In the first training match of the national team, the players wanted to leave a good impression on the new coach, so they worked extra hard on the court.
After the training match began, Aldrich and Klinsmann no longer took care of the team. They stood on the sidelines and observed the game to communicate.
The situation on the field is obviously that the red jersey side has the advantage, after all, their players are obviously stronger than the white jersey side.
On the white shirt side, Barry Town defends in the middle, with Lampard and Gerrard, two invincible players, on both sides. Aldrich does not expect him to solve the problem of coexistence between the two Germans, at least, during his 20-month term.
Within the game, the two Germans will definitely not start at the same time in the national team game. The two have similar roles, and only one is needed on the field. In the training match, using Barry to separate the two can at least reduce the area where the two move and cause conflicts after the conflict.
of one's own confusion.
Although the red shirt team had the advantage and controlled the ball most of the time, it turned into a tough battle. They seemed to have few means, especially when facing the white shirt team with three defensive midfielders. Scholes was in the midfield.
The ability to organize and support cannot be used in penetrating offensives. Beckham and McManaman, the latter can make sudden breakthroughs, but the former can only rely on his golden right foot to launch some threatening crosses.
The red shirts control the outside positions very well and continue to attack, but if the position battle cannot be won, the backcourt players have to come up to assist.
In ten minutes, the red shirt's ball possession rate may have exceeded 70%, but they only had 4 shots.
Joe Cole couldn't hold the ball at first, Cristiano Ronaldo couldn't even grab his position, and Smith seemed to be invisible.
Ten minutes later, they became familiar with the rhythm on the court and their performance began to improve.
What is the advantage of the England team? Neither Aldridge nor the current group of international players can answer it.
But the disadvantage of the England team is very obvious.
Continuous attacks did not produce intuitive results. Playing high and high had little effect. They began to actively try to pass and penetrate in a small area.
Scholes took the ball and got rid of Barry's defense laterally, and accurately passed the ball to Heskey before Gerrard's help approached. The latter did not turn around to get one-on-one with Ferdinand, but passed the ball directly to Owen, but the two
The pass and run failed to form a tacit understanding. Irving moved forward and wanted to pass through, but Heskey gave the ball to his feet and the ball passed behind Irving. Brown stepped forward and kicked the ball to Lampard in front.
Before Lampard got the ball, Ashley Cole ran forward at high speed from the wing close to him. Gerrard on the other side also ran forward quickly, and Joe Cole came back to respond.
In an instant, Lampard had three options for the ball.
Before Scholes came to defend, Lampard passed the ball to Joe Cole in front. Joe Cole was not one-on-one with Butt behind him and observed the situation before receiving the ball.
McManaman tracked back to keep up with Gerrard, and Beckham tracked back to press him. Joe Cole knocked the ball across the wing, and Ashley Cole took the ball from the wing and quickly moved forward.
Joe Cole turned around and ran forward. Gerrard cut in at high speed and was close to a parallel position with him. Cristiano Ronaldo happened to be on Ashley Cole's side and ran to the wing to meet him. Ashley Cole gave him a pass.
He passed the ball in advance.
Cristiano Ronaldo took the initiative to sprint earlier than Gary Neville. The two chased the ball together. Neville blocked Cristiano Ronaldo's passing route. Cristiano Ronaldo caught the ball in front of the baseline. It seemed that he was going to cross directly with his left foot.
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Neville expected that he could easily deflect the young boy's cross. He stretched out his foot to block it, but Ronaldo missed the pass. Instead, he stopped suddenly and buckled the ball back behind him with his left foot.
Gary Neville's eyes widened as if there were rays on his back, and he suddenly felt extremely embarrassed and aggrieved.
I was tricked by a boy with hairless hair!
When playing in Japan two years ago, Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to trample his opponent to death when he was riding a bicycle on the field. Two years later, his playing style has been simplified a lot, integrating practicality and skills.
Even though he made Neville lose his center of gravity after making an emergency stop to smash the ball, Ronaldo also stopped and wanted to start again with explosive speed. He is still obviously not as good as an adult player in physical condition. Neville was just shaken and immediately retracted his feet.
