They say trends come in cycles, and the same goes for football.
Since the creation of football's first tactical system, it has been destined that the day will come when tactics come to an end, because there are only so many positions on the field and the changes are endless.
In fact, in the world that Lu Yang lives in, football tactics are coming to an end.
From the earliest enlightenment football, to the emergence of pyramid tactics, to the invincible WM tactics, to the Hungarian center's retreat and the birth of the false nine position, to the emergence of defensive football, chain defense, and zone defense in the 1960s and Dacheng, in the 1970s, the birth of the Dutch total offense and total defense tactics and 433, man-marking tactics, free man tactics, the birth of 442, tiki-taka ultimate passing control, melon-style Manchester City, etc.
Until a long time ago, there was no fundamental new thing in football theory. Instead, each head coach used the past things to piece together and combine them at a higher level.
But there are only so many basic things, and combinations will eventually be exhausted.
Where will football tactics go at that time?
In fact, Lu Yang's era had already come into contact with some of them.
That's dynamic tactics.
Of course, these are still too advanced for this era, where pass-and-control football has not yet fully emerged.
Back to Sanremo.
Sanremo's current problem is that there is no playmaker in the midfield, which makes it almost impossible for them to launch any organizational and non-counterattack offensive.
And if the goal is to stay in Serie C, then they can indeed use defensive counterattack tactics, and Sanremo will not have tactical problems.
But the problem is that their goal this season is to upgrade, they must play more proactively, and defensive counterattack cannot become their main tactic.
So they must have an offensive core to tear apart the opponent's defense.
If the court is viewed as an upright rectangular nine-square grid, then the second grid and the eighth grid are the goals of both sides and the area directly in front of the goal.
This is always the most threatening position.
According to the shooting position statistics of Lewandowski, who won the European Golden Boot in 2020, 92% of his shots were concentrated in this area, which is in the center near the penalty area.
So in the early days of football, it was very simple, just focus on these two positions and the person who got this position would win the world.
The people closest to this position are the midfielder and center.
But the center is deeply surrounded by the opponent's defenders, and instead the midfielder between the opponent's back line and midfield line becomes the most threatening person.
In fact, this is indeed the case with the rise of the classical midfielder.
But precisely because of the emphasis on this area, later teams protected this position very well. The attacking midfielder in this position often had to face the attack of multiple opposing defensive players, as well as fierce physical confrontation.
Although most classical attacking midfielders have superb skills, physical confrontation is not their strong point.
In this context, the core of the team has become a trend.
Manero played as an attacking midfielder when he debuted, and then switched to a midfielder or even a defensive midfielder.
But with the development of the times, more than ten years later, the post-positioned organizational core is gradually less suitable.
On the one hand, the pace of modern football is accelerating, and the rear core will miss many fleeting opportunities.
At the same time, although total offense and total defense did not dominate football, the frontcourt pressing tactics it brought made the survival of the rear core dangerous.
In addition, the improvement of the overall quality of the players and the ball-playing abilities of the central defenders and engineer midfielders have also made the rear core relatively useless.
Finally, the long-term adaptation to the post-core playing style has caused most teams to lose the fear and focus on the attacking midfielder position as they did many years ago.
Therefore, the core-forward playing style also has new possibilities.
Izelet is a conformist of the times, born at the historic moment, destined to promote the update of Serie A tactics.
And Lu Yang was just a wave in the wave set off by Izelet.
Of course, this wave may also become a back wave that is stronger than the previous wave. It is not certain.
…
A training match is taking place at the Sanremo training ground.
This is Sanremo's closed training before the second round of the Italian Cup.
It is very dangerous to change the style of play on the spot. Even the famous football coach Gua Gualong, who is bald in English, always suffers from this problem.
Fortunately, the difference between Sanremo's new style of play and their original style of play is not that big.
The one who really has to adapt to this change is their core, Lu Yang himself.
Sanremo's 4213 is mainly used on both wings.
But unlike those devil wings in the future, Sanremo's wings are typical broken wings.
On the left wing, Bayizami will not mention it, and cooperates with the black hole.
The left back is the team's original center back Rondo and the substitute right back.
The right wing is not much better, perhaps more defensively, but right winger Fernandez is also unable to fly.
But Sotu still chooses this way of playing because it doesn't matter whether the wings can fly or not, because what really determines the outcome is the team's midfielder position.
The fundamental purpose of choosing wing play is to send the football to the frontcourt in the simplest way.
