The Premier League has played 14 rounds, Millwall won 11 games, drew 3 games, got 36 points, and a goal difference of 27, the results can be regarded as perfect, completely surpassing Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal The three traditional 'top four teams', and only one less than the league's first Chelsea, considering that Chelsea lost to Manchester United, Millwall defeated Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool respectively, there is no difference between the results of the two teams, and Millwall's performance is even better.

In terms of results, it is enough to prove Zhang Yang's coaching level.

Millwall was still only a promoted team, the squad was quite unfavored before the start of the season, and was considered by many media to be a 'certain relegation' team, and it is beyond everyone's expectations that they can play such a result so far.

Millwall fans watched the team's rise step by step, and they felt incredible in the process, but more than that, they were relieved, and many fans were still thinking about the vote last Christmas, so they could talk excitedly, "I knew that Zhang Yang would be a good manager, so I voted for him!" ”

"I also chose to be public! But I just thought it was interesting. ”

'He's a fantastic manager, I've seen it that way for a long time, he's really young but he's trustworthy and when he came to Millwall, the team kept winning!'

"Zhang Yang is the head coach elected by the fans, and he is the result of 'democracy'! This is even more proof of the importance of 'democracy'! ”

“……”

In addition to the Millwall fan base, many other people are also proud of their eyes, and the most representative figure is the elder Gligory.

Gregory is the president of Millwall FC.

Gregory is the chairman of the good job, during his tenure as chairman of Millwall, the team has risen from the third league to the second league, because of the wide network in football, many people know Gregory, but to say that the achievement of being the chairman of the club, in fact, it is not a big deal, Millwall as a team in the London area, with the development of football in the London area, the league level has been upgraded by one level in more than ten years, and it is not something to brag about.

But promotion to the Premier League is different!

In the past, Grigory always thought that when he retired one day, Millwall would be very good if he could remain in the second league, and he was worthy of Millwall fans and the chairmanship, but he didn't expect Millwall to be promoted to the Premier League quickly and made a pretty amazing start.

So Grigory had something to say.

Whenever he met an old friend or talked to someone about Millwall, Gregory would proudly say, "I knew Zhang would be a great manager!" It was I who dug him out of the BBC and made him a football coach. You know, he was just a BBC clerk at the time, and his job had nothing to do with football. Not even a basic coaching certificate. ”

I don't know how many times Grigory has said this sentence.

Many 'old friends' listened to the ears calloused, and when they saw Grigory, they wanted to change the topic to other places, but they had to admit in their hearts that Grigory had the ability to brag, and a year ago it was hard to imagine that a BBC staff member would have anything to do with a professional football coach.

That's something to brag about.

Often by the age of Grigory's generation, what individuals want to do is already very weak, and no matter how old they are, they can only wait for retirement, and what they can do is to train young people.

Gregory excavated a young Chinese coach, who led the team to Millwall to play an amazing record that can be written in the history of Millwall club, and some fans will definitely mention Gregory's name when talking about Zhang Yang's early coaching experience in the future, "It was Gregory who brought Zhang Yang to Millwall to start a brilliant football coaching career!" ”

That's really enviable.

In the affirmation of Zhang Yang's coaching ability, there is a role that is the villain of 'lying gun'.

That's Frederick Lawton.

When Millwall voted openly for the head coach, Frederick stood on the opposite side of the flamboyance, and as a result, Frederick lost without any suspense, whether it was an external fan vote or an internal player vote.

Many people talk about that vote and can't help but be afraid to say, "It's good that I didn't vote for Frederick!" ”

"I thought about Frederick at the time, but he was really unlikable!"

"yes, that Humpty Dumpty!"

'If he had been Millwall manager, we would have fallen out of the third division!'

“……”

As a 'lying gun' character, Frederick probably felt bitter, but fortunately no one mentioned it in front of him, and he did a good job as a teaching assistant.

