From coaching Real Madrid

"There is a joke circulating in English football circles."

Before the afternoon training session, Gao Shen spoke for the first time as head coach.

The players in front of him had different expressions, some were casual, some were dismissive, and some were listening carefully...

But he didn't care and continued with his carefully prepared first lecture.

"In the 1995-96 season, after Manchester United lost 3-1 to Aston Villa in the first round of the Premier League, football legend Alan Hansen shouted to Ferguson from afar on a TV show. He said that relying on a group of children,

You can't win anything!"

This is indeed a story that is familiar to fans in English football, and everyone who has played in the Premier League has heard it.

"Three years later, Ferguson led these children to win the Triple Crown, and Alan Hansen's words became a joke."

Behind the high side, Maqueda's face became quite ugly, and other members of the coaching staff also had strange expressions.

Because of this sentence, Maquida also said it to Gao Shen in the office just now.

They now understand clearly that this rookie head coach is bound to retaliate. Not only must he retaliate on the spot, but he must also find an opportunity to punish him afterwards. He is too cautious!

Don’t mess with this kind of person in the future!

"Just now, someone said the same thing to me. He also felt that I was a child and could not win anything with a group of children. Even the situation I am facing now is even worse, because Ferguson was a famous coach back then, and I was just a

He was a fledgling rookie, and all those kids from Manchester United later became the top stars in the Premier League and even Europe."

"Furthermore, in terms of time, I am not as generous as Ferguson. He can use three years to create a Triple Crown, but I may only have three days left. The weekend derby match in the same city can decide my fate."

Everyone looked at him silently, with all kinds of looks in their eyes, many of which were full of disdain and ridicule, and some of them were quite complex.

"But I personally feel this way. In the 1995-96 season, Ferguson was not sure that this group of players would bring him the Triple Crown in the future. We just looked at this incident from the perspective of hindsight.

It seems like right now, I don’t know what’s going to happen over the weekend, do I?”

Although players' cultural courses are generally poor, Gao Shen said it very straightforwardly, and the logic can still be understood clearly.

"What I learned from this incident between Ferguson and Alan Hansen is not the joke about Ferguson's future Triple Crown and Alan Hansen, but that Ferguson bravely did what he thought was right and what he should do.

Even though he was facing many doubts and an unpredictable future at that time."

"Ferguson is the head coach I respect the most. I can't compare with him, but I am willing to learn from his attitude towards doing things, so I will continue to do what I think is right and what I should do. As for the result, the outcome of the weekend, and whether I will be dismissed from get out of class, that will be decided by time."

In the queue, Raul, Beckham, Zidane and Woodgate, as well as several young players who were promoted from the second team, have all had interactions with Gao Shen, and they all know what Gao Shen is thinking.

When I heard his heartfelt words at this moment, my feelings were obviously deeper than those of others.

Especially the few promoted young generals, they felt that they were the children Gao Shen mentioned, and Gao Shen blocked them from overwhelming doubts.

This moved them.

…

The afternoon training session is a closed training session, with no outsiders present.

When assistant coach Maguida announced the roster for the division match, everyone was stunned.

Not only because the yellow vests representing the main force have several young players, but also because Carlos and Ronaldo were not even included in the red vests.

What does it mean?

That day, everyone saw Carlos threatening Gao Shen in full view of the public, and Ronaldo had always been the vanguard against Gao Shen, and they were also the leaders of the Brazilian gang. Now Gao Shen was directly attacking them, and his intentions were obvious.

.

After listening to the list, both Ronaldo and Carlos were furious and wanted to find Gao Shen for theory, but they were stopped by their teammates. Fernando Lucas stood in front of Gao Shen, separating the two superstars.

After the two quarreled for a while, they said harsh words and left angrily.

"I'm waiting to see how you end up!"

"You're screwed, you won't be able to stay until the weekend!"

Gao Shen had already been mentally prepared for such a situation, and he didn't care. Anyway, for him, all this was planned, so he directly signaled to start warming up and prepare for team training.

During the warm-up time, Gao Shen gathered the yellow vest group together. Lucas sent a small tactical blackboard. Gao Shen drew his own position diagram on the small blackboard, a 4-2-3 formation.

He clearly told the players that this was just the first training session, which was mainly about running in. At the same time, every player was welcome to give timely feedback and suggestions based on his own characteristics and situation.

In this 423 formation, balance is the main focus. In front is the high center Negredo, and Raul on the left is closer to the center and swimming around him. This is also Raul's strength, while Zidane

He serves as the core midfielder and takes charge of the overall situation. Beckham is responsible for long passes and wide crosses on the right.

