Chapter 552: The Secret of the Top Team

Many fans will definitely feel puzzled and strange about a certain phenomenon.

Why are there often big scores in the games of the top five European leagues, and even in some strong dialogues?

Just like Manchester United beat Arsenal 8-2, Manchester City beat Manchester United 6-1, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0, and even in the Champions League, there were examples of Barcelona slaughtering Leverkusen and Bayern Munich defeating Barcelona.

Logically speaking, the gap in strength between strong teams should not be so huge.

How is this possible?

Who would have thought that the gap between Manchester United and Arsenal was eight to two?

Who would believe that Manchester United was beaten more miserably by Manchester City than lower-level teams?

Also, like Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid and Messi of Barcelona, ​​why can these two superstars score such an amazing number of goals so easily?

Is it really just as simple as the team building its offense around them?

The reason is that modern football tactics are increasingly inclined towards all-out attack and defense, that is, integration.

The benefits of integration are obvious, but there are also disadvantages.

There are two sayings that sum it up very well: many hands make light work, and too many mouths make too many noises.

The former talks about the benefits of integration, while the latter talks about the problems of integration.

For the same attack, if two people participate, the efficiency will definitely be higher than if three people participate.

If four or five people participate, the efficiency will be even lower.

This is true for offense and defense.

This is one of the problems with integration.

Another point is that it is difficult to turn a big ship around.

If individual combat is a small boat, then overall combat is a giant battleship.

In terms of stability and safety, giant warships definitely have the advantage, but when it comes to encountering emergencies and wanting to temporarily adjust direction and turn around, small boats are definitely more agile and have the advantage.

In other words, integration will inevitably lead to a lack of tactical flexibility and adaptability.

Therefore, the first thing that modern football tactics should emphasize is efficiency and tactical flexibility.

All teams that want to become a top team must solve these two problems.

Back to the previous question, why did Arsenal lose to Manchester United 2-8?

Because Manchester United's tactics were more precise, lethal and targeted, while Arsenal's ability to adjust and respond was too poor, so they were directly defeated.

In this situation, Manchester United is like a nimble hunter, while Arsenal is like a clumsy elephant with targets everywhere on its body, making it very vulnerable.

Similarly, when it comes to the match between Manchester United and Manchester City, the situation is reversed.

It was Manchester City that was more targeted, more precise and deadly, while Manchester United became vulnerable.

Yes, by this point, the answer is very clear.

In these high-scoring games, the outcome was basically decided the moment both teams walked onto the field.

The on-the-spot performance of the players and the on-the-spot command of the head coach can only change the score at best.

Even if your team is filled with a group of superstars who can kill the game with their personal abilities alone, it is still difficult to change the outcome.

In this case, pre-match preparation is the truly decisive factor!

In Yang Huan's understanding, the overall strength of the team is the foundation of a strong team, but how much it can play out and whether it can defeat the opponent depends on tactics.

Now and in the future, tactics will increasingly rely on big data.

By analyzing massive amounts of big data, the system can help the coaching staff optimize the team's lineup, minimize the impact of injuries and rotations on the team, and maximize competition strength.

At the same time, we rely on massive amounts of data to make pre-match predictions, conduct sandbox simulations on the opponent's possible lineups and tactics, and finally formulate a set of precise and deadly targeted tactics.

In other words, the purpose of big data analysis is to ensure that the team can exert its own strength in a stable and controllable manner, suppress the opponent's tactics, and win steadily and score points during the long season, no matter what kind of opponent it encounters.

Because of this, players like Toni Kroos and Matic, who can perform steadily over the long term and provide the team with stable data, become crucial.

Of course, big data analysis systems are not omnipotent. Whenever people are involved, there will always be variables.

But with this analysis system, Southampton will be able to handle any opponent and any complex schedule with ease.

It can be said that after nearly three years of research and development and preparation, the analysis system has finally achieved fruitful results and brought great help to the team.

Therefore, the problem that Yang Huan is thinking about at this time has to go one step further.

"Old Bei, I have always had a question!"

The two of them were still walking side by side on the cobblestone path. After listening to what Master Huan said, Bielsa just nodded slightly without saying anything, but the meaning was already very clear.

"What do you think is the way to build Southampton into a top team like Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich?" Yang Huan asked with great seriousness.

He has talked to Peter Kenyon, Ron Gourlay and Sun Yue. With Southampton's current operational capabilities, as long as they can reach the peak on the football field, they will be able to run Southampton and move one step further towards becoming a top club.

Bielsa also realized the importance of this issue for Master Huan.

Indeed, Southampton is no longer the League One team it was two years ago.

The Saints are now ranked second in the Premier League standings and even have a chance to compete for the league title. They also have one of the strongest lineups in the Premier League, so naturally, the issues they think about cannot be limited to the domestic arena.

But it should be...Champions League!

With Yang Huan's ambitious personality, he definitely wants to make a difference in the Champions League.

Then, we have to figure out how to build a top-notch football team!

After several minutes of silence, Bielsa spoke calmly.

"Many people think that the integration of football tactics started when Greece won the European Cup in 2004, but that's not the case."

"No?" Yang Huan was a little surprised.

