Chapter 126 Don’t Make It Complicated to Play Against Barcelona, Just Play Defensive Counterattack and High-Altitude Ball [Subscribe]
Chapter 126 Don't make it complicated to play against Barcelona, just play defensive counterattacks and high-altitude balls [Please subscribe~]
After a simple contact, Li Ang expressed his current attitude, and in the team, as he expected, there was no rumor.
This at least proves one thing, even if the old Buddha wants to make some moves, he is still restrained at present.
Li Ang can be sure that the old Buddha has not only sent people to contact him recently, but on the surface, as long as the team is not in chaos and the atmosphere in the locker room has not become tense, he doesn't care.
Again, he has expectations in his heart and is mentally prepared.
As long as this season, in this season when Real Madrid is in full swing and the desire for the championship has not subsided.
They can work together to play all the games and get all the championships they should get, then he will not bother to care about the subsequent cleanup and team building.
At present, the players and coaching staff in the team are still of one mind.
If they continue to win, the possibility of thunder in the middle is not great.
Of course, if Casillas can still reveal the locker room news to his girlfriend, then Li Ang will really have nothing to say.
By then, even the heavens will take away the luck of this Mourinho-style Real Madrid dominating the football world.
Li Ang can only pray that his luck will not be so bad again. Apart from that, he has no other vaccinations to give Casillas.
"Be yourself, I can only be myself"
Li Ang, who made up his mind in his heart, threw away this worry and focused all his attention on the first round of the Spanish Super Cup against Barcelona.
On August 23, the main players of Real Madrid who had finished their rest boarded the plane to Barcelona with the coaching staff.
A year later, the mentality of the two teams facing each other again was completely different.
For Barcelona, this is their revenge battle.
They are even more unwilling to see Real Madrid replicate Barcelona's miracle of six crowns in 2009.
Therefore, every Barcelona player is determined to show their past strength and tenacity to snipe Real Madrid from the Spanish Super Cup.
But for Real Madrid players, the six-time champion is what they must get this year.
Comparing determination? They are not afraid of Barcelona at all.
Comparing strength? Then let's have a fair fight.
At least now, they have absolute confidence in Mourinho and the Real Madrid coaching staff's combat readiness.
That night, at the magnificent Camp Nou, after the Real Madrid players finished warming up, they stepped into the stadium with their heads held high, despite the strong boos of more than 90,000 Barcelona fans.
Guardiola and Mourinho still exchanged friendly greetings before the game.
They can confront each other in the game, and even abuse each other, but their friendship outside the court is still quite deep.
The two will not regard each other as enemies in private.
But the players of the two teams did not have any "friendly" interactions before the game at this moment.
Messi looked very serious today, and so did Ronaldo.
Originally, after the two shook hands as usual, the live camera would have passed by, but as luck would have it, Li Ang turned his head and grinned at Messi, and it seemed that he said something.
Messi pretended not to hear anything and ran away, but the live camera recorded this scene faithfully.
Well, after a moment of stunned silence, the Barcelona fans at the scene once again booed loudly.
They may have thought that Li Ang had provoked Messi before the game.
But Li Ang still kept that smiling look, and he looked more sunny and energetic after cutting his hair short again recently.
Barcelona fans don't like him, but the neutral fans watching the game on TV at this moment have a better impression of Li Ang.
After the episode, the two teams stood in their respective half positions.
While the referee hadn't blown the whistle, the commentators from various countries also quickly introduced the starting players and formations of the two teams today.
The home team Barcelona still lined up their best 4-3-3 starting formation today.
The goalkeeper is Valdés.
The defense line is lined up from left to right, namely Adriano, Mascherano, Pique and Alves.
The midfield is still the iron triangle of Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets.
Pedro and Sanchez are on the left and right wings, and Messi is in the middle.
Real Madrid, as most media speculated before the game, adopted a 4-2-3-1 starting formation.
Goalkeeper Casillas.
The healthy Coentrao on the defense line occupies the starting position of left back, the right back is still Arbeloa, and Ramos and Pepe's main central defender partner remains unchanged.
The double defensive midfielders are still the same, Li Ang and Xabi Alonso.
Essien played as a central midfielder, and the left and right wingers were Ronaldo and Di Maria.
Benzema played as a center forward.
It is true that the positions are like this depending on the situation, but all the La Liga commentators from various countries who commented on Real Madrid's games last season know it.
Real Madrid's lineup can be changed to play 4-3-3 or 4-4-2. If Guardiola wants to guard against it, then at least two more tactical plans must be made.
The game started on time. Amid the passionate cheers of the home fans, Barcelona, who kicked off first, quickly launched an active offensive test against Real Madrid's midfield defense.
Before the game, Mourinho also considered playing 4-4-2 directly, letting Matuidi mark Messi, and then freeing Li Ang to let Li Ang partner with Di Maria as a central midfielder.
After all, judging from his body shape and defensive characteristics, Matuidi should also be able to play a certain role in restricting Messi, and Real Madrid can make a big move on the offensive end.
But the day before the game, Mourinho decided not to do anything.
There is no reason not to continue using the tactics that worked well against Barcelona last season.
In other words, Mourinho still dares not reduce his attention and vigilance to Messi.
If Matuidi is beaten by Messi in a one-on-one match, it will be a hassle to restore his defensive confidence.
After thinking about it, Mourinho still feels that Li Ang is the most reassuring.
Strength is one reason, and the other reason is that Li Ang's ability to withstand pressure is indeed strong enough.
Last season, he was abused by Messi so many times and did not have any psychological problems.
