When I woke up in the morning, Gao Shen felt a little out of sorts.
He spent all night reading Hiddink's books in the tactical library last night and read a lot of books about him, from tactical ideas to his training habits, as well as some locker room management techniques.
It took him a whole night to barely read through his entire coaching resume, but it was not enough. Next, he had to read it carefully and study it repeatedly. He wanted to clarify a context and evaluate what Hiddink might do this time.
What tactics to adopt.
From Hiddink's book, Gao Shen discovered that every time he took over a team, he did not do it without aim.
In other words, in the eyes of outsiders, he is extremely lucky, but in fact, there is an element of careful selection on his part.
For example, coaching Russia was certainly facilitated by Abramovich, but before taking over, Hiddink had discussed this matter with Advocaat and had a certain understanding of Russian football.
The same goes for taking over Chelsea this time.
Looking at Hiddink's coaching, although he never sticks to the rules, there are traces to follow.
For example, the teams he coaches have abundant physical fitness and excellent running ability.
This is true from South Korea to Australia to Russia, and Eindhoven in between.
This is actually the case with Chelsea now.
Since the Mourinho era, Chelsea's running ability has been outstanding.
Also, Hiddink is a Dutchman and he advocates integrated offense and defense.
To put it simply, the team played very holistically.
And this is precisely Chelsea's strength.
With the support of the above two points, coupled with Hiddink's own good at motivating players and his own coaching ability, the teams he coaches are often excellent.
In Hiddink's book, Gao Shen saw an incident about his coaching of Russia.
Before the European Cup, Hiddink specially arranged a two-week special physical training. The person who hosted this special training was Romande Verhein, a Dutch doctor of exercise physiology. He is Hiddink's old partner for many years.
He was the head coach of the Dutch national team in the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2002. In 2001, he was brought to South Korea by Hiddink.
Later, he worked in teams such as the Dutch Football Association and Feyenoord. Until the 2008 European Cup, Hiddink invited him to Russia. He made the Russian, who was already very good at running, even more powerful.
And now, he has followed Hiddink to Chelsea.
Coincidence or not?
It took exactly two weeks from the time Hiddink took over the team to the first leg of the Champions League knockout round of 16.
Perhaps, at first glance, it may seem a bit far-fetched.
Is it really possible to calculate so clearly?
But many times, it is these details that are easily overlooked that determine success or failure.
…
Since owning the tactical library, Gao Shen has never worried about his sleep.
This should be regarded as a key to keeping his mind clear at all times.
But Hiddink's sudden appearance still made Gao Shen feel a lot of pressure. As a result, when he woke up, he didn't feel tired physically, but his spirit was not very good.
After washing his face and brushing his teeth and going out, he had a frown on his face.
There wasn't much time left for him to prepare.
Zidane and Lucas both stayed at his house last night, and both of them were busy preparing last night. Both pairs of eyes were covered with red bloodshot eyes, looking like they were severely sleep deprived.
I think Carlo will do the same.
As a middle-aged man, he is more prone to worry and insomnia than Gao Shen.
Gao Shen and others were already accustomed to having breakfast at the club restaurant in Fort Volturno, so after washing up, the three of them drove out.
"My preliminary judgment is that if we defend Drogba, we may not be able to defend him."
After the car left the Bay Area, Gao Shen expressed some of his thoughts.
"If I were Hiddink, I would definitely take advantage of Drogba's strengths instead of being as conservative as Scolari."
Scolari's problem is that he has to play good football.
If he wants to play well, the midfielder must be creative, so he heavily uses Deco.
But if Deco is used to play a three-midfielder, plus a deep-lying Mikel, the midfield defense cannot be guaranteed, so Scolari adopts a four-midfielder style of play. However, in this way, there is no frontcourt.
There was no way to arrange so many people, so he allowed Drogba and Anelka to play two at a time, and he more often used Anelka.
Drogba has only scored one goal in the Premier League so far this season. In the final round of the Champions League group stage, he scored one goal as a substitute.
Yes, the Ivorian only scored two goals.
It is precisely because of this that Drogba is very dissatisfied with Scolari.
Players like Drogba do not need to be measured by goals. If you want to bring out Drogba's ability, it is best to let him play the center position, with people on both wings.
But in this case, Deco will have to be taken down by the midfielder.
Many things are obvious, it's just a matter of choice.
In other words, if Hiddink wants to take advantage of Drogba's strengths, he has two options.
Play 4-3-3 as a single forward, but you have to capture Deco in the midfield; or play 4-4-2, but give up the wing.
