There were a total of 18 players in the Atletico Madrid team that went to Manchester, excluding the coach, team doctor, etc., but only 17 came back.
The news that Stam stayed in Manchester to recuperate soon spread, and the exact news of his injury also spread. For a 29-year-old veteran, three months of rest is long enough.
If he's not lucky, maybe he won't return to his previous form!
"Spending so much money to buy a 29-year-old veteran is a risky move in itself. Now it seems that Dick is not lucky enough. I hope Stam can return to his previous form after recovering from his injury. Otherwise, they
The investment in Stam was really a loss."
Many media have commented that Dick turned a deaf ear to this statement. This is true in itself, but Dick does not think that this investment will be a loss. After all, Stam can still maintain the top level for at least two or three years.
State, historically he performed extremely well when he moved to AC Milan at the age of 33.
Although he is injured now, Dick believes that in three months, he will have an equally outstanding Stam.
Besides, if Atletico Madrid’s purchase of Stam is a risk, then wouldn’t Real Madrid’s spending more than 60 million US dollars to buy the 29-year-old Zidane also be considered a risk? No one can clearly explain this kind of thing.
Yes, Dick's headache now is just how to minimize the loss caused by Stam's absence in the next games.
Stam was injured and Marchena returned to the main lineup again. However, Atletico Madrid's overall strength will definitely suffer some damage.
In the next round of the league, Atletico Madrid faced Athletic Bilbao at home. In the end, they stopped their winning streak in this game and were tied one to one by Athletic Bilbao at home. In this
In the game, Dick once again rotated part of the main lineup, and it was not unfair to be tied in the end. The only gain was that Jardel, who was in excellent form, scored again and continued to lead the La Liga scorer list.
After being tied, Atletico Madrid fell from the first position in the standings to second place, and was overtaken by Deportivo by one point. However, they still suppressed other teams. The previous winning streak had already made Atletico Madrid
They have regained the feeling of being in the league, and a draw will not affect them too much.
After encountering this draw, Atletico Madrid welcomed Lille at home in midweek. Dick gave a fatal order before the start of the game. He must defeat his opponent. Not only must he qualify one round in advance, but he must also lock in one round in advance.
First place in the group!
Amid the cheers of 50,000 fans at the Calderon Stadium, despite Lille's stubborn resistance, Atletico Madrid still won the game. Jorgensen, who came on as a substitute in the second half, opened the scoring for the team.
After equalizing the score, Jardel's third goal in a week helped Atletico Madrid win the game. Atletico Madrid defeated Lille 2-1 and achieved four consecutive victories in the group stage, one round ahead of the competition.
Won first place in the group!
After winning this game, Atletico Madrid's points reached 13 points. Although Manchester United defeated Olympiacos with three goals at home and qualified for the group ahead of schedule, they were four points behind Atletico Madrid and could only settle for second place.
Dick is very happy to be able to qualify for the group stage one round in advance. This allows the substitutes in the last round to get a chance to play, and the main players can rest for a while to prepare for the next league, King's Cup and Champions League second stage group stage.
the match of.
Of course, it is still unknown what kind of group Jockey Club will be divided into in the second stage.
However, as the first place in the group, Atletico Madrid should be assigned to a relatively good group.
Perhaps out of relief, Atletico Madrid encountered Waterloo in the next round of the league. They unexpectedly lost to Alaves 0-1 away from home - their advantage in this game was not actually small.
, however, Alaves relied on excellent defense and did not concede the ball. Instead, they counterattacked and won with a header from Argentinian defender Coloccini, who was on loan from AC Milan - Coloccini in this game.
He was the best player in the game. While his defensive performance was eye-catching, he also showed excellent offensive status. After receiving a corner kick from his teammate, he jumped in front of Marchena and headed the ball into the dead center of the goal.
To a certain extent, Atletico Madrid's defeat can be regarded as paying the price for Stam's injury. Although Marchena performed very hard, his air defense ability was inferior to Stam's. In addition, Atletico Madrid
Sporting's defense has become accustomed to the sense of stability brought by Stam, and they now have to slowly adapt to Marchena's presence.
In this regard, Dick did not put any pressure on Marchena. No matter how many players he rotated, he would not rotate two central defenders. Firstly, because the position of central defender does not consume too much physical energy, and secondly, he wanted to ensure the defense.
stable.
The good thing is that Atletico Madrid can relax a little bit. The final round of the Champions League group stage is just a formality for them.
In the away game against Olympiakos, Dick not only used Marchena and Stam to partner as central defenders, but also sent substitute players to all other positions. In this game, Marchena's performance was obviously due to the previous consecutive
He recovered a lot after playing the game. He performed very well in the game and blocked the opponent's offense. Atletico Madrid finally drew 0-0 with the opponent in the away game and lifted its head from the group with an unbeaten record of four wins and two draws.
