Chapter Eighty-Six: Picking the Ball Over the Top
readx;
Leonardo knows that Mourinho is good at counter-attacking, but he won't change his style of play, because on his home turf he can't really think of anything else to do other than attack. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info
If he doesn't attack at his home stadium and doesn't strive for goals and wins, I'm afraid that he will be compared to Mourinho again.
Comparing to Mourinho is something that almost every Mourinho's successor has to endure.
After all, where is Mourinho's team performance, the treble, especially the Champions League title, this is an honor that Inter Milan has been thinking about for decades.
The players had already been told before the game what tactics to play, and what Leonardo wanted to do now was to boost morale. He knew that there were many people in the Inter Milan squad who were Mourinho's followers, and he was worried that they would be swaying from side to side in the battle with his mentor.
"There's been enough pre-match hype about us and them, it's pointless. After all, it's the results that determine who advances to the semi-finals. Who wouldn't want to advance to the semi-finals or even the final? He asked.
No one said a word.
Actually, this is a question that doesn't need to be asked, but it does need to be asked for Inter Milan today. After a season of the Treble, some of these people seem to have lost their desire for titles and accolades. The departed right-back McCone is a case in point. As for the others...... Even if they didn't show it, Leonardo couldn't guarantee that they didn't have such thoughts in their hearts.
Having won the treble, is there anything else worth winning in the club field?
Once a team loses its desire for a championship, the team is on the verge of collapse. At the beginning, Florentino spent a lot of money to build the first phase of the Galaxy Battleship, because they were all superstars who had already been honored, and they lacked enough interest in honor, which led to the team's rapid decline in performance in the last few years. Just kidding, everyone has held it, do we still have to do the dirty work of grabbing the ball? Therefore, Real Madrid was torn apart in two, one was only responsible for attacking, and the other could only defend with all their strength to avoid conceding goals. It's no wonder that such a team has a good result.
Today's Inter Milan are somewhat similar to Real Madrid in the past, with most of the main players in the team going through the treble era, and how much they still want glory and titles, which is a question.
Leonardo had to bring out their fighting spirit.
"Last season we were in the round of 16 and the defending champions were laughed at it. This is a great shame for all of us. Right now! We should restore this glory! He struggled to raise his voice and speak loudly.
Ranocchia was intrigued by Leonardo's remarks, he clenched his fists and waved, and he couldn't wait to get back to glory by beating Real Madrid. In the season when Inter won the treble, he was loaned to Bari by Genoa, and he was not part of Inter Milan.
He was only bought by Inter Milan during the winter break last season. And quickly developed into a regular at the back. At the moment he is the main force of Inter Milan's central defenders, and whether it is Lucio, Samuel or Hummels, he will have to partner him.
Leonardo has a high regard for the player, seeing him as a key figure in his transformation of Inter Milan. According to Leonardo's vision, Ranocchia could play for Inter Milan for 10 years in this position, and with him, the backline would be solid.
Ranocchia is now a member of the Treble, but he can only watch the former Treble be suppressed by AC Milan in the domestic league, and he can't find a way out in the Champions League, which is very depressing.
This season, they are still suppressed by AC Milan in the league, but in the Champions League, they have performed well, reaching the quarter-finals, and although they face Real Madrid, who are now in the best form in Europe, he is still confident of playing against Real Madrid. If Real Madrid can be eliminated, it will definitely be a boost to restore the team's reputation.
Regardless of whether Leonardo's words work for other players, they definitely work for Ranocchia.
On the other side, Jose Mourinho is reminding his players to be careful.
"Don't think it's going to be easy to play in this away game. I'm telling you, there's no good away game in the world, even in La Liga, when you go to play at home with a team like Mallorca, you're going to get in trouble. This is Inter Milan, I know them well, they are a very resilient team and if we can't solve them then we will suffer! ”
He obviously noticed the little caution hidden in the player's heart, so he chose to pour cold water on everyone before the game. It's too early for the players to take it seriously, and maybe they've forgotten about it on the day of the game. Now pour cold water, the effect is just right.
"In this game, we have to play against Inter Milan! Turn on your full horsepower from the first minute of the race! ”
There is no need to be tempted, because Mourinho knows enough about Inter Milan, and he has already told the players everything that needs to be told, so this Real Madrid team also knows enough about Inter Milan.
"We had to be as fast as possible and get the game into our rhythm from the start. Hit your opponent with Quick! ”
After speaking, he pointed at Chu Zhongtian: "Chu is the commander-in-chief of this game, you have to listen to him." ”
Everyone looked at Chu Zhongtian, and no one showed a look of surprise or dissent. This is not the first time Mourinho has said this, and it is no secret that Real Madrid's brain is Chu Zhongtian now.
