The Young Lion

Speaking of Blackburn's coach, at the beginning of the 21st century, there may not be many fans who will remember him and understand him. Even the new generation of local fans may know little about him if they don't have the DNA of the Red Army. This is an obscure Scottish coach.

However, 24 years ago, he set a new record for the transfer fee of English clubs. He joined Liverpool as a player, formed the golden midfielder of Liverpool at that time, and served as the core, creating the Red Army that dominated the domestic arena in England at that time and established a dynasty in Europe. !

His name is Graeme Souness, Graeme Souness. In the first season of joining the Red Army, he assisted Dalglish in the Champions League final and scored the winning goal for the Red Army to win the top of Europe!

In that era, he was a radiant star.

It is conceivable that he and Dalglish are of the same era. No matter how brilliant the player era is, coaching is two different things. As a player, he can despise Aldridge, but as a head coach, just like his former teammate Dalglish That way, losing to Aldridge, there is no need to be unconvinced. Many veterans are defeated by Aldridge. He is in the field of coaching, and he has only led Liverpool in the last league. Just get an FA Cup.

The advantage of the older generation of coaches is experience, but the disadvantages are also very obvious, that is, the concept is outdated, cannot keep up with the changes of the times, and lacks innovation.

And the longer the immersion time in the past era, the easier it is to be bound.

For example, influenced by the British style of holding high and playing high, Dalglish returned to the arena ten years later, and the skills and tactics of Liverpool led by him obviously could not keep up with the times. Instead, there are signs of retrogression. This is the norm for veteran coaches. Ferguson's success also stems from the fact that he still maintains the innovative thinking of a young man in the ranks of old coaches. Manchester United failed in transformation this season and ended in misery, but the determination and will from Ferguson's transformation are just this courage and thinking , it can be seen that it is extraordinary, if it is someone else. Not to mention whether you have the courage to try, I am afraid that you will not think of breaking through the innovation revolution in thinking.

Is Souness afraid of Millwall fighting a war of attrition? Or was he himself unwilling to shrink back and be beaten passively?

The answer only he himself knows.

What may affect his change of thinking is the player's career plus the experience accumulated before his coaching career.

Aldridge originally had the opportunity to confront Souness in his first year in the Premier League. Unfortunately, at that time, Souness fell out with Liverpool's top management and left immediately. He did not return to the Premier League to coach Blackburn until 2000. .

Playing against each other in the league, Millwall vs Blackburn, this is obviously a weak confrontation that is not worth mentioning. Millwall also unsurprisingly brushed the winning streak on Black himself.

Due to the repeated failures of Millwall in the previous league, Souness had to arrange anti-counterattack tactics in this final. But when the game was in progress, he overturned this arrangement himself, and then, Blackburn still conceded the ball.

Souness stood on the sidelines with mixed feelings. When their old friends got together privately, Dalglish said: I am luckier than you, because when I coached Newcastle United, Millwall was not as strong as it is now. The wild lion makes the opponent feel desperate.

Souness listened to it at the time, but dismissed it in his heart.

Dalglish is outdated. He was powerful at Blackburn, but he was in decline at Newcastle United. A few years ago, he went to Celtic as the technical director. Known as the perfect combination, the result? The performance of the Celtics was a disaster. Barnes was fired, and Dalglish personally coached the Celtics. As a result, at the end of the season, they were beaten by more than 20 points to win the championship, while the latecomer O'Neill only used In just one season, he reversed the Glasgow Rangers and brought the Celtics back to the throne.

This is the reality gap. The reason why Souness thinks this way is because he has good memories in Scotland. At the beginning of his coaching career, he won a basket of championships in Scotland, and the team he led was Celtic's arch-rival Glasgow. homeless.

Souness didn't know the gap between him and Dalglish until he stood on the court of the final.

This gap has nothing to do with coaching ability, but the realm.

Dalglish has always looked at Millwall with a kingly mentality.

Souness led Blackburn to face Millwall in the past one and a half seasons, and they belonged to two worlds. Blackburn lost and no one would take it seriously, just like Crystal Palace lost to Manchester United. Could it be that the fans and club executives, the players? Will there be resentment within the team? Will be extremely angry?

No, we are not a team of the same level. As the weaker side, there is no sense of crisis. Losing seems to be a matter of course.

When it came to the final, the meaning was completely different. The sense of crisis, desire to win, and the meaning and pressure brought by the championship made Souness's attitude towards the game completely changed.

He had to think carefully, he had to re-look at Millwall and Aldridge, and he had to do a lot of things that he would never do or think about when they played against each other in the league.

But it was under such a change of mentality that he realized that Dalglish was telling the truth!

It's a pity that he woke up too late. Now, Blackburn is one goal behind, and there is only one thing he can do, desperately let the team attack!

In the 43rd minute of the first half, Southgate raised the defense line, with Gattuso Alonso as the first, the overall defense line pressed forward, and made a frenzied press on Blackburn in the midfield. After a successful interception, he quickly passed Initiate a fast break.

Blackburn didn't expect that it was the time for him to attack wildly, and Millwall didn't retreat back to fight back, directly strangled their midfield organization attack, and then turned their guns, killing them by surprise!

Larmor again!

