Millwall's first league game was against Hughes' Blackburn Rovers.

Blackburn finished seventh last season and were just short of qualifying for Europe. In an interview before the start of the season, Hughes also made it clear that their goal is to 'get close to the top six'.

Moving in the summer, Blackburn's situation is not so good.

Back in the 1994-95 season, Blackburn proved how important money is in the game of football, buying stars and subsequently winning their first league title.

Time changes so fast.

In order to expand the team's strength in the transfer market, Hughes had to reluctantly sell Bellamy to Liverpool, and then added Jason Roberts, McCarthy and other players.

"It's going to improve the squad to a certain extent." This was stated in the pre-season review of the English Football Newspaper.

Blackburn's players are not outstanding, and last season's seventh-place finish in the league was more due to the tenacious fighting and strong fighting spirit of the players.

Blackburn's style of play is somewhat unreasonable, perhaps also because of their core, Savage, known as the 'Savage'.

Savic is a product of Manchester United's Academy training, and has been the backbone of the Red Devils' 92 generation along with Paul Scholes, David Beckham, the Neville brothers and others, but compared to the graceful demeanor of David Beckham and others, Savic has always been unrestrained and unruly off the field, so he has not been given the opportunity to play in the first team of Manchester United.

After leaving Manchester United, Savic moved to Crewe, Leicester, Birmingham City and joined Blackburn Rovers during the 2005 winter break.

Savage is 31 years old, but he does not change the style of the field, always trying to ridicule the referee, retaliate, and even beat the opposing player, last season Savic in 34 league games, received 11 yellow cards, 1 red card, the first in the team.

Savage can be the core of Blackburn Rovers because of his hard work on the field, he is over 30 years old, but he still has Hughes's trust, and through his own efforts, he gradually gains the respect of his opponents, but no opponent likes Savage, his style is too rough, and it is easy to cause violence.

As the media commented, "Savage's name (which means slave) always means conflict and strife!" ”

However, even with the support of a reckless man and an extraordinary fighting spirit, Blackburn Rovers are still not favored, because their opponent is Millwall, and the playing venue is Neil Field.

Millwall are the defending champions.

The summer transfer of Millwall strengthened the wings and backfield, and the signing of several star players such as Quaresma, Zambrotta, and Pire, which really improved the overall strength of the team.

'Millwall took the first round very seriously and it was difficult for Blake to take away a point.

The media spoke out loudly.

There must be no mistakes in the first round, there is an old Chinese saying, 'a good start is half the battle', and the first round, or at home, is definitely about winning.

So Millwall did their best, Darren Bent, Morris, Smitchell, Zambrotta, Pire and other players all got the chance to start, the only one was Quaresma.

Many people think that Quaresma will be the absolute main force, but in fact, the Portuguese can only be the 'half main force' for the time being, and it is impossible to say who is the absolute main force, otherwise others will not agree.

Millwall is still Josh Simpson on the right side, with Smitchell and Jody Morris partnering as two forwards, that is, as the two cores of the team, leading the team's offense and defense.

Zhang Yang was not aimed at Quaresma, but 'took care' of him to keep him on the bench.

Although Quaresma performed well in the warm-up match, the warm-up match was a warm-up match after all, and the two opponents were also Spanish and Italian teams, such as playing against 'Premier League tough guys' like Brakburn, and the level of confrontation was much higher than that of the warm-up match.

Not only is it a fierce confrontation, but the process can also undermine the confidence of the players.

For example, let Quaresma meet Savic, who is certainly not as valuable as the young Quaresma, but Savage can definitely easily block Quaresma, it is like a reckless man bullying a little woman...... Okay, that's a bit of an overkill, but Quaresma is still a bit too immature and he needs more growth in terms of confrontation in the game.

Quaresma wants to adapt to a game, it is not easy, he needs to gradually get on the court, slowly adapt, the first thing he needs to do, not to start directly, but to see how his teammates play against each other in the game.

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In this game, the time, place, and people are all on Millwall's side.

Blackburn Rovers may feel that it will be difficult for them to take points from Neil Stadium, although their fighting spirit is good, but when the game is ten minutes into play, they feel the difference between the two teams.

It's surprising.

Last season, they played Millwall, there was definitely no such obvious difference, in fact, the first time the two teams met, Blackburn had the advantage, but now the situation is reversed, let alone superiority, they even have a hard time attacking the front and threatening Millwall's goal.

They will have to face Millwall's constant attacking threat before contemplating attack.

Millwall showed a fluid fit-in.