He quickly took up a defensive position, but just when he stood up to defend, Ronaldo passed the ball to Ashley Cole in the back, who ran inside.
Neville immediately moved to block. He took two steps and felt the wind behind him. Cristiano Ronaldo and his figures crossed paths. The ball rolled between Neville and Southgate. Cristiano Ronaldo and Ashley Cole were clean.
Neat coordination!
Southgate blocks Ronaldo's progress or adjusts the angle of his shot. He is not in a hurry to grab it. If he does, it will definitely be easier to lose his position.
But who would have expected that Ronaldo passed the ball out again the first time he touched the ball in the penalty area, hitting the top of the arc in the middle of the penalty area.
Joe Cole grabbed the ball ahead of Butt and passed it straight to Alan Smith.
Smith swung his leg and volleyed. This guy may have been lucky today. He kicked a beautiful blind corner and the ball went into the net.
Villas-Boas, who was the referee on the field, blew the whistle and pointed at the center circle, indicating that the goal was valid.
After Smith scored, he walked back and high-fived Joe Cole to celebrate. He smiled happily. He was invisible for more than ten minutes and suddenly scored. It was a magical feeling.
Cristiano Ronaldo, with a pretentious look on his face, made a swinging arm trot and ran toward the center circle. While running, he glanced at Gary Neville intentionally or unintentionally...
Aldrich nodded slightly on the sidelines. Ronaldo, at least, has some self-awareness. He knows that with his size, going head-to-head with these old guys is simply asking for death. If you don't do a single-soldier raid, look for him to support the number of people.
, the effect is at least achieved.
When recruiting Smith, Aldrich actually took a fancy to his willpower and ball-playing ability. This is of course a relative term. The comparison is with a pure shooter like Irving.
However, in these short ten minutes, Aldridge observed Smith's performance on the court and was satisfied so far.
He fulfilled the requirements of the assigned tasks.
Don't stand on the front line waiting for the ball. In the early stage, you will be ambushing, and then attack the threatening area at the critical moment.
Just before Smith scored, he was lying on the other side of Campbell. When Ronaldo passed the ball to Joe Cole, he had a running trajectory towards the center. Joe Cole passed through. He immediately shot. There was a certain amount of luck.
, after all, not every shot can hit the dead center, especially if he does not adjust, but if he adjusts, Campbell and Southgate will close the door and block him.
After losing the ball, the main team in red shirts was obviously unwilling to give up, while the team in white shirts became more energetic. In the next game, the team in white shirts seemed to be a little carried away. They wanted to take advantage of the victory and score another goal.
As a result, McManaman passed Mills on the left wing with his personal ability and then passed in. Heskey headed the ball towards the goal. The ball was saved by James. Scholes followed up and sent the ball into the goal with a follow-up shot.
Aldridge nodded at Scholes' goal.
In his view, historically, Scholes' national team career was divided into two parts. The first part was from the time he was selected for the national team to the present, and the second half was from Eriksson taking over the England national team until Scholes was 30 years old.
Announced his retirement from the national team.
In the first half of his national team career, Scholes performed very well, especially his ability to score goals from behind, allowing him to even become the scoring hero of the England national team!
As for the second half, Scholes has had a goal drought for the national team in the past three years. Of course, goals are not a hard indicator for midfielders, but it is obvious that Scholes' scoring ability is very important to the national team.
been weakened.
If you watch the video of England's defeat in the European Cup, the most impressive thing about Scholes' attack is that he can always find space in the penalty area and appear at that point to pose a threat, although he is not that kind of person.
He is a player who carries a team forward, but this characteristic of his game is very admired by his contemporaries who are also midfielders.
There is a joke that everyone who watches football knows Zidane, and everyone who plays football knows Scholes.
If you understand the evaluation of Scholes by midfield stars in the middle or late period of this era, such as Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Zidane and others, you will understand that this ginger head is an underrated master of low-key.
