Chapter 975: Terrible Habits

Habit is a terrible thing. It will change many things and many people imperceptibly.

Chinatown has a very bad habit. They always play badly in the first half.

This is a very strange thing.

Some Spanish media have counted the reversal matches of the 20 La Liga teams this season. Chinatown is far ahead. If the league points ranking is divided according to the first half and the second half, Chinatown in the first half is basically close to relegation, while Chinatown in the second half can almost hit the championship.

Of course, Chinatown can not successfully reverse every game. Sometimes it will even turn into a big defeat. For example, the home and away games against Barcelona are such a disastrous defeat, but there are also good reversals, such as the away game against Real Madrid.

Some people praise Chinatown for its strong overallness, the players are very united, and the willpower is strong, which is why they can play reversals one after another; but some people blame Chinatown's coaching staff, thinking that they have not been able to solve this old problem that has plagued the team for a long time.

Pochettino also felt very helpless about this. Even though he had done enough preparation before the game and arranged all the details, his players still made various mistakes on the court, which eventually led to goals.

Everyone knows that this is not a good thing, and they all know that it must be changed, but they can't change it anyway.

As someone joked, Chinatown can only be considered to have truly entered the game after losing the ball.

As a head coach, Pochettino's favorite scene is like Paris Saint-Germain coached by Gao Han. The overall strength is strong and the advantage is obvious. Whether in Ligue 1, the French Cup, or the Europa League, it can easily gain an overwhelming advantage, making the opponent always feel the terrifying pressure and finally win.

This is the strength and temperament that a championship team should have.

But it is very depressing like Chinatown. It is said that it has strength, but it always plays badly in the first half. It is said that it has no strength, but it can always reverse in the second half. If it is just one or two games, it can be said to be luck, but it is still luck for so many consecutive games?

Chinatown has also summarized a lot of experience internally, and many media reporters and fans have also helped Chinatown find the crux of the problem. Some people think that it is caused by the team being too young and lacking experience, some people think that it is caused by the team's lack of strength, and some people think that there is a problem with the team's training method.

But what is really recognized by everyone is that it is basically believed that this is a psychological factor and a habit.

Habit is a terrible thing, especially when a team habitually loses the first half, it is even more desperate, because it is impossible to catch up with the ball lost in the first half in every second half, or even reverse it.

Especially when the opponent is Barcelona, ​​especially when the opponent has scored two goals.

…

Learning from the experience of playing Real Madrid, Pochettino's strategy for this game is defensive counterattack, but the means are borrowed from the strategies of Arsenal and Manchester City when playing Barcelona, ​​and he did not retreat blindly.

Hazard and Aubameyang, two wingers, actively retreated to the midfield to assist in defending the wing, leaving Pelle in front.

Guardiola was also cautious and still adopted a 4-3-3 formation, but made some adjustments. Fabregas, Xavi and Busquets started together, and Iniesta played as a left winger, which was obviously a signal to strengthen ball control.

Chinatown had a hard time holding the ball throughout the first half, and Barcelona naturally controlled the game, but on the defensive end, Chinatown was well organized, but there was some confusion at one point, and Barcelona scored two goals, but in the last ten minutes of the first half, Chinatown regained its footing.

But two goals behind, it looked like another miserable defeat.

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"In the second half, Barcelona continued to control the situation on the field and launched a fierce attack on Chinatown."

"Messi took the ball on the right, dribbled to the middle, and passed it to the penalty area."

"Ibrahimovic grabbed the first point. The Swedish center forward is tall and strong, and his advantage is very obvious."

"Iniesta followed up and shot directly."

"De Gea flew to save the ball."

"But the ball still didn't fly far and landed outside the penalty area."

"Busquets took the ball, reorganized, passed it to Fabregas, and then passed it horizontally to Xavi."

"Xavi took the ball and passed it into the penalty area..."

"Messi, danger..."

"Beep..."

"The referee's whistle sounded, and Hazard tripped Messi from behind when he returned to defense. The referee showed him a yellow card, which is also A penalty was awarded to Chinatown. "

"Hazard performed very well in the previous match against Real Madrid and was hailed as Messi II, but he performed rather poorly in this match. This was related to Chinatown's failure to get possession of the ball. He is a player who needs possession of the ball. "

"Messi took the penalty kick himself. "

"De Gea was ready in front of the goal, moving his body constantly. "

"Messi... shot!"

"It didn't go in, my God!"

"De Gea saved Messi's penalty kick!"

"It was so surprising."

"De Gea's body was very flexible. After saving the penalty kick, he quickly jumped up from the ground and hugged the ball before Ibrahimovic's supplementary shot. "

"The Spanish goalkeeper showed a very high level of skill. He saved the penalty kick quickly and accurately. "

"Look at De Gea, he got up from the ground, shouted towards the front quickly, and gave a big kick."

"The ball fell to the right and Barcelona's defense was quickly back to defend, but..."

"Aubameyang, who is very fast, got the ball ahead of Puyol and pushed the ball forward."

