Chapter 388: Su Dong’s stupid method
Rijkaard walked back to the visiting team’s coaching booth with a blank expression.
He had no idea how many times he had repeated this action throughout the game.
Unable to sit still, he walked out to the command area, but soon walked back, and soon he couldn't sit still again...
At this time, the game had entered the second half and was about to reach the 65th minute. Barcelona controlled the situation on the field but could not find an effective way to score.
The score is still one to zero, and the home team Liverpool is temporarily leading.
Rijkaard has always regretted one thing, that is, he did not listen to Su Dong's advice.
When it comes to familiarity with Benítez, Su Dong is far more familiar than anyone in the Barcelona team. He mentioned this matter to Rijkaard through the media and privately before the game, and believed that Benítez has always been very shrewd, and Barcelona still requires stability, a steady start, and no risks.
But Rijkaard didn't listen.
What he thought before the game made sense. As long as they could score an away goal, Liverpool would be finished. They would not be able to defend and would have to press forward and attack Barcelona. At this time, the tempo of the game and ball possession would be completely under Barcelona's control.
As for Su Dong's worry that Liverpool might make a fuss about Barcelona's opening attack, Rijkaard also thought it was normal, and he even welcomed Benítez's team to do so.
In terms of attack, who did Barcelona fear? But the facts proved that Su Dong was right.
Liverpool attacked decisively after the opening and were willing to invest manpower in counterattacks, scoring a goal in just four minutes.
At this time, Barcelona has not yet fully entered the game state.
After scoring the goal, Liverpool began to defend tightly and allowed Barcelona to attack.
Even in the 60th minute, Benítez shamelessly replaced Baros, who assisted Luis Garcia's goal, with Cisse, who has stronger counterattack ability.
This guy is still as despicable as before, as long as he can win!
Barcelona attacked for an hour, but Liverpool defended impregnably.
The absence of Xabi Alonso has little impact. Hamann, Biscan and Gerrard form a three-man defensive midfielder lineup, and Riise and Luis Garcia on the two wings are basically in the midfield. This means that as soon as Barcelona crosses the center line, they will immediately be subject to the opponent's tight pressure.
Time is running out, and both the players on the field and the coaches on the sidelines have a clear sense of urgency.
Rijkaard walked out of his command area significantly more frequently.
The Dutch Black Swan knew he had made a mistake, but he didn't know how to make up for it.
In other words, facing the tight defense set up by Benítez, he had no way to deal with it.
But people always need to change.
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"It's about time."
Benítez looked at the watch on his wrist. It had been sixty-five minutes.
According to his guess, Rijkaard's substitution time should be around sixty-five minutes, with a difference of five minutes.
There is no way, Rijkaard has always been like this, his on-the-spot command can really be said to be nothing new.
Just like that arrogant guy at Stamford Bridge, there is nothing new about it.
Jestin looked at Benítez and smiled bitterly in his heart helplessly.
Anyone who faces Benítez will feel miserable because this guy will calculate every step very precisely, deduce every possibility and give targeted strategies.
For example, he had planned to replace Baros in the 60th minute, because the Czech center had four stitches in his knee and could not play for long. On the contrary, Cisse would be a greater threat in counterattacks.
All that remains is to see how Barcelona plays its cards.
As the head coach, Benítez had no way to fully control everything that happened on the field. For example, he had no way of calculating that Liverpool would score a goal in the fourth minute. He had originally planned to launch an offensive at the beginning and strive for a goal, or defend and go into overtime or even a penalty shootout.
Who would have thought that Barcelona would give away a gift right at the start?
"Guess who will be replaced?" Jesterdan asked with concern.
Benítez crossed his legs, a notebook on his lap, a pen in his hand, and chewed a tasteless gum. After thinking for a while, he nodded, "Rijkaard is best at that trick."
"Iniesta?"
Benítez nodded. Iniesta has performed really well this season and has established himself in the first team. Especially the tacit understanding between him and Su Dong. He has broken the situation on the field many times after coming on as a substitute.
"He will probably replace Oleguer, Marcos will return to central defense, Xavi will move back, Iniesta and Deco will move forward, and Giuly will stay on the court. If he wants to take a bigger gamble, he might replace Giuly and push young Messi forward. In this way, their right side will be the attacking combination of Iniesta, Messi and Belletti, plus Su Dong in front."
At the end, Benítez pondered for a while, nodded and said, "There are only 30 minutes left in the two-round match. He shouldn't hold back any cards. He should use them all at once."
Sure enough, two minutes later, Barcelona replaced two players in one go.
Iniesta replaced Oleguer and Messi replaced Giuly.
"See, he is just so unoriginal." Benítez said lightly.
