The Godfather of Football

Great, an adjective that has obviously been overused by the media.

In football, greatness seems to fall more on offensive players, while defensive players rarely get such an honor, but Makelele is honored to receive such recognition and affirmation from fans.

I don't know when they started to regard him as a synonym for defensive midfielder, but it must not be from Ligue 1, because at that time he was not a simple midfielder. At that time, he was like African players such as Essien and Mohamed Diarra, with both offensive and defensive capabilities, and was known for his wide-ranging running coverage.

After switching to Celta, he relied on his solid skills to gain a foothold in La Liga. At that time, he began to learn to become a more classical midfielder, because La Liga likes such midfielders, such as Guardiola of Barcelona, ​​Redondo of Real Madrid, and midfielders such as Baraja and Albelda, who are not pure defensive types.

Even though Celta later introduced Celades from Barcelona, ​​the two formed the most dazzling double defensive midfielder combination in La Liga, Makelele was not the most eye-catching. In the summer of 2000, Real Madrid packaged Celta's double defensive midfielders, and the most important goal was still Celades. Makelele introduced players more to bring out Celades' strength.

Sometimes, fate is so fun.

People usually think that great people should show their great side from the beginning, but in fact, greatness is often just an evaluation of the facts that have already happened by the latecomers. For the person involved, he will not feel that he is doing a great thing at all. On the contrary, his initial purpose is often very humble.

Many people asked Makelele why he transformed into a pure defensive player. The reason is very simple, in order to play in the game!

That year, Real Madrid had just won the Champions League. There were many talents in the defensive midfielder position, including powerful stars such as Elguera, Celades, Flavio, and Cambiasso, an outstanding rookie. Makelele's position in Real Madrid was not prominent.

Bosque is constantly adjusting the team, and the players are constantly catering to Bosque's tactics in order to compete. Makelele does not have the capital and capital to occupy a main position like the superstars, so he has to fight.

Too many people go to attack, defense has become a scarce commodity, and among Real Madrid's defensive midfielders, Makelele and Elguera are undoubtedly the players who are most willing to invest in defense. Naturally, they have gradually been reused by Bosque and gradually got the opportunity to play. Over time, he has taken root in the defensive midfielder position.

All along, Makelele has understood a truth very well, that is, as a professional player, the most important thing for you is not to think about how to play your strength, especially for top teams, the strength of the players is fart, there are a lot of powerful stars at hand, the most important thing is to find your role in the team.

If Makelele is still like Celades, Flavio and others, guarding his own characteristics and not changing, then he will not be able to play in Real Madrid, because Real Madrid does not need such a role in the team, they need defenders.

After finding the role, many things became logical.

Makelele clearly remembers that when he was trying to renew his contract with Real Madrid but failed, he received a call from Ye Qiu in London.

In that call, Ye Qiu told him what kind of player he wanted.

"In my tactical system, I still lack a player. When my forwards rush forward, he stays to protect the defense; when my midfielders also rush forward, he still stays to protect the defense; when my defenders leave their positions, he still defends his position and protects his defense!"

After listening to Ye Qiu's words, Makelele immediately had an idea in his mind. He was talking about himself, and only himself!

So next, after Real Madrid agreed to the transfer, Makelele nodded directly to join Chelsea, because he knew very well that Ye Qiu understood his tactical value.

But even so, he later discovered that Ye Qiu's understanding of him was obviously deeper.

Every week, Ye Qiu would communicate with the players. Every first-team player had such an opportunity. This way of communication was very popular with the players. Everyone could speak freely and even talk directly about their ideas and requirements for contract renewal and salary.

Makelele once asked Ye Qiu why he spent a high price to introduce himself when there were many defenders who met Ye Qiu's requirements?

Ye Qiu thought for a while, and seemed to be struggling with how to use the simplest adjective to express a very profound truth. Finally, he smiled and said, "There are two types of midfield defenders. One is to stop the ball through defense and then complete the defense. The other is to keep the ball running effectively at all times, but at the same time be able to complete the defense."

"There are many midfield players who can do the former, a lot of them, who can run, grab and fight, and are qualified to be the former, but only the most outstanding defenders can achieve the latter, and you belong to the latter!"

After listening to this, Makelele suddenly realized a feature that he had rarely discovered in the past, that is, the point that Ye Qiu emphasized the most was to keep the ball running without stopping!

Many people were surprised by Chelsea's tactics, thinking that this team likes to attack, and the speed of the front players is generally not fast, but why is this team so fast and so impactful when counterattacking or attacking?

The reason is very simple, because even in the process of defense, Chelsea guarantees the effective movement of the ball to the maximum extent.

Imagine that it is also defense, and the same is assumed to be the most ideal state. What else should the defensive player do after successfully pressing and stealing the ball? Protect the ball! If it is a tackle on the ground, there is still a time to get up, right?

