On the evening of July 17, Beijing Workers' Stadium.

In the opening match of the Asian Cup, the first round of Group A, the host China faced Bahrain.

When the game reached the 40th minute, the Chinese team pressed the attack, the back defense was weak, and the opponent played a long pass counterattack, and the No. 29 striker of the Bahrain team directly faced the goalkeeper and scored a goal.

The goal came so suddenly that all the fans in the stadium were shocked.

Even the coaches and substitutes on the pitch were equally surprised.

No one thought that the Chinese team, which had just attacked in front of the opponent's goal and created a lot of threats, would suddenly be broken through by a counterattack, allowing the away Bahrain team to take the lead.

The audience burst into boos, and the Chinese fans at the scene were clearly unhappy with the result.

The national team players on the field were also hit hard.

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Yang Yang sat on the bench and watched the game silently, and after seeing the opponent's striker score, he could only shake his head in disappointment, which was an unexpected, but reasonable goal.

Alihan once again discharged the 442 formation in this game, including Yang Yang, Sun Jihai and Shao Jiayi, three foreign internationals were put on the bench, and it was not until the 32nd minute that Shao Jiayi came on the field to replace the injured Li Xiaopeng.

Although it is four-four-two, in fact, Alihan's arrangement is quite exquisite.

Yan Song on the left was the main breakthrough in the team's attack, Li Jinyu and Hao Dong were asked to expand their range of activities, while on the right side, Zhao Junzhe, who was supposed to play in the middle of the midfield, Li Xiaopeng and teenager Zhou Haibin occupied the middle.

This kind of employment seems strange, but if you think about it carefully, it is not surprising at all.

Alihan's requirements for the midfield are very simple, exactly the same as Ajax, that is, pressing and pressing, once the ball is lost, launch a counter-attack on the spot, even if you can't grab the ball, you must delay the opponent's attack.

Using Zhao Junzhe to play on the right side is obviously to use him to suppress the opponent's left side and give full play to his more abundant physical strength than Li Xiaopeng, but he doesn't seem to appreciate the manager's intentions, leaning more towards the middle and letting the right side out.

The goal conceded was a long pass from Bahrain's left backfield.

Wei is diligent and diligent, with no bright performances, but there are no mistakes, but his characteristics are not good at attacking forward.

Zhou Haibin was supposed to play a role similar to AC Milan Pirlo, giving full play to his scoring and organizational skills, but now he has to put more energy into defense, but defense is not his strong point.

Judging from the entire first half, Alihan's use of personnel was understandable, but it was definitely a failure, because the players couldn't understand his intentions at all, just like Zheng Zhi couldn't understand what a central defender was before.

High pressing and passing the ball in the middle and back are not new at all in Ajax, in the Netherlands and in European football, but for Chinese football, this kind of thing is too advanced for players to understand.

is like Yang Yang, it took a lot of time before to let his roommate Zheng Zhi have a preliminary understanding of the responsibilities of the ball central defender.

This time, he played the Toulon Cup first, and then participated in the national team training camp, Yang Yang found that if purely from the perspective of personal technical ability, Chinese players are not too bad, and the reason why they feel so bad is mainly in terms of psychological quality and tactical literacy.

Tactical literacy is not something that can be done overnight, but through long-term accumulation, through youth training and leagues, the national team is not a place to cultivate players, especially now after FIFA reforms the schedule, it is basically a mechanism of recruiting and playing, and the requirements for the tactical literacy of players are higher.

The psychological quality was even more vividly reflected in the first half against Bahrain.

Both Alihan and the Bahrain coach stressed before the game that the hosts' home game was a double-edged sword that could help, but too much pressure could also overwhelm the players, and the first half undoubtedly reflected that.

The players played too restrained on the field, fearing to make mistakes and couldn't let go, coupled with the inability to implement the manager's tactical intentions, resulting in the team playing chaotically and without discipline, which was successfully attacked by Bahrain.

Of course, in addition to the factors of the national team, the Football Association is also quite bad in the entire logistical preparation, and it is not even as professional as the Ajax second team in terms of intelligence, at least it is not easy for Yang Yang to even simulate his opponent in the super training ground.

And the previous encounter of the national youth team in the Toulon Cup also reflects this problem.

In addition to intelligence and logistics organization, the players' eating habits, professionalism and other aspects are still lacking, whether it is the previous national youth team or the current national team, Yang Yang has seen that some teammates have irregular diets, but he can only pretend not to care, and he himself is absolutely strictly in accordance with the requirements to restrain himself.

I don't know if it's because of reading, Yang Yang likes to think very much, he feels that the various phenomena he has seen so far show that China's entire football industry is still in a very backward stage, and no one pays enough attention to it.

As for the national team coach Alihan, Yang Yang has a good personal impression of him, the coaching level is definitely there, and the thinking is quite clear, he just wants to transplant Ajax's style of play to the Chinese team, but for the time being, it is not good.

The tactics are too complicated, even if Yang Yang has played at Ajax for a year, he is not sure that he has completely figured it out, let alone a player of the national team?

