Golden Greenery

Armando Petit, the traditional Portuguese powerhouse in Hannover, did not have Armando Petit, who suffered a sudden respiratory failure in the last game. However, his absence from the Champions League was not due to physical illness, but due to the undercurrent of struggle within the Benfica team.

Pettit was discharged from the hospital long ago and started normal training with the team a month ago. But because of his illness, it became an opportunity for the senior players in the Benfica team to collectively attack the coach Ronald Koeman.

After Koeman took charge of Benfica in the new season, he made many mistakes in managing the army and recruiting players, which puzzled the Portuguese media and fans. Throughout the summer, Benfica did not bring any real big-name stars to the fans. Just when people thought that Koeman would give up, the team suddenly sold its main right back Miguel. Subsequently, captain Simao was also spotted by Liverpool, and for a few days, the Benfica locker room was in an uproar. But Koeman went back on his word and finally forced Simao to stay in the team. As a result, the two sides lost harmony.

In addition, Koeman's efforts to introduce Karagounis and Milico from Serie A were not very reassuring to the club, which delayed Petit's transfer to Manchester United. Benfica suffered a loss of 30 million euros in the summer for just these two games. As a result, the French star Pires, whom Koeman most hoped for, naturally became a loser.

As a result, the veteran players are generally resentful of Koeman for various reasons, and there are endless private tricks and constraints, none of which are fuel-efficient.

Koeman believes that the original old players cannot make any breakthroughs in Europe. Only the players he brings can make Benfica go further in the European arena. However, due to such conflicts within the team, Benfica not only finished last in points in Group D of the Champions League, but also had consecutive draws and losses in the Portuguese Super League, and their rankings fell to the middle and lower reaches.

This made the club's senior management unbearable, but the stubborn and stubborn Koeman convinced them.

"Benfica will qualify with Manchester United in the Champions League, there's no question about that. As for the league, it's only November, so that doesn't mean anything."

Well, I invited you all the way here, and we will believe you for the time being. Moreover, if you don’t believe it... so what?

Koeman, who received the support of the club's senior management, was not only left out of the Champions League by Nuno Gomez, Simao, Petit, and Giovani, but they were not even included in the 18-man roster. And even in the league, they all sit together on the bench. However, in recent rounds of the Portuguese Super League, Benfica lost to the relegation underdog Vicente and narrowly drew with the underdog Coimbra. In the last round, they were beaten by their city rivals Sporting Lisbon in the derby.

Is Koeman testing the endurance of Benfica's top brass?

The Champions League is a touchstone for famous coaches, and it is also a hurdle that Koeman must overcome. The Eredivisie has lost many opportunities due to its gradual decline, and the powerful teams in the five major leagues are not interested in young coaches like Koeman who have no convincing coaching skills. Therefore, Benfica, one of the top three in the Portuguese Super League, became the only and most suitable choice.

Koeman worked with Mourinho as an assistant under Louis van Gaal at Barcelona.

After "graduating" from the University of Barcelona, ​​the three masters and apprentices parted ways. Van Gaal went to the Dutch national team and had an unbearable experience. Mourinho returned to Portugal to start his career as manager of Benfica. Koeman also returned to his hometown of the Netherlands to take charge of Vitesse. Later, Mu Niao, Koeman and "teacher" Van Gaal all fell out and became enemies, and their words were full of condiments.

What do you think of? No, no, no, I really am not insinuating Teacher Guo Degang and Cao He Eryun...

Mourinho has now become a famous coach in charge of wealthy clubs in Europe, but what was Magic Bird like when he was a player? Can you compare with him?

It is false to say that Koeman is not jealous and jealous of his former "classmate" Mourinho. Maybe he left the Netherlands and came to Benfica because this is where Mourinho started coaching. Follow the footsteps of the madman to realize your dream of soaring into the sky.

In fact, Koeman's life is not very good. This summer, he came to Portugal from the Netherlands with former Alkmaar coach Adrianse. This famous coach who was the first to take a fancy to Zhuoyang became famous after joining Porto. The water started to rise, and the league schedule was gone before the halfway mark. With such a comparison, Benfica's leaders naturally had no choice but to pout at Koeman.

A very important reason for Adriance's success in Porto is that he will adapt to local conditions instead of being stubborn. Adrianse did not cling firmly to the traditional Dutch 4-3-3 or 3-4-3, but carefully continued the space control and area restriction style of play pioneered by Mourinho here, 4- 4-2 Tailor-made.

On the other hand, Koeman can't do it. He comes with the arrogance of a former top player and Dutch football. He forces a superstitious belief in 4-3-3 and is paranoid about 3-4-3. He completely ignores that there is no total offense in Portuguese football soil. Gene.

Portuguese football has always been more samba than samba, with a heart of defense and counterattack under the appearance. Small short passes will fall into the opponent's goal backwards. Let them all immediately turn into B2B gangsters running back and forth between the two restricted areas... Do you think they are Chinese, copycatting whatever they want?

Compared to the last time the two teams met more than two months ago, Koeman was still new to the team. Now, Koeman, who is already doing whatever he wants in the team, naturally has to adopt a 3-4-3. However, for Zhuo Yang, I am afraid that the three defenders are the most popular. The area left for him to move between the two lines is too large, and there is a highway everywhere.

What's more, Uncle Zha, who had done a lot of homework before the game, directly sent three forwards in front, with Gomez and Helmers dragging Zhuoyang behind them. Although Klopp's 4-3-3 seems to be out of anger with Koeman's 3-4-3, in fact Madibao's 4-3-3 is more sophisticated and targeted.

Midfield three: Khedira, Debich, Zhirkov. These three players can hardly be said to focus on offense. The three of them are very balanced in terms of personal characteristics and tactical requirements. Relatively speaking, they may focus more on the backcourt.

Both teams have three forwards, but in Benfica's four-man midfielder, Karagounis, Assis, and Beto are all offensive players, plus the three forwards Milico, Mantoras, and Ogu. Stow, Benfica has six attacking players.

However, in modern football tactics, there is a principle recognized by most people in the industry: there can be no more than four offensive players. In other words, among the eleven players on the field, no more than four can be the main attackers tactically, otherwise it will cause an overall imbalance.

Koeman tried to succeed with an idealistic and aggressive style of play. After all, they were the only team in Group D that had defeated Madiburg. Just like the Madibao people, they all want to step on each other and occupy the most powerful position to qualify for the group.

However, just five minutes into the game, Koeman knew he was wrong.