Chapter 79 Personal Breakthrough

Why has Lazio been invincible in the past decade?

Because Lazio's offense is invincible.

Their offense combines the ball-control-oriented -taka with the defense-counterattack that pursues speed and efficiency.

So it is difficult to say what kind of football Lazio plays. In short, it is definitely completely different from the -taka that Barcelona insists on.

Their powerful offense is the best in Europe. Under their iron hoof, no team can last for 90 minutes without losing the ball.

Relying on the powerful offense, Lazio won one championship after another.

That was the heyday of Lazio, and it could even win without fighting - before the game started, Lazio's opponents had already surrendered and sent out the worst lineup to avoid wasting the physical strength and energy of their main players in meaningless failures.

But later, with the replacement of generations of players, Lazio's strength began to inevitably decline. Their tactical play has also become more varied. The bad days when Lazio only needed a set of offensive tactics to dominate Europe are gone forever.

Now, it is really unexpected that in the game against Manchester United, everyone vaguely saw the figure of the old Lazio.

In ten minutes, Lazio had three shots, an average of one every three minutes.

Except for the first shot that flew away, the other two shots were within the range of Manchester United's goal frame, forcing Manchester United's main goalkeeper David De Gea to make two very wonderful saves.

"In the first ten minutes, Lazio had the upper hand in terms of the number of shots, the number of passes, and the ball possession rate! I think this is very telling - Lazio is using this performance to tell Manchester United that they are in very good shape today, Manchester United should be careful!"

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Mourinho was prepared for Lazio to choose such a tactic. So the tactic he arranged for this game was defensive counterattack, and he made some adjustments to the starting lineup.

Many players who were still in the starting lineup in the last round of the game were on the bench.

And sent out a lineup that focused on defense.

Emphasize the formation maintenance in defense, emphasize the pressure of regional defense, and at the same time, the front court is full of fast players with strong individual combat capabilities,

which is convenient for Manchester United to counterattack.

Facing Lazio's attack, Mourinho was not too panicked. This was within his expectations. There was no problem with the tactics. It all depended on the players' performance.

Whether they lost the ball and when they lost the ball was related to the pressure Lazio continued to put on Manchester United.

He also wanted to see how much strength Lazio, which was once the best in the world, had left!

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One team had to attack desperately. The other team played defensive counterattacks.

Most of the time, Lazio pressed Manchester United to attack, and then Manchester United suddenly counterattacked.

Lazio's attack was threatening, and Manchester United's defensive counterattack was not weak.

At the end of the first half, the two sides actually tied - 0:0! No one scored.

But in fact, Manchester United had the upper hand.

Because the draw was good for Manchester United.

If Lazio wanted to score two goals, they would only have 45 minutes left.

So during the halftime break, the faces of Manchester United players and Lazio players were completely different.

Manchester United players seemed very relaxed, while Lazio players were a little nervous.

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During the halftime break. Changsheng asked the players to relax and not to care too much about the score.

Then he asked the players to change the rhythm and method of attack after work.

Lazio's attack on the other side mainly relied on the two flanks, trying to open up the situation from the two flanks.

However, Mourinho's defense on his two flanks was very tight.

It can be seen that Mourinho has put a lot of effort.

Manchester United's defense on the flanks is so tight, so Lazio has to avoid it.

The route given by Changsheng is the middle.

Not relying on passing, but relying on the players' personal breakthroughs.

For this reason, Changsheng gave Ji Ming and Gotze full freedom.

Center forward Cavani needs to be at the forefront. Keep the pressure on Manchester United's defense line, so that the central defender dare not press out easily. At the same time, Verratti retreated to organize the attack, tearing apart Manchester United's midfield and backcourt defense, leaving a gap between the central defender line and the back line.

It is convenient for Ji Ming and Gotze to attack.

If Manchester United is not fooled, Cavani and Messi's forward pressure will have another function, which is to compress Manchester United's defense line and compress their two defense lines into one defense line. This will also facilitate Ji Ming and Gotze's assault.

When the opponent has no strategic depth in defense, it is easy to break through.

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After the start of the second half, Gotze and Ji Ming increased their chances of getting the ball, especially Ji Ming, who is a central midfielder on the field.

So relatively speaking, his position is relatively backward, so he doesn't have to play back-to-back singles with the opponent's defenders on the front line.

For players like Ji Ming, this is more advantageous.

He can start from the midfield, turn around calmly, and then break through with the ball.

Gotze is more forward than Ji Ming. Of course, he was born as a winger, so it is common for him to break through in front.

The two people, one in front and one behind, formed the Lazio charge.

And they are not just as simple as one person dribbling through.

