The 4132 formation is actually a variant of the 442 formation.
But compared to the relatively old 442 formation with parallel midfield positions, the 4132 formation no longer has four midfielders in parallel positions, but instead has three players advancing forward and one player trailing behind.
Among the three forward players, there is a core player who can not only take the ball, protect the ball, but also pass the threatening ball and intervene in the attack. In Dortmund's formation, this person is of course Royce.
The other two can be called wingers. They can cut in from the center or break through from the wing. Together with the two full-backs among the four backs, they are sharper offensively than the traditional 442.
This formation also has an advantage over the 442, that is, it can change the attack in more ways, and it can also increase the pressure on the opponent in the frontcourt.
But its shortcomings are also obvious.
This formation has high requirements for defense, especially for the player who serves as the single midfielder. He must have sufficient physical fitness and strong defensive ability, as well as the ability to pass long passes and long shots.
The best team using this formation, or the most iconic team, should be the Spanish team in the 2008 European Cup.
In that team, 4 defenders from left to right, Capdevila, Marchena, Puyol, Ramos, single midfielder Senna, 3 players in front from left to right, David Silva
, Xavi, Iniesta, double striker Torres and Villa.
Later, Xavi was able to become the best player of this European Cup, which has something to do with the fact that this formation has higher requirements for the middle of the three midfielders, because he takes on more offensive and organizational tasks.
In addition, although defensive midfielder Senna did not become the MVP, his performance in the European Cup was obvious to all.
He was still the captain of Villarreal at the time. Although he was not very famous, his role was quite crucial.
Not only can he intercept and defend in the midfield, he can also be responsible for delivering the ball, so much so that Liverpool's Xabi Alonso was pushed to the bench by him.
It is precisely because of this role that Senna has become the only player that Aragones dare not replace on the court, which also shows his importance to this formation.
Overall, this formation is more offensive, but defensively, it also puts more pressure on the four defenders and the single midfielder.
Therefore, generally weak teams will not use this formation, and if the game requires a balance of offense and defense or a more defensive side, they will not use this formation.
But now Dortmund is falling behind.
Klopp will focus on practicing and using this formation during summer training, hoping to use sharp offense to once again thrive in the Bundesliga in the new season.
However, after losing to Leverkusen in the first round, Klopp, who was sapped at the beginning, had doubts about his idea and whether his players were capable of executing this offensive tactic.
.
After all, Dortmund doesn’t have as many talented teenagers as there were in the Spanish team!
Therefore, he changed his formation from the second round and finally used a more balanced 4231 formation, including in today's game.
But now, this formation only lasted twenty minutes before conceding a goal.
So, when the score was behind and it was difficult to make substitutions, he could only resort to this offensive formation, using two forwards + three attacking midfielders to fight Chelsea.
Therefore, after Dortmund changed their formation, the offensive from both sides on the field became more intense.
After all, both Dortmund and Chelsea now have a lot of troops invested in the attack!
Dortmund's 4132 formation has five people regularly participating in the offense, which is one more person than the four in 4231.
As for Chelsea's 343 formation, the three forwards + two wing-backs are almost locked in the opponent's half. In addition, the double midfielders and central defenders intervene from time to time, and the offense is even more violent.
Therefore, in the next long period of the game, the two sides came and went, and exciting scenes continued, which also made the fans at the scene and in front of the TV excited.
"Both sides played beautifully in this game. This is real football."
In the Sky Sports studio, Lineker sighed.
"This is why I like coaches like Pan Yi and Klopp." Carragher said with a smile, "It's a pity that we at Liverpool can't afford Pan Yi's high salary. Otherwise, the senior management should think about it and settle for the next best thing.
Please ask Klopp to come to Liverpool."
Alan Shearer shook his head and smiled: "You say that, are you worthy of the current head coach Rogers? To be honest, his current coaching style at Liverpool is already a bit like Dortmund."
"Although Liverpool lost the championship at the last moment last season, the runner-up result in the league was already very good. Do you really want to offload the trouble to kill the donkey?" Lineker also laughed, "In addition, Rogers is still young
In terms of player development, he is no worse than Klopp. Don't forget, he developed Henderson into an all-round midfielder."
Carragher nodded: "That's true. Now Henderson is very confident, very determined and has good tactical awareness on the court. After Gerrard leaves the team, I think he can become the new captain of the Red Army."
"Let's get back to this game. Why are you talking about Liverpool?" Gary Neville snorted and said, "Now it seems that Dortmund's offense is not weaker than Chelsea's at all. I think they still have a chance to equalize or even overtake.
Score."
Zola suddenly regained his energy and stood up and said: "I still think Chelsea has a good chance of winning. Why don't we make another bet?"
