Great, an adjective that has clearly been overused by the media.

In football, greatness seems to fall more on attacking players, and defensive players rarely get such awards, but Makelele is honored to be recognized and affirmed by fans.

I don't know when Lu Dao started, they used him as a synonym for defensive midfielder, but it must not have been from Ligue 1, because at that time he was not a simple midfielder, at that time he was like Essien, Mohammed Diarra and other African players, both offensive and defensive, known for his wide range of running coverage.

After switching to Celta, he relied on his solid skills to gain a firm foothold in La Liga, and at that time he began to learn to become a more classical midfielder, because La Liga likes such a midfielder, such as Barcelona's Pep Guardiola, Real Madrid's Redondo, and Baraja, Albelda and other midfielders, are not pure defensive players.

Even if Celta later introduced Celades from Barcelona, the two formed the most dazzling double back combination in La Liga, Makelele is not the most eye-catching, UU summer, Real Madrid packaged the introduction of Celta double back, the most important target is Celades, Makelele is more to give full play to the strength of Celades and introduce players.

Sometimes, fate is just like that.

Usually people think that a great person should show a great side from the beginning, but in fact, greatness is often just an evaluation of the facts that have happened by the latecomer, and for the person concerned, he will not feel that he is doing a great thing at all, on the contrary, his purpose at the beginning is often very humble.

A lot of people ask Claude Makelele why he would transition to being a pure defensive player, for the simple reason of being on the game

Real Madrid had just won the Champions League that year, and there was a lot of talent in the midfield, including Elgra, Serades, Flavio and other powerful stars, as well as Cambiasso, an outstanding rookie player, and Makelele's position in Real Madrid was not prominent.

Bosque is constantly adjusting the team, the players are constantly catering to Bosque's tactics in order to compete, and Makelele does not have the slightest capital and capital to occupy a main position like the superstars, so he has to fight.

Too many people go to attack, and defense has become a scarce commodity, and in Real Madrid's midfield, Makelele and Elgra are undoubtedly the most willing players to put into defense, and it is logical that they gradually get the reuse of Bosque, and gradually get the opportunity to play, and over time, he has taken root in the back position.

Makelle has always understood a truth, that is, as a professional player, the most important thing is not to think about how to play your strength, especially for the top team, the strength of the player is a fart, the strength of the star is a lot of handful, the most important thing is to find your role in the team.

If Makelele is still like Cerrades, Flavio and others, keeping his own characteristics and not changing, then he will not be able to play at Real Madrid, because Real Madrid does not need such a role in the team, they need defenders.

Once you've found a role, a lot of things fall into place.

Makelele clearly remembers that when he wanted to renew his contract with Real Madrid, he received a call from Ye Qiu in London.

In that phone call, Ye Qiu told him what kind of player he wanted.

'I still lack a player in my tactical system, and when my strikers rush forward, he stays to protect the defence; When my midfielder was rushing forward, he stayed to protect the defence; When his defenders were out of position, he was still holding his position and protecting his defence."

After Makelele listened to Ye Qiu's words, a thought immediately appeared in his mind, he was talking about himself, and he was only himself

So then, after Real Madrid agreed to the transfer, Makelele directly nodded and joined Chelsea, because he knew very well that Ye Qiu understood his tactical value.

But even so, it wasn't until later that he found out that Ye Qiu's understanding of him was obviously more profound.

Every week, Ye Qiu will communicate with the players, and every first-team player has such an opportunity, which is very popular with the players, everyone can speak freely, and even directly talk about their thoughts and requirements for contract renewal and salary.

Makelele once asked Ye Qiu, there are many defenders who meet Ye Qiu's requirements, why did he spend a high price to introduce himself?

Ye Qiu thought for a while, as if he was struggling with how to use the simplest adjective to say a very profound truth, and after the most sluriousness, he said with a smile: "There are two kinds of midfield defenders, one is to let the ball pause through defense, and then complete the defense, and the other is to be able to keep the ball running effectively all the time, but at the same time be able to complete the defense. ”

"There are a lot of midfielders who can do the former, a lot of them, they can run and fight, they are all qualified to be the former, but only the really best defenders can do the latter, and you belong to the latter"

After Makelle listened, he suddenly realized a characteristic that he had rarely discovered in the past, that is, the point that Ye Qiu emphasized the most was to make the ball run without stopping

There have been many people who have been surprised by Chelsea's tactics, thinking that this team likes to attack, and the speed of the frontcourt players is generally not fast, so why is this team so fast and so impactful when it counterattacks or attacks?

The reason for this is simple, because even in the process of defending, Chelsea make sure that the ball is running effectively as much as possible.

Just imagine, the same defense, the same assumed ideal state, after the defender successfully forced the steal, what else did he do? If you protect the ball and tackle it on the ground, you still need to have time to get up, right?

