"If you hated me before, then please hate me now. If you hate me now, then please hate me in the future … "
The middle-aged man who was eating breakfast with the newspaper could not help but laugh. As Tony Twain's next opponent, he was not as hostile to Twain as Puel was, nor did he look down on Twain like Lagerbäck. That was because he more or less understood the hottest manager in Europe. Speaking of which, the two of them had a history of working together.
In the summer of 2004, Nottingham Forest had just returned to the English Premier League. They needed many experienced veterans to lead the group of young players in the team. Just like that, he joined the newly promoted English Premier League team from Qatar. Although he only played for the Forest team for a season and did not win any glory, the experience was still fresh in his memory. He could not help it. Who asked the people who worked with him to be so unique?
"What are you laughing at, Fernando?" His assistant, Lewis Milla, came up and glanced at the newspaper. He happened to see Tony Twain's photo in the newspaper and he understood. "Him … I'm not surprised that England can beat France, but I'm surprised that he can win so easily and win by four goals …"
Fernando Hierro put the newspaper aside and said, "I did think of this possibility … But the Tony Twain now is basically a different person from the Tony Twain 12 years ago. My experience won't be of any use. But … "Hierro stared at the newspaper and said," That sentence is very like his style, ha! "
After commenting on Twain, Hierro turned to his assistant, Milla, and asked, "Did you watch the match between England and France?"
"Of course, I watched the live broadcast once and watched the video after the match twice."
"Did you find anything?"
"I think France lost because they underestimated their opponent. If they had prepared seriously, it's hard to say whether England could have won or not. There's nothing new about England's tactics. Twain's strength lies in his on-the-spot command and sudden changes … "Milla spoke with assurance and told Hierro everything he thought. "… And more importantly, before this, whether it was against France, Sweden, or Germany, Tang En was always used to playing tricks before the match, hiding his true strength and all his trump cards from his opponents. But after the match against France, his full strength was exposed in front of us. He also played his trump card, George Wood. I feel that for us, Tony Twain and his England team no longer have any secrets to speak of. The match against us is purely a contest of strength. I personally think that in terms of strength, we are stronger than England … "
Hierro nodded thoughtfully when he heard Milan's words.
※ ※ ※
"All of us must now understand a fact." Tang En raised his index finger. In front of him were all the members of the coaching staff.
After breakfast, Tang En gathered all the members of the coaching unit to his room for a meeting. The coaches knew that the team had started to enter the "Spanish strategy". Three days later, they will challenge the hosts, Spain, at the Nou Mestalla.
"Whether it's the match against Portugal, Germany, Sweden, France, or even the match against Wales, we have some mysterious things that no one knows about. For example, whether George can play … We relied on this to win the games against Germany and Sweden. But starting from the match against France, we no longer have anything to hide. It's good to beat France 4: 0, but it also completely exposed our strength to our opponents. "Tang En explained the seriousness of the problem very seriously.
"Spain has studied us thoroughly. It's useless to play tricks. So this time I won't do those messy things before the game. Put the focus of your work on training and preparing for the game … "
His words amused everyone. So it turned out that Tang En had been neglecting his duties and acting like a god? Thinking about it carefully, it really did have that kind of meaning.
"Spain is a technical team. No matter what kind of coach they change, it can't change that. Now the core of the Spanish team is Iniesta and Fàbregas. In the game, our people must implement close defense against these two men at all times and must not let them easily control the ball. As long as they hold the ball without interference for more than 30 seconds, it will be considered a failure. But we can't just put our attention on the middle. Spain has a tradition of wingers. Their flank attacks have always been sharp. We must pay attention to this. "
Tang En spoke in front, and the coaches made notes in their notebooks. The parts that the head coach highlighted would be taken seriously in training and targeted training would be made.
"George will still be in the starting lineup for this game, but I want to make some adjustments to the lineup …" Tang En paused, as if thinking. Then he turned his head to ask the assistant manager, Des Walker. "How's my injury?"
