Benitez used wine to drown his sorrows, and he didn't get drunk even after drinking beer. He seemed to be grumbling but also speaking from the bottom of his heart. He said in a deep voice: "I really envy you."
Aldrich crossed his legs and said, "What's there to envy? I'm walking on thin ice coaching the team, I'm always on tenterhooks."
"Tell me about your team building process. After I was fired, I watched game videos at home for a month, trying to figure out the reason for my failure, but I couldn't find an answer to convince myself."
In the coaching profession, those who have the potential to become excellent coaches must have a tenacity deep in their hearts that refuses to admit defeat.
Aldridge got up and went to get a few bottles of beer and put them on the coffee table, and said sadly: "The only advantage I have over you is that when I took over the team, I had the power to tear down the team and rebuild it. At that time, Millwall
It is one of the top six teams in English League One, and there are many players in the team.
There are capable players, but I can only let them go because they will not listen to me, and the way of thinking about playing football cannot be changed in the short term. Therefore, I cleaned the team and then bought the players I wanted. No.
, should be said to be the best player I can buy."
Benitez raised his hand to interrupt him and said confusedly: "What do you mean? I watched the live broadcast of Millwall's game. Your players are great. Why, aren't they what you want?"
Aldridge shook his head and said: "No, it can only be said that I choose the best under limited conditions. Look at the players on my team, where did they come from before? Larsson was hired from the Netherlands.
Trezeguet was brought back from Argentina, Schneider
From the Bundesliga second division team, Nedved is from Eastern Europe. Stam is from a weak team in the Netherlands. In the main lineup, Thuram, Southgate, Makelele, Pires. Plus Larsson, this
Several people spent almost 10 million pounds! Two years ago
, Fleet Street is laughing at me for being a foolish upstart, but I want to poach Ajax’s main players, poach good players from Italian teams, and poach Ligue 1’s rising stars, regardless of whether the club will sell them or not.
, how many players will be willing to come to Millwall?
Ah? Just like that, if I hadn’t signed automatic termination clauses with many players in their contracts for failure to upgrade, they might not have come! When they first came here, they were gold diggers! The salary I gave them was several times or even more than their original salary.
Dozens of times.”
Benitez couldn't turn his head. He asked nonchalantly: "But you obviously made money. How much is Larsson worth now? How much is Nedved worth?"
Aldridge shook his head and smiled bitterly: "You can't calculate like that. Let me give you a simple example. How much was George Weah worth when he moved to Paris Saint-Germain in 1992? 5 million U.S. dollars. How much did I spend on Thuram in 1994?
?3 million pounds! And Weah is a striker,
Thuram is a defender. If it were you, you would definitely think I was out of my mind! I spent more than one million pounds on Pires. Do you think the owner of the other club would feel a loss? I also spent money on Makelele.
For over two million pounds, he was a full-back in the team."
Benitez was stunned. In this era, the value of offensive players is obviously much higher than that of defensive players. Even in Italy, which is famous for defense, defensive players are at most closing the gap with offensive players.
Zidane will transfer to Juventus in the summer of 1996. What is the transfer value? 3 million euros, of course. There were no euros at this time, so it was calculated based on the exchange rate, but this value is also related to the player's contract period.
Although the current Ligue 1 status in European football is higher than that of later generations, it is not the center of European football.
The difficulty for Aldridge in buying players is obvious. He hired a few mainstays with high salaries and high prices. Then the rest were to bring in undiscovered talents from second- or even third-tier European leagues.
Benitez figured it out and said, "This way, it will be easy for you to build the team."
Aldrich sneered, waved to him and then got up and went upstairs. Benitez put down the bottle and followed him.
On the second floor, there is a room where Aldridge specializes in studying his own team. The shelves in the room are filled with videotapes, all of which are the team's game and training videos.
He pointed to a row of video tapes on the shelf and said: "When you watch all the Millwall game tapes from last season in order, and then watch the game tapes from this season in order, you will know what my process of building the team is like.
Already."
Benitez was very interested in the video tape. He sat on the single sofa and started playing the video tape. Moreover, he did not regard himself as an outsider. He picked up a notebook and a pen from the desk next to him, watched the video and started playing it.
Write and draw in the notebook.
The video lasted for more than 90 minutes. When he fast-forwarded and deliberately slowed down, Aldrich was by his side.
Late at night, after watching Millwall's first ten games last season, Benitez turned back to Aldridge and said: "Isn't your team's tactics too monotonous at the beginning?"
Aldrich shrugged and said: "What do you think? You buy players and then let them be perfect directly? These players are like a piece of loose sand when they first arrive on the team. You have to water them, mix them, and shape them step by step with your own hands.
The sand will not turn into a sandcastle on its own.”
Only then did Benitez understand what Aldridge meant by walking on thin ice.
The team needs a shaping process at the beginning, and there is also a question of order, whether to start with offense or defense. There is no absolute priority between the two, but they both require patience and skills. Aldrich just chose
Just start with defense. Some coaches can train the team's offense at the beginning, and then gradually make up for the defense during the process of gaining momentum, and finally achieve a balance between offense and defense. Both approaches lead to the same goal.
Aldrich's team is young and the heavy blow of failure is unbearable, so he can only start with defense.
"I'm going to bed."
