The Godfather of Football

"Head, have you watched the live TV broadcast?"

When the team returned to the hotel from the Grimaldi Conference Center, the players and coaching staff gathered in Ye Qiu's room. The guy had just finished a phone call with Eliza and his wife Huang Chu and was relaxing After taking a bath, they knocked on the door.

Ronaldinho is a master of tricks. As soon as he walked in, he grinned and showed his iconic toothy teeth. He was in a good mood and asked Ye Qiu this question. He seemed to want to stump Ye Qiu. mean.

"I want to watch the live broadcast, I might as well go there!" Ye Qiu looked like you're really stupid, shook his head and walked to the dressing room.

"Head, guess who won the best coach?" Ronaldinho indeed had this evil intention, and the players around him were all smiling, as if they were waiting for Ye Qiu to make a fool of himself. .

"Rehagar!" Ye Qiu quickly walked out wearing loose clothes and answered casually.

"Yes, boss, you are so awesome!" Ronaldinho smiled so lewdly, "Guess again, what is the result of the draw? Who are the other three opponents we drew?"

"I'm not Johansson, who can guess that?" Ye Qiu still didn't understand what they were thinking, and shook his head.

"Guess, head!" Ronaldinho advised.

"It's just a guess!" Ribery is also a guy who is afraid of chaos in the world.

Lampard pointed at Ronaldinho and said, "Head, he just said that there will be a prize for guessing correctly!"

"Yes, there's a prize for guessing it right, head, guess!" Terry also cheered.

"Don't worry, boss, if you guess wrong, we promise not to laugh at you!" Drogba said stupidly.

As soon as this Ivorian monster said it, everyone in the room burst into laughter.

"It's just a drawing of lots. It's like betting on horse racing. Do you think I'm Sir Alex Ferguson, you loser?" Ye Qiu took the opportunity to make fun of Ferguson. The Manchester United coach is famous for his love of betting on horse racing. The famous Gibraltar incident that year There was a lot of commotion, and under the leadership of Ferguson, many players at Manchester United loved betting on horse racing.

Ye Qiu's casual remark immediately made everyone laugh again, and they started to boo and place their bets.

In fact, in the Premier League, it is not uncommon for teams to play cards. In the World Cup that year, it was revealed that the England national team was gambling. Owen liked to bet very much, and even bet big, but Ye Qiu didn't like this thing. He believes that small gambling can make people happy, but big gambling is prohibited, or it may affect training and competition because of gambling.

Sometimes, the head coach is like a nanny. You not only have to lead the players to fight on the court, but you also have to take care of their daily life and entertainment. Just like the game tomorrow night, the whole day tomorrow. It's a break. How do players pass the time at this time? The coaching staff has to make some arrangements and methods!

"Okay, let's play with you!" Ye Qiu smiled and nodded, "But I can swear that I never watched the live TV broadcast, nor did I get the results from our coaching staff, staff, hotel staff, or my wife. !”

Ye Qiu's voluntary confession immediately gave the players reassurance, because they felt that Ye Qiu's information channels seemed to be the only ones. Since he swore, he should not know anything about it.

"Okay, guess what!" Ronaldinho and his teammates looked at each other and nodded.

"Wait, we have to agree first. The bet is one thing. If I win, each of you promises to do one thing for me. If I lose, I will do one thing for you. Is it fair?" Ye Qiu first told me the bet, and the joy in his heart was, "Hey, you want to fight me?"

"Okay, no problem!" Lampard nodded directly.

After Ye Qiu took the initiative to confess, they all felt that their head coach seemed to have no other channels for information, and how could they guess it by just guessing?

"Then I'm starting to guess!" Ye Qiu said with a smile, "Among the teams in the fourth tier, the strongest team should be Werder Bremen, but I think it can't be them, but CSKA Moscow. It was previously reported by the media that most of the funds for this team come from the huge sponsorship of Abramovich’s Siberian Oil Company.”

