Chapter 259: Rijkaard's Decision

The white handkerchief fluttering in the stands of the Bernabeu announced the defeat of Real Madrid.

The score was finally settled at 0:2, and according to international practice, the home team was in front and the away team was behind.

Valencia took all three points from the Santiago Bernabeu and another win over Real Madrid.

After the game, Chang Win also added fuel to the fire of Real Madrid at the press conference.

"From the moment Bosque was sacked, Real Madrid was in a quagmire. Queiroz is a great assistant coach but definitely not a great manager. A man who had never coached a first-team rose to the top and became the manager of Real Madrid. Such a ridiculous thing could only happen to Real Madrid! ”

"Real Madrid paid the price for their naivety and I don't think Real Madrid still have a chance to win the league this season. Although there are still fourteen rounds of league games to end now, I already see the future. ”

His words made headlines in the Madrid regional media after the game. The newspapers "Marca" and "As" both reported and commented on Chang Sheng's words.

Some people think that Chang Victorious and arrogant will be punished.

But there are also those who agree with the idea of winning the long way.

They felt that although Chang Sheng's words were a little ugly, they were very reasonable.

Queiroz is really inexperienced, he is a good assistant coach, so he can put Real Madrid's training plan in order.

It's a pity that competing for the league title in football is not just about training.

As a manager, Queiroz has two fatal flaws.

First of all, as an assistant coach, he has no experience as a head coach at all, and his on-the-spot command ability is very poor. The game that could have been won ended in a draw because of his terrible and chaotic adjustments, and the game that could have been won turned into a loss because of his on-the-spot command. With a giant team like Real Madrid to practice and gain experience, Queiroz is really luxurious.

Second, Queiroz is not qualified enough to shock the superstars in the Real Madrid dressing room.

It was previously thought that the arrival of Queiroz could help Beckham integrate into the team. And his experience working next to Ferguson is also considered to have learned a lot of experience in managing the dressing room. But they ignore that although Queiroz studied with Ferguson for many years, he is not Ferguson after all, and his style is completely different from Ferguson.

His background as an assistant coach has already made many Real Madrid players look down on him. Coupled with the fact that he has no meritorious experience that he can take at all, superstars are even less like him.

In addition, even if he has been with Alex Ferguson for many years at Manchester United, he may not have experience in managing Real Madrid's dressing room. Because Real Madrid's dressing room is very special, you can't find a second team in the world of football like Real Madrid that has a number of world superstars, these superstars are the aces of aces in any team, and now they gather in the dressing room of Real Madrid, how to deal with the relationship between them?

Queiroz, with no experience in this area, simply could not cope with it.

This is no longer Chang Sheng's nonsense, but has been proven by facts.

It's a bit reassuring to expect such a head coach and a constant winner to compete.

But what if they don't feel at ease?

Changing coaches halfway through? I'm afraid it's worse than what Queiroz did.

Is it just to watch that bastard run away with Valencia like this?

※※※

Valencia's defeat of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu is no longer news.

Although Chang Sheng said that he decided that Real Madrid would not win the league title, there are still many people who think that Chang Sheng is talking nonsense, or that he is simply enjoying the feeling of beating and humiliating his opponent.

His words are not credible.

Chang Shengcai doesn't care if they believe it or not, time will prove their rightness.

After this match against Real Madrid, it was the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final.

In the first leg, Valencia beat Zaragoza 2-0 at home. Valencia was half main and half substitute in that game, and this game was often won but did not dare to have any support.

Now that they have decided to win the treble, Chang Sheng naturally has to take his opponent seriously. Not to mention that this game is still an away game, in Spain, the same team, the same lineup, the same tactics, it is normal for the performance at home and away to be completely judged by two teams.

La Liga has a lot of home dragons and away bugs.

Changsheng has adjusted the lineup, although it is not the main force, but it is also 80% of the main players, which ensures the strength of the team, and at the same time fine-tunes individual positions to ensure the team's physical strength, and will not exhaust physical strength due to continuous fighting.

With such a lineup, Valencia and Zaragoza drew 1:1 away from home.

Valencia eliminated Zaragoza on aggregate with an aggregate score of 3:1 to reach the Copa del Rey final.

The next day, another Copa del Rey semi-final was also played.

Although Real Madrid lost 0:1 away to Sevilla, they still eliminated their opponents with an aggregate score of 2:1 and reached the final.

It's really not a bitter rivalry, with Valencia and Real Madrid once again meeting in the Copa del Rey final.

I don't know if Real Madrid, who had just been beaten by Valencia at the Bernabeu, would want to beat Valencia in the Copa del Rey and succeed in revenge.

