Chapter 15: Football That Brings Victory!

The day's training began again, and with the ambition of upgrading, Gao Bo put infinite enthusiasm into his work.

An upgrade may be a fantasy for Luton, who are minus 30 points at this time, but not for Gao Bo.

There are four places for promotion to the second division, with the top three in the league going straight to promotion, while the third to seventh places in the league will compete for another promotion to the first division.

This means that if Luton are to be promoted, the most guaranteed league position is seventh, and as long as they can finish seventh in the league, then Luton can do wonders through the promotion play-offs.

So how hard is it to finish seventh?

Gao Bo looked at the final points of the seventh place in the second division of the past few seasons, last season's seventh place in the league was Wycombe Wanderers, who finished with 69 points, while in the 2006-2007 season it was Shespoli who finished seventh with 71 points, and in the 2005-2006 season the seventh place in the league was Lincoln City, who ended up with 70 points.

In previous seasons, the seventh place in the league was mostly hovering around 70.

Seventy points in the league can probably be around the seventh place, and Gao Bo does not want to pin his hopes on luck - 70 points is not insurance, so Gao Bo's goal this season is to finally get more than 75 points!!

If he hadn't been deducted 30 points, Gao Bo would still be confident of getting 75 points, but under the current conditions, if he wants to get more than 75 points at the end of the season, it means that Luton Town will actually have to grab 105 points this season!

There are 24 teams in the English second division, with a total of 46 rounds of league play, and theoretically a team can score a maximum of 138 points. But no team can maintain a 48-game winning streak in a long league – football matches are often full of chances, injuries, player form, coaching staff's tactical arrangements, weather and many other factors can affect the course of a game.

The English second division has been around 90 points for years, which means that if Luton want to get a score of 105 points, they will have to perform better than any team that has won the second division before!

.....

With the addition of Jeffrey, the main lineup in Gao Bo's mind has been roughly determined, and the team has gradually entered the overall tactical training relief.

In the tactics designed by Gao Bo, he referred to Sacchi's great Milan team - using the 442 formation to fully compress the space, whether it is defending or attacking, the three lines need to be fully tight.

Sacchi's tactical philosophy has influenced many modern coaches, and Gao Bo, as a head coach, naturally can't avoid the study of Sacchi.

Sacchi's most famous quote is "If our forwards and defenders stay within 25 meters, then we are invincible". Sacchi's football philosophy has really been influenced by the Dutch culture of attacking and defending. Milan under his command played a very typical high pressing and all-out attack, and when the opponent got the ball in the backfield, he began to approach layer by layer and put pressure on the opponent. And the high-level pressing is matched by the backline led by Baresi, and the defensive ability and invincible coordination of the sky have made countless forwards miserable. There was once a joke that the linesman at that time only had to watch Baresi raise his hand, it must have been an offside goal, and he didn't even think about it. Later, it was said that FIFA revised the offside rule because Milan's offside was too invincible.

And in the future, in the case of the gradual decline of 442, which looks quite old-fashioned, the Argentine Simeone picked up 442 again, Simeone improved 442, gave up the traditional 442 for the use of two very open wingers, and instead used two fullbacks who were very close to the middle, forming an airtight middle defense, tight formation, high discipline, and fierce ball style, making Simeone's Atletico Madrid one of the best defensive teams in Europe at that time.

In terms of offense, Gao Bo also used the strategy of overall pressure between the four 442 three lines, when he was without the ball, he asked both forwards to participate in the team's frontcourt pressing, and the forwards began to press and harass the opponent's passing organization, if they can break the ball in the frontcourt, this will undoubtedly give the team a very good counterattack opportunity. In the presence of the ball, Gao Bo requires the team to play a quick ground depth coordination, striving to develop the ball to the core of the opponent between three or two passes, and at the same time complete the shot within seven passes as much as possible!

Gao Bo is not a fan of a certain tactical philosophy, for Gao Bo, he will only choose the tactics that are suitable for his team - those tactics that can bring victory to the team, he is a winner!

Combined with Gao Bo's own understanding of tactics and the development of future football tactics, Gao Bo gradually integrated his understanding of football into the Luton team.

In training, several players brought by Gao Bo gradually showed their strength.

