Chapter 928: Grab the Start

When Carlos Planchot couldn't find Guardiola in his hotel room, he headed straight to the meeting room.

Sure enough, through the transparent curtain wall of the conference room, he saw the Spaniard.

Sitting behind a long white desk, in front of him is an open Apple laptop. The lit Apple logo is very conspicuous in the dim conference room. There is a charger plugged in next to it, which is a sign of long-term use.

Guardiola in front is supporting his left chin with his left hand, looking at the laptop screen intently.

Needless to say, he must have had insomnia again last night!

When Carlos Planchote turned around, he saw a man walking towards him. Wasn't it Domenech Torrent?

The guy was holding a tray with three steaming, aromatic cups of coffee on it.

"I know you can't sleep either!" Domenech Torrent said with a proud smile.

After knocking on the door, the two men walked into the conference room, disturbing Guardiola who was sitting in front of his notebook.

The Spaniard yawned loudly, rubbed his eyebrows with his hands, closed his eyes, and could faintly see oil seeping from the corners of his eyes. All of these were symptoms of staying up late.

"Couldn't sleep again last night?"

Domenech Torrent put the coffee tray on the desk, took a cup and placed it in front of Guardiola, and asked Carlos Planchote to get a cup.

He seemed to have guessed that Planchot would get up at this time and even prepared coffee in advance.

Guardiola nodded without opening his eyes and exhaled softly, "How can I sleep?"

Yes, today is the Champions League final, how many people can sleep?

"Actually, there's no need to put so much pressure on yourself. Southampton's overall strength is better than ours, so they have a better chance of winning. So, no matter what the result of this game is, we..."

Guardiola didn't let Torrent continue, but opened his eyes and said lightly, "This is our job, isn't it?"

Work, a very ordinary and common word.

Just like everything around Guardiola, it is simple, even a little too simple.

He only has a laptop with an Internet connection, through which he can watch all the game videos that Guardiola wants to watch.

Later, Lars Kunetka's technical analysis team will send another technical analysis report, which should be at least forty or fifty pages thick, filled with all the analysis and predictions for Southampton.

Then, all of them have to carefully read these reports, watch the videos, try to find out Southampton's loopholes, and then collect them and be ready to use anytime and anywhere.

It is even possible that they have exhausted countless manpower and resources to dig out something, but when it comes to the competition, it turns out to be useless.

But there is no way, even so, they still have to continue such a boring job.

Yes, that's their job.

"You know, my job is to study the game and then destroy my opponent!"

Guardiola looked at his assistant and smiled slightly. "The stronger the opponent, the more important my job is, because when we are at a disadvantage, if our tactics can no longer restrain the opponent, then we have no chance of winning."

Planchot and Torrent looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly.

This guy is a workaholic. He often says that the best way for him to relax is to work.

Then, he could stay alone in this cold office and watch game videos for several hours.

I think he can compete with Bielsa of Southampton.

"How is it? What did you gain from staying up late?" Torrent asked with a smile.

Guardiola sighed again and shook his head, "No!"

This made the two people opposite almost spit out the coffee in their mouths. They stayed up for such a long time, but got nothing?

"We haven't just started our research on Southampton yet. We have already collected all the intelligence that needs to be collected. It is difficult to find anything else."

Planchot was depressed. "Why do you stay up late to watch videos? Even if you can just watch an American TV series or a movie to relax, that would be fine."

"Watching videos is the best way for me to relax, Carlos!" Guardiola laughed.

"Besides, I just don't want to miss even the smallest details."

The two assistants looked at Guardiola speechlessly. They were used to the Spaniard's willfulness and stubbornness.

Even his childhood sweetheart couldn't change him.

In fact, the Bayern Munich team has been collecting intelligence on major European teams, and even has files for every game to facilitate the collection of intelligence when facing them.

As a team that Guardiola attaches great importance to, Southampton is naturally the focus of intelligence collection.

It can be said that up to now, Bayern Munich has done quite detailed intelligence gathering on Southampton.

All the information that should be obtained has been obtained.

It can even be said that the two teams now have basically nothing to hide, and there is no question of any surprise troops.

Let me ask you, in such an important game, who would take the risk to use any surprise weapon?

I guess your surprise attack didn't work and you got yourself killed first.

Of course, if you start preparing early, that’s a different matter.

But if you are well prepared, it will be difficult to hide it from your opponent.

"In fact, the most important thing for us now is how to restrain Southampton's attack," Planchot analyzed.

Everything else is empty talk; the real thing is how to restrain your opponent.

Torrent thought about it and said, "According to my preliminary estimate, if we want to restrain ourselves, we have to put at least five players on the back line and three more in the midfield, so we don't even need to play offense!"

