The Godfather of Football

It was another cloudless day, with a rising sun hanging in the blue sky, bringing a touch of warmth to Madrid, which was cold in early spring, and driving away the winter chill to some extent.

Juande Ramos was driving the Audi A6 that was given to him by the club as standard and was driving on the M11 road to Madrid Airport. He did not turn on the heater and even opened a window on both sides of the front seat to let the outside outside feel a little cool. Air entered the car, because he felt that his whole body was getting hot, and he even felt a little bit back to the mood he had when he was young and went out on his first date with his lover.

He is not young, and of course he cannot still be in Huaichun now. He feels that the time has come for his destiny to turn around!

There have been two turning points in his life. The first time was when he dreamed of playing in La Liga, becoming a professional player or even a Spanish international, but he died due to injury at the age of only 23. He had to retire early. In his life, he only played three La Liga games. That was the first major setback in his life.

But he was not discouraged. When he was thirty-seven, he became a professional coach and spent several years learning and accumulating. Finally in 1996, he led Rogge of the Spanish Second Division. The Ross team finished second in La Liga and successfully promoted to La Liga, but it was in the summer of this year that the super giant Barcelona extended an olive branch to him.

Leading the Roqueros team to further compete in the coveted La Liga? Or go to a super giant to coach the second team in La Liga?

This may be a difficult choice for any young head coach who is deeply involved in it, but just when he felt hesitant, Cruyff successfully persuaded him and decided to go to Barcelona. He hoped to learn More about Cruyff, more about Michels, more about Dutch Total Football.

His experience in Barcelona opened his eyes. He was surprised to find that the world of football tactics was so vast and everything he thought he had learned was insignificant. He studied hard in Barcelona and absorbed everything he needed. The knowledge, even though it only lasted a year, completely changed his coaching career.

From Rayo Vallecano to Real Betis to Espanyol to Malaga and then to Sevilla, Juande Ramos's steps went higher and higher, and even in the summer of 2008, Rijkaard announced his dismissal. , among the list of head coaches recommended by Cruyff to the Barcelona management, Juande Ramos is ranked first, even higher than Guardiola.

Because of this, Juande Ramos is called Cruyff's disciple by the outside world.

And in December 2008, he ushered in the third major turning point in his life, coaching Real Madrid.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are undoubtedly the two super giants in Spain. Both players and coaches dream of joining these two teams. After missing out on Barcelona, ​​Juande Ramos chose Real Madrid. Madrid, picking up the mess left by Schuster.

The first game was lost to Barcelona 0:2, but Juande Ramos did not need to take much responsibility for this, and soon he gave Real Madrid and all the Bernabeu fans what they wanted most, victory!

And still a complete victory!

But more importantly, his team played better and better, from the previous 1:0 narrow victory to the subsequent 3:1 and 2:0, to the previous 4:0 away win against Sporting Gijon, and finally to Just last night, Juande Ramos was cheered by all the Bernabeu fans in the 6-1 slaughter of Real Betis at the Bernabeu Stadium.

What’s even more surprising is that all six of Real Madrid’s goals came in the first half. In the second half, Juande Ramos obviously wanted to save energy for the Champions League in midweek, so he replaced three players in one go. player, and at the post-match press conference, he even loudly shouted that he would fight back against Barcelona with all his strength!

"La Liga is far from over yet. Being seven points behind Barcelona is not an insurmountable gap for us. We showed amazing strength in this game. I think we are ready to explode!" "

As for the upcoming Champions League knockout round of 16 in midweek, Juande Ramos also said in a high-profile interview, "Real Madrid has been difficult to cross the threshold of the Champions League round of 16 knockout in the past four years. This has nothing to do with our group. The poor performance has something to do with it, but what I want to say is that we will beat Tottenham Hotspur at home!”

The reason for their poor performance in the group stage is that they qualified as second in the group in three of the past four seasons, so they always encountered top teams such as Arsenal, Juventus, and Bayern Munich in the top 16 knockout rounds. team, which makes it difficult for Real Madrid, whose situation is not very ideal, to overcome the obstacle of the top 16.

But this time things are obviously different!

After nine consecutive victories and two consecutive big-score wins, Juande Ramos felt that the blood in his body had been completely activated!

"If we beat our opponents 3:0 at the Bernabeu Stadium, please don't be surprised!"

This is indeed a bit of a joke, but even after a night, Juande Ramos still wants to laugh when he thinks back to what he said to reporters last night, but he doesn't feel it at all. Nothing wrong, because he is full of confidence in the current state of his team.

Yes, Tottenham Hotspur is indeed the team with the strongest offensive ability in Europe this season, but that was in the Premier League. In La Liga and the Bernabeu Stadium, can they continue to wreak havoc? Can they continue to show off their power?

