The Godfather of Football

Perhaps because Ajax reached the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, the corresponding level of a series of warm-up matches this summer has been improved by Ye Qiu. After all, one still has to look up and can't always compare with opponents who are not as strong as oneself. That will never make progress, right?

This year's Amsterdam Cup invited famous teams from the four major leagues, Barcelona in La Liga, Juventus in Serie A and Manchester United in the Premier League. The three teams are all giants in various parties, and they are also strong teams with outstanding strength. The warm-up value is very high. Ye Qiu obviously hopes to test the strength of the team by competing with such strong teams.

Not only the opponents of the Amsterdam Cup, but also the opponents of the warm-up matches in the early stage of the training camp, Ajax has carried out strict selection. Each opponent is required to have a certain strength. In the two warm-up matches before the China trip, Ye Qiu finally selected Monaco in Ligue 1 and Leeds United in the Premier League.

The strength of these two teams is not weak, and Ajax is playing away, so the training value is very high.

But sometimes it is not necessarily a good thing that the opponent is too strong.

Ajax was beaten by Deschamps' team in Monaco. The French Ligue 1 team took advantage of their home field and let attacking players such as Nonda and Giuly constantly attack Ajax's defense. The French Ligue 1 team obviously adjusted better in state, while Ajax was still adapting to Arteta's presence.

Sometimes it is like this. When you are used to running at high speed, it is not easy to slow down suddenly. This led to some confusion in Ajax's overall rhythm, and the organization and combing of the midfield were also very bad.

Mascherano appeared on the European stage for the first time. He lacked experience and performed very poorly. He was replaced by De Jong by Ye Qiu during the halftime break, but in the end he still couldn't prevent Ajax from losing 1:2 away. Deschamps' team is indeed very competitive.

This game also made Ye Qiu notice another player, Patrick Evra, who played in Nice for two years in the French Ligue 2. With his outstanding performance, Deschamps brought him to Monaco. Judging from this game, he is very fast and has a strong desire to attack.

Although he lost the first warm-up match, Ye Qiu was not disappointed at all.

When interviewed by the media, Ye Qiu even said in a joking tone, "I can even accept that the team loses to the Cruyff Cup!"

In the Dutch Super Cup, Ajax, who holds the double crown, will face their mortal enemy PSV at the Arena Stadium. This is also the first direct face-to-face competition between Ye Qiu and Hiddink. Many people even speculate that this will be a preview of the Dutch championship. It depends on whether the famous World Cup coach Hiddink is better or the young coach Ye Qiu is more popular.

Ye Qiu himself also attaches great importance to this game. Although the Dutch Super Cup is an optional warm-up match, the opponent is PSV Eindhoven, which is different. Moreover, it is at the Arena Stadium. Failure to win will somewhat dampen the morale of the team.

However, there is one person whose situation must be worse than Ye Qiu, and that is Leeds United's new head coach Venables.

This local coach who plays an important role in English football is in charge of Leeds United, which is a happy occasion for everyone. The fans are happy, the club is satisfied, and England is celebrating, but he has to endure the dilemma of selling the core players because he can't make ends meet.

The financial cloud of the team has always been a haze hanging over the heads of Leeds United players. Although Ferdinand is still in the back line, and players such as Woodgate, Duberry, Viduka, Robbie Keane, and Fowler are still there, it is obvious that the morale of the team has plummeted. Even if Venables is in charge, he cannot change the situation of the players' demoralization.

At Elland Road, Venables' first game after taking charge of Leeds United was beaten 3:0 by Ajax. The defense led by Ferdinand and Woodgate was humiliated by Ajax. The fans at the scene were also indignant, but most of them could only do nothing.

But it is worth noting that two of the team's three goals were scored after Arteta left the field in the second half. After Yaya Toure came on the field, he formed a more tacit interaction with Sneijder. The midfield they formed seemed more impactful and aggressive, and Huntelaar and Van der Meyde also seized the opportunity and scored goals.

1 win and 1 loss, Ajax's warm-up match results can only be regarded as mediocre.

Ye Qiu has his own understanding of the team's problems. He thinks this is not a problem of player strength, but a problem caused by the degree of tacit understanding in cooperation and the inadaptability of the team's overall style change.

Arteta is a Spanish player with delicate skills, which is very different from Seydou Keita's style of playing. Seydou Keita rarely dribbled past players before, but now Arteta dares to dribble past players, and his dribbling skills are very good, and his speed is not bad.

With his body, flexibility is guaranteed, and his speed is not slow. In addition, his skills are delicate. Arteta's dribbling skills are very good, and his ability to turn around with his back to the ball is also very good, which makes him and Seydou Keita almost completely different.

From the technical and tactical level, Arteta's joining has brought positive changes to Ajax, but it takes time to adapt and integrate into the team. Ye Qiu also arranges Arteta and Sneijder to partner up in training.