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A master does not necessarily mean a player with superb skills and a delicate and elegant style, but is measured by his contribution to his own team during the game and the threat he poses to his opponents.
Having players like Scholes can give Aldridge a certain degree of confidence in transforming the England national team. Only with good cards can he achieve better results.
The training match ended at 1:1.
When the players from both sides took a break, Aldridge called them together and asked them to sit in a fan shape on the ground to rest. The coaching staff pulled up the tactical board. Aldridge stood in front of the players and asked with a normal expression: "Game
Ending, let’s talk about your thoughts. You must be able to see that the red shirt team uses a 442 formation, while the white shirt team uses a 4321 formation. There is a gap in overall strength, but the score is a draw and there is a similar threat on both sides. Why?
"
Irving said in a slightly complaining tone: "There are too many defenders on the white shirt side."
In a positional battle, they encountered a 7-man 4+3 defensive line in the frontcourt, and the range was very narrow.
Aldridge nodded and said: "The white shirts have compressed the defensive space in the backcourt, and the red shirts have to tear apart the opponent's defense. What do you rely on? During this period, you spent about 10 minutes patiently organizing the offensive, making short passes to penetrate.
The result? Instead, he got a counterattack
Resulting in conceding a goal. What did the red-shirt goal come from? A personal breakthrough from the wing caused chaos in the opponent's defense and broke the opponent's orderly defensive system. This 30-minute game told us a reality. The England national team's position battle,
Cooperate in a small area,
The lack of ability is essentially due to the fact that we lack most players with the ability to break away and control the ball, especially in comparison. Who are the opponents you have encountered in international competitions? Tactical defense is like the art of Italy, with unity and tough style.
Against Germany, when encountering teams such as Spain, Argentina, Portugal, and Brazil, which are more aggressive and have sharp passing and control abilities, England will have fewer people to invest in the offense, and they will not even be able to find teammates for small-scale cooperation. This is the reality.
This is our shortcoming."
Reality is the fact you have to admit.
England's league style itself cannot breed a national team that is good at passing and controlling and can play delicate and penetrating attacks. They are used to playing high and high, and are used to crossing from the side to find high points. This is irreproachable. At a certain period, it was indeed majestic.
Eight sides, but now, outdated.
The players listened attentively, and most of them looked thoughtful.
Perhaps, it is precisely because they cannot improve the delicate small-scale passing and cutting, so they can only play simple and rough with the ball high.
Aldrich looked at Bart and asked: "What did you find in the defense that just lost the ball? If you were to mark Joe Cole closely, you would definitely be able to mark him. What enabled him to attack in series and complete the assist in the end?"
?”
Nicky Butt spread his hands helplessly and said: "The entire midfield is basically empty. How can I follow him without leaving?"
Aldrich nodded and said: "Space and small-scale cooperation are not what we are good at. Therefore, we have to create the space needed in the offense. The larger the space, the more openings will be, and it will be easier for teammates to move and form contact points."
David, why did you go after Joe Cole when you were switching from offense to defense?"
After recalling it, Beckham said: "His position was close to my defensive zone. I went back to help Nicky and at the same time I was marking Lampard."
Aldrich asked, "What's the result?"
"In the end, Lampard didn't intervene, but Cole, who was closer to the wing, came up. I ran over to defend again, but he moved forward too fast and cooperated with the Portuguese young man. They cooperated too quickly.
As you said, coach, they have a lot of space to do this kind of coordination, which can reduce the turnover rate."
Aldrich snapped his fingers and said: "Please remember the key points I want to say. We must make use of our strengths and avoid our weaknesses. The two most critical points are, first, space, and second, hiding the attack point."
The players sitting on the ground resting looked solemn. Aldrich was not only instilling new tactical concepts into them, but also winning their heartfelt respect and admiration. Rather than emphasizing the so-called fighting will and spiritual quality,
Such illusory things as hard work and momentum, what Aldridge presented to them has aroused their interest, made them curious, and even expected this to be the magic weapon for the revival of the England national team. (To be continued...)
