Chapter 551 We still have a chance!
Walking out of the Nike training center, Yi Xi could hear cheers coming from the indoor football stadium next door.
An indoor football match of the Southampton team is being held there!
This is an interesting intra-team competition, and the participating teams include not only the first-team but also all the youth teams.
But don't underestimate the young players, they are still very competitive in indoor football games, not inferior to the first-team players at all, and often they can even suppress the big brothers.
Passing by the door and hearing the noise inside, Yang Huan could guess without going in that the game inside must be intense.
As an ambitious team, Southampton has also put a lot of effort into humanization. It has a variety of supporting facilities for entertainment, leisure and relaxation, striving to provide players with all-round high-level services.
"Listening to the shouts, I'm afraid Neymar is coming on the field!" Yang Huan said with a sigh.
Bielsa walked beside him and just smiled faintly and nodded.
Neymar is recognized as the king of indoor football in the Southampton team. He is extremely strong and invincible.
It is said that this kind of indoor football is also quite popular in Brazil. The footwork skills of Ronaldinho, Robinho and others were all honed on the indoor football field. Even in professional competitions, indoor football tricks are often seen.
But who could have thought that Neymar was getting further and further away from Southampton.
Just now, after a long period of simulation and calculation, the analysis team believed that Neymar's transfer would not have much impact on Southampton because Hazard was still in the team.
Just based on this result, Neymar will definitely leave as long as the transfer price is right!
However, the season is not over yet and the team still has to move forward in the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League, so it needs to be kept confidential and cannot be announced to the public, even from the players.
"Old Bei, what do you think of the current situation of the team?"
Yang Huan and Bielsa walked side by side on the green cobblestone path of the Staplewood training base, looking very comfortable.
But every word discussed may affect the future direction of the Southampton battleship.
Bielsa still appears very calm and composed, and it even seems that he doesn't have much emotion.
"After the analysis system's sandbox simulation, the winning rate of each of the remaining twelve rounds of matches is over 50%. Among them, except for the 30th round home game against Liverpool and the 31st round home game against Chelsea, every victory rate is over 65%, or even 70%!"
Currently, Southampton's analysis system is playing a key role within the team, especially after Southampton reached a data sharing agreement with other Premier League teams, the Saints obtained almost a huge amount of opponent data.
The analysis system mainly works in two aspects, one of which is itself.
With the help of detailed data, we can clearly understand all the information of every player in the team, scientifically configure the starting lineup for each game of the team, and bring out the strongest and most targeted competitiveness of the team at that time.
Another point is the opponent!
Relying on massive amounts of data, we can understand the opponent's situation, simulate all possible tactics of the opponent, analyze the advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses, and formulate the most targeted game strategy, and then deduce it on the system sandbox.
The deduced results can in turn help the head coach adjust the team's starting lineup and tactics.
The result of this is that in the era of big data, the outcome of a game may have been decided before it even starts.
Of course, there is no way to completely control the risks. We can only maximize the team's advantages, but occasionally we may suffer an upset.
Just as Bielsa said, in the sandbox simulation, in the two home games against Liverpool and Chelsea, the winning rate in the latter game against Chelsea was as high as 63%, while the winning rate in the former game against Liverpool was only 56%.
This is Southampton's home game!
reason?
The game before Chelsea was an FA Cup match at the weekend. Even if Southampton could make it to that round, they could have played with a substitute lineup and concentrated all their energy on dealing with Chelsea, so their chances of winning would have been high.
But the match against Liverpool was preceded by a Europa League match in the middle of the week, which adds variables. The specific winning rate will have to wait until before the game, when pre-match simulation and deduction are carried out, in order to obtain the most accurate data and winning rate.
As for other matches, it is natural that Southampton has the advantage due to its strong overall strength.
When it comes to lineup strength, Southampton is one of the best even in the Premier League!
This also relies on the management strategies of Yang Huan and Bielsa over the past three years.
"Do you remember what I told you at the beginning?" Yang Huan smiled and looked ahead.
The sky in Southampton is particularly blue and clear.
Although Bielsa remained silent, his eyes revealed that he was entering into his own memories.
"I have said that European football is experiencing an unprecedented change, and data will overturn everything now, so if Southampton and I want to rise, we must seize this opportunity!"
Bielsa nodded. He still remembered that when Yang Huan said this, he felt stunned.
How crazy must a person be to be considered a madman by a madman recognized by the world?
"Modern professional football is all about big capital, that is, money, but many people have money but don't use it because they don't know how to spend it, just like Abramovich and Mubarak!"
Having said that, Yang Huan smiled proudly, with indescribable passion and high spirits.
"But I understand!"
Without waiting for Bielsa to speak, Yang Huan continued speaking.
"Many people thought I was crazy. What's the point of investing so much money to develop a so-called analysis system?"
Yang Huan sneered, "Little do they know that those who think I'm stupid are even more stupid than me!"