Without Moric, the Sanremo midfielder no longer lacks creativity, they don't even have the ability to organize.
If you have to leave football to the midfield, it will breed various problems.
Simply when attacking, there is no need for a midfielder, and the ball is directly played from the wing to the front.
The side faces relatively less defensive pressure, and the football will be passed smoothly.
At this time, Lu Yang, as the attacking midfielder, approached the side with the ball, received the ball, and cooperated with the wing to look for opportunities.
When Lu Yang plays left back, his favorite area is the left rib.
The attacking midfielder position can completely liberate Lu Yang, giving him the power to launch attacks on the left and right ribs at the same time.
Lu Yang in this position can shoot, pass, break through, and has strong physical confrontation ability. He is simply a killer.
Similarly, the rib area is very threatening even if the ball is set. Therefore, Lu Yang will be violated much less often than when he was in the midfield and backcourt, which makes up for his weak ball control ability to a certain extent.
boom!
In the training match, Lu Yang kicked off the ribs and scored directly.
The players are very excited because Lu Yang is obviously very adaptable to the new tactical system.
This feels much better than the previous games when I couldn't use my strength.
Maniero is on the sidelines and has also been seen at Sanremo in recent days.
"Offensively, Lu Yang has been completely activated. He is more threatening near the goal. His shooting is the guarantee of his threatening ability. No one dares to let him fire at will from the midfielder position." Manero said.
"But if we play like this, the team will be out of touch." Tom said, pointing to the field.
On the court, when Lu Yang holds the ball, the two full-backs will press forward appropriately and become full-midfielders.
In order to make up for the defensive loopholes caused by the forward pressure of the full-backs, the two defensive midfielders, Ratuidi and Versage, must stay behind to make up for the loss.
From the back midfielder to Lu Yang, the front midfielder, the remaining large area in the middle is empty.
This is almost equivalent to breaking an arm, which is especially detrimental to the team's offense.
"Isn't this why we chose this style of play?" Manero said with a smile. "The way we pass the football forward, we ignore our midfield and center. We are giving up the midfield to play offense. , this is the price we have to bear during this period of time without Moric."
Tom said: "Well, there is no midfielder involved in the offense. Relying solely on Lu Yang's star-level performance may be effective. But what about the defense? Without the midfielder, our defense will be very dangerous."
At this time, Suotu stood up and pointed at Lu Yang on the court and said: "This is the difference between Lu Yang and Izelet. In terms of defense, he can defend from the opponent's penalty area to our penalty area."
"He can defend from the left to the right, and his coverage is the entire stadium, the entire stadium!"
"Although I don't know why he has such terrifying running ability at the age of seventeen, there is a saying in the East that diligence can make up for failure. Offense depends on talent, defense depends on attitude. He is the one who connects Sanremo's frontcourt and backcourt in defense. bridge."
"If the previous core midfielder required Lu Yang to adapt to the team's tactical system specially created for Moric, then from now on, what he has to adapt to is the team's specially created tactics for him. System."
"Everything in this set of tactics exists to allow Lu Yang to better utilize his own strengths!"
boom!
On the training ground, another goal was born.
This time it was Lu Yang who attracted the defensive player and then sent Soger an overhead pass.
He enjoys this tactical system very much.
Just like a wild horse running wild, free and easy.
But these changes in Sanremo are unknown to the outside world.
As far as the outside world is concerned, what they see is that Lu Yang is lost in the original 433 system.
The media, led by La Repubblica, once again commented on Lu Yang's performance.
Especially in the league round that just happened, Lu Yang suffered his first draw in his career, which is worthy of special mention by these media.
It wasn't until the Serie B team Brescia arrived in the Sunshine City that the news slowed down slightly.
The purpose is not to let Lu Yang and Sanremo go, but to wait until Brescia defeats Sanremo before beating the corpse again!
…
At the pre-match press conference.
The Brescia head coach is very stable. He said that the team does not attach importance to the outcome of this game. Their goal this year is to hit Serie A, and the Italian Cup is not in their plan.
In this game, they mostly used substitutes to find their form.
This doesn’t mean anything to look down on Sanremo, that’s how many teams feel about the cup competition.
There are teams that don't take it seriously if they are less than the top 16, the top eight or even less than the semi-finals.
Even in the later stage, due to the pressure of the league championship or the Champions League and Europa League, even if it reaches the semi-finals, the Italian Cup can be given up.
