The Godfather of Football

Professional players, especially those in the four major European leagues, are a very special group.

Why are they special?

They can earn money and status that others may not earn in their lifetime at a very young age, so they can have the conditions to start enjoying life at the age when others may just start working.

There are many such professional players. They are very rich, and as long as they have money, everyone wants to live a more comfortable life. In the early stage of their career, they can have a lot of stimulation and desire, such as winning the championship, proving their strength, etc., which can stimulate them to maintain self-discipline and play.

But the problem is that in the middle and late stages, the championship is in hand, and there is no need to prove his strength. The whole world knows that he is a superstar, and no one will doubt his strength. At that time, he loses stimulation, desire, and becomes goalless.

Transfer is a good stimulation, because in a new environment, more or less new goals can be found, but Ye Qiu knows very well that if you want a team to become more motivated and more combative, you must find a new direction and goal for everyone in the team.

Some head coaches would choose a gentler approach, taking their time, and it might take a few months to achieve this, but Ye Qiu has never had that much patience. He likes to be fast, so he took the simplest and most direct way to tell his players that if you make so much money, you should make corresponding efforts and responsibilities.

The players felt the head coach's tough attitude and difference from the first day. There were several players who had doubts about what Ye Qiu said before, but now they all believe it completely.

Ye Qiu not only set a strict diet and schedule for the players, but also turned all the players into professional soldiers and managed them militaristically. From eating, resting to sleeping, everything was strictly regulated.

For example, some players like to eat sweet bread or milk for breakfast, but Ye Qiu strictly prohibits these things from appearing in the club restaurant and training camp. What's more, for some players who are obviously overweight, Ye Qiu has given the most stringent dietary restrictions, and some can only eat raw dough and salad.

The highest temperature in Irdning, Austria, reached 30 degrees at noon. This was not too high for Ye Qiu, who was born in southern China, but it was not low for the players who lived in London. Normally, they should have reduced their training, but Ye Qiu did not reduce his training and trained three times a day without any discount.

Get up at 6:30 in the morning, have breakfast with the whole team at 7 o'clock, rest for a while, warm up, and start the first project on time at 8 o'clock. First, complete a 2000-meter dribbling test. He requires every player to try to dribble the ball as stably as possible, and the last 200 meters are to sprint with the ball.

After completing the dribbling test, the team went to the gym and swimming pool for stretching training.

A class lasts 90 minutes, and then physical training is carried out on time at 11 o'clock in the morning.

Physical training is more about short-distance sprinting, shuttle runs, and bypassing obstacles and other physical enhancement projects. These are all to ensure the physical reserve of the players, but Ye Qiu has set a time limit for this, requiring everyone to complete it within the specified time, and if exceeded, they will be punished.

At the same time, Ye Qiu will also bring some training programs and games that he has been doing when he was in Ajax, such as the wall-hitting game that he thinks is very effective. This game has a very obvious effect on the players and the effect is excellent.

But these games and training programs have one characteristic, that is, compactness, which means high intensity.

After the second 90-minute training session, lunch will be taken at 1:30 p.m., and there will be a 2-hour lunch break. After that, there will be a tactical discussion meeting. Ye Qiu and Ten Cate will instill Chelsea's tactical thinking this season and the tactical responsibilities of each player in the meeting, so that they can understand their role positioning on the court.

The third training session in the afternoon will be held at 6:30, which is still 90 minutes, and it will be more about tactical drills and group confrontation training.

One point that Ye Qiu constantly emphasizes is that whether it is a game or training, it requires 100% concentration, and the pass must be simple and fast, with one touch of the ball. Therefore, in some group confrontation projects, he clearly stated that once the ball is taken, an attack must be completed within 10 seconds.

There is a special person in the coaching team who presses the stopwatch on the side. If it exceeds 10 seconds, the whistle will be blown and the ball will be replaced.

In order to encourage the players to fight with real swords and guns, Ye Qiu required everyone to take out the fighting spirit of treating training as a formal game. Everyone must go all out for every opportunity, but what's more terrible is that he required all players not to wear shin guards.

The players were not used to Ye Qiu's requirement, because on the one hand, they were required to fight fiercely, and on the other hand, they were not allowed to wear shin guards. Isn't this self-contradictory? What if they get hurt?

But Ye Qiu did not make any corrections at all, but said that everyone had to fight hard to improve in training, and every player had to maintain a fighting spirit, but not wearing shin guards was to remind all players that the confrontation and actions in the Premier League were very intense, and all players had to learn to protect themselves and control their actions.

"I don't want you to always rely on more physical contact with the opponent. My requirement is to minimize physical contact and achieve the purpose of attack through fast passing and receiving. If you don't have physical contact with the opponent, why do you need shin guards?"

