Miss Silvia, the new treasurer of the Madibourg club, was so dizzy with happiness that she almost lost herself when she saw Robert Baggio on the peninsula. Who says only men are?

Robert Baggio, a melancholy hero. He is a football prodigy, an artist comparable to Rafael Sansi. His career is not perfect, but it is this flawed perfection that makes Baggio's tragic hero blue. He was a legend who illuminated the whole of the Apennines and a melancholy prince who conquered the whole world.

Baggio was invited by his good friend and sporting director Hasler to visit Madiburg in Hannover, Germany.

There was no training all morning, but Zhuo Yang came to the peninsula after receiving the notice, and after welcoming Baggio, everyone sat directly in the conference room of the Blue Building, which was originally the purpose of Baggio's visit.

The meeting was attended by director Bantam Hasler, manager Jurgen Klopp, athletic director Andres Muller, who was also a Juventus team-mate with Baggio, and then Zhuo Yang and the entire first-team coaching staff.

At the beginning of the meeting, Baggio didn't say anything to him, and asked directly at Zhuo Yang: "Zhuo Yang, how much do you know about the nine-and-a-half?" Zhuo Yang was stunned when he heard this.

In the earliest days, jerseys were unnumbered. Then it developed to a later stage, and only the players who played had numbers. That's right, because there was no substitution at that time. Therefore, the number on the back of all the players is not selected by themselves, but by the position. Serie A was still like this even in the nineties of the last century, with eleven starters on the field, from 1 to 11 in position, and no one had a fixed number.

As time went on, especially with the advent of the 4-4-2 diamond midfielder, each number gradually had its own place.

For example, the '1' must be the goalkeeper, the 2 or 3 must be the full-back, and so on. Other numbers are given special and symbolic meanings.

The number 9 represents the centre-forward, the number 11 is the winger or shadow striker, and the number 5 becomes the symbol of the core of the back. The number 10 is the core of a team's midfield, the forward midfielder of the soul of the organization.

In the days when the number 10 was the commander of football, the number was basically in the middle circle and the 30-metre line in the front, and these legendary stars are now known as the 'classical midfielders', such as Socrates, Rai, Rui Costa, Riquelme......

Of course, the position of modern football has long been blurred, the division of labor on the field is not as clear as that of classical football, and the meaning of the number on the jersey has gradually faded. Now the numbers in each team are more of a legacy and personal representative, such as the number 10 of the Brazilian team, which is the legacy of Pele; Argentina's No. 10 is to take over the mantle of the king; AC Milan's No.6, commemorating the great Baresi......

However, football is always evolving with the times, and when it comes to the clever tactics against the number 10 midfielder, hard midfielders and even animal waists are beginning to appear, such as the black and hard ones in France. The all-round acceleration on the football field and the increase in the intensity of physical confrontation have also gradually declined the classical forward midfield, and the organizational core of the modern team has begun to move back.

As a result, there is such a problem on the field: such a large area from the middle line of the front court to the front of the opponent's penalty area, there is a lack of people to organize the attack and attack talent. In this area, the team needs a versatile midfielder who can do the work of a former midfielder, a shadow striker or even a central striker, and this player needs to have the ability to dominate this area.

He is not a No.10 in the traditional sense of the word, because he is more aggressive towards the goal; He is also not a serious No. 9, because he is also responsible for the organization and planning of the entire attack line. Thus, the number 9 semi-player came into being.

Naturally, the number '9.5' is not likely to appear on the football field, and it is said to be 'nine and a half' to distinguish it from the traditional number 10 and 9.

He has the ability to score points without losing the center, and at the same time has the ability to get the ball in the front court, make a fatal pass, and can play the counterattack role of No. 11 or return to the rhythm control role of No. 10 when necessary. In other words, in addition to the frontal slashing duties of the number nine, he can play all the roles in the front court, while also being the team's offensive initiator.

Frontcourt free man! That's what the number nine and a half players really mean.

The pioneer of the No.9 and a half type is the famous French star Platini, who has become a pioneer in this position by threading the needle, instigating the overall attack of the large team, and his rare style of seizing the timing of the back and scoring rate without the top-level dribbling ability.

Even better than Platini is naturally Maradona, who uses the best combination of man and ball, ghostly breakthrough and magnificent vision, coupled with unpredictable organization and passing ability, to show the essence of the free man in the front court.

The closest thing to this concept in football today are Ronaldinho and Kaka, as well as Totti and Piero. However, each of these four focuses on its own shortcomings. Xiao Luo's planning ability is a little lacking, he is more like a No. 11 shadow striker, and similar to him is the Roman prince Totti; Kaka's best skill is fast offensive advancement, his feet are mediocre, and he is a standard modern attacking midfielder; Piero is the most comprehensive, but his hard injuries are also the most obvious, with poor ability to grasp opportunities in the big game, and timidity in big scenes.

The one who really inherited the '9 and a half' and carried it forward was Robat Baggio, who was talking in the conference room of the Blue Building.

More than 40 years after Valentino Mazzola led the offensive football to the tragic end of Supega, Baggio reopened the Italian attacking art, and his advantage over Rivera, Mazzola Jr. and others at the technical level is that he is not only a quadathlon master like Maradona, nor a "pseudo-No. 10" like Platini who started from the middle circle to instigate and intersperse, but a self-contained No. 9 and a half in the position of a second striker, and it is also the representative symbol of the most "No. 9 and a half" conditioned reflex.

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After Zhuo Yang came to the front line in the position, he actually played the traditional '11' shadow striker, also known as the second striker. But the actual effect is not very good. Although Zhuo Yang still scored every game in the new season, it was obviously because of his personal ability, not the power of the new tactics, and Madiburg only achieved a reluctant record of 3 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses.

Zhuo Yang couldn't get the ball in front, and the team's midfield offensive organization was still quite jerky. It's not that freeing Zhuo Yang from defense can completely unleash his attacking power, and it's not that the organization that pushes Zhuo Yang into the frontline midfield can be greatly reduced.

Uncle Scum sees the problem, and he tries to solve it with time; Hasler also saw the problem, and he wanted to solve it with the '9 and a half' tactic.

In order to strengthen Zhuo Yang's attack, it is natural to let him get closer to the opponent's gate, but it is useless to let his organization, planning and strategizing be useless. Baggio's No. 9 and a half should be inherently suitable for Zhuo Yang.