Juande Ramos knows very well that Ye Qiu is a famous coach in the world and Tottenham Hotspur is the defending champion, but as long as he kills this combination, he will win the bargaining chip to renew his contract with Real Madrid in the summer, and his coaching career will once again be transformed, and he will completely join the ranks of famous European coaches.

On the M11 road, you can see the Di Stefano Stadium in the Valdebebas training base of Real Madrid from a distance. The high-rise steel frame structure is surrounded by a large industrial area. Now it is under construction. This training base of Real Madrid was previously regarded as the best in the world, but was later surpassed by Tottenham Hotspur's Theobald.

"Such a luxurious training base should be worthy of a luxurious head coach!" Juande Ramos glanced at Valdebebas, which was like a pearl on the yellow land in the distance, and murmured to himself with a smile.

Audi entered Valdebebas and went directly to the training building of the first team. They had a dedicated parking lot, all Audis, and because they had just finished the La Liga last night, the training session this morning was suspended.

Now there are only Juande Ramos and his coaching team in the training base, such as his most important assistant Alvarez.

Today, the coaching team's task is to formulate tactics for the first round of the Champions League round of 16 against Tottenham Hotspur in the middle of the week. Because Real Madrid is the second in the group, the two-round match is home first and away later, which is not favorable, so the home court must be won, otherwise, the La Liga team will always be a little uncomfortable in the cold and rainy England.

Although Juande Ramos is known as Cruyff's disciple, he did not adopt the 433 tactics that the Dutch coach usually uses. If it is because of insufficient strength in other teams, then it is obvious that there is no problem in this regard in Real Madrid, but he still insists on the 442 tactics.

But Juande Ramos's 442 tactics will have appropriate changes, among which Raul, the double striker, will often retreat in series. Overall, it can be said to be 4231 or 4411, which will change according to the situation.

At present, Real Madrid has no personnel injuries, but because of the stupidity of the board of directors, when recruiting players, only one of the two players, Las Diarra and Huntelaar, can participate in the Champions League, so Juande Ramos chose Las Diarra because the latter is what Real Madrid currently needs in the midfield.

The first agenda of the internal meeting of the coaching staff is to discuss the gains from playing Real Betis. Alvarez believes that in the past two games, one of the important reasons why Real Madrid has won big is that the team's possession rate is guaranteed.

"When playing against Sporting Gijon and Real Betis, our ball possession rate was over 60%. When playing against Real Betis, we even reached over 65%. This is definitely a very high number, higher than Barcelona."

Juande Ramos nodded constantly, "Why?"

"The two wing lanes are alive!" Alvarez is Juande Ramos' most important assistant, especially in terms of tactics. "At first we needed to stabilize the defense, so we restricted Ramos's forward insertion and prevented him from pressing forward to attack. Therefore, our defense was stable, but our offensive ability was not strong!"

Juande Ramos nodded again, "It is mainly reflected in the pressure. In this regard, I think that Tottenham Hotspur's Ye Qiu insists on the tactic of two full-backs advancing to assist, which is very similar to Ajax, because only when the wing lanes give the opponent enough pressure, combined with the midfield and frontcourt pressing, can the high-position defense be played."

Real Madrid pressed Real Betis and scored six goals in the first half, which is to push the defense line forward and press Real Betis!

"Tottenham will definitely stick to this tactical style. We only have two choices, either to press forward and fight them, or to retreat and defend. Of course, Tottenham has another player on the wing, Arbeloa, who has excellent defensive ability. Although he also has certain offensive ability, Ye Qiu may use him to defend one side!"

Real Madrid's two sides are Heinze and Vargas on the left, Ramos and Robben on the right. The left side can be said to be both offensive and defensive, but the right side is more difficult to say. Ramos's forward attack is the main attack on the right side, and Ramos retreats. The right side basically relies on Robben to fight alone.

But it may not be the case. Just like when playing Real Betis, the right side was curbed. Heinze and Vargas on the left continued to advance to participate in the attack and directly created three goals in the frontcourt. Vargas performed very well, and Heinze's attack was also very threatening.

So, in this game, the attack on both wings was completely activated!

"We are at home in the middle of the week. Although we are facing Tottenham, we cannot retreat. As Ferguson said, to play against a team like Tottenham, you must first overwhelm them in terms of momentum!" Juande Ramos thought for a moment and said.

If Ye Qiu heard this at this time, he would definitely call Ferguson and praise him severely, because the nonsense said by this old guy is really harmful. Didn't you see that Manchester United almost retreated to defend when playing against Tottenham?

"Our ability to advance in the middle is not strong, so we need the wings. Ramos still presses forward. We need to watch the situation on the left, especially Messi. The midfielder must maintain multiple points of contact, compete with them for possession of the ball, and pass through the wings. There are many ways to advance, especially Ramos and Robben on the right!”

Real Madrid's current lineup is basically goalkeeper Casillas, the defense is Heinze, Cannavaro, Pepe and Ramos, and the midfield is Vargas, Gago, Las Diarra and Robben. , the double forwards are Huntelaar and Raul.