Judging from his tone, he was not happy that he had guessed Rijkaard's thoughts. Instead, he felt a little complaining, thinking that Rijkaard's on-the-spot adjustments were a bit weak.
If you have the guts to replace Su Dong, I think you are awesome! "Be careful, let Nunez go in and replace Luis Garcia."
Jestindan glanced at the head coach, hesitated, said nothing, nodded and shouted to the bench behind him.
This was a substitution to strengthen the defense. It was obvious that Benítez was still very wary of Su Dong.
Head coach Benítez has always liked to make sufficient preparations, so he made many plans before the game specifically on how to defend Su Dong, which can be seen from the first leg of the game.
Although Su Dong created two excellent scoring opportunities, in fact, he himself did not have any good scoring opportunities.
Hyypia and Carragher became the best performing players in the entire Liverpool team. This was not a coincidence, but because they basically froze Su Dong and prevented him from getting many good opportunities throughout the game.
The same is true tonight.
Benítez values Su Dong more than anyone else and knows Su Dong's strength better than anyone else.
Because that’s how Su Dong led Valencia to a comeback and stand on the podium of the Champions League championship.
How could Benítez not know Su Dong's strength and potential? How could he not take it seriously? Before the game, he just didn't say it.
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After Messi and Iniesta came on the pitch, Barcelona's offense became more aggressive.
Especially after entering the 70th minute, both full-backs began to press forward actively to open up the flanks, but the effect was not obvious.
Liverpool's defense was really solid, especially after Nunez replaced Luis Garcia, Benítez began to shrink the defense in the midfield and backcourt, preventing Barcelona from passing the ball easily.
This also forced Ronaldinho, Iniesta, Messi and others to retreat in order to get more ball.
In this way, the distance between them and Su Dong was widened further.
Even though Ronaldinho, Messi, Iniesta, Deco and others are good at dribbling the ball, it is basically unrealistic for them to dribble through Liverpool's two lines of defense and get the ball to Su Dong's feet.
The situation is still very deadlocked.
Barcelona really has no solution.
Su Dong was like a nail, firmly nailed to the top of the arc in front of Liverpool's penalty area. No matter which direction the attack was launched from, he would run back and forth with Liverpool's defensive players.
This is what Benítez taught him.
As long as we are human, there is a possibility of making mistakes.
No matter how solid the defense is, as long as you exert enough pressure and exhaust the defensive players' bodies and energy to the limit, they will definitely make mistakes.
The key lies in whether they make a mistake first and you catch it, or if you don’t catch it and the game is over.
Su Dong holds on to this belief and keeps running.
Hyypia, Carragher, Hamann, even Traore, Finnan, Gerrard and Biscan, all kept following him.
This method is the dumbest, but also the most effective.
It was like Yugong moving the mountain, or like what netizens in China said, if you can use the hoe well, there is no wall that cannot be dug down? Ronaldinho and other Barcelona players were too far away from Su Dong. They tried to send the ball to Su Dong through long-distance passes, but most of them were high balls. Under the double-teaming of Hyypia, Carragher and Hamann, even if Su Dong got the first point, it was difficult to pose a threat.
Benítez was always on guard against him.
…
Time quietly entered eighty minutes.
There is less and less time left for Barcelona.
Liverpool's defensive players did not dare to be careless at all. Head coach Benítez also began to walk to the sidelines and kept shouting at the players on the field, because he had begun to clearly feel that several players had consumed too much physical energy and their performance had declined.
But the terrible thing is that Su Dong still looks full of energy.
"Not only has this kid's physical fitness improved significantly, but his stamina and endurance have also improved greatly."
Benítez walked back to the home team's coaching bench but did not sit down.
He was a little worried.
Jestindan nodded. Su Dong was the first and so far the only player he had coached who had his own private coaching team. Even if other players hired private coaches, it was mostly for reasons such as injuries.
But Su Dong's personal coaching team is really very professional, which allows him to improve every year, especially physically.
"Be careful, the players are starting to have trouble running," Jestindan warned.
Benítez nodded. The defensive players had to run like this throughout the game and had to bear the pressure exerted by Su Dong. The exhaustion of their energy was also very great. Many of them, such as Finnan, began to be unable to run.
He was injured, and as his energy depleted, he began to be unable to press forward to block Ronaldinho.
The Brazilian player was very smart and saw Finnan's problem right away, but he had no intention of taking advantage of it for the time being.
He was waiting for the signal from Su Dong.
Su Dong was running with Hamann, Carragher and Hyypia, trying to consume their energy to see who would give up first.
When the game reached the 87th minute, the opportunity that Su Dong had been fighting for for a long time finally appeared!
(End of this chapter)
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