Coaching legend

Cooper had a cool face and simply touched his hands when facing George.

Looking at Cooper's face, George shook his head. This is a good coach, a very strong coach. But if he made a mistake, it was that he should not have coached at the wrong club at the wrong time. At the peak of Cooper's coaching career, going to Inter Milan was a complete failure.

But this has nothing to do with George.

In the arena, not just one or two of these well-known coaches disappear in front of everyone due to various reasons.

Even Del Bosque, who currently leads Real Madrid, would have disappeared from the public eye if he had not later coached the Spanish national team. What about Cooper?

Valencia is an alternative in Spanish football. His style of play is deeply influenced by Italian coach Claudio Ranieri. Italian football's defensive counterattack has a great impact on Valencia. Similarly, Blackburn is also an alternative to the Premier League. Blackburn's style of play is completely based on the continental European model.

Therefore, after the game started, the scene became even more dramatic.

So much so that the German commentator looked at the situation on the field and smiled and said: "Blackburn, who comes from the Premier League, uses La Liga's playing style to control the rhythm of the field. But Valencia, who plays in La Liga, uses Serie A's defensive counterattack. What a thing. Strange thing."

Indeed, the game scene does not look like a match between Premier League and La Liga teams at all.

But George definitely didn't attack aggressively in this game. What is the best thing about Valencia? That's counterattack.

Valencia's counterattack is very characteristic. Especially Kiley Gonzalez on the left. This is a wide player with fast speed, good skills and excellent crosses. When counterattacking, you can see Keely Gonzalez's wind-like speed.

Of course Valencia's midfielder is also suitable for counterattacks. Baraja in the midfield is a very good defensive midfielder. And Mendieta is a talented midfielder that is counted among Spain and even the entire European football world at this time. He has good skills and excellent passing ability, and he has the feeling of a free man in the frontcourt.

Needless to say, Aimar. Characterized by being fast and flexible, diligent in running, good at rushing forward from the midfield, breakthroughs are also as concise, clear and practical as possible based on speed, accurate in short passes, and good at coordination. It can be said that Aimar has all the abilities of an attacking midfielder.

But that doesn’t mean Valencia’s midfielder doesn’t have shortcomings.

Mendieta and Aimar are excellent midfielders, talented midfielders. But neither of them contributed much in defense. Especially Mendieta, although Valencia is defensive and counterattacking. But Cooper was very indulgent towards Mendieta.

Mendieta won't let Mendieta do the dirty work of defending.

Not to mention Aimar. With his thin body, even if he is engaged in defense, he will not be of much use.

Therefore, Valencia's defensive counterattack at this time relies more on the team's overall position. It's different than when George was at Burnley, defending with a strong midfield.

So George must attack.

But because Mendieta, Aimar, Kili Gonzalez, and Juan Sanchez all have strong counterattack capabilities. So George couldn't go out in full force.

The breakthrough point George chose was Valencia's two wings.

Carboni and Angeloma are both currently thirty-six years old. Speaking of which, their sports lifespan is indeed extremely long. At the age of thirty-six, it is indeed not easy to be the main player of a strong European team like Valencia.

George was both unwilling to go out in force and wanted to attack. So we can only choose a few attack points.

George's offensive investment is limited, with only a few people in the frontcourt participating in the offense. The players in the midfield and backfield did not move, especially Sagnol on the right, who paid great attention to Killy Gonzalez. Don't dare to attack forward like in other games.

Although it is this kind of attack, the effect is very good.

Pires and Duff were very threatening to play against Carboni and Angeloma on the wing.

The biggest advantage of both Carboni and Angeloma is their wealth of experience. Their rich experience can make up for their decline in physical fitness, and they have become a main force with accurate positioning and awareness.

But none of this can completely make up for the fact that the two of them are already older.

Both Pires and Duff are at the best of their careers. If Duff is still young, he is only twenty-two years old this year. So now Pires is completely at the peak of his career.

Pires, who is 28 years old this year, needs experience and strength. In addition, 28 years old is exactly the age at which a player is at his peak.

Carboni was able to handle it a little bit when facing Duff. But the situation on the other side is completely different.

Angeloma was completely at a disadvantage facing Pires. Technology, Pires' technology is completely unconstrained. Due to his speed, the thirty-six-year-old Angeloma had no power to resist. Neither his technique nor his speed were good enough. Angeloma could only use his consciousness to block Pires, preventing him from easily breaking into the penalty area.

But once there is a misjudgment, the right defense will be completely empty.