After qualifying, Manchester United also drew with Lille. In the end, Lille won the third place in the group and qualified for the UEFA Cup, while Olympiacos went home.
Interestingly, Atletico Madrid double defeated Manchester United and Lille in the group stage, but drew with Olympiacos consecutively. However, Olympiacos only got three points in the group stage, and two of them came from Atletico Madrid.
From this point of view, Atletico Madrid's performance is indeed not stable enough, and it does not perform as well as an established team like Manchester United...
After playing the away game, Dick asked Marchena to lead the team back to Madrid, while he flew to Lausanne, Switzerland, to participate in the draw ceremony for the second stage of the Champions League group stage.
"It's really troublesome...the first stage of the group stage, the second stage of the group stage, the quarter-finals draw, the semi-finals draw, now in addition to playing so many games in the Champions League a season, there are also so many draws.
No wonder it was reformed within two years. Although we can make a lot of money, such intensive competitions and frequent draws can really make people feel tired."
On the plane flying to Switzerland, Dick was thinking in his mind. At the same time, he was also wondering which teams in the group Jockey Club would be divided into. Among the teams that qualified this time, there were three teams in La Liga, except
In addition to Mallorca being rushed to play in the UEFA Cup, Deportivo La Coruna and Real Madrid have both qualified in the group. Atletico Madrid will not be in the same group with them, and Manchester United and Atletico Madrid have played against each other in the first group stage, so
They will not be grouped together. In other words, there are only twelve other teams that can be in the same group as Atletico Madrid.
Liverpool in England, Arsenal in Italy, Juventus in Italy, Roma, Bayern Munich in Germany, Bayer Leverkusen, Porto in Portugal, Boavista, Nantes in France, Galatasaray in Turkey, Paris Saint-Germain in Greece.
Natsinaikos and Sparta Prague in the Czech Republic.
The strong opponents are nothing more than the six teams from England, Italy and Germany. None of them are easy opponents to deal with, and six of them are slightly weaker, and Roma, Arsenal and Leverkusen are all in the group.
For second place, if Atletico Madrid is placed in a group with a strong first-place team, and then is paired with one of the second-place teams from these three groups, then this group will be very difficult. If you are unlucky,
If the two second-placed teams in the group come from these three teams...tsk, tsk, tsk, that would be a standard group of death...
Roma is at its strongest now, although Batty's form has begun to decline. Arsenal has historically won the Premier League this season, while Leverkusen... is in excellent form and has a state and performance this season.
No matter who he meets, Ballack, who is so unbelievable, is not easy to fight.
And those who are ranked first in the group are not easy targets to deal with. The cruelty of the second stage of the group stage is here, because the teams that can appear at the draw are all teams that have stood out after fierce battles! If
The next step is to play the knockout rounds, and you may be able to defeat the opponent through luck. However, in the second stage of the group stage, the characteristics of the group stage reduce the element of luck to almost a minimum. Only strength, absolute strength, can complete the group stage.
Qualifying results!
With Arsenal's strength, they have not been able to reach the knockout rounds of the Champions League until now, which is enough to prove the cruelty of the current two-leg group stage of the Champions League!
Of course, compared with when the Champions League had not yet expanded, it was only divided into six groups, and then the cruel competition between the first place in the six groups and the second place in the two best groups entered the knockout quarter-finals. The current two-round group stage
It's pretty simple.
When Dick entered the lottery ceremony, the other head coaches looked at Dick differently.
Before, Dick was just a young head coach who had achieved certain results. Although his performance in winning the UEFA Cup and La Liga championship last season was outstanding enough, he still lacked the foundation - the so-called foundation, for the coach, means that he won the championship.
The number! You must know that there is no shortage of amazing head coaches in the world who quickly achieve outstanding results as soon as they coach the team. However, if there is no long-term performance foundation, they will be quickly forgotten, just like
Like Deschamps later, he reached the Champions League final as soon as he coached Monaco. He was in the limelight for a while, but after failing to achieve any results, he was quickly forgotten. When people were discussing Mourinho
When Odo was so good, he completely forgot that Deschamps was no less popular than Mourinho in the 2003-04 Champions League.
However, after that year, Mourinho quickly became the top head coach with a series of outstanding results at Chelsea, and then became a god with the same success at Inter Milan and Real Madrid. What about Deschamps? The most disappointing thing.
The most memorable achievement is leading the relegated Juventus back to Serie A, so naturally it cannot be the same!
After the start of this season, Dick led Atletico Madrid to continue to perform well, making his position more and more stable. Winning the Spanish Super Cup and the European Super Cup may still be said to be luck, but in the Champions League group
A double victory over Manchester United in the game was an amazing achievement. While performing well in the Champions League, he was also able to remain competitive enough in the league. All of this was enough for Dick to gain the respect of more people!
In this circle, strength is king! As a player, it means excellent personal performance, and as a head coach, it means excellent coaching ability! With such strength, no matter what, you will not worry about having nowhere to go!