Bielsa shook his head. “That’s the illusion of ordinary people. In the industry, many people have already started researching and discussing holistic football. Manchester United’s treble in 1999 seemed very dangerous and had a lot of luck involved, but the outstanding performance in the following years has caused many people to think deeply.”

"Also, Real Madrid's two Champions League wins in 1998 and 2000, and the subsequent decline of the Galacticos era, also made many industry professionals seriously think about integrated football. As for Real Madrid's second Champions League win in 2002, many people think it was more like a product of special circumstances."

Yang Huan also let Bielsa's words guide his thoughts and nodded lightly.

Manchester United sent Cantona away and immediately reached its peak in 1999. However, after sending Stam away and introducing superstar Veron, the Red Devils dynasty suddenly collapsed. Is this just a coincidence?

If Manchester United is a coincidence, then after Guardiola sent away superstars Ronaldinho and Deco, he ushered in the most outstanding Grand Slam dynasty in history; after Inter Milan sent away Ibrahimovic, they ushered in Mourinho's treble. Is this also a coincidence?

"Many people admire Manchester United's Class of 1992, especially the golden four midfielders."

The so-called golden four midfielders are Giggs, Scholes, Keane and Beckham, which are considered by many people in the football industry to be the most perfect midfield combination in football history.

"In theory, Bayern Munich's strongest times were undoubtedly in 1999 and 2000, when Hitzfeld's Bayern were at their peak. However, they didn't win the Champions League until 2001. In 1999, they lost to Manchester United in the final, and in 2000, they lost to Bosque's Real Madrid in the semi-finals."

"Many people feel sorry and think that Bayern Munich lost because of luck, but from a certain perspective, luck is only part of it. More importantly, Bayern Munich solved a problem that they had not solved in the previous two seasons very well in 2000."

When Yang Huan heard this, he couldn't help but look at Bielsa.

"That is to break the dense defense!"

Suddenly, Yang Huan seemed to understand something, but he couldn't grasp the key.

"It was precisely because they had solved the problem of breaking through dense defenses that Bayern Munich reached the knockout stage of the 2001 Champions League, defeated their rivals Manchester United and Real Madrid in a row, reached the Champions League final, and eventually won the championship!"

"The reason why Greece won the 2004 European Cup was because all the European teams at that time failed to find an effective way to break through the dense defense brought about by integrated football!"

"The same goes for the first two years of the century when Valencia, the Spanish team led by Argentine coach Cooper, reached the Champions League finals consecutively, relying on their intensive defense. In the 2002-2003 season, Juventus and AC Milan reached the Champions League final, also relying on intensive defense. In the 2003-2004 season, Porto and Monaco reached the finals, and the same was true."

"During those years, a very interesting situation emerged in European football as a whole."

"Those quasi-first-rate teams, or even second-rate teams, have risen strongly and swept across Europe with their excellent overall tactics and unbreakable intensive defense, but those traditional powerful teams are generally looking for an effective way to break through the intensive defense."

"From AC Milan to Barcelona's Dream Team II, to Manchester United's running and gunning trident, they are all searching. Although they have occasionally succeeded, they have never found a long-term and effective way to break through dense defenses."

"Although I was in South America during that time, European professional football has always been leading the tactical changes, so I have been thinking and paying attention to this issue, and even tried again and again, either successfully or unsuccessfully."

"Before Guardiola took over as Barcelona coach, I told him that if you want to break the overall intensive defense, you have to grasp the two major disadvantages of the overall defense, efficiency and tactical flexibility. If you want to make good use of these two loopholes, you have to be faster and more efficient than the defender!"

"If high-pressure pressing naturally solves the problem of all-out attack and defense and ensures that the team regains the ball in the shortest possible time, then the problem facing all teams is how to complete the transition from offense to defense in the shortest possible time and in the most effective way, creating a time difference and catching the defense off guard, exposing the drawbacks of overall defense!"

When Yang Huan heard this, he couldn't help but feel his eyes brighten up, and all his problems suddenly became clear.

This is the secret of a top team!

"Guardiola is a very smart and thoughtful person. Based on what I said, he combined the traditional characteristics of Barcelona and created a unique ball control system, which solved the problem of breaking dense defense. This provided an excellent example for many later comers, including Van Gaal of Bayern Munich."

"But Mourinho is equally smart. The Portuguese may not be good at innovation, but he is very good at targeting. So his Inter Milan relied on a more intensive overall defense and more efficient counterattack efficiency to defeat opponents one by one and win the treble!"

"But Mourinho's tactical style is unsustainable. Even if Inter Milan's overall strength remains at its peak and Mourinho is given another year, by 2011, the Portuguese's Inter Milan will not be successful."

"The bottom line is that all strong teams must have the ability to break through dense defenses, and the stronger this ability is, the stronger the team will be and the more competitive it will be!"

"For a team that doesn't have the ability to break through dense defenses, even if it succeeds occasionally, it will only be short-lived and unsustainable. Because today you pretended to be a weak team, so you can succeed by counterattacking, but once you succeed, it will be the turn of others to attack your counterattack."

"In this situation, without the ability to break through dense defenses, can you still handle it? Can you still succeed?"