Aldridge said hello and turned around to leave. Benitez just nodded and continued to watch the video. For coaches like them who study tactics, once they start studying the game video, they enter a crazy world.
In this state, you often cannot feel the passage of time, and will only stop when you are mentally exhausted and your brain goes blank. Benitez is in a state of excitement now. He wants to study the secret of Millwall's success, so even if the time comes
Late at night, he didn't plan to take a rest.
Aldrich just thought that he was here for vacation and he still had work to do. If he didn't greet him well, he wouldn't greet him well. He was going to bed anyway.
The next day, when Aldridge went out, Benitez was sitting on the sofa in that studio, fast asleep. Aldridge ignored him and returned to the team to conduct training.
Because the club also fined the fan responsible for the incident, the relationship between Millwall and the fans has become very tense in the past few days.
The fans were divided into two groups. On one side were the demonstrations led by extreme fans, and on the other side were the fans led by Brady's roar, who held banners outside the training field.
One side read "Aldrich you failed us!"
The other side reads "Always support the Mad Lion!"
It seems that the two are incompatible, and there is no intention of confrontation in it, but Aldridge is the owner of the club after all. The declaration of Lion's Roar can be regarded as cheering for Aldridge.
The atmosphere outside the training ground was a little distracting for the players. After all, the noise outside the field was annoying.
However, in the following days, the extreme fans who caused trouble in East London were taken away by the police for investigation. Before the weekend league, the voices of the opponents became weaker and weaker, because the instigators among them entered the police station.
The Lion's Den Stadium was packed with seats. Millwall's stadium was originally small. As the team's fame grew, the stands were full and neutral fans who wanted to watch the game were unable to buy tickets.
In the penultimate round of the league, Millwall faced Aston Villa at home.
This is the third time the two teams have met this season.
In the previous league and League Cup finals, Millwall's record was one draw and one win.
Aldridge sat in the box to watch the game with his father, and Benitez also appeared beside him to watch the game.
When Aldridge heard the commentator announcing Aston Villa's lineup and formation on the box TV, he was speechless.
He was filled with gloom and originally planned to send a substitute to play this game, but yesterday the locker room collectively asked for all the main players to play. The players naturally wanted to compete for the league championship. Aldridge faced the players who were united, but he could not
Against their collective will, they can only choose to compromise.
Aston Villa is currently ranked fifth in the Premier League. Although from the traditional ranking point of view, they can only hope to enter the European competition next season if they break into the top four. However, the FA Cup semi-final list has been released, except for Manchester United and Millwall.
In addition, the other semi-final is between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Unless Nottingham Forest can finally win the cup, otherwise, the top four teams will get a ticket to the European Cup Winners' Cup, then the fifth in the league will get a ticket.
A ticket to the UEFA Cup.
There is little hope of entering the top four, because the first group is Newcastle United, Manchester United, and Millwall. Liverpool is left behind by the top three, but Liverpool can open up a six-point gap between the teams behind it. Therefore,
The competition for fifth place in the league is fierce.
In addition to Aston Villa, who is temporarily ranked fifth, there are also Arsenal, Everton, Blackburn, Tottenham, and Nottingham Forest. The smallest gap between them is a tie, and the largest is four points. The league also has
After five rounds, everyone hopes to get fifth place.
Because of this cruel situation where every point must be fought for, Brian Little, after setting up a 532 defensive formation in the League Cup final, went even more thorough today at the Lion's Den Stadium and set up a 541 formation.
The attitude is obvious: I just want one point!
The game turned into a half-time offensive and defensive exercise. Millwall was unable to do anything against Aston Villa's iron wall, especially when the opponent strengthened a midfielder.
Seeing that Millwall's offense was failing, Benitez turned to Aldridge and said: "The opponent's formation should be 5131. If you want to be more detailed, it is 14131."
Aldridge nodded, Aston Villa was really determined to get a draw.
In addition to Simeca's deep-lying central defender, midfielder Taylor also plays a similar role as a deep-lying central defender behind the three midfielders, except that he is a back-and-forth sweeping midfielder, while the three midfielders are originally defensive.
Basically, Aston Villa's defensive system has truly become a solid fortress with double insurance inside and outside.
Millwall's offense was only smooth on the outside, but when it came to the dangerous area, it was overwhelmed by the dense defense and it was difficult for Murabe to advance.
"How to break it?"
"It can only rely on luck. Millwall's tactical system this season is a bit difficult to face dense defense. The wings are strong and the center is weak. Next season I will make the wings as strong as the center."
Aldridge is a little helpless. This is a problem with the tactical system. Just like if Arsenal plays 532 and faces a dense defense, most of them will be a boring 0:0.
Millwall's current 442 is strong on the wing, but only relying on Nedvěd in the middle is a bit overwhelming. With the opponent constantly marking him, he doesn't have much space to play.
In the end, the game was settled at a score of 0:0.
In the entire game, Aston Villa had zero shots and Millwall only hit the target with five of their seventeen shots.
Aston Villa and Millwall take one point each.
I originally thought that Millwall's title challenge was over, but the news from the other side was unbelievable.
Newcastle United drew with Leeds United and Manchester United lost to Southampton away from home.
Millwall still maintains a three-point gap with Newcastle United, but is tied with Manchester United and climbed to second place in the standings relying on a greater goal difference than the opponent.
