"The Greek team will be very strong in the future!"
After Aldridge said these words with a serious expression in the locker room, England's players looked puzzled.
future?
What does the future have to do with today?
Aldrich continued in a deep voice: "Six months ago, the Greek team changed its coach. You must have heard of the current coach's name, Rehagel."
Xiaobei and others nodded.
This is a coach who is well-known in European football. He has won the European Cup Winners' Cup in the distant past and created the Kaizer legend in the recent past.
However, the Greek team itself has limited strength, so what is the use of relying solely on the coach?
If you want to quantify the strength of the Greek team, you can roughly locate the level of this team based on its historical record.
The number of times it has advanced to international competitions is pitiful. In the finals of the European Cup and World Cup, the Greek team has never won a single victory!
In front of the top teams, the Greek team can't even be considered as accompanying the prince to study. At best, it is just a soy sauce.
Because of this, the outside world is not optimistic that the Greek team can cause trouble for England. The game has not been played, and there is no suspense about England's first place in the group. The bookmaker directly closed the game and rejected bets on England's first place in this group.
"We can no longer treat today's game from the same perspective as we viewed Greece half a year ago. As I just said, the variables that exist today are different for the same opponent. In the new phase of the Greek team's construction, Rehagel
First, they led Greece to a draw with Germany. At this time, their military morale was greatly boosted. Although the technical and tactical system has not yet been fully formed, the new national team lineup also needs more time to adjust.
, but if we take it lightly, we will definitely suffer a big loss! I don’t want to see anything else today. I don’t ask you to win. The only thing I want to see is your tactical discipline, how to play the game, and your preparations before the game yesterday.
I have already said at the meeting that if there is a problem, I am asking now. If any of you dissatisfies me when we get on the court, I don’t care how many minutes the game has started, I will make a substitution directly.”
The players looked solemn and nodded in unison.
In fact, the stronger the team's players, the more they like to adhere to a "me-centered" game mentality. They naively believe that as long as they perform above the normal level, their performance will reach the standard or even score higher, and at the same time, they can give the ball more opportunities.
team contribute.
Aldrich's previous words were just a psychological foreshadowing for them.
The head coach is not crazy. He has to make some adjustments in every game to have a sense of presence. Since targeted adjustments are made, there must be a reason. Whether the players can understand it varies from person to person.
Many players had doubts about Aldridge's arrangements at yesterday's pre-game preparation meeting. They had a similar attitude to the media, believing that Aldridge was too cautious.
In other words, after England's five consecutive victories, the players' mentality was inevitably affected. In the last game of the world preliminaries, they had some thoughts of showing the majesty of the British Empire.
But amid Aldridge's warning, the players suppressed the distracting thoughts in their hearts, cleared their heads, and followed the coach's pre-match arrangements.
When Aldridge appeared at Old Trafford, the game was about to start in 3 minutes. He went to shake hands with Rehagel and say hello. For some reason, he saw Rehagel and Aldridge.
There is a demonic barrier in my heart.
Obviously, the number of championships he has won has established his status as a world-class coach, but in front of Rehagel, he always subconsciously felt that he was not as good as the opponent.
This kind of thought has occurred before. For example, Aldridge would have had this thought when he first faced off against famous coaches such as Ferguson, Wenger, and Lippi. This was normal and true at the time, but with the development of Millwall,
The champion was relieved, and when he saw the famous coach again, he looked very calm from the inside out.
Even when Mourinho, who set out on his own to become the head coach, appeared in front of him, Aldrich's mood did not rise at all.
But facing Rehagel, this kind of emotional fluctuation appeared again.
He knew that Rehagar was an insurmountable mountain in his memory and impression.
No matter how many championships he won at Millwall, he could not have the confidence to surpass the opponent.
Because of his ability, he surpassed the champion.
Rehagel's ability to create a legend with offensive football in Kaiserslautern is actually not jaw-dropping enough. Although Kaiserslautern was a newly promoted team, its lineup was not weak.
And Rehagel can lead Greece to create the myth of the Aegean Sea. How can he simply use a European Cup championship to measure his merit and ability?
Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Carlo Ancelotti, Lippi, Mourinho, Guardiola and other contemporary or future famous coaches, which one can be like Rehagel and win the championship with two completely different football styles?
What's more, Greece, a team that is at the bottom of Europe's second tier, created a myth!
Aldridge never thought that he was any different. 99% of his achievements were achieved through his own hard work, and 1% was due to innate advantages.
He will inevitably follow the trend. Just as many fans will ridicule Mourinho in the future that he needs huge financial support to win the championship, Guardiola only dares to coach top teams, etc., Aldridge is also inevitable.
In this England national team, if there were not Beckham, Scholes, Owen, Lampard, Ashley Cole and other players who made him feel confident, or the time would be pushed back about six years
, Aldridge would not dare to take over the England national team even to death.
To put it more bluntly, if the world's top coaches were asked to make a choice for the position of head coach of the Greek national team, more than 70% of them would shake their heads and leave. Those who dare to take over may not be able to achieve the miracle achieved by Rehagel.
.
Aldrich didn't dare to do it in his heart at first. He could admit this in his heart without feeling ashamed, but he still hadn't mastered it.
