The Godfather of Football

Changing formations on the spot has always been a taboo for military strategists.

From ancient cold weapon wars to today's football tactics, changing formations on the spot is not acceptable to coaches because it is full of various risks and can easily lead to players being unfamiliar with tactics and unfamiliar with them. Adapt and lose combat effectiveness.

But there has never been a shortage of those sage cases where bold and enterprising coaches changed formations on the spot and successfully defeated their opponents, eventually becoming the story of a generation. However, most of them only appeared in talks. In reality, no one would want to Taking such a big risk, no one is willing to bear the terrible consequences.

But sometimes, there are always people who want to take a gamble and take the risk.

Ajax's chief center Ibrahimovic is injured and absent. This has been widely spread by the media. It is not a big secret. Without Ibrahimovic, Ajax has no choice but to Huntelaar.

Before the game, everyone expected that Ajax would only make adjustments and substitutions in some local positions while retaining the 433 tactics in this game. Ye Qiu would not make any major changes, but there were no What comes to mind is that Ajax's starting lineup surprised everyone.

"It's really unexpected. Ajax suddenly and boldly changed their formation before a key match. They gave up Ajax's traditional 433 tactic and adopted a 442 tactic. This really surprised us."

Everyone was a little surprised to see Van der Vaart and Huntelaar standing at the kick-off position, and the on-site commentator was also puzzled.

"The goalkeeper is Van der Sar, the defense is Abidal, Kivu, Lucio and Maicon, the midfield is Robben, Yaya Toure, Mascherano and Sneijder, and the two forwards are Van der Far. Te and Huntelaar, are Ajax going to play 442 in this game?”

In fact, according to this tactical arrangement, it is still possible to play 433, but judging from the neatness of Ajax's three lines, it is more like 442, and Robben's position is relatively further back, but Van der Far Te was pushed to the front line, which greatly exceeded many people's expectations.

Juventus's formation in this game is still the 4312 they are good at. The goalkeeper is Buffon, the defense is Gianluca Zambrotta, Montero, Ferrara and Thuram, and the midfielder is Tacchinadi, Tudor and Camoranesi, the attacking midfielder is Nedved, and the double forwards are Del Piero and Trezeguet.

"We have to say that Lippi's formation was not too surprising. He played steadily. On the other hand, looking at Ajax, Ye Qiu's on-the-spot formation change caught people off guard, but it also brought huge risks. , once the team is not functioning well, it is likely to cause Ajax to fall into a disaster situation throughout the game.”

The on-site commentator's statement failed to alleviate Lippi's concern. As early as before the season, Lippi's Juventus had played with Ye Qiu's Ajax in the Amsterdam Cup, and Juventus lost that time. 1:2, but at that time Lippi's team had not yet fully adjusted.

But things are different now. As Nedved integrates into Juventus' tactics, and as the team's overall tactics are getting better and better, Lippi's team is becoming more and more effective, and their performance in the group stage was poor. It cannot be used as a basis for the knockout rounds, because in the knockout rounds, targeted tactics are more important.

"Tell me, what exactly does he want to do?" Silver Fox Lippi stood on the sidelines, gently lifting the glasses on the bridge of his nose, guessing Ye Qiu's tactical arrangements.

The same lineup can produce completely different tactical effects, so it is difficult for Lippi to tell whether Ye Qiu's lineup is really 442? Or are there other special tactical arrangements?

"Arteta is not injured or sick, and the Spanish teenager is a crucial member of Ajax's midfield this season. Ye Qiu put him on the bench in this game and turned to Yaya Toure. The starting lineup, I guess, is probably for Nedvěd.”

Standing next to Lippi is his chief assistant coach, Nachiso Pezzotti, a loyal and old partner.

"Oh?" Lippi was not surprised by this. Nedvěd's late penetration is definitely the most fatal link in Juventus' offense. If Ye Qiu doesn't know how to limit this, then he will be in vain. Mixed up.

"I still remember that he used Yaya Toure to nail Ballack of Bayer Leverkusen." Pezzotti said with a smile.

Sometimes even Lippi has to admire his best partner's memory and his ability to analyze details. Although he is over sixty years old, he is indeed getting better and better in this regard.

You target me and I target you. This is a tactical battle in the knockout round.

Lippi also conducted a targeted defense against Ajax's tactics in this game. Among them, Camoranesi and Thuram were sitting on the left side of Robben's position. Lippi specifically warned Camoranesi. Ranesi, no matter what, must protect Thuram on the right and avoid too many one-on-one situations with Robben on the wing.

Huntelaar's ability to seize opportunities in the penalty area is very good. Although the Dutchman is only a substitute, he has performed well and scored a lot of goals. He is already a well-known forward rookie in the Eredivisie and Europe. In addition, Eredivisie Brahimovic is injured, and Lippi cannot ignore the center.

And if Robben is given too many one-on-one opportunities, no matter how good Thuram is and how strong he is, it will be difficult to organize the Dutch winger to pass the ball into the penalty area, and that may become a threat.

