Soccer Card System

Chapter 486 487 Smothering (Second Change)

487 Smothering
After the game against Osasuna, the third round of the league followed, and Atletico Madrid challenged Valencia away.

If it is natural for Atletico Madrid to win the first game, then challenging Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium is probably the game that people will focus on watching along the way.

In fact, many media believe that the overall strength of Valencia this season is a little behind that of last season.

Especially in terms of personnel, in this season's summer transfer window, Valencia transferred an astonishing [-] players!

The main players such as Mata, Joaquin, Isco, and Fernandez were all sold.Obviously, the biggest loss to Valencia is the Spanish international Mata. The Asturian was Valencia's best player last season. He contributed eight goals and twelve assists in the league.

In terms of transfers, Valencia cleared sixteen players, but only brought in six players: Piatti (Almeria 0, Diego Alves (Almeria), Parejo (Getafe), Canales (Real Madrid), Rami (Lille) and Pereira (Sporting Lisbon).

For Valencia coach Unai Emery, this is his fourth year in charge of the team.Speaking of which, there are not only four head coaches who have been able to coach for more than four years in the history of this club established in 1919, including Emery.

Emery came here from the Almeria club in 2007 and led Valencia to No.6. Compared with the tragic performance of the Coman era a year ago, this is a great improvement.They even hovered in the relegation zone that year, and finally ranked 1th. In the next two years, Emery led the team to the Champions League qualification, but the team president Llorente felt that his performance was only worthy of a one-year contract extension.However, Llorente is not satisfied with the team's position in the league, especially this season Valencia has slipped to No.10, and the rise of Atletico Madrid has made Llorente jealous.

For Emery, he is under a lot of pressure now.

Coaching the team for four years, has not brought you any trophy for Valencia.

In terms of the league, Valencia's already extinguished championship heart, due to the rise of Atletico Madrid last season, gave Valencia the hope of competing for the league championship - Atletico Madrid can do it, why can't Valencia?

Originally, Valencia's management and fans didn't have much thought about the league championship, because no matter what, they couldn't compete with Barcelona and Real Madrid.

However, the success of Atletico Madrid last season made Valencia's executives feel that since a team like Atletico Madrid that has been down for more than ten years can win the championship, there is no reason why Valencia can't think about it.

This virtually put Emery under tremendous pressure.

Emery believes that since the team wants to compete for the championship, why should they sell Mata and others?
From Valencia's signing strategy, we can't see the ambition of this team, selling people while demanding to win the championship!
Doesn't this require milking the cows and not letting the cows graze?

Emery is a bit pessimistic about the team's prospects this season, but in any case, he can't show pessimism in front of the players. On the contrary, he has to stimulate the players' desire to play, especially this game!

In his position to seek his own government, Emery can't just let the high-level side fail to sell people, so let's just mess up this season. His professional ethics can't allow him to do such a thing.

In fact, Gao Bo did not dare to underestimate the Valencia team.

But considering the UEFA Champions League game four days later, during this game, Gao Bo made a little rotation!

There are two personnel adjustments on the defense line. Juanfran still plays right back, while the combination of center back is Godin and Lucio's partner, and the left back is Sandro.

In the midfield, three players, Kanter, Gabi and Modric, started the field.

And in the frontcourt, it's Mane, Aguero, Griezmann!
Compared with the previous starting game, Atletico Madrid has four personnel adjustments!
In the home dressing room, Emery was handed Atletico Madrid's starting XI.

"Have they saved their energy for the Champions League?"

One of Emery's assistants said beside him, frowning.

留力
Emery thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"Their set of starters is also very difficult, Gabi and Kanter, two players who are more defensive in the midfield"

"Are they going to play on the counter-attack away?"

"Maybe, I won't know until the game!" Emery put down the information in his hand, and then looked up.

"But no matter what they play, we just play it our own way!!!"

When it came to the game, Emery found that Atletico Madrid's formation had changed.

It's not 433, Gao Bo arranged a 4231 formation in the away game!
Gabi and Kanter double midfielders, behind Modric, and on both sides of Modric are Mane and Griezmann!

Emery looked at Gao Bo not far away.

