The Young Lion

From the beginning of the game, Aldridge’s attention was completely on the game on the court. You can see the whole scene from the box watching the game, which is better than the head coach’s vision. Intuitively speaking, the head coach needs insight The situation of the whole court, the field of vision is relatively flat, not only to wait and see, but also to make up the overall situation, the utilization rate of the court space by both sides, and it is clear at a glance when overlooking from the box.

It is not a good schedule to meet Arsenal in the second round of the league. If Aldridge is still the head coach, it will be fine, but after all, it is a new period of Wild Lions. The only positive factor is that they have the advantage of home court.

Klinsmann has made obvious changes to this game. First, he is more conservative. Arsenal is good at counterattacking from the side. It is correct not to give the opponent space to counterattack. Secondly, the rhythm will not be too fast. This is Klinsmann's home debut. If he loses, the blow will be too great. It is roughly the same as Aldridge's thinking when he first coached Millwall eight years ago. Losing is too damaging to morale, and the most important thing is to build prestige and When uniting people's hearts, avoiding losing is the first priority.

Because of this, the game seemed to be turbulent, until the time on the scoreboard entered the eighth minute, the Lion King Stadium burst into applause without warning, and all the home fans stood up in the stands and applauded.

Hehe, the Millwall fans stood up and applauded tacitly in the 8th minute of the game, not for the wonderful scenes that appeared in the game, but in this way to express their respect for the current chairman of the club, Sir Hall, who coached Millwall 8 In 2009, he created brilliant achievements for Millwall, which made every Wild Lions fan admire him from the bottom of his heart.

The applause lasted for a full minute, just when the scoreboard had just finished 8 minutes. The Lion Roar fans in the South Stand roared out a sentence in a neat and orderly manner.

His Majesty Aldrich Hall!

The live camera captured Aldridge smiling while sitting in the box. When hearing the roar of the fans. Covering his forehead with one hand, he seemed a little embarrassed.

As for his two sons, Burt looked up at his father with reverence, and Earl was smiling like a little angel eating snacks.

Klinsmann was earnestly supervising the battle from the sidelines, unable to ignore the applause and shouts of the fans. At this moment, he felt a little bitter: Here, he cannot escape his shadow!

When it's time to be in charge, although Klinsmann and Aldridge have some disagreements on player transfers. But at the competitive level, not only did Aldridge not ask about the team's competitive affairs, but he never said a word in front of the media. This satisfied Klinsmann. However, his source of pressure, apart from Millwall The height he has reached, and Aldridge has become an invisible god at the Lion King Stadium. Whether he is present or not, he lives in the shadow of Aldridge.

When will this shadow be removed?

Klinsmann didn't know.

He also doesn't think about this question, the reality can't help him to think about it.

Arsenal's generals are gearing up for this game and are full of fighting spirit. In the eyes of the outside world, Millwall has lost the most powerful force, that is Aldridge, the man who can win the Premier League after selling half of the team's main force, and can also reach the peak in Europe and establish a dynasty.

Klinsmann now?

It is to get rid of him as soon as possible, and not give him a chance to get a stable position in Millwall!

As a result, Arsenal became a little aggressive after the opening 20 minutes, but showed flaws on the defensive end. Arsenal's defensive system has become extremely stable this season. Ella's partner Silva is a mess. They are good at counterattacking quickly, throwing the ball with one kick, and they can rush fast when there is space. But if they don't counterattack, the positional battle lacks creativity.

Arsenal, who failed to keep their composure, soon paid the price. After a mid-court pressure and failed to play an imaginative cooperation, Schneider intercepted the ball in the backcourt and found a small long-distance pass in the frontcourt. Luo, the latter also made a long diagonal pass, and Klose and Larsson, who were in the front, misplaced and ran, and finally Klose, who moved to the back point, made a contribution.

Seeing Klose's goal, Aldridge stood up and raised his fists with a smile on his face. He even picked up Bert and walked around on the spot. He also hugged.

On the contrary, Klinsmann did not celebrate the goal too much, but shouted to the field to let the players concentrate on defense.

Wenger was in a terrible mood, angry at the team conceding a goal.

What made him even more angry was still behind.

Before the end of the first half, Ronaldinho scored with a set kick to extend the score to 2:0.

Facing the favorites Arsenal, Millwall took a two-goal lead at home, making almost everyone think that in the post-Aldridge era, Klinsmann can continue to make this dynastic team the biggest favorite for all titles .

After scoring a goal, Ronaldinho ran to the sidelines and made a military salute in the direction of Aldridge's box, which caused Aldridge to stand up and applaud him in return.

If it is said that in the first half of the London derby team competition, Millwall had more means, more experience in the big scene, and a better team concept that made Arsenal unable to start, then in the second half, Arsenal began to play in a way that went against itself. The means of technical and tactical team concepts are changing the game, and finally exposed Millwall's shortcomings in partial confrontations.