Gary Neville quickly waved his hand: "Forget it, I'm just saying it, why should I take it so seriously? It's enough that we had Chelsea's seven-game unbeaten bet... You don't really want me to
Did you even take off your pants?"
Everyone burst out laughing.
Alan Shearer said: "Having said that, although Dortmund is attacking lively now, there are still not many truly threatening shots. And their defense has hidden dangers."
Lineker nodded in agreement: "That's right. Dortmund's offense improved after adjusting to a single midfielder, but the problem also lies in this single midfielder. Kyle was good at both offense and defense when he was young, and he is indeed capable of the job.
This responsibility, but now that he is older, his body can no longer keep up with his consciousness, which makes his defensive coverage area much smaller."
Zola also said: "If I were Pan Yi, I might order my forwards and midfielders to focus on Kyle's left and right sides, forcing him to make up for leaks everywhere to consume his energy and physical strength. As long as he defends here
If we can't hold on, Dortmund's defense will face a lot of pressure."
"I believe Pan Yi will also think of it. After all, he is the most valuable coach in the world!" Carragher said with a smile. "Of course, maybe Gary's ideas are different from mine. He may think that Pan Yi doesn't have that level.
.”
With that said, Carragher glanced at Gary Neville, while Neville stared straight at the TV screen, pretending not to hear Carragher's words.
Lineker continued to come out to smooth things over: "Now, let's enjoy this rare and exciting confrontation together!"
——
The game entered the 40th minute, which was 5 minutes before the end of the first half.
Both Chelsea and Dortmund have received many shooting opportunities this time.
So the busiest people on the field were not only the offensive players on both sides, but also the goalkeepers.
Both Weidenfeller and Courtois played to a very high level, catching up with low blocks and trying to keep the goal.
Not long after Dortmund changed its formation, Pan Yi actually made targeted arrangements.
That is, while continuing the attack on the two wings, it also strengthens the stranglehold in the midfield.
Especially when the opponent's midfielder Kyle gets the ball, whether it is center Lukaku or the two wingers Oscar and Willian, they will immediately press him.
When Kyle distributes the ball to Mkhitaryan or Bender on the wing, Chelsea's two wing-backs will immediately step forward, plus the assistance of Kanter and Ramirez to form a numerical advantage.
Make a steal.
In this case, Kyle can only move to the side with the ball to help his side players.
Only in this way can the number of people in the local area be equalized to jointly resist Chelsea's pressing.
But as a result, Kyle needs to run frequently on both sides. In addition, the pressure on the defense in the middle is already great, and his running distance also increases rapidly.
It was okay at the beginning when he was relatively energetic, but towards the end of the first half, he was a little unable to withstand it.
Due to the decline in Kyle's running ability, Dortmund's defense began to become less tight.
At this time, due to their physical advantage, Chelsea's offensive became more intense.
Don’t forget that Chelsea’s double defensive midfielders today are both invincible!
If judged by numerical values in football games, Kanter and Ramirez are both guys whose endurance is close to full value.
They can still do both offense and defense well when everyone's physical fitness has declined.
When the game enters 45 minutes, this is a time when players are physically and mentally tired and can easily relax.
Chelsea played another wave of attacks!
First, there was an attack from the left wing. Cancelo's cross was blocked by Durm, creating a corner kick opportunity.
But Willian's corner kick was blocked by Dortmund, and Terry failed to get the first shot from the top of Papastathopoulos' head.
David Luiz grabbed the second spot and wanted to launch a quick counterattack, so he passed the ball to Kante, who then passed it to Oscar.
However, Dortmund's defensive players retreated quickly and entangled Oscar directly in front of the center line, forcing him to cross the ball to Lukaku, who was retreating to receive the ball.
Klopp's team does have its own unique features in terms of second point protection and quick defensive organization.
After Lukaku received the ball, he continued to bring it back, dropped deep, and passed the ball to Ramirez, allowing him to reorganize.
But Dortmund did not retreat, but wanted to strangle Chelsea near the halfway line.
In this area, as long as you grab the ball, you can immediately create a threat.
Chelsea passed the ball back and forth, but never found an effective opportunity to penetrate forward, and were forced to retreat to the back line of defense.
David Luiz stopped the ball and moved forward. Seeing that there were no defensive players around him, he continued to dribble the ball forward. He spotted an opportunity and passed the ball to Ramirez in front.
Ramirez's back was facing the direction of the attack. As soon as he received the ball, Dortmund's midfielder Kyle pounced on him.
In order to cooperate with Kyle, Dortmund's left back Schmelzer also came to attack, trying to steal the ball directly from Ramirez's feet.
