The Godfather of Football

Strictly speaking, this is the third time that Ye Qiu has sat in the stands to watch his team's game.

The first time was when he was sent off in the middle of the game, the second time was the away game against Porto, and now this time is the third time, but it is obvious that the three experiences gave Ye Qiu completely different feelings.

The first two times he indirectly directed the team through mobile phones and notes, he still had a sense of participation, and still felt nervous and focused, but this time he felt that he was completely isolated from the game and acted as a complete spectator, which made him feel very unaccustomed and uncomfortable.

Because for the first time he found that it was too aggrieved and depressing to sit in the stands and watch his team being bombarded by opponents, watching his team being beaten by opponents, and he himself was powerless.

Benítez is definitely a tactical master in today's football. It is hard to say whether he is the first, but at least he is among the top. He not only has a very excellent keen sense of targeted tactics, but he is also very good at learning and reference.

Many people say that Liverpool is very similar to Chelsea last season, because Benítez often uses Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Hamann as three defensive midfielders, which is very similar to Chelsea's 4321 tactics last season.

Of course, the frontcourt is different. Chelsea's frontcourt at that time was Ronaldinho and Lampard, and the center forward was Drogba, while Liverpool's frontcourt was Riise and Luis Garcia, and the center forward was Baros. Chelsea pays more attention to the two ribs and the middle, while Liverpool pays more attention to the wing.

This is also related to the general lack of offensive ability of Liverpool's full-backs. If the full-backs lack offensive ability, if two players with certain wing ability cannot be placed in the wing position, the wing of the entire team will be completely crippled, and Xabi Alonso's excellent long pass dispatch will also lose its effect.

Therefore, Ye Qiu feels that whether Benítez admits it or not, his Liverpool tactics are definitely cloned Chelsea's tactics, and then improved and adjusted according to their own characteristics, and finally Liverpool's tactics this season are obtained.

But this does not mean that Liverpool's tactics are worse than Chelsea's last season. From the perspective of personnel quality, Liverpool is undoubtedly at an absolute disadvantage. After all, Chelsea has many big names and the team is strong overall, but Liverpool prefers practical players, and there is definitely a gap in overall quality.

Benítez's tactics have their advantages, that is, wing defense.

At the beginning, Chelsea adopted the full-backs to participate in the attack, relying on the team's strong midfield. Although this allowed Chelsea to maintain overall balance, and the performance was excellent, the defense was also very solid, but it was always a weakness and deficiency. However, Liverpool, on the contrary, adopted a wing attack and defense combination of defensive full-backs and offensive winger to maximize the wing defense.

In theory, Liverpool's defensive full-back play can liberate the midfield to a certain extent, and long-range shooters and offensive masters like Xabi Alonso and Gerrard who come in from behind have more opportunities to attack.

Everything has two sides, and there are always disadvantages if there are advantages.

If the distance between the defensive full-back and the offensive wingers is not properly controlled, it is very likely to repeat the weakness of the previous Ajax period, that is, the wing is disconnected. For this, Benítez adopts a forward pressure tactic, high defense, and pushes the defense line forward, but in this way, the flexibility of defense chasing back and turning is a problem.

Another thing is that Riise and Luis Garcia are both assigned to the wing, and the distance between the striker Baros and the three midfielders is too long, which directly leads to Liverpool's weak central attack and even directly causes Liverpool's lack of offensive ability.

Therefore, in many cases, Benítez gives Gerrard the greatest freedom, allowing Gerrard to advance and participate in the attack at any time according to his own observations, but Gerrard's characteristics are not the type of player who connects the striker and the midfield, so Liverpool's offense relies too much on the wing, which is another problem.

Another equally serious problem is Baros. As a striker, the Czech is obviously not suitable for the single striker tactic, especially the single center forward tactic at the front. Not only Baros is not suitable, but Cisse and Pongler are also not suitable. Morientes is very suitable in theory, but his playing rhythm cannot adapt to the Premier League and his performance is relatively average.

In this game, Ye Qiu's defense obviously adopted the strategy of letting the wing and locking the center.

The three lines maintained a compact formation, and the defense center was concentrated in the middle. Once Liverpool advanced to the wing of the 30-meter area, Chelsea's two full-backs immediately maintained close contact with the central defenders, blocking Liverpool's wing inward channel and forcing you to pass.

Baros is not a tough center forward after all. Under the clamp of Cannavaro and Gallas, Liverpool's headers can only return in vain again and again, while the Czechs can hardly take even a little advantage from Chelsea's defense.

In this game, Ye Qiu's midfield deployment also changed. Deco became an important member of the team's defensive defense. He was always at the end of the three midfielders, while Davis and Parker took large-scale running and pressing interceptions.

Here we must mention a very important consideration about the configuration of midfield defensive players.

In the eyes of many people, defensive midfielders are divided into defensive midfielders like Makelele who have excellent position and awareness, and those who run and cover a large area like Gattuso. I believe many people think that this is just a difference in defensive methods, but I don’t know if anyone has considered that this is actually the difference in the tactical system they adapt to.

