: Episode 487

Four hundred and eighty-seventh
After the end of the game with Osasuna, the third round of the league followed. Atletico Madrid challenged Valencia away.
If Atletico Madrid won the first game for granted, then the challenge to Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium is probably the focus of attention on this road.
In fact, many media believe that the overall strength of Valencia this season is a bit behind last season.
Especially in terms of personnel, during the summer transfer window this season, Valencia has transferred an amazing 16 players!
Major players such as Mata, Joaquin, Isco and Fernandez were sold. Obviously, the biggest loss to Valencia was Spain international Mata. This Asturian was Valencia’s best player last season. He contributed eight goals and twelve goals in the league. Assists.
In terms of transfers, Valencia cleared sixteen players, but only six players were introduced: Piati (Almería 0, Diego Alves (Almería), Parejo ( Getafe), Canales (Real Madrid), Lamy (Lille) and Pereira (Sporting).
For Valencia coach Emery, this is his fourth year in charge of the team. Speaking of which, there are more than four head coaches who have been able to coach for more than four years in the history of this club established in 1919, including Emery.
Emery came here from the Almeria club in 2007 and led Valencia to sixth place. Compared with the tragic performance of the Koman era a year ago, this is a big improvement. They even hovered in the relegation zone that year, and finally ranked 10th. For the next two years, Aimery led the team to qualify for the Champions League, but the team chairman Llorente felt that his performance was only worthy of a contract extension. year. However, Llorente is not satisfied with the team's position in the league, especially this season Valencia slipped to fourth place, the rise of Atletico Madrid makes Slightly jealous.
For Emery, the pressure on him now is also quite large.
Coaching the team for four years, has not brought you any trophy to Valencia.
In the league, Valencia's heart of champions has been extinguished. Last season, due to the rise of Atletico Madrid, Valencia also saw the hope of competing for the league championship-Atletico Madrid can do it, why not Valencia?
Originally, Valencia's management and fans didn't think much about the league championship, because in any case, they could not compete with Barcelona and Real Madrid.
However, the success of Atletico Madrid last season made Valencia's senior managers feel that since Atletico Madrid can win the championship with a team that has been down for more than ten years, there is no reason Valencia can't think about it.
This virtually gave Emery tremendous pressure.
Emery believes that since the team is fighting for the championship, why sell Mata and others?
From Valencia's signing strategy, we did not see the ambition of this team, while selling people, while demanding to win!
Isn’t this asking the cow to be milked and not letting the cow eat grass?
Emery is a little pessimistic about the team's prospects this season, but in any case, he can't show pessimism in front of the players. On the contrary, he has to stimulate the players' desire to play, especially in this game!
In his position, Emery can't just put it off this season just because there is no sales at the top, and his professional ethics can't let him do such a thing.
........
In fact, for the Valencia team, Gao Bo dare not look down upon.
But considering the Champions League match four days later, in this match, Gao Bo did a little bit of rotation!
There are two adjustments in the defense line. Juan Fran is still playing at right back, while the combination of center back is Godin and Lucio's partner, and the left back is Sandro.
In midfield, Kanter, Gabi, Modric, three players started the field.
In the frontcourt, it was Mane, Aguero and Griezmann!
Compared to the first start of the previous game, Atletico Madrid has four adjustments!
In the home team's locker room, Emery got the starting list for Atletico Madrid.
"Are they staying for the Champions League?"
One of Emery's assistant frowned and said beside him.
Staying....
Emery thought for a while, then shook his head.
"Their set of starters is also very good, Gabi and Kanter, two players who are more defensive in the midfield..."
"Are they going to play a defensive counterattack away?"
"Perhaps, I didn't know until the game!" Emery put down the information in his hand, then raised his head.
"But no matter what they play, we just play in our own way!!!"
.......
When it was time for the game, Emery found that Atletico Madrid's formation had changed.
It was not 433. Gao Bo arranged a 4231 formation in the away game!
Gabi and Kanter have double midfielders, behind Modric, and Modric is on either side of Mane and Griezmann!
Emery looked at Gao Bo who was not far away.