But what no one expected was that Ramirez skillfully played the ball, turned to the left, and seemed to be dribbling the ball to the left, but suddenly sent a through ball to the right.
This pass was so subtle that not only Kyle, who was blocked by Ramirez, didn't realize it, but Schmelzer, who had just arrived at the side, also didn't expect it.
The ball was like a scalpel, cutting through Dortmund's defense and sliding straight to the left side of Dortmund's penalty area, which is the right side of Chelsea's attack.
At this time, everyone saw that William, who had been clinging to the right wing just now, had started at some point and was driving diagonally behind Schmelzer at the fastest speed.
At this time, Schmelzer was still running towards the middle. How could he catch up with William? He was immediately left behind.
Dortmund's central defender Papastathopoulos quickly came over to cover Willian, while the other central defender stuck closely to Chelsea center Lukaku to prevent him from grabbing a shot in the middle.
But after Willian cut into the Dortmund penalty area, he immediately passed the ball across the entire penalty area.
On the other side, another Brazilian, Oscar, has already arrived.
Faced with Weidenfeller who quickly moved across to defend the near corner, Oscar shot straight away.
Weidenfeller fell to the ground and dived, but Oscar's shot was faster.
The ball hit the net!
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!! Chelsea scores another goal! The score becomes 2:0!"
"Oscar! This is his second goal for Chelsea this season and his first in the Champions League!"
"Dortmund had problems defending both the center and the wings this time. Kyle's physical fitness seemed to have declined significantly, and he seemed a bit unable to defend Ramirez. And Schmelzer also defended in order to help Kyle.
Lost his position."
"This is really a very advantageous advantage for Chelsea players who are good at passing the ball behind the ball, because they can often tear open the defense with just one beautiful pass. And this time it was Brazilian player Rami who passed the ball.
Les!"
"It is worth mentioning that this goal was a connection between four Brazilian players. David Luiz passed the ball to Ramirez, and Ramirez passed the ball to Willian, who passed the ball to the other side.
Oscar breaks!”
Pan Yi on the sidelines looked at the celebrating players and couldn't help but laugh.
Starting four Brazilian players together really works wonders!
There seems to be an invisible connection between them, allowing them to always find each other.
"Holy Kara connects us!"
And now, David Luiz, Ramirez, Oscar, and William lined up in a row, stood on the sidelines and danced a cheerful samba dance.
This scene also made the fans at Stamford Bridge happy.
Brazilians who can't dance are not good players!
Some people actually criticize Brazilian players for dancing after scoring a goal. I really don’t know what they are thinking.
——
The first half ended with laughter from all over Chelsea.
Chelsea went into halftime with a score of 2:0.
After the game restarted in the second half, Klopp couldn't help but make adjustments to the formation and tactics again.
This time he resolutely removed Aubameyang and replaced him with Gundogan, forming a three-midfielder formation with Bender and Kyle.
This is to solve the problem of Dortmund's midfield losing momentum in the second half of the first half.
But this is actually what the Dortmund coaching staff believed before the game that the defensive formation needs to be strengthened.
What Klopp is doing now is basically equivalent to admitting the failure of the starting tactics.
But there was nothing he could do. If he didn't adjust, he would lose even more miserably in the second half.
And Pan Yi didn't change his tactics too much.
Now Dortmund's defensive personnel in the center have become denser, but the gaps on the wings have also become relatively larger.
As long as you stick to the idea of holding tight to the wing and resolutely play behind the opponent's full-back, the opportunity will still come as expected.
With Dortmund strengthening its defense, the second half of the game was certainly not as passionate as the first half.
The two sides started a fierce battle in the midfield, and scenes of people falling on their backs could be seen everywhere, but there were obviously fewer effective offensive opportunities.
As time went by, and due to the lagging behind in the score, Dortmund players became a little impatient and committed more fouls. Many players received yellow cards.
Chelsea, on the other hand, stabilized their position and dealt with the opponent, and were not in a hurry to develop the ball into the attacking third.
After the 80th minute of the game, the situation turned into Chelsea starting a defensive counterattack.
This is also the result of Pan Yi's instruction.
After all, there will be a big battle with Manchester City in a few days. It is enough to win this Champions League group stage in the most economical way.
But the more you think like this, the more unexpected you will gain.
Because Chelsea’s counterattack was also very sharp!
After a midfield steal, Nigeria midfielder Mikel, who was substituted in the 70th minute, passed the ball to the left and handed it to Cancelo.
Cancelo suddenly accelerated and dribbled away Gundogan who was guarding him, then cut inside laterally and shot a cold arrow on the left side of the penalty area in an attempt to hit the goal.
The Portuguese's shot hit Durm's leg directly. It failed to fly directly to the goal, but it still changed direction and turned into the penalty spot of the penalty area.