The coverage area of ​​the positional defensive midfielder is relatively small. If he is in some teams with poor pressing and oppression, his weaknesses will be exposed. In other words, if Makelele is allowed to replace Gattuso in AC Milan, it will definitely be a tragedy, because the other three midfielders of AC Milan do not run and press much, and there are many spaces exposed in the midfield. Defenders need to run constantly to complete coverage and fill in the gaps, which is not what Makelele is good at.

Therefore, in Real Madrid, when the superstars in front do not press, Makelele needs a partner with a large running range, such as Elguera. Ye Qiu even thought that if it was a combination of Makelele and Beckham, the effect might be very ideal, at least there would not be a rapid fall of the first period of the Galaxy Battleship.

Gattuso, Essien, and Davis are all covering midfielders who run over a large area. Their biggest role is to fill the gaps, so the premise is that there must be gaps for them to run and fill. If it is a team with very meticulous defense and very tight pressing from front to back, the role they can play will be reduced.

For example, in the previous Chelsea period, many fans said that Essien liked to run around and ran without wisdom. In fact, this is indeed due to the players, but there is also a very important part of the team's tactics. It is very meticulous. When Essien found a loophole and wanted to run over to fill it, his teammates had already blocked it for him in advance. Then he would find that he didn't need to run again when he ran halfway, and what he did before became useless, and it became running around.

Why did Ye Qiu use Davis last season, but not this season?

Because Chelsea was overall loose last season, Ronaldinho basically did not invest in defense, and other players also needed to adapt to the team's tactical system, which gave Davis room to play, and the presence of the Dutch wild boar can also fill Chelsea's midfield loopholes to the maximum extent and play a key role.

But this season, Chelsea's tactical system has taken shape, everyone cooperates well, and the whole system is very tight from beginning to end. Davis has less room to play, but Makelele plays an increasingly important role. This is the reason.

Ye Qiu has always felt that every professional player has his fixed characteristics, and the most important thing for a head coach is to dig out the characteristics of the players and combine them into a set of stable tactical systems based on the characteristics of the players.

For the same reason, the head coach needs to arrange different players and form different tactics according to different opponents in every game. This is the biggest role of the head coach.

In this game, Ye Qiu arranged Davis, Deco and Parker to start. This was indeed a helpless move, because Makelele was absent, and in Ye Qiu's opinion, the most trustworthy person in the team was Deco, so he arranged Deco to delay, Davis and Parker both took large-scale coverage and scrambled, and Cannavaro and Gallas both gave appropriate support to the midfield, blocking the shortcomings and weaknesses of Chelsea's midfield position, and also blocking Liverpool's offensive threats from the middle.

Since the finals, Ye Qiu spent ten days constantly instilling his tactical thinking for the finals to the coaching staff including Ten Cate and Roland, focusing on defense, counterattacks when possible, and defending to the end when unable to counterattack, to ensure that the game is dragged into a penalty shootout without losing the ball.

Moreover, Ye Qiu spent two days practicing the penalty shootout. He collected the characteristics of all Liverpool players' penalty kicks, and handed over all Liverpool players' penalty kick habits to Cudicini. He even had people imitate Liverpool players' penalty kick habits to help Cudicini train until Cudicini knew them well.

For Ye Qiu, he could not directly command the game, and faced a tactical master like Benitez. All he could do was to ensure that the team could hold on to the end as smoothly as possible and strive to win the championship. Defensive counterattack is undoubtedly the safest way, and all the coaching staff had to do was to adjust the team's defensive structure.

For Ten Cate, Roland and others who have followed Ye Qiu for many years, this is not difficult!

This is also the only limit that Ye Qiu can do!

The offensive and defensive transitions of the game were very fast.

Although Ye Qiu was sitting in the chairman's stand and could not get the first-hand data from the coaching staff, he could feel it, because the ball was changing quickly almost every minute. This also shows how fierce the competition is, but it also reflects that both teams have put a lot of effort in targeting.

The game process and viewing are still there, and it can even be said to be good, because fast-paced games often make it easy for fans to be fascinated and forget the time, but in Ye Qiu's opinion, the offense of both teams did not play their own characteristics. Liverpool's offense was not strong, needless to say, but Chelsea did not play offense because of the absence of many main players and the head coach was sent off the court. Both sides did a lot of work on defense.

The first half ended 0:0, and there was still no change after the start of the second half, and the same tactics were still adopted.

If it were normal times, Ye Qiu would be worried about the constant passage of time, but in this game he wished that the game time would go faster, and it would be best to skip 120 minutes and go directly to the penalty shootout, because he felt that Chelsea would be more confident of winning in the penalty shootout than in normal games.

As the game progressed at a fast pace, the physical energy consumption of the players on both sides became more and more serious. Ye Qiu saw Parker cramping after a defense in the stands. When he looked up and looked at the time, he found that it was more than 80 minutes and the game was about to enter overtime, but the two sides did not make any substitutions.

