"After the first half of the game, who can tell me now what is the most effective method of England's attack?"
In the locker room, Pan Yi asked a question to all the players.
Everyone first looked at me and I looked at you. After a few seconds of silence, Tonali raised his hand first and answered: "I think it was Harry Kane who grabbed the point in the penalty area. He is a cunning guy."
Pan Yi smiled and nodded: "Otherwise, how could I bring him from Tottenham to Chelsea, and he did become the top scorer and the best player..."
At this time, everyone also spoke enthusiastically:
"I think Sterling's breakthrough is still very sharp. Don't look at his little butt sticking up and down. He runs so fast! Haha..."
"Lingard's sudden shots outside the penalty area are also quite good, very flexible."
"Cheek's header from behind is also quite threatening."
"Don't forget Rice's long shot!"
"And assists from Trippier and Ashley Young..."
The players all gave their own answers, and Pan Yi nodded: "Yes, that's basically it... It sounds like a lot, but they didn't have any chance under our defense. Moreover, It seems that you have a very clear understanding of their offensive routine, so you should be confident to continue to defend it, right?"
Everyone nodded vigorously.
Pan Yi continued: "Very good. Then, for the next semi-finals and finals, we can save some energy in the second half and use defense to deal with their offense."
The players' faces showed excitement.
If someone else said this in the locker room when leading at halftime, it might be unlucky and an act of "opening champagne at halftime", but what Pan Yi said was different.
This represents confidence and complete control of the game situation in the second half!
His goal is not just England in front of him, but the future semi-finals and finals!
Therefore, Pan Yi, as the head coach, must consider the consumption of each game. The most perfect result is to win the game in the most economical and affordable way, instead of fighting against others in every game.
The first half went smoothly, but after all, it consumed a lot of the team's energy.
This kind of mad dog-style attack in the frontcourt consumes a lot of physical energy, although it is not a problem to use this tactic to play the entire game - after all, many of the players who started this game were rotated in the group stage.
But considering the next game, it is naturally not a good idea to consume too much in this game.
Croatia, the current semi-final opponents in Italy and England, have played two consecutive 120-minute games.
Although their will and quality are indeed amazing, such continuous tough games will definitely affect their physical reserves.
And if the Italian team can retain as much physical fitness as possible while winning, it will undoubtedly have more advantages when facing Croatia.
The players cannot consider the issue of energy retention on the court, as it will affect their performance, but the head coach cannot but consider it.
How to allow players to exert their abilities and preserve their physical fitness without worries is also a proof of the coaching level.
Then, Pan Yi began to make more specific defensive arrangements:
"Chiellini, Bastoni, you have to be careful to follow Harry Kane and compete with him for the first point. You don't need to control the first point every time, but you can't let him sit comfortably. Hit the ball."
"Other defenders, keep their defensive areas. No matter how Sterling breaks through, the overall defense line should not be messed up. Especially De Sciglio, he mainly breaks through your area. You have to be careful not to take a shot easily, and stay in your position and don't take advantage of it. His feint.”
"De Rossi and Verratti, you have to guard the front of the penalty area and don't let them have the opportunity to take long shots comfortably."
"Tonali, you continue to pester Rice and prevent him from organizing the offense smoothly. You saw him well in the first half, please keep it up!"
"In general, we need to control their offense and use counterattacks to deal with them, so that we can save some energy..."
At this time, De Rossi raised an objection: "Boss, do we really want to defend with all our strength? I always feel that this is not appropriate, and it may not be possible to defend?"
Pan Yi smiled slightly and asked instead: "Let me ask you, is Argentina's offense better, or is England's offense better?"
"Uh... Argentina." De Rossi hesitated and replied.
The answer to this question seems quite obvious.
Although England has many stars on the front line, they still seem to be a bit inferior compared to Argentina.
Not to mention Messi, names like Aguero, Higuain, Dybala, and Di Maria are all famous in the world.
"Remember our game against Argentina? Although it was a warm-up match, both of us went all out at least in the first half."
"And just in the first half, our defense silenced all the offensive geniuses of Argentina."
"So why can't we defend so England can't score a goal for forty-five minutes?"
"Moreover, since we were able to score three goals against Argentina with counterattacks, why can't we use counterattacks to expand the score again in the second half?"
"So, please believe in our defensive capabilities and don't take England's offense too seriously..."
"In the second half, we will use our best defensive counterattack to kill them!"
Pan Yi shouted while waving his fists, and his words immediately inspired the players.
Although they all understand one thing, that is, football matches cannot rely on simple conversions.
It cannot be said that just because I am stronger than you, I will definitely be able to beat you by a few goals, nor can I say that if I can defend this opponent's offense, I will definitely be able to defend the offense of another team whose offense is not as good as this team's...
However, when Pan Yi uses this "calculation method", it seems difficult for the players to raise any questions.
On the contrary, Pan Yi's tone was so firm that the players were filled with confidence!
"Let's go and show the English how good our defense is!"
Seeing that the players' emotions had been aroused, Pan Yi immediately waved his hand vigorously and then drove the players out of the locker room.
