Chapter 63 Adjustment

After Tristan's shot, Mallorca once again launched a full-back defense.

Compared with the first fifteen minutes, Arsenal's offense began to be much more patient. They kept passing back and forth, back and forth, hoping to tear apart Mallorca's defense and find opportunities to score.

However, Mallorca's defense surprised them. As Arsenal passed back and forth, Mallorca also defended back and forth-but it was not one of them running back and forth to defend, but the whole move back and forth! You must know that the entire defense line moves back and forth with the opponent's attack. It is a test of a team's cooperation. During the back and forth movement, it is easy to have gaps and be used by the offensive players. However, Mallorca has done this very well. One point, their defense line, the tacit understanding is still extraordinary!

What's more, despite moving back and forth, it is basically the defensive players on the periphery who move. As the main defensive force, the four defenders stay in the penalty area and can fill the gaps in the defense without moving!

It seems that the back and forth scheduling can't create any opportunities. In the final stage before the end of the first half, Arsenal launched a fierce attack!

A draw brought to the half-time break is something they cannot bear.

Henry retreated to take the ball, and after avoiding Tristan's counterattack, he began to dribble the ball from the midfield—this is one of his trump cards, and when he dribbles and breaks through from this place, he can often break out of the encirclement in one go, and then Score a goal!

However, at this moment, Mallorca had a black figure sticking tightly to him.

Few can compare with Henry in terms of speed, but Eto'o is one of them.

Two black figures fought in Mallorca's half. Although Eto'o was constantly being thrown away by Henry because of his mediocre defensive ability, he still entangled Henry so tightly that Henry could not Increase your speed!

Seeing that he was about to rush into a dead end, Henry chose to pass the ball, but Nadal rushed ahead of Bergkamp to complete a round-the-front defense, and after stealing the ball, he drove the ball far away.

The ball flew far away towards Arsenal's half, Seaman attacked to get the ball, and was about to kick towards Mallorca's half, but heard the whistle from the referee blowing the end of the first half!

Seaman froze for a moment, then held the ball in his hands a little annoyed, and then walked towards the referee - he hadn't been tested much in the first half, if it wasn't for the hot weather, the braided man would have caught a cold...

Throughout the first half, Arsenal created only a few chances. Although they shot as many as eleven times, only one shot was within the range of the goal frame. It is rare for Arsenal, whose rough football has gone in another direction.

Arsenal fans look at Mallorca and may think of Graham's Arsenal before. However, although they applauded Arsenal's performance at that time, it does not prevent them from expressing their gratitude to Mallorca now. huge boo...

For this, the Mallorca players were unmoved. They have heard too much booing in the past two years-in fact, Mallorca won the championship last season. In the Cup final, they almost defeated Lazio with such extreme defense and counterattack. If it weren't for the two outbursts of Nedved and Vieri in the second half, Mallorca might have won the Cup Winners' Cup—actually In fact, after that game, it was Mallorca who was generally praised.

When walking towards the player tunnel, Jose and Wenger looked at each other. Wenger showed no expression on his face, while Jose smiled politely at each other, and then walked into the player tunnel first.

Looking at Jose's back, Wenger thought for a while, and then walked into the player tunnel.

The Mallorca players who returned to the locker room immediately stopped talking and laughing like they did when they were off the field. They sat in their seats one by one, panting heavily, and quickly calmed down the pain caused by physical exertion. A feeling of fatigue comes.

This kind of defense also consumes a lot of physical energy. After all, they need to run to maintain a flawless defense line. The physical energy consumption is second, and the energy consumption is even greater.

Jose carefully observed the expressions of the players. What reassured him was that after a period of panting, the breathing of the players had begun to stabilize. ——This is very important, this game may be a protracted one.

In the first half, Mallorca hardly got any counterattack opportunities, which surprised Jose. After all, Mallorca's counterattack was also very good. Although the game lacked midfield support, the combination of Tristan and Eto'o They are also natural counterattackers, and the two of them failed to create any opportunities. It can only be said that the five old defenses left by Graham still have excellent abilities.

In this way, it may be necessary to delay until overtime or even a penalty kick. In this case, the physical fitness of the players is very important.

But what reassures Jose is that it is obvious that the mental pressure of these veterans on the back line is not very great, because there are too many games, this kind of defense has almost become instinct for them, and in actual physical fitness They also quickly returned to normal without much consumption, and there would be no problem in persisting for 90 minutes or even 120 minutes.

After the players had almost rested, Jose slapped his hands and let everyone's attention focus on himself.