And during this period, the ball was clearly out of control and stalled

On the other hand, if the ball is passed out and before it reaches the feet of the receiver, after the half-way interception is successful, the first choice the defender makes is not to protect the ball, nor to let the ball stop, but to pass the ball directly, or even rush forward with the ball himself.

Therefore, in Chelsea's defense, Ye Qiu emphasizes the most interception, which is to ensure the operation of the ball without stopping to the greatest extent, and once the defense is successful without stopping the ball, then Chelsea can save the time spent in other people's ball protection and ball road pauses, the short is one or two seconds, and the long point may even be the success or failure of an attack.

Everyone knows that in a football game, the difference of one or two seconds is very huge

Of course, it is not easy to do this, the requirements for the prediction of the ball, reaction and other aspects are very high, and Ye Qiu has exercised the player's ability in this aspect through repeated high-intensity training on weekdays, at least until now, Chelsea has done a good job in this aspect, otherwise, Makelele alone will not be able to guarantee defense.

In training, repeating what may happen in the game can also help players to stay calm and rational when they encounter similar situations in the game.

Therefore, when Liverpool played a counterattack, Chelsea caused excessive pressure because of the strong attack, and in the shortest possible time, Liverpool put four players into the counterattack, namely strikers Pongele, Reese, Luis Garcia and Gerrard, Gerrard's position was relatively deep, and the counterattack was also dragged behind, but it was the most dangerous.

And what about Chelsea?

Claude Makelele up front, Gallas and John Terry in the back, and the rest of the players are chasing back.

4 dozen and a hasty counterattack, the situation can be said to be very favorable to Liverpool, and even the commentator Andy Gray shouted in surprise that Liverpool may be going to score.

But the moment Liverpool hit the counter-attack, the Chelsea players reacted immediately, and Makelele, who had been retreating with Liverpool's counter-attack, saw an opportunity after entering the 30-metre area of his side, giving up on Pongele and forcing Luis Garcia with the ball.

Gallas and Terry have a very tacit understanding with Makelele, as soon as they saw Makelele's movements, they immediately guessed what the Frenchman was going to do, and both of them also acted separately, Gallas went to look at Pongele, and Terry leaned to the right of Makelele, a bit like he wanted to help Makelele defend, and a little like he was approaching Reese.

Luis Garcia and Makelle were originally advancing and retreating, and the distance was getting closer and closer, but when Makelele suddenly approached, the distance between the two quickly narrowed in an instant, and Luis Garcia was taken aback by Makelele's actions, and there was no time to hesitate, so he naturally chose the safest way to distribute the ball to Rieser on the left side.

But as soon as the ball went out, he regretted it

Because he saw Terry suddenly leave his position, quickly burst out of the box and intercepted the ball halfway through.

What was supposed to be a 4-3 favourable situation forced Luis Garcia to make the wrong choice because of the tacit and skilful interplay of Chelsea's three defenders and the sudden change in defensive style.

Terry did not pause after the successful interception, and rushed forward with the ball quickly, and Liverpool, who was still counterattacking just now, suddenly fell into the embarrassing situation of being counterattacked at this moment, especially when Terry directly kicked the ball to the front, Liverpool's defense was blown up in an instant.

Instead of pressing against Liverpool's retreating defence, Drogba made a sudden stop, Terry's long ball came over his head, and the Ivorian calmly stood on his feet and headed the ball towards the right side of the Liverpool defence, behind Traore and Hyypia.

Ribery's explosiveness and speed were pushed to the highest level in an instant, and after stepping on the accelerator, the Frenchman quickly passed through the gap between Liverpool's two dinosaur-level tall players like a fierce Ferrari, inserted the ball and then took advantage of the momentum to go forward and continue to soar.

The situation can be described as a twist and turn, just now it was counterattacked, but now it took the initiative to play a sharp and rapid counterattack, and also tore through Liverpool's defense, the fans on both sides in the stands were stunned and speechless, and even the on-site commentators did not speak.

At the moment when Ribery penetrated the defensive line, Carragher had to choose to lean over to defend, but as soon as he left his position, Ribery did not wait for him to get close, passed the ball horizontally, and quickly passed the ball from Carragher's side, Ronaldinho behind Carragher rushed to the ball, and easily pushed the incoming ball about 10 meters away from the goal.

Ribery's pass was exquisite, because the ball was from the goal, just because the goalkeeper wanted to attack, but there was not much confidence, which would lead to the area of hesitation, and suddenly from the right to the left rib, Dudek even if he reacted, but it was too late to stop Ronaldinho.

The ball hit the goal line against the turf, bounced off the bottom of the net, and then landed on the goal line, bouncing on the turf a few times, as if it were beating in the hearts of all the fans of the two teams in the stadium, as well as all the fans in front of the televisions.