——
"Italy played a beautiful game in the first half. Their attack in the frontcourt was simply pleasing to the eye. England had no ability to resist!"
"The current England team is very young, but its strength is still very good. There are also many world-class stars in the team, such as Harry Kane..."
"However, when facing the younger Italian team, England has been pushed to the edge of the cliff. In addition to Pan Yi's tactical changes that caught the opponent off guard, it also proved that his transformation of Italy was quite successful. Even if he changed his tactics on the spot, In a formation like 3-4-2-1, the players did not have any discomfort."
"Now, let's see if Italy can continue their outstanding performance in the first half in the second half, continue to pursue the victory, and defeat the England team..."
The ones who are explaining things now are of course not the somewhat silent Lineker and Alan Shearer, but the Italian commentator not far from them.
This game is much more exciting than the previous three quarter-finals games in terms of offensive excitement. Even a neutral commentator will be infected by the wonderful game, let alone an Italian.
However, Pan Yi's subsequent tactical changes slightly disappointed the commentator.
Because there is no such thing as chasing after victory, and there is no such thing as falling behind.
Italy kicked off the second half by kicking back and forth in the backcourt, then launched a non-threatening attack, and then launched a... turtle formation!
Originally, their 3-4-2-1 formation had three central defenders and two full-backs, plus two defensive midfielders. In addition, today's two attacking midfielders are also Tonali and Barrera. The defensive midfielder "pretends", so he is even more familiar with defense.
England, which had been prepared to sink the ship from the beginning, was frightened by Italy's approach and thought there was some conspiracy.
It wasn't until they tried to attack twice that they discovered that the other party had actually started to defend!
However, England did not dare to press too much. After all, Chiesa's speed in the counterattack was also quite good, including DiMarco and De Sciglio on both sides, who were also very quick to intervene.
At the same time, England's attack began to hit a solid wall.
As the Italian players discussed during the halftime break, England's offensive methods are nothing more than those types - Harry Kane's response in the center, Sterling's personal breakthrough disrupting the defense, Lingard and others' attacks in the center Long shot, Rice's organization, two full-backs' assists...
However, Harry Kane was targeted by Chiellini and Bastoni. Sterling's personal breakthrough could only play a role in harassing Italy's strict and orderly defensive system. After Tonali and Barrera returned to defense, Italy's four defensive midfielders blocked the front of the penalty area airtightly, and Rice was trapped by Tonali. The two full-backs were forced to counterattack from the Italian wing and did not dare to press too close...
All these offensive methods have been contained, how can England score Italy's goal?
More importantly, England was not in particularly good shape in this game.
They seemed to be going too smoothly at the beginning of the group stage. After defeating Tunisia 2:1, they swept the new World Cup team Panama with a score of 6:1. Harry Kane scored a hat trick, Lingard, Stone Sri Lanka also scored goals, and the team seemed to be playing crazy.
But after that, England's form began to inevitably decline.
Belgium was played in the last round of the group stage. Although Southgate made a wide range of rotations, the main lineup showed fatigue in the knockout match against Colombia and was dragged into a penalty shootout by the opponent.
After a narrow victory of 120 minutes, the main players will of course be more tired, while the opponent Italy easily defeated Switzerland and had an extra day of rest, simply waiting for the challenge from the English.
With one thing going down and the other going up, England has nothing to do with the Italian team.
After ten minutes of fierce attack, England created almost no good opportunities and even took very few shots.
Seeing this situation, Southgate made a substitution. The mediocre Trippier was replaced and Alexander-Arnold came on. Southgate hoped to create opportunities through his precise passing on the wing.
However, Arnold's appearance turned out to be a failure.
Although Trippier is in average condition today and his passing accuracy is not enough, he is still very good at running to defend.
Arnold's speed is slow and he is not too active in defense. When attacking, he mostly uses long passes to find Harry Kane, but the latter has been completely guarded.
As a result, Italy can defend more easily, and sometimes even use Route 66 left by Arnold to level the field, and use occasional attacks to relieve its own defensive pressure.
At this time, England needs a breakthrough point, that is, Sterling, who is good at personal breakthroughs.
However, De Sciglio, who faced him today, was in very good condition. He was like a moving mountain, blocking Sterling.
This mountain is not very tall, but it leaves Sterling with no room to break through.
Just as Pan Yi taught, De Sciglio did not want to block the opponent's breakthrough immediately, but he could entangle the opponent so that no matter how much the opponent broke through, he would not be able to break through to the dangerous zone.
He can also use his body to slowly push the opponent away, and he can let Sterling dribble the ball around, waiting outside for a long time but unable to get in...
Then Sterling could really only dribble the ball and run around with his butt sticking out, unable to find a chance to cut in.
Sterling, who did not believe in evil, forced two breakthroughs inside, but was cleanly forced into a blind corner by De Sciglio and easily stretched out his foot to steal the ball.
Facing such a defensive player who doesn't rush forward, isn't impatient, and doesn't leave any gaps, Sterling has absolutely nothing to do.
And while Sterling was entangled with De Sciglio unbelievingly, the most precious time for England now passed minute by minute.
