After receiving the award from Zurich, Yang Yang and others returned to Madrid non-stop.

The team's return to training after a week of Christmas break and the 16th round of La Liga on the evening of January 3 will obviously be a big challenge.

It's like just after the Spring Festival, after the big vacation, and when you start working again, it is inevitable that you will be a little out of shape, and even on the first day of the team's restart of training, everyone went to the team doctor Carlos Díaz to report that when the body was checked, many people were overweight.

It's not a big deal at all, and everyone is used to it.

Every Spring Festival to gain three pounds, as long as professional players are on vacation, it is basically difficult to maintain the kind of self-discipline during the league, coupled with the diet and parties during the festival, it is natural to get fat.

Not to mention others, even Yang Yang's data is a little unsatisfactory.

But it's not because of his lack of self-discipline, but because he's been on the go these days, either to club events, to sponsor events, and to travel long distances to Dubai and Zurich, which has caused his training and diet to become very irregular, which naturally affects his body.

"It's okay, you're pretty good in comparison." Carlos Díaz comforted with a smile.

"Carlos is right, adjust slowly." Jesterdam also comforted.

But Yang Yang still sighed deeply, he was somewhat involuntarily.

He is now the number one star in the team, he is followed everywhere he goes, and he is the façade of the team, so there are naturally many things outside the stadium, such as this trip to Dubai, which was promoted by Real Madrid's officials.

If not, he would rather stay at home and live comfortably.

The coaching staff is obviously mentally prepared for the situation of the players, and has made a recipe for each person before the holiday, but God knows how many people can strictly follow it?

After Benitez received the player's physical examination report submitted by the medical team, his face became ugly, and he said a few words fiercely, but he was not too harsh, and the subsequent training was mainly based on adjustment, and he did not blindly measure.

However, in the afternoon, the team had a tactical training session, which consisted of defensive drills.

……

Benitez's tactical philosophy boils down to two words, balance.

The balance between attack and defense, the balance between the wings and the middle, the balance between fast and slow.

As a Spaniard, he played at Real Madrid, but not very well, and after retiring as an academy coach at Real Madrid, it was Italian football that had the most profound impact on him, especially the AC Milan team coached by Sacchi.

A tight defensive formation, with a distance of no more than twenty-five meters from the center forward to the last defender.

The team, as a compact unit, moves up and down the pitch, moving left and right.

This style of play is somewhat similar to the feeling of the Roman phalanx, and it is this tactical concept that has created a well-rounded team like Liverpool.

Benitez's philosophy is to press and press through a tight overall formation, without giving the opponent any breathing room.

The benefits are clear, and it's fair to say that Liverpool's success over the past few years has been built on the same tactical style of play that Real Madrid did in their 5-0 away win over Barcelona.

But there's a catch, and that's that this style of play places a lot of emphasis on the team's tactical execution and player availability.

When he was in Liverpool, some British media once criticized Benitez's defense, believing that this kind of zone-to-man defense system that integrates zone defense and man-to-man has serious problems, whether it is in set-piece defense or defending the opponent's attack, it is easy to expose problems.

For this reason, the British media even discussed and criticized Benitez's zone-to-man defensive system at length, and the biggest movement was Liverpool's Champions League defeat to Chelsea at home, defender Branislav Ivanovic hit consecutive headers, which made Benitez almost everyone's sinner after the game.

……

'Liverpool have four defenders and their names are: Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Nobody.

'When Ivanovic needs to be marked, everybody believes someone will do it.'

"Anyone can do it well, but in the end no one does it. Everyone gets angry when no one does it because it's everyone's job. Everyone thinks that some people will do it, but no one realizes that no one is actually going to do it. ”

"The result is that everybody scolds somebody because nobody has done something that anybody can do well from the start."

"So, Liverpool went home."

……

This was a joke used by the media at the time to ridicule Liverpool.

It's a joke, but it's a very clear dissect of the problem of the so-called zone-to-man defence, which is too complicated.

But in the face of ridicule, sarcasm and sarcasm from the outside world, Benitez has repeatedly emphasized one thing, that is, Liverpool's zone-to-man defense is a state-of-the-art defensive concept, and there are problems, but there is no need to criticize this style of play.

Zone defense can lead to grey areas on the pitch because each player has a limited area to cover; Man-to-man can eliminate grey areas, but the opponent's frequent runs can lead to more people being missed by defenders.

Benitez is not wrong with the combination of man-to-man in zone defence, a defensive philosophy that is gradually being used by more and more teams.

