Chapter 268 Winning the Bundesliga Championship in advance!
Three days later, in the 32nd round of the Bundesliga, Hamburg challenged Mainz away from home.
This game attracted the attention of many media and fans from all over Germany, all over Europe, and even the world.
Because after Hamburg's last Bundesliga match with Wolfsburg, they were already 7 points ahead of second place Bayern Munich.
If Hamburg can defeat Mainz at the Opel Arena in this league, regardless of the result of Bayern Munich's game, Hamburg will win the championship two rounds in advance!
In that case, Hamburg can devote all its energy to the Champions League and German Cup competitions in the next time and fight for the Triple Crown.
This kind of psychological relief of letting go of a game will definitely be of great help to Hamburg in winning the Champions League and German Cup.
Just considering that three days after this round of Bundesliga, Hamburg will face the second leg of the Champions League semifinals against Atletico Madrid, Pan Yi still sent out a lineup mainly composed of rotating players.
After all, the Champions League is the most important!
But Mainz led by Tuchel will naturally not surrender.
On the one hand, they do not want Hamburg to step on their corpses and become the Bundesliga champions, celebrating the championship in their stadium.
On the other hand, Mainz is currently ranked eighth in the league and is competing for qualification for the Europa League next season.
As a small team, if they have the opportunity to participate in the European competition, they must go all out!
……
In today's world football, when talking about coaches who like to use a three-back formation, Conte, Van Gaal, Bielsa and others may be mentioned.
But if we specifically say that the 3-4-3 formation is the favorite, then it must be Tuchel.
In Pan Yi's previous life, Tuchel took over Chelsea midway and then fully implemented the 343 formation.
This style of play immediately changed the chaotic situation of offensive "constipation" and poor defense in the Lampard era, and helped Chelsea get through all the way to win the Champions League.
So, who first invented the 343, a formation that seemed a bit "weird" at the time, in the "ancient" era when the 442 formation was the most popular?
This question is not difficult to answer, because the person who invented this formation is so famous.
He is the legendary coach in Barcelona's history-Kruyinf.
The then Barcelona head coach Kruyinf discovered a phenomenon in specific practice: At that time, most teams in world football were using the 442 formation. If the same 442 formation was used to respond, a 1
Versus 1 situation.
But for Barcelona, which has outstanding strength on paper, if they want to deal with the opponent's offensive players, they only need three defenders, and there is no need to send up to four people.
Against this background, Kruyinf bravely changed, adding a player to the forward line, and at the same time allowing a core defensive player in the backcourt to move to the midfield to participate in assists.
Usually Kruyinf will give this player the No. 4 jersey. This is the famous "No. 4 player" in the history of football tactics.
Player No. 4 is Kruyinf's greatest contribution to football tactics and is also a key link in the 343 formation he created.
Although this No. 4 player will appear in many defensive areas in the midfield, he does not require strong physical confrontation ability and outstanding foot skills. Instead, he has certain requirements for speed.
This speed does not necessarily refer to the player's running ability, but more to the examination of the situation on the field and the ability to quickly play the ball when double-teamed by multiple people.
To put it more simply, the No. 4 player in Kruyinf's tactical concept must be full of wisdom, dare to play the ball, and have a good "God's perspective."
From now on, players who appear in this position may not wear the No. 4 jersey, but they will still be called "No. 4 players" - for example, Guardiola, Xavi, and Iniesta are all qualified for this position.
responsibilities.
In Kruyinf's tactical concept, this 343 formation does not have an organizational core or an offensive core in an absolute sense. Many players in different positions can assume offensive and defensive tasks under certain conditions.
For example, the organizational tasks can be completed by Koeman who appears in the defender position. His ability to play the ball at his feet is even comparable to that of some top midfielders, and he can perfectly assume the task of guiding Barcelona in the backcourt.
In addition, Bacro, Laudrup and Guardiola can all take on the task of moving the ball forward.
Different from the 3-back system that was once popular in Italian football, Kruyinf's 343 lacks a sense of tight defense and has a little more arrogance of all-out attack.
Even the three defensive players on the back line are not responsible for "defense" in the complete sense. They will also participate in the offense appropriately at some times.
Cruyinf's contribution to the 343 formation is still affecting world football today, and also reflects the different concepts of Dutch football and Italian football.
Today, the 343 formation is known for its sharp offense and comprehensive defensive interception area, and it is playing an increasingly important role on the football tactical stage.
Tuchel is a loyal fan.
