Four days later, on 13 August, the 2021-2022 Premier League season kicked off on time, with Aston Villa's first opponent being West Bromwich Albion, who are also in Birmingham City. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

But in reality, West Bromwich Albion only home the Hawthorn Stadium is located in Birmingham City, and is located in the suburbs. The team itself is the West Bromitch Borough in the West Midlands, and the usual Birmingham derby only refers to the match between Aston Villa and Birmingham City.

But after all, the Hawthorn Stadium is in Birmingham City, so many West Bromwich Albion fans are also from Birmingham, and even many Birmingham news media support West Bromwich Albion. The contest between West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham is also seen as a derby.

The two teams were in the same region and met in the first game of the new season, and the two gimmicks collided, and this game naturally attracted a lot of attention. Of course, most of it is in the West Midlands.

On top of that, Villa's performances last season were quite impressive, and the expectations of the home fans were high. This resulted in the Villa Park stadium being overcrowded on the afternoon of the match.

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West Bromwich Albion are in the same league as Villa's old rivals Southampton and finished 10th last season behind Southampton.

It's just that although the two teams are at the same level, Southampton are now on the rise, while West Bromwich Albion are still standing still. After all, the perennial mixture in the middle of the league, the worry-free state of relegation, and the hopeless state of European competition has made West Bromwich Albion lose his motivation. So after Southampton began to strengthen this summer, there was a gap in the strength of the two teams.

After a warm-up match with Southampton, Wang Shuai had a clear understanding of the power of the new tactic TF-BP, coupled with the opponent information seen in the system, Wang Shuai was confident that he could easily win the season.

It's just that this is the first game of the season, and it is the first Premier League game for many people in the team, including Wang Shuai, so this game is very memorable and symbolic. Wang Shuai also hopes that if possible, it is best to win a big victory. It's not just about myself, it's about the rest of the team, and it's about the fans.

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Wang Shuai's new tactics are actually no different from other tactics on the surface. Treating the backcourt as a defense and forcing the front court as an offense, these two points can't be seen just by looking. So ten minutes into the game, the fans didn't notice any changes from last season. If anything, it's that both offensively and defensively have become more aggressive.

The fans at the scene didn't think anything, but West Bromwich Albion on the field just couldn't say it. The offense can't reach the penalty area, and when defending, Villa doesn't press, which can be summed up in one sentence, that is, there is no ball. Soccer football, now I can't even control the ball, what kind of football do you play.

West Bromwich Albion's players are feeling aggrieved, and their coaches are even more depressed. Whether it's the players or the fans, they can only see, or feel, that Villa have been in possession for a long time. But coaches are different, naturally there are assistants who can count all kinds of data at any time, one of which is ball possession.

Then the coach of West Bromwich Albion heard the data reported by his assistant, and his whole face turned into a bitter melon.

79%, which was Aston Villa's possession in the first ten minutes of the game.

Even if this game is Villa's home stadium, Villa have the right to kick off in the first half, this possession rate is simply too high.

That's almost four times taller than West Bromwich Albion.

What is this concept? That means Villa have four times as many shots on goal as West Bromwich Albion if they have every shot on target. If both sides had the same shot success rate, then the final scoreline, Villa was four times that of West Bromwich Albion.

Fortunately, this is the first official game of the new season for Villa, and Wang Shuai plans to stabilize the team's tactical formation, and does not attack, but keeps controlling the ball in the midfield, otherwise the score may have been rewritten.

But West Bromwich Albion's coach understands very well that Villa don't attack now, it doesn't mean they don't attack for the whole game. And with the support of ultra-high possession, once Villa start to attack, the unlucky one can only be West Bromwich Albion.

So, West Bromwich Albion's coach is in a hurry.

"Looting! Looting! Go get the ball back! The coach stood on the sidelines and yelled at his players.

It's just that the coach's shouting didn't help, but made the West Bromwich Albion players on the field even more unsure of what to do. Because they have been pressing, but they can't grab the ball, and now the coach is still letting them press, it's just standing and talking without backache.

Then looking at the indifference of the players on the field, the coach of West Bromwich Albion was embarrassed, and he also realized that he had just shouted a nonsense.

It's just that no one cares about him at this time, because Wang Shuai feels that it's time to attack.

As Wang Shuai made an attacking gesture, Villa's formation changed again. Zhou retreated, and the four wide players formed a formation between 3-5-2 and 3-3-4.

That's right, it's 3-3-4 and not 3-4-3.

It sounds weird, but once you know Villa's lineup, you won't think so.

Zhou Aniu's strengths are defense, long passes and long shots, but now the team's offensive firepower is enough, and the offensive tactics are not long passes, so Wang Shuai's task for Zhou Aniu is still defense. Although TF-BP is an all-offense and all-defense tactic, it is impossible for Wang Shuai to really ignore the defense when attacking.

Today's two starting full-backs were both new in the summer, Heilman and Jacob. Compared to last season's two full-backs, these two are younger and have more physical strength, so Wang Shuai can rest assured that they will be involved in the attack. And in the team's current attacking tactics, the two of them moved from full-back to full-back.

Similarly, the positions of David and Laurie are starting to move to the area between the wing-backs and wingers, whether they are more forward or back, depending on where the current possession area is.

The four wide players pushed forward, and the position of the three in the middle was a little more complicated.

After Zhou Aniu retreated to the position of central defender, Wang Shuai was left alone in the midfield, which means that the connection of the front, middle and back roads must also be completed by Wang Shuai alone. Therefore, Wang Shuai's position is not a simple premise, but flows back and forth throughout the midfield area.

Wu Shi and Ibrahimovic used to be center forwards, but now their positions are separated from each other, with Wu Shi in front and Ibrahim in the back. Compared with the two people, Ibusheng is good in technique, and Wu Shisheng is fast. Therefore, Wang Shuai's arrangement is very simple, and Ibrahimovic in the back can burst into the penalty area with his own foot skills after receiving the ball. Wu Shi in front of him is constantly running in the penalty area, pulling the opponent's defensive line, which can not only create opportunities for Ibrahimovic, but also run for himself, killing two birds with one stone.

In this way, the team's left, middle and right three lines have formed three vertical lines, which is also Wang Shuai's newly discovered micro-tactic, and the system has given this tactic an image name: three-line formation.