The Godfather of Football

Although it is already the end of March, it always gets dark faster in London than elsewhere.

Ye Qiu didn't have deep knowledge of geography, and he didn't know exactly why. In short, he was used to this concept of time.

Dressed in standard Adidas casual sportswear from top to bottom, even the shoes on his feet were Adidas. Ye Qiu slowly walked around Theobald like this, from the first team to the gate and then to the youth training camp. , and finally returned to Central Lake.

It was almost dark by this time, but he was still sitting in the pavilion in the middle of the central lake.

It's a bit cold, but the surroundings are very quiet at this time. Although there are neon street lights in the training base, many scenery that looked beautiful during the day are now blurred and blended into the darkness, which can give Ye Qiu that feeling. But completely different.

I don't know since when, Ye Qiu has learned to appreciate this kind of tranquility of a person more and more.

But many times, Ye Qiu is not the only one who leaves late.

"When I saw your car, I knew you were probably here!" Mauro Tassotti appeared at the lakeside with a smile, and walked along the only passage to the pavilion in the middle of the lake. "It's so late, what's the point? Don’t plan to leave?”

"Aren't you the same?" Ye Qiu replied with a smile.

Mauro Tassotti smiled slightly, "I have something to do, but you are just wandering around."

Ye Qiu was silent. It was difficult for him to tell others why he liked walking around Theobaldry more and more. It was a very special feeling, just like a father looking at his child every day. No matter how you look at it, you won't get bored. Even every time you take a closer look, you will have a very different feeling. You will even continue to discover some details that you usually overlook.

Ye Qiu asked himself that he was not a person who liked to be sad about spring and autumn, nor was he the kind of person who was particularly emotional. But sometimes he felt that he was paying more and more attention to things that he had found difficult to attract when he was young. Something to pay attention to.

It's like if it was a few years ago, he would never be like this. After training, he wouldn't go home for dinner and just wander around the training base. He would feel that it was too idle.

"I still remember that when I first entered Ajax, I discovered something very interesting!" Ye Qiu still sat in the pavilion without moving, but said in a way that seemed to be funny, but In fact, he spent a lot of time carefully savoring the tone, "I discovered that Mr. Van Praag, the chairman of Ajax at the time, would go to the Detok Most training base after every training session. Walk everywhere and look everywhere.”

"I felt very strange at that time because it was dark and there was no one inside. Why was he walking? What was he looking at?"

Ye Qiu's words aroused Mauro Tassotti's interest. "You mean, like an old man in his sixties, you start to miss the past easily? You start to immerse yourself in your own life," he said. In the glory of memories?”

Ye Qiu smiled and shook his head, "No, I seldom think about these things when I am walking around, and I rarely even think about football. I just think that, just walking quietly like this, slowly looking at the whole person, My whole heart feels very peaceful.”

After listening to this, Mauro Tassotti seemed to understand a little bit, "What you said reminded me of a very interesting thing. Not long after the beginning of my career, I had my own set of House, that was the first time I used my own money to choose a house I like and live with the people I love.”

“During that period, I often walked around the house and looked around, because it felt like a process of becoming familiar with and understanding everything I created and owned. It’s hard to describe it in words, but I really felt that , that feeling is great!”

Ye Qiu nodded this time, "It feels a bit like that. It's like when I leave, I always think about whether there is any place that is not good enough or unsatisfactory, because everything here Everything here, every tree and plant here, even every inch of the land here, belongs to us Tottenham Hotspur, and it was created by the hard work of me and everyone.”

"Congratulations, you really own Tottenham Hotspur!" Mauro Tassotti said with a smile.

Ye Qiu was stunned and didn't realize what it meant.

"Not only do you have it legally, you also have it emotionally!" Mauro Tassotti explained.

After hearing this, Ye Qiu shook his head and smiled, "It's a strange feeling, isn't it? I have never been a very possessive person, but over the years, especially in the past two years, I have this feeling about the team. It’s getting stronger and stronger.”

"Perhaps, that's because in the past, you thought and viewed everything about the team more from the perspective of a head coach, which made you feel isolated, as if you didn't fully own Tottenham Hotspur. , you will have the illusion that you only own the competitive field, and the business field will be handed over to others.”

"However, as your retirement approaches, you increasingly look at the earth from the perspective and height of a club owner, so your feeling will naturally become stronger and stronger. I think this is a matter of Good thing.”

After a pause, Mauro Tassotti smiled and said: "You mentioned Van Praag. To be honest, in my eyes, he is one of the greatest presidents in the history of Ajax, not even a little bit. Not losing to his father, because you know that it is not the most difficult to build a country. The most difficult thing is to not only stabilize the country when the country is in turmoil, but also to bring about revival. "

"At this point, I think Van Praag did a very good job, but his life was not good. When he encountered the Bosman Act, a piece of paper completely destroyed his life's hard work and what should have been his. of honor and recognition.”

After Ye Qiu heard this, he was somewhat impressed by Mauro Tassotti.

"Don't look at me like that. As you said, a head coach's ability depends not only on football, but also on learning by analogy. So, in the past few years, I have also been reading and thinking!"