"This is the biggest gimmick, so if I guess correctly, the opponent in the fourth gear is CSKA Moscow!"

When the players were analyzed like this by Ye Qiu, they all felt a little stupid. He actually guessed one of them correctly.

"Okay, boss, you are awesome, let's talk about it!" Ronaldinho was a little dumbfounded.

"The third-tier team is harder to guess. In terms of relationships, I think the most likely one is PSV, because my relationship with this team can be said to be a feud, or Leverku. Sen, but I always think it is unlikely, and according to another set of UEFA’s unspoken rules for drawing, I think the biggest possibility is Paris Saint-Germain.”

"We have three players from Paris Saint-Germain, Ronaldinho, Michael Essien and Heinze!"

When the analysis came to this point, Ye Qiu smiled, "So, I think the third tier should be Paris Saint-Germain!"

"Oh my God!" Lampard was a little stunned, but he quickly reacted, "Boss, you must have known the result earlier. You must have watched the live broadcast, otherwise you wouldn't have guessed so accurately!"

"That's right, how can you guess right without watching the live broadcast?" The players also followed suit.

Ye Qiu was very calm, "Everyone, let's make it clear first. I swear, I didn't watch the live broadcast. Did I turn on the TV when you came in? Go ask the hotel waiter when I came back? She came in once in the middle. Ask her if I was talking to my wife at that time. I swear, I didn't get any news from my wife!"

"This person must admit defeat, right?" Ye Qiu simply thought they were cheating.

In fact, there was a loophole in Ye Qiu's oath, that is, the objects listed when he swore did not include Eliza Moon, but he took the initiative to swear to be honest, but the players did not study this point carefully and started to make a fuss.

"Okay, guess again, who is the first tier?" Ronaldinho was also fierce this time. He didn't believe that Ye Qiu could guess all correctly.

Ye Qiu chuckled, "The first tier of teams is actually the easiest to guess. Why? Apart from Arsenal and Manchester United, there are only Porto, Real Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich and Deportivo La Coruna. It is almost impossible for Valencia to play the Super Cup with us."

"If we really meet Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​we will beat them to death. After the dark horse last season, UEFA will appropriately protect the influential and appealing giants and do not want them to be eliminated too early. In general, UEFA has a very unpleasant group draw mode, which is to arrange the two teams in the Champions League final last season in the same group next season. So, I guess, Porto!"

After saying this, Ye Qiu couldn't hide his little pride. This is the advantage of calculating intentionally without intention. It's also the fault of these guys who deliberately want to see him make a fool of himself, otherwise how could he be fooled?

When the players heard that Ye Qiu had guessed it, they all gave up. They began to question Ye Qiu for cheating, saying that he must have known the result in advance, but they couldn't figure out how Ye Qiu knew the result.

Ye Qiu shrugged helplessly at them, "Let's accept the loss, I will start to make demands on you now!"

"Actually, what I want you to do is very simple, such as letting you run naked in Monaco"

When Ye Qiu said this, the players opened their eyes as big as eggs. If this happened, they would have wanted to die. Fortunately, Ye Qiu quickly continued: ".. That's impossible. If you make a fool of yourself, I will also lose face, right?"

The guys immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ronaldinho!" Ye Qiu pointed at the Brazilian, "I'm not satisfied with your recent form. I want you to do one thing. This season, both goals and assists in the Premier League should be 15 or more!"

"Lampard, you scored a good number of goals last season. This season's goal is to continue to maintain it and score more than 20 goals in the Premier League!"

Ye Qiu pointed at Drogba, who had just yelled the loudest, "You black and strong guy, you just yelled the loudest. The goal is 20 league goals. Don't give me a discount! Let those guys who said you can't score goals see that you can't score goals!"

"And you, Wayne Rooney!"

"Boss, I didn't bet with you!" Rooney just arrived and didn't dare to stand out.

