"As one of the three troika of the Czech team, Vladimir Smitchell is an experienced midfielder, but it is not a wise choice for Millwall FC to choose to sign Smitchell, Smitchell's salary is too high, it will make their finances worse, and there is no place for Smitchell in the Millwall midfield, from the above two points, it can be analysed that this will be a failed signing......

"For Smitchell himself, it is better to choose to join a promoted team than to take a salary cut to join another team, and if he can decide to take a salary cut, Liverpool FC will also consider keeping him......"

This is an analytical article from Manchester Sport.

Millwall's signing and being able to appear in Manchester Sport is a bit of a 'high climb', perhaps with the help of Smitchell's fame, but the rhetoric in the analysis article is not very good.

"Failed signing?"

Seeing this word, Zhang Yang just smiled disdainfully.

If the same signing is made to a big club such as Chelsea and Manchester United, even if Smitchell doesn't even play a minute in the middle of the season, the media will not talk about the so-called 'failure', and they will also think that it 'helps to add depth to the bench'.

So the 'failure' analysis is meaningless, just because Millwall is a small club, a promotion team in financial difficulties.

Millwall's two attention-grabbing transfers were both deemed failures, one being the £3 million £3 million in Darren Bent; One is this one, signing Smitchell on a free transfer.

One of the two is a Championship goalscorer in his early twenties who has not become a star; One is a 32-year-old veteran who is about to return to his hometown to serve until he retires.

From the point of view of the media, what transfer does not fail?

That is to sign those stars who are in their playing years and can obviously replenish their strength.

But Millwall can't do it!

Not to mention transfer fees and the like, Millwall are also obviously not attractive, as long as they can play a little famous star, they are not willing to join a team that will be relegated next season in the eyes of most people.

Therefore, the transfers of small clubs are doomed to failure.

Zhang Yang only swept his eyes as entertainment gossip, and the so-called 'reasons for failure' mentioned in the analysis article are not valid at all.

First, it crushes the club's finances.

This is something that Ebenezer needs to be aware of, and Zhang Yang will not want to coach for a season, and Millwall will go bankrupt due to financial problems.

But that's not going to happen.

With Ebenezer's shrewdness, even if the club is relegated next season, it will not reach the point of bankruptcy, and will Millwall be relegated? If he leads a season and is relegated, Zhang Yang feels that he can end his career as a head coach, with so many ability bonuses, he can still bring out such poor results, and the head coach job is not suitable for him at all.

Also, Smitchell is useless?

The media may think that Ezmitchell's fame will definitely play the main team, but in fact, Millwall is short of people in the middle of the midfield, and one Jody Morris is far from enough.

In terms of the intensity of the Premier League, there should be two players in the same position, otherwise there will be no 'rotation' players, and it will be difficult for the main players to last the whole season, let alone the midfield players.

Smitchell is bound to have a lot of playing time.

Zhang Yang chose to sign Smitchell, one is to hope that he and Jody Morris will maintain the intensity of the midfield, and the other is to hope that his arrival can allow Millwall to increase tactical changeability, after all, there is only one technical player in the midfield with a good overall view, and the dependence is too high, if Smitchell and Morris play together, what kind of changes will occur? This still needs to be carefully studied using the 'verbal and spiritual measurement'.

The last point is that the arrival of Smitchell can help the team increase experience, a star who has played for a long time, his experience is certainly incomparable to that of ordinary players, and he can help the team mature quickly.

This is also very significant, with most of the captain's players not playing in the Premier League, and even Jody Morris, as a key player, has not had much Premier League experience at all.

Zhang Yang also hopes that Smitchell can give Jody Morris some help.

————

When Smitchell came to the team, Zhang Yang asked Aldous to give him tactical 'make-up'.

With the rest of the players having gone through the tactical lessons, Smitchell has pulled down a lot of content, and even though he has a lot of experience, he has to work hard to adapt to a new set of tactics.

Smitchell began to wonder why, when he saw the complex tactical information, his reaction was not much better than Jody Morris, and then under Aldous's explanation, Smitchell began to study patiently.

He was interested.

Just like Rudy Clarke's feelings, maybe some young players are very resistant to learning tactics, and veterans over 30 years old are beginning to think about the future, in their opinion, the learning process of tactics may be very helpful for the future, and they will not resist at all, but study memory very seriously.

At the same time, Millwall's tactical training was also going very smoothly.