"How? How did you feel in the first half, guys?" Jose asked with a smile. At this time, his relaxed mood can ease the nervousness of the players.

"No problem, boss." Nino replied loudly. This strong central defender is also the one with the best physical fitness in the defense line. In the first half, he basically made bold interceptions, and then the other old guys checked for leaks. Compensation - They did a pretty good first half.

"No problem. They didn't have any chances at all in the first half. Our defense can kill Barcelona, and it can kill them... I don't think Arsene Wenger would have thought that we would play like this against them in this game, that we would. Attacking them like a knight in front of them, and then being dragged down by them... Only a fool can do this kind of thing! Sprinting back and forth is the strength of the English team, and our Spanish team does not play this."

Hearing this, the players laughed one after another—Is it the Spanish team? Dense defense does not seem to be a game that Spanish teams like to play...

"We are not an ordinary Spanish team," Jose added.

This sentence immediately mobilized the hearts of all the players. Yes, we are not an ordinary Spanish team. We play football that is completely different from other Spanish teams! Maybe, that Valencia is very similar to us...

"In the second half, continue to play like this." Jose set the tone for the entire second half in one sentence: "Diego, Samuel, I know you want to score goals in this game, and I really want to. But this In this game, the first thing we have to do is to defend, drag the game into dullness, and drag the opponent into the mud, so that they will become more and more impatient, and our chances of winning and our physical advantage will become greater and greater. Asen Na is not a super shooter like Vieri, Henry is very good, but he still needs time to practice, and he is not the kind of striker with strong impact, Bergkamp... His state in this game is not Well, it's our luck."

Bergkamp's performance in the first half was really mediocre. Except for one shot, most of the time he did nothing under the fierce steals of the Mallorca players. At the same time, technology has gradually eliminated the iron-blooded style of the Graham era. Although Arsenal is still the team with the most red and yellow cards in the Premier League, that kind of temperament is slowly disappearing.

Gorgeous and iron-blooded, two kinds of team brands that can hardly coexist.

"In the second half, Kanu may play, but don't worry. Although this guy is tall and big, he is very thin. Impact and confrontation are not his strong point. He is also a skilled player... We in Mallorca are afraid of everything. Just not afraid of technology flow."

The Mallorca players burst into laughter again—no matter how good the martial arts are, you can fall down with one brick, and no matter how good your martial arts are, you are afraid of kitchen knives—it has always been difficult to create magnificence on the football field, but it is easy to destroy it, especially It's Mallorca's elite defenders...

Throughout the intermission, Jose basically didn't make any adjustments, but the man next door was lost in thought.

It is indeed not Wenger's strong point to make changes on the spot. However, when the usual tactics seem to be difficult to score goals, Wenger also has to make adjustments.

"Attack-wise in the second half, we needed some changes."

Wenger said to the players in the locker room: "In addition to breaking through the wing, we can use the width of the field as much as possible. I know Mallorca's dense defense is very good, but don't forget, Mallorca's The width and length of the home court are the smallest in La Liga - this is due to their tactical philosophy, they like to defend and are good at defending... However, this game is not played at their home court, this is , We can make more use of it. After breaking through from the side, suddenly transfer the ball to the center or even the other side, seize their defensive gaps, and create opportunities, understand?"

"Understood!" The Arsenal players replied in unison. Wenger's arrangement this time can be regarded as the right medicine for the case. The so-called dense defense means to concentrate troops to form a numerical advantage in a local area, creating that airtight situation and quickly shifting the direction of attack. Creating weak links is also a good way to break dense defenses.

After all, even if all eleven people shrank in the restricted area, it would be impossible to fill the entire restricted area. If they didn't move their positions, it would be nothing more than eleven wooden stakes. How could they defend?

Although this adjustment of shifting the direction of attack is simple, it is still a good way to deal with Mallorca's dense defense.

"Okay, no matter what, we have to score goals as soon as possible in the second half...You must know that we have no advantage in terms of physical fitness."

For this, all the Arsenal players are well aware of it. Although they only played a game four days ago, Arsenal played a brilliant game against Newcastle in that game. , and Mallorca? Not only has the game time been advanced by one day, but all the substitutes have also been dispatched...

In other words, the Mallorca players had a full ten-day rest! But they still participated in all the previous games with a very relaxed state of mind.

"The longer the time drags on, the more the opponent needs. Since it is what the opponent wants to see, we can't let them see it. Let's go now and use offense to win the opponent. This season, we can't get nothing. arrive."

Wenger waved his hand, and the Arsenal players stood up, led by Captain Adams, to the pitch.

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