But his original intention of using the 343 formation was slightly different from Kruyinf.
Facing the 4-4-2 formation that was popular in the early years, most teams would use two central defenders to fight against the opponent's two forwards. This seems to be a natural way.
But for some head coaches of mid-to-lower teams, the giants often have top-notch superstars, and relying only on some mediocre center backs for 1-on-1 defense is obviously unable to meet the defensive requirements of the head coach.
In this context, increasing the number of defenders seems to be the most direct way to improve the quality of defense.
As a result, some head coaches made groundbreaking breakthroughs and took the lead in using a 3-back formation in many games against wealthy clubs. With two wing-backs who retreated significantly, they could effectively cover most of the midfield and backcourt.
Area.
In other words, when Cruyinf used 343, he wanted to reduce one defender and add one forward to strengthen the offense;
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The head coach of a small team like Tuchel wants to add a central defender and use more central defenders to fight against the capable forwards of strong teams.
As a result, the 343 formation has suddenly become extremely applicable in the current tactical landscape, and it is not surprising that it can be favored by many head coaches.
For any team that emphasizes offensive and defensive balance and offensive and defensive transformation, 343 can exert huge energy on both ends of the offense and defense, and its rapid turnover also fully reflects the "sense of speed" that is increasingly important in modern football.
At the same time, because the 3-back and 5-back are naturally easy to switch, the head coach also has more choices when making on-the-spot tactical arrangements.
Is it offensive or defensive? It depends on where the two wing backs stand.
Moreover, the 343 formation is also very helpful for the head coach to control the overall situation, not just the transition between offense and defense.
For some teams, considering the overall strength is poor, blindly assigning too many responsibilities to players will lead to chaos in the offensive and defensive system.
In this context, many head coaches are more advocating the "segmentation" of offense and defense. More generally speaking, it means letting defensive players do defensive things and offensive players do offensive things.
The presence of three central defenders makes the team's backcourt control relatively stable and can effectively resolve the opponent's press during the ball release stage.
Even if the opponent increases its defensive strength, it can use two relatively free midfielders to retreat in a wide range, turning the backcourt into a "ladder" style 5-man passing and controlling system.
With three central defenders as back-up players, the two wing-backs don’t have to worry too much about wing defense when attacking. They can safely penetrate into the opponent’s defensive third area and form a wing-center combination with the three forwards already in the frontcourt.
.
The presence of two wing-backs does not necessarily mean that they must take the ball and launch an attack along the wing. Sometimes it is also a good choice to draw the opponent's defensive attention by running without the ball.
Once the wing-back inserts into the opponent's defensive hinterland, it will inevitably force the opponent to send a 2-3-man wing defensive group to restrict further advancement.
In this case, the defensive pressure on the three forwards relatively close to the center will be reduced, and the wing-backs will create more space for the teammates in the center to get the ball by running without the ball, whether it is a direct long-range shot from the outside
Or more subtle small-scale coordination in the middle are both good choices.
In the choice of three-man group offensive tactics in the middle, the biggest advantage brought by the 343 formation can be perfectly reflected - since the three forwards can cooperate with each other in a relatively small area, even if the opponent deploys multiple people to defend, it will be difficult for them to defend.
It reaches the point of covering everything in a short period of time.
Generally speaking, the center will immediately press the opponent's small penalty area to force the two central defenders beside him to retreat. The two adducted wingers can easily take the ball at the top of the penalty area and organize it to get ahead of the opponent's midfielder.
Deliver the ball before the defensive players are in place.
Thanks to the existence of the 3-back system, the two full-backs who originally had to shoulder many defensive tasks under the 4-back system will be liberated laterally.
They can move forward significantly in the attack and even become the team's two wingers;
They can also retreat to the back line of defense under certain circumstances and become the team's two full-backs, changing the original 3-back formation into a 5-back formation with a larger defensive coverage area.
"So, why is such a good formation not as popular as the 4231, 433, or even the 442 formation in today's world football?"
At the tactical meeting, after listening to "Teacher Pan Yi" narrate the past and present life of the 343 formation, many coaches raised such questions.
"All formations have advantages and disadvantages, and 343 is no exception." Pan Yi replied, "The reason is that this formation affects the players' personal strength, tactical adaptability, and the head coach's philosophical choice.
It has relatively strict requirements. Once used improperly, it will not only fail to enrich the team's technical and tactical system, but may even have negative effects."
Then Pan Yi started talking about the weaknesses of the 343 formation.
This is also the focus of this tactical meeting.
