The Christmas Day war came to an end, with Millwall drawing 1:1 away from Arsenal.
At the post-match press conference, Aldridge expressed his opinion on the penalty kick Arsenal won at the last moment. He was not targeting the referees. Maybe 5 of the 10 referees will definitely award penalty kicks, and the remaining 3 will not.
Given a penalty to Arsenal because it was at Highbury, the last two would be hesitant.
He just vaguely hopes that the referee's level will be improved and the penalties will be more convincing. Of course, this is his one-sided statement and seems to be wishful thinking.
After all, if a penalty kick is not awarded, Arsenal will definitely protest again.
This penalty kick incident became the focus after the game, but there was no conspiracy theory. In British football programs, the discussion atmosphere was more academic exchanges.
Some senior and prestigious referees tend to support Aldridge's remarks.
At least looking back at the slow motion of the game shows that Bergkamp made a mistake in stopping the ball. After the ball went out of the baseline, Ferdinand couldn't stop the car, and then kicked the opponent's foot.
The whole process took less than 3 seconds. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, you can talk a lot. But in the intense competition at that time, the referee's judgment took over in a split second.
Aldridge praised the team's performance and sent them home happily for Christmas.
He was alone. He spent Christmas Eve at his parents' house. On Christmas Eve, he returned to his apartment. In the community, the homes of some immigrant players had lights on. When he returned to the community, he happened to meet Villa.
He walked out with a girl about 16 years old. The two seemed to be a perfect match for each other. She was his first girlfriend. Aldrich said hello to the two and then went home.
After returning home, Aldrich leaned back on the sofa. After a while, the doorbell rang. He knew who it was without having to guess. He opened the door. Sure enough, Yiwen was holding a large dinner plate with the lid closed and said with a smile.
: "I roasted the turkey and couldn't finish it."
Aldrich said nothing, turned and went to the kitchen to get the tableware and opened another bottle of good wine.
"Are you worried about the club?"
"Why? Because the team is lagging behind in points?"
"I don't know. You look very unhappy. The team has been pretty good recently. The Champions League draw also drew good opponents."
Aldridge thought for a moment while holding the glass of wine. Millwall's opponent in the quarter-finals was Dynamo Kyiv. It was a good draw. He didn't think that this old rival would be more stable and powerful this year. He was still worried about the ball.
The team will underestimate the opponent because they beat each other twice in the group stage last year.
"Sol has organized an amateur cycling team. I'm asking if you are interested in joining. I will spend my free time exercising."
"That's great. Count me in. It's best to have some competitions occasionally."
Aldrich now attends any positive social activities to keep his mind off his worries.
Yiwen cut off a large piece of chicken and put it on Aldrich's dinner plate, and said with a smile: "Okay. The event will officially start in two weeks. Do you need me to help you choose clothes?"
“I’ll go to a specialty store to buy a bicycle another day, and I’ll just buy it on the way.”
...
Three days later, Aldridge led the team to face Coventry at home. The team beat the visiting Coventry 4:0. Henry scored a hat trick, and Larsson, who returned from injury, also scored a goal to announce his return.
After this game, all Millwall's games in 1998 are over. The next game will be the FA Cup a week later.
Aldridge and the coaching staff held a half-way summary meeting, where everyone analyzed all Millwall's games in the first half, from techniques and tactics to player performance.
There is one phenomenon that he is not satisfied with, and that is the striker.
Van Nistelrooy scored 10 league goals in the first half. This statistic is already remarkable for other teams. Even for wealthy clubs, it is reasonable.
But Aldridge was watching the game from the sidelines. Analyzing the game, he always felt that letting Ruud van Nistelrooy serve as center would sacrifice Millwall's previous sharpest two-winger.
To put it simply, Van Nistelrooy's number of goals is passable. But when he plays as a center, the winger or his partner is not very efficient in scoring, whether in the 433 or 442 system.
As the discussion raged, Aldrich went to the tactical board and wrote down five names.
Ronaldinho, Henry, Larsson, Nedved, Pirlo.
The first three are the trident, with Nedved and Pirlo in the back row.
He knocked on the table, and the conference room fell silent, and said: "Can these five people form the strongest offensive combination in Europe, or even the world?"
If he asked questions like this to the media outside, he would probably be laughed at.
Individually, the player's abilities may not be the strongest in Europe, but a combination of the top three players in Europe should be fine.
But in the eyes of coaches, this issue is complex and must be treated very carefully.
There are many teams hoarding strong troops, Inter Milan is a typical example, but is their offensive combination strong?
Ultimately, team chemistry is the key.
If 1+1 is less than 2, giving him 5 gods will probably result in 5 pieces of shit.
"If we want to play 433, I think Rudd's tacit understanding with the team should be stronger than Thierry's."
Craig was the first to comment.
Jensen shook his head and said: "If Ruud van Nistelrooy plays center, then he will basically be stuck in the middle. Aldrich, when you arrange such a five-man group, do you intend to weaken the full-backs' assists?"
Aldridge nodded and said: "Yes, I hope the defense can be improved a bit. Once the full-back assists too much and is counterattacked, the risk of conceding the ball is too high."
Klinsmann thoughtfully said: "If we defend solidly and can successfully defend 5 against 5, then our offensive team must be successful at 5 on 5."
Aldridge said solemnly: "Yes, with this offensive combination, I hope to achieve a good success rate of 5 on 5, 5 on 6, or even 5 on 7."