Chu Zhongtian already knew how to fight specifically, and he knew Hummels very well. When he was at Hoffenheim, he played against Dortmund many times, how could Hummels not understand as Dortmund's main defender? This tall central defender has excellent physical fitness, accurate positioning and prediction, and is extremely strong in air defense.
The reason why Dortmund was able to win the league title last season is that in addition to having sharp players such as Sahin and Shinji Kagawa in attack, the solidity of the back line is also important. His centre-back partnership with Subotic set the record for the best clean sheet in the league in the first half of the season.
The two sides met twice last season, the first at home to Borussia Dortmund, where Hoffenheim drew 2-2 with Borussia Dortmund, and it was a very hot match, with the two sides not playing football but in free fighting. The second leg was Hoffenheim's 1:3 home loss to Dortmund, in that game Rangnick voluntarily gave up the league in order to prepare for the second leg of the Champions League match with Tottenham Hotspur.
Chu Zhongtian knows Hummels, and Hummels also knows Chu Zhongtian.
Hummels and Ranocchia, both of whom are centre-backs with excellent air defense, are unlikely to have much effect if Real Madrid blindly split the side and then cross.
In front of these two defenders, even if Adebayo is on the field, it is probably useless, and Adebayo himself is not known for his headers. What's more, he didn't come to the Stadio Meazza with the team for this game, because he was injured a little in pre-match training, and Mourinho kept him in Madrid to be on the safe side.
Real Madrid's starting striker in this game was Gonzalo Higuain.
Higuain's characteristic is definitely not to be a stumbling centre-forward in the penalty area, competing with two centre-backs over 1.9 meters tall for headers.
Real Madrid's attack must be fluid to be threatening, and they will never be able to break through the opponent's goal if they stand up and kick. And before Chu Zhongtian came, Real Madrid's offense was like this, they still relied more on the individual strength of the stars, rather than the overall strength, many times you can see Di Maria, C. Ronaldo and others rushing forward with the ball alone, connecting several opponents, although this is very dazzling, but when they encounter strong opponents, they often stop directly.
For example, the Champions League semi-final and Barcelona match is a good reflection of this, Real Madrid's star tactics can not play at all in the face of the overall strong Barcelona, while Barcelona uses the strong overall and tacit cooperation to constantly mobilize Real Madrid. It is not uncommon to see three or four Barcelona players passing one foot at a time, while one of the Real Madrid players keeps running from one end to the other, like a monkey in training.
This is the sadness of Real Madrid and the most important thing to show off in Barcelona.
With Chu Zhongtian this season, the situation has improved. Mourinho set him as the core of the team's organization according to Chu Zhongtian's characteristics, under his organization, Real Madrid's attack is much more fluid, and it is no longer just relying on the individual strength of the stars, his passing and organization, as well as running, have led the rest of the team. Chu Zhongtian originally belonged to the kind of player who could drive others to play, and after coming to Real Madrid, Real Madrid was like a tiger. Even players like Kaka, who had already been sentenced to death by the media, have been given a new lease of life, not to mention players like C. Ronaldo, who are already outstanding.
C. Ronaldo was still accustomed to wanting personal heroism at the beginning, but now that he has basically given up this idea, it feels so good to cooperate with Chu Zhongtian. This is a very considerate teammate, and he can always tailor his way of cooperation according to the actual situation and his own characteristics. You're fast, you're free, and he's going to deliver a very accurate through ball. You're good on the ball, but you're slow, and he'll make a pass that you can just take advantage of the situation and get out of the way. If you have good physical fitness, then the football will pass to your feet, and you will not be able to compete with the opponent for speed and footwork.
C. Ronaldo thinks so, and everyone else even more. That's why Mourinho said "you have to listen to Chu", and no one objected.
Chu Zhongtian's idea was to use the side lane to feint, and then he stormed the middle lane. Real Madrid's wide attack is very sharp, and that's something the whole world knows. Take advantage of this to feint on the wing, and after the attention of the Inter Milan defense is shifted to the wing, then launch a fatal blow from the middle and catch the opponent off guard.
This is Chu Zhongtian's basic idea. Of course, the specific way to do it depends on the situation at the time of the game.
※※※ All that needs to be said is said, and the players of both sides meet in the passage.
In the current Real Madrid team, there are no players from Inter Milan, but Inter Milan has Sneijder, a player from Real Madrid.
So when the players on both sides were waiting in the tunnel to play, Sneijder greeted Casillas, Ramos, Marcelo and others and looked very affectionate. Behaved like a real host.
As for other players who have newly joined Real Madrid, he is not familiar with them, such as C. Ronaldo, such as Kaka, such as Chu Zhongtian.
C. Ronaldo and Chu Zhongtian are standing together and chatting, in today's Inter Milan, there are no friends of them, and Kaka is chatting with his teammates in the Brazilian national team. It seems that the atmosphere is very harmonious.
