When Aldridge walked out of the tunnel at Anfield, all the English fans stood up and applauded!
"Sir Hall is here! The young coach who led England to bring the Hercules Cup back to England made his first appearance at the game after the World Cup. He received applause from all the English fans! No amount of high respect can express the respect that English fans have for this young coach.
With gratitude and admiration, we now have reason to expect that under the leadership of Sir Hall, England will be full of ambition and fighting spirit on its new journey! Yes, I am talking about the 2004 European Cup!"
Aldridge walked all the way to the coach's bench along the sidelines. Fans in the nearby stands leaned over the edge of the stands to applaud and cheer for him. The young coach's popularity in England is unimaginably crazy.
Stramaccioni, who had just sat down on the coaching bench, felt that he was not breathing normally.
He has only played a few professional games, coached the U17 youth team for a year, and watched countless games in the stands. However, this is the first time for him to be immersed in such a small football stadium in England, especially as a coach.
, the sound in the stadium persisted for a long time, like an invisible pressure, making people breathless.
He saw Jan Sen beside him who was calm and smiling, and had to admire his determination.
Aldrich walked to the coach's bench and sat down, smiling at Jenson and saying: "I hope I won't be scolded by the fans today."
"Haha, anyway, you haven't recruited many main players at all. That's it, and McManaman's departure. Fans who bought tickets to enter the stadium have been mentally prepared. It's not like you recruited Beckham and Irving into the team.
On the bench, in that case, the fans may be dissatisfied."
Aldrich raised his eyebrows and said nothing.
Not long after, the referee team for this friendly match came out, followed by the starting players from England and the Netherlands.
When the players entered the field, Aldridge remembered that he did not shake hands with the opponent's coach because he was distracted by the applause in the stadium.
"Oh, I hope he doesn't think I'm just putting on airs after winning the World Cup. I'm not a stranger after all."
"What are you talking to yourself about?"
Jensen asked curiously.
Aldridge pointed to the coaching bench next door and said, "I forgot to shake hands with him over there. Do you remember him?"
Jensen poked his head out and took a look. He tried to think back and said tentatively: "The coach of PSV back then?"
"Damn, you're still Dutch, you don't even seem to recognize your compatriots."
"I haven't paid much attention to the Netherlands in recent years. It's been a long time since Millwall played against PSV. Why, do you still remember?"
"Well, I remember. I had expectations for him, but I was quite disappointed at the time."
What Aldridge was talking about was none other than the coach of the Dutch team, Advocaat, who led Millwall against the opponent many years ago.
Louis van Gaal resigned after failing to lead the Dutch team to the 2002 World Cup, and Advocaat was the one to take over.
Seeing the starting players of the Dutch team, Aldrich muttered again: "Don't be like this in a friendly match, it's a lot of pressure!"
The Dutch team is extremely talented!
The England side is too shabby, and only Gerard Campbell, Neville and others can support the situation.
"Both England and the Netherlands have byes in their respective groups in this round of European qualifiers. What's interesting is that the Dutch Football Association took the initiative to contact the FA for this friendly match. It seems that the Dutch team, which failed to go to the World Cup, wants to prove themselves in front of the new World Cup champions.
!But the Dutch may be a little depressed at this time,
Because of this training camp in England, many of the main players have not been called up. Sir Hall, who has always emphasized the balance between work and rest, is very considerate in allowing these main players of the national team who have been working hard for more than a month in the summer to recuperate, ensuring that England can be in a better position in October.
The state starts the European Cup qualifying journey."
"What makes us more curious is that England's formation has changed in this friendly match. The 4321, which was listed as a classic tactic, was voluntarily abandoned by Sir Hall. He chose the 442 formation. But it is not England's traditional 442.
England started with 442.
Goalkeeper: James.
Defenders: Gary Neville Campbell, Terry Bridges.
Midfielder: Hargreaves, Gerrard, Carrick, Joe Cole.
Forwards: Alan Smith, James Beattie.
The Netherlands started with 433.
Goalkeeper: Edwin van der Sar.
Defenders: Reiziger, Stam, De Boer, Van Bronckhorst.
Midfielder: Cocu, Davies, Seedorf.
Forwards: Overmars, Kluivert, Van der Meyde.”
Although it was a friendly match, most of the team's main players did not come to the national team to report. Aldridge's training this time was mainly relaxed. In addition, he started to build a new round of the national team's technical and tactical system, which was more difficult than when he first took over the national team.
Smaller, after all, team concept, player understanding, things at this level will not disappear, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, what needs to be changed is only the content of the technical and tactical system.
Two years should be enough, especially in a group that does not have much pressure to qualify for the European Cup qualifiers.
And this friendly match was the beginning of change.
England changed to 442.
It's a change of tactics, not a return.
Because this is completely different from the traditional 442. First of all, they still have no winger.
The Dutch team obviously came to Anfield with the ambition to kill the world champions, and they played extremely unrestrainedly from the beginning of the game.
After all, this group of players on the England field had not played together for a few days, and the tacit understanding of cooperation was terrible. Coupled with the high requirements of Aldridge's new tactics, which placed extremely high demands on the team, there was only one characteristic on both offense and defense: chaos.