But that's for the Serie A giants.
The Coppa Italia is a great honor for most non-powerful teams in Serie A, let alone Serie B teams.
So, if possible, Brescia certainly hopes they can go one step further.
The reason why the substitutes played was because they believed that the substitute lineup was enough to defeat Sanremo.
It’s not like they don’t understand Sanremo at all, or in other words, because of the conflict between Lu Yang and La Repubblica, almost half of the Italian football world knows what problems Sanremo is encountering now.
Core injury retired.
Not to mention that the new core was extremely uncomfortable, and even lost its previous dominance in the game.
The entire team is extremely lacking in offense.
It would be perfect for a team like this to train substitutes and young players and let them find their confidence.
As for Sanremo, it was Suotu who showed up at the pre-match press conference with Lu Yang.
After Sotu announced Sanremo's lineup, reporters at the scene suddenly had the urge to ask questions.
Reporter: "Sotu, is this true? Sanremo has never played in a 4213 formation before, but you arranged it like this when facing a strong opponent. Do they know that you have such high demands on your own players?"
Sotu said with a dark face: "This lineup is not much different from our previous playing style. Most players can adapt."
Reporter: "Are you sure? These are completely two sets of playing styles centered on different cores. Your previous 433 core was Moric in the middle, but now? We can see in the first few games that Lu Yang is not qualified. A back-core style of play.”
Sotu: "So I moved him forward, he is no longer a defensive midfielder, he is the 1 in 4213!"
Reporter: "You must be crazy! He can't feel comfortable playing from behind, and you actually let him go to the front? I can even imagine what kind of disastrous performance he will have next."
Sotu: "We'll see. By the way, you're a reporter from La Repubblica, right?"
Reporter: "Yes."
Sotu: "Security! Didn't Lu Yang say that reporters from La Repubblica will never be welcome at the press release site in Sanremo! Ask him to leave immediately, and don't let this happen again!"
The reporter from La Repubblica left the scene depressed.
Don’t talk about martial ethics!
At this time, other reporters asked: "Lu Yang, can you talk about your performance in the past few games? We can see that you performed very tenaciously. You grabbed two goals for the team in a very unfavorable situation. A win and a draw.”
"Everyone can see your struggle in Moric's position. How will you handle this game?"
This is a neutral reporter. His questions are sincere and to the point.
Lu Yang said: "Sanremo does not need a second Moric. In this game, I will use my own way to bring the team a victory."
Reporter: "Victory? Are you sure? Your opponent is a strong Serie B team!"
Lu Yang: "I am extremely sure!"
Reporter: "Okay, I'm looking forward to your performance."
…
In the team's locker room, Sotu was explaining to the players targeted kicking methods against the opponent.
Sanremo wants to do something in the Italian Cup, so they have specialized research on every opponent in the cup.
It is not difficult to obtain Serie B information.
After all, he also has a good gay friend, Manero, who is currently doing nothing and has a pain in the ass, right?
There are rumors that Maniero is likely to accept the position of head coach of the Italian youth team next summer and lead the Italian teenagers to compete in the European Youth Championship.
And if he completes it successfully, he will likely become the head coach of the Italian national team in the summer of the next year and lead the team to compete in the European Cup!
Of course, the premise is that the Italian national team can break out of the European Cup qualifiers.
As one of the candidates for the future head coach of the national youth team and the national team, Manero should have an in-depth understanding of Italian football, so he has information about almost all Serie A and Serie B teams.
"Brescia's lineup is a traditional 4-4-2 formation, with parallel positions in the midfield. The forward players include Arnold, a speed player that everyone is familiar with." Sotu said, "Because most of them are substitute players, they are not actually strong, and even have a tacit understanding. It’s not as good as us in any aspect.”
"I ask our defense not to press forward, not to give the opponent a chance to counterattack, and to stabilize the situation before trying to attack."
"Lu Yang, their parallel positioning midfielder cannot prevent the push. As long as you can pass one person, you have passed the entire line of defense. In the early stages of the game, this is our best opportunity. You must Get a grip!"
In the locker room, the players nodded.
Especially Lu Yang.
Lu Yang has never been a core player, even if his statistics are far better than those of the core players.
But there is a world of difference between core players and role players.
This is the theoretical basis for most people in the market to underestimate him.
Now, it's time to prove that he lives up to his reputation as Italy's future midfield duo.
He, Lu Yang, is also a ruthless character who can play the core role!
