Newcastle United, which was two goals behind at home, began a strong counterattack. The backcourt players rushed forward, and their aggressive appearance actually frightened Millwall.
In the 84th minute of the game, their efforts paid off. Ginola passed the ball to the goal through a personal performance, and Newcastle United headed the ball into the goal through a header relay.
Bute was a little unwilling to do so. He blocked the near post, but Clark, who stepped in and grabbed the front goal, headed the ball towards the back post. It is difficult to say that he did it intentionally. Maybe his header was not accurate.
, anyway, Ferdinand, who was in the back post, smiled and accepted the assist.
"1:2, 1:2, there are almost ten minutes left in the game plus injury time. Will Newcastle United perform a miracle? Will it? As long as they can equalize the score, even if Manchester United wins, they will still be one point ahead of Manchester United.
!”
It has to be said that this season's Premier League title race has come to the last minute to be able to stage such a plot, which really makes the commentator extremely excited.
No matter what, the Premier League title race will definitely last until the last round, just like last year's scenario.
After losing the ball, Aldridge was still sitting on his seat with his chin in his hands. When the players looked at him, he just made an understatement and made a downward gesture, telling the players not to panic and just play normally.
Besides, what a panic!
We are in the lead.
No matter what the result is, the league championship basically has nothing to do with us.
So what if we win this one?
Do you hope that neither Manchester United nor Newcastle United will win in the last game?
Stop putting pressure on yourself.
Just play it as a normal game.
Keegan was very excited and yelled at the players on the court, waving his arms and asking them to go back and get ready for kick-off.
No matter what, he will fight for a draw and come back.
Newcastle United followed the same example and continued their onslaught. After losing the ball, Millwall's players became familiar with their rhythm of attacking like a pack of wolves. The players changed quickly and consciously kicked the ball in the midfield and backcourt when clearing the ball.
The ball is lobbed toward the opponent's back half.
In the 88th minute of the game, Gattuso made a clearance and the ball fell into the right side of the frontcourt. The unmarked Shevchenko started quickly, as fast as lightning.
After getting the ball, he started a long-distance run. Newcastle United didn't even have a defender!
The opponent's goalkeeper attacked, but Shevchenko didn't want to take credit. He passed the ball to the center, then inserted the running youngster Van Nistelrooy and took the ball straight to the empty goal. After entering the penalty area, he slowed down and gently used the arch of his foot.
Push shot. The ball slowly rolled into the goal.
There was silence at St James' Park.
Ruud was very excited and ran over to hug Shevchenko.
This was his first Premier League goal and he couldn't help but be excited.
The selfless Shevchenko's performance in this game is also quite bright, and his score of every pass and shot is enough to prove his strength.
Keegan stood there as if struck by lightning, just standing there without saying a word until the game was over.
Newcastle United players walked off in frustration.
Aldridge politely walked over to Keegan to shake hands. During the last league meeting, Aldridge also said in front of the opponent that he wished the other side to win the league championship.
But today, he raised his sword and killed the leader.
Newcastle United has occupied the top position in the standings since the second round of the league. In the penultimate round of the league, they were overtaken by Manchester United. The points are the same, but Manchester United has a greater goal difference.
This psychological gap was really unbearable for Keegan. The Newcastle United coaching staff all stared nervously at Keegan, who was stunned on the spot.
Seeing his appearance, Aldrich felt a little apologetic in his heart.
Even though Millwall was double beaten by Newcastle United in the cup last season, Keegan said something that provoked conflict between the two, but Aldridge felt that there was no need for the two to have a tense relationship, and it was not irreconcilable.
Hatred.
This season, Millwall defeated Newcastle United three times in the Premier League and Cup, which was considered revenge for last season, but this revenge seemed to be too harsh. It directly kicked away the league lead that the opponent had maintained for more than half a year, and
Maybe he would have to watch Ferguson, who had humiliated him for months, lead Manchester United back to the top.
Aldrich, who was about to shake hands, suddenly stopped, sighed and turned to leave. However, before he could take more than two steps, someone grabbed his arm again.
He looked back and found Keegan staring at him with a serious face. Aldrich was afraid that the other party would be hit too hard. At this moment, he was feeling a bit too arrogant and wanted to act arrogant, so he asked warily: "Is something wrong?"
"Find a place where no one is around to chat privately."
Aldrich stared at him without making any comment.
Keegan quickly let go of his hand and said solemnly: "Don't worry, I won't beat you."
Aldrich laughed and said, "I'm afraid you'll lose if I take action. Others will scold me for not respecting the elderly and caring for the young."
Keegan was not interested in joking and invited Aldridge directly into his office.
Unlike Aldridge and other coaches who are close to each other who get together after the game and forget about the game to talk and laugh, Kevin Keegan hurriedly poured Aldridge a glass of wine, then sat in front of him and asked seriously:
"Aldrich, do you hate me?"
Aldrich shrugged and said, "I don't hate it, and I don't like it either."
"Why?"
"Because I have no grudge against you. It's normal to quarrel sometimes. Anyway, I don't think I'm being petty. The reason for my dislike is also very simple. I've never seen you play football. Although you are famous, I don't admire you.
When I was a child, I watched football and admired Maradona. Secondly, as a head coach, I don’t think you have anything worthy of my admiration.”
When Keegan heard this, he frowned and lowered his head, seeming to be thinking about something.
What's more interesting is that after he retired, he spent eight years idle at home, living a very comfortable life, fishing and growing flowers, and occasionally traveling. He was much richer than many stars of his generation because he joined the club at the end of his career.