"Everyone who appears here counts!" Ye Qiu is now being unreasonable, "I'll give you a discount, double-digit league goals!"

"Frank Ribery, you too, double-digit league goals!"

"As for you, as the captain of the team, you took the lead in making trouble, John Terry, the league goals conceded must not exceed 20!"

Then Van Persie, Gudjohnsen, Deco, Joe Cole and other players who appeared in Ye Qiu's room were assigned tasks one by one, and what Ye Qiu asked them to do was all closely related to their performance on the court, and many of them were aimed at their weaknesses.

For example, Drogba, everyone said he couldn't score, but Ye Qiu assigned him 20 goals. You know, in Ligue 1, Drogba scored the most goals in Guingamp, scoring 17 league goals, so Ye Qiu's requirements for him are indeed a bit high now, but if he is willing to work hard to improve his strength, with Chelsea's ability to create opportunities, there will be no problem.

"Finally, I want all of you to beat Valencia tomorrow!" Ye Qiu finally announced.

But just after he finished speaking, Ronaldinho, the buck-toothed guy, raised his hand and said something that made everyone burst into laughter.

"Boss, this seems to be the second thing, right?"

When Ye Qiu pretended to learn Ferguson's flying kick, Ronaldinho ran out of the door faster and disappeared.

For Ranieri, Ye Qiu always felt that he was a very capable football coach.

Why add the word "football" in front of the word "coach"?

This is because Ranieri's role is limited to the football level, and his role outside of football is very small.

Or it can be said that as a head coach, Ranieri's ability in the field of football is absolutely first-class. Maybe he can't reach the height of a tactical master like Benitez, but he is definitely not bad.

Many people say that Ranieri is poor at on-the-spot command and is better at patching up pots, so his nickname is called the tinker, because he is very good at patching up. His greatest advantage is that he can make up for the problems left by his predecessors to the greatest extent while inheriting the advantages of his predecessors, minimize the loopholes of the team, and become more balanced.

It is not difficult to see from the nickname Tinker that Ranieri's character is cautious and cautious, but he is very good at thinking and has excellent tactical understanding and analysis skills, so he can do well every time. It is not something that ordinary people can do to find out the problems of their ex and give them the right solution.

But sometimes, he is too cautious, coupled with lack of ability outside the football field, and is too accommodating to players. These have caused Ranieri's coaching bottleneck, and it seems difficult for him to change his personality and coaching characteristics with his easy-going personality. .

Ranieri also has a nickname that is not very familiar to people, the Gardener. I believe that even old fans will not remember this nickname.

It's tragic to say that Ranieri's two nicknames had good intentions, but later, they became words used by the media and fans to ridicule and ridicule him, including the gardener.

The reason why Ranieri is said to be a gardener is because of his excellent ability to promote and cultivate players, so he joked that he was like a gardener, helping these seedlings to thrive and grow into towering trees, but later his meaning became Well, he was best at planting trees for his predecessors to enjoy the shade, so he was nicknamed the Gardener.

The most famous thing is that he laid a solid foundation in Valencia, which directly created the peak of the Cooper and Benitez eras. Many people, including Ye Qiu himself, admitted that Chelsea during the Ranieri era was indeed the foundation for the later years. Chelsea's glory has laid a solid foundation, including the two core players Lampard and Terry.

As the saying goes, what kind of character you have, what kind of life you have!

Of course, these are the opinions of outsiders on Ranieri, which are relatively objective. However, as a head coach, in Ye Qiu's view, in addition to Ranieri's shortcomings in character and coaching the team, he also has a very obvious tactical level. The shortcoming is the wing!

Ranieri is a typical Italian head coach who is good at defensive counterattacks, but unlike top Italian coaches like Capello and Lippi, Ranieri is less capable as a designer of a tactical system.

Many people wonder why Ranieri can only be a tinker and cannot become a top coach?

