My light shines on Arsenal

Chapter 115 The Tide of the Times
January 2012, 7, early morning.

London, Kearney base.

The European Cup in June is over, and the pre-season preparations for each team are on the agenda.

The Kearney base is finally not as deserted as it was a while ago. Players and staff from all echelons have returned to work at the base, making this modern base left by Wenger lively again.

In the corridor leading to the meeting room, several employees who just got to work were huddled together, walking and chatting, and the narrow road was crowded.

"So young? No way..."

"That's him, only 27 years old, God, he's younger than a player."

"Ever since the club announced it, everyone has been asking me if the club is crazy."

"Yeah, my relatives asked me if it was an April Fool's joke..."

"..."

Chen Yao hurriedly turned a corner, and the discussions among the staff drifted into his ears.

Wearing an Arsenal short-sleeved sweatshirt and carrying a bag of documents, he stood there for two seconds before choosing to squeeze past them.

"Excuse me, give me a break."

"Oh, I'm sorry." A staff member looked up apologetically, staring at Chen Yao for a moment, "You are..."

Chen Yao smiled at him and quickly disappeared at the end of the corridor holding the document bag.

"It's really him." Another female staff stared round, "He's younger than what he saw on TV."

"Don't worry, people in this business will age quickly."

Another employee made a joke, and the voices that had just been lowered became louder again.

……

"Coach, are you used to the attention you receive?"

Juan Lillo passed over a cup of freshly brewed coffee, and he had a cup in his hand.

Chen Yao took the coffee cup and took a sip, "I'm not very used to it, because not many people speak well of me."

The beginning of July is the day of the European Cup final. Spain defeated Italy [-]-[-] and was crowned the king of Europe.

When the whole of Europe is full of excitement because of the football feast, Arsenal quietly announced the name of the team's new coach.

While the public is still talking about Spain's dominance over the last five years, English fans have made the news a top trending topic on Twitter.

#WhoIsChen? became the top trend of the day.

Indeed, Chen Yao directed part of the game last season and produced legendary works such as the reversal of Milan, but——

Is he really capable of managing a team well in one season?

What does he have besides a year of first-team experience?

Fans have different opinions. A small number of people think it can be given a chance, but most people have begun to criticize the club. They think this is an obvious sign of lack of ambition.

"Oh, by the way, Juan." He handed over the document bag in his hand, "Are all the players here? Distribute these to them."

"Ok."

Lillo took the document bag and was about to open the door when he turned back and patted Chen Yao's arm.

"Coach, you are young, don't be too hard on yourself." He shrugged, "It's no big deal, let's work hard together."

"I'm not nervous." Chen Yao smiled, "But thank you, Juan."

"Then let's start, your first class."

Lily pushed the door open, Chen Yao took a deep breath and walked into the meeting room.

The room was quiet. There was no noise as he imagined, and there was no heckling from the players.

A blond man wearing an Arsenal T-shirt with folded arms and a precarious hairline scanned the conference room majestically.

"Dennis, you are really a good monitor." Chen Yao smiled and nodded with Bergkamp.

"Applause for our head coach! Welcome!" Bergkamp shouted.

The players applauded vigorously. These were the players that Chen Yao had coached last season, and more than half of them had a very good relationship with him. They all gave warm applause at this time.

Only then did the tranquility of the meeting room be broken, with shouts, hooting, and whistles one after another, until Bergkamp yelled at them again to be quiet, and order was restored in the meeting room.

"I'm sorry that your vacation is over, but time is like this, if you run like a wild donkey, you won't look back." Chen Yao said.

The players were stunned for a while, Arteta raised his hand and asked cautiously: "Coach, is this allegory from your home country?"

"It's just a metaphor... Forget it, I just want to say, welcome back, and hope you cherish your time." Chen Yao wiped his sweat, it seems that there are still differences in culture.

"Oh, I see." Arteta nodded half-understanding.

"What Coach Lillo distributed to you is the technical report of the European Cup that just ended." Chen Yao waved the document in his hand, "Some of you participated in this competition."

Some players nodded, including Robin van Persie, whose face was gloomy. His Dutch team failed to score a point in the group stage and boarded an early flight home.

“If you want to succeed in the era, you must first understand the era.”

Chen Yao turned to the first page of the technical report. This thin document was not an official technical report from UEFA, but a handout written by Chen Yao and members of the coaching staff after watching the game, technical statistics and joint thinking.

Compared with the official technical report, the content of this paper text is simpler and the printing is not very exquisite, but it condenses the thinking and efforts of the coaching staff.

"Who can tell me who won the championship in the end?" Chen Yao asked.

"Spain!" Someone rushed to answer.

"Very good, it seems that you are not patronizing sunbathing." Chen Yao turned to the next page, "Spain represents this European Cup and the trend of European football in the past five years."

"The first rule: control and attack." He picked up the remote control and pressed it, and the statistics of the Spanish team were displayed on the big screen in the conference room.

"The mainstream teams are learning from Spain. They pursue higher possession rate and attack more actively. It is becoming more and more difficult to win games in a passive way."

Chen Yao pressed the button, and the slideshow slid to the next page.

"Article 28.9: Three-dimensional attack." He pointed to his head. "To put it bluntly, it's headers. 1996% of the goals in this European Cup came from headers, which is the highest since [-]."

Having said that, he asked: "Who can tell me why?"

"It's very efficient. I can directly threaten the goalkeeper without worrying too much about the blockage on the ground route." Belgian defender Vermaelen said.

Vermaelen is not very high, but his jumping and header skills are unique skills. Last season, Chen Yao also used this to deal with Milan in corner kick tactics.

"I'm not good at heading, but I can probably understand why." Carvajal raised his hand to speak.

"Danny, tell me."

"Our opponents are becoming more and more defensive in the central area, so I would prefer to go from the wing to a place with a lot of space, and then cross the ball." Carvajal said, "Compared with low ball, if the penalty area With height, high passes will have a higher success rate.”

"I think so too, especially when Andre cuts inside to take away the defense, there will be more space on the wing." Gibbs followed up.

Thinking that Andre Arshavin had left the team, Gibbs' voice gradually became quieter.

Last season, his cooperation with Arshavin improved in quality in the middle and later stages of the season.

Chen Yao has developed Gibbs' midfielder attributes. His position changes a lot. He appears in the waist when he is out of the ball, and he will find opportunities to get on the side when he is pressing.

For Gibbs, this is an experience he has never had.

He had never thought before that the defensive midfielder skills he developed in the youth team could still be used.

And Chen Yao released him from the shackles of the full-back position, allowing Gibbs to expand his coverage, and gradually became a little enlightened.

After Arshavin left, Gervinho did not have such comprehensive skills, and Gibbs was a little worried about his future performance.

"Well said, Kieran. So, we will find a phenomenon: when facing the defense, the team will be more inclined to block from the outside. Part of the reason is that the counterattack efficiency of all teams is declining. In the UEFA Champions League this season, the rate of high-speed counter-attack goals has dropped to 27%."

"That's right," Arteta interjected. "When we counterattacked, the opponent's pressure on the ball and tactical fouls became more and more determined, especially in the larger Premier League."

"Yes, this is also the third feature, the cracking of compact defense. The whole world is looking for ways, and traditional methods are ineffective."

"And the formations of each team are more varied. Although 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 have become the mainstream, many teams will change formations many times in a game." Lillo He added that the use of the waist position is also his pioneering work, and Lillo is still somewhat proud of it.

He went on to say, "Formations that are out of the norm are also appearing, like Spain, they often use a 4-6-0 formation without front, but the rotation of players can still have a good effect."

(End of this chapter)