When De Sciglio stole the ball from Sterling for the third time, Southgate couldn't help but make his second substitution.
Sterling came off the field in shame and was replaced by Vardy.
This grassroots shooter who was discovered by Pan Yi in the amateur league has also maintained an efficient scoring efficiency (more than 20 goals every season) when he moved to the Premier League Leicester City team. Therefore, Southgate hopes He can redeem England's current disadvantage with goals like he did in the league.
"Shrink the defense and don't give that guy space." Pan Yi waved his hand and gave the instruction.
Of course Pan Yi is very familiar with Vardy.
When he was in Hamburg, Pan Yi used Vardy as an arrow, using his super fast speed and extremely hard shots to kill all the Bundesliga teams.
When dealing with Vardy, not giving him room to move is the most effective way to control his offense.
Italy's delaying tactics had delayed the second half for half an hour, with only fifteen minutes left. Pan Yi was not going to give the opponent any chance.
Now it seems that the effect of the counterattack is not very good. Only DiMarco's diagonal pass from the side and Chiesa's personal breakthrough caused some trouble for England's defense.
But this is normal. Italy was not prepared to attack in a large scale, and the number of people invested was not large. Pan Yi himself did not expect to score many goals through counterattacks.
As time passed, England's offense still didn't improve much. Southgate's two substitutions made England's offense even more compromised.
Alexander-Arnold replaced Trippier to reduce the forward penetration ability in the middle and the ability to protect the backcourt, while Vardy replaced Sterling, which reduced England's breakthrough ability in the frontcourt...
Just when England was pressing forward, Italy's counterattack finally worked again!
Lingard's pass error was intercepted midway by Barrera. Barrera made a fake pass to Tonali and then decisively dribbled forward with the ball and then sent a beautiful through ball.
Chiesa used his speed to break through Maguire's defense again, and then faced the attacking Pickford with a calm shot and scored twice!
This is Chiesa's sixth goal in the World Cup, tied with Harry Kane, who previously ranked first in the scorer list!
"Haha, what a good boy, maybe he can be the top scorer in the World Cup!"
Pan Yi was completely relieved at this time. If England could come back with a three-goal lead, Pan Yi felt that he could eat that football...
"Another three to zero! Italy's performance was so surprising. Except for failing to win against Mexico, they won all other games by more than three goals! This also includes Germany and England, two former World Cup champions. !”
"Although this game is not over yet, it is almost over. England will not have any chance... And just a few months ago, we were even worried about whether the Italian team could appear in this World Cup. Worry."
"The answer to why Italy has undergone such earth-shaking changes obviously lies in our head coach Pan Yi - I believe that no matter how Italy plays next, Pan Yi's tactical arrangements and the game before The preparations are enough to serve as a classic case of targeted layout.”
"Including the 3-4-2-1 he used in today's game, he could attack in the first half and defend in the second half, and he scored goals in both cases! It's simply amazing!"
With the Italian commentator's unique passionate explanation, the camera also turned to Pan Yi's face in a timely manner.
At this time, Pan Yizheng had a faint smile on his face and extended his thumbs up to the players who were cheering and celebrating on the court.
This goal occurred in the 88th minute of the game, and there was really not much time left.
After five minutes, the referee also blew the whistle to end the game.
Another 3-0, Italy defeated England and advanced to the semi-finals!
"I'm not convinced I lost."
When shaking hands with Pan Yi after the game, Southgate suddenly said this.
Pan Yi glanced at him in surprise, but Southgate quickly continued: "Of course, I am convinced by you personally... But in this game, you used this strange formation and tactics. None of my previous targeted deployments were used, which prevented my players from fully performing..."
"When the two countries are at war, will I still tell you my troop deployment?" Pan Yi smiled, "This itself is part of the game."
Southgate shook his hand vigorously and then let go: "I hope there will be another chance to compete with you in the future."
Pan Yi smiled and said nothing, in the future? Maybe there will be no such opportunity...
Pan Yi doesn't know how long he plans to be a coach. Maybe if he doesn't win the World Cup, he will continue to lead him unconvinced, but if he does win the World Cup...
After the Grand Slam, he really didn’t have much motivation anymore. He might as well stay warm with his wife and children, and then leave a legend to the world...
"Well, next we have to consider the semi-finals with Croatia. This team is very resilient and may be more difficult to deal with than England."
Pan Yi was thinking in his heart, and at this time, the players who had finished celebrating had already rushed down from the court, and without any dodge, they just ran towards Pan Yi with a smile.
Seeing them like this, Pan Yi knew that these guys probably wanted to catch him and throw him into the sky, which made Pan Yi's face change drastically.
He quickly stretched out a hand to stop the players' progress and shouted: "Wait a minute!"
The players stopped in confusion, and Pan Yi laughed: "I know what you are thinking... Let's do this. Can we do this after we win the championship?"
The players looked at each other and nodded. Then……
Pan Yi's screams sounded again:
"Idiot, please be gentler... Whoever rushes up first will be punished with ten laps tomorrow!... Ouch!"
(End of chapter)
