Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who is definitely called an old fox, does not decide what to do on the spur of the moment, and there is a reason why he chose to let Arsenal step up the attack.

For most of the first half, Millwall's energy was on defense, with a few good counter-attacks on occasion, but they didn't play much power, not to mention the frontal advancement, and their players' coordination and ability were much worse than Arsenal's.

This is also one of the things that Wenger admires for his flamboyance.

Many of Millwall's players in various positions are only at the Championship level, and some have outstanding abilities, such as midfielders Morris, Smitchell, fullback Konchesky, etc., but they can only be regarded as 'average players' in Wenger's eyes, and they can only be regarded as 'average players' in Arsenal's at-most, but relying on such a lineup, Millwall has won four wins and one draw in five rounds of league games.

This can't be described as 'remarkable'!

When the league meets Arsenal, Millwall is here, and no matter how surprising their tactics are, the difference in quality will become a huge chasm.

If Millwall were to play more openly, such as adding some attack, Arsene Wenger would not have chosen to let the team continue to strengthen the attack, because Millwall could pose a threat, but Millwall is focused on defense, so there is nothing to worry about.

Arsene Wenger's movements caught a lot of attention.

Some media commentators have also begun to interpret the meaning of the action is actually obvious, and Sky Sports commentator Kean Sindell said, "Wenger's gesture is probably to step up the attack, and he wants the team to score for the rest of the first half!" ”

After that, Sindel talked about the situation on the field, "Arsenal have a big pressing advantage, Millwall has been defending, but it is not easy to keep the goal just by relying on defense"

Zhang Yang naturally understands this truth.

Even if he has the ability to 'predict', it is very difficult to completely defend the goal, especially if the opponent is Arsenal, and he can only pursue a draw at most by relying on defense, so passively getting a point is not what he wants.

Zhang Yang will not put all his chips on the defense, and when he saw Wenger's action to strengthen the attack, he simply walked to the sideline and waved his hand at Morris, who was watching.

It was a command action that had been set a long time ago, and the action code was very simple, the arm swinging outward was to increase the offense, and the swinging inward was to increase the defense.

The range of flamboyant movements is very small, and it only reminds Morris alone.

Morris is the captain on the court and the core player of the team, and as long as he sees it, it means that the whole team knows about it, and the other players know what to do.

The meaning of 'increasing offense' is vague.

With Millwall's current situation, it is unrealistic to suppress Arsenal in reverse, so you can only push the formation forward in the frontal advance, which will also increase the number of players attacking when counterattacking.

It's a gamble!

Arsenal need to step up their attack, and strengthening the attack means sacrificing defence, and Millwall will increase the pressure on the defence, but it will also increase the attacking threat.

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There is one position player that is quite important in this game, and that is Smitchell, who started the game.

Smitchell played as a midfielder, Morris can retreat to play the back, and Smitchell has been playing for a long time in the giant team, and his personal ability and game experience are stronger than Morris, but Smitchell has been in an embarrassing position in the giant team, often as a substitute player, some are not taken seriously, his overall view is worse than Morris, and his physical fitness and confrontation ability are weaker than Morris, because he is the spiritual leader of the team, the playmaker of the attack, and the most important core player.

What is certain, though, is that Smitchell is good enough to replace Morris.

In the previous rounds, Smitchell only started one game, and once came off the bench, Zhang Yang was to consider making Smitchell more familiar with the team, but in fact, Smitchell's position was also awkward, because the purpose of introducing Smitchell was to replace Morris, and when Morris was able to play, Smitchell either chose to play as a full-back, or the two could only be in the middle together.

After familiarising the team with the new formation, Smitchell has more opportunities to play.

Morris can pull back.

In addition, Smitchell can also play in other positions, such as left and right midfield, and his individual ability in the team is still outstanding.

However, Millwall's new tactics have high requirements for players to adapt to new positions, and if they want to adapt to a new position, they need a new style of play.

In this game, Zhang Yang's request to Smitchell is, "Go to the front court, rely more on personal ability to find opportunities!" ”

It's giving the players free rein.

Smitchell smiled bitterly when he heard it, he didn't know whether to cry or laugh, his personal ability is good, but there must be a comparison object, compared to the level of the team, he is indeed very good, but compared to the whole English football, he is only in the middle and upper reaches.

"Rely on ability to find opportunities?"

It's a heavyweight trust, and it's usually only players with the best individual qualities who can be trusted by a manager.

He?

It's just a veteran with average skills.

Smitchell didn't say much, but nodded affirmatively, he knew that Zhang Yang said nothing in the team, and Millwall's results also proved that this young Chinese's ability to lead the team was quite good, and the other party probably made sense to say so.

So far, Smitchell hasn't shown much.

This has something to do with Millwall has been defending, Smitchell has a lot of experience, but he is not a player who is good at defense, and in the occasional counterattack, Millwall is also fast-breaking, Smitchell's speed is average, and the age of 33 years old has also decided that he can't rush too fast.

On the contrary, Darren Bent in front is very active.

The lightest defensive task in this game is Darren Bent, who is the only striker, and the defensive task is limited to the front and looking for opportunities to cause problems for the opponent.

