Before the start of the 2001-02 season, there was considerable movement in Spanish football.
The personnel changes of Atletico Madrid, the league champion last season, were not too big. The addition of Stam caused quite a stir. The addition of such a top central defender means that Atletico Madrid's lineup is more complete, and it also increases the number of players.
In addition to their experience in participating in the Champions League, although they did not spend a lot of money this summer, such stable additions mean that Atletico Madrid has begun to stabilize and get on the right track - a team like this is even more terrifying.
Real Madrid began to formally propose the strategy of one superstar per year. The addition of Zidane expanded their midfield strength. Apart from Zidane, they did not make much movement. Instead, they were promoted from the second team.
Three young players, Ruben, Raul Bravo, and Pavon Valencia were shocked this summer. Coach Cooper was poached by Inter Milan, and Mendieta chose to transfer to Lazio. They used their reputation
Benitez, who is not that big, serves as the head coach, and the joining of players such as Mista, Salva, and Rufete also supplements their strength. Deportivo continues their low-spending business strategy, while Barcelona
After making up their minds, they first introduced Saviola, who shone in the World Youth Championship, and then introduced two young Brazilian players, Rosenback and Giovanni. At the same time, the defense was also strengthened, and French central defender Christian Valle was introduced.
The addition of legendary Swedish central defender Patrick Anderson seems to have weakened their defense's fear of high-altitude balls. Real Madrid and Barcelona still spend the most money. It is obvious that they are not willing to be beaten by players like Atletico Madrid.
The team was suppressed beneath him.
Regarding this point, Dick naturally knew that this season would definitely be much more difficult than last season - La Liga has always been a duo of Real Madrid and Barcelona, and other teams have never won the championship occasionally. This has never been the case.
It can be seen from the fact that Atletico Madrid has won the championship nine times and is ranked third in terms of the number of championships it has won. However, last season Atletico Madrid won the league championship despite reorganization and continued to make signings in an orderly manner this summer. This made Atletico Madrid
Real Madrid and Barcelona are beginning to feel greater danger.
To be honest, for the previous Hill, whether it was the top management of Real Madrid or the top management of Barcelona, they were all dismissive, because Hill was typically a layman. Although he also spent money and introduced superstars and coaches, however
His actions are all short-term actions and are not enough to make Atletico Madrid a truly strong team. Including Atletico Madrid spent 100 million in the transfer market last season, and Real Madrid and Barcelona did not do anything to them.
Be careful, because in Spain, only they can become each other's opponents, and other teams are not very qualified.
However, last season Atletico Madrid won the league championship under those circumstances, which was enough to make them feel wary, and this season Atletico Madrid's calm and targeted transfer operations in the transfer market also made them feel wary.
Huge threats - Hill who spends money randomly is not scary, nor is Dick, the head coach who is like a mad dog and can lead the team to victory, but if Dick has Hill's financial support and the influence he receives at the club,
Maximum support, being able to lead the team to the championship wholeheartedly - that would be quite scary. In other words, Hill's financial resources will not be wasted like before, and Atletico Madrid's results every season will be stable.
In this way, after two or three years, Atletico Madrid will be able to grow into a team that can compete with Real Madrid and Barcelona in all aspects!
When the two heroes coexist, the emergence of a third-level team is completely inconsistent with the interests of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Deportivo has some inherent shortcomings, and Valencia cannot compare with Real Madrid and Barcelona in terms of financial resources.
Atletico Madrid is different. Their support in Madrid is not inferior to Real Madrid. Hill is not a chairman without money. He was not particularly successful before. The main reason is that Hill likes to mess around. Now a Dick has appeared.
, can be said to be the last good piece of the puzzle for Atletico Madrid.
"Well, it seems like a good feeling to be ranked third in the entire Western Premier League like Jose did..." Dick thought in his mind.
This season's La Liga will officially kick off the first round of games on August 26th - this is because next year is a big competition year, so this season's La Liga will start earlier than usual. As the defending champion of La Liga and
The UEFA Cup champion, Atletico Madrid also has some games to play before the start of the season. Atletico Madrid will face last season's King's Cup champion Zaragoza on August 19th and August 22nd, and then in the league
After the first round, they will usher in the European Super Cup on August 31st. Their opponent is last season's Champions League champion, Bundesliga hegemon Bayern.
Having such a dense schedule at the beginning of the season would naturally not be too advantageous, but Dick didn't care much about it. It didn't matter whether he could win the Spanish Super Cup or not. He planned to use these two games to train the newcomers. Only formal
The league and European Super Cup games are what he cares about.
Dick will lose interest in a championship that he has won once. In this regard, Dick is also a very new and old person, but of course, a championship like the league championship will not make people win no matter how many times it is won.
Feeling bored is still a matter of the importance of the event.