"Okay, if you have the chance, do it alone!"

"The ball went in!!!!!!"

"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!"

"In the 53rd minute, in the 53rd minute, Aubameyang used his lightning speed to tear apart Barcelona's defense, received a goal kick from De Gea, and scored single-handedly!"

"Valdes struck decisively, but Aubameyang's shot was very calm and decisive."

"This shot came very timely. It is an away goal worth thousands of dollars."

"We saw that everyone in Chinatown was extremely excited, and Pochettino was jumping up and down on the sidelines."

"At the critical moment, Chinatown's tenacious will once again helped them save the situation and keep their hope."

"Two to one, Chinatown was temporarily behind, but this score gave them hope again. After all, a precious away goal can change a lot."

"Pochettino made decisive substitution adjustments. Illarramendi will come on as a substitute and replaces Pelle."

"This is a signal to actively strengthen the defense in the midfield."

…………

…………

"Pochettino still has to defend and counterattack."

I don’t know since when, sitting in Gao Han’s office and watching games in Chinatown together has become a habit of the Paris Saint-Germain coaching staff, and they are all used to it.

And this team is indeed worth studying, especially when they watch Pochettino and his team slowly improve and mature step by step. The feeling is really different.

"Barcelona's biggest problem right now is the two wings. It's very problematic for Puyol to play on the left. Just now, Aubameyang simply used his speed to eat up Puyol and Barcelona's defense. Alves on the right The pressure is very strong, and the hidden dangers are not small, so Pochettino should seize the two sides to attack.”

"There are nearly 40 minutes left in the game and there is still time to play. The situation has turned somewhat."

"No! Do you think it's strange? Why does this team have to wait until the second half to show its strength?"

While everyone was talking, they suddenly heard Sergio Garcia's doubtful question. Everyone looked at each other and smiled helplessly, including Gao Han.

Is there an answer to this question?

I'm afraid it's difficult.

Many people try to analyze it from various aspects, and some even say it is psychological factors, but Gao Han thinks it may be the result of a combination of various factors. Of course, psychological factors are gradually becoming the main cause.

If you don't concede the ball, you won't be able to play football. The disadvantages of this are obviously obvious, but there are also advantages. For example, in this game, they conceded two goals in the first half, but the team played as usual in the second half, and there was not much tension or anxiety. ,Why?

Get used to it.

With more reversals, the psychological quality will improve, and you will become accustomed to experiencing such scenes again.

As for changing the situation of the team not playing well in the first half, Gao Han felt that this season was probably out of the question, but he could prepare well for the summer training camp. He decided to ask Dr. Steve Peters to help.

This British psychology expert is already familiar with this aspect.

After taking down Pellet, there were basically only two lines left in Chinatown. The four players on the back line lined up in front of the penalty area, and the six players in the midfield stood in a wave shape. Among them, Aubameyang Both ends with Hazard are further forward, like two sharp knives pointing directly at Barcelona's weaknesses.

"Pochettino's defense in the middle is very tight, layered and integrated, making it difficult for Barcelona to break through."

"The next step is to test your patience."

Barcelona quickly organized waves of offensives. Guardiola made Puyol's first substitution, replaced him with Pedro, pulled Iniesta back to the center, and let Pedro Apply pressure down the left wing.

This is definitely an aggressive formation, and only a team like Barcelona that has absolute possession of the ball would dare to do this.

However, Chinatown still defended tightly, and the entire defensive formation was integrated, leaving no space or gaps for Barcelona's offense. This made Barcelona feel extremely depressed.

Pochettino quickly made a second substitution, replacing Aubameyang with Koke. This was another substitution to strengthen the wing defense. The purpose was to block Barcelona's left offensive and protect Kava. Safety on Hal's side.

As the game time ran out, the stalemate between the two sides became more intense.

Barcelona wanted to score another goal to establish an advantage, but Chinatown held on for the last breath and refused to relax. The game was extremely brutal, but the two sides were in dangerous situations, but they could not really break the deadlock.

In the later stages of the game, Alves almost pressed forward, using himself as a winger.

But in the 83rd minute, Chinatown intercepted the ball in the backcourt and quickly passed it to the right.

Carvajal moved forward without thinking and passed to the feet of Cork on the right.

Koke passed the ball laterally to Herrera, and Herrera passed the ball diagonally across the center line and landed directly in front of Rakitic.

The Croatian sprinted quickly in the counterattack, caught up with the ball, and under the interference of Xavi, brought the ball all the way into the 30-meter area of ​​Barcelona, ​​but was forced to pass the ball to the left.

Hazard got the ball on the left side of the penalty area, Alves chased all the way back to the penalty area, stuck in position, and Xavi returned to the penalty area as soon as possible to assist Alves.

They all knew that Hazard's one-on-one ability was too strong.

The Belgian dribbled the ball towards two Barcelona players, but did not choose to go it alone, but suddenly passed the ball back.

Rakitic was at the front of the penalty area, facing Hazard's return pass, and he swung his right foot without thinking, and it was a curved ball lob.