After the team took a one-goal lead, Aldridge took his right hand out of his coat pocket and slapped the backcourt in a practiced and calm manner.
This action he made was for the captain Materazzi on the field.
Seeing the young coach's action, Materazzi walked backwards towards the backcourt and shouted to his teammates: "Now we are in the lead. As the boss said before the game, shrink back now, especially the big players."
Wei, you have to help Phil defend more!"
Predicting the situation on the field is one of the tasks for the head coach to arrange tactics before the game. Aldrich usually arranges the tactics for the game in stages. As for the tactics after falling behind, he never arranges them before the game, which will damage morale.
When falling behind, he would often make adjustments on the spot.
Seeing Materazzi conveying his intention, Aldridge put his right hand into his warm pocket again.
After the goal just now, he just clapped and there was no unnecessary celebration.
Now, he lowered his head and seemed to be looking at the turf under his feet casually, occasionally taking two steps back and forth.
Even though Arsenal played their best, it doesn't mean they were dominant in the game.
This is an Arsenal team with distinctive characteristics, whose strengths and weaknesses are clear at a glance.
Last season, they finished fourth in the Premier League, but their number of goals was not even in the upper reaches. They only scored 53 goals in 42 rounds, which was almost 30 goals behind Manchester United, which won the championship.
What is even more unique is that Arsenal scores more away goals than at home.
Is it because they are more effective on the road?
of course not.
They are a traditional giant. Most of the teams that challenge them at Highbury are mainly defensive, which makes it difficult for Arsenal, who are unable to score goals, to score goals. However, in away games, their defensive counterattacks are even greater.
room for performance.
Now Aldridge lets the team recycle, let Arsenal attack, and Millwall counterattack!
The tactical competition in football matches is actually similar to Tian Ji's horse racing, with different tactics of superiority and inferiority used at different stages.
After Arsenal kicked off, except for Solskjaer who harassed near the center circle, all Millwall players returned to the half court. There were Gattuso, Vieira and Ballack in front of the defense.
The steel barrier, with Grenciar and Beckham assisting Neville and Gianluca Zambrotta on the wing, greatly reduced the space for positional battles, which allowed Arsenal to kick even after several passes and cuts were blocked.
There were no shots on goal.
The first half ended quickly and Millwall returned to the dressing room with a one-goal advantage.
During the halftime break, Aldridge simply said in the locker room: "What we are good at is concise and quick passing. What Arsenal is not good at is positional warfare. It can be said that they are not good at attacking tough battles. Therefore, in the second half, they continue to act like
It was like that after taking the lead in the first half. However, when the opponent presses hard, we must be faster, simpler and more direct in the counterattack. We do not need to dribble to break through and use running positions to tear apart the opponent's defense. Now this
An Arsenal team is just a sheep in wolf's clothing. We don't need to be afraid of them. They are old and tired. You are still young and run hard. We can defeat them as a matter of course."
This group of young players were greatly encouraged, and the first half of the game gave them strong confidence.
The opponent was last year’s European Cup Winners’ Cup champion!
Before the game, the players on the bench were worried that Aldridge would start the main lineup because the opponent was Arsenal. However, Aldridge kept his promise and insisted on letting them play in the cup. This made them feel that Aldridge
Although he is young, he is a full-fledged man.
Trust is a two-way street, Aldrich gives them trust, and they will repay Aldrich with the same trust and hard work.
After the start of the second half, Aldridge was still standing on the sidelines. Today he seemed very calm, without shouting and even making very few body movements.
In contrast, Graham, not far away, was waving his arms back and forth to get the players to press on, but the team was getting worse and worse. This was simply a silent irony.
Perhaps it was like what the television commentator said during the halftime commentary:
"The current Arsenal is like Graham, already a crumbling dangerous building, while the young Millwall is more like the rising sun. From a technical and tactical perspective or the temperament and spirit displayed by the players on the court, we have
There are reasons to look forward to Millwall, but we cannot expect Graham to make a qualitative difference in Arsenal. However, Arsenal still declined too fast. In the Premier League, they scored fewer goals in the same period than last season, but conceded almost as many goals.
Twice this season, we have never been more than 10 points away from the relegation zone."
In the second half of the game, Arsenal gradually began to press forward as a whole. There was no way, their frontcourt offensive combination was too small, and it was difficult to break through Millwall's area-wide double-team defense based on personal ability alone.
As the formation presses forward, the space in the backcourt becomes wider and wider.
After intercepting the ball from Paul Mason on the wing, Neville sent the ball to Beckham who was only five meters away from him. Beckham turned around and kicked off the ball in the backcourt.
Through a wonderful arc, it was hoisted towards Arsenal's half.
