Millwall's pre-season training has begun. Aldridge is at the team's training ground almost every day, personally supervising the players' training in various events, and instilling tactical ideas into the players during their breaks. He even knows how to
Discussing with each player individually their position on the field and the development of technical characteristics, he communicates directly without the need for an interpreter. In the past eight years, in addition to further football training courses, he has learned all the major languages used in Europe.
, although he is not proficient in it, he is more than capable of communicating with the players.
The young players here all have extraordinary talents, and Aldrich's guidance can only help them avoid detours. For example, Vieira, at 18 years old, still feels that he is the material to play a traditional center, and Makelele also took the initiative to enter.
In the role of full-back and so on.
Aldridge was patient and used the results in the training process to verify the correctness of his transformation of the players, but perhaps it was just his sincerity of diligently working with the players every day that moved the players. In a short time, Aldridge
Qi has established a good relationship with the players, which is a good foundation.
During daily training, Aldrich will participate in a competition that lasts only 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, there will be a penalty shootout regardless of the outcome.
This makes many players feel "dissatisfied".
After every match, the players would always ask Aldridge for another half hour? 20 minutes? 10 minutes is fine!
Who can enjoy playing football for 15 minutes?
Even if ordinary people play football, does it count as playing football for 15 minutes?
Such a short competition is to keep the players hungry and thirsty for the game. If they are exhausted and exhausted from training, then the excitement of the official game will be greatly reduced. Football training also needs to suppress first and then increase. Suppression in training
Players' desire to compete, and then let them completely unleash it on the green field and explode to their heart's content!
So when the players requested to extend the match, Aldridge always smiled and shook his head, and then he and other coaches picked up the footballs from all over the training ground and put them away. Although the club training ground had specialized workers, Aldridge
As long as I have time, I will also take care of this kind of miscellaneous work, which makes the atmosphere inside the club harmonious.
There are still two weeks until the kick-off of the English First Division. During these two weeks, the club has arranged three friendly matches to warm up. The opponents are Birmingham United, Oxford United and Peterborough United.
These three teams were all relegated to the second division last season. Naturally, Aldrich found such underdogs to train in order to build confidence for the boys.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, the stands of the Lion's Den Stadium were packed, probably because the stadium is too small, with a capacity of less than 20,000, and the spectators were naturally Millwall fans.
On this field, Aldrich ushered in its first opponent in the friendly match, Birmingham.
Aldridge walked out of the tunnel with his coaching staff early, came to the home team's coaching bench and sat down.
For a warm-up match, the tactical arrangements were issued yesterday and the lineup was finalized. Aldrich considered him to be a stable main player this season.
Goalkeeper: Casserly Keller.
Defenders: Thuram, Stam, Southgate, Lucas Neal.
Midfielder: Schneider, Makelele, Nedved, Pires.
Forwards: Larsson, Trezeguet.
What is more surprising about this appearance list is that 17-year-old Trezeguet appears in the starting lineup instead of 21-year-old Solskjaer.
There are six forwards in the team, the youngest is Trezeguet, the eldest is Larsson, followed by Solskjaer and Kevin Phillips.
Solskjaer was recognized by the coaches and players on the first day of team training, and even joked that the freely signed forward was the next Shearer picked up by Millwall.
But Aldridge can only make a painful choice because of this happy trouble. Solskjaer's technical characteristics overlap with Larson's. In the English game, Aldridge needs someone who can stand firm in the penalty area.
As a forward in the heel, Aldridge originally pinned his hopes on the king of the small penalty area, but the feeling shown by Van Nistelrooy in training somewhat disappointed Aldridge. Many players need a "realization" time.
Luca Toni and Ruud van Nistelrooy don't seem to have figured it out yet.
Trezeguet, who is only 17 years old but is physically strong, brave and courageous, showed impressive impact in training, which may have a lot to do with his early entry into the professional league in Argentina to participate in competitions.
Aldridge sat on the coaching bench and chatted casually with Janson. Janson had met and trained some stars in Ajax. He said that the current Millwall is full of expectations, although he regretted that it was far from Ajax.
There is still a gap in the talent of Ajax's stars, such as Overmars, Seedorf, Kluivert and other stars who are currently shining in the Ajax first team.
After hearing what Jenson said, Aldrich thought about it carefully and couldn't refute it.
From a technical point of view, the group of stars under his command are really not comparable to the large number of shining new stars in Ajax's contemporary era. Overmars's winger performance, which perfectly combines technique and speed, is simply gorgeous.