Faced with Ye Qiu's aggressive question, the players were speechless and were forced by Ye Qiu to conduct this hellish training.

However, Ye Qiu did not completely ignore the players. He targeted those healthy players. For Cannavaro, the captain of the Italian national team, he was diagnosed with a tibia fracture on the first day he came to the team. After that, Ye Qiu specially arranged for the coach to train him alone instead of with the team.

This also allowed everyone in the team to see Ye Qiu's protection of the players. In the following training camps, Ye Qiu also adopted these two completely different attitudes. If there was no injury, he would train hard, and if there was an injury, he would recover.

No player would wish to be injured. After all, there were team doctors conducting tests. As long as the body recovered and met the training requirements, he would immediately train with the team.

Of course, in order to control and avoid injuries to players due to training, Ye Qiu was very strict in his whistling during training. He made his attitude clear to everyone in advance, prohibiting malicious fouls, and he did not restrict other physical contact and confrontation.

As a result, players were often tackled on the training ground, but very few were injured. Joe Cole was kicked in the calf by Davis on the second day of the team's training and rested for two days.

As the training progressed, the players gradually became numb to this situation and got used to it. Gradually, the team's training became very cruel. Everyone had to go all out and stay focused, otherwise they might be killed by their teammates at any time and anywhere, and then make a fool of themselves, which directly promoted the team's training effect.

Ye Qiu was also busy at ordinary times. He communicated and contacted with the players every day. He always maintained an attitude that if the team is compared to a person, the players are the body of the team, and the head coach is the brain of the team. If the brain wants to control the body, it must be closely connected with every part of the body.

Cannavaro is the most famous player among all the players. He is the captain of the Italian national team, but he performed very badly in the year at Inter Milan, and he has not won enough to prove his strength in the club, so Ye Qiu used this as a starting point to stimulate the Italian.

Makelele is successful. Although the national team has always been suppressed by Vieira and has not achieved any decent achievements, he has won a Champions League in the club and reached the final last season. But Ye Qiu used Vieira's achievements in Arsenal to stimulate him.

Ronaldinho is talented and is indeed a genius. Even in training, he has shown his outstanding footwork skills. He is a World Cup champion, but he has not proved himself in the four major leagues. Ye Qiu is also constantly encouraging him, thinking that if he can stand out in this Chelsea, then he will have the qualifications to challenge Ronaldo and Rivaldo, otherwise, no one will recognize him.

As for Edgar Davis, Drogba and others, they don't need Ye Qiu to stimulate them at all, especially the Dutchman. He is now the most diligent and hardworking one on the training ground. He is full of anger to prove his strength and prove to everyone that he is at least not old enough to clean the bench for Lippi.

Another person who makes Ye Qiu feel relieved is Ribery.

The French scarred man is also very hardworking in training. Originally, Ye Qiu was a little worried that Ribery, who has only played in the not very formal French National League, would find it difficult to adapt to the training intensity of Chelsea. He also planned to give him some special care, but unexpectedly, after this training, Ribery's performance was very hard.

"He is very fast, especially explosive power." Ten Cate was very impressed with this Frenchman who ran directly to Stamford Bridge to find Ye Qiu. He was a little ugly, but his strength was indeed good, whether it was speed or footwork, he was very good.

Ye Qiu certainly knew that Ribery was good. This French scarred face had a fast sprint speed, and his flexibility and balance were excellent, which made him very skilled in the use of technology. He had no problem in a small area and could still be threatening. You know, his left and right feet were very good.

This reminded Ye Qiu of his favorite disciple Robben.

Simply speaking, Robben's speed and pace were better than Ribery's, but Robben's skills were more practical and concise, and he relied more on changing rhythm and pace to win, which made everyone know how to defend him, that is, blocking.

Of course, blocking may not work, but it can limit Robben's performance.

But Ribery is different. The Frenchman's movements are very fast, and he is very skilled in fake moves, speed changes and changes of direction. In addition, he is very good at footwork and has very good ball handling and ball control skills with both feet, making his dribbling more confusing.

From the perspective of defensive players, you have to be careful when defending Ribery and Robben. There are some ways to defend Robben, but when defending Ribery, you don't know what he will do next because he is very comprehensive.

Also because of his comprehensiveness, Ribery is not as good as Robben in pure attack.

From a tactical point of view, Ye Qiu arranged Abidal for Robben. The reason is very simple. The full-back cannot be pressed too high, which will compress Robben's sprint space. Therefore, Ye Qiu chose Abidal, who is a supporting type, to assist Robben.