Southampton’s attack is so damn sharp!

Hazard, Suarez and Sanchez are the type that are impossible to defend in one-on-one situations.

What's even more terrifying is that when these three players get together, the attacking power they unleash is extremely amazing, and they cooperate with each other so skillfully that it is impossible to defend against them at all.

In addition, there is a passer in Fabregas in the midfield, and a striker in Di Maria, plus an outstanding long passer in Toni Kroos. Southampton is really amazing!

At the end, Torrent secretly glanced at Guardiola and added, "Besides, even if we focus on defense, I'm afraid we may not be able to stop Southampton's attack."

It's a bit discouraging to say this.

Guardiola's expression was also a little uncomfortable, but he knew that Torrent was telling the truth.

In his own football creed, there has never been the word "defense". What he pursues and trains is to better control the game and firmly grasp the initiative of the game.

Therefore, in the teams coached by Guardiola, defending is not reliable at all.

"Southampton's front, middle and back lines are very closely integrated. The three players in the front court all have strong ball-handling abilities. Any one of them can link up the front and middle fields by retreating."

Planchot looked a little helpless.

"In addition to the front three, their midfield also has a strong ability to advance the ball. Di Maria, Pogba and Kovacic are all good at this. Therefore, conventional targeted defense is difficult to work against the Saints."

If you encounter an offensive combination that is difficult to limit, the usually more practical approach is to try to cut off the passing lines, but this approach is obviously useless against Southampton.

The Saints are not afraid of you suppressing their midfield at all!

"Damn it, how could Bielsa create such a freak team?" Torrent cursed indignantly.

But his curse was filled with envy, jealousy and hatred.

Who doesn’t want to have a team like this that makes opponents hate it but are helpless?

The competitiveness of a football team on the field is based on the team's overall strength, which is the key to determining how far the team can go. The coach's tactics can only determine how much strength the team can exert.

Therefore, Southampton’s current status, in the final analysis, is inseparable from the operations of Yang Huan and the management.

While Guardiola was depressed, his heart was also full of expectations.

He is looking forward to seeing what level he can achieve in Southampton, with the strength and abundant resources of a team like Bielsa, and whether he can play the perfect football in his mind.

Strictly speaking, Bayern Munich's lineup does not conform to Guardiola's ideas, otherwise he would not have arranged Lahm to play in midfield.

Although Bayern Munich is also capable of playing ball possession tactics, it is not detailed enough and the midfield lacks creativity.

Being able to control the ball but not being able to create chances is indeed a very frustrating thing.

In addition, Ribery and Robben on the left and right flanks are both getting old, and Bayern Munich has entered a stage of metabolism, and its strength has declined a lot compared to the past.

In this situation, Bayern Munich was at a disadvantage from the very beginning when facing Southampton.

"Bielsa is a tactical master, and he has a whole team of professionals helping him. In a game like this, he will not take risks and will try to avoid making mistakes. So, at least on the tactical level, if we follow the original idea, we will have no chance of winning!"

Guardiola glanced at his two right-hand men and gave a reminder.

Planchot and Torrent looked at each other and both realized what Guardiola meant.

Since conventional thinking doesn't work, we can only try our luck.

"We still play with three defenders and get a head start!"

Both assistant coaches had no objection.

Now for Bayern Munich, only by fighting can they have a chance. If they don’t fight, they will just sit and wait for death.

The key question is…

"How long will we take to grab the ball?" Planchote asked with concern. "After we grab the ball, how do we play next?"

Don't underestimate these two points. If they are not handled well, Bayern Munich will die miserably.

Guardiola also frowned. "It's hard to say for now. Ten to twenty minutes should be enough. It depends on the performance of the two sides on the field. After that, we will switch back to the four-back defense. Bernat will go back to the left to stabilize the situation."

The two assistant coaches also felt helpless.

Guardiola's idea was correct. He wanted to seize the start, disrupt Southampton's rhythm from the beginning and bring the game into his own rhythm. It would be great if he could score a goal and take the lead right from the start.

Even if it doesn't work, it would be a good idea to dampen Southampton's enthusiasm and stabilize the team.

It is true that Southampton is very strong, but Bayern Munich is not weak either.

That's because they met the Saints. If it were any other European team, Bayern Munich would not be inferior at all.

If we simply calculate based on the current strength difference between the two sides, the gap between them is probably one ball.

Therefore, as long as the Saints' rhythm is disrupted, Bayern Munich will have a chance.

Of course, the risk of attacking is also high. If the attacking tactics fail to work and the Saints seize the opportunity and counterattack, Bayern Munich will lose the game early.

But now that things have come to this, what else can we do?