Atletico Madrid has used a set of starting midfielders like this before, but Modric was behind him, and Kanter and Gaby were his flanks to him.
Now Modric has pushed to the position of the front midfielder, and the positions of the two wingers have moved back slightly.
What kind of attention is Gao Bo playing?
......
In fact, Gao Bo is still considering the Champions League game.
In this game, Atletico Madrid needs to win the "economy". The so-called economy means that the main players cannot consume too much physical energy while avoiding injuries as much as possible.
In the away game, facing a strong team like Valencia, Gao Bo's arrangement seems to be a bit too big.
But Gao Bo doesn't think he is too big!
Because after thinking about it for a long time, he finally decided to redeem the orange card from last season's "Unbeaten Season" mission reward.
[Game Card (Orange): The team’s long-range shooting percentage has been increased by 15%, and the accuracy of side passes has been increased by 15%! ! 】
For Atletico Madrid, in fact, they are not afraid to face against them and pull out head-on opponents. However, if there is a team shrinking in the penalty area and not coming out, even if Atletico Madrid's frontcourt passes and moves flexibly, I am afraid it will be difficult to find opportunities in the dense iron barrels.
Long shots and wide passes are undoubtedly two sharp weapons to break dense defense, but in normal times, these two skills are also very powerful.
If you want to win the opponent economically, you can use some simpler methods, which may be more effective.
The new card makes Gao Bo's tactical arrangement more biased towards long-range shooting.
When Valencia is defensive, they are naturally a dense formation, while squeezing the passing space of Atletico Madrid in the midfield as much as possible.
.......
The advantage of 4231 is that it is a relatively balanced formation, both on offense and defense. Each player has a clear division of labor and
Valencia at home is actually very good at short pass penetration in the middle, so Kanter and Gaby locked the middle in the midfield, which is also a targeted deployment.
In fact, it was the same in the game. Valencia's midfield penetration was completely infiltrated by Kanter and Gaby's defense.
In this game, Atletico Madrid did a rotation on the one hand, and on the other hand, in the game, they also adopted a relatively labor-saving play. When defending, stand still, and after taking possession of the ball, slowly move up to your feet, seemingly not anxious to counterattack.
The scene of the game was very dull, but this was intentional by Atletico Madrid. They controlled the ball and were not in a hurry to attack. Instead, they slowly induced the Valencia players out, and then used both sides Grazman and Mane. His personal ability to attack Valencia’s defenses.
The first goal is a long-range goal! ! In this game, Gao Bo emphasized how to strengthen the long-range shot before the game, and in the game, the long-range shot really worked!
Modric got the opportunity to shoot at the top of the arc in the penalty area. This kick produced a very high quality. The football was in a dead end, and the goalkeeper had no choice!
In fact, before that, Atletico Madrid had tried several long shots.
At the time, Emery thought that the opponent didn't pay much attention to the performance of the league-maybe Atletico Madrid players wanted to think about the league in midweek.
As a result, Modric scored this kick... which made Emery think that his team had bad luck.
Valencia's offense was through the wing. The center was closed by two iron gates, Kanter and Gabi, and Valencia could get some opportunities on the wing.
However, after Atletico Madrid scored the goal, they controlled the ball at their own feet, so Valencia had to pay more running and pressing to fight to get the ball back.
The result was not ideal. Atletico Madrid played even more relaxed after taking the lead ~EbookFREE.me~ until the end of the first half, and Valencia did not get several opportunities to attack.
In the second half, the game was still the same.
Aimee is also somewhat helpless in this situation, and Valencia is completely lost in the midfield!
This is because even if they grab the ball, it is difficult to control the ball like last season. Valencia's control has dropped a lot after Mata is missing.
In this way, Atletico Madrid's second goal came!
It's still a long shot!
This time it was Griezmann, who scored the second goal of Atletico Madrid in the game after taking the ball from the wing.
After Gao Bo began to deploy troops, he replaced a few players who had the opportunity to play in the Champions League to let them feel the atmosphere of the game.
Atletico Madrid slowly controlled the rhythm, and in the end Valencia could only accept a dull defeat at home.