"The final round of the European Group I of the World Cup preliminaries is about to begin. The England team, with 16 points in hand, is sitting at Old Trafford to face the Greek team, which has no hope of qualifying in this group. As long as the England team does not lose in this game, they will
It is certain that we will directly qualify for next year's World Cup finals as the group leader! The Football Association invited Hall to be the coach of the England team at the end of last year. This wise decision has had unexpected results. England has never been absent from the World Cup.
After coming out of the haze of the Cup, it took one year to go from the bottom of the group to the top of the group. Last month's 6-0 bloodbath of the German team in Munich went down in history and became one of England's greatest successes.
This is a classic battle. It can be seen from the relaxed atmosphere created by the fans in the stands today that they are not worried about the challenge from the Greek team. In Athens, the England team defeated Greece by a large margin. Today, perhaps it is just a routine formality.
Contest."
The game started. Aldrich stood on the sidelines to supervise the game.
The scene left the audience confused and annoyed.
The Greek team retreated in the second half, and the England team did not press forward. They just took long shots from the outside. If there was a second attack, they would try their best. If not, then they would go back to defense.
The fans in the stands originally thought that England could continue their efforts today and take advantage of the momentum of the 6:0 massacre of Germany to easily deal with Greece. But looking at this scene, England are really petty and determined to maintain a tie and qualify?
When Rehagel saw England's posture, he suddenly found it difficult.
He has carefully studied England's five-game winning streak. Aldridge treats different opponents and uses different tactics. There is no doubt that the opponent is a master tactician!
But England is stronger than Greece. How much courage and will does it take to save face and maintain a draw?
Only with courage can you play conservatively in front of more than 60,000 local fans. Only with will can you stick to your ideals without wavering!
If a strong player beats a weak player conservatively, even if he wins, there will be a flood of criticism from the outside world. This is a common practice in football circles.
Aldridge was able to withstand such pressure from public opinion and order the three armies to unswervingly implement conservative tactics. On the other hand, it also reflected his control over the England team.
Due to their strength, the Greek team could only play defensive counterattacks.
But defensive counterattack is by no means as simple as it sounds. To play defensive counterattack well and achieve results requires a coach with very strong tactical skills.
Defense is the foundation, counterattack, how to play, when to exert force within 90 minutes, key areas to attack, etc. These all need to be formulated by the coach by studying the opponent before the game, and making changes based on on-site observation.
The Greek team frequently adopted foul strategies in the midfield and frontcourt to limit England's positional warfare attack, which did not have strong power.
The scene became even more boring.
The two teams didn't play well, and the game was frequently interrupted by fouls. How could the fans like it?
However, considering that today is about whether the England team can qualify in the group, the local fans in the stands are still very restrained and only booed after the Greek team fouled.
Aldrich was not surprised that the Greek team adopted foul tactics.
When it comes to defense alone, the Greek team's players have no advantage in one-on-one situations and can only rely on fouls.
The Greek team relied on a 5-3-2 formation with four defenders and a sweeper to limit England's offensive space. Coupled with foul tactics, the positional warfare that England was not good at made extremely ugly.
In the first 40 minutes of the first half, the pace of the game was tepid. The players on the field also felt tortured in this game, especially the England players. The opponent did not attack and the coach did not allow them to press heavily.
, this game was grueling.
After 40 minutes, entering the final stage of the first half, the Greek team successfully prevented Scholes' penetrating ball. Sweeper Dras controlled the ball and quickly launched a counterattack. The Greek team's midfield formation began to press forward.
Aldrich narrowed his eyes slightly.
It seems that Greece's counterattack is to seize the last moment, which is usually the period of the game when players' attention may decrease.
At the beginning of the kickoff and at the end of the game, the former is suitable for blitzes, while the latter is suitable for sudden changes in rhythm to create unexpected effects.
Aldrich couldn't help but clenched his fists and thought to himself: It's a dragon or an insect, just show it to the world in these 5 minutes!
When the Greek team's counterattack rhythm suddenly accelerated and the offensive players began to move flexibly, the England team's players were surprised at first, and then their blood boiled!
Oh shit!
Sure enough, the coach got it right!
The Greek team came here with great ambitions!
After a quick and smooth pass between Saglakis, Nico Landis and Gianakopoulos, a fatal pass came from the foot of Gianakopoulos, looking for Neville.
Charles Steas runs diagonally to the center with Ferdinand!
The drowsy fans in the stands were awakened by Greece's sharp counterattack!
What are the Greeks doing?
Everyone couldn't help but become worried.
At the critical moment, Southgate intercepted the ball in front of Charles Teas!
The linesman didn't raise the flag. If Charles Teas gets the ball, it's a one-man goal!
Rehagel's hot eyes dimmed instantly.
At this moment, Aldrich did not show the slightest expression of rejoicing that he had survived the catastrophe. On the contrary, it was his turn to have extremely sharp eyes.
After Southgate intercepted the ball, he immediately passed the ball straight to the right and handed it to Beckham.
Two seconds ago, the ball was in the England penalty area.
Two seconds later, the ball was at the center line.
Irving, McManaman, and Scholes started running, Beckham dribbled the ball forward, and Ashley Cole on the other side also ran forward quickly.
When Rehagar saw this, his mouth opened slightly with a look of shock on his face.
Aldrich raised his chin and smiled coldly.
Greece wants to fight back against England?
Today, England is going to counterattack Greece’s counterattack! (To be continued...)
