With all the players back in the team, this will be the first tactical training session that can be carried out exactly as Yan Jing envisioned.

The 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 set-up he used last season wasn't the best tactic he had in mind, but the staffing didn't suit the tactics he had in mind, and he had to settle for the next best thing.

He divided the players into two teams, one by orange and one green training vest. The players from both teams followed Yan Jing's instructions to their positions and looked up from above, a formation that Dortmund had never used before.

Villa played as the lone arrow up front, behind David Silva on the left wing, Lars Ricken in the middle and Di Maria on the right. Defensive midfielders Yaya Toure and Kyle protect the gaps behind them, while the back is still an increasingly popular back four in modern football.

Yan Jing lined up a 4-2-3-1 formation, which has not been around for a long time, which has been gradually favored by coaches from all walks of life in recent years. If you want to talk about the prototype of this formation, it should be the AC Milan team under the Italian coach Capelo in the mid-90s. At that time, Milan, who had the Dutch trio, focused on short-distance fast passes, while relying on diagonal passes from the side to disrupt the opposition's dense defensive formation. However, in this way, the Milan back line will encounter a lot of defensive pressure, and in order to relieve the pressure on the back, Capello began to try to let the midfielder take on some of the defensive duties.

In the frontcourt attack line, Baggio and Savicevic, two No. 9 and a half players, hid behind the lone striker Weah, forming a triangle attack. Although this attacking routine was not used much due to Capello leaving Baggio on the bench for a long time, it is widely believed that this is the origin of the later 4-2-3-1 formation.

In the 1998 World Cup in France, the coach of the French team, Jacques, made a heavy reform, he officially used this formation, and led the French team to win the championship, and the 4-2-3-1 formation officially entered the football world.

With the continuous innovation and reform of many coaches, this formation has become more and more perfect, and the number of teams that choose to try has also begun to increase. Of course, these teams are mainly from Spain, and the Spaniards, who love passing, love this formation that can make the most of it.

In the 2001/02 season, when Bosque became Real Madrid manager, he found that the team's backline was ageing and the two full-backs had to take on a considerable amount of attacking duty, so they had to be relieved of their defensive burden. According to the "Zidane Pavon" policy of the superstar and Florentino, Bosque opted to change the formation to 4-2-3-1.

It is the "control instead of defending" formation that allows Real Madrid to successfully reduce the burden on the fragile backline with attacking possession, and the supernatural ability of the midfield superstar allows them to defend well and have a magnificent attack at the same time.

That season, they managed to win the European competition.

Of course, different coaches have different interpretations of the same formation.

The Spanish team led by the old coach Aragonés before Yan Jing's rebirth, they evolved this formation into the ultimate ball control system, and dozens of short passes directly passed the ball into the opponent's door, so that the opponent couldn't even touch the edge of the ball.

Another extreme example is the Ukrainian team Dynamo Kyiv, which also used 4-2-3-1 that year. Their coach at the time, Lobanovski, was more concerned about the speed and efficiency of the attack, with six defenders and midfielders to defend solidly, while the attack in the midfield was not like Spain's, with a quick through ball and a four-man in the front court constantly running to pull out space and get chances, and then give the opponent a fatal blow.

How to use this formation mainly depends on the characteristics of the players in the team. At that time, the Kyiv Dynamo was the famous "Ukrainian nuclear warhead" Shevchenko, and his front-court partner Rebrov, who was also called the "Ukrainian Gemini", was amazingly fast. They have made many big teams, including Bayern Munich and Barcelona, suffer.

Yan Jing's tactics for the team are more inclined to Dynamo Kyiv.

New French signing Francois Franck Ribery is at the heart of his attacking arsenal and his pace is a terrifying weapon for any team.

With a strong one-man combat ability, the Frenchman also has a wide field of vision and excellent passing skills, and Yan Jing believes that in the game Ribery will be able to deliver the decisive pass for Villa in front of him.

David Silva on the left is a little less fast than Ribery, but he is definitely the number one in the Bundesliga. Limited by physical condition, his individual combat ability is not as good as Ribery's, but his good overall view and ability to organize attacks are what Yan Jing really values.

Unlike Dynamo Kyiv's 4-2-3-1, the left and right wingers in Yanjing's lineup are very different from ordinary wingers.

Silva and Franck Ribery are versatile players up front and can play in many positions, so in this set of tactics, Yan Jing gives them more room to move. They are not confined to the wings, and when the timing is right, they can interpolate into the shadow striker position and work with the centre-forward and midfielders in front of them. At the same time, the two can also pull back to the side at any time to take away the opponent's defenders, and tear up the opponent's defense through guò's constant running and positioning, and fully penetrate the attack into every corner with team cooperation.

