"In the same round, Manchester United won Everton 2:0 at home. Ferguson should be grateful to Arsenal for successfully attacking the defending champion. In this way, Manchester United opened a 9-point gap with Millwall. Although Arsenal
Winning, but still 10 points away from Manchester United. We have witnessed this situation at this time last year, but we just switched the positions of Manchester United and Millwall. At that time, the two
The points gap between the teams is an even more desperate 16 points for the second place. I hope Millwall can quickly adjust its state, otherwise, in the last round of the Premier League, Millwall will directly watch Manchester United ascend to the championship podium at home.
Hall once said that if possible, he would have the team line up to welcome the opponent who was crowned champion in advance, but I think he will do his best to avoid this possible scene."
After losing the game, Aldridge took the initiative to go to shake hands with Wenger. At this time, he could probably understand Wenger's mood. After shaking hands, he didn't say anything more. He was not in a hurry to leave, but walked to the field and talked with every player.
After shaking hands and communicating, some players were frustrated, feeling at rock bottom and unwilling to say more. Aldridge patted their shoulders and gave them a few words of encouragement, and the last one walked into the tunnel.
The press conference after the game was full of turmoil. Although there was no deliberate trouble-making, many questions were still very pointed.
Aldridge vigorously defended the players, especially Ballack.
He denied that Lampard would have performed better than Ballack if he played, but it is a fact that the German did not perform well in this game. The goal that was reversed came from his mistake in the counterattack, which was caught by Vieira
Another chance counterattack caused Millwall to lose even the draw.
Capdevila's state after returning from injury is also worrying. The problem of Millwall's lineup thickness has been completely exposed. Aldridge tries to interpret the team's problems with a normal mentality. He believes that losing is normal and there is no such thing.
No team will lose. Especially in such a tight schedule, if the team is not in good condition, then it is necessary to take the right medicine. After adjustment, the team will get back on track. This will take some time. Unless it is all the way down.
Suppressing the momentum is the big problem.
Just before losing to Manchester United and Arsenal, Millwall remained unbeaten for several consecutive rounds and performed very well. However, the outside world will not tolerate it. Millwall's glory last season made them the target of public criticism. For this kind of controversy,
Many people in the team have a mentality of watching a good show. They don't want to see Millwall continue to be brilliant and are tired of Millwall's continued success. They just want to see the defending champion stumble and see this team fall.
Rock bottom. That’s exciting.
The next two weeks are cup competition time. Millwall will play two consecutive cup matches, one is the FA Cup and the other is the first leg of the League Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough.
Aldridge held a coaching meeting upon returning to the club.
There was a moment of reflection during the game against Arsenal.
Because Arsenal relies on defense and does not give their opponents space to attack, they often encountered this situation in the first half of the season.
Setting up the bus is the situation they have encountered most in the past few months, but when the opponent has a lot of people, they shrink the half. Millwall breaks through and the opponent counterattacks with only one, two, or three people.
But Arsenal's counterattack is a different style of play. It is an organized and planned positional counterattack. The reason why Aldridge reflected on it is that this kind of Arsenal is the original Millwall.
In the first year after League One and promotion, Millwall scored 442 points. Among the two forwards, Larsson retreated, similar to Bergkamp. The two wings had both speed and breakthrough, relying on defense to support themselves.
Strive for offensive space, switch from defense to offense and quickly advance forward.
This style of play was the foundation of Millwall's livelihood in the past, but now it is rarely played in the Premier League. At least in the Champions League, they still mainly use this style of play, but with a different formation.
The reason why they can't play well in the Premier League is because their opponents also defend. They are the defending champions. If they defend, they will probably be very happy. Everyone spends time to end the game and everyone is happy to get a point.
Mentally, Millwall is a strong player, which has led to new players and young players being pretentious.
Aldridge and the coaches focused on discussing the growth of several new players over the past six months, and finally discovered a sad fact.
In addition to their daily training skills and physical improvement, their tactical literacy, especially their understanding of Millwall's football philosophy, is really not flattering.
The reason why I discovered this fatal flaw was during the game against Arsenal.
Aldrich discovered that Gudjohnsen had a particularly big hole in defense. If he were to play against other weaker teams, he would not see the problem at all. After all, the opponent's offensive firepower is limited, but Arsenal is different. Two
Bian, Pires and Overmars are all very capable individually.
If Gudjohnsen is one step slower, he will be thrown away. A second of hesitation will cause loopholes in the entire defensive system.
In the offense, whether it was Gudjohnsen, Duff, or Van der Meyde, their performance was unsatisfactory, because in their limited playing time, they did the same job: attack difficulties, attack difficulties, attack difficulties...
.
In the Premier League, a competition that emphasizes confrontational ability, technical skills alone are not enough. Not only do they not have the upper hand in physical confrontation, they are not even evenly matched. The difficult battle is undoubtedly a hell test for them.
In the conference room, Benitez continued to point out the mistakes of the players in the game on the big TV screen. The other coaches took it very seriously. A large part of their job was to correct the mistakes of the players in the training.
and let them improve.
