The Godfather of Football

Playing away to Roma, the home team is facing the crisis of two consecutive defeats in the league. Two of the opponents are strong teams. They lost to Mourinho's Inter Milan 3:5 away and lost 0:2 at home to Naples. This made the Roma fans very dissatisfied, so they booed their team for the entire ninety minutes of the game.

This couldn't help but remind Ye Qiu of Wenger's comments about Italian and English fans. Now that he thinks about it carefully, it is indeed true, because when they are dissatisfied with the current situation of the team, Italian fans mainly boo and complain, while English fans mainly boo and complain. Fans feel more sympathetic and accompany the team in pain.

If you look at it purely as a fan, England fans are indeed the cutest fans in the world.

It is precisely because of the two consecutive losses in the league that everyone in Rome is very cautious about this game, because this is the first round of the knockout round, and it is a home game, so if the game is not good, the result may be that the second round will not be used. They played, and what they faced was the powerful Tottenham Hotspur.

Roma deployed a defensive counterattack tactic similar to 442 in this game. They were obviously wary of Tottenham Hotspur's strong assist ability on both sides, so they retreated more compactly when defending, paying special attention to the midfield side. Totti and Vucinic formed a trident in front, but Vucinic leaned to the left, and Totti frequently retreated to participate in organizing attacks.

After selling De Rossi at a high price this season, Roma's midfielder has been unable to find a suitable replacement, so they are also very aware of the problems in their midfielder, so they attach great importance to the defensive protection of the midfielder. The three lines always remain in a very compact formation.

Tottenham Hotspur's midfielder position also has problems. After Yaya Toure left the team, Phil Jones started consecutively, but this English native rookie who was regarded as a flying general by Tottenham Hotspur fans has always been Instead of showing satisfactory and reassuring strength, he is more famous for his bravery and toughness.

After all, this game was a Champions League knockout match and an away game, so Ye Qiu was very cautious and arranged for Cesc Fabregas to be positioned relatively deep, helping Phil Jones organize the midfield and protect the defense, while watching This kid.

But doing so led to an unsatisfactory start for the team, because as Cesc Fabregas retreated, Messi's position moved more towards the center, and Alves had to move forward to maintain contact, making Vucinic He was pulled to the left wing and became Roma's most powerful weapon in counterattack. In the 13th minute, they used Vucinic's cross after a counterattack to score Cech's goal.

With one move, the whole body was affected. Yaya Toure was replaced by Phil Jones. On the surface, there seemed to be no difference. They were both midfielders, but in fact, the difference was very big.

Ye Qiu once discussed Phil Jones with a technical analysis team composed of Peter DeVisser, Bobby Harms, Rick Link and core members of the scouting and coaching staff to analyze the player's performance. Strengths and weaknesses, analyze his future prospects, and how he should take the future path.

This involves Tottenham Hotspur's core secrets, so no one knows the outcome of the talks.

Phil Jones' greatest potential lies in his strong physical fitness and his passion for the game. He has strong power confrontation ability, good feel for the ball, and he is also stylish when dribbling the ball, with speed and explosive power. They are both excellent and have strong jumping ability, but his positional sense is quite poor. Coupled with his crazy personality of running all over the field, making him play as a central defender is almost a time bomb.

So from the beginning, Tottenham Hotspur's scouts and coaching staff all felt that Phil Jones should not play as a central defender, even if he himself is more inclined to play as a central defender and become a player like Terry and Ferdinand. , but he is really not suitable as a central defender, at least for the time being.

Ye Qiu felt that there was one person who could serve as a role model for him to learn from, and that was Hierro.

The former captain of Real Madrid also started in the midfield. As his age increased, he gradually moved back, and finally moved to the central defender position. When playing central defender, Hierro was already a mature star with very rich game experience, so he played in the central defender position. The central defender adapted quickly and showed his strength.

Therefore, Ye Qiu positioned Phil Jones as a midfielder, but there were problems.

First of all, Phil Jones has a poor sense of position. Although the impact of this weakness on him from central defender to midfielder has become smaller, it is indeed a weakness, and his ability to predict the path of the ball is very poor, which makes him When it comes to defense, you always react with hindsight. It's often the kind of thing where you react as soon as it's too late, and then you pounce bravely.

This is a problem. Many people think that he is rough and that his defensive skills are poor. In fact, this underestimates him. The main reason is that his prediction of the ball path is very problematic, because if you always rely on hindsight to play, When it comes to the ball, no matter how good your technique is, you can't use it.

Among the English players, Phil Jones has a good feel for the ball, and his body has achieved a certain balance in terms of strength confrontation and dexterity. In other words, he looks brave and tough, but he is actually very flexible. Joining Tottenham After Tottenham, the technology has been severely refined for two years, and the improvement is obvious.

But with his prediction of the ball path, his reading of the game situation, his sense of position, and his management of the midfield, especially at the moment of transition between offense and defense, he could easily fall into a state of confusion.

All these factors have caused Phil Jones to always look messy in the game. He always seems to be in a mess, with no routine and no rules at all. He just messes around and rushes the ball when he sees it, no matter where it is. Either in the frontcourt or in the backcourt, so he almost kept running all over the court.