Before the game, when he saw Li Ang smiling at Messi again, Mourinho also subconsciously laughed and scolded him.
The confrontation between the two teams in the midfield was the same as last season.
Real Madrid tightened the defensive fence in the middle of the midfield. Anyway, Messi was put in, and Li Ang was there to watch, but Iniesta and Xavi didn't think about following in easily together.
Essien seemed to play as a central midfielder, but today he played the set of defensive midfielder in front.
He didn't want to stare at Barcelona's two midfield engines, just do enough defensive interference to delay Barcelona's midfield organization and advancement.
In addition, Di Maria and Benzema, who started the game, were also actively retreating to press, and the familiar defensive pressure instantly made the Barcelona players uncomfortable.
Guardiola is not completely without tactical backup.
Barcelona's two full-backs today should participate more frequently in the offensive tasks of advancing the ball and organizing the transfer.
Even if Xavi and Iniesta cannot play their organizational power together, sacrificing one of them to contain Real Madrid's midfield defenders and letting the other one steadily deliver the ball to Messi, the situation will be much better than last season.
As for Li Ang, Messi talked to Guardiola before the game, and Guardiola also agreed with Messi's tactical proposal.
That is, Messi will be the tactical bait, taking Li Ang away to give Sanchez more opportunities to break into the Real Madrid flank area.
Messi may indeed have fewer shooting opportunities under Li Ang's stubbornness, but it will not affect his strong breakthrough and distribution.
Li Ang really couldn't limit Messi's shooting and passing on the field.
So when Barcelona opened this set of tactics, Real Madrid was definitely suppressed for a while in the opening stage.
Fortunately, Alonso's defense was still very timely. After Sanchez received a pass from Messi and shot once in the first two minutes, he didn't get a good chance to shoot again in the following few minutes.
Pedro did receive several offensive balls on the side, but no one grabbed his cross.
Sanchez, or Messi who got rid of Li Ang's defense and rushed into the Real Madrid penalty area.
They didn't touch the ball, and Pepe and Ramos made a defensive clearance one step ahead.
Mourinho watched Barcelona's new style of play for a while, and he also had a bottom line in his heart. He secretly didn't agree with Guardiola's "three small forwards" tactics.
It's not that Mourinho thinks Messi can't play in the middle.
Messi can play in all three lines of attack, left, center and right, and the same is true for Ronaldo.
But just like Mourinho has to put a center forward in front of Ronaldo no matter how he changes the formation, Messi also needs such a partner to help him attract more defensive firepower.
And the longer he plays in the middle, the greater the probability of injury and muscle fatigue of the offensive players.
Guardiola lets Messi play in the middle, and there may not be much problem against other mid-level teams, but when he really meets the strong European teams, it will be a self-destructive move.
In other words, such a starting arrangement may be the most suitable and the most effective for Barcelona at this stage.
But Messi's threat has been forcibly reduced from 100% to below 90%. Don't underestimate this 10% threat. The gap is too big when playing against strong teams.
Real Madrid lets Benzema charge and Ronaldo harvest, while Barcelona lets Messi charge and Sanchez or Pedro harvest.
This arrangement is quite magical, and it is no wonder that Mourinho disagrees with Guardiola's tactical arrangement.
When Barcelona's attack is frustrated, once Real Madrid's counterattack machine is launched, Barcelona's backcourt can only frequently misfire, and it can't save the east and the west.
Alves and Adriano's forward pressure can greatly relieve Barcelona's midfield's pressure.
After all, the scope of transfer has been expanded, and the width of the court has been fully utilized.
But when Barcelona's end point has problems, no matter how hard the two full-backs press, they can't score, then they must face a serious defensive problem.
Originally, Guardiola wanted to stop Real Madrid's long pass counterattack by limiting Alonso's possession of the ball.
But he didn't expect that Real Madrid played a dual-core tactic on the offensive end today.
And Li Ang, who served as the deputy core of the midfield, also caught Barcelona off guard with a series of flat and fast long passes!
If it were last season, Guardiola would not be too worried, because Li Ang's long pass was just good enough to watch.
But now Li Ang has increased his long pass ability value to 83. It's not enough to define his long pass with precision, but this level is enough to be in the upper middle of La Liga!
The empty areas on both sides of Barcelona instantly became a racetrack for the two wingers of Real Madrid.
Guardiola, who made a mistake, can only anxiously call the midfielders to return to defense.
But facing the fierce attack of Real Madrid and the frequent crosses from the side, Barcelona's backcourt defense was directly broken up!
It's the same old saying, don't think too much when playing against Barcelona, just play defensive counterattacks and high-altitude balls!
Pique is strong in air defense, but he can't clone himself. He is the only one with air defense advantage in a line of defense. Real Madrid played misplaced, Ronaldo and Benzema each rushed to one side, making Mascherano and Alves dizzy.
In the 21st minute of the first half, Di Maria broke through Adriano on the right and then sent a cross.
Pique thought he saw through Real Madrid's offensive routine this time, and ran to the back point resolutely to keep an eye on Ronaldo!
But his proud mouth corners froze on his face after he saw the landing point of the football.
Benzema in the middle of the penalty area was about to laugh in his heart, and Mascherano was about to scold Pique in his heart!
Leaving such a big center forward to deal with the header, is Pique a human being? !
Xiao Ma Ge's tragic jump could not save the collapse of the defense.
Guo Feng found absolute confidence to overpower his opponent at this moment, and a powerful close-range header smashed the goal guarded by Valdes.
It also broke the psychological defense of countless Barcelona fans once again!
There is another chapter of big guys