Since the start of the summer training camp in Hamburg, a warm-up match will be arranged almost every few days to allow the players who have returned from vacation to get back to the feeling of the game.
The opponents arranged at the beginning were relatively weak, basically from German paper-level leagues, and even amateur teams.
What about Rosenheim 1860, Kiel Goldstein, Norderstedt... Pan Yi had never heard of them before.
Hamburg defeated all its opponents.
But when it came to slightly stronger opponents, Hamburg's performance was not satisfactory.
They defeated Seongnam Ilhwa from South Korea's K-League by one goal, drew with Los Charant of Denmark, but lost to Groningen of the Netherlands.
This caused considerable criticism in the local media in Hamburg.
But the media and fans also understand that this is just a pre-season warm-up match, and as a Bundesliga relegation team, Hamburg's loss to a mid-table Eredivisie team is not a particularly surprising thing.
Their eyes are more focused on Hamburg's first game of the new season.
That was in the first round of the German Cup, which started on August 20, with Karlsruhe hosting Hamburg.
Karlsruhe, a former Bundesliga team, has now been reduced to the Bundesliga 3, and its strength is definitely not on the same level as Hamburg.
In such a formal game against a weak team, if Hamburg loses again, there will definitely be a lot of spit on Pan Yi.
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Pan Yi naturally doesn't care about the results of the warm-up match.
He mainly tests the tactical effects during the game, especially which players are suitable for which position, and which players can better implement his tactical intentions.
Especially those old players from Hamburg, those players that Pan Yi is not very familiar with.
After all, it's not like when he was in Milan, Pan Yi could say that he was very fond of those Milan players.
How could he not know people like Gattuso, Ambrosini and Nesta?
But it's different here.
Even if he is Hamburg captain and former German international Westermann, not many Dragon Country fans know him.
Including Lin Zhijian, Pan Yi had only heard of his name in his previous life and knew some of his stories, but he had basically never watched any of his games.
As for what position he is good at playing and what role he can play in Pan Yi's 4231, he has no idea.
So in the warm-up match, Pan Yi asked Westerman to play at center back, left back, right back, and even midfielder. Lin Zhijian even played all the positions in the center and frontcourt, including the center.
They played for half the game.
Under such circumstances, isn't it natural that Hamburg did not perform at its best during the game?
But as the warm-up matches played out one by one, Pan Yi not only gained familiarity with the players, but also realized a problem.
That is: Hamburg's current lineup depth is still too insufficient.
Except for the main lineup "appointed" by Pan Yi, the remaining Hamburg players feel inferior in terms of ability, and their ability to adapt to new tactics is also average.
It's still not like when he was in Milan, Pan Yi not only has Salah and Ibrahimovic, but also Aubameyang and Inzaghi;
In addition to Gattuso, Van Dijk, Ambrosini, Nesta...
Moreover, this is before the season has even started.
As the season progresses and the abilities of Pan Yi's "potential stocks" begin to rise sharply, the gap between them will only become wider and wider.
In other words, Pan Yi will most likely only be able to rely on the dozen or so main players in the Bundesliga this season.
So, how to solve this problem?
Buy another person? I already have no money.
Lease?
First of all, most of the people who can match Pan Yi's requirements have high salary levels, which will also cause financial pressure on Hamburg;
Secondly, based on Pan Yi's habit of playing FM games, he doesn't like to rent players to play because he has an unpleasant feeling of helping others to level up but delaying the growth of his own children...
So this season's lineup is like this, at least until the winter window starts, or before new funds are injected.
Therefore, Pan Yi made a decision.
That is to strive to maintain the results of the Bundesliga, and the German Cup will be played with a rotating lineup, and it will matter where it can be played.
With such a thin lineup, it is not easy to ensure the quality of single-line combat. There is no need to consider dual-line matters at all.
As long as we can truly achieve the goal of breaking into the top four mentioned by Pan Yi at the press conference, and being able to enter the Champions League, it is much more important than the German Cup or something like that.
Entering the Champions League, the team's funds will be relatively abundant and its attraction to players will be greatly increased. Then there will be a wave of buying.
After enriching the lineup, we can then consider two-line or three-line operations.
Moreover, even if Hamburg goes all out to compete in the German Cup, it may not be able to break through the blockade of strong teams like Bayern and Dortmund and achieve good results.
At that time, if everything goes wrong, you will be left empty-handed and you will suffer a big loss.
There is no shortage of such examples in the football history of Pan Yi's previous life.
For example, Wigan Athletic of the Premier League went all out for the FA Cup in the 2012-13 season, and actually defeated Manchester City in the FA Cup final to win the championship!
But they were relegated from the Premier League at the same time. The following year they could only participate in the Europa League as a Championship team and failed to qualify from the group stage.
Another example is the Espanyol of La Liga. In the 2018-19 season, the season when Wu Lei joined, they finished seventh in La Liga and thus qualified for the Europa League next season.
They performed well in the Europa League group stage and advanced to first place in the group, but they suffered repeated defeats in the league and were eventually relegated...
These teams are unable to support the pressure of multi-line operations because their lineups are too thin.
Once players are transferred or injured, their strength will be greatly affected and their performance will plummet.
So Pan Yi doesn't want to repeat their mistakes.
Besides, Hamburg's ancestors are considered rich, and they actually have no desire to win the German Cup.
As long as the performance in the Bundesliga improves, any German Cup will be just a cloud.
Also, you can't expect a relegation team to go far in the German Cup, right?
Based on the above considerations, Pan Yi has already made a strategic plan for this season, including future seasons.
As time goes by, the Hamburg first-team lineup he will use this season has basically emerged.
Forwards: Son Heung-min, Wu Lei, Vardy, Marcus Berry, Marcel Janssen, Lin Zhijian.
Midfielder: De Bruyne, Calhanoglu, Casemiro, Makoto Hasebe, Jacopo Sala, Shelbrey, Teshe.
Unlike other leagues, the Bundesliga is actually very relaxed in terms of registration.
If you like, there is no problem in signing up for 99 players, so whether it is youth training or non-European training, it is no problem in the Bundesliga. This is why Pan Yi can introduce so many players from various countries in one go.
The 23-man list drawn up by Pan Yi is actually the first-team players he thinks are qualified for this season's Bundesliga competition.
If we only deal with the Bundesliga's single-line operations, these people are almost enough, and there is no point in having more.
Others whose performance in training and warm-up matches did not meet Pan Yi's requirements can only stay in the reserve team and youth team first.
And if there are some attrition during the season and need to be supplemented, he can just go down and promote some and put them up.
What he has to do now is to quickly improve the condition of these 23 people to prepare for the upcoming official game!