During this time, Sheffield Wednesday also played a few friendly matches, the opponent was not a strong team, even weaker than Sheffield Wednesday's team, Li Chengfeng did not coach these games, but arranged his assistant coach Colin West to command, and he sat on the sidelines to observe the players' familiarity with the new tactics, as well as the state of the players.

After a few games, the result disappointed Li Chengfeng. Although the team's defensive line is solid, it is indeed a lack of attacking strength, especially the coordination of the midfield, which is even more chaotic. Maybe it's too accustomed to England's traditional style of play, their passing and cutting positions are a mess, three forwards, the left and right sides seem to be performing okay, playing a bit of a wing-winged look, but it is blocking the route of the fullbacks' assists, the two fullbacks are also standing firmly in the back, rarely rushing forward, the position of the forward waist is even more to the front, not playing the role of organizing the ball, but more like a striker, the team as a whole still looks like a 4-4-2.

Compared with the traditional 4-4-2, the biggest improvement of 4-2-3-1 is that the responsibilities and division of labor of the players are clarified, and the individual requirements for the players are not so comprehensive. Only by combining players with more characteristics and the needs of the formation can the characteristics of this formation be brought into play by using reasonable combinations and tactics.

The new tactics in the position of two fullbacks, in addition to defense, also need to undertake more offensive tasks, although Li Chengfeng has explained, in order to ensure the stability of the defensive line, the two fullbacks should not assist forward at the same time when attacking, but it is not that they all stay in the back only know defense, and they can't see the performance of several forward insertions in a game.

In the forward position, unlike the traditional 4-4-2 style of play that emphasises two wing-backs, the task of attacking on the wing is partly carried out by two full-backs. The three forwards are also clear in the division of labor, with a certain organizational ability of the in-cutting winger and the fullback with strong assist ability, it is easy to achieve a numerical advantage in a certain period of time, open up the situation, there is a strong ability to break through the ball and have the ability to share the pressure of the organization, a good running position, good at scoring forward, cooperate with each other to make the offense more three-dimensional. Moreover, in view of the characteristics of the traditional 4-4-2 midfield parallel position, this style of play is easier to attack at the combination of the opponent's formation, and because there is no full-time midfielder, the 4-4-2 formation can easily be penetrated under the three-dimensional attack of 3 forwards and 1 forward.

However, these assumptions were not reflected in these warm-up games, with the wing-forwards habitually going up and down the wings, and the assists of the full-backs who were squeezed out of the breakthrough space were not available. The overly monotonous and flat attacking pattern made it easier for the defenders to defend, and the coaches who commanded the team did not understand the characteristics of the 4-2-3-1 tactic, so the conservative thinking allowed them to sacrifice their magic weapon again, and the game returned to the familiar mode.

Li Chengfeng was very dissatisfied with the performance of the team and the coaches, but there was nothing he could do, he once read an article saying that even Ferguson wanted to transplant the tactics of the continental system to Manchester United, but the result also failed, and the rough skills and awareness of the players of Manchester United with English players as the structure also made them unable to have enough points to support this more delicate tactic. In the end, Ferguson improved the traditional 4-4-2 system in England, and Manchester United regained its fighting power, but it still could not compete with the football of the continental system, and the Champions League would be completely defeated by Barcelona in 10 years.

When I saw this article before, Li Chengfeng thought it was nonsense, they are all professional players, how bad is their technical awareness, how can they not even support basic tactics. Now it seems that this statement is not unfounded. If even Alex Ferguson can't change the ingrained football mentality of English players and let them play the smooth continental system football, Lee Seung-peak doesn't think he can do better.

What do you do now, do you want to go back to England's traditional 4-4-2 tactics of flying on both wings? But the real-world history proves that this tactic has begun to lag behind, and it is impossible to do it better than Ferguson, and it is even less likely to rely on this tactic to achieve ultimate success. In the future when new tactics become the mainstream, if you can't comprehend the essence of new tactics in advance, it will be a matter of time before you are eliminated by the CM world.

Although Li Chengfeng is cautious, he is not lacking in gambling, and he is calculating the possibility of his success in his heart. In terms of personnel allocation, there is little difference between the two tactics before the requirements for the backline players, that is, the new tactics should emphasize more on the fullbacks, requiring the fullbacks to be able to attack and defend both, and they can go up and down, and the physical endurance and speed awareness are passable, and the current team configuration is enough. In the midfield position, the player is a very important position, and he needs to be technically good, have a strong sense of the big picture, have a certain level of organisation, and be able to take over the playmaking work up front when necessary. There is no such person in the team at the moment, but the Colombian youngster Guarín who is chasing him is a suitable person, he can do even more, and he has excellent free-kicks and long-range shooting ability, which can be inserted in the back row when necessary, and use his long-range shooting ability to break down the opponent's defense.