At this time, Chelsea's center forward had been replaced by Bamford. He reacted quickly, rushed over immediately, got ahead of everyone, and took another furious shot.
But at this time, Weidenfeller had decisively abandoned the goal, and Dortmund's two central defenders rushed from the side and fell to the ground to tackle, blocking Bamford's shooting angle.
Bamford's shot was finally blocked by Subotic and went to the right side of the small penalty area.
Dortmund's entire penalty area was in chaos.
Weidenfeller immediately adjusted his focus and rushed towards the right side of the small penalty area. Schmelzer also ran over to intercept.
Everything happened in an instant. When everyone reacted, they saw a flash of blue light, and a Chelsea player appeared like a ghost on the right side of Dortmund's penalty area.
It is "Knife Guard" Ivanovic!
He faced the ball and fired a furious shot with his right foot.
Don’t be afraid of Ivan, just be afraid of what may happen!
He will always appear suddenly in the opponent's penalty area like a striker, and then give a fatal blow!
Weidenfeller flew sideways, and Schmelzer flew to tackle, but both of them were one step too late.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!"
"Chelsea scored again! The score is now 3:0! Dortmund has no chance!"
"Ivanovic!!! He has brought into play Chelsea's fine tradition of driving backwards. At this moment, he is once again possessed by a powerful striker!"
"Chelsea's defensive counterattack is also very sharp, and they also invest a lot of troops in the counterattack. Both wing-backs inserted into Dortmund's penalty area at the same time!"
"This is one of the characteristics of Chelsea's 343 formation. The wing-backs are as determined as the wingers when attacking, and their shooting ability may make many forwards feel ashamed!"
"After Dortmund changed their formation many times, they still failed to stop Chelsea's attack! They have no way back!"
——
Klopp has been sitting in the visiting team's coaching bench, watching the game silently.
He reached out and grabbed his chin, and suddenly found that his beard was a little prickly.
I lost this game, I really lost.
He still can't compare to Pan Yi.
Although he really didn't want to admit it in his heart, he had to admit it.
If the game loses, as the head coach of the team, he should bear this responsibility whether it is from tactics or execution.
Although he tried his best, Dortmund's midfielder did a poor job of occupying space tonight.
Chelsea, on the other hand, almost maximized the space and at the same time gained enough passing and ball control advantages.
Of course, Pan Yi's ability to keenly discover Dortmund's weaknesses after each formation change and direct the players to carry out "precision strikes" is also the most important reason.
"Well, it seems I can only think about how to deal with this cunning guy when I return to the home court." Klopp suddenly gained some fighting spirit again, "Perhaps, only by constantly fighting against such a powerful opponent can we truly improve.
As for myself."
This is also true.
There are not many coaches in the world who can push Klopp to this level.
After changing three formations in one game, there was nothing they could do. Instead, they were forced to score three goals in a row. It was probably only when they faced Pan Yi that they felt so powerless.
——
The referee finally blew the whistle to end the game.
Pan Yi raised his fists high on the sidelines until he was hugged by the assistants behind him. Then he turned around and hugged his team one by one, and then high-fived and hugged the players running down the court.
Behind him, Chelsea's substitute players had already swarmed into the field.
The entire Stamford Bridge stadium was filled with cheers from Chelsea fans. More than 50,000 fans all stood up and gave the team the warmest applause and cheers.
The 3:0 victory over Dortmund, and it was a complete victory, is a good start for Chelsea's Champions League journey this season!
You know, the most important thing for everyone at Chelsea is this competition!
"Congratulations! You played a great game." At this time, Klopp's voice came from the side.
Pan Yi turned his head and saw that Klopp had walked beside him at some point. He immediately smiled and stretched out his hand to shake Klopp's hand.
"Thanks."
Pan Yi didn't even say "you guys played well", that seemed too fake.
Playing well but losing three goals? This is tantamount to swearing.
"This game reminds us that we have done very poorly in many places." Klopp forced out a smile and said, "We have to continue to work hard, especially there are still five games in the Champions League group stage and we still have to deal with them in the league.
Bayern."
"Let's work together." Pan Yi also smiled, "I also want to fight for the Premier League championship!"
"Having said that, we also broke one of your records today." Klopp said suddenly.
"What?" Pan Yi didn't understand for a moment.
What records were broken today? Why didn’t he know?
At this time, Klopp said with a self-deprecating face: "You have scored four goals in every game this season, but today you only scored three of us..."
Pan Yi was stunned for a moment, then laughed.
How could this stubble-faced and competitive guy be able to make such a joke?
Under normal circumstances, when the team loses, the coach is not in a good mood.
It seems that I have really won him over in the past two or three years...