Bump-bump-bump-

---After two or three seconds of silence, there was finally a burst of thunderous shouts, and the Chelsea fans rushed out of their seats and rushed to the front of the stand fence, screaming and shouting, chanting Ronaldinho's name, chanting Chelsea, and chanting victory declarations

Ronaldinho and his teammates rushed out of the pitch and hugged each other under the stands, especially against Ribery, who gave him an assist, Ronaldinho even picked up the Frenchman by the waist, almost wiped his scarred face.

The moment Ye Qiu scored the goal, he also clenched his fists and roared on the sidelines, and this goal completely eliminated the pressure in his heart.

Playing Liverpool, the most important thing is the team's almost impregnable targeted tactics, especially when they shrink up, almost no team can break through, even if the Istanbul miracle in the previous life, the reason why Liverpool was scored 3 goals by AC Milan at half time is also because of their lack of experience, rashly pressing and leading to a counterattack by AC Milan.

Now, with this goal, Ye Qiu has the certainty of victory, because the next thing Chelsea has to do is to defend and counterattack

After the players celebrated on the sidelines, they did not forget to walk to the home team's coach's box, high-fived their head coach, and even hugged and celebrated, and Ye Qiu also took this opportunity to explain the next game tasks to the players.

It's only 13 minutes now, Chelsea are retracting now, a little too early, the most likely time for any team to have problems is after you take the lead, shrinking too quickly, so Ye Qiu asked the players to continue to maintain a certain amount of pressure, and then retreat appropriately and steadily.

And if they want to continue to put pressure on Liverpool, the best way to do it is to hit them down the left flank.

With this goal, Ye Qiu's whole person was much more relaxed, his hands were clasped in front of his chest, and there was a smile on his face, and then he looked at Benitez, the Spaniard had a serious face, as if he was facing a big enemy, as if he was fighting a duel with the other party.

Both sides belong to the kind of team that doesn't have much holes in their defense, and compared to Chelsea's excellent attacking ability, Liverpool's attack is slightly inferior, so now after Chelsea have breached the goal, Benitez has to choose to attack, unless he doesn't want to win.

But Benitez knew that he didn't have a choice, and Ye Qiu certainly knew that he didn't have a choice, so the Spaniards themselves knew very well that Ye Qiu, a cunning old fox, would definitely be waiting for his own half, setting traps, waiting for his prey to take the initiative to send it to the door, step on his trap, and then he quickly counterattacked.

As long as the pressure is pressed and the team's formation is loose, it is impossible for Liverpool's defence to remain tight.

In fact, Benitez did not press too hard, but it was only after Chelsea restarted the game and continued to launch a few small attacks on Liverpool's left side that Chelsea began to steadily retract the formation.

As Wenger and Ferguson said, when Ye Qiu is determined to defend, unless he uses a bomb, it will be difficult to break through Chelsea's defense, and Benitez also knows very well that Chelsea is waiting for him to attack now, so he is not so stupid.

As a result, the last half of the first half was spent in the almost boring consumption of time between the two teams.

But during this period of time when the fans are bored, the players and managers of the two teams are engaged in a contest of patience and will, as long as either side shows a little impatience, the slightest mistake, will be swallowed by the other side without even spitting out the bone.

At halftime, Ye Qiu spoke highly of the player's performance in the first half on the one hand, but on the other hand, he kept calling on his players, the start of the second half was very critical, the team still adopted a defensive counterattack strategy, and could not give Liverpool room to relax, especially the suppression of Xavi Alonso, which must continue.

The situation in the second half was still the same as the first half, with each other's energy and patience draining, and Benitez did not dare to press it out easily, because it was not yet time to break the cauldron, and he could only wait for Chelsea to make mistakes while making sure he did not make mistakes

Time ticked by, and after 70 minutes, Liverpool finally couldn't sit still.

Benitez made his first substitution with Morientes to replace Pongele, and the Spanish striker was more effective in Chelsea's tight formation, but Ye Qiu kept the team's formation unchanged, just asking Terry and Gallas to pay more attention to Morientes, because he knew very well that Liverpool still didn't dare to press on it now.

Until the 75th minute, Benitez finally couldn't sit still, this time directly replaced Traore, who performed poorly and had a yellow card, with Biss Mitchell, and changed to 36L tactics, but at the same time replaced Hamann with Colwill to further strengthen the team's offensive ability in the frontcourt.

Ye Qiu also quickly adjusted, Lampard's position retreated, supported the midfield, replaced Drogba with Gudjohnsen, and the position was closer to the midfield, actively participating in the defense, so that Ronaldinho and Ribery were like two sharp knives, cutting Liverpool's ribs, and the counterattack attitude was very obvious and resolute.

Liverpool have no choice now, there is only a little time left, and if they don't score again, they will be finished, so Benitez can only choose to give it a go, hoping to get the Chelsea goal in the last moments.

And Ye Qiu was obviously waiting for Liverpool to press up, and even waved at them, sending out an impatient invitation