Solskjaer started before Beckham passed the ball. He broke out from the center line and directly passed Bald. He successfully broke through Arsenal's defense and was about to get a single goal.
Tony Adams, who was not slow, chased back from behind. After the ball bounced on the ground once, Solskjaer stopped the ball steadily. At this time, Tony Adams was already one meter behind him. Solskjaer had just
After stopping the ball, the speed had slowed down a lot, so he turned sideways to protect the ball, made an emergency stop, and then moved the ball forward. This instant change in rhythm also slowed down Tony Adams.
Solskjaer's movements were coherent, he moved sideways to protect the ball, stopped suddenly, then started again, deceiving Tony Adams, and continued his single shot.
But as soon as he took a step forward, huge pressure came from behind him, and he fell heavily to the ground.
"It's so ugly! Tony Adams actually overwhelmed Solskjaer from behind. There is no doubt that this is a foul!"
The referee decisively stopped the game and came over to show Tony Adams a dazzling red card as he got up from the ground!
If he hadn't fouled, Solskjaer would have obviously gone to the meeting alone.
The Lion's Den Stadium burst into cheers, agreeing very much with the referee's decision and giving applause to the referee and Solskjaer.
Tony Adams did not defend or protest, and left the field with a sullen face. He did not even give the captain's armband to other teammates.
On the sidelines, Graham angrily shouted at Adams: "What the hell are you doing?"
Tony Adams turned his head and said two words directly: "Shut up!"
Then he walked into the tunnel without looking back.
Aldrich watched the scene of the master-disciple turning against each other, feeling a little sad in his heart.
Now Graham is the coach involved in the black gold scandal, and Tony Adams has also reached a low point in his life. Off the court, he is an alcoholic who has been in trouble.
There was already a estrangement between the master and apprentice last year.
Graham did not reinvigorate Adams, and Adams did not publicly support Graham when his position was in crisis.
As the master-disciple relationship between the two fell to a freezing point, their fate also came to an end.
There were thirty minutes left in the game, and Arsenal was one goal behind in the away game and also had one less player to play.
Materazzi took advantage of the dead ball and ran to the sideline to ask Aldridge: "Boss, are you still playing like you did before?"
Now that they have one more person to fight, they have an advantage!
Aldrich pressed his shoulder with one hand and covered his mouth with the other and whispered: "Our tactics remain unchanged and we will win in thirty minutes. And next, Arsenal will be the one to jump over the wall. Think about it, as long as they
If we mess up, we will have plenty of opportunities."
Materazzi nodded and ran back. He shouted loudly again to cheer up his teammates and implemented the tactical requirements again to prevent his teammates from having inconsistent ideas and causing confusion.
There was no turning point in the game that affected the trend. At the Lion's Den Stadium, a team that was once the king fell to the bottom.
In the 79th minute of the game, Millwall's bench launched a whirlwind counterattack on the pitch.
Gattuso intercepted the ball from Campbell's feet and passed it crosswise to Vieira. Vieira passed the ball diagonally to Beckham on the wing. Beckham passed it directly to Solskjaer. This time Solskjaer did not carry the ball.
, lightly distributed the ball to the left wing again, the fast horse Glenchard broke into the opponent's half, dribbling at high speed at the front of the penalty area and returned the ball to the feet of Ballack in the middle. Ballack moved the ball to the right, and as
Vieira, who came in at high speed at the beginning of the counterattack, hit a beautiful volley to expand the score to 2:0!
During the entire counterattack, Arsenal's defensive line that rushed back due to the pressure was full of loopholes. Even Martin Keown, who was like a magic needle in the sea, tried to make an emergency stop when Glenchiar knocked back in the middle, but his feet slipped and he fell embarrassingly.
.
After Vieira scored, he was so excited that the whole stadium ran wildly and roared to the sky.
Just half a season ago, he was a clown who was sent off with a red card just one minute after coming off the bench. But in more than half a season, his sweat paid off, and after scoring a goal, he ran to the coaching bench and talked with
Coach Barb hugs each other.
Although Aldridge is the head coach, it is Barb who has the closest relationship with Vieira during training. This is normal, and Aldridge is not jealous at all.
Arsenal was beaten by Millwall twice, which completely lost their fighting spirit, and the final result of the game was fixed at 2:0.
Faced with such a result, Aldridge was not satisfied. Even though Arsenal had a great reputation, they were just a disorganized team at the moment.
After the game, Aldridge did not shake hands with Graham and walked into the tunnel with a calm face.
Before the weekend game, the biggest news in English football is: Graham, who has coached the Gunners for eight years, has been sacked by the Arsenal board of directors!
