pressure at all. 慅
Therefore, after Militao stopped the ball, he even stopped and waited for Messi to slowly run over, and then he kicked Ruben Dias.
What's interesting is that after Messi was halfway through the ball, he immediately changed direction and ran towards Ruben Dias.
At this time, Gao Shen stood in the stands and could clearly see that Barcelona deployed its defense in a 4141 formation.
That is to say, the back four of Gabusquets, Griezmann and Felipe Anderson retreated to form a midfield four with Pjanic and Frenkie de Jong. The front allowed Messi to completely let himself go and fly freely.
But this is a very strange formation.
Because in this way, Barcelona simply cannot exert enough pressure on Leeds United's midfield and backfield.
Everyone knows that Messi is 33 years old. He is required to attack, organize and connect, and press and press.
Is this realistic?
"I guess Ronald Koeman's tactics are more defensive-oriented, stabilizing the defense in the midfield and backcourt, and letting Messi perform on his own in the front." Wenger guessed.
Ferguson shook his head and said: "Then this is slow suicide."
Who says it’s not?
If it's really that high, wouldn't it be like playing a defensive counterattack?
And he also gave up possession of the ball.
"Barcelona's current problem is obvious. The midfielder lacks interception ability and the players also lack running ability. This is very troublesome. If all your players don't run, they won't be able to form a whole."
Wenger shook his head and said he couldn't understand, "What Barcelona used to do best was to form a numerical advantage in a small local area through the movement of players, and then use their exquisite small-scale cooperation to penetrate the opponent's defense.
"
Faced with Barcelona's tactical play, the team at that time could only rely on defense, and they defended to the death.
But now, Barcelona has voluntarily given up possession of the ball. Isn't this nonsense?
"Ronald Koeman is now a bit suspected of going from one extreme to the other." Ferguson sighed.
Gao Shen laughed happily when he heard this, "Are you a little regretful that you left early?"
Ferguson and Wenger, as well as Carlo and others around them, all laughed.
Everyone knows that Ferguson was ravaged by Barcelona back then. Sorry
"Koeman probably has no choice. The midfielder has no way to intercept, and they have to be careful of our trident." Gao Shen confidently pointed to the court and said, "Especially Haaland, I think, Koeman vs. Langer
Rai and Pique were not confident enough to defend Haaland."
Two against one, Haaland still has the advantage.
This is still the knockout stage of the Champions League.
"This is the biggest difference between Leeds United's tactics and Barcelona's now," Wenger analyzed.
"Barcelona is playing very scatteredly now. They don't form a joint force and form a whole like they did in the past. On the contrary, Leeds United are playing hard. Now the whole team is pushing forward, making the trident in the frontcourt look like an arrow. Haha.
Rand is at the top, and everyone is united as a whole to push forward."
"To be honest, I'm not optimistic about Barcelona either."
When Wenger said this, he paused briefly and immediately added, "Even if there are more tests in the first half, as time goes by, Barcelona's disadvantages and passivity will become more obvious, especially the gap in physical fitness.
"憅
Who would have thought that Barcelona's biggest surprise in this game was their conservatism.
How conservative is it?
Leeds United themselves were shocked and were a little unsure whether they should press forward or not.
It's a bit of an empty city strategy, you know?
Everyone expected that this would be a hard battle, a very fierce, high-consumption and high-intensity encounter, but suddenly it became like this, which made people feel at a loss.
How outrageous is that?
In the opening 3 minutes, Haaland moved to the left side of the frontcourt to receive the ball. After getting the ball, he flexibly and skillfully got rid of Barcelona's defensive players, dribbled the ball horizontally and cut inside, to the left side of the top of the arc, and then returned.
Passed to Valverde.
The Uruguayan midfielder came forward and fired a furious shot.
Hit it high.
The shot is not outrageous, and Haaland's ability to dribble the ball continuously is not outrageous. The most outrageous thing is that there are four Barcelona defenders around him. From the beginning to the end, no one rushes forward to compete with Harland for the ball, not even one.
Physical contact.
It was almost like he was using his eyes to defend and let Haaland pass.