After Juande Ramos came to power, Sneijder and Van der Vaart gradually lost their main positions and entered the rotation stage.

In the middle of the midfield, Lass Diarra and Gago obviously did not have the ability to advance with the ball, so Juande Ramos asked Raul to frequently retreat and connect with Huntelaar in front, and then actively passed through the wings. Go ahead and kill him.

However, because Huntelaar cannot participate in the Champions League, Real Madrid's forward in this game will become Higuain.

Whether it is in the traditional Ajax 433 tactics or in Cruyff's tactics after he came to Spain to coach Barcelona, ​​wing offense has always been placed in a very important position. This is also quite obvious in Qiu. Almost all Dutch head coaches attach great importance to the wing.

The reason is very simple. Without the wing, the team's midfield and frontcourt pressure will definitely be poor, and the game will definitely become ugly because of the lack of width, and width and depth are the two core elements to consider in a set of tactics.

With the improvement in the past two games, especially the big scores in two consecutive games, Juande Ramos has become ambitious to kill Tottenham Hotspur at his home court.

To this end, he even spent a morning with the coaching staff, studying in great detail how to respond during the game, and even how the players would cooperate after attacking the opponent's 30-meter area. He considered all possibilities. Went in.

At noon, the tactical meeting ended, and the group went to Valdebebas' restaurant to have a meal.

The sports channel of Spanish Radio and Television is broadcasting the latest sports news, and there is a piece of news about Tottenham Hotspur. That is Ye Qiu leading the team to participate in the twenty-sixth round of the Premier League, with an away game of 2:0. Defeated Hull City and was interviewed by reporters at the post-match press conference.

In this game, Tottenham Hotspur also left some room, including Cavani, Eden Hazard and other players were given the starting lineup, obviously to save energy for the mid-week expedition to Madrid, but Ye Qiu said after the game At the press conference, he said with a smile that he was not worried about this midweek game.

"I know that in the eyes of many fans, the Bernabeu Stadium is a sacred temple, but in my eyes at this moment, the Bernabeu Stadium is the next fortress we have to conquer. We will not become conservative because of Real Madrid's past glory. , We will stick to Tottenham Hotspur’s offensive characteristics and attack with all our strength from the beginning.”

"Perhaps, this will be a good warm-up opportunity for us to prepare for the quarterfinals!"

As soon as he heard Ye Qiu say such words in a laughing tone on TV, Juande Ramos's face became ugly. He didn't seem to remember at all. He also said that he would go to the Bernabeu. After defeating Tottenham Hotspur 3:0 on the pitch, Ye Qiu is just fighting back.

"Although Premier League teams have a more open style of play, their defensive organization is worse and their technical and tactical content is lower. As long as we play our advantage in passing, receiving and penetrating, I believe that our forwards will be able to defeat Tottenham. Tottenham's defense is at least proven by Torres' success in the Premier League!" Alvarez comforted him.

Torres performed very well after joining Liverpool, and he himself has mentioned many times that the Premier League's defensive system is indeed relatively extensive compared to La Liga, but he is talking about the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League.

Two days later, the Tottenham team arrived at Madrid airport wearing crisp Versace suits.

Many Spanish Tottenham Hotspur fans came to the airport to greet them. In the past three years, this Premier League team has played mesmerizing offensive football and won countless awards around the world. The fans' praise and affirmation, coupled with Ye Qiu's influence, made them have fans wherever they went.

When reporters stopped Ye Qiu at the airport and asked him about his previous statement that he regarded Real Madrid's match as a warm-up, Ye Qiu smiled and shook his head, "I have never said that. I respect Real Madrid very much." Madrid, but this is a life-and-death game and I want to win, no problem with that, right?"

"We attach great importance to every game. We will play every Champions League game as a final and strive for victory with all our strength. This is my original intention. However, as reported by the media before, I feel that my original intention has been Twisted!”

After a pause, Ye Qiu smiled at the players behind him and continued to face the microphone: "As if I never believed that Mr. Juande Ramos would say that he would easily beat us 3: 0. I believe that no team in the world has such confidence and certainty!”

When Ye Qiu said this last sentence, he was full of confidence. The players behind him also cheered when they heard it, obviously cheering for the head coach. In today's world football, who dares to say that he can beat Tottenham Hotspur? 3:0?

When Ye Qiu left, the players behind him passed by the camera and microphone one after another, and they all expressed their confidence in winning the game. Many of them expressed their hope to win Real Madrid 3:0 at the Bernabeu Stadium!

The media are already accustomed to this kind of verbal battle before the game, and they also welcome such a contest, because it can help them create news and hype sales, so why not?

However, whether they can really win the game still depends on their strength on the court.

The battle between Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur not only attracted the participation of political and business celebrities in Madrid, but also attracted members of the Spanish royal family to the scene, and also attracted another person to appear at the Bernabeu Stadium!