Graveson is not the reckless guy that many people think of him. On the contrary, he is both offensive and defensive. He is the core player at Everton. Gao Shen uses him and De La Red as a double midfielder because he likes the offensive and defensive capabilities of these two players.

.

The full-backs no longer blindly jump into the attack like before. Gao Shen requires that only one can go up at a time, and they can't ignore their backs like Carlos and Cicinho. After inserting, they must be able to return to their position as soon as possible.

As for the two central defenders, Woodgate is responsible for attacking and Helguera is responsible for holding back. This is mainly due to the fact that Helguera does not take advantage of the physical aspect, and the season when he became famous in Real Madrid was playing the role of holding back.

Central defender.

Gao Shen particularly emphasized one point, which is to keep the overall formation compact and orderly.

He divided the court into several different areas. When defending, every player must be able to return to his own area.

Everyone can see that at this stage, Gao Shen pays more attention to defense.

This is also very sensible, because good defense can first establish yourself in an invincible position.

With Real Madrid's offensive firepower, as long as they can defend, they will have a chance to attack.

…

There is too little time.

Although Gao Shen has been carefully prepared and the players can basically understand what he means and are willing to try and accept his tactical ideas, there are still many problems in implementation.

Even though the attacking combination of Robinho, Soldado, Baptista and Cassano was just a temporary creation, the individual abilities of these players are quite good, and Guti is responsible for delivering the shells behind him.

, Cicinho was also very active on the right, and the players were all holding back their energy. The red vests had an overwhelming advantage from the beginning, taking turns to launch a fierce attack on the yellow vests.

The Yellow Vests have not yet mastered advanced tactics and lack tacit understanding. Once they are impacted, they immediately rush into chaos and make many mistakes. The Red Vests frequently seize opportunities to create dangerous situations.

This was also expected by Gao Shen.

He is also constantly making fine adjustments based on the situation on the field, combined with Benitez's tactical thinking, and the characteristics of the players, mainly adjusting some positions on the field.

But it's not without its highlights.

Robinho played very eye-catching at the beginning, but soon died down under the supervision of Arbeloa.

You know, a year later, Arbeloa was the man who could freeze Messi.

Felipe Luis on the left was no less generous. After the chaos at the beginning, he quickly adapted to the rhythm of the team match. He also performed very steadily against Cassano and did not give the Italian too much.

Chance.

As for Soldado and Baptista, apart from scoring one goal each not long after the start, they were also restrained at other times.

From a high-level perspective, Real Madrid's defense now begins to have a level of quality.

Whether it is Soldado or Baptista, or Robinho and Cassano, after receiving the ball, let alone facing the goal directly, they often have to face two lines of defense.

For example, Baptista once got the ball in the middle and when he wanted to rush forward, he found Graveson and Delared flanking him, chasing him all the way, and then passed it to Soldado.

But the Spanish teenager's situation is not easy, Woodgate is beside him, and there is Helgra behind him.

With a layered defense, it will be difficult for the opponent's offensive players to score.

This is also an advantage of the four-two-three formation.

But it's not safe because Atletico Madrid owns Torres.

Spain's new golden boy has very strong speed and explosive power, and his frontal impact ability is almost unmatched by anyone in the current Real Madrid team. Therefore, whether he can stop Torres depends on the verification in the game.

Whether a tactic works or not, the players who implement it know best.

As early as when Gao Shen laid out the tactics before the game, Raul, Zidane, Beckham and others had already noticed the uniqueness of this tactical framework. It was completely different from Real Madrid's tactics in the past, with more emphasis on the overall structure, especially the formation.

Four lines of compactness.

Not long after the game started, the players realized the brilliance of this tactic.

But players, especially superstars such as Raul, are suspicious. How can a fledgling rookie like Gao Shen have such a brilliant tactical concept and mature framework?

They quickly thought of Carlo.

Carlo has tried the 4-2-3 formation before, but because of his superstar status and unsatisfactory results, Carlo had to give up this style of play. But if he had done so during this period, according to Real Madrid's

Question, it is not completely impossible to derive a new set of four-two-three-one play style.

This can also explain clearly why Gao Shen was able to develop such a mature tactical system from the very beginning.

Obviously, the superstars guessed wrong, but they also executed it more carefully on the court.

Compared to the rookie, they have more trust in Carlo.

This also allowed the Yellow Vest team's defense to gradually stabilize and begin to exert strength on the offensive end.

Gao Shen didn't know that the players were wrong, and he didn't care, because the yellow vest team's defense was becoming more and more stable, which made him even happier, and he clearly felt the impact of this advanced technical and tactical concept.

It would be better if you give him a little more time to slowly adjust.