Zaragoza's performance last season was very average, but they finally won the Copa del Rey, which restored the morale of their players a lot. This season they also have certain signings. For Zaragoza
, if they can win the Spanish Super Cup, it may boost their morale.
In the following period, Atletico Madrid began their pre-season training. After completing the physical training, various tactical training began. Marriner arranged a large number of offensive routines, such as dividing the ball in the midfield and then flanking the wing.
Playing a high ball, for example, after the ball is distributed to the wing, the wing passes it back to Belleron. Belleron passes the ball to Jardel or Cruz who pulls out of the penalty area, and at the same time attracts the defensive players in the opponent's penalty area.
Then create opportunities for the players on the wing, and then the cooperation of the two centers at the front of the penalty area, etc. Most of them use the tactics of two forwards to attack, whether it is a fast team composed of Vicente and Jorgensen.
On both wings, it is better to have a more balanced midfield composed of Belleron, Baraja, Makelele and Camoranesi, and various tactics are being practiced constantly.
After such a large number of drills, the players began to realize that in the new season, the team will use more double-center tactics instead of the single center of last season.
This is naturally a good thing for the forwards. Last season, Atletico Madrid mainly played as a lone forward, Cruz often came on as a substitute, Torres also got some opportunities in the rotation, and Correa rarely had the chance to play.
, if we play with two forwards this season, whether it is Torres or Correa, I am afraid there will be more opportunities to come off the bench.
However, in this way, the number of midfielders seems to be a bit small. After Jorgensen and Haji joined, the competition in Atletico Madrid's midfield began to become fierce. Last season, eight people competed for five positions.
, this season has become nine people competing for five positions. If it suddenly becomes four positions, the competition in the midfield will definitely become very, very fierce.
The players did not show this, because it is obvious that through the success of last season, Dick's prestige has increased a lot. Now Dick is not relying solely on the power of old Hill to suppress
He actually has his own power and voice within the Atletico Madrid club - there are now more than a dozen players in the team who he personally introduced, including Belleron and Baraja.
His direct descendants, Jardel, Cruz, Makelele, Thuram, Stam, Vicente and Camoranesi were introduced by him, and Torres was extremely impressed by Dick... The current horse
Even if we don't say it's a monolithic interior, it's not much different.
As long as the results of his team are always good, no matter which player is suppressed by him on the bench, he will not dare to express any dissatisfaction, or he will choose to leave like Beybour. If he still wants to stay at Atletico Madrid, just be honest with me.
Really wait for opportunities on the bench - Dick is not the kind of coach who only uses 13 or 4 players. Most of the substitutes can still have some opportunities to play.
Pre-season training is relatively boring, but no player will find it unnecessary. Everyone knows what a team's pre-season training means. There is plenty of time for players to reserve physical fitness, adapt to new tactics, and make cooperation more efficient.
There is a tacit understanding, so for many teams, it is very important to be able to finalize the team lineup in advance, so that the team can have more running-in time. If a player's transfer is delayed until the transfer window
If it is closed, then his performance this season will probably drop a lot. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, Ronaldo won the league championship and best scorer when he moved to Real Madrid, and Sneijder won the league title when he moved to Inter Milan at the last moment.
One example is that he almost became the World Footballer when he won the Triple Crown, but it is obvious that there are far fewer examples of success compared to examples of failure.
So whether it was physical training or tactical training, everything started in an orderly manner. No matter how the tactics changed, the central defender combination chosen by Dick was Thuram and Stam, the superstar central defender pairing. No one was dissatisfied.
After all, the two of them are famous, and they quickly showed their abilities during the training camp.
Thuram's performance last season convinced everyone, and Stam also showed his fierce confrontation, excellent frontal defensive ability, excellent air defense ability, and Thuram's quick turn and accurate positioning.
They perfectly complement each other when paired together.
Seeing the performance of the two central defenders in training, Dick became more and more satisfied. In the history he knew, these two central defenders had never worked together. He was also a little worried about whether the two of them could work together.
The cooperation is good, but I remember that Stam's partnership with Nesta was also very good when he was at Lazio. Thuram happens to be a central defender closer to Nesta, so he should be able to cooperate with Stam.
Good - now it seems that the effect is still very good.
But in this way, Marchena is a little depressed. The young Spanish central defender became Atletico Madrid's main force in the second half of last season. As a result, when Stam came this season, he continued to be reduced to a substitute - not that
I am not convinced by Stam, but everyone would feel depressed in this situation.
However, Dick had other plans for him. Marchena could not only play as a central defender, but also as a defensive midfielder. During training, Dick began to let him train in these two positions in turns. After understanding this, Marchena
Na is starting to feel less depressed - obviously, as the first substitute at both the central defender and defensive midfielder positions, he will have a lot of playing opportunities.
"Now, just wait for the Super Bowl to start and let me practice some troops." Dick thought in his heart.
