Chang Sheng didn't bother to argue with Houllier, nor did he bother to pay attention to the English media.
He has more important things to do. That is to study how to deal with Liverpool.
In fact, Liverpool's silly, dark and crude tactics are indeed a great threat to Valencia.
In Spain, Changsheng rarely encounters this tactical style.
Even if there is a defensive counterattack, it is rarely this simple and crude long pass. After all, Spanish teams rarely have a strong player like Heskey, paired with a player as fast and flexible as Irving...
Liverpool play typical English football.
A French manager leads the team to play typical English football... This is indeed a bit painful.
Chang Sheng cherishes this opportunity.
Because this is a collision between his mad dog tactics and other European football styles, he wants to see how his team can perform when facing these teams with different styles.
By the way, also see how you can perform.
The first game of the Champions League is a good touchstone.
The coaching staff started discussing their Champions League rival Liverpool a week ago, before the second round of the league...
Based on scout reports and game videos, everyone can clearly understand Liverpool's tactics.
"They seem to be transforming..." After watching the video of Liverpool's recent league games, a coach came to this conclusion. "I remember that Liverpool's tactics last season were all defensive counterattacks, extended passes and lobs. Why?
In recent rounds of the league, they have begun to try more footwork..."
"Yes, because Houllier's tactical thinking has seriously lagged behind the times. Nowadays, when even the teams in the Premier League are beginning to pay attention to technology, only his team is still adhering to the 1980s.
Something." Chang Sheng nodded. "Houllier has to reform, because if he doesn't reform, he will be dead. If Liverpool wants to make a name for itself in Europe, it can't continue to rely on this backward and outdated set of tactics."
"Their changes were very unsuccessful." Rudy Gonzalez, who was standing next to him, said with a disdainful smile. "If we want to break our tactics, defensive counterattacks and extended passes and lobs are the best."
Chang Sheng nodded in agreement: "Houllier will definitely choose his old tactics, because this one is safer. Now what we have to consider is how to break their defensive counterattacks and long passes."
Then a group of coaches got together to continue the discussion.
Rudy Gonzalez and Guardiola mainly spoke, Chang Sheng gave some pointers in the general direction, and the specific details were the business of the coaches.
Finally, the coaching staff came up with a set of tactics to deal with Liverpool.
The tactics Valencia used to counter Liverpool's defensive counterattack with long passes and lobs were not much different from the tactics he used against Mallorca in the first round of the league.
The core is not how to attack, but how to defend.
Tiki-taka's defense is basically based on control. If Liverpool wants to press, then just walk around and pass the ball back and forth to make the opponent lose the will to press.
If the opponent wants to take a break, they will suddenly speed up the pace and attack Liverpool's penalty area in a burst, forcing Liverpool to run exhausted.
This style of play can exhaust the energy of most of Liverpool's players in less than seventy minutes.
Valencia's way to deal with Heskey is not to let him get the ball in the frontcourt at all.
Use a powerful and swift offensive to force Heskey to defend. As long as Heskey returns to defense, it will be difficult for him to rush forward. After all, his slow speed is a flaw. No one can get up, and Liverpool's long ball is passed
What's the use?
If Heskey doesn't track back... then wait for the offside.
The mad dog tactic originally requires each player to keep the distance between them very close, which makes the overall formation more compressed. If you are not careful, the opponent's forward will be offside...
For this reason, Chang Sheng also plans to use game skills such as [Offside Trap] in the game to increase the success rate of offside.
As long as Heskey can be contained, Irving will have no threat. Because Irving's performance depends on Heskey.
Whether it is Ayala or Carvalho, they must pay attention to controlling the second landing point. If Heskey really hits the ball, don't let Irving get the second landing point.
Of course, the defense still needs to work on the root cause. The best way is to prevent Liverpool from passing the football upfield at all.
This requires Valencia to press the defense in the frontcourt, like a group of mad dogs, frantically pressing every player of Liverpool - including their goalkeeper Dudek. Force the opponent to either not pass the ball at all, or to rush and blindly
The big foot has no accuracy at all. It can only be called a big foot clearance and cannot be regarded as a "long pass" at all.
A three-pronged approach will ensure that Liverpool has no temper at all.
In addition, there is the most important point, which is also the flaw of the English team.