Atletico Madrid have used a starting midfielder like this before, but at the time Modric was behind him, and Kante and Gabi served as his flanks to escort him.

Now that Modric has pushed to the position of the front midfielder, the positions of the two wingers have retreated slightly.

What is Gao Bo paying attention to?
In fact, Gao Bo still considered it for the Champions League game.

In this game, Atletico Madrid needs to win the "economy". The so-called economy means that the main players should not consume too much physical energy, and at the same time avoid injuries as much as possible.

In the away game, facing a strong team like Valencia, Gao Bo's arrangement seems to be a bit overstated.

But Gao Bo didn't think he was being overrated!

Because after thinking about it for a long time, he finally decided to exchange the orange card in the mission reward of "Undefeated Season" last season.

[Competition card (orange): The team's long-range shooting rate increased by 15%, and the accuracy of side crosses increased by 15%! ! 】

For Atletico Madrid, they are actually not afraid of facing opponents who confront them and pull them out head-on.However, if some teams stay in the penalty area and cannot come out, no matter how flexible Atletico Madrid's frontcourt passes are, it may be difficult to find opportunities from the dense iron barrel formation.

Long-range shots and wide crosses are undoubtedly two powerful weapons to break through dense defenses, but in normal times, these two skills are also very powerful.

If you want to win the opponent economically, use some simpler methods, which may be more effective.

The new card makes Gao Bo's tactical arrangement more inclined to long-range shooting.

When Valencia was defending, they naturally formed a dense formation, and at the same time squeezed Atletico Madrid's passing space in the midfield as much as possible.

The advantage of 4231 is that this is a relatively balanced formation, both in offense and defense, each player has a clear division of labor,

Valencia, which is playing at home, is actually very good at short pass penetration in the middle, so Kanter and Gabi locked the middle in the midfielder, which is also a targeted deployment.

The same is true in the actual game. Valencia's midfield penetration can't penetrate Kanter and Gabi's defense at all.

On the one hand, Atletico Madrid made rotations in this game. On the other hand, they also adopted a relatively labor-saving style of play during the game.Stand still when defending, and after taking possession of the ball, walk slowly to your feet, as if you are not in a hurry to counterattack.

The scene of the game was very dull, but this was intentional by Atletico Madrid. They controlled the ball and were not in a hurry to attack. Instead, they slowly induced Valencia's players out, and then used the personal abilities of Griezmann and Mane on both sides to attack Valencia's defense.

The first goal is a long-range goal! !In this game, Gao Bo emphasized the need to strengthen long-range shots before the game, and in the game, long-range shots really had an effect!

Modric got a chance to shoot at the top of the penalty area. This kick was of very high quality. The football went straight to the dead corner, and the goalkeeper had no choice!
In fact, before this, Atletico Madrid tried several long shots.

At that time, Emery thought that the opponent did not pay attention to the performance of the league-maybe Atletico Madrid players were thinking about the midweek league.

As a result, Modric scored with this kick, which made Emery think that his team was out of luck.

On the other hand, Valencia's offense was through the wing, and the center was closed by the two iron gates of Kanter and Gabi. Valencia could get some opportunities if they fell on the wing.

However, after Atletico Madrid scored the goal, they controlled the ball at their feet, so Valencia had to pay more running and pressing to fight for the ball back.

The result was not ideal. Atletico Madrid played more leisurely after taking the lead. Until the end of the first half, Valencia failed to get a few chances to attack.

In the second half, the situation of the game remained the same.

Emery was also a little helpless in the face of such a situation, Valencia completely lost power in the midfield!

This is because even if they grab the ball, it is difficult to control the ball like last season. Valencia's control has dropped a lot since Mata was missing.

In this way, Atletico Madrid's second goal also came!
Still a long shot!
This time it was Griezmann, who took the ball from the wing and cut in to score Atlético Madrid's second goal of the game!

After that, Gao Bo began to deploy troops. He replaced several players who had the opportunity to play in the Champions League, so that they could feel the atmosphere of the game.

Atlético Madrid slowly took control of the rhythm, and in the end Valencia could only accept a dull defeat at home.

(End of this chapter)