After finishing speaking, Mauro Tassotti and Ye Qiu both laughed.

"What about Berlusconi?" Ye Qiu asked with a smile.

Mauro Tassotti smiled a little reluctantly, "He is also a very good chairman, but you know, he will never love a team like you, like Van Praag, and even some At that time, I was thinking, does he really love AC Milan? Or does he love the benefits and reputation that his love for AC Milan can bring him?”

After hearing this, Ye Qiu smiled helplessly, "Emotions are always the most complicated!"

Mauro Tassotti shrugged, saying that he couldn't understand this thing either.

"By the way, what are you doing so late?" Ye Qiu asked in turn.

In fact, Ye Qiu knew without guessing that Mauro Tassotti was basically the last to leave and the first to come to Theobald every day. Now he has become more and more like a head coach. The only difference That is, he has not become a regular employee yet.

"I'm watching some videos of Bayern Munich's games this season, and I'm watching some videos of Guardiola's time in Barcelona!" Mauro Tassotti said it quite logically.

Yesterday, the draw results for the Champions League quarter-finals came out. Tottenham Hotspur, which has maintained a complete victory in the Premier League, met Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga class leader and currently maintaining a winning streak. The duel between the two giants caused a stir. Fans all over the world were amazed and thought this would be an earth-shattering showdown.

Especially when Ye Qiu, the world's most famous coach, met the talented young coach Guardiola, it was like a scene where Mars collided with the Earth.

The head coach studies the opponent's game video. This is really nothing to write home about. Head coaches all over the world do this. Even Bielsa, who is known as a madman, can watch the game video every day without doing anything else. Niites is also known as a video maniac.

It's just that although Mauro Tassotti is not the head coach yet, he has actually assumed the role of head coach.

"What's the gain?" Ye Qiu smiled and asked.

Mauro Tassotti chuckled, "Are you testing me?"

Ye Qiu was not polite and nodded directly, "At least, you have to show me your hand!"

Mauro Tassotti laughed, but stopped quickly. After thinking about it, he said: "I think this issue can be thought of in two directions. First, Guardiola. I feel that he has never been good at using players that are not in line with his tactical concepts, and it can even be said that he cannot use them at all!"

After hearing this, Ye Qiu smiled and nodded, "Tell me what you're talking about!"

"When I was in Barcelona, ​​there were some players like this in the Barcelona team at that time, such as Seydou Keita, but he could not use this player well. In the Barcelona team, Guardiola used it best. In fact, it was Xavi, Iniesta and others. Later, Fabregas went and he couldn't use them well. "

"I think this has a lot to do with his character!" Mauro Tassotti analyzed.

Ye Qiu understands this better than Mauro Tassotti, because he is more familiar with Guardiola and understands the Spaniard better.

Or it should be said that Guardiola is actually a person who likes to be sad about spring and autumn. He is very sensitive and delicate about emotions. This may be because he is a Spaniard, especially in Catalonia. people have a certain relationship.

Therefore, when presented on the football field, his style when playing or his style when coaching has an aura similar to that of an artist. However, many people have never thought that artists are often not ordinary people. Many artists are He is a pervert, so Guardiola is also quite extreme in terms of emotions.

On a tactical level, he is very conservative and eager to stifle all possible crises.

Some people say that Benitez and Mourinho treat players as robots, so why not Guardiola?

In Ye Qiu's previous life, Guardiola couldn't use Yaya Toure, but he preferred Busquets because the latter was more stable than the former. Guardiola also couldn't use Ibrahimovic because The emergence of the Swedish center makes Barcelona more likely to make mistakes.

"Bayern Munich's midfield is very interesting now. Guardiola gave up Gustavo and arranged Lahm to play as a defensive midfielder when Schweinsteiger was injured, but after Schweinsteiger returned, , after playing a few games, many people started to argue, that is, in Guardiola's system, who is more suitable as a defensive midfielder, Bastian Schweinsteiger or Lahm."

Schweinsteiger is a wing player with good footwork. He can dribble, control, dribble and pass. However, his playing style and characteristics are never the type that is very stable and minimizes mistakes. On the contrary, he is a bolder, more flexible and more adaptable player, and such players often represent mistakes.

"According to the data I have obtained, Schweinsteiger has lost the ball 1.1 times per game so far, while Lahm has only lost 0.4 times!" Mauro Tassotti seemed confident.

The so-called loss of ball possession does not refer to a passing error, but to the opponent's successful interception of the ball when controlling the ball.

Ye Qiu has always felt that football games are always a combination of contradictions. Taking risks is equivalent to mistakes, and not taking risks is often dull and mechanical. Therefore, Tottenham Hotspur players often take risks, but Ye Qiu advocates minimizing mistakes in key positions, so the position of the back midfielder becomes so important, and even Matic replaces Pirlo.

Matic also causes Tottenham to lose possession, but he rarely lets the opponent steal the ball from his feet. He often passes the ball forward and often makes mistakes, but because he has strong defensive and covering abilities, coupled with the team's overall operating mechanism, this is not a problem.