The two will connect in the game.

For example, when Ji Ming dribbled the ball to the front of Manchester United's defense, he could choose to continue dribbling the ball, or he could choose to cooperate with Gotze to continue breaking through, or he could directly pass the ball to Gotze and let Gotze break through.

This is just one way. The two of them can also cooperate with any Lazio player who appears near them.

Make Lazio's offense richer and more three-dimensional.

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When Lazio started to play like this in the second half, Manchester United immediately felt huge pressure.

Because Gotze and Ji Ming are both players with strong forward attack ability.

Let's not talk about Gotze. At the age of 29, he is at the peak of his career. His body, consciousness, skills and experience are all the best. He is one of the three best players in football today.

Ji Ming was not a breakthrough player before. But when Changsheng hoped that he would work harder in this regard, he changed his training direction.

After a season of hard work, he has improved a lot in his ability to attack forward.

This season, he has dribbled the ball many times, breaking the balance by himself, assisting teammates to score goals or scoring himself.

When these two people join forces, the power is not as simple as one plus one equals two.

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Ji Ming suddenly started in the midfield, shook off the Manchester United defenders who were caught off guard, and then accelerated to the penalty area.

Manchester United players hurriedly came to double-team him from two different directions.

Ji Ming, after he made a fake move to pass the ball to Messi. His body suddenly twisted in the opposite direction, and he took the ball with his feet and passed by the first Manchester United player.

Immediately afterwards, his left foot hooked the ball back and buckled it to the right.

Waiting on the right was his right foot, which was horizontal. It blocked the ball, so the ball changed the direction of rolling, neither going to the left nor the right, but going directly to the middle!

Ji Ming's body did not have a large shift in the center of gravity, but remained roughly in a straight line, relying only on the twisting and turning of his hips and upper body. He got out from a very small gap!

If he followed the practice of ordinary players, he might have hit two Manchester United players one after another, and then completely lost his balance, not to mention dribbling through.

And now. He didn't touch anyone, and his center of gravity shifted minimally, so he didn't have to take detours and could go as straight as possible. Catch up with the ball at the fastest speed to save time. After controlling the ball as soon as possible, it will be even more difficult for the opponent to stop him.

This is the characteristic of Ji Ming's breakthrough. In a very narrow space, he can get rid of the opponent with the smallest movement. Although his movement looks strange, it seems to violate the movement of normal people.

Originally, the gap between the two Manchester United players was very small. One in front and one behind, they rushed up very compactly. This kind of defense is very clever. It can be seen that Mourinho really worked hard on defense.

Unexpectedly, such a hard defense would allow Ji Ming to break through alone!

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"Ji——! Beautiful breakthrough! Beautiful!"

The cheers of Lazio fans rose in the stands. In their cheers, Ji Ming continued to move forward with the ball!

Manchester United's forward line let Ji Ming break through, and they did not rush up immediately.

Instead, they chose to retreat-only one player went forward, and the others quickly retreated.

This is the right thing to do.

If they rushed forward one by one, they would only be passed by Ji Ming who had already entered the rhythm. It was just like a small monster that was specially sent to Ji Ming to give him experience, so that Ji Ming could defeat them one by one and finally break through the entire Manchester United defense line.

Now they only had one person on the field, and this person was not there to steal the ball, but was responsible for holding Ji Ming back, not letting him speed up, not letting him run wild in front of Manchester United's penalty area, and not giving him the opportunity to shoot directly from a distance.

In this way, when Manchester United organized a defense line near the penalty area, he could cooperate with the entire defense line to reduce Ji Ming's speed, and finally force Ji Ming to stop completely, pass the ball back, or kick hastily.

This is a very reasonable defensive tactic.

However, Ji Ming only took one second to collapse Manchester United's carefully arranged defensive tactics.

Facing the Manchester United player who came up, Ji Ming made a gesture to break through to the right.

The fake moves during high-speed running will be very realistic, even just a tilt of the shoulder can deceive the defensive players. Because the speed is fast, the moves will be very fast, and if you are not careful, the offensive players will break through. There is no time to slowly polish the defense. You must make a choice in a split second, whether it is right or wrong, you have to do it.

Why did the world-class central defender Ayala, like a wooden stake in front of Owen's fast breakthrough, easily dodged by Owen's ordinary fake move?

It is because of this reason.

Ji Ming's method of dealing with Manchester United's defenders is the same as Owen's method of dealing with Ayala.

After he used a fake move to trick the stacking center of gravity, he gently flicked the football with the outside of his left foot, and then accelerated and changed direction!

He broke through the Manchester United defender who was responsible for holding him back like the wind!