"Why can Barcelona win the Grand Slam? The ball control system? The high-level stars?"
"Yes, these are playing an important role, but behind all of this, Guardiola's coaching team of more than 40 people is the key. Before every game, they will submit an extremely detailed data analysis to Guardiola, allowing Guardiola to clearly grasp all the information about both sides!"
"Inter Milan won the treble. Is Mourinho's coaching art great? But behind his coaching is Mourinho's trust in data analysis for many years. He is one of the head coaches in Europe who is good at using data!"
"There is also Bayern Munich. Since Klinsmann's drastic reforms, Bayern Munich has attached great importance to the analysis and application of data. This led to Bayern Munich reaching the Champions League final in 2010 and almost winning the treble."
"It's a pity that Van Gaal lost to Mourinho, who was better at using data, but last year, Bayern Munich made a comeback and finally realized the dream of winning the treble!"
"Behind all these great achievements, big data is driving them!"
Bielsa stood silently behind Yang Huan, listening to Young Master Huan's long speech, and was very impressed in his heart.
Barcelona was strong, but after the treble, Rosell cut Guardiola's coaching staff and analysis group.
Inter Milan also once reached their peak, but they died after their highs. They quickly declined after their peak, and the use of data has long been in name only!
Only Bayern Munich, a financially healthy team, has deeply felt the revolutionary changes brought about by dataization since Klinsmann, and has unswervingly promoted data-driven reforms. This summer, it will welcome Guardiola, who also attaches great importance to the use of data.
In the future, Bayern Munich will be a strong opponent!
In the Premier League, Manchester United was the first team to promote the use of data. As early as the last century, Ferguson had been promoting Manchester United's digital reform. Later, Stam was sold because Ferguson made a mistake in data analysis, which led to Manchester United having to spend a lot of money to introduce Ferdinand to make up for the shortcomings.
Even more so, why did Ferguson choose Moyes who had no experience in coaching a top club?
Do you really think it's simply because the latter is Scottish?
Don't treat Ferguson and Manchester United executives as fools!
Because Moyes is well-known for his emphasis on data analysis in the Premier League!
Bielsa has already reached a tacit understanding with Yang Huan. They have analyzed the teams that have established dynasties in the past, especially the strong teams that have swept across Europe in recent years, and they all have these two elements.
One is integration, and the other is dataization!
There is no need to say more about the overall trend, every football fan can understand it.
But the integration that Bielsa emphasizes is not just to integrate the team into a whole, but to play all-out attack and defense, so his team emphasizes high-pressure pressing.
Because high-pressure defense, to some extent, is a combination of offense and defense!
To achieve this, not only must the players' strength levels be high, their technical and tactical levels must be similar, and their overall styles must be unified and complementary.
Manchester United's treble was built on the basis of Class 92, Barcelona's Grand Slam was built on the basis of La Masia youth players, and in Inter Milan's treble lineup, the players are very close in strength, most of the players have been working together for many years, and several plug-and-play complementary players such as Sneijder have joined.
The same is true for Bayern Munich's treble last season!
On the other hand, why is it that Real Madrid, with such a strong lineup, can never achieve satisfactory and convincing results?
Because they lack wholeness!
A team like Real Madrid, which has a luxurious lineup but lacks integrity and whose style changes frequently with frequent changes of coaches, may be able to concentrate its main forces and focus on one front to achieve results, but it is difficult to achieve results on multiple fronts.
More importantly, Real Madrid does not trust data, they believe in stars!
At Southampton, Yang Huan not only understands football, but also knows how to run a team, and he firmly believes that data will completely subvert the existing game model in professional football.
So, since acquiring Southampton three years ago, Yang Huan has been committed to doing two things.
On the one hand, he made big signings, relying on the advantage of being a time traveler and waving checks in his hands to build a luxurious top-level lineup for Southampton.
With Southampton's current lineup, it is one of the best in the Premier League, not to mention in European football.
More importantly, this group of players have been working together in Southampton for two or three years, and under the leadership of Bielsa, they have been integrated into an orderly whole.
This can be seen from the outstanding performance in the past two seasons.
On the other hand, huge amounts of money are invested every year to develop analysis systems and vigorously promote the team's data-based reforms.
Over the past three years, the team has continued to benefit from data-driven reforms, and now the system has finally come to fruition.
It’s time to harvest the fruits!
"Old Bei, do you know?"
Yang Huan suddenly turned around and looked at Bielsa with excitement.
"I have a very, very strong feeling right now!"
Bielsa suddenly raised his head and looked at Yang Huan, and he actually showed a confident smile.
This stern-faced man who was always reluctant to smile actually smiled, and his smile was so confident.
“Although we are currently ten points behind Manchester United, I feel that we still have a chance!”
"Really, believe me, we still have a chance!"
After hearing this, Bielsa nodded in agreement.