For a team like Ajax that adopts a high-pressure defense system, the opponent's defense is dense and compact, and there must be many opportunities to get the ball with your back. This requires that the team must have players with stable skills to get the ball with your back and turn around.

In the past, it was Sneijder and Ibrahimovic in front. The opponent often easily strangled Sneijder to limit Ajax's ability to effectively advance the ball in dense defense, so that when it was tightly defended, Ajax's offensive threat was greatly weakened.

Perhaps some people are wondering why you must get the ball with your back and turn around to get rid of it?

This is an inevitable choice, because the ball route is usually launched from the backcourt, and the entire advancement is from the defender to the midfielder to the forward, so that the players standing in the front, especially the midfielders, must retreat to receive the ball with their backs to the opponent's players. Otherwise, how can they cooperate with their own backcourt players?

But usually after getting the ball with your back to the goal, the choice of passing angles is very narrow. Generally, you can only choose to pass the ball to your own half. In this way, the speed of the ball path is slow. However, if you have the ability to turn around after getting the ball with your back to the goal, you can turn around after receiving the ball and get rid of it. You will directly change from facing the attack direction with your back to the attack direction, which is a direct threat.

If you lack the ability to turn around after getting the ball with your back to the goal, there is another option, which is the option that Ajax often used last season. Divide the sides, break through the sideways, successfully bring the ball to the horizontal line closer to the goal than the receiver, and then knock it back. In this way, the receiver can receive the ball head-on and face the attack direction directly.

Of course, this is based on the premise of ground cooperation and advancement, but if you use a long pass, you can avoid the embarrassment of getting the ball with your back to the goal to the greatest extent. Therefore, you can see that many seemingly strong teams often play long passes. In fact, it is because they lack the ability to turn around after getting the ball with their backs to the goal, and they don’t have a strong sideway breakthrough, so they can only choose long passes.

All defenses are based on preventing the opponent from facing the attack direction.

Barcelona's midfield dual core, Xavi and Iniesta, the reason why these two players can support Barcelona's entire midfield organization and penetration, and the reason why they can make the whole of Europe tremble with fear, in fact, their passing and creativity are only a part, or even a negligible part, what is really terrifying is their turning and getting rid of.

Two midfielders with strong turning and getting rid of ability, even under the surveillance of the opponent's tight defense, they can still create threats anytime and anywhere.

Creativity and passing, that is what happens after turning and getting rid of. As long as you face the direction of attack and raise your head, you can see what is in front of you at a glance, what loopholes there are in the opponent's defense line, and how your teammates plan to attack. Everything is very clear. As long as you are a professional player with a little creativity and a little passing skills, you can meet this requirement.

So many people say how creative Xavi and Iniesta are, how they pass, in fact, those are all false. The most powerful core weapon of these two midfielders is their turning and getting rid of ability, which is why they are better than other midfielders, and why so many midfielders in Barcelona always perform worse than them.

Now, Ye Qiu has brought in Arteta and made Arteta and Sneijder form a double core in the midfield. In fact, he values ​​the turning and getting rid of ability of these two players. He firmly believes that once these two players develop a tacit understanding, Ajax's midfield will run well and the strength of the entire team will be improved by leaps and bounds.

Because of this, Ye Qiu focused on sculpting Arteta and Sneijder at the beginning of the season and helping the Spaniard integrate into the team.

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After playing two warm-up matches, Ajax returned to Amsterdam to rest for two days, and then the team boarded the plane to China. In China, they will play three warm-up matches in three cities, and then return to Amsterdam. The trip will last for two weeks.

This is the first time that Ye Qiu has returned to his homeland as the head coach of Ajax. What he didn't expect was that in Guangzhou, the first stop, he and Ajax received support and affirmation from countless domestic fans.

The humiliating performance of the Chinese national football team in the World Cup has disappointed domestic fans, and domestic players generally perform poorly in European competitions. Only Ye Qiu's coaching performance in Ajax is so outstanding that he has long been crowned as a famous European coach by many media, and naturally has become the pride and hope of domestic fans.

The hotel where the team stayed in Guangzhou and the training ground for training camp were all watched and welcomed by fans. The enthusiastic domestic fans made the group of Ajax players a little stunned, and Chairman Van Praag also explained before that in addition to training sessions and games, the players should do their best to meet the wishes of the fans.

Taking advantage of the end of the World Cup wave, Ajax has set off a new wave of football in China.

In Guangzhou, Ajax played a surprising strength in the first warm-up match, winning the opponent 4:0, and firmly controlling the game from beginning to end. Ye Qiu even changed the starting 11 during the halftime break, because he was leading 3:0 in the first half, so he naturally had to hone the substitute lineup more.

After winning the first warm-up match, the team went to Shanghai and played another warm-up match in Shanghai. Ajax defeated the opponent again 3:0 and won two consecutive victories in the warm-up matches in China.

