Chapter 1430 Operate on Ajax

After lunch in Dubai, Yang Yang flew to Madrid with Emirates.

During the five hours at high altitude, he spent half of his time watching the two rounds of Bayern against Arsenal, which gave him a deeper understanding of Bayern Munich under Ancelotti's training.

The rest of the time, he watched Ajax's double-leg Europa League round of 16 knockout tie, which got him thinking.

In the knockout round of the Europa League, Ajax's opponent is Copenhagen from Denmark.

The first round of the game was an away game. Central defender Davidson Sanchez was suspended for accumulating yellow cards. Pete Boss selected the central defender combination of teenager Dericht and Wilheffer. The performance was not bad, but the away game conceded two goals. The most important thing was the opening game. Just drop the ball.

After all, he is still young and inexperienced.

In this game, several young players including De Ligt, Van der Beek and David Neres all played.

In the end, Klaassen assisted Dolber to score a goal. Although they lost 1-2 in the end, they scored an away goal.

Back at home, Davidson Sanchez returned to partner De Ligt, but midfielder Klaassen was suspended for accumulating yellow cards, and it was Neres who scored a goal before Dolber scored for Ajax before half-time. He scored a penalty, and he also hit the goal frame, and finally defeated the opponent 2-0 at home.

The total score of 3 to 2 advanced to the quarterfinals, which also confirmed Van Gaal's previous speculation.

Looking at the two games, plus the other games that Yang Yang has seen before, he began to think about a very important question, that is, how should Ajax continue to move forward?

Reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League has already met the expectations of Yang Yang and Van Gaal. No matter what happens next, it doesn’t matter anymore. Unless you can win the championship and securely qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stage, everything else is fine. Not very important.

Regardless of whether it is Yang Yang or Van Gaal, the next development of the team is more considered.

How to progress?

Yang Yang has been thinking about this problem on the plane.

...

When I got off the plane, it was already twenty o'clock in the evening.

His wife Su Ye brought his precious son Yang Guang to the airport to pick him up.

Two weeks later, the family of three met, and they inevitably talked all the way.

After returning home, Yang Yang went directly to the study, turned on his laptop, and started a video conference with Van Gaal who was far away in Amsterdam. The topic was naturally the current situation of Ajax.

"I watched these two games on the plane, and I think there are still some problems in the offensive, and there are some shortcomings in the midfield." Yang Yang said his thoughts straight to the point.

Now the defense is stable, but the problem of offense and midfield is still not small.

Of course, compared with De Boer's period, during the coaching period of Peter Boss, the problems of the frontcourt were solved a lot.

Van Gaal agreed with Yang Yang's judgment, "In these two games, young players played a lot and lack experience. Otherwise, the away game should be a draw, and the home game can score more goals."

"I think it's still necessary to operate on a deeper place." Yang Yang said solemnly.

Young players must be a factor, which is the price to be paid for cultivating young players, but Yang Yang feels that Ajax's problems have been around for a long time, and it can even be said to be deep-rooted, and a deeper change is needed.

"Let's hear it." Van Gaal said with interest.

Yang Yang picked up the paper and pen casually, drew the formation diagram of Ajax on the desk, and finally circled the position of Dolber, and put the paper in front of the camera so that Van Gaal could see clearly .

"Dorber has played well this season," Van Gaal commented.

Dolber is only nineteen years old. He is a typical Nordic center forward. He is tall and strong with good skills at his feet. Mayhen staged a hat-trick, and then received the attention of the media and fans.

Many people say that he is like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Bendtner, especially the Danish compatriot Bendtner.

"What I want to say is that in the past so many years, in Ajax's traditional four-three-three tactical play, the high center forward has always been very important, from Van Basten to Kluivert to Ibrahimovic Rahimovic, then Huntelaar, in recent years there has also been Hosen and Sigurdhosen, and now Dolber."

Van Gaal nodded. He himself is a person who has experienced it himself, so he is very aware of the importance of high center forwards in Ajax's tactics.

"But, Luiz, you know, European football is completely different today, and Ajax doesn't have the bargaining power it used to. Especially in Europe, we have to pay more attention to defense than ever before."

As soon as Yang Yang said these words, Van Gaal on the opposite side of the video was obviously taken aback, and then showed a look of sudden realization, because he knew the meaning of Yang Yang's words.

Why are high center forwards so important in Ajax's tactics?

Why did Ajax buy Bendtner, Anastasio and Charisteas in the team after Ibrahimovic left the team? Is this blindly stacking scorers?

Even so, why are all three high center forwards?