Aldrich was out of his mind. After a long time, Aldrich suddenly knocked on the table, and everyone looked at him.
"I think the rotation strategy we made in the first half of the season was wrong."
"Are you going to let the main lineup go all out in the league to bring back the points gap? Aldridge, it is also dangerous to do this, because whether it is the league or the Champions League, it is a competition that lasts more than six months. You must ensure
The overall sustainability of the team, once the physical distribution is unreasonable, then in the last 1/3 and 1/4 of the season when it needs the most strength, the team may be at the end of its tether and unable to continue!"
Jenson frowned and expressed his opinion.
Craig also supported Jensen, saying: "Our rotation strategy in the past three seasons is correct, which not only ensures results, but also allows young players to improve."
Aldridge waved his hand and said: "No, I'm not saying there is a problem with the rotation, but that, uh, there is a directional error based on the opponent's rotation."
Everyone was confused and didn't understand what he was talking about.
Aldrich stood up, walked to the blank blackboard, and wrote a series of numbers.
Pointing to 1-14, he said: "Before the season, excluding the intensity of games and the impact of injuries, we will let the main lineup face the top two teams we have divided. That is what we consider the upper reaches and the mid-range teams.
The team, their standing position is probably between 1-14, and the remaining 15-20 will be left to the substitute lineup, right?"
Everyone nodded.
Aldridge continued: "In general consciousness, the strength of a 15-20 team is definitely not as good as a 1-14 team, so we let the weaker substitute lineup play against the weaker Premier League team. Thinking this way, originally
That's right. But we have ignored the fact that we are the Premier League champions! Even a 15-20 team will choose to be tactically conservative for the sake of points and a draw, and our substitute players are not
do not possess
Excellent offensive ability, what result does this directly lead to? That is, players with speed and skills like Van der Meyde and Duff cannot take advantage of their advantages in the game. Nor can they develop their defensive awareness. They are very
We rarely withstand the test of the opponent's fierce attacks and stay in the frontcourt to attack and attack, but the offense is a mess and the defense cannot be practiced in the game. This is the biggest problem! We made a directional mistake!"
The coaches looked at each other, feeling that Aldrich's question was a bit surprising.
If you change to any wealthy team, when they need to rotate, they will let the substitutes play for the weak teams. Isn't this normal?
However, many wealthy clubs have lost the victory they were aiming for because they underestimated the underdogs and faced the game with a "Tianji horse racing" mentality.
That was the case for Millwall in the first half of the season.
Benitez asked with a serious look on his face: "Then how do you think we should adjust?"
Aldrich wiped the tactical board and wrote a new series of numbers on it.
"The 1-8 and 15-20 teams, the strongest and weakest teams in the Premier League, are handed over to the main lineup. The former is a top-level competition, while the latter is more confident in the main attack and can avoid losing points to the greatest extent.
The rest, the 9-14 team, is left to the bench!”
"In this case, our substitute lineup is not superior in terms of strength, and is even completely at a disadvantage."
Aldridge said firmly: "So we still have to adjust our tactics. When playing as a substitute, we have to play more conservatively and let the opponent attack. Only in this way can we train the newcomers' defensive ability and improve their team defensive awareness. At the same time, when playing
On the basis of defensive counterattack, they can also play to their advantages, making them more and more confident and improving steadily."
"But what if the opponent is also conservative? Just like Tottenham, we sent out a substitute lineup at White Hart Lane, but the opponent is still satisfied with a draw."
Aldridge spread his hands and said: "So, we have to let our opponents know that we will have a young lineup and spread the news before the game. Of course, this is my task, to play psychological warfare with the opponents.
"
Benitez asked curiously: "What are you going to do?"
"As I said, announce the starting lineup in advance, and then wait for the opponent's reaction. If we come to play with a group of kids that the opponent sees, will the opponent have the nerve to stick to it? As I said, the 9-14 Premier League football team
Team, they are carefree, the pressure of relegation is not that great, and they are limited by their ability to further get involved in the European war. They are just looking forward to a breakthrough in the domestic cup, so
, in the league, they don’t even want their dignity! The average age of their opponents is less than 23 years old. Do they have the nerve to be conservative? Will their fans agree? The directional error in our previous strategy is that the team that seems to be the weakest is actually
We are the ones who can give up everything and strive to stay in the Premier League. Therefore, if we want to try our best to gain points and train young players at the same time, we must change this strategy."
The coaches looked at each other and nodded. They had to say that they felt what Aldridge said made sense.
When a mid-table team plays against Millwall's substitute lineup, at least it can defend without making any mistakes. When it comes to Millwall's main lineup, the opponent defends to the core, which is blameless. There is already a huge difference in strength, but if they still defend against the substitute lineup, this is
If it cannot be justified, the pressure from public opinion will be very great.
The coaches began to re-formulate rotation strategies based on the schedule, and while Aldridge was fully adjusting the team's status, the winter transfer market was in turmoil again!