The English team's tactical literacy is generally poor. Especially the Liverpool team, under the guidance of Houllier, has very poor tactical literacy. They can only chase Valencia's passes during the game, which is extremely fast.
He would be stunned by Valencia's passing back and forth.
The tactics that always win are tactics that are ahead of the times, while Houllier's tactics are just the opposite, tactics that are completely behind the times.
In the collision between those who are ahead and those who are lagging behind, who is stronger and which is weaker? From Chang Sheng's point of view, there should be no suspense.
※※※
Chang Sheng was busy formulating tactics and directing the team's training.
He did not respond to the war of words provoked by Houllier.
The purpose of fighting is to win, and it is a kind of psychological warfare.
Only when there is a difficult opponent, Chang Sheng will consider talking to each other.
But for a game that is destined to be won, there is no meaning and value in arguing.
The English media, which lacked understanding of Chang Sheng, took Chang Sheng's current silence as a sign of weakness, and they clamored even louder.
Under their encouragement, many Liverpool fans seemed very optimistic about this away game.
After all, Valencia's head coach lacks Champions League experience - this is the first Champions League game he led the team to play. Although he played in the UEFA Cup last season, the UEFA Cup and the Champions League are completely different worlds and cannot be played.
Simple comparison.
Liverpool's head coach, Gérard Houllier, is a famous coach with rich experience.
In this kind of duel, experience is an important factor in determining the outcome.
Just like that, the Champions League match between Valencia and Liverpool at home came.
Houllier himself also feels that he is sure of victory, and the Valencia coach's silence should be a sign of lack of confidence.
At the pre-match press conference, Houllier seemed confident. He said that his team has the ability and confidence to take three points away from home.
Winning often means not talking nonsense. Let’s see the real results in the competition!
Compared with Houllier's high profile, Chang Sheng seems much more low-key.
It looked like Liverpool had a guaranteed victory.
This situation is very strange. The home team is low-key, but the away team is very high-key. But no one is willing to delve into why this is.
Liverpool fans are just blindly optimistic. They entered the Mestalla Stadium with strong confidence and beautiful expectations.
※※※
In fact, there is nothing wrong with Houllier's thinking. To deal with Valencia's mad dog tactics, we really need to play with strength. Just like Barcelona's nemesis will always be Chelsea with Drogba.
But he has a problem, that is, he overestimates the abilities of his players.
Heskey is not Drogba after all...
This Liverpool is not the Chelsea that will be built by Mourinho in the future. From a purely tactical perspective, Liverpool is far behind.
After the game started, when Liverpool planned to play a long pass, they found that they had no chance to do so.
Except that after they played like this at the beginning of the game, Valencia had the football firmly under their feet and passed it back and forth. They were in no rush to advance or score a goal.
He just kept passing the ball, as if he was doing passing training.
Although Houllier had seen Valencia's tactics like this in game videos, he still felt different when he experienced them in person.
He was surprised at how proficient the Valencia players were at passing the ball back and forth. Facing the pressing of Liverpool players, they could make very quick transfers. They could pass the football out in just two or three kicks, making Liverpool's pressing useless.
Then they kept passing it back and forth like this.
After failing to grab the ball again, Irving waved his hand to everyone to press forward more and don't just let the forwards grab the ball in the frontcourt.
So Liverpool began to press forward layer by layer.
When they were close enough, they didn't expect that there was already a large tract of space behind them.
At this moment, Deco, who was holding the ball in the midfield, suddenly sent a through ball!
Because the Liverpool players pressed high enough, several of their own lines were compressed into one line. Everyone was compressing the formation, but the difference was that Valencia was actively compressing. In order to facilitate passing during their offense, they also facilitated the passing of the ball during defense.
It caused offside. Liverpool was passively compressing, and they didn't even realize it. This shows their lack of tactical literacy...
Deco's direct pass penetrated all Liverpool's defenses!
This was a diagonal through ball, passed from the center of the court to the left wing of the court, with enough lead.
This ball is for Vicente!
The fastest among Valencia's three forwards is Vicente.
This ball can give full play to his strengths.
"Deco!!" In the commentator's exclamation, a figure shot out of Liverpool's defense like an arrow!
Vicente ran at high speed and caught up with the football, and the rest became easy.