The reason is simple, the high center forward is too important to Ajax's four-three-three tactics.

Needless to say, the benefits of high center forwards, Mourinho's use of Drogba during Chelsea's coaching is the best evidence.

But Drogba is the world's top, because he is different.

High center has always had a problem, that is, lack of running ability and narrow coverage.

Back then, the reason why Van Gaal had an enmity with Ibrahimovic, so that the Swedish center still holds a grudge, was because he wanted Ibrahimovic to expand the scope of activities.

Ajax has always advocated offensive football, high defense, and suppressing opponents. Therefore, it is very important for Ajax to have a high center forward in the frontcourt. It can even be said that Ajax's entire tactical focus is In the front center position.

But Ajax's current overall strength, when it comes to the European arena, let alone those giant teams, even if it is a mid-range team in the four major leagues, Ajax may not have a chance of winning. In this case, continue to adopt In offensive football, pressing the defense forward is very risky.

Then the best result is to make the team attack and defend as balanced as possible, be able to play high positions forward to press and press, retreat and settle down, adopt a compact defensive position, and then attack the opponent through a quick counterattack after stealing the ball.

At this time, the problem came. Ajax's high center forward couldn't play a shrinking defense, as if it was impossible to ask Ibrahimovic to run and cover like Drogba.

Therefore, even if Pete Boss chooses to speed up the midfield this season, in fact, Ajax's offense still looks cumbersome and still not light, and this is the problem.

So is it possible to continue to dig deep into the high center forward tactics and stick to Ajax's tradition?

Obviously, this is no longer in line with the current development trend of European football. As for when it will return in the future, no one knows.

...

After hearing Yang Yang's words, Van Gaal couldn't help laughing.

"Now I really feel that I am old and my brain has become dull. This technical director is not as good as you."

Yang Yang waved his hand modestly. He thinks it is mainly because he has played for the teams and leagues with the most advanced technical and tactical development trends in European football in recent years. Whether it is Barcelona or Real Madrid, it is the same He is the leader of this trend, so he naturally understands this trend better than others.

"If according to what you mean, then we will shift the team's tactical focus from the front center position to the midfielder. I believe this can further stimulate the vitality of the frontcourt. But in this way, Dolber's The situation is embarrassing."

Ajax's high-position press is very dependent on the high center forward, but if it is to shrink the defense, the players in the frontcourt need to run more, and the team needs to pass and receive the ball quickly, especially when counterattacking faster, but Dolber can't meet this requirement, and even in the current Ajax team, there is no player who can meet such requirements.

It can be said that for Ajax, this transformation cannot be achieved overnight, especially now that the transfer period has ended and Ajax is at a critical stage of the season, so this matter is only Yang Yang and Van Gaal, The most is to let people from the technical team discuss it, and it will definitely not spread to the outside world.

Nowadays, the most important task for Ajax is to fight for the reversal of Feyenoord in the Eredivisie, and the Europa League quarter-finals face Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga. These two fronts are the top priority now.

What's more, what Yang Yang provided was just an idea, which was still very rough. As for how to improve it in the future, this was the work of Van Gaal and the technical team.

But one thing is for sure, once you find the root of the problem, it will be much easier to solve it.

…………

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After the two-week national team match day, Real Madrid ushered in the twenty-ninth round of La Liga and played against Alaves at home.

With the goals of Suarez, Isco and Nacho, Real Madrid won 3-0 at home. Yang Yang came off the bench in the second half and contributed an assist, but did not try his best.

...

In the middle of the week, in the 30th round of La Liga, Real Madrid challenged Leganes away.

Morata showed his prowess in this game and staged a hat-trick. De Bruyne made a pass and a shot. In the end, Real Madrid won the opponent 4-2 away and scored another three points.

This time Yang Yang still filled the audience on the bench.

...

On the weekend, in the thirty-first round of La Liga, Real Madrid ushered in the Madrid Derby.

Affected by the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League in the middle of the week, the two teams obviously did not take this game too seriously, because the outcome has nothing to do with the overall situation of La Liga, and Real Madrid's victory is basically a certainty.

So, in the end, the Madrid duo shook hands one-on-one at the Bernabéu.

Yang Yang started for 60 minutes and scored a goal. Atletico Madrid equalized at the end of the second half.

On the contrary, Barcelona, ​​after winning the opponents in the first two games, lost to Malaga 0-2 in this round of away games, and lost again.

Obviously, the top three are saving their strength for next week's Champions League quarter-finals.

Especially Real Madrid, facing Bayern Munich led by Carlo Ancelotti.