Anyway, this time Florentino was obedient and did not apply for the final on his home turf after the results of the matchup came out.

Instead, they resigned themselves to the Spanish Football Federation to host the final at Barcelona's home stadium at Camp Nou.

Perhaps he thinks beating Valencia at Camp Nou would also be a good option.

Barcelona have not objected to the FA's arrangement, and while they are unhappy with both finalists, they may prefer to side with Valencia if they have to compare. After all, Valencia has Pep Guardiola in the pair, and the tense relationship between Changsheng and Barcelona is mainly aimed at the Barcelona hierarchy and has nothing to do with ordinary Barcelona fans.

Of course, more Barcelona fans actually think this way - this Copa del Rey final has nothing to do with us, we don't care who wins and who loses!

These people are also not going to watch the game live, let alone waiting in front of the TV for the game to start live.

※※※

The 25th round of the league is the last round of the league before the Champions League reopens.

This excites those who are always victorious in the black – they have a sense of honor that they are witnessing history.

When the Champions League begins, Valencia will face a disadvantage of playing on three fronts, which is not a good thing for Valencia, but an outright bad thing.

There are league games on the weekend and the Champions League in the middle of next week.

Valencia's opponents are no worse.

The Champions League quarter-final opponent is Stuttgart from the Bundesliga.

And in the league their opponent is Barcelona.

The only good news is that both the league and the Champions League are at home, avoiding the hassle of travelling.

In the early stages of Rijkaard's tenure at Barcelona this season, Barcelona did not do well.

After seven rounds of league play, Barcelona fell to 11th place in the standings. It's the same rhythm as last season – on the road to relegation.

Since then, Barcelona have been hovering between fifth and twelfth place in the league.

Halfway through, Barcelona was in eighth place.

For the giants, such a ranking can be regarded as very bad. You must know that in previous years, Barcelona was the team competing for the title.

Such ups and downs in performance and results are a good reflection of Rijkaard's wavering mentality.

On his first day in Barcelona, Rijkaard felt a lot of pressure.

The pressure is not only on the scores, but also on the Barcelona tradition.

On his first day in the team, he heard a lot of people talking about tiki-taka, about Barcelona's traditions.

From the club's top management to ordinary fans, everyone thinks that Barcelona is the originator of Tiki-Taka, and Valencia, who has always won games, just imitated their tactics and achieved great success.

If copycats can succeed, so should we in Barcelona.

So Barcelona's tiki-taka is destined to be the best tactic in the world, and when Rijkaard comes to Barcelona, he has to play tiki-taka and win beautifully like a regular winner.

Everybody demanded that Rijkaard had to do it.

Rijkaard, who knows very little about La Liga, also feels that it is okay to do so.

Barcelona are the originators of Tiki-Taka, and their understanding of tactics and execution are obviously deeper than Valencia's, and this kind of football is integrated into their blood. Definitely stronger than Valencia.

If Everwin can be successful with this tactic in Valencia, why can't I?

Ambitious, Rijkaard then began to aggressively implement the Tiki-Taka tactic in Barcelona.

It stands to reason that the team should start winning beautifully. But the reality is quite different.

Riquelme and Xavi couldn't get together in any way after half-time.

According to Rijkaard's understanding, tiki-taka should be a kind of football with a fast pass.

But when the football reaches Riquelme's feet, it will habitually slow down the tempo, so the whole team's attacking rhythm is disrupted.

That's it, the defensive problems are what Rijkaard can't bear.

If you play 433, there are only three people in the midfield, and there are few defenders, and Xavi and Riquelme are the kind of players who don't defend.

Although Enrique is very responsible and willing to defend back, he is not a full-time defensive player after all, and his defensive ability is limited.

As a result, Barcelona's midfield has not a single player who can defend.

The result of the lack of a full-time midfielder is that the enemy's attack is always easy to hit Barcelona's back line and face their centre-backs directly.

Barcelona has suffered such losses more than once.

As the season progressed, Rijkaard always felt that Barcelona's traditional tiki-taka was not as good as they said it was, otherwise why would they always not be able to win?

However, if tiki-taka is abandoned, I am afraid that it will lead to a backlash from the club's top management and fans.

Barcelona fans can be proud of this tactic.

After thinking about it and vacillating, Rijkaard finally made the decision not to abandon tiki-taka completely, but to make adjustments to the existing foundation and maintain the tactical style of tiki-taka, but the things in it were completely different.

First and foremost, strengthen the team's defense.

And strengthening the team's defense starts from the back.