This is a standard solo meeting!
Vicente faced the attacking Polish goalkeeper Dudek, used a fake move to knock him down, and then shot!
The football flew into the goal without any suspense.
"Vicente!! Vicente! Valencia takes the lead at home! The game has only started for seventeen minutes! Valencia is already leading 1:0!"
※※※
Amid the cheers from Mestalla, Chang Sheng raised his fist.
Test successful!
The Mad Dog tactics can be used to advance and attack, and to retreat and defend. Against a pseudo-strong team like Liverpool, there is really no pressure at all.
※※※
After taking the lead, Valencia played more smoothly. They can now act openly and use passes more unscrupulously to delay time.
This scene made the Liverpool players grit their teeth, so they pounced even more fiercely, trying to cut off the football and directly hit Valencia's counterattack.
What's the result?
The English team lacked tactical literacy, but they did not lack fighting spirit and fighting spirit. However, when tactics were completely suppressed, hard work and fighting spirit became important factors that drove the players to death.
Valencia followed suit and scored another goal.
This time it was Vicente who assisted, and Ibrahimovic followed up in the middle and scored.
Valencia already took a two-goal lead before the first half was over.
This game basically lost its suspense.
When Ibrahimovic took off his jersey and showed off his muscles, Houllier sat on the coaching bench with a very ugly face.
The countermeasures he had worked so hard to come up with turned out to be useless!
Long passes are a good idea, but first the football must be under their control. Now Liverpool have very few chances to possess the ball. What's the use of just a few chances? Liverpool's offensive success rate is not 100%.
Yes, if we continue to play like this, there is nothing our team can do...
※※※
Houllier didn't think of any way to break the game during the halftime break.
The long pass was the best method he came up with, but this best method was of no use at all.
Watching Valencia score another goal in the second half, Houllier suddenly felt powerless while sitting on the coaching bench.
This is not a sign of heart disease, this is his most intuitive feeling about this game.
No matter how hard your team works and how aggressively they run, they will only feel powerless. They are completely unable to change the status quo, solve problems, and win the game.
Houllier just felt like he was powerless, which felt terrible.
In fact, losing 0:3 in an away game is not a big deal. The key is the process.
The process is more important than the score.
Judging from the process, Liverpool had no choice when facing Valencia. This is what made Houllier feel most powerless.
This means that not only in this game, but also the next time the two sides meet again, Liverpool may not be able to do anything.
※※※
After Valencia scored the third goal of the game in the second half, the sky above the Mestalla Stadium was filled with the singing of Valencia fans.
This is Valencia's first Champions League game in the new season. I didn't expect them to perform so well when facing what is said to be the strongest opponent in this group...
Valencia fans were full of confidence in the team's victory, but they did not expect to win so easily. It was as if Liverpool and Valencia were not on the same level at all...
When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the singing, cheering, and shouting above the Mestalla finally converged into a force that swept the world and erupted above the stadium.
"The game is over! Valencia won their first Champions League match of the season! They beat Liverpool at home! Three goals, clean! And Liverpool had no power to fight back!"
"This is Chang Sheng's first appearance in the Champions League, and he delivered a perfect answer! Valencia used this 3:0 to announce to the world that they are the favorites to qualify from the group!"
"When the draw results came out, Chang Sheng once said that Valencia got a good draw. His arrogance caused him a lot of trouble at that time, and many people criticized him. I remember that Houllier was the boss at that time.
Is the coach among them? Looking at the results now, this is really a good draw. Even Liverpool, the strongest and most famous team in this group, lost so cleanly..."
The TV camera lens was firmly focused on Chang Sheng.
This man has brought too many surprises to everyone in La Liga, and it seems that he will do the same again in the Champions League...
Some reporters thought that Chang Sheng once said that he would surpass Real Madrid in the number of Champions League trophies.
At present, it is still difficult to achieve this goal. But in the minds of reporters, at least this is no longer just a joke.
Because his winning streak shows his ability in the Champions League.
This is his first Champions League game as coach of the team, and neither he nor the entire team has adapted at all, feeling like a fish in water.
Looking at this performance, everyone can only sigh - it turns out that this kind of genius really exists in this world! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to register as a Piaotian Literature member to recommend this work