Walker flipped open his notebook, checked it, and replied, "Bentley has recovered and can play in the game. But Walcott can't … Derek estimates he can only make it to the final if we can break into the final. "
Tang En pinched his chin and thought for a moment. Walcott's inability to play was a headache for him because he needed speed in the game against Spain. In terms of midfield ball control alone, England was absolutely no match for Spain. If they tangled with Spain in the midfield, it was tantamount to attacking their opponent's strong points with their weak points. Tang En would never do such a stupid thing. To put it bluntly, a football game was about thinking of ways to limit the opponent's advantage and doing everything possible to play to one's strengths. If they could not compete with Spain in ball control in the midfield, then they had to use speed to break through Spain's defense. Traditional English style of play could perhaps be used as a reference …
"I want to change the formation," Tang En said.
Some in the coaching staff were surprised, but Des Walker was not surprised. Tang En did not tell him beforehand, but based on his understanding of him, Walker knew that Tang En would often change his mind at the last minute.
In fact, in such an international competition, few managers would change the formation and tactics during the course of the competition because it was too risky. Most teams played with the same lineup until the end. They would either be eliminated or become successful.
Tony Twain's starting lineup had been constantly changing since the start of the first group stage match. This naturally had something to do with George Wood's injury, but Tang En did it on purpose. The lineup for the first match was severely challenged in the second match. Because of this, Tang En sentenced Glen Johnson, the main right back, to death. Since then, he had been sitting on the bench, with Micah Richards taking over. Subsequently, Downing was also replaced by Chris Cohen. Bentley was replaced by Walcott due to his injury. From the looks of it, Tang En was still looking for the most suitable combination.
But no matter how he changed, he had never changed the English tradition of the 4-4-2 formation. From his tone today, it seemed like he was even going to change this?
"We'll abandon the 4-4-2 formation and change to a 352 formation." Tang En announced the answer. "I bet the Spanish will never think we'll do this!" Speaking up to this point, he was a little excited.
But the coaches muttered in their hearts: Not to mention the Spanish, even the English can't guess …
"If there are no surprises, the three center backs should be Terry, Taylor, and Richards. They're mainly responsible for defense and will never advance. They're not even allowed to cross the center line. Then, the two defensive midfielders … Michael Johnson and George Wood. Gerrard will go to the front. The attacking midfielders. "Tang En wrote the players' names in relative positions on the tactical board. "The attacking left midfielder will be Rooney, and the right midfielder will be Agbonlahor. As for the forwards, Mitchell will be at the front. James Vaughan will be a little behind him. "
After writing down everyone's names, Tang En threw down his pen and clapped his hands. Strictly speaking, this 352 formation should be called 32311. Rooney, Gerrard, and Agbonlahor lined up behind Vaughan like three attacking midfielders, except that Rooney and Agbonlahor were a little further to the side.
"Mitchell has the skills and Vaughan has the impact. They can attract most of the defensive attention in front. But our main point of attack is not the two of them. It's these three people. "Tang En circled the names of Rooney, Gerrard, and Agbonlahor.
"At the same time, Rooney and Agbonlahor must take the task of returning to defend. But I believe this will not be a problem. "Tang En knew Agbonlahor very well because he was the one who brought him out. Rooney had also played on the flanks at Manchester United and was very active in returning to defend. This was all thanks to Ferguson.
"The most important thing is that on the flanks, they are more impactful and more threatening to the goal. They can effectively prevent the Spanish flanks from attacking. Handing the goal to the three of them will catch the Spanish off guard. The Spanish manager, Hierro, will certainly not think of this. "
"Wood and Johnson are mainly responsible for defense, but Wood also serves as the midfield dispatcher. We need his long-distance passes, so Johnson's task is more important in defense. I don't need him to be involved in the offense in the game. His task is the same as the three center backs."
After arranging everyone's tactics, Tang En added, "In training, we have to carry out more physical confrontations. We have to use more tackles and collisions in the game. I encourage small tricks and dirty tricks. As long as we can win, I don't care what means we use."
