The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 163
Perhaps because Ajax reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League last season, the corresponding level of a series of warm-up matches this summer has been improved by Ye Qiu. If you always compare yourself with an opponent whose strength is not as good as yours, you will never be able to improve, will you?

This year's Amsterdam Cup invites all the famous teams from the four major leagues, Barcelona in La Liga, Juventus in Serie A and Manchester United in the Premier League. The three teams are all rich and powerful. A strong team has a very high warm-up value, and Ye Qiu obviously hopes to test the team's strength by competing with such a strong team.

Not only the opponents of the Amsterdam Cup, but also the opponents of the warm-up match at the beginning of the training camp, Ajax has carried out rigorous selection. Every opponent is required to have a certain strength. , Ye Qiu chose Monaco in the Ligue [-] and Leeds United in the Premier League.

The strength of these two teams is not weak, and Ajax is playing away games, so the value of training is very high.

But sometimes the opponent's strength is too strong, and it may not be a good thing.

Ajax was overturned in the gutter by Didier Deschamps' team in Monaco. The Ligue [-] giants took advantage of their home court to allow offensive players such as Roundup and Giuly to constantly attack Ajax's defense. Ligue [-] The team is obviously adjusting better in terms of state, while Ajax is still adapting to the presence of Arteta.

Sometimes it’s like this. When you’re used to running at high speed, it’s not easy for you to slow down suddenly. This has caused Ajax’s overall rhythm to be a bit chaotic, and the organization and sorting out of the midfield is also difficult. Oops.

Mascherano is the first time to appear on the European stage. He is inexperienced and his performance is sluggish. He was replaced by Ye Qiu with De Jong during the intermission, but in the end he still couldn't stop Ajax away from home. Lost 1:2, Deschamps' team is indeed very competitive.

This game also made Ye Qiu notice another player, Patrick Evra. The latter had played in Nice for two years in Ligue [-], and was brought to Monaco by Deschamps with his outstanding performance. Judging from the game, the speed is very fast and the desire to attack is very strong.

Although he lost the first warm-up match, Ye Qiu wasn't disappointed at all.

When being interviewed by the media, Ye Qiu even said in a joking tone, "I can even accept that the team loses to the Cruyff Cup!"

In the Eredivisie Super Cup, Ajax, who has won the double crown, will welcome their rival PSV Eindhoven at the Arena Stadium. This is also the first time Ye Qiu and Guus Hiddink will face-to-face. They are even guessing that this will be a preview of the Eredivisie championship. It will be seen whether the famous World Cup coach Guus Hiddink is better, or the young marshal Ye Qiu is more powerful.

Ye Qiu himself also attaches great importance to this game. Although the Dutch Super Cup is a dispensable warm-up match, it is different if the opponent is PSV Eindhoven, and it is at the Arenal Stadium. Down somewhat hit the morale of the team.

However, there was one person whose situation was definitely worse than Ye Qiu's, and that was Leeds United's new head coach Venables.

This local famous coach who plays an important role in English football is in charge of Leeds United. It can be said that everyone is happy. The fans are happy, the club is satisfied, and England is also celebrating nationwide, but he has to endure the embarrassment of selling his core players.

The team's financial cloud has always been a haze hanging over the players of Leeds United. Although Ferdinand is still in the back line, Woodgate, Duberry, Viduka, Robbie Keane, Fowler and other players are still there. , but it is obvious that the morale of the team has plummeted, even if Venables is in charge, it will not be able to change the situation where the players are lax.

At Elland Road Stadium, Venables was beaten 3-0 by Ajax in his first game after taking charge of Leeds United. The defense led by Ferdinand and Woodgate was defeated by Ajax. The humiliation caused the fans at the scene to be filled with righteous indignation, but more people could only do nothing about it.

But it is worth noting that two of the team's three goals came after Arteta left the field in the second half. After Yaya Toure came on the field, he formed a more tacit interaction with Sneijder. The midfielder appeared to be more impactful and aggressive, while Huntelaar and Van der Meyde also seized the opportunity and scored goals.

With 1 win and 1 loss, Ajax's results in the warm-up match can only be regarded as quite satisfactory.

Regarding the team's problems, Ye Qiu has his own understanding. He feels that this is not a problem of player strength, but a problem caused by the tacit understanding of cooperation and the team's overall style change.

Arteta belongs to that kind of Spanish style with relatively delicate skills. It can be said that there is a big difference from Seydu Keita's wide-open playing style in the past. The ball passes people, but now Arteta dares to dribble the ball, and his passing skills are very good, and the speed is not bad.

With his body, his flexibility is guaranteed, and his speed can't be slowed down. Coupled with his delicate skills, Arteta's passing skills are still very good, and his ability to turn around and get rid of the ball with his back is also very good. He is almost completely different from Seydu Keita.

From a technical and tactical perspective, Arteta's joining has brought positive changes to Ajax, but it takes time to adapt and integrate into the team, and Ye Qiu is also in normal training, making targeted arrangements Arteta and Sneijder partnered.