Aldridge shook his head and smiled bitterly. It was probably because of the football atmosphere and characteristics of the English league. He really deliberately avoided the kind of gorgeous and skillful players when recruiting players. Deep in his heart, he was afraid of who would be ruined by the English game.
Where is the master star?
However, in terms of the intensity of physical collisions alone, if you want to enter the Serie A arena, your physical cost is no lower than that of England. Italy's concrete defense and fierce collisions are like a steel impact, but England is slightly behind in technology and tactics.
It's just rough, the most basic physical confrontation in football is the same.
While chatting, Aldrich suddenly stood up from the coaching bench and suddenly noticed the strange atmosphere in the stands.
In his memory, the stands at the Lion's Den Stadium were noisy and full of people. If you listen carefully, there will be a lot of obscene songs arranged to attack the opponents, and there will never be a moment of peace.
But today, he found that the stadium stands were too peaceful.
He stood on the sidelines and looked around the stadium and found that the fans were sitting quietly in the stands. Except for some fans who held up commemorative scarves for the new season with Aldrich's name on them to express their support for the new head coach and owner, most of them
Fans still enjoy football, but in the past fans were easily infected by the surrounding environment. In recent years, English football has cracked down on football hooligans, at least in the Super League and the First Division. Millwall has achieved good results.
For key teams, the most active ones are only extreme fan groups like the Bushwackers.
It was probably Aldridge who stood up and appeared on the sidelines. The stands first burst into sparse applause, and then continued for a long time.
In the stands to the southeast of the stadium, Millwall’s team song rang out: No one likes us, I don’t care! (No one like us we don’t care)
Aldridge looked around the stands and sat back. He knew that most fans still supported him, but many of them had a wait-and-see attitude. After all, Aldridge directly destroyed their stable team lineup in recent years.
.
Soon, the players walked out of the tunnel. This was just an ordinary friendly match. It was not even broadcast on TV. The club's emcee took a microphone and announced the list of players one by one next to the tunnel.
Whenever a player's name spreads across the stadium, cheers and applause erupt from the stands.
They don't care how old these players are or where they were from before. As long as they know that they are wearing Millwall jerseys and working hard to win, that's enough. Support them until they die!
Aldridge walked over and shook hands with Birmingham's head coach politely, without saying much. Aldridge even thought to himself: It's best not to see him again in the future!
Birmingham will play in League Two next season, and unless it's a cup match, Aldridge certainly doesn't want to see the other team's coach again.
The game started soon. Aldrich sat on the coach's bench and watched the game quietly, as if he was in a trance and remained motionless for a long time.
Other coaches also watched the game, but they showed anxious expressions.
The average age of Millwall's lineup was only in their early twenties, and the players on the opposite side of Birmingham were experienced veterans. Once they came up, Birmingham took advantage of the field, with wave after wave of simple long passes.
The hanging created huge pressure on Millwall's defense.
After Birmingham's attack ended, Millwall's counterattack was not good and they made frequent mistakes. Even Schneider and Pires, who have exquisite skills, made low-level errors in passing and receiving.
The scene was very passive. Janson leaned into Aldrich's ear and asked, "Do you want to give them a heads up? They are too nervous."
Aldridge didn't blink and said calmly: "They haven't entered the rhythm of the game yet. Look, it's only been fifteen minutes. Schneider was gasping for air. As soon as he became nervous and sprinted so hard, he almost lost his brain.
It’s oxygen, it’s okay, let them feel it first. It’s just a friendly match, but our defense is very stable, which surprises me. It’s a good sign if we don’t concede the ball.”
The combination of Stam and Southgate has Stam in the air defense. Although it is a bit irritable occasionally, Thuram, who was born as a center back and switched to full back, and Southgate, who has excellent defensive awareness, can help him fill the position.
, the dangers in the defense were just false alarms, and Makelele and Nedved in the middle were top-notch in their defense and fighting, and Aldridge had no reason to be anxious.
The warm-up match is to let them regain the feeling of the game and get used to the rhythm of the game. When it comes to integrating the team's offensive and defensive cooperation, Aldridge's first priority is naturally defense. As long as there are no tactical flaws in the defense, there is no need for him to go to the sidelines to help the players.
Pressure, otherwise players such as Southgate, Thuram, Nedved and other players who have performed stably may mistakenly think that the head coach is dissatisfied with them.