This is indeed not a good phenomenon. First of all, he is still young and will be easily injured if he continues to play like this. And if he is frequently injured at a young age or suffers a major injury, his career will be greatly compromised.

So Ye Qiu arranged for him to play as a defensive midfielder, because the defensive midfielder is the most suitable for a player like him who keeps running, and there are not many defensive midfielders of his type, such as Gattuso and Essien. Their weapons to conquer the fans are Running all over the field, but with the increase of game experience and the conscious cultivation and transformation of the coaching staff, especially the enlightenment of consciousness, they gradually transformed into conscious midfielders. Therefore, Gattuso and Essien in Chelsea in the later period. In the past few years, he has played a great role in organizing the offense and midfield.

In the past few games, Ye Qiu continued to carve out Phil Jones, but at the same time he was also exploring and searching for how to bring out the characteristics of Phil Jones while making Tottenham Hotspur's midfield work well. .

The sustainable improvement of any player must be based on one premise, that is, he can play in the game, and to play in the game, he must contribute to the team and do more good than harm to the team.

Therefore, Ye Qiu had to find a midfield operation mode that could allow Phil Jones to take advantage of his strengths while also covering up his shortcomings. Therefore, in this game, he appropriately let Cesc Fabregas retreat. , and then let Phil Jones fly and run to his heart's content.

Unexpectedly, this tactic caused an interesting situation in the first half.

Roma's original idea should be to defend and counterattack, using their rigorous defense to defend Tottenham Hotspur's offense, and then launch a threatening counterattack, especially after they scored the first goal, this tactic should be Implement it more resolutely and thoroughly.

But what's interesting is that after they scored, the tempo of the game gradually accelerated. Not only Tottenham Hotspur was accelerating, but Roma itself was also accelerating, and it was getting faster and faster. After twenty minutes, This game completely became an open game.

The reason is very simple. Phil Jones rushed into Roma's defensive position, running around and bumping into each other. It was difficult for Roma players to control the ball and slow down the rhythm effectively. They could only Get the ball out quickly.

What Tottenham Hotspur is best at is open play, especially in fast-paced situations, so when the tempo is fast, Roma's passing and receiving frequently make mistakes, and Tottenham Hotspur begins to take advantage of it frequently. Roma's mistakes launched counterattacks and attacks, scoring three goals in less than twenty minutes.

Moreover, these three goals came from Messi, Ribery and Cavani respectively, and Phil Jones himself also had an assist after stealing the ball. This should be regarded as Phil Jones's best performance in recent times. halftime.

In the second half, Tottenham Hotspur still adopted the tactics of the first half. As a result, David Silva scored another victory in the 61st minute. Roma still made a mistake in passing the ball and counterattacked after stealing the ball in the midfield. .

But soon, at the sixty-five minute mark, Phil Jones finally became tired and could no longer run. His face was as red as Guan Gong, he was panting like an ox and put on a strange expression, and walked away. On the field.

"It's only sixty-seven minutes, and there is still fifteen minutes of rest time at halftime!" Ye Qiu laughed after hearing this.

Mauro Tassotti also found it funny. Phil Jones has not learned how to properly allocate his physical energy. His current game strategy is to rush and run at the beginning, and stop when he is tired.

"Let Ramsey go up and try to play a dozen double midfielders!" Ye Qiu thought for a while and arranged.

Roland quickly arranged for players to come on as substitutes. Ramsey replaced the exhausted Phil Jones. The latter seemed a little reluctant. He looked at Ye Qiu with a look that seemed to say, rare. I'm in such good shape, why are you replacing me like this?

Seeing his appearance, Ye Qiu and Mauro Tassotti laughed and laughed. Is he in good condition?

However, tonight's game is his best performance in the past few games, so it is okay to say he is in good condition.

With the dismissal of Phil Jones, Tottenham Hotspur's midfield was adjusted again, and Roma quickly used this adjustment to sneak attack Tottenham Hotspur again. Totti's goal The score was tied at 2:4, but in the end they were defeated by Tottenham Hotspur at home.

The Red Wolves fans throughout the Stadio Olimpico in Rome booed the performance of the home team. This booing was obviously not just because they suffered such a near-nightmare defeat at their home stadium, but because of the past. The poor performance in several games has broken the hearts of the fans.

As for Tottenham Hotspur being able to bring back a 4:2 victory from the away game that almost advanced to the next round in advance, Ye Qiu expressed his satisfaction with the team's current situation, but he said that the team's defense still needs to be improved. Not a small problem.

This time the reporter didn't ask, but he took the initiative to mention Phil Jones, saying that although the youngster's performance was good, he should work harder to learn how to integrate into the team, especially in several areas where he must improve.

"Phil is undoubtedly a player full of potential. He is only 18 years old and has a bright and promising future, but he should work hard to learn to play football with his excellent positional sense instead of constantly expending his energy there. This kind of movement outside the team's tactical area makes it difficult for him to play the entire game, let alone a season."