In the forward position, it is best to have enough impact and pulling ability to disrupt the opponent's defense and give space for teammates behind to break through and insert. If it's just strikers who can score goals, then the midfielders need to be able to keep the opposition down and create enough chances for the strikers to splurge. The team's original main striker was a rough man, with an empty body, and his passing and coordination abilities were indeed average, and even the level of shooting that he should have could only be regarded as ordinary, which could not reassure Li Chengfeng. The loan signing of Bailion is not much better, but his superb speed and relatively passable shooting skills make him an unsatisfactory option, and it is difficult to loan players of a higher caliber in League One.

Among the three forwards, as the forward midfielder of the core of the organization, Li Chengfeng did not find a player with this kind of awareness and ability among the existing players, and could only hope for the upcoming transfer of the Brazilian teenager Ederson, who has excellent skills and is good at running, as long as the consciousness can keep up, he can become an excellent playmaker.

Braten in the left midfield position is physically strong, extremely fast, with his good technique, can play the role of a breakthrough, of course, it is better to be able to exercise the ability to cut inside, but now it seems that it is not enough, he seems to play a little lacking in brains, unable to form an effective cooperation with his teammates, perhaps because he is not familiar with the new environment and tactics, Li Chengfeng is not sure.

Only the right forward position is not easy to determine, Li Chengfeng originally intended to loan Manchester United Club's Belion to play this position, using his speed advantage to play counterattacks, impact the opponent's defense, although Manchester United agreed to Sheffield Wednesday's loan request, but Belion refused to come to the third division of the league team, Li Chengfeng could only give up, and instead loaned Lynch, who can play the two positions of right back and right midfield.

There is also the position of the striker, there is no suitable target for the time being, so the original main striker Kuchi can only continue to be the main force, maybe after a while, when Manchester United's Belion still can't play, he will change his mind.

Time passed day by day, and Li Chengfeng lived a tense and fulfilling life day by day, just waiting for the arrival of the official competition. Although there are still several players who have not joined the team compared to the team envisioned by Lee, especially Ederson and Guarin, who are awaiting the outcome of the labor certification declaration, Lee is still full of expectations.

But the result of the first game did not make Li Chengfeng completely satisfied, the opponent Bournemouth (AFC Bournemouth) is completely the weak team in League One, is the kind of team fighting for relegation, but Sheffield Wednesday did not get a victory at home, after not breaking the deadlock for a while, Sheffield Wednesday's players gave up cooperation and began to rely on individual ability to fight alone, or frequent long-range shots, or bury their heads in people, seemingly powerful, but can not pose a substantial threat to the opponent's goal.

10 shots on goal, 4 on target, no goal, and the final 0:0 draw made Lee Seungfeng feel disappointed.

The following August 13 ushered in the first round of the League Cup, against Carlisle United in League Two, one level below Sheffield Wednesday. In order for Li Chengfeng to still play with all the main forces, he tried to win a big victory and boost morale, but unexpectedly it was only a small victory. Against their opponents in the lower leagues, Sheffield Wednesday had just five shots on goal with three on target. It wasn't until the 90th minute that the score was still 0:0, and in the end it was Braten who scored a goal in stoppage time, and Sheffield Wednesday was able to enter the next round of the League Cup.

For such a result, Li Chengfeng didn't know whether to be happy or disappointed, except for getting 4 points to make him happy, the process can only be said to be disappointing for him. The team's unusually slow adaptation to the new tactics and ultimately relied on the individual ability of the stars to score goals, which made him determined to get through the run-in phase before thinking about the future. Lee decided to spend a few points and gave Edson a change to add a second citizenship, Portugal, so that he could join Sheffield Wednesday without a labour permit. As for Guarín, he has been selected for the Colombian U17 team, and he is representing the team in the U17 World Cup in Finland, and he has performed well, and may be able to pass the labor certification declaration, and the League One is only, and it will not be so strict.

It's August 13th, and there are more than 55 days left in his time, Li Chengfeng looked at the countdown clock and left the CM world.