And during this period of time, the ball is obviously out of control and paused!

On the other hand, if the ball is passed and before it reaches the feet of the receiver, after the half-way interception is successful, the first choice made by the defender is not to protect the ball, nor does it need to let the ball stop, but to pass the ball directly, or even rush forward with the ball.

Therefore, in Chelsea's defense, Ye Qiu emphasized interception the most, which is to ensure the ball's non-stop movement to the maximum extent. Once the defense is successful without stopping the ball, Chelsea can save the time spent by others on protecting the ball and the ball's path pausing, which is as short as one or two seconds, and as long as it may even be the success or failure of an attack.

Everyone knows that in a football game, the difference of one or two seconds is very huge!

Of course, it is not easy to do this. The requirements for the prediction and reaction of the ball path are very high. Ye Qiu trains the players' abilities in this aspect through repeated high-intensity training on weekdays. At least until now, Chelsea has done a good job in this regard. Otherwise, Makelele alone cannot guarantee defense.

In training, repeatedly rehearsing possible situations in the game can also effectively help players stay calm and make rational judgments when encountering similar situations in the game.

Therefore, when Liverpool launched a counterattack, Chelsea over-pressed because of the strong attack. In the shortest time, Liverpool put four players into the counterattack, namely forwards Pongler, Riise, Luis Garcia and Gerrard. Gerrard's position was relatively backward, and the counterattack was delayed at the end, but it was the most dangerous.

And what about Chelsea?

Makelele was in front, Gallas and Terry were behind, and the other players were chasing back.

4 vs 3, and a hasty counterattack, the situation was very favorable for Liverpool, and even the commentator Andy Gray exclaimed that Liverpool might score.

But at the moment when Liverpool launched a counterattack, Chelsea's players immediately responded. Makelele, who had been retreating with Liverpool's counterattack, saw an opportunity after entering his own 30-meter area, gave up Pongler, and forced Luis Garcia who was holding the ball.

Gallas and Terry cooperated well with Makelele. As soon as they saw Makelele's action, they immediately guessed what the Frenchman was going to do. They also acted separately. Gallas went to look at Pongler, and Terry leaned to the right side of Makelele, a bit like he was going to assist Makelele in defense, and a bit like he was going to approach Riise who was approaching.

Luis Garcia and Makelele were originally moving forward and backward, and the distance between them was getting closer and closer, but when Makelele suddenly approached, the distance between the two was quickly shortened in an instant. Luis Garcia was startled by Makelele's action. Without time to hesitate, he naturally chose the safest way, which was to pass the ball to Riise on the left.

But as soon as the ball was passed, he regretted it!

Because he saw Terry suddenly leave his position, rush out of the penalty area quickly, and intercept the ball halfway.

It was originally a favorable situation of 4 vs. 3, but because of the tacit and skillful cooperation between the three Chelsea defenders and the sudden change of defense, Luis Garcia was forced to make the wrong choice.

After Terry successfully intercepted the ball, he rushed forward with the ball without stopping. Liverpool, who was counterattacking just now, suddenly fell into the embarrassing situation of being counterattacked, especially when Terry directly passed the ball to the front, Liverpool's defense was blown up in an instant.

Drogba did not press against Liverpool's retreating defense line, but suddenly stopped. Terry's long pass came to his head. The Ivorian calmly stood firm and headed the ball to the right side of Liverpool's defense line, behind Traore and Hyypia.

Ribery's explosive power and speed were pushed to the highest in an instant. After stepping on the accelerator to the bottom, the Frenchman was like a sturdy Ferrari, quickly passing through the gap between Liverpool's two dinosaur-level tall players, inserting the ball and kicking forward again, and continued to rush forward.

The situation was a sudden turn of events. Just now they were counterattacked, but now they took the initiative to launch a sharp and fast counterattack, and also tore through Liverpool's defense. The fans of both sides in the stands were stunned and speechless, and even the commentator on the scene was silent.

At the moment when Ribery penetrated the defense, Carragher had to choose to come over to defend, but when he left his position, Ribery didn't wait for him to get close, and passed the ball quickly from Carragher's side. Ronaldinho behind Carragher rushed over and pushed the ball easily about 10 meters away from the goal.

Ribery's pass was very particular, because the ball was in a position close to the goal, which was exactly the area where the goalkeeper wanted to attack but had little confidence, which would cause hesitation. Moreover, it was suddenly passed from the right to the left rib. Even if Dudek reacted, it was too late to stop Ronaldinho.

The ball hit the goal line along the grass, bounced after hitting the bottom of the net, and then fell into the goal line, jumping on the grass for a few times, as if jumping in the hearts of all the fans of the two teams at the scene, and all the fans watching on TV.