It seems to have confirmed everyone's previous belief that this game will be very relaxed and friendly.
But when they got on the pitch, they realized that it wasn't the case.
Sneijder, who was still smiling and greeting Casillas, Ramos and others just now, was fiercely pressing his former teammate Ramos, making it difficult for Ramos to turn around, and he was forced to the sideline and could not play the ball.
With only five minutes into the game, Inter Milan, who were playing at home, took advantage of their home advantage and quickly took the initiative.
Before the game, Leonardo was worried that the veteran players in his squad lacked a hunger for glory and would be exploited by Real Madrid in this game.
Now, it seems, at least, Sneijder hasn't shown signs of slacking off.
The Inter fans in the stands were not the slightest polite. They did give Jose Mourinho a big cheer when he came on before the game, but that doesn't mean they have to cheer for Real Madrid in the game.
Now they are cheering for Sneijder.
Ramos tried to turn around, but found that Sneijder was watching tightly, and finally he forced a turn, only to be knocked off the touchline by Sneijder.
Real Madrid got a throw-in, and it looked like the ball was still in Real Madrid's hands, but this was in Real Madrid's half, and Inter Milan could completely suppress the place where the throw-in was thrown, and directly snatch the ball down, you must know that throw-ins are generally not easy to control.
Sure enough, when Ramos raised the ball with both hands and was about to throw it, the Inter Milan players swarmed and stared at all the Real Madrid players who might have received his ball. Di Maria and Alonso have people all around them.
He can't keep holding the football and not throwing it out, he will be judged a violation after a long time, and then he will give the football to the Inter Milan players, and the Inter Milan players will throw the throw-in.
Just when Ramos was looking for someone, Chu Zhongtian ran up from the middle lane.
Of course, he didn't escape Inter's marking, and Sneijder was soon pressing.
Chu Zhongtian is the core, even if you don't need to study the game video, everyone knows this. Last season's Champions League final was too impressive, and Chu Zhongtian was able to beat Barcelona on his own, which also brought a great shock to many people. Not to mention that Inter Milan has played against Chu Zhongtian twice, and they know him very well.
Seeing Chu Zhongtian running towards Ramos, Sneijder knew that Chu Zhongtian was planning to catch the ball, and he had to limit Chu Zhongtian, otherwise once Chu Zhongtian caught the football, he might organize a threatening attack.
Ramos originally planned to throw the football to Chu Zhongtian, but seeing that Sneijder was quickly pressing, he hesitated.
Chu Zhongtian didn't care that he was followed by a tough midfielder, who was gesturing to Ramos, signaling him to throw the football to himself.
Seeing that Ramos was indifferent, he kept repeating the gesture of "throw the ball to me".
Ramos finally chose to throw the football to Chu Zhongtian.
In order to avoid throwing it too high and Chu Zhongtian was not easy to catch, he also threw the football down, so that at least Chu Zhongtian could stop the ball with his feet instead of his chest. He would have had to take time to adjust the ball if he stopped the ball with his chest, and in the process, he was likely to be surrounded by Inter players and end up losing possession.
If he throws it like this now, Chu Zhongtian can stop the football at his feet, which is easier to control, and it will not be cut off so easily.
Sneijder thinks so, too.
But Chu Zhongtian's approach was beyond the expectations of the two of them. Chu Zhongtian stretched out his foot, but instead of stopping the ball, he ...... Straight back the ball!
Snead was blocked by Chu Zhongtian, and he didn't see what Chu Zhongtian was doing, but he saw Chu Zhongtian's figure in front of him flicker, and he turned around and walked around the other side of him! And what about football? I didn't see a shadow!
"Oh!! Pretty! The commentators who saw this scene exclaimed one after another.
Chu Zhongtian shook his ankle, and picked the football over his head very lightly, then quickly turned around, bypassed Sneijder's close marking, and then raised his leg to unload the football in the air, and then went forward and got rid of it!
Ramos was a little dumbfounded when he stood outside the sideline and saw Chu Zhongtian get rid of Sneijder's marking so easily and casually. It's not that he hasn't seen superb technology, but he feels that Chu Zhongtian's escape is not because of how awesome his skills are, but because his ideas break the convention.
Everyone was staring at his feet, but he picked the ball over his head and caught Sneijder off guard, which was really beautiful!
When Real Madrid was suppressed by Inter Milan, Chu Zhongtian's kick was very beautiful to resolve the deadlock and boost the morale of Real Madrid. The Real Madrid fans in the stands now burst into loud cheers, although they were quickly drowned out by Inter Milan's shouts. But Chu Zhongtian's performance has successfully inspired them, and in the next game, they will definitely find a way to break through the sound blockade of Inter Milan and deliver their voice to Real Madrid.
Chu Zhongtian is quietly changing the situation on the field!
(To be continued)