In the second half, Arsenal did not play a wonderful team attack. Instead, they knocked on Millwall's gate in a rough and individualistic way. Bergkamp retreated to meet Lampard, and then After attracting Pedretti, the ball was handed over to Ibrahimovic. Ibrahimovic, the bastard, still vividly remembers the fight with Materazzi, but today he exploded Barzagli and forced the opponent away in an unreasonable way. , and then played tricks with his feet, so that the angry Barzali stepped forward bravely, and was simply changed by Ibrahimovic, and it was very clever to let Barzali's attack block Southgate's supplementary defense Ibrahimovic single-handedly sent the ball into the goal, then put on an arrogant posture and celebrated while walking back.

That scene left Klinsmann speechless, not because of how clean Barzali was, but because of that moment before. After sticking to Ibrahimovic, he was directly squeezed away by the opponent. It's so embarrassing. Putting it on a defender of the Premier League's giants, once it gets close, it can be accelerated and wiped out, and it can be pierced by two passes, but if it is directly squeezed away, the opponent's center of gravity will not even swing, which is unreasonable.

In the final stage of the game, Arsenal scored another goal through a corner kick. It was Ibrahimovic who made the contribution. He didn't even use the header, but tried to stop the ball in the penalty area, but the ball hit a Millwall player, and it seemed that the Millwall player stopped him. Then Ibrahimovic volleyed the ball into the net, and that unlucky guy was Barzagli again.

Wenger breathed a sigh of relief, Klinsmann shook his head on the sidelines and was speechless, and the opponent used this method to equalize the score. He felt a little aggrieved.

Because it is foreseeable, the central defender is a short board. He spoke to the club management, his boss, Aldridge, many times.

Perhaps it was a mistake to sell Metzelder.

However, Barzagli's mistake in this game caused him to lose his main position, and Klinsmann planned to use Neil as the main defender.

When Arsenal equalized the score, the live broadcast camera was aimed at the box where Aldridge was. Aldridge did not express his dissatisfaction with a blank face, but talked with Puskas and smiled wryly.

In the eyes of Aldridge, Barzagli's mistakes are not too serious. After all, Barzagli is still growing. Not every opponent has a striker like Ibrahimovic. What he values ​​is that after losing Pirlo, Mir The power of Wall's offensive system has indeed dropped a lot.

When encountering a tough defensive team like Arsenal, making full use of the field space will require higher organizational and scheduling requirements. Not only must the width of the field be used, but also the opponent's third-line defense must be torn apart in the entire midfield. Ronaldo is in the frontcourt and Pirlo is in the middle and backcourt. Together with Nedved, they can tear the opponent in four directions, front, back, left, and right. Now, at best, the two wings use the width of the field. Lampard's organizational ability lacks creativity , The pass success rate is not low, but they are all formulaic passes, which are too predictable.

Therefore, when Arsenal implemented defensive counterattack tactics in the second half, Millwall's positional battle did not produce good results.

A game where a two-goal lead was drawn was more or less disappointing for Wild Lions fans, but at least they did not lose the advantage of the scene. However, the weakening of the backcourt defense system, from the midfielder to the backline, is still clear at a glance.

Three days later, in the third round of the Premier League, Millwall played again in the London derby and challenged the farmer Fulham away. Klinsmann only adjusted one starting lineup, replacing Barzagli with Neil, and Millwall won. Yes, a 4:0 victory swept away the haze of being tied by Arsenal.

Tigana's reforms in Fulham seem nondescript. They do have the shadow of technical flow, but they can't overcome the hurdle of hard power. When they meet Millwall, a behemoth, Fulham is far behind in technology, tough and very strong. The director is also much inferior to the team. In order to maintain his dignity in the home game, he wanted to attack but failed to attack, and was directly crushed by Millwall.

Klinsmann led the team to play four official games in August. If the Community Shield is not counted, they won 2 wins and 1 draw in the league, which is satisfactory. It's Feyenoord from the Netherlands.

During this period, Aldridge was at ease as a good man at home. At the same time, he also met with the new coaching team of the England national team, and determined the work responsibilities in early September, so that everyone can prepare.

On August 28, the peripheral qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League for the new season ended.

Two days later, Millwall flew to Monaco to meet Feyenoord at the top of the European Cup.

On the same day, Aldrich was arranging his clothes in the bedroom at home in the early morning. He was humming softly while wearing a tie. The bedroom door was gently pushed open from the outside, and Earl was seen holding a wild lion doll and rubbing his eyes. Walking in, he raised his head and saw Aldridge was neatly dressed, and asked curiously in a low voice, Dad, where are you going?

Aldrich knelt down and kissed his face. The two sons were very sensible. No, Ivan was still fast asleep in the bedroom, and Earl spoke in a very low voice.

Well, let's go abroad for a while.

I'll go too, okay?

Okay, then you go back and change your clothes, and by the way, ask your brother if he would like to go together.

Earl retreated lightly, dragging the blue lion doll, and he clearly heard his pace quicken after he went out.

Aldridge took out a clean slim suit jacket from the closet, put it on and looked in the mirror, finally took off the tie, said with a smile to himself: Nothing happened, well, it's time to act. (To be continued..) ()