When Zhang Yang convened the coaching staff to discuss the change of positions of Josh Simpson and Braniff, Frederick put forward a very logical opinion, "With the current situation of the team, we are not short of strikers who can score goals, and the midfield needs to be replenished, and the change of players' positions can also be considered from this perspective." ”

Frederick said in a very structured way, "I think Kevin can move to midfield and let him adapt to the right midfield, and he did well against Manchester United. ”

"If Kevin plays right midfield, we can also revert to 442 and put two more forwards and the midfielders will be under a lot less pressure to rotate."

"In addition, you can reduce the midfield, I remember, Zhang, you said before, we can try to play in the 433 formation, this formation is enough to send three midfielders. Three strikers and three midfielders can minimize the pressure on midfielders to play. ”

Frederick's coherent statement lit up when he listened to it.

He previously considered the position changes of Braniff and Josh Simpson, because he felt that Simpson was also suitable for playing forward, Braniff had a balanced ability, and he could also play well in other positions, Simpson could skip it, Braniff played in the midfield, which can reduce the competitive pressure in the frontcourt, give other forwards the opportunity to play, and also increase the depth of the midfield configuration, such as Josh Simpson has played a lot, because the team has no other suitable right midfielder.

Frederick helped to expand the idea: since the home field is not thick enough, reduce the number of midfielders and increase the number of strikers.

The 4231 formation is equivalent to five midfielders, and the pressure on the midfielders is a little too great, so adjusting the formation to 442 or 433, four or three in the midfield, and reducing the number of players will be the most direct and effective way.

However, the 'direct and effective' method is not very easy to do, Millwall's tactical purpose is to improve the performance of all players on the field, the tactical purpose is different from other teams, it is not easy to change the formation and adapt the players to the new position, there are many things to consider, and there are also big changes to be made.

This adjustment has to be adapted step by step.

The whole process can take a month, two months, three months, or more, and the one-month period is still a bit short, mainly because of the upcoming schedule: when the time enters December, the schedule becomes denser.

With the exception of 10 days to spare at the start of December, Millwall will be preparing for the Christmas season.

From December 10 to January 2, in just 24 days, Millwall had seven league games to play, an average of one game in more than three days, and the intensity of the tournament made the scalp tingle.

Before Christmas, Millwall have three opponents to contend with: Blackburn Rovers, Everton and Newcastle United; Post-Christmas opponents are Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic, Charlton Athletic and Chelsea. Of the seven opponents, except for Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic, which are slightly easier to deal with, the others are difficult bones, especially Everton and Chelsea, which are quite strong opponents.

The final game against Chelsea at Christmas, the battle between top and second place in the league, has only entered December and is already being reported in the media, and Millwall will have to be prepared to deal with it before that game.

Zhang Yang gathered everyone on the coaching staff, including captains and vice-captains Jody Morris and Smitchell, to study how to play the next games in order to win more games and keep the team in good shape.

In a busy Christmas schedule, if there are a lot of injuries, even if you win all the races in the middle of the race, the second half of the race will be extremely difficult, and it is possible that the results will plummet.

That's the biggest problem Millwall has at the moment.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is the depth of the bench, if it is a substitute player, it can also play the strength of the main force, and the team does not have to worry about the intensive schedule at all, and the rotation of one game against another can be done.

But the team doesn't have enough bench depth, and the starting lineup for every game has to be well thought out.

At this time, Zhang Yang felt that the ability of 'word and spirit divination' had lost its effect, except for knowing the team's luck in the game and having a mental preparation in advance, there was no other use, because even if the divination was in a good formation, some players had to rotate and rest.

After some discussion, the coaching staff simply determined which players needed to rest and which could play more.

Again, this is based on the advice of the strength and conditioning coach Crodic Choerick.

There was no substantive result from the many discussions, and Zhang Yang could only take a long breath, and what needs to be done now is to try to ensure the physical condition of the players.

And then...... Take it one step at a time.