After the opening, the Dutch team got a lot of good offensive opportunities, but they were unable to convert them into excellent opportunities. It seemed that they were too hasty and had no patience to calmly handle the final attack. However, Aldrich discovered an interesting phenomenon, which made him
A crooked smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Why are you laughing? We are very passive."
Janson was very puzzled by Aldrich's somewhat gloating smile. Look at how dedicated Stramaccione was next to him! He frowned and looked worried, obviously doing the team a disservice.
Worried about the situation.
Aldrich lowered his head and laughed.
"Hey, what are you laughing at? Just tell me and it will make me happy."
In fact, today's friendly match has another meaning. Aldrich didn't say it clearly, but Jenson could understand it.
That is, they don't want England to win, and they don't want England to play well.
Even losing is acceptable!
Why?
Knock, knock, knock on the arrogant English!
Let them wake up from the joy of winning the World Cup.
Although it is impossible to curb the blind arrogance of the English, it can be suppressed as much as possible. It is better than being arrogant.
Just like a team that is always in adversity, it means there is a problem with its strength.
But if it's going smoothly all the time, it's not pretty, because you might suddenly fall and break your body into pieces!
In Aldridge's eight years in charge of Millwall, he has already accumulated a relatively handy set of experience.
So the Dutch team wanted to play a friendly match, and Aldridge asked the Football Association to directly agree to it, even if they paid some money to invite the Netherlands to come.
But beating the team will create a sense of crisis, a sense of urgency, and bring a certain amount of pressure. If you recognize the reality, you can't deliberately let things go and deliberately lose the game. That is too nonsense.
If the opponent is strong, this is enough.
But the Dutch team was not as strong as Aldrich imagined.
He bent down and looked like he was holding his stomach in pain. He turned around and smiled at Jenson: "I have always thought that being the England coach is a painful and hard job. I didn't know why at the beginning. I was just obsessed with it. No, I should be motivated by the desire for profit.
Planning to be the national team coach
But now think about it. Europe is a powerful country with so many national teams. Which national team coach is good? France? Germany? Italy? Spain? Netherlands? Seeing the performance of the Dutch team on the field, I suddenly felt that I was very lucky. Instead,
I feel sorry for Advocaat."
Jenson understood most of what Aldrich meant.
Like France, there are internal ethnic issues. Part of the reason why Zidane is great is that he has made great contributions to national integration.
Germany is a place where the mentality of seniority is deeply ingrained. How dare you touch some big bosses and insist on supporting newcomers to the top. Just wait to be forced into the palace!
Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands all have more or less similar problems, either due to interests or nationalities. Any problem that is reflected in a country's society will actually be reflected in the football circle.
Like England, it's pretty good.
At least the problems Aldridge has to worry about rarely come from outside the competition.
But Janson still didn't understand Aldrich's last words. He lowered his head and asked: "Why should you sympathize with Advocaat? I think we should sympathize with England now. We are being beaten by the Netherlands!"
"Hahaha, to be honest, how many do you think the Netherlands can beat England with their cards?"
"Well, if we hold on, they won't win, or they'll win by one at most. Based on our situation today, we'll probably lose at least one."
"Twenty-five minutes have passed since the game. The Dutch team has had so many opportunities. Why hasn't there been a decent shot?"
"Well......"
"You haven't seen it yet? Damn it, you should continue to study with me."
"Tell me, tell me quickly!"
"Didn't you notice that Seedorf and Davies only passed the ball to Kluivert? There were so many good opportunities before. If they were willing to pass the ball to Overmars or Van der Meyde, then the final pass would be
Or in the final blow, the Dutch team could have done better! England had already conceded the goal! Hahaha, Advocaat, can the head coach solve this problem? The Dutch team, the uncrowned king, deserves it!
"
Jensen looked up suddenly and looked into the field with a surprised and uncertain expression.
In fact, looking at the game intuitively, I don't think the Netherlands has much of a problem. It can be understood that they were too hasty and eager to directly attack from the midfield line to center Kluivert.
And given that Seedorf, Davies, and Kluivert were Ajax teammates back then, is it any wonder that they have more cooperation and contact with each other?
But if you think deeply, at the level of Seedorf and Davis, wouldn’t you understand the importance of combining the sides?
But it is strange that he insists on passing on Kluivert so insistently.
As a Dutchman, Janson understood instantly and didn't find it strange.
This is the tragedy of the Netherlands, the contradiction between whites and blacks, Dutch and Surinamese. From all levels of society, to football, to the national team, whenever the Dutch team fails, the factor of internal strife is indispensable. Internal strife, in the end
What's the internal strife? What's there to quarrel with?
It is a social issue.
A problem that cannot be solved by a country or society as a whole can be perfectly solved by the national team?
England also has problems such as racial discrimination, but they really don't have such sharp confrontations in the football field. For example, Manchester United and Liverpool are mortal enemies, but Beckham and Owen can become an example of the best partners.
This is where Aldridge somewhat sympathizes with Advocaat. This kind of problem cannot be solved by the head coach sitting down and having an honest discussion and asking the players to hold hands and become good friends. (To be continued)
