Middlesbrough is an English powerhouse, and their quality is not comparable to Manchester United, Arsenal and other strong teams, but they are not worried about relegation every season. Middlesbrough are a notch above Derby County – they are mid-table teams in the middle of the Premier League, while Derby are relegation teams in League One.

The status of the two teams is very different, and the strength is naturally much worse.

However, manager Steve McClaren still agreed to Derby's warm-up requirements, just as Derby County wanted to invite some lower leagues to warm up, Middlesbrough also needed to warm up in the lower leagues, compared to Middlesbrough, Derby County is a lower league team that meets the requirements.

On this day, Derby County all arrived at the riverside stadium in Middlesbrough.

The warm-up match was not so formal, after entering the court, the two sides began to warm up, and then went directly to the official game, and the referee who was responsible for officiating the game was invited by both teams.

Wan Sheng stood with McLaren on the sidelines.

McClaren is only 42 years old, which is quite young to become the manager of the English team. His coaching resume is also impressive – having worked as an assistant to manager Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and now as an assistant to England manager Christian Eriksen, as well as managing Middlesbrough. Overall, it was a very successful coach.

Wan Sheng knew McLaren because he knew the England team.

McLaren's biggest dream is to coach the England team, three years later after the 2oo6 World Cup in Germany, McClaren also realized his dream, but unfortunately he was dismissed by the FA less than a year after he took office, and there are many reasons for the dismissal, including poor team results, media criticism and dissatisfaction with the team's stars, in short, he did a very poor job in the England manager position, and then he failed in the Eredivisie and Bundesliga, and finally returned to England. But he could only get a coaching job in the Championship (now League One).

In other words, McClaren's most glorious time was when he took over as England manager in 2oo6.

Now he is at the peak of his coaching life as the manager of Middlesbrough, but ten years later, he has been reduced to the manager of the Championship, and the current Wansheng belongs to the same level of manager.

Thinking about the later experience of this 'senior in the coaching industry' and 'current successful person' in front of him, Wan Sheng can only sigh that the competition in the coaching world is really fierce, but he respects McLaren very much, after all, this is a senior. The results of coaching Middlesbrough are also very good, and in this warm-up game, Middlesbrough Club said quite generously that all ticket income belongs to the Derby County Club, and it can find the English team to warm up, and it can bring income to the club, Wansheng feels at home with this trip to lead the team.

However, he quickly put his energy back into the game.

In the match between the two teams on the pitch, Derby County did not show much of a disadvantage, and they and Middlesbrough were attacking and defending each other. The overall table xiàn looks very good, but Wan Sheng sees a big problem. Of course, there are attacking and defending each other, and Derby County is also a League One team, and they play attacking football. If this is not possible with Middlesbrough, then Derbyshire's table is too bad. The problem that Wan Sheng noticed was the team's defensive performance.

The two teams have played each other in attack and defence, but Middlesbrough are quite a threat in attack, which is not their attacking table xiàn very good. It's Derby County's poor defence.

The team's midfield is almost unguarded!

Especially Wansheng, but the team conceded a goal in front, and Middlesbrough attacked. In between this transition between attack and defence, the team's formation is a bit chaotic, and many times the middle of the midfield is jumped by the opponent's two or three passes, and then Middlesbrough can calmly enter the dangerous area at the back.

How so?

Wan Sheng watched the game carefully, trying to find the crux of the problem.

In his opinion, the current team's table can be said to be quite poor, the most important thing for him to develop a new tactic is to grasp the rhythm, this rhythm is the rhythm of their own offensive and defensive conversion, from defense to offense, in the transition rhythm directly, from the whole court to get out of the fast offensive, this is the core essence of the tactics, but the current situation is that whenever the team's offense turns to defense, the formation will become a little chaotic, Wan Sheng has emphasized the defensive problem more than once in training, it stands to reason that The players on the field are trying to run and intercept according to the tactics, and the team's full-court pressing should be able to wield, but the current situation is a mess in defense, as if the rhythm is completely in the hands of the opponent, and the team is not adapted to their own tactics.

Wan Sheng's brow furrowed.

He watched the game carefully, carefully looked at the table of each player, and also carefully watched the opponent's attack, just like this time, after Middlesbrough completed the interception, he turned defense into attack, and only used three passes to penetrate the team's midfield defense, and soon the football reached the feet of the opposing full-back, the full-back wanted to rush forward with the ball, and two or three steps opened the gap and passed directly into the penalty area, and the opposing striker sent the ball into the goal with his head.

Middlesbrough scored.

However, Wan Sheng does not care about the opponent's goal, this is just a warm-up game, the outcome has no impact at all, he is concerned about the team's defense in the midfield, obviously the team's midline can not withstand the opponent's attack, in front of the opponent's passing cooperation, the defense of this midline seems too weak.

