487

After the match against Osasuna, it was followed by the third round of the league, when Atletico Madrid played Valencia away.

If Atletico Madrid deserved to win the first game, then the Mestalla Stadium against Valencia is probably the key game to watch along the way.

In fact, many media believe that Valencia's strength this season is a little behind last season.

Especially in terms of personnel, Valencia transferred a staggering sixteen players in the summer transfer window this season!

Juan Mata, Joaquín, Isco and Fernandes were all sold. It is clear that the biggest loss to Valencia is Spain international Juan Mata, the Asturian who was Valencia's best player last season, contributing eight goals and twelve assists in the league.

In terms of transfers, Valencia cleared sixteen players, but only six were brought in: Piatti (Almeria 0, Diego Alves (Almeria), Parejo (Getafe), Canales (Real Madrid), Lamy (Lille) and Pereira (Sporting Lisbon).

For Valencia manager Unai Emery, this is his fourth year in charge. Speaking of which, there are only four managers in the history of the club, which was founded in 1919, including Unai Emery, who has been in charge for more than four years.

Unai Emery arrived from Almeria FC in 2007 and led Valencia to a sixth-place finish, a big improvement over the tragic performance of the Coman era a year ago. They even hovered in the relegation zone that year, finishing 10th.For the next two years, Emery led the team to Champions League qualification in a row, but the team's chairman, Llorente, felt his performances were only worthy of a one-year extension. However, Llorente was not happy with the team's position in the league, especially this season when Valencia slipped to fourth place, and the rise of Atletico Madrid made Llorente angry.

For Emery, the pressure on him is also quite high.

After four years in charge of the team, you haven't brought a single trophy to Valencia.

In terms of the league, Valencia's championship heart has been extinguished, and last season, due to the rise of Atletico Madrid, Valencia also saw the hope of competing for the league title - Atletico Madrid can do it, why can't Valencia?

Originally, Valencia's management and fans didn't have any thoughts about the league title, because no matter what, they couldn't compete for Barcelona and Real Madrid.

However, the success of Atletico Madrid last season made Valencia's top management feel that since a team like Atletico Madrid, which has been down for more than ten years, can win the championship, there is no reason why Valencia can't think about it.

This inadvertently put a lot of pressure on Emery.

Unai Emery thinks that if the team is going to fight for the title, why sell Juan Mata and others?

From Valencia's recruitment strategy, I don't see the ambition of this team, selling people while asking for the championship!

Isn't this another need to milk the cows and prevent them from grazing?

Unai Emery is a little pessimistic about the team's prospects this season, but in any case, he can't be pessimistic in front of the players, on the contrary, he has to stimulate the players' desire to play, especially this game!

In his position, Unai Emery can't just mess up this season because he hasn't sold people at the top, and his work ethic can't make him do such a thing.

........

In fact, for the Valencia team, Gao Bo did not dare to underestimate it.

But considering the Champions League game four days later, in this game, Gao Bo did a little bit of rotation!

There were two changes at the back, with Juanfran still playing at right-back, the centre-back pairing Godin and Lucio, and Sandro at left-back.

In midfield, N'Golo Kante, Gabi and Luka Modric started the game.

And in the frontcourt, it is Mane, Aguero, Griezmann!

Compared to the start of the previous game, Atletico Madrid has four personnel adjustments!

In the home dressing room, Unai Emery was given the starting line-up for Atletico Madrid.

"Did they save for the Champions League?"

One of Emery's aides said next to him with a frown.

Stay....

Emery thought for a moment, then shook his head.

'Their starting line-up was also very good, Gabi and N'Golo Kante, two defensive players in midfield.....

"They're going to play on the counter-attack away from home?"

"Maybe, I'll find out when it's time for the game!" Emery put the information down in his hand and looked up.

"But whatever they play, let's just play the way we want!!

.......

When it came time to play, Unai Emery noticed that Atletico Madrid's formation had changed somewhat.

It's not 433, Gao Bo arranged a 4231 formation in the away game!

Gabi and N'Golo Kante are both in midfield, behind Modric, while Modric is flanked by Mane and Griezmann!

Emery looked at Gao Bo not far away.