Because they now have to use a 433 formation to deal with Tuchel’s 343!
Knowing the opponent's weaknesses and then using your own strengths to attack them is the way to win a game.
"The 343 formation is indeed easier to create an eye-catching and gorgeous offense, but its many limitations are also very obvious."
"First of all, on paper, the 343 formation has as many as four players in the midfield, but the two wing-backs on both sides will not actually belong to the midfield for a long time and help the midfielder assist in organization and scheduling." "In other words, even if the two wingers can retreat appropriately to assist, there are still only two players in the midfield most of the time."
"For a team with limited midfielders, using only two players for defensive interception in such a vast area will inevitably bring huge hidden dangers."
"Even in the process of organizing the offense, the two midfielders do seem a little too thin."
"In response to this situation, once our defensive players gather many people to encircle and press, Mainz's relatively mediocre midfielder will have difficulty picking up the ball, and it will even be snatched away by our players in a short period of time, thus giving us an opportunity to counterattack.
..."
Another major shortcoming of the 343 formation is the side defense problem that Pan Yi often emphasizes.
As we all know, the 343 formation has a very obvious reliance on the insertion of wing-backs, and the final decision also relies on the outflanking of the wing-backs on the opposite side at the back post.
Under this premise, the problem of insufficient numbers in the midfield will be further amplified.
Although there are three defenders in the backcourt, because the side defense is too weak, two of them must be pulled to the side in a defensive state, which will lead to a huge gap in the ribs in the middle!
In addition, the 343 formation has high requirements for the personal ability of players in some positions (mainly wing backs), and offense and defense will also show a serious sense of separation at certain times, which is not conducive to switching from offense to defense.
Return quickly.
These are all points that Hamburg can take advantage of when facing Mainz, and they are also the key to defeating Tuchel!
……
When the coaching staff of Hamburg and Mainz shook hands before the game, Tuchel felt a little fuzzy for some reason.
He felt that the coaches in Hamburg were looking at him with a lustful look, as if he had no clothes on.
Although Tuchel believes that it is polite to look into the other person's eyes when shaking hands;
But this group of people in Hamburg were too polite, right? They just stared at him and smiled indescribably.
How did he know that this was because Pan Yi analyzed his tactics so clearly in the pre-match tactical meeting that everyone looked at Tuchel now and felt that his whole person had been seen through...<
/p>
And after the game officially started, this was indeed verified.
After nearly 20 minutes of testing between the two sides, Hamburg began to exert force.
The three midfielders composed of Makoto Hasebe, Paulinho and Calhanoglu easily took over control of the midfield when facing Gass and Soto in the center of Mainz.
After Mainz's attack failed, their gap in the ribs was clearly exposed under Hamburg's high pressure.
Calhanoglu saw the opportunity and sent a through ball. Wu Lei began to use his speed to break through and directly entered the penalty area.
Since Mainz's wing-back Park Joo-ho had already made an assist at this time, it was difficult to return to his position. Their right center back Stefan Bell quickly came over to defend.
But Wu Lei's shooting action was also very fast. Before Stefan Bell came close to lean on him, he directly poked the ball with his toes and hit the ball towards the far corner of the goal.
After completing the shot, Wu Lei was also knocked to the ground from the side by Stefan Bell.
Seeing Wu Lei's sudden shot with almost no warning, goalkeeper Karius, who was blocking the near corner, was caught off guard.
By the time he reacted and fell to the ground in the far direction, the ball had already passed in front of him and entered the far goal.
Seeing Wu Lei's goal, the commentator from Hamburg TV in the commentary box roared and shouted crazily:
"gooooooooooooooooooollll..."
"The ball went in! In the 25th minute, Wu Lei kicked the ball into Mainz's goal!"
"Wu Lei opened the scoring and Hamburg led Mainz 1:0 at the Europa Arena!"
"The Bundesliga champions are waving to us!"
"Long live Wu Lei, long live Pan Yi, long live Hamburg!"
Hamburg's players and fans were celebrating wildly, while Mainz's players were extremely depressed after losing the ball.
In fact, the Mainz coaching staff headed by Tuchel also made a lot of careful preparations for this game and made targeted restrictions on Hamburg players.
For example, Hamburg's forward line, who Mitrovic asked to mainly mark and who to cover, how to position Wu Lei's line, who to attack and who to hold back are all arranged properly.
20 minutes ago, they seemed to have successfully defended Hamburg's attack.