It must be said that the pressure exerted by domestic teams on Ajax is still very bad compared with European teams, so in China, Arteta and Sneijder's performances are very exciting, and the two players have quickly improved their tacit understanding of each other through competition and training.

On the contrary, Mascherano, who was introduced by Ye Qiu, did not perform as well as De Jong in the defensive midfielder position, which is a very surprising place. The Argentine defensive midfielder is definitely strong, but it is still a little insufficient to adapt. When De Jong performed well, Ye Qiu naturally chose to entrust the Dutchman with an important task.

So, in the two warm-up matches in China, De Jong got the starting position and played for a long time, and his performance was also very outstanding.

After finally coming to Shanghai, Ye Qiu wanted to take the opportunity to ask Chen Zhong out to meet, but unexpectedly Chen Zhong was on a business trip, and even Huang Jinsong was not there. When Ye Qiu went to visit Chu Yun, he heard that something happened in the group recently, and both of them were very busy.

After staying in Shanghai for only two days, Ajax went to BJ without stopping and played a warm-up match at the Workers' Stadium in BJ. In the end, they defeated the team that claimed to have never been defeated at the Workers' Stadium 5:0, ending their trip to China.

Three warm-up matches, 12 goals scored, zero goals conceded, such results made the domestic media generally give a satisfactory answer to Ajax's visit. After all, Ajax played very hard in these three games, and the team also showed the strength that a European powerhouse should have.

After the last warm-up match in BJ, Ye Qiu took time out to accept an interview program on CCTV Sports Channel. In this program, he talked more about his team and his vision and ideals for the future.

"I am quite satisfied with the current strength of the team, but it is not strong enough. I think we still have a lot of room for improvement. We can perform better and we will continue to work hard for it."

"As for my own problems, I actually didn't think too much, because I have always had a wish, that is, in the European football world, to prove to everyone, whether Europeans or our compatriots, that I can do it in the position of professional head coach, and even, I hope to be the best one day!"

"I also send this sentence to all people who like football. We are not worse than anyone else, so never belittle yourself, and don't give up hope. If you keep improving yourself, you will definitely succeed one day!"

After Ye Qiu finished recording the show, he returned to Amsterdam from BJ the next day. He didn't know when the show would be broadcast and how effective it would be. It was only after the show was broadcast that Chen Jun called Ye Qiu and heard that the response was very good.

After returning to Amsterdam, Ye Qiu specially convened a tactical meeting for the first-team players, and specifically commented on the situation in the past five warm-up matches, as well as the team's shortcomings and deficiencies. All of them were analyzed one by one in this tactical meeting.

In the three warm-up matches in China, because the opponents were relatively weak, Ajax dominated the situation and controlled the scene, so the players performed better. The three midfielders of Arteta, Sneijder and De Jong also initially showed their strength and established a certain tacit understanding.

The offensive combination of Maicon and Van der Vaart on the right and Robben on the left constituted Ajax's double-wing tactics in the past two seasons. This is also the strongest and most threatening routine in Ajax's offense. Through the attack of the two sides to tear open the opponent's defense line, and then through the back-insertion of the middle to form a direct threat.

Compared with the past two seasons, Ajax has invested less troops directly on the offensive end. Unlike Seydou Keita who liked to directly attack in the past, Arteta's direct attack ability is not outstanding. He is not strong in scoring ability, and he is more behind the offensive players to organize and deliver shells.

Because of this, Ye Qiu is ready to further release the offensive ability of Maicon and Lucio, especially Maicon. This player is very threatening in the wing attack and has a good cross ability. After Van der Vaart cuts in, he can press forward and use it as a right winger.

With Arteta and De Jong to assist and protect behind them, Maicon and Lucio can play more resolutely and decisively, and more reassuringly.

However, when defending, the height of the midfield becomes a problem.

When Gilberto Silva was there, although the Brazilian's header technique was not very good, he had a strong sense of position and excellent predictive ability. In addition, his height and body shape were there, so the deterrent power was still very strong, and he was also very sure of the control of high balls.

There is also Seydou Keita. The most easily overlooked thing about Mali's midfield is his ability to predict the landing point of high balls. A careful analysis of his goals scored after Ajax shows that headers account for a large proportion, and another is long shots. These two are already his signature weapons, and headers rely on predicting the landing point.

But now Arteta and De Jong both have congenital deficiencies in high balls, which also requires Ajax's midfield defense to be adjusted. Ye Qiu can only choose to fill this defect through Lucio's forward pressure, but this will inevitably add some variables. For example, if Lucio goes to grab the landing point, how to assist defense behind him? How to protect?

If we consider the two tall and strong so-called twin tower players of PSV Eindhoven, then Ye Qiu has to make some preparations in advance and work harder on defending high balls, because he is sure that Hiddink will use this to make a fuss.

In a word, a single move affects the whole body.

The impact brought by the midfield reorganization is only the beginning, even now.