Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 600 The Basque Lion

Of course, Granada pays no attention to these external affairs.

Pellegrini also doesn't allow players to focus too much on these things, after all, there are still thirteen rounds left in the league, and any mistakes could happen.

All Granada can do is start doing its best from now on.

After the match against Valencia, the team had a day off.

When the schedule isn't too packed, Pellegrini is quite considerate in giving the team time off.

Of course, Granada has the resources to do so, as they have no other competitions to play besides the league.

On their days off, players can either stay at home or go out to arrange activities. Most people choose to rest, and Shan Yongzhuo is no exception.

Then I slept until noon.

I went into the living room and turned on the TV.

A local Granada channel is currently airing a football special program that provides a comprehensive analysis of Granada's season and discusses their prospects for the season.

Many of the scenes were filmed during Granada's team training sessions.

Shan Yongzhuo also remembered that a group of people from a TV station did come to the club last week to film and interview. He tried to hide, but he couldn't, and was eventually pulled aside by Kross to give the interview.

However, upon reading the last paragraph, Shan Yongzhuo fell into deep thought.

"Shan Yongzhuo has scored 63 goals in La Liga this season, not only setting a new single-season goal record in La Liga, but also raising the record to a very frightening level."

"With more than ten rounds left in the league, we have every reason to believe that Shan Yongzhuo will create a truly terrifying record..."

"A new record..."

Watching the program, Shan Yongzhuo didn't feel particularly proud; on the contrary, he felt that he hadn't scored enough goals.

He scored 82 league goals last season.

And that was in the Premier League at the time.

The Premier League is generally considered to be more physical and defensively stronger than La Liga, and Shan Yongzhuo himself feels the same way. La Liga is generally a technical league, and at least most of the weaker teams in La Liga do not have a strong defensive intensity, which is not as good as the physicality of the relegation-threatened teams in the Premier League.

He felt that since he came to La Liga, he should theoretically be scoring more goals, and his current goal tally seemed a bit low.

Although the season is not over yet, Granada's performance is very good, and it won't be easy for Barcelona, ​​Atletico Madrid, and Real Madrid to catch up.

Moreover, Shan Yongzhuo is not worried about playing.

Granada is heavily reliant on him, especially on his goals. If they want to maintain their current performance, Shan Yongzhuo's future performance will be crucial.

Shan Yongzhuo himself now has a very strong desire to score goals.

My endurance has recovered to 92 points, just eight points short.

There will be World Cup matches this summer.

However, even though Shan Yongzhuo himself is confident in the Chinese team's strength, he doesn't have much confidence in them and can't guarantee how many matches they will be able to play. Therefore, the remaining 13 league matches are crucial if they want to achieve their goal of a sustained recovery to 100 this year.

"Looks like I need to get serious!"

Dan Yongzhuo silently cheered himself up. He felt that even if he didn't care about the long term, he had to look forward and at least surpass his 82 league goals from last season.

Their next league opponent is Athletic Bilbao.

Athletic Bilbao has been an absolutely remarkable team in La Liga this season. They have defeated Atletico Madrid and drawn with Barcelona. After 25 rounds of the league, Athletic Bilbao is still ranked fifth in the standings, which shows just how outstanding their performance has been this season.

The Basque Lions' success this season is inseparable from their defense.

During the 2011-2012 season, under the leadership of the madman coach Bielsa, Javi Martinez was first moved back, which not only solved Martinez's bottleneck problem, but also allowed the whole team to maintain an extremely pressing defense, almost implementing madman-like man-marking throughout the game. At the same time, the rich and three-dimensional attack also improved Athletic Bilbao's attacking power in all aspects.

Bielsa's coaching style is passionate and he advocates extreme attacking tactics. His insistence on using the 3-3-1-3 formation with its extreme wing attacks in South America has made him a recognized madman coach in the football world.

However, when he arrived at Athletic Bilbao, he did not stick to the 3-3-1-3 formation, but instead brought Athletic Bilbao a very flexible tactical system that was very suitable for them.

Despite being short-handed and unable to maintain their aggressive style of play throughout the season, ultimately finishing only tenth in La Liga, Athletic Bilbao still had some very bright moments that season.

They reached the finals of both the Copa del Rey and the Europa League, boasting a Europa League double victory over Manchester United and a La Liga draw against Barcelona.

Last season, Athletic Bilbao lost Javi Martinez, and Llorente's negotiations with the club to join a top club fell apart, leading to chaos in the Basque Lions' dressing room. Ultimately, Bielsa was sacked amid numerous conflicts with the club, and the team finished 12th in the league.

The new life this season comes from the change of coach.

Valverde, the former young coach, has returned to his former club and brought with him his defensive philosophy.

Valverde, known for his ability to build solid defenses at Valencia, has not only maintained the suffocating pressing style of the Bielsa era but has also brought back the defensive formation to the era of a four-defender system.

In terms of attacking organization, the back-and-forth passing in the backfield has been replaced by frequent attempts at penetrating forward passes. While the control rate has decreased, the team's attacking efficiency has improved significantly, and the sharp crosses that had disappeared for several years have returned to the new San Mamés Stadium.

Such an opponent is definitely not easy to deal with.

Before heading to the new San Mamés stadium, Pellegrini also arranged targeted tactical training sessions for the entire team.

Athletic Bilbao's most commonly used formation is 4-2-3-1, which has been the most popular formation in recent years. After Spalletti frequently used this formation and achieved great results, it has also been popularized in Europe.

However, Valverde's 4-2-3-1 formation is different from other teams' formations; in fact, their formation tends to be a 4-3-2-1 Christmas tree formation.

Among them, their midfield maestro Herrera is the one who needs the most attention.

Herrera is an outstanding passer, and also has excellent ball control, dribbling, and short passing penetration abilities. In addition, he is very active and has earned the nickname "workaholic".

In Valverde's formation, Herrera has more freedom in his position.

He can move forward at any time to become a midfielder or even a shadow striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation, relying on his excellent dribbling skills and short passing combinations with his teammates to attack the opponent's penalty area.

At the same time, he can also drop back to become a defensive midfielder in a 4-3-2-1 formation, helping the team attack by orchestrating attacks and penetrating forward with passes.

In Pellegrini's view, the key to this match is the battle for midfield, and the key to the midfield battle is the duel between Nainggolan and Herrera.

(End of this chapter)