Vol 2 Chapter 23: Play against Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a Premier League powerhouse, their strength is difficult to compare with Manchester United, Arsenal and other strong teams, but there is no worry about relegation every season. Compared to Derbyshire, Middlesbrough is a grade higher-they are the middle of the Premier League team, and Derbyshire can only be regarded as the relegation team of the Premier League.
The position of the two teams is very different, and their strength is naturally much worse.
However, coach Steve McLaren agreed to the Derbyshire warm-up requirements, just as Derby County invited some lower league warm-ups. Middlesbrough also needs to warm up in the lower leagues. Fort, Derbyshire is a low-level league team that meets the requirements.
On this day, all of Derbyshire came to the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough.
The warm-up match is not so formal. After entering the stadium, the two sides will start warming up, and then directly proceed to the official match. The head referee responsible for the law enforcement game is invited by both teams.
Wan Sheng stood with McLaren on the sidelines.
McLaren is only 42 years old. At this age, he can become the manager of the Premier League team. He is already quite young. His coaching resume is also very dazzling-he served as assistant to coach Ferguson at Manchester United and now also serves as assistant to England coach Eriksson. He is also the coach of Middlesbrough. Overall, this is a very successful coach.
Wan Sheng knew McLaren because he knew the England team.
McLaren ’s biggest dream is to coach the England team. After three years of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, McLaren also realized his dream. Unfortunately, he was dismissed by the FA within less than a year. The reason for the dismissal There are many. This includes poor team performance, media criticism, and dissatisfaction with the team ’s stars. In short, he did poorly in the position of England coach. Later, he had failed in the Netherlands and Bundesliga, and finally returned to England, but he also You can only find a coaching job in the British Championship (now in the Premier League).
That is to say. McLaren's most glorious time was when he took over as England coach in 2006.
Now, as the Middlesbrough coach, he can be regarded as the peak period of the coach's life, but ten years later, he became the head coach of the British crown, and the current Wansheng belongs to the same level coach.
Think about the later experience of this ‘predecessor in the coaching profession’ and ‘currently successful people’. Wan Sheng can only sigh that the competition in the coaching industry is really fierce, but he has great respect for McLaren. After all, this is a predecessor, and his performance in Middlesbrough is also very good. The Middlesbrough club said quite generously that all the ticket revenue belongs to the Derbyshire club. It can find the Premier League team to warm up and bring benefits to the club. Wan Sheng felt at home in this lead game.
But he soon put his energy into the game.
In the match between the two teams on the court, Derby County did not show any disadvantages. In the situation, they and Offensive and Middlesbrough each other, the overall performance looks very good. But Wan Sheng saw a big problem. Mutual offense and defense is of course, Derby County is also a League One team, and playing offensive football. If this doesn't allow the Middlesbrough to attack and defend each other, Derby County's performance will be too bad. The problem that Wan Sheng noticed was the team's performance on defense.
The two teams have offensive and defensive each other, but Middlesbrough's offensive threat is quite large. This is not that they have a good offense, but that Derby County's defense is very poor.
The team's midfield is almost undefended!
Especially Wan Sheng found that the team lost the ball in the frontcourt. Middlesbrough launched an offensive, between this offensive and defensive transition. The team formation is a bit chaotic. Many times the midfield is jumped by the opponent's two or three feet. Then Middlesbrough can easily enter the dangerous area of ​​the backcourt.
How did that happen?
Wan Sheng looked at the game carefully and wanted to find the key to the problem.
In his view, the team's performance can be said to be quite poor. The most important thing for his new tactics is to grasp the rhythm. This rhythm is the rhythm of the offensive and defensive transition of the team. From defense to attack, the rhythm of the transition is direct. The field is forced to go out and launch a quick offensive. This is the core essence of tactics, but now the situation is that whenever the team turns to defense, the formation will become a bit chaotic. Wan Sheng has emphasized more than once in training Defensive issues, it stands to reason that players on the field are trying to run and intercept according to tactics. The team's full-field pressing should be able to play a role, but the current situation is that the defense is in a mess, like rhythm. Completely in the opponent's hands, the team did not adapt to their tactics.
Wan Sheng frowned.
He watched the game carefully, carefully watched the performance of each player, and also watched the opponent's offense. Just like this time, after Middlesbrough completed the backcourt interception, he turned to defense and only used a three-foot pass. After penetrating the team's midfield line, the football quickly reached the opponent's full-back. The front-back tried to advance the ball forward. Two or three steps opened the neutral pass to the penalty area. The opponent's forward sent the ball into the goal with his head.
Middlesbrough scored.
However, Wan Sheng didn't care about the opponent's goal. This was just a warm-up match. The victory and defeat had no effect at all. He was concerned about the team's defense in the midfield. Obviously, the team's midline can't carry the opponent's attack. In front of the opponent's passing and coordination, this midline defense seems too weak.