For the right side, Zambrotta was responsible for watching Van der Vaart, and at the same time asked Tacchinardi to pay attention to the restrictions on Van der Vaart's cut-in, so as to prevent Ajax from passing the ball to Huntelaar's feet to the greatest extent.

Both sides were making targeted arrangements, and everyone was guessing the opponent's tactics, but before the game started, no one knew whether their tactics would work.

Because of this, Lippi was not scared by Ajax's starting lineup and formation changes, but patiently waited for the referee to blow the whistle to start the game, and then observed Ajax's tactics through the game.

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Because it rained a little before, the field was a little slippery. When Van der Vaart was training just now, he almost lost his balance and slipped when he received the ball, which made him complain about the grass and thought it was too slippery.

Standing opposite Huntelaar, Van der Vaart knew very well what he should do in this game.

Although Ye Qiu's tactical arrangement was a bit unexpected, it was actually not that difficult to understand.

Huntelaar is a typical shooter. He needs someone around him and behind him to deliver ammunition for him. He is not the kind of player who can break through the opponent's defense, nor is he the kind of tactical center who can retreat and take the ball with his back. He is just a shooter.

Ibrahimovic's injury made Ajax's offense rely on Huntelaar. Ye Qiu needed to set up a set of ball-path offense to deliver ammunition for Huntelaar, so there was a change of Van der Vaart playing as a striker.

When the team launched an attack, Huntelaar was like a nail, firmly nailed in the opponent's penalty area, attracting the attention of the defense, while Van der Vaart was behind him, moving on both sides of the penalty area, receiving passes from behind and the left and right sides, making passes to Huntelaar, and also attacking himself.

This is the important routine of Ajax's central attack in this game.

But no matter at any time or in any situation, Ajax's offense is not only in the middle.

With the referee's whistle, Ajax took the lead.

After Van der Vaart passed the ball to Huntelaar, the Dutch center forward immediately knocked it back behind him, and Mascherano passed it to Lucio.

Juventus' entire defensive formation quickly retreated, while Ajax steadily advanced forward.

At this moment, everyone could clearly see the overall position of Ajax during the attack.

Huntelaar was at the front, Van der Vaart was behind him a little, cruising on his left and right sides, Robben was still playing on the left, but his position was not so high, but between Camoranesi and Thuram, Sneijder's position was almost the same as Robben, and Yaya Toure and Mascherano were at the back.

The entire midfield looked like a disc-shaped position. If you have to talk about the position, it would be 4222.

But it was obviously not just that. When Lucio got the ball and passed it to Yaya Toure, the latter took a few steps forward after getting the ball. After Camoranesi rushed up, he quickly passed it to Robben on the left.

The Dutchman was behind Camoranesi. When he saw Camoranesi going up, he immediately ran to the empty space to receive the ball. After getting the ball, he quickly rushed forward, wanting to face Thuram one-on-one. And unlike Robben who was always active on the wing in the past, this time his dribbling was a little off the center, obviously looking for Van der Vaart who was active on both sides.

Tudor was born as a central defender and had an excellent sense of position, while Thuram could also play as a central defender. When they saw Robben's activities, they both chose to protect the central defender. Tudor rushed up and Thuram was responsible for watching Van der Vaart.

Robben saw that there was no chance, so he made a horizontal pass, and the ball quickly passed through the middle and came to the right, but at this moment Sneijder attracted Zambrotta near the sideline. Who would receive the ball?

The whole process is long to say, but in fact, because the players are moving at the same time, all of this happened in less than 40 seconds, and Ajax successfully pushed the ball into Juventus' 30-meter area.

At the moment when Robben passed the ball, Ajax's right-wing back Maicon was seen sprinting forward at a very fast speed.

Before, the ball was transferred in the frontcourt, and everyone's attention was focused on Van der Vaart, Robben and Huntelaar, or Sneijder, so only Nedved noticed Maicon's quick insertion, but the Czech's speed could not keep up with Maicon's full sprint, and the Brazilian was seen receiving the pass in the middle of the right, about 25 meters away from the goal.

There was a loophole in the entire defensive system, and Juventus' defensive players immediately reacted and wanted to fill this loophole as soon as possible. Tacchinardi chose to rush up and join forces with Nedved to attack Maicon.

But what was unexpected was that the Brazilian shot the ball without thinking after he stopped it.

The ball was like a cannonball, passing through the crowd at lightning speed, and no one had time to stop it.

Buffon was standing in front of the goal, and was a little surprised by Maicon's sudden long shot, but he reacted immediately and made a flying save, but the ball slightly missed the left post and went into the goal.

Although the ball did not go in, Ye Qiu applauded the players on the sidelines, obviously very satisfied with the first start.

This was also specially arranged by him before the game. From the beginning, he had to suppress Juventus's momentum, dampen the Zebras' spirit, and control the overall situation and rhythm of the game and launch a rush.

Playing a slow pace against a defensive counterattack team like Juventus is simply courting death.

If you grind slowly with them, it is almost impossible to break through their defense. Even if Juventus' defensive players have big problems, they are experienced and have mastered the essence of Italy's reinforced concrete defense. Under the condition of shrinking the defense line and calmly arranging, it is almost difficult for anyone to break through.

