After Chelsea lost at the Lion King Stadium, the voice coming out of Stamford Bridge was: When will Mourinho be dismissed?
The great situation in the league in the new season was in vain at the halfway point. Millwall made a strong comeback against Chelsea and went from lagging to leading. There was an astonishing 14-point gap!
Abramovich has clearly run out of patience with Mourinho.
But if the team coach is fired rashly in the middle of the season, even if Abramovich believes that the league is basically dead, Chelsea still has the Champions League, and the impact of the coaching change on Chelsea may be to completely ruin all fronts this season.
After all, in this Chelsea team, not only Mourinho’s direct team has main players like Carvalho Ferreira, but also the players he introduced after taking office, Drogba, Essien, Cech and other players who have a relationship with him
Obviously, if Mourinho leaves, no matter who the next coach is, if he wants to control the locker room, it may be difficult to achieve perfection in a short time.
Under the leadership of Aldridge, Millwall has moved forward steadily after adjusting back to its best form in the new season. The morale boost brought by the victory over Chelsea was very obvious, allowing them to win the Christmas Devils without losing a single point.
Achievements!
Entering 2006, Aldridge's life was on track. The Millwall team did not need reminders from the coaching staff and entered a rhythm of concentration in advance.
More conscious than ever.
For Millwall, the goal set for this season is very realistic. Although it seems far away, the players have set their sights there: the second three consecutive Champions League titles!
There is the World Cup in the summer and the UEFA presidential election at the end of the year. One thing after another, there are undercurrents surging behind the scenes.
In January, the FA Cup started. The substitute lineup, which had been rested and adjusted some time ago, began to show its power. Since joining the FA Cup team, it has been unstoppable. Facing non-Premier League teams, a single game margin of victory was more than 4 goals.
Big score games appear frequently!
Veterans like Nedved and Larsson lead the increasingly mature bench players, and the growth and improvement of Veloso, Moutinho, and Messi are obvious to all. Before the Champions League knockout rounds at the end of February, Millwall must make reasonable allocations
Players' physical fitness, like Aguero, will occasionally be called into the first team to play for about 20 minutes.
Before the arrival of the Champions League 1/8 finals, Millwall has expanded its lead in the Premier League to 6 points. In the past 6 Premier League games, Millwall has 3 wins and 3 draws. The results are not particularly good. In the first half, they
The terrifying winning streak that started in the middle of the season was also interrupted at this time.
In the end, Chelsea, who was not ranked second in the standings, did as expected. During the African Cup of Nations in January, the team's league results fluctuated. They achieved 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, and Millwall was better than them.
One more draw, so the points gap widened by 1 point.
After the FIFA match day in mid-February, England played the FA Cup schedule on the weekend. Millwall sent all substitutes to win the game, and then quietly waited for their opponents in the Champions League 1/8 finals to visit the Lion King Stadium.
The results of the draw were announced long ago.
Millwall vs Barcelona!
Most outside media commented on the draw results in anticipation of such a showdown between giants, but the Catalan media were somewhat aggrieved for Barcelona!
The Champions League's group stage draw system itself protects the interests of the wealthy teams. As long as the wealthy teams steadily obtain results that match their strength, the probability of encountering a strong team in the 1/8 knockout rounds will be relatively low.
For example, if Millwall wins the first place in the group, it is impossible for them to draw Barcelona, which also wins the first place in another group.
However, Millwall finished second in the group stage, allowing Inter Milan to take first place in the group.
Millwall itself doesn't care. It doesn't matter who is drawn. Just play as usual. This is not only Aldridge's mentality, but also the consensus of the entire Millwall team. This mentality has been emphasized and persisted over the years.
, shaped over time.
Therefore, the Catalan media cannot openly accuse Millwall of being unkind: It is too shameful to have the strength to be first in the group but not try its best to win the first place in the group!
They criticized Millwall with the same views and stance as UEFA, saying once again that Millwall lacks respect for the Champions League.
Damn, if you go all out in the group stage, can Inter Milan take first place in the group?
Don't be kidding, if you don't get double-killed by Millwall, you'll be in trouble!
Well now, Barcelona will face the European king and defending champion Millwall in the 1/8 finals.
At the pre-game press conference, Aldridge just accepted interviews in a routine manner and did not want to confront the media, no matter what the other party's position was.
In fact, apart from the local media, namely Fleet Street, Aldrich can ignore the media from other countries or regions.
After all, external attention is always temporary.
Just like the Catalan media is now focusing on Millwall, what is the point of Aldridge confronting them?