Under the leadership of Mitchell and Morris in the middle, the first to attack were the two wings, and the breakthroughs and passes on the left and right sides were not light, making it difficult for Blackburn to take care of the defense.

In the 19th minute, Pire broke through on the left and found Mitchell in the middle, who lobbed a cross into the box and Darren Bent headed in to give his team the first goal.

1 to 0.

Neal Stadium erupted in cheers and Millwall fans were delighted to see their team score their first goal, especially when the team performed so well to completely suppress Brackburn.

Brakburn coach Hughes shook his head and smiled bitterly, he is confident that he will lead Blackburn to good results, but there is really no good way to meet a team like Millwall that does not play according to common sense.

Blackburn Rovers did a lot of preparation before the game started, also studying the warm-up matches between Millwall and Udinese.

Dual-core tactics, it's hard to imagine.

As for the 'crack' that the media talks about? How can it be! The dual-core tactics are fundamentally for the purpose of serving the team, and to say that the loophole is that the single back defense is weak, Blackburn's offensive ability is average, and it is difficult to break through the Millwall defense, and it makes no sense to crack or anything.

Maybe in a couple of months there will be a team that will come up with a plan against Millwall, but that is definitely not going to happen in the first game.

What Hughes thought of, Zhang Yang also took into account.

In fact, Zhang Yang was not very satisfied with the game, the team's performance seemed to be good, but it could only be said that the opponent was 'caught off guard', and it was impossible to completely suppress it.

Millwall's players are not so familiar with the dual-core tactics, and there are many problems in the smooth coordination on the surface.

Now the field can maintain a pressing situation, and it is only because Brackburn is not prepared, if the opponent is defensive, no matter how good the defense is, Millwall will not be able to play so smoothly.

"It's still going to take it one step at a time!"

Zhang Yang sighed.

If you play against Manchester United and Chelsea with the strength you are showing now, it will be difficult to take advantage of anything.

Of course, Millwall's offensive performance is still much better than last season, but as Hughes thought, a midfielder will make the defense weak, which is also one of the shortcomings of the two-core strategy.

No tactic in the world is perfect, a certain tactic is 'good', it can only be said that the outstanding advantages are more obvious, can cover up the shortcomings, if you want to rely on a certain tactic, to play a dominant football, you must play the tactics to the extreme.

Barcelona, for example.

Barcelona have not changed their tactics since 2000, but in the first few years, they have been sluggish, and they have not even been able to compete with Valencia in the domestic arena, let alone Real Madrid, who have performed dominantly.

Since 2005, Barcelona's performances have become dominant, as they have taken their tactics to the extreme.

Millwall had a hard time getting to that point, but they got off to a good start.

This game is not a big problem.

Blackburn are not a team that can threaten Millwall, and unless something goes awry, it is almost impossible for Bracke to turn things around.

Even if there is a problem, Zhang Yang will use his 'supernatural powers' to stop it.

Of course, this is somewhat unfair.

Ahem...... I'm sorry...... Since Zhang Yang became the head coach, he has never thought about the word fairness, leading the team to win is the most important thing, let the so-called fairness go to hell!

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In the end, Millwall defeated Blackburn Rovers 3-1 to win the first round of the Premier League.

Blackburn should have been satisfied because they scored a goal at the end, and the reason for this was that Blackburn's counter-attack played well, but Zhang Yang's failure to stop was also one of the important reasons.

Zhang Yang acquiesced to the goal, and Blackburn was able to score.

Whenever he thinks about it from this angle, Zhang Yang's heart is a little dark, as if he has become a god, and when he shakes hands with the opposing coach Hughes, he talks about it, "Blackburn is lucky." That ball at the end was beautiful. ”

Hughes's face darkened as he listened.

Hughes is not an easily angry coach, but after almost losing to the opponent, he was still a little angry when he heard the opponent's 'sarcastic praise', and what he didn't know was that Zhang Yang was saying what he was saying.

Zhang Yang didn't explain much, and he felt a little strange that he was angry with Hughes.

"Probably old, right?"

Speculation.

He didn't say this, otherwise Hughes, who was just 43 years old, would definitely be annoyed.

Anyway, it was a joy to win the first round, and after the game, he praised the team's performance and encouraged everyone to keep up the good work and get through the difficult schedule from low August to early September together.

On August 24, the second round of the league challenged Manchester City away;

On 26 August, the England Community Shield, Millennium Stadium against Chelsea;

On August 29, in the third round of the league, we challenged Middlesbrough away.

Two away games, one neutral stadium, three games in one week, and a Champions League group draw in the middle.

Zhang Yang looked at the timetable and couldn't help but pull the corners of his mouth.