This is because both sides are very clear that this game is obviously not a confrontation of tactics and player strength. The tactics of the head coaches of both sides have well restrained each other and offset each other, and the gap in player strength is not big. What is more important now is the contest of players' willpower.

If you make substitutions now, you have to bear the risks after the substitutions, especially for Liverpool.

After Parker's leg cramped, Ten Cate immediately replaced Parker with Essien and continued to adopt the same tactics, because both players are midfielders who run and press over a large area, so the impact after the substitution is not very big, and Essien is in good physical condition, and can guarantee the vitality of Chelsea's midfield to the maximum extent after he comes on the court.

Benitez also seemed to realize the problem. In the 86th minute, he replaced Luis Garcia with Kewell. The Spaniard also had cramps. After coming on the court, Kewell was pulled to the middle, Gerrard's position was on the right, a bit like a right winger, and Riise's position was appropriately retreated, and he also played as a winger.

Ten Cate followed Ye Qiu's pre-match arrangement. After Essien came on the court, he appropriately expanded the team's defensive range, on the one hand to prevent Liverpool's threats, and on the other hand to wait for the opponent to make mistakes.

It has to be admitted that Liverpool is indeed a team with very high tactical execution. Under Benitez's coaching, the team's tactical literacy is ridiculously high. There was not even a single threatening mistake throughout the game, which made it difficult for Chelsea's counterattack to be threatening.

Moreover, without Ye Qiu, Ten Cate and the players did not dare to invest too much manpower in the counterattack. After all, if too many manpower were invested in the counterattack, the defense would definitely be weakened. As long as the timing was not well grasped, Liverpool might seize the opportunity anytime and anywhere.

As time passed, the players on both sides gradually had physical problems, especially after the 90-minute official game ended, and the half-hour overtime began. The players' physical problems frequently occurred, and some players kept having cramps.

Liverpool took the lead in making adjustments. After entering the overtime, Benítez immediately replaced Finnan with Smicer, and let Traore, Hyypia and Carragher form a three-back formation. It was obvious that they wanted to further strengthen the team's offense. Smicer's passing and organizational skills were very good. He went up to improve his ability to pass threatening balls.

At the same time, Benítez replaced Baros, who performed poorly, with Cisse. The Czech striker was suppressed by Chelsea's defense throughout the game and performed very poorly. It was natural for him to be replaced.

Ye Qiu had anticipated a series of changes that might occur in Liverpool before the game, and asked his assistants to make adjustments and choices based on the situation, including that after Liverpool changed to playing with three defenders, the team should actively adopt a wing counterattack strategy.

Therefore, as soon as Liverpool made a move, Chelsea also began to make substitutions. Deco came off, Evra came on, Gudjohnsen was pulled back to the midfield, Rooney played in the middle, Ribery went to the right, and Evra occupied the left, making full use of Evra's abundant physical energy to attack Liverpool's defense.

After coming on the court, Evra, who was more physically fit, obviously became an important counterattack point for Chelsea. Ribery was on the right and Evra was on the left. The speed of the two players greatly threatened Liverpool's defense, making it difficult for the Red Army to devote all their energy to the offense.

In the 100th minute, Chelsea counterattacked with a long pass. Evra rushed in from the left and crossed the ball to the bottom line. Hyypiä pushed Rooney to head the ball, but failed to reach it. Ribery responded at the back point, but because the ball was disturbed by Hyypiä, it turned in the direction and made a misjudgment. In a hurry, the French scarred face made a golden hook, but it was not strong enough and was confiscated by Dudek.

Although they failed to score, Chelsea seemed to have tasted the sweetness and soon launched another attack. This time it was from the right. Sun Jihai made a cross after advancing. Rooney got the ball and dribbled past Hyypiä. He quickly kicked and shot in a hurry, but the ball was slightly higher.

Two consecutive waves of attacks created threats, and soon afterwards, Gudjohnsen also fell to the ground with cramps. Chelsea immediately made substitutions. In the 103rd minute, Joe Cole replaced Gudjohnsen to further strengthen the attack.

In the second half of extra time, Chelsea seemed to consciously strengthen the team's offensive, especially after Liverpool switched to a three-back tactic, the weakness of the wing was exposed. Evra and Ribery kept attacking back and forth on the two wing, Rooney also created a great threat in the middle, and with Joe Cole passing the ball from behind, Chelsea's offensive began to improve.

But in the stands, Ye Qiu couldn't sit still at all. He stood up from his seat and kept shaking his head. He didn't know if his players could see his movements. If they could, they should know that this was a trap.

A most deadly trap!

Playing with three defenders is to strengthen the offense, but it also exposes the weakness of the wing defense; the problem is that Chelsea uses Liverpool's weakness on the wing to create opportunities, but at the same time it also bears the risk of being counterattacked by the opponent.

There are pros and cons, and everything has two sides. Now Chelsea has obviously been consciously lured out by Liverpool.

This is the benefit of the head coach standing on the sidelines to command. If Ye Qiu is there, he will definitely stop the players' actions in the first time, but now the person standing on the sidelines to command is not him!

If they continue to play like this, the goal will be in danger!