After the 1/8 finals, no matter what the result was, we basically had no contact with each other for a long time. The verbal dispute was like a shrew swearing in the street, which was meaningless.
On the other hand, Fleet Street has continuous influence in the local area. Once Aldrich starts a war with the media, most of the time the opponent will be Fleet Street. There is no way to allow Fleet Street to continue to exert influence on public opinion.
On February 23, the Lion King Stadium was packed with people.
Tonight there is a cool breeze and the sky is not particularly clear. Millwall faces the challenge of Barcelona at home.
Aldridge was at a loss for words. When he faced today's Barcelona team, he certainly didn't have the excitement of facing off against the "Dream No. 2 team in history."
At least Barcelona now lacks a core player from its original history: Ronaldinho.
However, without Ronaldinho, it does not mean that the team is worthless. The strength of the same period will have an impact, but the gap may be the distance between the peak and the first-class mid-level. Under the command of Black Swan Rijkaard, the new generation of Barcelona players he has vigorously cultivated are
Iniesta.
Of course, Aldridge has the credit for this. On the one hand, Ronaldinho was at Millwall, and on the other hand, many years ago, Aldridge tried to "seriously" introduce Iniesta from Barcelona.
This made Barcelona very vigilant. In addition to rejecting Millwall's formal purchase, they also paid more attention to Iniesta. After Rijkaard took office, they began to train Iniesta into a main player and play a role in the first team.
A more important role, after more than two years of training, although the young Iniesta has not yet reached his peak, he still has good combat effectiveness.
Rijkaard doesn't like London. He led his team to this city last season. It's just west of the Lion King Stadium, another famous stadium in the city. He led his team to play a knockout match with Chelsea, and the result almost cost him his career.
He was accused of "influencing the referee and secretly manipulating the game".
When I came to the Lion King Stadium today, I felt unprecedented pressure.
Stepping into this top-level stadium, he saw the young coach standing on the sideline and casting a friendly look at him. Rijkaard couldn't help but walked over. The two of them extended their hands to each other, just exchanged simple greetings and polite conversations.
, but there is a sense of immediacy that makes people happy.
Aldridge has no grudges against Rijkaard. At least he doesn't hate Barcelona. As a host, there is nothing wrong with welcoming guests with grace.
In his eyes, Rijkaard is a relatively regrettable character, not specifically referring to the chaos in the locker room during the original Dream II collapse, but to the fact that Rijkaard almost became famous in the 2000 European Cup.
In that European Cup, the Dutch team, one of the hosts, broke into the semi-finals under the leadership of Frank Rijkaard. Then, something tragic happened.
Dutch players stood in front of the penalty spot 6 times and missed the penalty 5 times!
Achievements in the "Miracle of Santo Toldo" that will last forever.
The longer Aldridge stayed as head coach, the more he felt sorry for Rijkaard.
Such a situation really makes the head coach extremely helpless!
6 penalty kicks, 5 missed free throws, and a chance to resolve the battle within regular time allowed Italy to perform a miracle of escaping from death.
Aldridge returned to his familiar position in this stadium and stood waiting for the game to begin.
Regarding the encounter with Barcelona, there must be pressure. Millwall is not strong enough to face Barcelona with the same mentality as a normal team, but the more pressure there is, the more excited the players and coach will be.
You can't become a god by abusing food!
The more king they are, the more they look forward to challenging games deep down in their hearts. This is the driving force for them to move forward. The difference is that perhaps when ordinary teams encounter this kind of pressure, no matter how challenging they may say on the surface, they are motivated.
Self-motivation may be a fearful emotion deep in the heart, which makes you very timid on the court. Being timid leads to poor performance.
But after all, Rijkaard is not one of Aldridge's most anticipated opponents in this era. The Barcelona he coaches is more like a product that is in line with the Dutch football philosophy. To put it nicely, it is elegant and beautiful, offensive football, but not to say it.
To put it bluntly, in fact, Rijkaard used a good hand of cards and constantly tried out strategies, then discovered the best strategy, and then fixed it.
Although Barcelona during this period was admittedly beautiful and elegant, and its offense was as unpredictable as the clouds in the sky, in the final analysis, as Rijkaard's height in football represented: that was it.
Compared with the later Guardiola who was able to present the "advantages" on the football field to the world in a completely three-dimensional way, bringing about subversive changes and truly raising the football style to the level of a substantive concept, what is Rijkaard's style?
These are just some popular modification definitions that can work for other coaches.
This is Barcelona, which is by no means unchanged for twenty years. Each period has different characteristics, and it is not really an inevitable qualitative change brought about by perseverance. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!