Looking at all the top coaches in recent years, they actually have one thing in common, which is the integration of offense and defense. Correspondingly, all top teams at the top must have a balance of offense and defense. This is why Sacchi said, A truly strong team can not only create the strongest defense, but also be able to play the most hearty offense!

In other words, it is not enough if you only know how to defend. You also need to know how to attack. The same is true in reverse. If you only know how to attack but do not know how to defend, that will not work either.

But as a head coach, Ranieri has very obvious shortcomings in the design of wing offense. Looking at all the teams he has coached, offense is a persistent problem, but offense and defense are in modern times. But it is a complementary and inseparable element in tactics.

There is a lack of wing attack design and the wing players cannot be used well. The offense can only go to the center too much, making it much easier for the opponent to defend.

Never underestimate professional head coaches, they rely on this to make a living. As long as there is a slight loophole in your tactical lineup, they can catch it and even make you capsize in the gutter. Almost all Big upsets are created in this way, and this is the most challenging part of professional football and the most unpredictable part of a football game.

With obvious shortcomings, coupled with his own character and mentality, the route Ranieri finally chose was defensive counterattack.

Sometimes people are like this. When you get used to something and use a certain routine, you will inevitably have some inertial thinking. So when he returned to Valencia, the first thing Ranieri did was to change. .

From 4231 during the Benitez period to the current 442, from the original high defense to the current shrinking counterattack, this also directly led to the complete destruction of the talented star Aimar who was highly used during the Benitez period. Relegated to the sidelines, forward Mista made way for forwards Divayo and Corradi.

Ye Qiu's Chelsea has completely different tactical styles from those of Ranieri's Chelsea. Ye Qiu also used the team's tactics in the game to show that the biggest difference between himself and Ranieri is that he dares to take risks. Even if the risks and opportunities are equal, as long as he sees it correctly, he will fight for it!

This time he spotted the incompetence of Valencia's wing. From the original 4231 high defensive tactic to the current 442 retraction tactic, not only the wingers are not adaptable, but the full backs are also very uncomfortable. This is not only the player position. The issues of position and movement also involve the cooperation between players and changes in the route of the ball.

Chelsea launched the strongest attack on the wing from the beginning. Ye Qiu was determined to play his own style from the beginning of the attack and create a direct threat. In fact, in the 21st minute, Chelsea directly attacked Knocking on Valencia's goal, Franck Ribery, who started in Rooney's place, broke through from the right and passed in. Gudjohnsen in the center grabbed the ball and scored with a header!

After that, Chelsea slowed down slightly, but in the 31st minute, Joe Cole and Gudjohnsen played a hitting-the-wall style. Evra quickly inserted into the baseline, suddenly stopped after receiving the pass, and knocked back to the front of the penalty area. Weiss stepped in and volleyed directly.

Goalkeeper Canizares made a save and flew to hit the ball with both hands, but he still failed to prevent the ball from being pushed by him and hitting the upper right corner, 2:0!

In the first half, Chelsea launched two brilliant attacks from the wing and penetrated Valencia's goal twice, but Ranieri had no way to deal with it. In the second half, Valencia began to press fiercely, and the referee had to give yellow card warnings frequently. Chelsea made appropriate substitutions, including Essien, Messi and Sun Jihai who all got the chance to come on the bench.

Although Valencia finally broke through Van der Sar's goal with Vicente's personal ability in the 77th minute, it was ultimately unable to prevent the team from losing 1:2. Ranieri suffered a Waterloo in this game where everyone had high hopes for him and hoped that he could redeem himself.

But this tinker with a good character also praised Ye Qiu's Chelsea after the game, believing that if Chelsea had not relaxed in the final stage, Valencia would have had a hard time getting a chance, and he also felt that Chelsea would be the strongest contender for the Champions League title this season.

Ye Qiu also responded to Ranieri's goodwill, saying that he should be given more time.

"Coaching a team that has just reached its peak is undoubtedly very difficult, but I believe Ranieri can lead this team well!"