When he was at Newcastle United, Newcastle United was too poor to afford him a high salary, so Keegan added a clause in his contract: If the home attendance exceeds 5,000, I will share the extra ticket revenue.
.
At the time, attendance at St. James' Park was bleak, and Keegan's conditions were accepted by Newcastle United. Then, relying on his popularity, he made a lot of money.
Aldridge also had eight years of coaching before, but he spent eight years learning.
Keegan needs to be famous and famous, and he needs money to be a head coach. Not counting someone with a special status like Aldridge, Keegan's total assets should be among the top ten in the world.
Therefore, his pursuit is very simple, that is, coaching achievements.
Over the years of coaching the Magpies, Keegan has lost to Manchester United many times, but he doesn't think Ferguson is anything special. Manchester United has many stars and strong players. Even if they lose to Manchester United, the outside world won't think Newcastle United has anything to complain about. It's just their skills.
Not as good as human beings.
Even though Manchester United has let go of many key players in the transfer market this season and made zero investment, the team still has veterans such as Schmeichel, Cantona Keane, Pallister, and Irvine.
Speaking of Manchester United's renewal, it is actually just the five little tigers who have begun to take the lead. Among them, except for Beckham and Phil Neville, it is their first Premier League season. Others such as Giggs, Scholes, and Gary Neville
, Bart has already appeared in the first team games in the past two seasons.
Therefore, compared to losing to Manchester United, Keegan may still feel a little unconvinced.
But in Aldrich's league double defeat against Newcastle United, the first time was with a semi-main lineup, and the second time, today, was with a full substitute lineup.
He was convinced that he lost. After all, he lost 1:3 at home. What reason could he find to comfort himself?
"Aldrich, can you tell me the truth?"
"Why should I lie to you?"
"Don't you want to tease me and see me make a fool of myself?"
"That's your villainous heart."
"Okay, what do you think is Newcastle United's problem?"
"Defense."
Keegan sighed and said distressedly: "Everyone is saying that Newcastle United's defense has problems. But, what is the problem? No one can tell. It's like everyone scolds you, but why?
And I can’t explain the reason clearly.”
Aldrich touched his wine glass and said casually: "Because there is no universal defensive system that can be applied to all teams. We must develop defensive strategies based on the characteristics of the players, learn from each other's strengths, and compensate for each other's weaknesses. Some defenders are slow.
Some defenders make reckless moves, some defenders have poor anticipation, and some
The defenders are not tall enough, and speaking more broadly, where are the areas with weak defense? Where are the areas most likely to lose the ball? Where will the opponent's offense focus? This all needs to be studied. You can't train the team today.
Once it's polished and formed, the next day you can sit back and relax and let the players play."
Keegan was dumbfounded. He was definitely not a coach from an academy. Therefore, he immediately asked: "You are so young and have never played football. Where did you learn these things?"
Aldridge raised his eyebrows and laughed at himself: "I studied blindly at the beginning, studying game videos, marking each player with a code name in a book, and then repeatedly watching the videos to study the running trajectories of the players and watch the defensive players.
How did they cooperate? Later I went to many
Coaching academies, especially in Italy, where you can meet a lot of crazy people, they can tell you about countless changes in defense and how to deal with it, but it is all on paper. It is meaningless to simply discuss tactics, because there are always high and low players.
, the characteristics are also different.”
Keegan nodded with a clear look, as if he had figured out Aldridge's trump card. He then asked: "Then you study the opponent, which is my team, where do you think the defensive weaknesses are?"
"Where? The defense is full of holes and there are almost no reliable places."
Aldrich said casually, and Keegan was a little unhappy. He pulled off a piece of paper from his desk, took a pen to Aldrich, and said, "Write it for me."
Aldridge sighed and wrote five numbers on the paper, four defenders plus a midfielder.
"This is Newcastle United's backcourt configuration for this game, right?"
Keegan nodded.
Aldridge said while writing: "Playing on the wing, regardless of one-on-one breakthrough, my winger and full-back are two-on-one, and your wing is a loophole. Who is your full-back guarding? Guard my wing.
Defender, my winger will be freed up to mark the winger, and my full-back will go down and cross without any interference. This requires your defender to turn around, and I
The forward directly attacks the goal from the front, which is obviously advantageous. Playing in the middle, my front midfielder and your back midfielder are in a pairing state, but what happens when my organizational midfielder comes up? You want to rely on the back midfielder alone to defend against six or seven
Ten yards of pitch width? My forwards can drop deep and the wingers cut inside, back and forth, disrupting your defenders..."
The arrows Aldridge drew on the paper simply turned Newcastle United's defense into a hornet's nest.
Keegan held down his hand and asked doubtfully: "Why do you always have more people? When you play on the wing, you are two against one, when you play in the middle, you are still two against one. Even if you directly hit my back line, you become
Three forwards. Are all my men dead?"
Aldridge sneered and said: "You can go back and watch the video again and again to see if your people are dead. Kevin, my team is better than yours. This is not me showing off, but a fact. Players
Ability is not only technical ability, physical fitness is also a very important aspect. There is no statistics on the running distance of players in the game. If there is, I can tell you that the average running distance of my players will be at least 30 higher than your players.
%, this is how we get the advantage of having more people and less people."
Although Keegan didn't want to believe it, he looked back on the game and agreed with Aldridge's statement with great frustration.
Keegan, 45, and Aldridge, who turns 20 next month, chatted for more than two hours...