Until the end of the first half, Wan Sheng kept staring at the game and thinking.

Middlesbrough scored another late in the first half to make it 2:O, which demoralized the Derby County players, but Wan Sheng didn't have time to think too much about the result, he was still thinking about tactics.

In this game, the team's players are very good, at least they are fighting hard, they are also playing according to tactics, the team's offensive and defensive conversion is also very fast, and the whole team is swinging well, but why can they be so different from the opponent in attack? Why does the opposition always penetrate the team's defence with ease? The team's full-court pressing and defensive role did not appear at all, but there were few opportunities to entangle with the opposition in midfield.

In short, it's still a matter of defense!

Wan Sheng was confirmed, and on the way back to the locker room, he finally figured out some problems, the most important thing was the two players in the middle of the midfield - Morris and Osman's cousin, the team's formation is 442, the midfield is a standard diamond-shaped position, Morris is in front, Osman is in the back. As a result, when Morris attacked, there was only one Osman left in the middle of the midfield, and the range he needed to defend was too large, and one person couldn't take care of such a wide range of defense, and the team's midfield was naturally penetrated by the opponent.

Wan Sheng has long seen this, but his formation is very standard, and many other teams use this 442 midfield diamond position, among which can be referred to and representative is Arsenal, they play offensive football much more open than Derby County, but their defense is also very tight.

Ultimately. Or the general lack of strength of the players!

That's the most important thing.

The two players in the midfield are in a diamond-shaped position, one attacking and one defending, when the attacking midfielder is inserted, the overall retreat of the offensive and defensive conversion is not timely, and the opponent is much stronger than their own strength, and the midfielder naturally cannot stop the opponent, which is also the disadvantage of open attacking football, Arsenal can be strong in defense, that is because they are already the top team in the world, and Derby County is only a League One team. They now face English side Middlesbrough.

Wan Sheng thought it through.

But he won't give up on his new tactics and play a counter-attack against Middlesbrough, so that his summer of preparation will be in vain, even if it is a big loss. He also wants to make the team more accustomed to this set of tactics, and now facing strong teams, although the choice of defensive counterattack is better, Wan Sheng still feels that the new tactics also have a chance. All he had to do was change the formation and strengthen the defence.

Back in the locker room, I saw the players shrugging their heads. Wan Sheng also knew that the first half of the game was a bit of a big blow to the players, they played very hard, but the opponent still scored two goals, especially when the opponent attacked, they felt quite passive in defense, and this passivity was easy to wear down the fighting spirit of the players.

When Wan Sheng walked in, the players all looked over, but immediately their heads lowered because they felt that the coach would definitely be thunderous and dissatisfied with their appearance.

But they didn't expect Wan Sheng to smile and praise their cousin.

"Your table is very good, everyone is doing a great job!" Wan Sheng affirmed the players' expression, "Don't pay too much attention to the first half, you know, they are Middlesbrough, a British team, and we were fighting for relegation last season. ”

There was a bit of a joking in his words, which also made the atmosphere in the dressing room much better.

"But we can't let the game go on like this, so we need to adjust the formation in the second half......" Wan Sheng elaborated on the tactical adjustment.

The adjustment Wansheng made was simple, and that was to add a defensive midfielder.

In this way, the team is equivalent to having two backs, and if the back line does not move, there must be one less striker, so the formation becomes 4231, with two defensive midfielders dragging behind, and it is not easy for the opponent to easily penetrate the team's midfield defense.

As long as the defense can be stabilized, the basis for the effect of tactical swings will be there, and the table will naturally become better.

Sure enough, after this adjustment, Derby County's defense in the second half seemed to be much more stable, with defense as a guarantee, the team's fast-paced change in the transition of attack and defense and fast attack, but also made Middlesbrough suffer a lot of losses, in the fifteenth minute of the second half, Derby County took advantage of a chance to steal at the back, directly added attack, hit Middlesbrough by surprise, substitute Ian Taylor found an opportunity, completed a strong shot in the penalty area, and recovered a goal for the team.

Middlesbrough then solidified their defence while they were still trying to penetrate the Derby halfway line, but it was very difficult for them to do so at this point, with two very good running and intercepting defenders causing countless problems for their attack.

Soon they had to get caught up in a battle with each other for the initiative in midfield.

The game has come to this point, Wan Sheng is already quite satisfied, and can use the new tactics to play an equal match with the British team Middlesbrough, and even regained a little advantage in the second half, which proves that the power of the new tactics is still good.

So the result doesn't matter.

As a pseudo-fan, write this chapter with the heart of Alexander-(To be continued!)

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