Bang~ Bang~ Bang~

"Wow~~~~~" After two or three seconds of silence, a thunderous shout finally broke out. Chelsea fans rushed out of the seats and rushed to the front of the fence of the stands, shouting and shouting, shouting Ronaldinho's name, shouting Chelsea, and shouting the declaration of victory!

Ronaldinho and his teammates rushed out of the stadium and hugged each other under the stands. Especially for Ribery who assisted him, Ronaldinho even hugged the Frenchman by the waist and almost wiped his scarred face with saliva.

Ye Qiu also clenched his fist and roared at the sidelines when the team scored a goal. This goal completely eliminated the pressure in his heart.

The most important thing about playing Liverpool is the team's targeted tactics that are almost as strong as a copper wall, especially when they shrink back, almost no team can break through. Even in the Istanbul miracle in the previous life, the reason why Liverpool was scored 3 goals by AC Milan in the first half was because they lacked experience and rushed forward rashly, resulting in AC Milan's counterattack.

Now, with this goal, Ye Qiu is sure to win, because what Chelsea has to do next is to defend and counterattack!

After the players celebrated on the sidelines, they did not forget to walk to the home team coaching bench, high-fived their head coach, and even hugged and celebrated. Ye Qiu also took this opportunity to explain the next game tasks to the players.

It's only 13 minutes now, and Chelsea is retreating now, which is a bit too early. The most likely time for any team to have problems is to retreat too quickly after you take the lead, so Ye Qiu asked the players to continue to maintain a certain amount of pressure and then retreat steadily and appropriately.

And if you want to continue to put pressure on Liverpool, the best way is still to attack their left side.

With this goal, Ye Qiu felt much more relaxed. He hugged his hands in front of his chest and smiled. Looking at Benítez again, the Spaniard had a serious face, as if he was facing a great enemy, as if he was dueling with the opponent.

Both sides belong to the kind of team that does not have too many loopholes in defense, and compared to Chelsea's excellent offensive ability, Liverpool's offense is slightly inferior, so now that Chelsea has broken the goal, Benítez has to choose to attack, unless he doesn't want to win.

But Benítez knew he had no choice, and Ye Qiu certainly knew he had no choice, so the Spaniard himself knew that Ye Qiu, a cunning old fox, would be on guard in his own half, setting traps, waiting for his prey to come to the door and step on his trap, and then he would quickly counterattack.

As long as they pressed forward, the team's formation would be loose, and Liverpool's defense would no longer be tight.

In fact, Benítez did not press forward in a big way. Instead, Chelsea continued to launch several large attacks on Liverpool's left after the restart, and then Chelsea began to steadily shrink its formation.

As Wenger and Ferguson said, when Ye Qiu was determined to defend, it would be difficult to break Chelsea's defense unless he used bombs, and Benítez knew that Chelsea was waiting for him to attack, so he was not that stupid.

So, the last half an hour of the first half was spent in this almost boring time-consuming of the two teams.

But during this period when the fans were bored, the players and coaches of the two teams were competing with each other in patience and will. As long as either side showed a little impatience or made a mistake, they would be swallowed up by the other side without even spitting out the bones.

During the halftime break, Ye Qiu highly praised the players' performance in the first half, but on the other hand, he kept calling on his players that the start of the second half was very critical. The team still adopted a defensive counterattack strategy and could not give Liverpool a loose space, especially the suppression of Xabi Alonso, which must continue.

The situation in the second half was still as dull as the first half, and each side consumed the other's physical strength and patience. Benítez did not dare to press out easily, because it was not time to fight back. He could only wait for Chelsea to make mistakes while ensuring that he did not make mistakes.

Time passed bit by bit, and after entering the 70th minute, Liverpool finally became a little restless.

Benítez replaced Pongler with Morientes for the first time. The Spanish striker could play more effectively in Chelsea's tight formation, but Ye Qiu kept the team's formation unchanged, just asking Terry and Gallas to pay more attention to Morientes, because he knew that Liverpool still didn't dare to press forward.

Until the 75th minute, Benítez finally couldn't sit still. This time he directly replaced Traore, who had a poor performance and a yellow card, with Bismicer, and changed to a 361 tactic, but at the same time replaced Hamann with Kewell to further strengthen the team's frontcourt offensive ability.

Ye Qiu also made adjustments quickly. Lampard retreated to support the defensive midfielder, replaced Drogba with Gudjohnsen, moved closer to the midfield, and actively participated in defense, allowing Ronaldinho and Ribery to cut Liverpool's ribs like two sharp knives. The counterattack attitude was very obvious and very determined.

Liverpool had no choice now. There was only a little time left. If they didn't score again, they would be finished, so Benitez could only choose to give it a try, hoping to capture Chelsea's goal at the last moment.

And Ye Qiu was obviously waiting for Liverpool to press forward, and even waved at them, issuing an impatient invitation!