"I think his best and most suitable position now is in the midfield, but this requires him to have a good ability to read the game, be able to find the team's rhythm during the game, and integrate into it; in addition, he must ensure that his passes are successful. The efficiency, this is what a midfielder must pay attention to, at least it must be above 85%, so he must learn how to handle every ball smarter and more rationally.”

"I know that as a young man, he likes to rush forward. He likes to participate more in the offense. I have never objected to defensive players moving forward. For example, our full-backs and central defenders often move forward, and the same goes for our defensive midfielders. But this requires attention to timing, when to go forward and when to come back, which requires players to have enough awareness.”

"When he can't guarantee whether he can return to the backcourt on time to participate in defense, I think he should carefully consider moving forward!" Ye Qiu also put forward his own opinions on Phil Jones, which can be regarded as a criticism.

Support a player when he performs poorly, and immediately pour cold water on him when he performs a little better to wake him up. But Ye Qiu also knows very well that he needs to grasp a certain standard and not destroy the player's fighting spirit and ambition.

"Although Phil Jones is still far away from the top players, yes, I am talking about the top players, but he is only 18 years old. I think he is already very good for his age, and he has recently The progress in these games has been obvious. I think as long as he understands his own problems, humbly accepts the opinions of others, and improves his weaknesses and shortcomings, he will have the opportunity to become one of the best players in the world, whether in The defensive midfielder position is still the central defender position.”

Then Ye Qiu also greatly praised the merits of Phil Jones. He even believed that Phil Jones was the main contributor to the team's victory in this game, because the English completely disrupted Rome's tactical system, and he I hope Phil Jones can continue to maintain his passion and courage for the game.

Adding carrots and sticks is undoubtedly Ye Qiu's consistent method of training young people.

Just when many English media were praising Phil Jones for his good performance in this game, Ye Qiu continued to conduct special training for Phil Jones at Theobald because he wanted to cultivate him in the shortest possible time. To become a player, I cannot say that he is excellent, but at least he must be a qualified defensive midfielder.

If we continue to use the tactics used in the away game against Roma, Ye Qiu feels that this is inappropriate because Cesc Fabregas and David Silva will have to sacrifice their own characteristics, whether it is time on the ball or organizational ability. Even their offensive ability will be affected, and they must run more in order to press the defense, which will be a huge drain on their physical fitness.

Therefore, this tactic is destined to not be suitable for Tottenham Hotspur!

Of course, Ye Qiu is also making preparations. While further sculpting Phil Jones and Pogba, he also asked Peter Dewisel and Bobby Harms to pay close attention to M'Vila of Rennes in the French Ligue 1. Leverkusen's Vidal, and Ajax's Brazilian midfielder Sandro.

The first two players are not pure midfielders, but both offensive and defensive players. Sandro is a typical midfielder. Bobby Hamms evaluates him as the successor of Gilberto Silva. Because he feels that the technical characteristics of the two Brazilians are too similar. As a Brazilian player, Sandro's skills may not be refined enough compared with Brazilian technical players, but they are above the mainstream level in Europe.

Rennes and Ajax are both partners of Tottenham Hotspur, and Leverkusen's players are typical Bundesliga players with high quality and low price, so no matter which one they are, as long as they feel suitable, the price of introduction will be Not high.

But no matter who is finally chosen, it is obvious that they can only be introduced during the summer transfer period, but before that, Tottenham Hotspur must continue to rely on Phil Jones and Pogba.

In Ye Qiu's words, if these two players are good enough, they should take advantage of these six months to play at their own level and show their progress and competitiveness. Otherwise, whether it is Mwila, Vidal or Sandro, they have all proven their strength in Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Eredivisie, and can directly suppress them as soon as they come.

After returning to England from Rome, Tottenham Hotspur ushered in the FA Cup knockout round of 16 at the weekend. Their opponent was also a team from London, Leyton Orient in East London, which is currently not ideal in the English League One. Team.

Ye Qiu rotated the main lineup, and Phil Jones' starting position was replaced by Pogba this time. Tottenham beat Leyton Orient 5:0 on the field, Raul performed a hat trick, Hazard Germany and Alba each scored one goal, while Pogba performed well in the midfield.

The talent of the French midfielder is indeed good. He is a bit like Yaya Toure. He is not the type who is willing to play as a defensive midfielder. He has a strong desire to step forward and participate in the attack. After joining Tottenham Hotspur, he has made obvious progress. , the position given to him by the coaching staff should be a position in the midfield where he can attack, retreat and defend.

After defeating Leyton Orient, Tottenham Hotspur successfully advanced to the FA Cup quarterfinals, but this time the opponent they met was Manchester United from Manchester. It was really a narrow road for enemies.

Tottenham Hotspur had previously reached the League Cup final, so after playing the FA Cup round of 16 knockouts, the 28th round of the Premier League was moved forward to midweek, and the opponent was precisely the North London rival Arsenal, which won 9:0 in the first round.

The opponent in the League Cup final at the weekend was Birmingham.

Fortunately, both games were held in London, so Tottenham Hotspur saved the trouble of running back and forth, but the opponents in the game were not easy to deal with.