Chapter 948: One small step for the saint, one big step for the world!

Many people say that Michels' total attack and defense completely changed the world of football.

However, few people can tell what has changed except professionals.

In the world of football tactics, there has always been a set of experience and theoretical systems that are unfamiliar to ordinary people. From the past to the present, it has been passed down from generation to generation and has continued to evolve. Although there are branches, the essence remains the same.

If we interpret it literally, all-out attack and defense means that everyone is involved in both offense and defense.

But if you think about it carefully, if everyone attacks at the same time, who will defend?

The same is true in reverse.

Think about it again, the football field is so small, so many people are involved in the attack, how can we solve the problem of efficiency? How can we form an effective offensive threat?

In other words, all-out attack and defense is not as simple as just deploying numbers.

It has a complete set of tactical ideas of its own.

Moreover, it does not simply require all players to engage in offense or defense, which is too superficial.

To put it simply, all-out attack and defense is to completely blur the positions on the field. Players should adapt to the enemy and take advantage of the situation, using fluid running and passing to stretch the opponent's defense, create loopholes, and then attack based on the loopholes.

That is to say, in an all-out attack and defense team, there is no distinction between forwards, midfielders and defenders. Whoever appears on the front line is a forward, and whoever appears on the back line is a defender.

There is no clear division of labor and functional arrangement among the players. The connection is completed entirely based on the situation on the field, as well as the players' own understanding and creativity on the field. The team from front to back, even including the goalkeeper, is completely integrated and indistinguishable from each other.

Isn’t it incredible?

Yes, this is what all-out attack and defense looks like in an ideal situation.

Moreover, it seemed so invincible and unbeatable.

But everyone knows that in reality, this is impossible to achieve. However, all football players are working hard, researching, exploring, and moving towards it step by step in this direction.

If you look closely at the past few years, you will find that football tactics have changed rapidly, but they remain essentially the same.

The traditional scoring center forward is gradually being eliminated, and replaced by players like Drogba and Ibrahimovic who can take on more midfield functions, and are euphemistically called comprehensive center forwards.

The traditional winger has gradually disappeared, replaced by the so-called inverted wingers, or holding wingers, or scoring wingers of the Cristiano Ronaldo type.

Even a superstar like Messi, who is almost a top striker, top winger and top midfielder in one.

Yes, Messi's greatness lies in the fact that he perfectly interprets the exploration and understanding of all-out attack and defense by countless football players over the years.

Over the past few years, the tactics of professional football have been constantly changing and exploring. After eliminating one type of player after another, it has also created a whole new type of player after another.

Some succeeded, some failed, and some are still unclear. Who knows?

But everyone is clearly moving towards the concept of all-out attack and defense.

Barcelona successfully built a denuclearized midfield system. Although Guardiola's exploration was forced to be interrupted for various reasons, Barcelona's success shocked the entire professional football world.

Immediately afterwards, Bielsa led Southampton to a strong rise.

If the Saints did not show any signs of denuclearization during the Ibrahimovic era, then last season, after selling superstars such as Ibrahimovic, Modric and James Rodriguez in one go, Bielsa's team completely played denuclearized football in the midfield and frontcourt.

Suarez, Hazard, Sanchez, Fabregas, Di Maria, Danilo, David Alaba, Southampton's entire midfield and frontcourt and the left and right flanks are completely connected into one.

Their smooth running, astonishingly frequent cross-position changes, and extremely skillful passing and receiving made everyone completely surprised. They realized that this was the trend of future football.

It can be said that Southampton has taken a big step forward based on Barcelona's achievements.

Yes, it’s a small step for the Saints, but it’s a giant leap for world football.

This is why the world of football is so shocked by the achievements of the Saints, and why almost all head coaches in the world praise the Saints so much.

However, it is difficult for Bielsa to go any further in his transformation of the Saints.

The development of football tactics has its regularity and objectivity.

Now, the key obstacle to further development of football tactics is defense.

Yes, offensive denuclearization is no longer difficult to achieve. In fact, in addition to Southampton, I am afraid that in the next few years, there will be other teams that will be able to realize this concept, including Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

However, how to integrate defense into the denuclearization system has become the biggest obstacle.

This is a difficult problem that even Bielsa cannot solve. Because of this, Bielsa decided to temporarily retire from the coaching front line and concentrate on research again, hoping to find an effective way to overcome this problem.

No one knows how long it will take and how much manpower, material resources and financial resources will be invested.

Looking at the professional football world, there are really not many people willing to invest resources in research in this area.

It is organizations like UEFA and FIFA that have this motivation for the public good.

However, Yang Huan invested, and a lot of it.

After Bielsa decided to retire, Yang Huan has always believed that Guardiola is the most ideal successor.

Why?

Because Guardiola, like Bielsa, has the same pursuit.