It took about two weeks for all the players to understand the tactical issues and reflect on the tactical training, and most of them knew what to do without the guidance of the assistant coach, and all they had to do was to familiarize themselves with the running, positioning and coordination on the court, and to get used to the tactical style of play, rather than doing it as a rule.

During the week of tactical training, Zhang Yang was interviewed by the Daily Mirror, and he said, "Millwall's recruitment is all over, and we will not sign any players." ”

'I'm happy with the squad at the moment, there's nothing more to add. And I also believe that with the current squad, the team will definitely play well. ”

The Daily Mirror reporter asked, "What does a good score mean?" ”

Zhang Yang smiled, "Our performance will surprise everyone!" ”

On 26 July, Millwall's squad appeared at Neill Stadium for a warm-up match against English League 3 side Stevenage, who eventually won 6-2.

Winning or losing a warm-up match doesn't mean much.

There is no so-called 'main substitute' in the game, Zhang Yang replaced every player on the field, and all players, including the third goalkeeper, were given playing time.

Zhang Yang carefully watched the whole game.

He didn't take advantage of any ability, just watched the game carefully, and the warm-up games were a process to familiarize the team with tactics, and it could also help to examine the players' ability and status, find some tactical problems and solve them.

That's all that matters.

In the game against Stevenage, the overall performance of the team was very relaxed, and there was no pressure on every player on the field, perhaps because Stevenage is not a strong team, they are only a semi-professional team outside the fourth professional league, and it is difficult to pose a threat to Millwall, but despite this, Stevenage scored two goals.

It wasn't Millwall's release, it was all Stevenage's performance.

Zhang Yang also saw the problem from it, which is very simple: the team is still familiar with tactics, and many players are very old-fashioned in passing, running, and cooperating in the game, leaving traces of tactical planning, and occasionally there will be players who don't know how to run.

Livermore was the worst performer.

This is not unexpected.

Livermore's understanding of tactics was also the worst, but Livermore didn't work closely with the others, but he scored two goals on his own with long-range shots, impressing his opponent Stevenage and the new players in the team.

"This strong man doesn't have a good brain, but his long-range shots are terrifying!" Many people also know the reason why Livermore can be a first-team player, or even half of the main team.

Livermore's tactical literacy and technical level are obviously not in line with Premier League-level ability, but as long as he gets the ball near the penalty area, he relies on his individual ability to directly threaten the opponent's goal.

The first warm-up game proved only one thing: the whole Millwall team was not yet familiar with the new tactics.

In the following week, the focus of training was clear, which was to familiarize the team with the new tactics, and Zhang Yang even asked the youth team to be a sparring partner for the first team, organizing a direct confrontation every two days to help the players know how to play according to the tactics in the game.

The time was carried out in August.

On the first day of August, Millwall played their second warm-up game against Championship side Ipswich Town.

This is an old rival.

Ipswich Town's knock-out from the promotion play-offs took a big toll on their budgets, but the sale of Darren Bent to raise £3 million from the transfer market also allowed them to regroup and prepare to continue to challenge the Premier League for the new season.

Zhang Yang attaches great importance to this warm-up game.

The fight against the old opponent can also directly see how much Millwall has improved.

Ipswich still maintain their traditional style of play, even in the warm-up games they defended calmly, and in the face of Millwall's attack, their defensive formation was also very good.

But that's about it.

Millwall's tactical style of play is very direct, it looks simple on the surface, but in fact, it can help everyone in the team to play more strength, and the current Millwall is no longer the team last season.

From the very beginning of the game, Ipswich fell into passivity, and that kind of passivity also made people feel very depressed: the opponent obviously played very simple and direct, but they just couldn't counterattack and play, as if every player on the other side suddenly broke out in good shape, and every small cooperation, although it was very simple, was very targeted.

Ipswich were the first team to experience the strength of the 'new tactics'.

They are powerless.

Many of the players in the squad were surprised, "This is the Premier League? But last season, they had an advantage against Millwall......"

Reality is often harsh.

A team that didn't have much pressure last season, now the other side feels no pressure.

Zhang Yang didn't make frequent substitutions, and only made three adjustments in the first half, until the second half, when he saw Darren Bent help the team score the third goal, that he began to make a wide range of substitutions.

The result of the match was finally locked in 3-1.

Ipswich scored a goal and saved face, but anyone in the Ipswich team knows that the score does not represent the process, and they felt the huge gap between the two sides from the first minute.

This Millwall team is completely different!