In offense, Darren Bent has been active.

He always runs to the front and puts pressure on the opposition defence, while his teammates keep handing over the ball.

Darren Bent's football is quite threatening.

Whenever Darren Bent gets the ball, or links up with his team-mates, or breaks through to find an opportunity on his own, he puts a lot of pressure on Arsenal's defence, and once he rushed into the box with the ball and almost finished shooting.

Darren Bent's performance also caused a lot of cheers.

Many Millwall fans can't help but have a higher opinion of him, in the face of a strong Arsenal backline, the average striker will not have a chance to break through individually, and Darren Bent can still create a threat, which is already quite good.

This time it's Darren Bent again.

When Arsenal completed a wave of attack, central defender Wes Morgan cleared the ball, and the football rushed straight to the front, Darren Bent rushed to the position and stopped the ball with his back to Campbell, just this action made countless people give a thumbs up.

That's Campbell!

Campbell is not only a pillar of Arsenal's defence, but also a veteran of the England team, one of the world's top centre-backs, and the ability to compete with Campbell for an advantage is a testament to Darren Bent's quality.

After finishing the stoppage, Darren Bent glanced around, kicked back with his heel, and squeezed hard to turn around to rush past Campbell.

Campbell has a lot of experience.

After feeling the force in front of him, and immediately knowing what the opponent was going to do, Campbell tried his best to stay in place, only taking a step back, and then quickly turned around and grabbed the ball side by side with Darren Bent.

Darren Bent had no choice but to split the side with one foot and give the ball to Konchesky.

Koncheski passes Smitchell again.

The moment Smitchell stopped the ball, he glanced back and saw that Morris had not followed, he stopped the ball and took a step forward and hesitated.

Cesc Fabregas rushed over and scrambled.

Smitchell suddenly remembered Zhang Yang's words, Zhang Yang asked him to go to the front court and look for opportunities for personal ability to rush forward.

"Okay, just try!"

Smitchell also thinks it's funny, when he was at Liverpool in the past, if he broke through in the front field, he would definitely be blamed for conceding the goal.

That's true for the whole team.

The new coach Rafael Benitez puts more emphasis on the overall concept rather than relying on the individual ability of the players, and there is probably only one Gerrard, who dares to make individual breakthroughs in the front court, and no one will blame him for conceding the goal, and Smitchell does not have this preferential treatment.

It's different now.

The young coach personally told him to do it!

When he thinks about it, Smitchell feels that joining Millwall is the way to go, because he has the freedom to play to his strengths.

Smitchell then opted for a head-on break, and he took the ball to the left and was ready to force his way past Cesc Fabregas.

Fabregas was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect the other party to do this.

The two are no strangers.

Liverpool and Arsenal played twice last season, Cesc Fabregas played, and also played a few meetings with Smitchell, but the latter chose to pass the ball all of them, because of this, Fabregas felt that this time was no exception, but he didn't expect the other side to choose to break through.

The current Fabregas is not as mature and stable as he was later, and when he was broken through, he was not able to react at the first time, and it was a little late to prepare to keep up.

By the time Cesc Fabregas had finished turning, Smitchell had already pulled him down.

The Millwall fans were cheered on and cheered by their players, and even Mike Johnson, who was on the pitch radio, chanted, "Smitchell broke Fabregas!" In front of the veteran Smitchell, Arsenal's young Spanish talent became a soft-footed shrimp ......"

Arsenal defended tightly, with Smitchell breaking through Cesc Fabregas and Toure running over to make up for it, and he and Cesc Fabregas were tapped one after the other.

Smitchell could only choose to rush to the right, he forced a breakthrough, and he would definitely be restrained if nothing happened, but Smitchell's feet kept shaking, and it was not easy to grab it.

Smitchell noticed Morris plugging in, and he poked the ball forward decisively.

That's when Toure realized the danger.

Campbell defended Darren Bent from behind, with Cesc Fabregas packing Smitchell in the fare and Gilberto Silva in the distance, making it nearly impossible to keep Morris at bay.

Toure made a split-second decision, he lunged down and stomped on the grass, stopping the ball as Smitchell fell to the ground.

"Foul!"

Toure innocently raised his hands.

However, his actions were so great that even if he behaved innocently, the referee did not hesitate to blow the whistle to stop the game, and then gave him a small yellow card for free.

Darren Bent ran over and pulled up Smitchell.

The latter stood up helplessly, but fortunately he was not injured.

Sidelines.

Wenger nodded in satisfaction at Toure's decisiveness and received a yellow card, but it was worth it to stop Millwall from threatening an attack.

Others see it that way, too.

The foul was committed by about 25 metres from goal, Millwall is just a small club, there are no good set-pieces, and it is better to take a free-kick than a corner, so the player has a chance to earn a point.

Zhang Yang smiled.

Zhang Yang told Smitchell to perform freely, but he didn't say it casually, Smitchell's skills are good, and he can rely on his personal skills to cause trouble for Arsenal.

That's enough.

Not to ask Smitchell to rely on technique to score the ball, but to be able to create free-kicks in key positions, which is also a good result, as for Millwall without set-pieces?

Arsenal rejoiced a little too soon!

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