Finally, he looked at his colleagues and said, "Overall, that's the requirement. This is how we deal with Spain. They have one less day of rest than us and have been playing with the same lineup. Their stamina is not as good as ours. The identity of the host team and the home advantage are both their strengths and their weaknesses. The Spanish team, AC Milan, has high hopes for the team to be able to lift the UEFA European Championship on home soil. This is a huge pressure. I don't think the Spanish team is the kind of team that can withstand high pressure. In terms of psychological quality, they are far worse than us. "Tang En smiled proudly. Since he took office, he had taught by example and paid close attention to psychological construction, and it finally paid off. Today's England was like Nottingham Forest in the past. They were almost invincible psychologically.
"Gentlemen, do you have any thoughts or opinions?"
Des Walker deliberated for a moment and put forward his opinion, "Isn't this way of playing too risky? We haven't practiced it before … I'm afraid three days of training time is not enough. "
"Time is a little tight, but it's necessary to give it a try. Because if we follow the previous set of tactics, we have no secrets to Spain. Spain has already studied us thoroughly. From the beginning of our game against Portugal, their coach has been sitting in the stands and has followed and observed us until now. They know what we are doing. If we play like this, we may not have the upper hand from the start. We have to take this risk. "
The other coaches had to admit that Tang En was right. The game against France made England a strong contender for the title in an instant. After winning praise from the world, they naturally became the focus of their opponents' research. And Tang En had used up all his cards in that game. He had to make some changes.
"I have no objections. I think we can give it a try." Tony Carr, the oldest in the coaching staff, was the first to nod in agreement with Tang En's arrangement.
The old man agreed, and the other coaches also expressed their agreement. The tactics against Spain were decided just like that. The next thing to do was how the coaching staff would convey Tang En's tactical intentions to the players during training, and how to familiarize the players with the new formation, new positions, and new tactics in just three days and four training sessions. This was not something that could be done just by talking.
Tang En was well aware of his strengths and weaknesses. Without the help of the coaching staff, he would only be a second Zhao Kuo who was an armchair strategist. But this was precisely his cleverness. He would never show off his weaknesses. He would not interfere too much with the work of the coaching staff on the training ground just because he wanted to show that he was an outstanding manager who knew everything and could do anything. He would also not affect the team's normal training. Humans were not machines, nor were they supercomputers. It was impossible to know everything and do everything to the best of their abilities. There were always some things that needed the help of others to be done. Only a guy who knew his own limitations would be able to succeed.
The coaching staff told the players about Tang En's new tactics on the training ground, and most of them were surprised. But they did not raise any objections or dissatisfaction. After leading the team to consecutive victories against strong opponents, everyone was used to thinking that what the boss said was always right. It was easy to work with such a manager, because they only needed to know what they had to do, and the boss would always arrange everything else.
When the players were warming up on the field, the manager, who knew his own limitations, was helping the security to drive away the media who were still unwilling to leave, telling them that the 15 minutes of free filming time had long been up, and that he had given them a discount of more than 10 seconds. It was already very kind of him …
※ ※ ※
While England was practicing twice a day in preparation for the challenge against the host, Spain was also preparing under the leadership of the coaches.
The media in both Spain and England carried out a lot of coverage and embellishment for this game, and they were very eager to make this game the final. Regardless of the tone, it sounded like they could pick up the Delaunay Trophy as long as they defeated the opponent.
In Valencia's Nuevo Mestalla stadium, the thick clouds of war were sweeping in from all directions and converging here.
The French people had already gone home dejectedly, and there was a "campaign" against Puel in France. The French people loved "sports" so much. Some of the media replayed the previous interview with Ribéry to prove how prescient they were, but Claude Puel turned a deaf ear to them and disregarded our warnings. In the end, he had to take full responsibility for such a tragedy!
The voices denouncing Puel in France grew louder and louder, and there were even radical French fans demonstrating in front of the French Football Federation, asking them to fire the manager who brought the humiliating defeat to the French team.
The French media covered the defeat of the French team, and Puel's words and actions at the post-match press conference were all pulled out and severely criticized.
Under such circumstances, Puel, who had insisted at the press conference that he would never resign a day ago, was announced to be dismissed by the French Football Federation.
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