Atletico Madrid have used a starting midfield like the one they have now, but it was Luka Modric behind him, with N'Golo Kante and Gabi on his flanks.

Now Luka Modric has moved to the midfield position, and the two wingers have dropped back a bit.

What is Gao Bo paying attention to?

......

In fact, Gao Bo still thinks about the Champions League.

In this game, Atletico Madrid needs to win the "economy", the so-called economy, that is, first of all, the main players should not consume too much physical energy, and at the same time, avoid injuries as much as possible.

Playing away from home, facing a strong team like Valencia, Gao Bo's arrangement seems to be a bit too big.

But Gao Bo doesn't think he's holding himself up!

Because after thinking about it for a long time, he finally decided to exchange the orange card from last season's "Undefeated Season" mission reward.

[Match Card (Orange): The team's long-range shooting rate has been increased by 15%, and the accuracy of crosses from the side has been increased by 15%!! 】

For Atletico Madrid, they are not afraid to face opponents who will attack them and pull them out. However, if the team shrinks into the penalty area and does not come out, even if the passing and running position of Atletico Madrid in the front field is flexible, I am afraid it will be difficult to find opportunities from the dense iron bucket formation.

Long-range shots and wide crosses are undoubtedly two powerful tools to break through dense defences, but in normal times, these two skills are also very powerful.

If you want to win the opponent economically, I am afraid it will be more effective to use some simpler methods.

The new cards have made Gao Bo's tactical arrangement more biased towards long-range shooting.

When Valencia defended, they naturally played in a dense formation, while squeezing Atletico Madrid's passing space in midfield as much as possible.

.......

The advantage of 4231 is that it is a relatively balanced formation, whether it is offensive or defensive, each player has a clear division of labor,

Valencia, who plays at home, is actually very good at penetrating short passes in the middle, so Kante and Gabi lock the middle in the midfield, which is also a targeted deployment.

In fact, the same was true in the game, with Valencia's midfield penetrating completely unable to penetrate the defence of N'Golo Kante and Gabi.

In this game, Atletico Madrid made rotations on the one hand, and on the other hand, in the game, they also adopted a relatively low-effort style of play. When defending, he stands in position, and after winning the ball, he slowly swallows it to his feet, and he doesn't seem to be in a hurry to counterattack.

The game was very dull, but this was a deliberate act by Atletico Madrid, who controlled the ball and did not rush to attack, but slowly lured the Valencia players out and then used the individual abilities of Griezmann and Mane on both sides to attack the Valencia backline.

The first goal was a long-range goal!! In this game, Gao Bo emphasized before the game to strengthen the long-range shot, and in the game, the long-range shot really had an effect!

Modric got a chance to shoot from the top of the penalty area, and this shot was of very high quality, the football went straight to the corner, and the goalkeeper had no choice at all!

In fact, Atletico Madrid had tried a couple of long-range shots before that.

At the time, Unai Emery thought they weren't paying attention to the league – maybe the Atletico Madrid players were thinking about the midweek league.

As a result, Modric scored with this kick.... That led Unai Emery to think his team was out of luck.

Valencia's attack was through the wings, with the middle closed by N'Golo Kante and Gabi's iron gates, and Valencia could get some chances on the wing.

However, after Atletico Madrid's goal, they controlled the ball at their feet, forcing Valencia to make more runs and press to get the ball back.

The result was not ideal, with Atletico Madrid playing even more unhurriedly after taking the lead, and until the end of the first half, Valencia did not get a few chances to attack.

In the second half, the game was still the same.

Unai Emery was also a little helpless about this situation, and Valencia completely lost ground in midfield!

That's because even if they do get the ball, it's hard to keep it under control like they did last season, and Valencia's control has dropped a lot without Mata.

With that, Atletico Madrid's second goal also came!

It's still a long-range shot!

This time it was Antoine Griezmann, who picked up the ball on the flank and cut inside to score Atletico Madrid's second goal of the game!

After that, Gao Bo began to deploy his players, and he replaced several players who had the opportunity to play in the Champions League to give them a feel for the atmosphere of the game.

Atletico Madrid were slow to control the tempo, and in the end Valencia had to settle for a dull defeat at home.