However, as if the previous game in Hamburg was just a warm-up, it took 20 minutes for the game to really get into shape.
Once Hamburg started to exert its strength, Mainz's previous arrangements seemed to disappear and become useless. Hamburg soon scored a goal.
Tuchel gritted his teeth and decided to give up the attack first and stabilize his position.
So his 343 suddenly became a position similar to 541.
As a result, the resistance encountered by Hamburg's offensive increased sharply.
Players from both sides piled up within 30 meters of the Mainz goal. The penalty area was densely packed with people. Even the long-range shots from Hamburg players could not reach the goal. They were blocked by people who blocked the hole in the middle or stretched their legs to clear the ball.<
/p>
As a result, both sides failed to score in the rest of the first half, and entered the halftime break with a score of 0:1, with Hamburg temporarily taking the lead.
After a 15-minute rest, the two sides changed sides and fought again.
After adjustments during the halftime break, Mainz's defensive counterattack became more stable and sophisticated.
Facing Mainz, which was like a bus, Hamburg resorted to a bus-breaking weapon - high-altitude bombing.
Mitrovic is on the court!
And when the midfield is completely controlled by Hamburg, the frequency of 45-degree crosses from Hamburg's wingers is also very high.
If one kick fails, another kick comes, then two kicks, then three kicks...
Finally, in the 78th minute, a cross from Dimicek hit Mitrovic's head. The Serbian center was unable to head the ball directly because he had his back, so he nodded the ball.
Not far from Mitrovic, the unguarded Hamburg captain Westermann volleyed the ball without stopping outside the penalty area!
The ball went into the goal like a sharp arrow. Goalkeeper Karius didn't even react. He turned around and watched the ball go into the goal.
The Mainz fans who had been booing Hamburg just now suddenly fell silent. The entire Europa Arena was as silent as death, with only a few Hamburg fans and commentators from various TV stations shouting crazily.
On the court, Westermann, who scored the second goal for Hamburg, also excitedly rushed to Pan Yi and gave him a fierce hug.
Other teammates also gathered around to celebrate.
Although it is still far from the end of the game, this goal can be said to have sealed the victory.
Because the situation of the game is destined that the opponent does not dare to counterattack vigorously. If Mainz really dares to devote its troops to the attack, Hamburg will probably score more goals.
In fact, this is also true.
After being scored two goals, Tuchel really had no choice but to increase his offensive intensity.
But in that case, the number of defenders in the backcourt will be reduced to only 3, and the space on the sides and wings will be larger, and the difficulty of passing the ball in the backcourt will also become much more difficult.
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In the 88th minute, Mainz goalkeeper Karius originally wanted to pass the ball to the defender with his feet, but found that both sides were pressed by Hamburg players.
So he tried to throw the ball to start a fast break, but he made a mistake while throwing it. When he threw it, Mitrovic blocked it with his foot and was blocked directly into the goal.
0:3!
Hamburg leads Mainz by three goals, this game is already won!
Thousands of Hamburg fans held a model of a salad plate of the Bundesliga champions in the stands, singing and dancing without caring about the feelings of the Mainz fans.
Many Mainz fans have already begun to leave early, too lazy to watch Hamburg's celebration.
The 3-goal lead and the temptation to win the championship in advance made the Hamburg players on the court seem a little absent-minded.
Finally, in the 90th minute, Mainz finally took advantage of a mistake by Hamburg. Koo Zizhe stole the ball and passed it to Shinji Okazaki. The latter then crossed the middle and Choupo-Moting scored a face-saving goal.
Ball.
But this has no effect on the outcome of the entire game.
After 3 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the game. Hamburg defeated Mainz 3:1 in an away game and won the 2013-2014 German Bundesliga championship two rounds in advance!
After the game, Mainz players and fans left the field one after another, leaving only the Hamburg players and fans who had won the championship in advance to celebrate in the Opel Arena.
After all, it is an away game, and the atmosphere when winning the championship is not as strong as at home.
There isn’t even a formal award ceremony!
But this doesn't stop Hamburg people from venting their excitement.
Although they were mentally prepared, when this moment actually arrived, all Hamburg coaches, players and fans were so excited that some fans even shed tears of excitement.
More than a year ago, when they were still struggling in the relegation zone, who could have imagined that they would be as successful as they are today?
Soon, they found the biggest contributor to this great achievement—Pan Yi!
Pan Yi was thrown high into the air by a group of people and then fell down.
Bah!
"Fuck! You bastards, really none of you reached out to pick me up??!