Schweinsteiger's problem is not like this. The nature of his average mistakes per game is more fatal than those of Matic and Lahm, because he prefers to dribble forward in many cases. This is closely related to his playing style over the past years. He used to be a winger.

You can imagine that a key defensive midfielder has a high chance of being intercepted while dribbling forward, because all evidence shows that the longer the ball is at his feet, the greater the possibility of being intercepted. Therefore, the current defensive midfielders basically pass the ball quickly, but Schweinsteiger likes to dribble forward.

During Heynckes' time, this was not a problem because there were defensive players like Gustavo behind him, but during Guardiola's time, this problem was very serious because Guardiola emphasized extreme ball possession tactics, so he basically would not allow such a hidden danger to exist in his team.

It was like in Ye Qiu's previous life, when Guardiola coached Barcelona, ​​he took down Yaya Toure and used Busquets.

Schweinsteiger is actually a bit like Yaya Toure in Barcelona.

In the past year, Ye Qiu has increasingly understood the tactical trend of the next few years, that is, when the ball possession school becomes more and more popular, many teams that cannot play the ball possession tactics will quickly pass through the midfield and create threats in the front court as much as possible.

This is actually a tradition in the history of tactics. The safest defense is to keep the ball as far away from our goal as possible.

Therefore, Tottenham's current situation is very clear. When encountering a team with strong ball control ability, I will adopt a high-intensity pressure tactic, quickly pass the ball through the midfield, pass the ball to the frontcourt, and then create threats through the cooperation of the frontcourt players. On the contrary, if the opponent cannot control the ball, then I will boldly take the initiative and crush you.

This is a very flexible and effective mechanism.

"What else?" Ye Qiu was very satisfied with Mauro Tassotti's analysis this time.

The reason why many rookie coaches in the Champions League make mistakes is actually because they don't understand the true core essence of the Champions League knockout stage at all, which is the confrontation between people, not the confrontation between football!

The reason why the Champions League has developed more and more rapidly is that it started with the reform of the knockout stage, and this reform itself is a kind of effect that caters to people's hearts and magnifies the confrontation between people.

As the saying goes, fighting with others is endless fun, that's the truth!

"I think that after Guardiola took over Bayern Munich, he encountered a very critical and crucial problem, that is, Bayern Munich is a Bundesliga team, not a La Liga team. To continue to adopt the ball possession tactics, Bayern Munich does not have the foundation of Barcelona, ​​and the players are not technically adequate, so it will take some time to transform."

"More importantly, in terms of pressure and pressing in the midfield, Barcelona has its own system, which Bayern Munich is not bad at. Since Hitzfeld, Bayern Munich has been good at defense and pressure, but has not yet achieved the organic combination of offense and defense that Barcelona had during its peak period."

In this regard, Barcelona is actually the best, a little better than Tottenham Hotspur, because the latter has to adapt to the Premier League, and also has to consider other factors such as height and physical fitness. At least Ye Qiu did not intend to go as extreme as Barcelona, ​​so in this regard, Barcelona did the best.

But that was tailored for Barcelona's ball possession tactics, which Bayern Munich could not have.

"When Guardiola first arrived, he came to Bayern Munich with the aura of Barcelona's success. The most reliable and safest way was to copy Barcelona's approach. I think Guardiola's training is also quite good, so Bayern Munich now seems to have made a good transition, but they don't combine ball possession and pressure well."

In fact, it's okay if they don't combine well, just like Dortmund and Atletico Madrid, who gave up ball possession and adopted pressure and pressing tactics. They were not well organized, but they had to sacrifice players and use more running and physical consumption to make up for this deficiency.

This is Guardiola's first season. It is impossible to ask him to turn Bayern Munich into the second Barcelona as soon as he comes. It is quite successful to achieve such progress and degree in the first season, to build the team into an active and positive ball possession style, and to perform so eye-catchingly.

In the Bundesliga, or when encountering some weak teams, Bayern Munich can completely crush their opponents because their strength is also quite good and their tactical system is also very strong.

But if they encounter strong opponents, it is hard to say. For example, Bayern Munich met Liverpool in the knockout round of the 16th round, and the result was very embarrassing. Although they narrowly won, Guardiola's team did not play the tactics they are good at at all.

After listening to Mauro Tassotti's analysis, Ye Qiu laughed, "Bayern Munich's current situation is the same as Tottenham Hotspur's in the next season. It is worth learning from and drawing lessons from!"

Ye Qiu will retire in the next season. Judging from the team's current performance, Tottenham Hotspur has at least won the double championship this season, which is quite successful. So Mauro Tassotti will be like Guardiola who took over Bayern Munich from Heynckes. What Guardiola is facing now, Mauro Tassotti will also face next season.

It is said that people who do not plan for the future will have immediate worries. Ye Qiu must remind Mauro Tassotti of this.

However, there are also differences. For example, many of Ye Qiu's signings this season were selected by Mauro Tassotti, which is a special treatment that Guardiola does not have.

"Mauro, you will be fully responsible for the targeted tactical arrangements and drills for the two games against Bayern Munich!"

Mauro Tassotti was stunned when he heard it.