Therefore, when playing against such a team, you can only choose to be fast, give up possession of the ball, and play fast!

Therefore, Ye Qiu did not choose Arteta, but chose Yaya Toure. This is also to let the Ivorian defend Nedved and free Mascherano so that the latter can better protect the defense.

Relatively speaking, Juventus lacks speed on the wing. Zambrotta is the left side, but he plays as a left back, and there is a Sneijder there to contain him. Therefore, Ye Qiu boldly let Maicon go as much as he can in this game.

In less than a minute, he got a chance to shoot from a distance, but Maicon didn't seem satisfied. Two minutes later, he got a diagonal pass from Sneijder who was pulled to the middle at the front of the penalty area, but this time he was blocked by Zambrotta and was forced to cross the ball from the bottom. Huntelaar tried to score in front of the goal, but he failed to win over Ferrara in the end.

Without Ibrahimovic as a fulcrum in front, Ajax's ball route advancement could no longer go through the routine of looking for Ibrahimovic, holding the ball and then inserting from behind to launch an attack. They could only stick to the ground penetration advancement routine of advancing from back to front, but this was not ideal in the face of Juventus' three-line contraction defense.

Lippi's deployment was also very cautious. Among the three deep midfielders, Tudor and Tacchinardi were both defensive players, and Camoranesi was also good at both offense and defense, which made their protection of the defense line very effective. Ajax's offense could not effectively advance to Juventus' penalty area, and could only threaten Buffon with long shots.

In the first 10 minutes, Ajax made a total of 3 long shots, but none of them worked.

"After all, it's Juventus. The defense is like a copper wall and iron wall, and it's watertight." Bobby Hams sat in the coach's seat, raised his head, looked at the players on both sides of the court, and said helplessly.

Although Ajax quickly used the opening attack to gain momentum after the opening, and successfully took the initiative, the offense was still difficult to effectively advance to Juventus' penalty area, which had a lot to do with the tight protection of Juventus' midfield.

Ye Qiu also agreed with the view that Juventus' defense was very solid, but he didn't think it was unbreakable.

No matter how solid the defense is, there will always be a moment of loopholes, because as long as it is a human, it will make mistakes. The key is that you have to put enough pressure on him. From the first 10 minutes, Ajax has achieved certain results, but the threat from the wing is not enough. Whether it is Robben on the left, Sneijder and Maicon on the right, they did not show enough threat.

"Roland, make the two wing more active, let Van der Vaart pull out more, retreat appropriately, pull out space, and then find opportunities to cut in from the ribs." Ye Qiu instructed Roland.

The latter quickly conveyed Ye Qiu's latest instructions, but the scene still did not change.

Sometimes the coach's tactics may not be implemented and executed by all players. Just like now, Ajax seems to have the initiative, but in fact Juventus' defense in their own half is like a piece of iron. When the ball enters this area, it is immediately under great pressure.

This kind of pressure will cause Ajax players to be unable to implement the coach's tactics, and they will not be able to achieve the effect that Ye Qiu wants to achieve. In addition, Juventus' foul tactics in this game are really a headache.

For example, in the 21st minute, Montero took advantage of a close defense opportunity and kicked Van der Vaart from behind with a black foot, hitting Van der Vaart's calf. The latter fell to the ground and was carried off the court by the Ajax team doctor for a few minutes before returning.

Montero, a short Uruguayan defender, is known as a striker killer. His defense is fierce and his actions are very harmful. Although this black foot made Montero get a yellow card, it also successfully shocked Van der Vaart, especially every time he saw the Uruguayan central defender approaching with a fierce look, Van der Vaart felt a chill in his heart.

With this kind of fear, the performance is naturally greatly reduced, far less active than at the beginning.

When Ajax was eye-catching at the beginning and gradually returned to normal, Juventus had already planned and began to organize an effective counterattack against Ajax. First, using Thuram's long pass from the backcourt, Trezeguet used his body to suppress Kivu and stopped the ball, passing it to Nedved, who shot directly after getting the ball, making Juventus' first shot of the game.

This shot also sounded the horn of Juventus' counterattack.

In less than 5 minutes, Juventus counterattacked again. Huntelaar wanted to kick after receiving the pass, but Ferrara stabbed it to Buffon in advance, and the Italian goalkeeper kicked it directly.

The ball quickly flew in front of the Ajax defense line. Lucio and Trezeguet successfully competed for the header and headed the ball, but the ball was caught by Tudor, and the Croatian headed it back to Nedved.

Yaya Toure's task in this game was to pin Nedved down. The two fought for the header, and the Ivorian won, but the ball fell to Camoranesi, who passed it diagonally to Piero on the left.

Piero faced the center on the left, looked at Camoranesi's pass, and stopped steadily with his chest. When Maicon was closely guarding behind him, he did not choose to go head-on, but took the ball directly to the center. Just as he approached the top of the penalty area, he kicked a curve ball directly, passing the Ajax defense line and landing behind Kivu.

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