For a team like Ajax that adopts a high-position defensive system, the opponent's defense is dense and compact, and there must be many opportunities to get the ball with their backs. This requires that the team must have a stable back-up The ball turns away from the technical player.

In the past, it was Sneijder and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in front. The opponent often strangled Sneijder to limit Ajax's ability to effectively advance the ball during intensive defense. When defending tightly, Ajax's offensive threat is greatly weakened.

Some people may be wondering, why do you have to turn around and get rid of the ball with your back?

This is an inevitable choice, because the ball is usually launched from the backcourt, and the entire advancement is from the defender to the midfielder to the forward, so that the players in the front, especially the midfielders, It must be retreating back to the opponent's player to catch the ball, otherwise, how to cooperate with the players in the backcourt?

But usually after holding the ball with your back, you can make very narrow choices of passing angles. Generally, you can only choose to pass the ball to your own half. He has the ability to turn around and get rid of the ball with his back. After catching the ball, he turns and gets rid of it. From facing the attacking direction directly with his back to facing the attacking direction directly, he is a direct threat.

If you lack the ability to turn around and get rid of the ball with your back, there is another option, which is the option that Ajax often used last season, split the side, break through the side, and successfully bring the ball closer to the receiver The horizontal line of the goal, and then knock back, so that the receiver can catch the ball head-on, facing the attacking direction directly.

Of course, this is based on the premise of ground cooperation and advancement, but if you use a long pass, you can avoid the embarrassment of holding the ball with your back to the greatest extent. Therefore, you can see that many seemingly powerful teams often play long. Passing, in fact, is because they lack the ability to turn around and get rid of the ball with their backs, and they don't have a strong wing breakthrough, so they can only choose long passes.

All defenses are based on preventing the opponent from facing the attacking direction.

Barcelona's midfield duo, Harvey and Iniesta, the reason why these two players can support Barcelona's entire midfield organization and penetration, and the reason why they can make the whole of Europe frightened, in fact, their passing and creativity are only Only a part, even an insignificant part, the real horror is their turning away.

Both midfielders have a strong ability to turn and get rid of. Even under the strict surveillance of the opponent's defense, they can still create threats anytime and anywhere.

Creativity and passing are all things after turning around and getting rid of. As long as you face the attacking direction and raise your head, you can see at a glance what is in front of you, what holes are in the opponent's defense, and how your teammates plan to attack. It is very clear that as long as a professional player with a little bit of creativity and passing skills can meet this requirement.

So many people say that Harvey and Iniesta are so creative and pass the ball. In fact, those are false. The most powerful core weapon of these two midfielders is their ability to turn and get rid of. That's why they're better than the rest of the midfielders, and why so many midfielders consistently underperform both of them at Barcelona.

Now, Ye Qiu has hired Arteta and let Arteta and Sneijder form a dual-core midfielder. In fact, he values ​​the ability of these two players to turn around and escape. He firmly believes that once the two players develop a tacit understanding, Ajax's midfield is working well, and the strength of the entire team is bound to be improved by leaps and bounds.

Because of this, Ye Qiu focused on refining Arteta and Sneijder at the beginning of the season to help the Spaniard integrate into the team.

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After two warm-up matches, Ajax returned to Amsterdam and rested for two days. The team boarded the plane to China. In China, they will play three warm-up matches in three cities. Back to Amsterdam, the itinerary lasts for two weeks.

This is the first time Ye Qiu returned to his home country as the head coach of Ajax, and what he did not expect was that he and Ajax would receive the support of countless domestic fans at the first stop in Guangzhou and sure.

The humiliating performance of the national football team in the World Cup has disappointed the domestic fans, and domestic players generally performed poorly in the European arena. Only Ye Qiu's coaching performance at Ajax is so outstanding, which has already been crowned by many media The title of European coach has naturally become the pride and hope of domestic fans.

The hotel where the team stayed in Guangzhou and the training ground where the training camp was held were all watched and welcomed by the fans. The enthusiastic domestic fans made the Ajax players a little dumbfounded, and Chairman Van Prager also explained before Yes, players should try their best to satisfy the wishes of the fans outside of training sessions and games.

With the end of the wave of the World Cup, Ajax set off a new wave of football in China.

In Guangzhou, Ajax played surprisingly strong in the first warm-up match, winning 4-0, and firmly controlled the game from the beginning to the end. Ye Qiu was even careless during the intermission He changed the starting 11 players, because he led 3-0 in the first half, so he naturally needs to hone the substitute lineup more.

After winning the first warm-up match, the team went to Shanghai, where they played another warm-up match. Ajax once again defeated their opponents 3-0 and won two consecutive victories in the warm-up match in China.

What I have to say is that the pressure exerted by domestic teams on Ajax is still very bad compared with European teams, so in China, Arteta and Sneijder performed very well. Through competitions and training, the tacit understanding of each other's cooperation has been rapidly improved.