More importantly, apart from Bielsa, Yang Huan really can't think of any other coach in today's European football who can inherit Bielsa's ideas and continue to explore forward.

On the other hand, Guardiola is also very clear that the team in European football that best fits his philosophy is Southampton.

Today's Barcelona can no longer meet Guardiola's requirements.

After players such as Xavi and Iniesta grew old, Barcelona did not introduce suitable players, nor did they have the motivation to continue exploring Guardiola's ideas. They began to live on the laurels of the past.

Only Southampton still persisted.

Fabregas, Di Maria and Toni Kroos are still young, but there are new talents like Pogba and Kovacic, which makes Southampton more malleable.

To some extent, Southampton has already overtaken Barcelona in just two or three years, becoming the strongest team in European football and the team closest to all-out attack and defense.

There is still a year between Southampton and Guardiola.

Therefore, Yang Huan needs Ancelotti to make a good transition for the Saints in the coming year.

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After hearing what Yang Huan said, Ancelotti was really excited.

As a football coach, although his coaching philosophy is different from that of Guardiola and Bielsa, he is equally excited about their pursuits and their achievements.

He once played for AC Milan during the Three Musketeers period. At that time, Sacchi was also pursuing all-out attack and defense. He effectively combined the Dutch concept of all-out attack and defense with the Italian chain defense, creating the peak dynasty of AC Milan and the glory of the Italian national team.

Ancelotti is the witness and executor of all that Sacchi has done, so he also has his own understanding of total attack and defense.

Moreover, he was born in Italy, where defense is regarded as the soul. It can even be said that defense has been completely integrated into his blood.

So he is very excited because he believes that he can bring something of his own to Southampton along this path.

It is estimated that the Saints chose him for the same reason.

"Master Huan, I have some questions." Ancelotti said.

"Oh?" Yang Huan smiled slightly and nodded, "Excuse me."

"I am very surprised. If we look at the needs of the team, Monaco's midfielder Verratti should be more in line with the Saints' needs than Fabregas, but why did the Saints decide to introduce Fabregas last summer?"

Yang Huan nodded. “Yes, you are right. Verratti fits the needs of the team very well. But the coaching staff thought that he was not suitable to come to Southampton yet. He was not mature enough. Moreover, Monaco needed Verratti more than the Saints at that time, so…”

Although they belong to the same group, they still have to consider the interests of all parties when recruiting players.

Many teams have been trying to sign Verratti this year, especially Barcelona.

Luis Enrique even said that Verratti is not like Pirlo, but like Xavi, and asked the management to do their best to get Verratti, but Barcelona may have no hope because the player has already been booked in advance by Southampton.

The Saints intend to let Verratti continue to play in Monaco for another season and join the team next summer.

Verratti has already agreed to this, so he readily renewed his contract with Monaco.

"What about Pogba? What is the Saints' positioning of Pogba?" Ancelotti asked with concern.

Many people say that Pogba is the prince of the Saints. Although he is young, he is highly valued.

But what’s interesting is that the Saints don’t seem to have any intention of supporting Pogba to become the core player. Why is that?

After listening to this, Yang Huan laughed and said, "Pogba is a genius, there is no doubt about that, but we don't want him to be stereotyped too early, nor do we want him to be fixed in a certain position too early."

Ancelotti shook his head. “I don’t quite understand.”

"His future position is in the middle of the front court."

Ancelotti's eyes suddenly lit up, didn't he?

The Saints' idea is to further improve the overall nuclear-free system, so it is not surprising to let Pogba play in the frontcourt.

No wonder Bielsa lets Pogba try playing in different positions.

"I understand!" Ancelotti nodded.

Now that he understands the team's positioning of Pogba, he will know how to cultivate and carve this gem.

There is also Kovacic, Martial, Ravel Morrison, and other players.

After seeing Ancelotti's expression, Yang Huan smiled slightly and asked, "How about it, Carol, do you have confidence?"

"That depends on what the management requires of me." Ancelotti replied with a smile.

"You won't have any pressure on performance in the new season. The focus is on developing these players and helping us bring them out."

With the Saints' current strength, coupled with the introduction of Messi, there is almost no suspense in Southampton's continued defense of the Premier League. As for the Champions League, it is a very accidental event. As long as the results are ideal, the Saints management will not have too many objections.

Therefore, in the new season, the Saints do not have too high expectations in terms of results.

The most important thing is to further improve the team's tactical system and whether these young players can play well.

"OK!" Ancelotti agreed readily.

Stretching again, the fat Italian man looked at the Persian Gulf in the distance and said, "I can't wait to hear Master Huan outline such an exciting blueprint."

After hearing this, Yang Huan also burst into laughter.

As for Ancelotti, both he and the Saints' management are very confident.