But Ribery is different. He can play an effective role even in a small range, so there is no problem in this regard. The team's defense can boldly press forward.

Of course, for the time being, Ribery is just a trick in Ye Qiu's hands. He really relies on Ronaldinho.

Chelsea's 4321 is very different from Ancelotti's 4321. That is, Chelsea's 4321 looks more like a change of 442 diamond midfield, while Ancelotti's 4321 is a Christmas tree style.

When attacking, Drogba is at the forefront, and Ronaldinho is like a shadow striker. He can find the opponent's loopholes based on his own observations, and more often pull the side and cut in from the ribs, which can also play the advantages of the Brazilian.

If these two players are double strikers, then Lampard is the front midfielder, specifically ambushing behind Drogba, Edgar Davis and Deco are behind Lampard, and Makelele is behind him. This is a typical midfield diamond position.

Just as Ye Qiu's impression of AC Milan at the beginning, the diamond position has a big disadvantage, which is the protection of the full-back.

The reason why AC Milan introduced Cafu is that they lack the means of attacking on the wing. What they need is a player who can take the entire wing alone, similar to Cafu and Roberto Carlos.

The full-back's forward attack is very threatening, especially for the full-back with excellent personal ability. If he is paired with a scorer in the penalty area like Van Nistelrooy, or a tactical fulcrum in the frontcourt like Drogba, it is simply a killer.

But the problem is also big, because the full-back's forward run will definitely bring about the problem of assisting defense and protection behind him, and the problem of the full-back covering too much area, because the diamond midfield position will inevitably lead to insufficient coverage and control of the midfield side, and this needs the full-back to make up for it, so sometimes they even have to cover more than 70 meters of running, usually about 40 meters back and forth.

This is a huge test for any full-back.

But Ye Qiu has his own understanding of this, because Chelsea is not AC Milan, Chelsea can completely reduce the pressure on the full-back through more active and large-scale running and coverage in the midfield, and after the defense line is pressed forward, the coverage area of ​​the full-back can be further shortened.

Apart from other things, the midfield combination of Lampard, Davis, Deco and Makelele, purely from the perspective of running and coverage area, will definitely kill the combination of Rui Costa, Seedorf, Gattuso and Pirlo of AC Milan.

In terms of technology, Chelsea is not as good as its opponent, but in terms of control, it definitely has the strength to defeat AC Milan.

The midfield is where Ye Qiu's confidence lies. He can't think of any team in the entire European football world, or even the world football world, that has the strength to directly confront Chelsea's strong midfield.

And you have to know that Chelsea's midfield is not just strong enough. If you carefully analyze Chelsea's midfield and the so-called meat grinder midfield during Mourinho's period, it is not difficult to find that Ye Qiu's midfield is more controllable and creative, and every player is in his prime.

In fact, since the Mourinho period, Chelsea's midfield has always given people a sense of muscle toughness. Everyone is very comprehensive and has strong tactical execution. They are like iron men, giving people a suffocating pressure, but why can't they play a suffocating attack?

The reason is very simple. Pressure and coverage are not equal to control.

Or to put it this way, what is control?

Control is based on me, I can do whatever I want; but what about pressure and coverage?

That is based on the enemy. Whether it is pressure or coverage, the initiative is controlled by the opponent, and I am passive!

Therefore, the style of Mourinho's period is actually defensive counterattack, using this kind of pressure and coverage to complete the ball possession conversion, and then using Robben, Duff and Drogba to play defensive counterattack.

But Ye Qiu is not ready to do this now. What he wants is control, not being controlled.

Of course, it is undeniable that Mourinho's Chelsea in the previous life adopted such a tactical style of play. A very good and effective feature is stability, because they are a kind of defensive counterattack in their bones, so they are very stable and concede few goals, but such a team often has a headache when encountering a team with strong control in the Champions League.

Perhaps, some people will think that Mourinho can't win the Champions League at Chelsea because of various factors, but there is one thing that cannot be denied, that is, Mourinho's Chelsea only showed dominance in the Premier League, but not in the Champions League, because the control of the European continental teams is stronger and better.

This is why Ferguson tried every means to guide his team to the continental style of play.

Whether from the perspective of his own style or the team's goals, Ye Qiu will not pursue Mourinho's muscular midfield style of play, because he is very clear about the flaws of this style of play. No one can make a meat grinder gentle, and it is difficult to achieve anything in the Champions League by blindly pursuing toughness and muscle.

That’s why Ye Qiu gave up the familiar 433 style of play that pursued wingers and adopted the more stable 4321 tactics. Because it was his first year in the Premier League, he had to produce results that could convince everyone. Otherwise, he would feel that it was unacceptable to invest so much but end up with nothing.