"Ronaldinho, Henry, Larsson, and Nedvěd, these four can pass and shoot suddenly on the offensive end. The most important thing is how to move."
Jenson's words are the key point of Aldrich's selection of these four people plus the deep-lying organization Pirlo.
In terms of pure ability, Ruud van Nistelrooy is definitely not as comprehensive as them. Precisely because Ruud van Nistelrooy's characteristics are somewhat single, he can't change positions with the wingers if he can't play on the side, and he can't enrich his offensive style of play.
Therefore, Ruud van Nistelrooy's best partners are Klose, Van der Meyde, Grenchar or Duff.
Klose, Van der Meyde, Duff, and Grenjar provided him with fire support from the wing and from the center, and he was responsible for scoring goals.
"Larson Pirlo and Nedved are not big problems. It just depends on whether Ronaldinho and Henry can quickly integrate into this new attacking combination."
"Yes, let's try it now. Designate the tasks assigned to them during training and instill in them the concept of role change."
Aldridge made the final decision and began to build a new generation of "diamond offensive line."
On a new day in 1999, among Millwall's injured list, only Southgate was still recovering from his injury, and Pirlo also returned to the team and started training.
Ronaldinho, who had just returned from Brazil, appeared on the training ground. He immediately ran to Aldridge to report his return to the team.
Everyone else was already training. Aldrich looked at his watch and said, "You're 23 minutes late. Let's go run 5 laps first."
Ronaldinho smiled sheepishly. His vacation should have ended yesterday and he officially trained today. Aldrich didn't say anything wrong, which means he was late.
After he finished running the lap and had warmed up, he came to Aldrich again and said with a smile: "Boss, I brought you a lot of gifts."
"Let's talk about that later. Do you want to have fun back in Brazil?"
"happy."
"Have enough fun?"
"Uh, uh, that's enough."
"Are you going to ask for leave later?"
"No."
"Then just concentrate on playing football."
"As you command!"
Aldridge nodded with satisfaction, then called Ronaldinho, Henry, Nedved Larsson, and Pirlo in front of him, and began to explain the new tactical concept to them.
Pirlo's role has also changed slightly, and he also needs a role change. This role is interchanged with Ronaldinho.
When the ball is in the midfield and backfield, Pirlo is responsible for the organization. When the ball is at Ronaldinho's feet, and he has no breakthrough space or opportunity to move forward, he will be responsible for the organization. At this time, Pirlo needs to step forward to respond and become a scorer.
Or continue to keep players organizing the offense.
Henry and Larsson are both false centers. They can be called forward free agents. They can connect from the side or score goals in the middle. This requires them to observe the game situation and the movements of their teammates at any time. They can neither overlap the movements, but also do it at the first time.
Make the correct judgment whether to break through or pass the ball.
Nedvěd is already familiar with his role. He passes when he needs to, drives forward when he needs to score, and changes flexibly in the game. The game data of the past year proves how good he is.
In addition to offense, there is also defense. It can be said that what Aldridge is instilling in them is not an unfamiliar tactic, it is total attack and total defense!
It's just that it's not the whole team that will carry out this tactic, it's just 5 of them. If there are more, the team is likely to collapse.
And once these five players don't play well with this tactic, the team's offensive power will be greatly reduced.
This is an ultimate choice, either extremely gorgeous or just superficial.
Total offense and total defense requires a large number of world-class players. At least 2 and a half of these 5 players have reached the ability requirements, and the rest is tactical awareness.
Aldridge began to have these five people practice this tactic in training matches.
During the drill, they were ordered not to make any breakthroughs!
Just rely on passing, cutting and running to defeat the defensive team.
During training, Aldridge was particularly harsh on Henry, shouting at him the most and giving him the most encouragement.
Needless to say, Pirlo, Larsson, and Nedvěd have been under Aldridge all year round. Flexible movement is a basic skill, especially the ability to find opportunities without the ball. It can be called world-class. Larsson's "Lingfox in the penalty area"
You don't get your nickname for nothing.
Ronaldinho has just returned from vacation and is very active in training. Except for the fact that he sometimes sticks to the ball and is scolded by Aldrich, there is no problem with his movement.
The biggest headache is Henry. He was born as a winger. If he was moved to the center, he really regarded himself as a center, standing in the center area was a bit rigid.
Henry was a little aggrieved at the beginning. Their 5-man offensive team was facing a 6-man defensive team. It should be natural that it would be difficult to move and find space. But he looked at the performance of the other four and found that he had indeed done it.
It's not good enough, so I can only increase my running to improve my performance.
On the other side of the training field, Ruud was a little distracted. He looked at Aldrich training those five people and felt very disappointed.
He realized that his boss was re-building a powerful offensive line, but he, who had been with the team for four and a half years, was not as good as Henry, who had been with the team for half a year, and he was left out.
The competition within the team itself is fierce, and the strongest is the first rule. No matter who subverts this rule, appoints nepotism, or employs people in a confusing manner, the end will be very disastrous.
Aldridge doesn't need to explain too much to the players. Whether it works or not depends on the actual performance. If Henry doesn't work, Ruud van Nistelrooy comes in. If the effect is not good, he will give Klose a chance.
With the arrival of the new year, Marshal Aldridge began to build the diamond attack group he had high hopes for!