On the contrary, Javier Mascherano, introduced by Ye Qiu, did not perform as well as De Jong in the midfielder position. This has to be said to be very surprising. Argentina must have the strength of the midfielder, but it is still not enough To adapt, Ye Qiu naturally chose to entrust the Dutchman with a heavy responsibility when De Jong performed well.

Therefore, in the two warm-up matches in China, De Jong got the starting lineup, played for a long time, and performed very well.

After finally coming to Shanghai, Ye Qiu wanted to take this opportunity to ask Chen Zhong out to meet him, but unexpectedly, Chen Zhong was on a business trip, and even Huang Jinsong was not there. When Ye Qiu went to visit Chu Yun, he heard that the group Something happened and both were busy.

After only staying in Shanghai for two days, Ajax went to BJ non-stop, and played a warm-up match at BJ’s Workers’ Stadium, and finally defeated the team that claimed to have never been defeated in Workers’ Stadium 5-0 , ended the trip to China.

In the three warm-up matches, 12 goals were scored and zero goals were conceded. Such results made the domestic media generally give a satisfactory answer to Ajax's visit. After all, Ajax played very hard in these three games. And the teams have also demonstrated the strength that a European powerhouse should possess.

After BJ's last warm-up match, Ye Qiu specially took the time to accept an interview program on CCTV Sports Channel. In this program, he talked more about his team and talked about his vision for the future. visions and ideals.

"Personally, I am quite satisfied with the strength of the current team, but it is not strong enough. I think we still have a lot of room for improvement. We can perform better and we will continue to work hard for this."

"About my own problem, I actually didn't think too much about it, because I have always had a wish, that is, in European football, to prove to everyone, whether they are Europeans or our compatriots in China, I have to prove Show them that I can do it well in the position of a professional head coach, and even, I hope one day I can be the best!"

"I also send this sentence to everyone who likes football. We will not be worse than anyone else, so, never belittle yourself, and don't give up hope. Keep improving yourself, and you will surely have a successful day!"

After Ye Qiu finished recording the show, he returned to Amsterdam from BJ the next day. He didn't know when the show would air or how effective it was, but after the show aired, Chen Jun called Ye Qiu and heard that the response was very good. good.

Back in Amsterdam, Ye Qiu specially held a tactical meeting for the first-team players, focusing on what happened in the past five warm-up matches, as well as the team's shortcomings and deficiencies. Review analysis.

In the three warm-up matches in China, because the opponents were relatively weak, Ajax dominated the situation of the game very well and controlled the scene, so the performance of the players was even better. Arteta, Stanley The three midfield combination of Ned and De Jong also initially showed their strength and established a certain tacit understanding.

The offensive combination of Maicon and van der Vaart on the right and Arjen Robben on the left have constituted Ajax's two-wing tactics in the past two seasons. This is also the strongest and most threatening routine in Ajax's offense. Attack from the two sides to tear apart the opponent's defense line, and then use the support from the center to form a direct threat.

Compared with the past two seasons, Ajax has invested fewer troops directly on the offensive end. Unlike Sedu Keita in the past who likes to directly attack, Arteta's direct offensive ability is not good, and his scoring ability is not good. Strong, more organization and delivery of shells behind the offensive players.

Because of this, Ye Qiu plans to further release the offensive ability of the two players Maicon and Lucio, especially Maicon, this player is very threatening on the wing, and his crossing ability is also very good , After van der Vaart cuts inside, he can be pressed up and used as a right winger.

With Arteta and De Jong behind him for protection, Maicon and Lucio can play more resolutely and resolutely, and it is more reassuring.

However, when defending, the height of the midfield becomes a problem.

When Gilberto Silva was there, although the Brazilian's header skills were not very good, he had a strong sense of position and excellent anticipation ability. In addition, his height and body shape were there, shocking The power is still very strong, and the control of the high ball is also very sure.

There is also Sedu Keita, the most overlooked thing about Mali's midfielder is his prediction of where the high ball will land. Carefully analyze the proportion of his headers in Ajax's back goals. It is very heavy, and the other is long-range shots. These two are already his signature weapons, and the header relies on the prediction of the landing point.

But now both Arteta and De Jong have congenital deficiencies in the high ball, which also requires adjustments in the defense of the Ajax midfielder. Ye Qiu can only choose to use Lucio to press forward to fill this gap. However, in this way, some variables are bound to be added. For example, if Lucio goes to grab the landing point, how can he help defend from behind?How to protect it?

If you also consider the so-called Twin Towers players in PSV Eindhoven, then Ye Qiu has to make some preparations in advance and work hard on defending high balls, because he can be sure that Hiddink will definitely take advantage of them. Let's make a fuss about this.

All in all, it is just one sentence, which can move the whole body.

The impact of the reorganization of the midfield, even now, is only the beginning.

(End of this chapter)