He observed for a second after getting the ball on the left, and sent a long diagonal pass from the wing to the back of the penalty area.

After Villan cut, he went straight to the point behind the goal, and the opponent's defender turned around and couldn't keep up.

In the case of a very small angle, Villa bravely rushed forward and took off, facing the falling ball and shaking his head to attack the goal. I saw the ball flew into the goal from between the arms of the goalkeeper who blocked the near corner of the goal.

After the header hit the goal, Villa, who fell off the baseline, turned his head to look at the linesman, regardless of other things. The linesman did not raise the flag for him to be offside. The referee also blew his whistle and pointed his finger in the middle circle. Indicates that the goal is valid.

Villa stood up and rushed to the sidelines, sliding and kneeling to celebrate.

Good job! Villa helped Millwall lead Blackburn 2-0. His brave and fearless diving and head shaking is really wonderful. I believe that the moment he freezes in mid-air and shakes his head at a small angle must be very appreciative A few years ago, the outside world thought that Villa would be another excellent youth training product of Millwall, but it was not until this season that he reached the height of people's expectations. However, for him now, it is just the beginning, just the beginning. It's the beginning.

Aldridge excitedly rushed to the sidelines and waved his arms to celebrate. Lamour, who scored twice with an assist, and Villa, who scored with a header, made him very excited. This further proved the strength of the Wild Lion, not only Those names that shine in the football world, as well as these players who cannot share the light of big-name stars, their growth and progress. Represents the future of the team, and a great addition to the present.

The first half is over. Millwall lead by two goals.

Souness was woken up by the second conceded goal. He walked into the tunnel with a sullen face. Now that the team is going through a difficult situation, he knows that it is impossible to help the team reverse by blindly attacking. He needs to think calmly Countermeasures.

The team leads by two goals, and Aldridge naturally has nothing to adjust. The point is, probably because of the obvious difference in strength, he can't see what kind of tricks Blackburn has up their sleeves to deal with Millwall.

Before the start of the second half, Aldridge returned to the coach's bench and sat with a calm expression. This is his usual demeanor. If the game is not over, he will not show victory in advance.

Souness also calmly returned to the stadium. He stood on the sidelines, unable to tell what mood he was in, but he was a little anxious and expectant.

Worried about the ineffectiveness of his tactical changes, but also looking forward to the dawn of victory for the team.

After the start of the second half, Aldridge watched the game for 5 minutes and suddenly let out a cry of surprise.

Blackburn has changed!

Long pass!

This tactic may be outdated in modern times, but it will never, never be outdated!

Because there will always be a phenomenon on the court that a long pass throws the opponent's dangerous zone, and the striker seizes the opportunity to make a final decision.

The formation will become outdated, but the tactics will not. No matter how old the tactics are, maybe the tactics from a hundred years ago are not used today. A part of a new set of techniques and tactics does not mean that the tactics of the past have disappeared.

Blackburn is playing a long pass, and they can give full play to the advantages of their players, that is, they are physically strong!

When the Premier League became popular in Asia, Chinese fans would call Blackburn Rovers a violent game. First of all, it was not named because of the style of play, but when the team name was translated from Cantonese. In the championship season, Blackburn's technical and tactical play was very pleasing to the eye.

It was only later that I had the experience of relegation. In the environment of League One that relies on physical confrontation to survive, whether it is Blackburn's signings or rebuilding the team's skills and tactics, it must conform to the living environment. After returning to the Premier League, in order to maintain relegation, the hands The cards are not good, so in order to survive in the Premier League, the style of play is a bit rough and tough. The appellation is also more impressive because of their living conditions, but the root cause is not here.

In this season, Blackburn has no worries about relegation, so there is no need to fight to the death with other opponents on the field, forming endless hatred, especially the sturdy and rough style of play, which is most likely to cause disputes on the field, so now Blackburn, with There is a big gap in violence, but their players are really good in physical fitness.

The opponent really put in a lot of effort during the intermission.

Aldrich sighed.

Klinsmann said with a smile: Souness finally figured out some factors that should be understood or thought of before the game, during the intermission.

By playing like this now, Blackburn may not have no chance.

As Aldridge was speaking, the situation on the field changed suddenly.

A high ball was passed from Blackburn's backcourt. In the midfield area, Gattuso failed to grab the landing point at the first time, but there were no Blackburn players there, so the ball bounced and continued to bounce backwards. The point will be in the area between the big penalty area line and the small penalty area line.

Materazzi and the opponent's striker turned around at the same time to chase the landing point. Materazzi was one step ahead, but the opponent fell down in the case of physical contact.

The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and pointed to a penalty.

Materazzi went to grab the second spot, so naturally he didn't care what was going on behind him. At that time, he didn't have the time to look back. He controlled the ball, but saw that Schneider was not in the position, but was facing this way Trot came over, the direction was not right, he looked back and found that the referee had stopped the game, he realized that he had been fouled and gave the opponent a penalty.

Materazzi picked up the ball and smiled innocently. He has a bad temper, but this time he was really confused. He didn't know what he did and was sentenced to a foul. In fact, his first thought was that his teammates had Whoever made a foul only realized that it was his own foul when he found that other teammates seemed to be non-participants to go to the referee to protest. ()