Jamie Vardy and Charlie Austin have both shown great goalscoring prowess, and no Luton player would doubt their quality, at least now. Kante and Drinkwater, the midfield duo, also showed strong midfield control, and Kante's almost invincible tackling ability made almost all players full of respect for this black guy who was shorter than Messi.

With the effect of the training cards, Luton's training is progressing very well.

Of course, before the start of the season, the team still has to play an airport warm-up match to test the results of the team's training.

The first warm-up match was against Oxford United from the fifth tier, and it was played at Luton's own training base with no fans and no journalists.

Gao Bo did not send his main squad in the first half, but gave some of the team's fringe players a chance first, and before the start of the league, Gao Bo was willing to give everyone a chance to play, so that these young players can show their determination and attitude to the manager.

However, even against fifth-tier players, Luton's youngsters were not able to perform too well, and by the end of the first half, Luton Town were 3-0 down.

Gao Bo looked at him from the sidelines and shook his head, Luton had almost sold out their main lineup, and if it was to rely on these young people who had been brought from the academy to the second division, even the great Ferguson would have nothing to do about it.

Fortunately, this was just a warm-up game, and after the start of the second half, Gao Bo replaced all the players who started in the first half and replaced his main lineup.

The goalkeeper was 21-year-old Claude Rondo, who was the team's third goalkeeper in Luton Town when he was still in the Championship season, and with the relegation of the team, Claude Rondo finally took the position of the team's first goalkeeper.

The center-back combination still makes Gao Bo very reassured, George Parker partners Jeffrey, George Parker is one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, has good defensive positioning and filling ability, and his frontal defensive ability is also quite good, and Jeffrey is a little shorter, but his strong body and excellent bounce make up for his lack of height, in fact, in the high-altitude ball defense, he is even better than George Parker, who is a few centimeters taller than him.

In terms of the left and right wing-backs, Gao Bo finally chose two young players, Mitchell Piran from Ireland, the 18-year-old player is the only international player in the current Luton squad - he is a member of Ireland's Under-19, 188 cm tall, can play right wing-back, right midfield, midfield, and sometimes even central defender, is a jack-of-all-trades, but Gao Bo still likes to put him in the right wing-back position. Left-back Soro Davies, a 19-year-old black player, is 176 centimeters tall, physically strong and fast, and the only thing that worries Gao Bo a little is the attacking tendencies of the young player - this is a full-back with a strong desire to attack. Gao Bo quietly gave Davis a nickname to deepen his impression of him - in Gao Bo's notebook, Davis wrote "Luton Marcelo"

In the midfield, there is no question in the middle is the combination of Kante and Drinkwater, Gao Bo is very confident in the combination of the two midfielders, and the team captain Kevin Keane is placed in the right midfield position by Gao Bo, as for the left midfielder, Gao Bo chose the nineteen-year-old young player Lewis Emmanuel, this 173 cm tall player can play left wingback or defensive midfield, and Gao Bo sees the most important factor of this player is not Lewis's technical ability, but his mental attributes - This is a player who is extremely good in terms of work commitment and willpower, but he also has considerable teamwork skills, is very involved in defence, and having him on the left can more or less make up for the gap left by Davis, who likes to get forward and assist.

The forward combination is naturally a combination of Vardy and Charlie Austin!

At the start of the second half, Oxford United found their opponents suddenly reborn, they were suffocated by Luton's airtight front pressure at the back, and in the end Oxford United's defence soon had problems, their misplaced pass in midfield gave Luton the chance to counter-attack, Vardy cut forward at high speed and scored with a burst of foot! He scored his first goal for Luton.

Luton then scored another goal in the same way, this time by Charlie Austin!

Oxford United were completely crushed by Luton Town, and then Jamie Vardy scored a hat-trick with two goals, and Charlie Austin added the icing on the cake to complete the brace!

High school striker Matt Schmidt was also given a chance to play, replacing Charlie Austin. Matt Schmidt soon got on the scoresheet as well, seizing a corner and heading home.

The three strikers combined to score six goals to help Luton Town complete a comeback in the second half!

Gao Bo was very excited, and after the game, he turned to his assistant John Aston and said, 'See, John!' This is our football!! Football that brings victory!! ’