"Pattern training" is a long-term contact with a specific passing run in order to move quickly during the game.

Specifically, the players on the field against the 11 figures on the counter-attacking drill, the left back to attack, the left forward to receive the ball, cross, shoot to end the attack. Repeat the above tactical routine over and over again, so that a fixed offensive routine is obtained. The striker drops back to get the ball, with a full-back on each side and a midfielder on each side, and if you keep practicing this tactical template in a non-confrontational situation, then you can form a conditioned reflex in the actual game and use this routine freely.

Doesn't that sound familiar?

That's right, it's Arsenal's sharpest weapon in the Highbury era – a swift, sharp, mercury-dipped counter-attack.

At that time, the BBC used a stopwatch to measure the speed of the Arsenal player's counterattack after the opponent's corner attack failed, and after the ball was controlled in the backfield, it was directly handed to the striker in the middle line position, and the striker returned to the follow-up teammate, and the full-back who inserted it found a vacancy, received the ball and completed the cross, and finished.

The time is fixed at 10 seconds, and it will be faster if the ball is broken in midfield and the counter-attack is launched.

Want to see beautiful attacking football with flowing water and mercury? Come to Highbury Stadium to watch Arsenal in action.

Since Patrick Vieira left, with Seske Fabregas as the core, the tactics have become possession-oriented, and the formation has become 451, 4231 and other single-striker formations, with the well-known pressure of stadium debt, constantly changing players, Arsenal will no longer revert to the glory of the Highbury era, and there is rarely a flowing and mercury-like attacking football.

Of course, the "model training" also disappeared after the change of tactical play, and in the subsequent era of the fourth preservation, more and more people began to miss the peak Arsenal of the Highbury era.

Few people know that "model training" is Arsène Wenger's football philosophy, and John Cruyff, who advocates the formation of a local numerical advantage, and trains around tactical strategies and triangular passes, receivers, and positions for training, and the Barcelona tactical system that blindly creates a local numerical advantage through passing, but cannot operate without people in a certain position, Wenger has created an overall football tactical system that is more partial to the German machinery industry model. By designing different passing and running routes, forming a variety of offensive passing routines and repeated training for a long time, the players can form a conditioned reflex and perfectly execute in the game, and the result of this is that as long as the player meets the technical lower limit of this tactical system, even if he is not a well-known star, when there is a vacancy in a certain position, he can go to the top and ensure the smooth operation of the team.

Nicola Anelka, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Robert Pire, Frederick Ljungberg...... These unknown and half-finished youngsters at the time relied on Arsene Wenger's team football to become famous stars.

Of course, the changes of the times, the rapid development of football skills and tactics, the substantial enhancement of players' athleticism and physical fitness, backward tactics and training can not be used, but sometimes, football tactics are a cyclical process, when the three-back formation was eliminated by the four-back, and now it is recovering, who can guarantee that after the re-transformation of modern tactics, the four-back formation can not beat the prevailing three-back?

At least, Arsenal, who have returned to their old practice of using "model training", did not use the 442 formation that dominated the Premier League back then, nor did they return to the 4231 formation dominated by possession, but practiced a 433 formation that they had seen but not played.

Different from the Dutch tactics that focus on passing and cutting coordination and focusing on the wing, and also different from the Tiki-Taka tactics of the Barcelona Dream Three era, the 433 tactical system created by Wenger this time is based on the 442 rapid counterattack tactics of the Highbury era, emphasizing the overall running and one quick shot, reducing the drawbacks of the ball control tactics with two looks and three passes.

"The head, the three strikers in attack, plus the two full-backs and the two midfielders, although there is a numerical advantage, if the attack fails, it will put a lot of pressure on the defence." Steve Boulder frowned slightly, pointing out that the formation was too offensive, and the pressure on the defense was too much.

"When has it been since our defence has been under pressure for so many years?" Arsene Wenger said with a straight face: "You know where the team's defensive ceiling is. Since I can't hold it, I have to have one more ball, two more goals than my opponent. As long as the goal is better than the opponent, it is us who wins. ”

Boulder looked embarrassed, as one of the five veterans of the back, he was in charge of defensive training in the first team, and for a time built the Arsenal defense into a great wall of steel, but the good times did not last long, and it reverted to a leaky line with a pacemaker every game.

Arsenal, which used to be known for its defense, sacrificed attacking power, but with the development of the times, in the league, defense does not bring championships, more attack.

Even Jose Mourinho, who likes to swing the bus, will try his best to reduce the number of players in the backfield and send more forwards in order to win, and the number of goals scored in his championship season is also very impressive.

It is simply impossible to concede less than 18 goals per season in this day and age, because football flies faster, the pace of attack and defence is faster, and the thinking and action of players are faster, resulting in more mistakes.

Since Arsenal are destined to not reach a higher ceiling defensively, it is better to work more on attack.

As Arsene Wenger said, as long as we score more goals than our opponents, we will win.

Football is nothing more than offense and defense, there will be no third, counterattack is actually offense, in terms of efficiency, the shorter the distance of counterattack, the greater the threat of attack and the greater the chance of scoring goals.

Breaking the ball from the feet of the goalkeeper, the success rate of the goal is naturally 100%, but this opportunity is not impossible, but it is rare, unless the goalkeeper dies by himself, when he is Leon Messi and Neymar, he has to dribble past the opponent who grabs the ball. Or the goalkeeper is unlucky, the ball kicks out with too little power, passes to the opponent's feet, or kicks the opponent's body, or is blown into the goal by a strong wind......

Breaking the ball from the feet of the defenders, the success rate of the central defenders is naturally higher than that of the full-backs, because the straight-line distance is the shortest, and then when it comes to testing the goalkeeper one-on-one, the footwork is not accurate.

Breaking the ball in the midfield is to test whether the teammates can run out of the vacancy, and then whether they can pass to the vacancy, and when the ball is broken in the backcourt, you need to choose the most suitable counterattack route according to the situation on the field.

Therefore, in Arsenal's counter-attacking training, for different tackling positions, various counter-attacking routes are practiced, and of course, the humanoid template is indispensable to act as a defensive player.

Someone is going to say, why not practice the offensive of positional warfare, and also, not practice the defense?

If it is said that counterattacks rely on routines, positional warfare depends on patience.

Because when the positional war is in place, the opponent's defense has been settled, and you need to pass the ball patiently and run to find the opponent's loopholes, tear and break through the opponent's defense.

So, how can you practice this? It is completely dependent on on-the-spot play, which is equivalent to spending two yuan, waiting for the jackpot, and not necessarily winning.

As for the defense, Arsenal focused on offside and set-piece defense, and the rest also relied on on-the-spot play, and more importantly, Tan Xibi was awarded the responsibility of leading the defense by Arsene Wenger, because he was the best defensive player in the team, and there was no one.

After all, there is no second person in the world who can defend Leao Messi and Luis Suarez at the same time.

On Saturday, Arsene Wenger was present for tomorrow afternoon's pre-match press conference against Everton, revealing ahead of time the 18-man squad for tomorrow's trip to Liverpool City.