Until the end of the first half of the game, Wan Sheng has been staring at the game thinking.
Middlesbrough scored another goal in the last half of the first half, rewriting the score to 2: 0, which made the Derbyshire players look morale, but Wan Sheng did not have time to think too much about the result, he was still thinking about tactics no problem.
In this game, the players on the team played very well. At least they are fighting hard again. They are also playing in accordance with the tactics. The team's offense and defense conversion speed is also very fast. The team played well, but why Can the offense be so much worse than the opponent? Why does the opponent always penetrate the team's defense line easily? The team's role in pressing the defense at all did not happen at all. Instead, they rarely had the opportunity to entangle with the opponent in the midfield.
In short, it is a question of defense!
Wan Sheng was determined. On the way back to the locker room, he finally wanted to understand some of the problems. The most crucial thing is the performance of two players in the midfield-Morris and Ottoman. The team's formation is 442, and the midfield is a standard diamond position. Morris is in front and Osman is in the back. As a result, Morris attacked. There is only one Ottoman left in the middle of the midfield. He needs to defend too much. One person cannot take care of such a large range of defense. The team's midfield is easily penetrated by the opponent.
Wan Sheng has seen this for a long time, but his formation is very standard, and many other teams use this 442 midfield diamond position. Among them, the representative is Arsenal. They play more offensive football than Derby County, but their defense is also very strict.
In the final analysis, the players are generally lack of strength!
This is the most critical.
The two players in the midfield are attacking and defending the diamond position, when the attacking midfield is inserted. The untimely withdrawal of the overall offensive and defensive conversion, coupled with the fact that the opponent is much stronger than his own strength, the midfielder cannot naturally stop the opponent. This is also a disadvantage of open attack football. Arsenal can show a strong defense. Because they are already the world's top team, and Derby County is just a Premier League team, they are now facing the Premier League team Middlesbrough.
Wan Sheng thought clearly.
But he will not give up the new tactics. Go and play a defensive counterattack with Middlesbrough, so that his preparation for a summer is lost, even if it is a big score loss. He also wants to make the team more adaptable to this set of tactics. Now facing the strong team, although the choice of defensive counterattack is better, Wan Sheng still feels that the new tactics also have a chance. All he has to do is to change the formation and strengthen the defense.
Return to the dressing room. Seeing the scenes of players shrugging their heads, Wan Sheng also knew that the first half of the game hit the players a bit hard. They worked very hard, but they were scored two goals by the opponent. Especially when the opponent is attacking, they feel quite passive in defense, this passive is easy to kill the player's fighting spirit.
When Wan Sheng walked in, the players all looked over, but immediately their heads were lower, because they felt that the coach would definitely be furious and dissatisfied with their performance.
But they didn't expect Wansheng to smile and praise their performance.
"Your performance is very good, everyone is doing very well!" Wan Sheng confirmed the performance of the players, "Don't care too much about the first half, you know, they are Middlesbrough, a Premier League powerhouse, and We were still desperate for relegation last season. "
There was a little joking in his words, which also made the atmosphere in the dressing room a lot better.
"But we can't let the game go like this, so we need to adjust the formation in the second half ..." Wan Sheng said in detail about the tactical adjustment.
The adjustment made by Wan Sheng is simple, that is to add a defensive midfielder.
In this way, the team has two backs, and the defender line does not move, so there must be one less forward, so the formation becomes 4231, with two defensive midfielders dragging behind, the other side wants to easily penetrate the ball The team's midfield defense is not easy ~ EbookFREE.me ~ As long as the defense can be stabilized, the basis for the tactics to play an effect is established, and the performance will naturally become better.
Sure enough, after this adjustment, Derby County's defense in the second half was much more stable. It was guaranteed by the defense. The fast-paced change in the team's offense and defense conversion and fast attack also made Middlesbrough suffer a lot of losses in the second half. In the fifteenth minute, Derbyshire took advantage of a backcourt stealing opportunity to directly accelerate the attack, hit Middlesbrough by surprise, Ian Taylor, who came off the bench, found a chance to complete a strong shot in the penalty area for the ball The team chased back a goal.
Next, Middlesbrough also solidified the defense, while they were still trying to penetrate the Derby County center line, but at this time they found that it was very difficult to do so. The two opponents were very good at running and intercepting defensive players. , Causing countless troubles for their attack.
Soon they had to fall into a battle with each other for the initiative of the midfield.
At this point in the game, Wansheng was quite satisfied. He could use the new tactics to make a tie with the Premier League powerhouse Middlesbrough, and even took back a little advantage in the second half. This proves that the power of the new tactics is still good.
The result is not important.
--- As a fake fan, write this chapter sincerely Alexander --- (to be continued)