The first time he received the ball from Sneijder's feet, Ribery used his speed to force a swipe past Dede, who was defending him.

Yan Jing ran with the player with a whistle around his neck, and he watched the situation on the field as the referee, Yaya Toure ran aggressively to make up for Dede's lost position, and forced Ribery out of the touchline with his strong body.

In a 4-2-3-1 formation, the two defensive midfielders have a clear division of labor and specific tasks.

Although both men are nominally midfielders, one of them has to take on the task of organising the attack at the back.

This tactical innovation still came from AC Milan, and in the 2002/03 season, due to the injury of their leading striker Shevchenko, their manager Carlo Ancelottis' made the move of Andrea Pirlo back to the position of a classic, and since then the "playmaking midfielder" has appeared in the limelight. Carlo Ancelotti's move has benefited both AC Milan and the Italian national team, with Andrea Pirlo becoming one of the best midfielders of his generation, an indispensable member of both club and national team.

The other is no different from the traditional midfielder, whose main task on the field is to contain the penetration of the opponent's middle while protecting his own playmaker.

And Dortmund's back line is subtly different. Yan Jing's goal for Yaya Toure is not a "meat grinder" type of midfielder, nor a playmaker like Andrea Pirlo, but a B2B midfielder who can play both offense and defense.

B2B, which is the abbreviation of BOX-TO-BOX, is simply an offensive midfield player who integrates the two midfield abilities of the back waist line. They are a tireless perpetual motion machine on the field, always in motion: helping to defend, running, attacking, retreating, intercepting B2B midfielders must have more physical and mental strength than most people can imagine, and they also need excellent foot skills.

This kind of player is something that all teams can only dream of, but there are very few players in football today who can reach this level and are a resource as scarce as a good right wing-back.

In Yan Jing's view, the best B2B midfielder in football is the captain of Liverpool in the Premier League, Steven Gerrard, and it is no wonder that teams like Chelsea and Real Madrid have repeatedly asked for him.

Yaya Toure has the potential to become a super B2B midfielder, but he is more than enough defensively at the moment and needs to be developed in attack.

Therefore, Yan Jing has no intention of directly asking Toure to do the same as Gerrard for the time being, and he intends to gradually raise the standard of Toure's performance in the middle of the season.

Yan Jing did not directly divide the team according to the main force and the substitutes, he divided the strength of the two teams as evenly as possible.

Seeing that the young and vigorous Coentrão once again rushed to the front regardless of a single qiē, Yan Jing couldn't help but open his mouth to remind: "Fabio, don't rush too high! Pay attention to the empty space behind you!"

Regardless of the style of play to focus on, the 4-2-3-1 is very demanding for both full-backs.

Because the two midfielders are in parallel positions, the gaps exposed on the left and right sides of the midfielders are large, and these gaps are usually filled by full-backs.

At the same time, the full-backs also have to take into account the support of the midfielders and the two wing-backs in attack, and enrich the team's attacking means with side crosses.

Therefore, if this formation is used, the performance of the two full-backs will directly affect the performance of the whole team.

Although this set of tactics is still classified as defensive counterattack, Yan Jing is unwilling to use the tactic of brainlessly piling up defenders in the backcourt to stabilize the defense line, and then waiting for an opportunity to play the opponent's backcourt.

In Yan Jing's view, this tactic is a completely passive defensive counterattack, while what he wants to convey to the players is a positive and active defensive counterattack.

Yan Jing demanded that if the team loses possession, two or three players must immediately step forward to counter-attack, exert maximum pressure on the person holding the ball, and do everything possible to regain possession.

When the ball is returned, Yan Jing's request to the players is to "accelerate immediately and transfer the ball to teammates who are also moving at high speed with a pass, forcing the opponent's defense to keep swinging and changing." ”

This is the core point of Yanjing's tactics, the players do not hesitate to press and press with extremely fast offensive and defensive transitions, and finally the extremely fast players seize the opponent's loopholes when the formation changes from attack to defense, and give them a fast, accurate and ruthless fatal blow.

Ribery is not very familiar with the habits of his team-mates, and the players who defend him do not know much about him.

Shaking off the young teenager Shahin, Ribery strode straight into the box and raised his leg to the gate guarded by Weidenfeller to shoot a volley.

"Yay, the ball is in!"