For home games, Gao Shen believes that it is unlikely to adopt 442.
This would be more conservative.
In the two-leg knockout round, home court is very important. Although it is subject to the away goal rule, if the opponent can be defeated at home, the second round will be very good for teams like Hiddink and Chelsea.
As for Naples, there is actually not much suspense.
In the first round away game, we must try our best to maintain a draw, or even defeat the opponent, while grabbing away goals.
The existence of the away goals rule actually encourages visiting teams to play more proactively.
"We have arranged it. We have to practice the defense on the wing. Kalou has been in good form recently, and Anelka plays on the left, so we should pay attention to it." Gao Shen warned.
In today's Chelsea team, there are actually only two serious wingers, Malouda and Kalou. However, Scolari's use of Kalou was quite conservative before. If Hiddink wants to regain the four-three-three, right
The only way is to go to Kalou and let Anelka play on the left.
This season, Chelsea have played Anel on many occasions, but the results have been terrible.
At that time, Anelka will still mainly score by diagonally inserting into the penalty area, and the attacks from the wing will focus on Kalou's side.
Of course, we do not rule out using Malouda on the left and Anelka playing on the right.
But Malouda is no longer the left winger he was in Ligue 1, and his performance now is much lower than it was then.
Therefore, Gao Shen concluded that if Drogba is to be activated, a winger is needed, and Chelsea's current winger can only rely on Kalou.
Zidane and Lucas both nodded.
These matters will be handed over to the coaching staff, especially Carlo, with the two of them assisting.
…
Before heading to London, there is one more round 25 match in Serie A.
Napoli vs. Genoa.
It will also be a tough game, but compared to the game against Chelsea, this game will seem a bit insignificant.
Needless to say, the whole team knows that this game will definitely be another rotation.
But rotation does not mean that Naples does not pay attention to it.
One of the most successful things that Gao Shen and the coaching staff have done this season is to establish an orderly rotation system for Naples, which not only allows all players to get sufficient game training opportunities, but also allows players to maintain their fighting spirit.
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To put it simply, once the rotation is in operation, there is no distinction between the main player and the substitute.
As usual, Gao Shen left all the training to his assistants and just stood aside and watched.
Carlo and others will arrange everything properly and arrange some training projects in a targeted manner according to advanced requirements, but Chelsea's tactical drills will have to be postponed for another two days.
After the training, Gao Shen still talked and communicated with the players as usual.
But today, the people Gao Shen chooses to communicate with are different from those in the past.
He first met with Vargas, chatted with the Peruvian defender for a while, and also talked about the upcoming Champions League.
If Chelsea adopts a 442 tactic and gives up the wing, Vargas' side will be the area where Naples can attack. If Chelsea adopts a 433 tactic and let Kalou play on the right, then Vargas will be the area where Naples can attack.
Whether he can successfully defend Drogba is an important part of the game.
As Gao Shen said before, for a player like Drogba, even if two central defenders play at the same time, they may not be able to guard him.
Not to mention, when it came to the game, there was Anelka.
Since you may not be able to defend it, try to reduce the number of times the ball reaches Drogba's feet or head.
In addition to Vargas, there is also Lichtsteiner, whose right wing is equally important, especially against Anelka.
Afterwards, Gao Shen found Bonucci.
If they really want to fight Drogba, the relatively weak link in Naples' defense is Bonucci.
Bonucci is a team-oriented central defender. If you let him play one-on-one, it is really not his strong point.
Therefore, Gao Shen just wanted to hear some of his thoughts on defending Drogba.
Many times, listening to the ideas from the players is also very beneficial to advanced formation planning.
If you want to say that among the four central defenders in the Naples team, the strongest one is Benatia.
But to be honest, in such an important game, Gao Shen was really worried and asked him to keep an eye on Drogba.
After all, David Luiz's physical fitness is also quite good, he has a better understanding of cooperation with Bonucci, and he has relatively rich game experience, especially in Serie A, where he often competes with top central defenders.
The most troublesome problem with David Luiz is that he is frizzy, easily gets headaches and often loses his position.
In this kind of strong dialogue, what is being compared is the shortest link.
Under the pressure of high-intensity competition, many daily problems, problems, defects and deficiencies will be infinitely magnified.
After Gao Shen finished talking to Bonucci, he called in David Luiz, not only to listen to his thoughts and ideas on defending Drogba, but also to hammer the Brazilian central defender.
The more important you are in such an important competition, the more you have to stay vigilant and focused, and at the same time, you have to restrain your enthusiasm.