But in the world of professional football, results dominate.

It doesn't matter if you're doing it right or not, if the result is wrong, you're going to be wrong!

The same is true for Real Madrid today.

Benitez's zone marking system is too complex, with both zone defending and man marking, how to define it, how to switch effectively, how to work as a team...... Too many problems were pushed in front of the Real Madrid players at once.

So sometimes you can see that Real Madrid's goals conceded are consecutive goals in just a few minutes, and that is because the team was caught off guard by the opponent in a very short period of time and messed up.

In response to this situation, the coaching staff could not come up with a more effective way, and could only repeatedly emphasize training and running-in.

How is it possible to completely resolve the problems accumulated over the past years in just a few months?

What's more, whether it is Ramos, Pepe or Vermaelen, they are all young players, and they are not calm enough in terms of experience.

However, in this post-Christmas training camp, Benitez and Yesterdam still came up with some new initiatives.

During the afternoon tactical training, Benitez divided the team into two groups, each with 10 men.

Coaches move anywhere on the pitch, they pass the ball to each other, and when the ball reaches a coach, the ten players on the pitch will immediately approach the coach and press him.

At the same time, the likes of Rafael Benitez and Jesterdam will be closely watching the team's formation from the sidelines, especially focusing on the change of position of the players, whether the overall formation is tight and orderly, and whether there are compressed gaps between the three lines......

As soon as a player makes a mistake, Benitez will immediately call a stop and immediately go over to coach.

Obviously, this is a new training method that Benitez has come up with during the Christmas season, with the aim of helping Real Madrid players become familiar with and implement his area-marking defence system as soon as possible.

In addition, Benitez has also made a lot of preparations, giving the players a tactical lesson every day, hoping to improve the players' tactical understanding and tactical literacy on the pitch as soon as possible.

Yang Yang, Xavi Alonso, Arbeloa and Mascherano are all old courtiers of Benitez's time at Liverpool, and they also know a lot about the team's defensive system, and they also help analyze and explain it to their teammates on weekdays.

Pepe's injury made Benitez decide to put Arbeloa at right wing-back and let Ramos return to central defense to partner with Vermaelen.

However, the specific effect still needs to be tested in actual combat.

…………

…………

On January 2, La Liga resumed its fire.

Barcelona faced Villarreal and after Pedro scored in the opening kicker, Villarreal equalised in the second half and eventually drew 1-1 at home to the Yellow Submarine.

The next day, Real Madrid took on Osasuna away.

Real Madrid dominated the road but were unable to find the back of the net against Osasuna after 90 minutes of hard fighting, and eventually took a point back from the away side 0-0.

The team was disappointed with the result, as everyone was hoping to take advantage of Barcelona's drop in points to extend their lead further, as they faced the Champions League on both fronts.

For Real Madrid this season, the Champions League is crucial.

Because the Champions League final is being played at the Bernabeu!

……

In midweek, the Spanish Copa del Rey round of 16 knockout round.

Real Madrid hosted Racing Santander, and Rafael Benitez played with a half-main and half-substitute lineup, but the home team was tied 2-2.

In the 56th and 61st minutes of the second half, two goals were conceded in just five minutes.

Real Madrid's defensive prowess has once again been questioned by the media.

……

At the weekend, the seventeenth round of La Liga.

Real Madrid hosted Real Mallorca.

Yang Yang received an assist from Sneijder in the opening seven minutes to open the scoring for the team.

At the beginning of the second half, Real Madrid attacked again and it worked, and Yang Yang assisted Ibrahimovic to score.

In the end, Real Madrid defeated Real Mallorca 2-0 at home.

However, it was also in this round that Barcelona beat Tenerife 5-0 away.

Messi scored a hat-trick in this game, successfully chasing his La Liga goal this season to 13 goals, just one goal behind Yang Yang and surpassing David Villa and Ibrahimovic.

This also makes people feel Messi's outburst.

……

Three days later, the second leg of the Copa del Rey round of 16 knockout round.

Real Madrid drew 0-0 away from Racing Santander again, and the final score was 2-2 on aggregate, but they were unfortunately eliminated because of an away goal, which immediately made the outside media question again.

Fortunately, Barcelona was also 1-2 at home, 1-0 away, and 2-2 on aggregate, but the number of away goals was few, and they were eliminated by Sevilla, which was somewhat saved by Real Madrid.

However, after the winter break, Real Madrid have not been able to find their form, which has also become a concern for everyone.