In addition, the strength of the national team's forward line is insufficient, and the sense of pressing and pressing in the midfield is not enough, especially the overall pressing and pressing.

This kind of forcing must be a whole to be effective, one or two people are forced, it is useless.

As for the strikers, looking at the strikers that Ajax has relied on over the years, it is not difficult to guess that this style of play is dependent on forwards, and even a strong center forward like Ibrahimovic cannot meet all the requirements of Ajax.

After thinking about this layer, Yang Yang suddenly had a feeling that Alihan himself should know, after all, he has been coaching for two years, and it is impossible to say that he has not counted in his heart, and from the beginning of the training camp, what he emphasized the most and grasped the most strictly, is defense.

In other words, he knows where the problems of the Chinese team are now, and he is also trying to find a way to solve them.

At this moment, Yang Yang suddenly recalled a sentence that Alihan had told him when he was in the Netherlands.

"Whether it's the Chinese team or me, it's very, very much needed right now."

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"Yang Yang!"

Just as Yang Yang was thinking about it, Alihan, who was standing in front of the coach's seat, suddenly turned around and shouted skillfully in Dutch.

"Hurry up and warm up, go back to the locker room immediately, I'll wait for you."

After saying that, he had already taken Dejan directly into the players' tunnel.

And by this time, the first half of the game on the pitch was over.

The Chinese team fell behind Bahrain 0-1.

Is Alihan going to make a substitution in midfield?

Many people couldn't understand Alihan's Dutch, but they all vaguely guessed what it meant, and they all turned their heads to look at the new recruit of the national team, with different eyes.

From the first day Yang Yang joined the team, everyone knew that he was from the Netherlands and from Ajax, and he was a player handpicked by Alihan, and it was only a matter of time before he was reused.

And now, Alihan can't wait.

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Yang Yang didn't pay attention to the eyes and thoughts of the other players, he quickly ran up to the field to warm up, and then quickly returned to the locker room.

As soon as he entered, he noticed that the atmosphere in the locker room was strange.

The atmosphere between the players and the manager was a bit stiff and it was clear that both sides had some opinions about each other.

It's not uncommon in the dressing room, hello when you win, it's tense when you lose, it's the same for teams all over the world.

But the rule of the locker room is that when you walk out of this door, you can't tell the outside what is going on inside.

After seeing Yang Yang come in, the expressions of many players in the locker room changed significantly.

Yang Yang can play in a number of positions, he made his debut as a right winger at Ajax, but he played as a striker in the Toulon Cup, and the previous video clip made many people optimistic that he would play in midfield, and no one guessed what Alihan would do with him.

"Zhou, I'm sorry, we had to make some tactical changes in the second half." Alihan said apologetically to Zhou Haibin.

Zhou Haibin nodded silently, stood up, turned around and walked to the shower area behind.

Many people in the locker room obviously didn't believe what Alihan said, except for Yang Yang.

The starting tactics in the first half were too complicated, the players didn't execute it well, and it really needed to be adjusted.

Zhao Junzhe returned to the middle and defended backwards, Shao Jiayi moved forward, Yan Song and Yang Yang played two wings, this should be Alihan's adjustment, in this case, Zhou Haibin was very embarrassed, the defense behind the delay was not as good as Zhao Junzhe, and the forward attack was not as good as Shao Jiayi, so he could only be replaced.

"Yang, in the first half we gave the opponent too much freedom on the left side, and in the second half I pressed him, can you do it?" Alihan asked in a deep voice.

Yang Yang nodded and said, "Yes." ”

"I don't want you to defend, I just want you to press them down the left side and stop letting them pass that kind of ball, understand?"

The goal conceded in the first half was a long pass from the left side of the backfield, and the defenders did not step forward to block it at the first time, and the air defense weakness of the Chinese team, which was pressed greatly, was exposed.

"I know." Yang Yang nodded.

Alihan is also very relieved of Yang Yang, he is very aware of Yang Yang's performance at Ajax, many things that others can't understand, he believes that Yang Yang will definitely be able to, because that's what he did at Ajax.

The rest of the dressing room was blank.

That's it?

In the first half, there was a change of people because of injuries, and at halftime, a seventeen-year-old player was replaced, and the tactical arrangement was so simple. Doesn't it need to be carefully arranged?

"Coach, do you want to explain to Yang Yang in detail?" A member of the Chinese coaching staff asked with concern.

Alihan shook his head and said, "No, he understands." ”

As he spoke, he turned his head and arranged the second half of the game in detail with Shao Jiayi, and decided to change from the original attack on the left side to the current two-wing take-off, because Yang Yang also has a strong assault ability.

The members of the Chinese coaching staff still felt uneasy, turned around and asked Yang Yang, "Are you sure you understand what you want to do?" If you don't understand, you have to ask more questions, ask clearly, otherwise you will be dizzy when you get to the field. ”

Yang Yang knew that the other party had good intentions, and he was not angry, so he nodded lightly and said, "I really understand." ”