Valencia also tried to counterattack, but Blackburn's defensive line would not press out at all. All offenses are carried out by Miku, Pires, Duff and Klose. Even Deco stayed in his own half, only moving slightly forward when passing the ball.

This style of play that is disconnected between offense and defense is actually very dangerous. Because the distance between the frontcourt and the backcourt increases, not only is it impossible to help offensively, but it is also impossible to support defensively. But playing Valencia is the most appropriate.

Cooper frowned as he looked at Blackburn's unusual style of play.

Valencia is actually not bad at attacking tough problems. With Mendieta and Aimar, there is no shortage of creativity in the midfield. But a team's style of play will not change easily. Valencia has always played defensive counterattacks, so it would be problematic for them to suddenly play offense.

So Cooper is considering how to adjust.

But Blackburn won't give you any chance to adjust.

Eighteen minutes into the game, Makelele stole the ball from Aimar and handed it to Deco.

"Aimar was not in good form in this game. After returning from injury, he has not found his form yet."

After Deco got the ball, he didn't pass the ball, but pushed forward. Deco's forward penetration is a change in Blackburn's offense. It's just that Deco's speed is a bit slow. If he were faster, he would definitely be able to catch the opponent off guard.

"Deco, go forward... pass the ball, Miku... Miku's pass accurately found Pires!"

Deco's advance completely disrupted Valencia's midfield defense, but Deco did not continue to advance. Instead, it was passed to Miku in front, who did not stop the ball. Miku leaned on Baraja and passed the ball with the outside of his right foot. The ball flew to Pires' feet very accurately.

This accurate pass made commentators from all over the world marvel in admiration.

After Pires got the ball, he faced Angeloma. Nearly twenty minutes of entanglement gave Pires a sufficient understanding of Angeloma. This is a very stable defender, and ordinary shaking is of no use to him. But there is a drawback, Angeloma is old after all.

Pires used the outside instep of his left foot to lead the ball outward, but he pulled it back instantly.

Angeloma made no move when Pires made a breakthrough. In his opinion, this was Pires's fake move. It wasn't until Pires pulled the ball back that his body moved. But at the same time, I discovered that I had been fooled.

It turns out that Pires did not pull the ball back, but just the movement of his body. As soon as Angeloma's body moved, Pires broke through from the outside. Then before Angeloma could react, he had already passed around from the outside and broke into the penalty area.

Pires' series of actions completely threw Angeloma away.

This sequence of moves is short, but beautiful. And very suddenly, Valencia's two central defenders never thought that Angeloma would be broken through so easily. Therefore, when Pires entered the penalty area, they were not in a defensive position.

But Pires no longer gave them this chance.

"...Pires, broke through Angeloma...passed the ball, it was Klose!"

Only Klose, who had a deep understanding with Pires, was already ready when Pires made his moves. When Pires passed Angeloma, Klose had already thrown away Ayala and Pelligrino. When Pires' pass reached the penalty area, Klose was already facing goalkeeper Canizares alone.

Of course Klose will not let go of such a good opportunity. Facing the passed ball, Klose made it in one fell swoop.

"Beautiful, Blackburn led 1-0 in the first twenty minutes. This is an away goal, a precious away goal. Valencia, their defense cannot guard Blackburn. And their offense is playing Don’t get up.”

"Blackburn are one step closer to the Champions League semi-finals."

At this time, all England commentators are of course supporting Blackburn. Martin Taylor spoke highly of Blackburn's goal.

"The La Liga team is known as the league with the best technology. But when Blackburn scored such a goal, how can we tell which one is the La Liga club and which one is the Premier League club? Well done! Blackburn are in such great shape. alright."

Facing nearly 40,000 Valencia fans, the thousands of Blackburn fans who came with the team were no less vocal than them.

George faced the Blackburn fans and kept clapping. This is the first time in George's coaching career that thousands of fans have come to an away game. Being able to hear the cheers of thousands of fans in the away game is a great feeling.

After Klose scored, he did his standard front flip celebration. Then facing Pires who assisted, he wanted to celebrate together. But Pires shook his head and then made a move to clean Klose's shoes.

Klose was stunned. This is the sixth year that Klose has followed George to England. But this was the first time anyone had asked for such a celebration.

Klose also reacted quickly.

The celebrations of Pires and Klose immediately caused the Blackburn fans in the stands to chant the name of "Klose".

As proud as Pires, he already thinks that Klose is very strong and worthy of such a celebration.