"Something serious must have happened within this team," Ferguson said with certainty.
If not, there is no reason why he would play with such a lack of fighting spirit.
Even if the team is physically weak, it should never play like this. 憅
"It seems that after the end of this season, Messi will be on a free transfer." Gao Shen was not sure.
The news outside is very confusing now, there are many rumors, and no one knows exactly what is going on.
This is also some of the trouble Gao Shen is encountering now.
In the past, he was a time traveler, and if he combined his memories with many things and rumors, he would roughly know what they were like.
But now, he is gradually losing his advantage as a time traveler.
It's like he doesn't know if Messi will leave Barcelona on a free transfer this summer?
Therefore, he has no way to judge what problems are currently occurring within Barcelona. 憅
Some media say that Messi will be on a free transfer, but others say that Barcelona will renew his contract with Messi. Messi himself has also stated that he will stay. From various aspects, Messi does indeed continue to stay in Barcelona.
motivation.
But who knows what the situation is?
…
Barcelona created a good opportunity in the 12th minute.
Frenkie de Jong sent the ball out of the right side of the penalty area. Felipe Anderson crossed the right side of the penalty area and hit the goal.
However, all shooting angles were blocked by Ruben Dias and the attacking goalkeeper Alisson. The shot hit directly into Alisson's arms and failed to pose a threat.
This is what Wenger said, Barcelona are fighting on their own.
In the current tactical environment, fighting each other will be completely cut off and unable to form a joint force.
Today's professional football is all about systematic combat. You cannot form a joint force. You are always fighting against the opponent as a whole. No matter how strong you are, even Messi, who is as strong as the peak, will still have to stop.
At this time, an episode occurred in the stadium.
Barcelona launched an attack from the left. After Griezmann got the ball, he immediately accelerated the pace of the attack and tried to play directly, but Barcelona center defender Pique shouted from behind, as if he wanted to take possession of the ball.
As a result, this attack failed to threaten.
When the Barcelona players walked back, it was obvious that Pique was shouting at Griezmann who was walking back in front.
Although I couldn't hear clearly, I could tell from his demeanor and actions that he probably didn't mean anything good. 憅
Most likely he was greeting the female elders of the Griezmann family.
Griezmann pushed back excitedly, which was definitely not a good thing.
And it wasn't just one or two sentences, the two of them exchanged words with each other. In the end, Pique was persuaded to leave by Busquets.
This also exposed Barcelona's biggest problem now.
Everyone knows what Barcelona's problems are, but the methods and methods to solve them are different.
Pique, Busquets and others feel that we should strengthen ball control, but Griezmann and others may feel that since we cannot control the ball, we must play faster.
Now when Barcelona encounters a fast-paced team, they get scared.
But Pique, Busquets and others feel violated because they are old and can no longer run. How can they just play at a fast pace?
Do you want their lives?
Disagreement like this has long been common, and has even been reported in the media many times. Players have also said it in interviews, but everyone expresses it in different ways.
This kind of internal disagreement has led to the scene shown on the court now.
You probably couldn't watch the live broadcast because it was all without the ball. The live broadcast probably switched to a slow-motion replay of Barcelona's attack, so you wouldn't have noticed this episode.
But at the scene, Gao Shen and others could see clearly.
People's hearts are scattered and it's hard to lead the team. Sorry
When the results are good and the players are at their peak, it's easy to say anything. But now, the team's performance has declined, the finances are not tight, and the players are declining one by one. What should we do?
Various contradictions and problems arise one after another.
Metabolism is always a process that is simple to say but difficult to do and involves many problems.
Gao Shen himself has deep experience in this regard.
Just like when he coached Real Madrid for the first time, wasn't it like this?
It's just that now, Barcelona seems to be doing even worse than Real Madrid did back then, and many things may even become more disgraceful.
As for this game, judging from the performance in the first ten minutes, Barcelona is definitely losing! Sorry
The difference is, how many goals will they lose?
Gao Shen feels that his ambition is getting bigger and bigger now, and he will win by double digits at every turn.
