'After the first half, who can tell me now what was the most effective of England's attacking tactics?'

In the locker room, Pan Yi asked all the players a question.

After a few seconds of silence, Tonali raised his hand and replied: "I think it's Harry Kane stealing points in the box, he's a cunning guy." ”

Pan Yi smiled and nodded: "Otherwise, how could I have brought him from Tottenham to Chelsea, and he has indeed become the top scorer and best player......"

At this time, everyone also spoke enthusiastically:

"I think Sterling's breakthrough is still very sharp, don't look at his little butt and warp, run so fast! Haha......"

'Lingard's shot from outside the box was also very good and very flexible.

'Loftus-Cheek's header from behind is also a threat.

"Don't forget Rice's long-range shot!"

"And assists from Kieran Trippier and Ashley Young......"

The players gave their own answers, and Pan Yi nodded: "That's right, that's basically it...... It sounds like a lot, but they don't have any chances against our defense. Also, you seem to have a very clear understanding of their attacking routine, so you should have the confidence to continue to hold on, right? ”

Everyone nodded vigorously.

Pan Yi continued: "Very good. Then, for the next semi-finals and finals, we can save some energy in the second half and use defense to deal with their attacks. ”

The players' faces were filled with excitement.

If someone else said such a thing in the locker room when they were leading at half-time, it might be unlucky, it was "opening champagne at half-time", but what Pan Yi said was different.

This means confidence and total control of the situation in the second half!

His goal is not just England in front of him, but the semi-finals in the future, the final!

Therefore, Pan Yi, as the head coach, must take into account the consumption of every game, and the most perfect result is to win the game in the most economical way, rather than fighting with others in every game.

The first half went well, but after all, it took a lot of energy from the team.

This kind of mad dog style of attack up front is quite physically draining, although it is not a problem to play the whole game with this tactic - after all, many of the players who started this game were rotated in the group stage.

But considering the upcoming matches, it is naturally not a good idea to consume too much in this game.

Croatia, who are currently in the semi-finals between Italy and England, have played two 120-minute games in a row.

While their mental qualities are indeed impressive, such a series of tough games will definitely affect their physical reserves.

And if Italy can retain as much fitness as possible on the premise of winning, they will undoubtedly have more advantages against Croatia.

The players can't think about retention on the pitch because it will affect their performance, but the manager can't ignore it.

How to allow the players to play their abilities without worries and preserve their fitness is also a testament to the quality of coaching.

Then, Pan Yi began to make more specific defensive deployments:

"Chiellini, Bastoni, you have to be careful to follow Harry Kane and fight him for the first point, you don't need to control the first point every time, but you can't let him get to the ball comfortably."

"The rest of the defenders, defend their defensive areas, no matter how Raheem Sterling breaks through, don't mess up the whole line. Especially Desiglio, he is mainly in your area, you have to be careful not to take his feet lightly, stand in position and don't eat his feints. ”

'De Rossi and Verratti, you have to guard the edge of the box and don't give them a chance to get comfortable and shoot from distance.

"Tonali, you continue to pester Rice so that he can't organize the attack smoothly. You saw in the first half that he watched well, please keep it up! ”

"In general, it's about controlling their offense, counter-attacking them, and we can save some energy......

At this time, De Rossi objected: "Boss, do we really have to defend with all our might? I always feel that this is not appropriate, and it may not be possible to keep it? ”

Pan Yi smiled slightly, and instead asked, "Let me ask you, is Argentina's offense outstanding, or England's offense outstanding?" ”

"Uh...... Argentina bar. De Rossi hesitated and replied.

The answer to this question seems obvious.

Although England also has a lot of stars in the front, it still seems to be a little lower than Argentina.

Not to mention Messi, just the names of Aguero, Higuain, Dybala, and Di Maria can be regarded as famous in the world.

"Remember the game we played against Argentina, it was a warm-up game, but both of us were at least full in the first half."

"And it was in the first half that our defense made all these attacking geniuses of Argentina dumbfounded."

'So why can't we defensively keep England from scoring a goal in 45 minutes?'

"And, if we were able to score three goals on the counter-attack, why couldn't we extend the score again in the second half?"

"So, trust our defensive quality and don't take England's attack too seriously......

"In the second half, we will use our best defense to counterattack and kill them!"

Pan Yi waved his fist and shouted, and his words immediately encouraged the players.

Although they all understand one truth, that is, football games can never be converted simply.

I can't say that if I'm stronger than you, I will definitely be able to beat you by a few goals, and I can't say that if I can defend this opponent's attack, I will definitely be able to defend the attack of another team whose attack is not as good as this team......

However, when Pan Yi uses this "calculation method", it seems that it is difficult for the players to raise any questions.

On the contrary, Pan Yi's tone is so firm, so firm that the players' hearts are full of confidence!

"Let's go and show the Englishmen how good our defence is!"

Seeing that the players' emotions had been mobilized, Pan Yi immediately waved his hand vigorously, and then kicked the players out of the locker room.

——

'Italy played a beautiful game in the first half, their attack up front was simply pleasing to the eye, England had no ability to resist!'

"The current England team is very young, but it's still very good, and there are a lot of world-class stars in the team, like Harry Kane......

"However, against a younger Italian side, England have been pushed to the brink. In addition to Pan Yi's tactical change that caught the opponent off guard, it also proved that his transformation of Italy was quite successful, even if the formation was changed to a 3-4-2-1 formation, the players did not have any discomfort. ”

"Now, let's see if Italy will continue their excellent performance in the first half in the second half, continue to chase after the victory, and beat England to the ground......

It was certainly not Lineker and Alan Shearer, who were a little silent, who were talking about it now, but the Italian commentator not far from them.

This match was much more exciting in terms of attacking excitement than the previous three quarter-finals, and even a neutral commentator would have been infected by the excitement of the game, let alone an Italian.

However, Pan Yi's tactical changes in the next made the commentator slightly disappointed.

Because there is no such thing as a pursuit of victory, and there is no such thing as falling flowers.

Italy, who kicked off in the second half, first fell back and forth at the back, then launched a non-threatening attack before launching a ...... Turtle Shrink Formation!

Originally, their 3-4-2-1 formation had three central defenders and two wing-backs, plus two midfielders, plus today's two forward midfielders were also "pretended" by the two midfielders of Tonali and Barella, so the defense was even more familiar.

England, which was ready to break the boat from the beginning, was frightened by this Italian approach, thinking that there was some conspiracy.

It wasn't until they tentatively attacked twice that they found out that the other party had really begun to defend to the death!

However, England did not dare to press too much, after all, Chiesa Jr. was also quite good on the counter-attack, including Di Marco and Desiglio on both sides of the pitch were also very fast.

At the same time, England's attack began to hit a solid wall.

As the Italians discussed at half-time, England's attacking tactics were nothing more than that – Harry Kane's response in the middle, Raheem Sterling's personal breakthrough to disrupt the defence, Lingard's long-range shot in the middle, Rice's playmaking, and the two full-backs providing assists......

However, Harry Kane was targeted by Chiellini and Bastoni, Sterling's personal breakthrough in the face of Italy's tight and orderly defensive system can only play a harassing role, Tonali and Barella returned to the defense after the Italian four midfielders blocked the front of the penalty area impenetrable, Rice was entangled by Tonali again, and the two full-backs were forced to press too high on the Italian side's counterattack......

With all these attacking tactics contained, how did England get into Italy's goal?

What's more, England's form was not particularly good in this game.

They seemed to have had too much of a smooth start to the group stage, beating Tunisia 2-1 and then sweeping World Cup newcomers Panama with a 6-1 scoreline, with Harry Kane netting a hat-trick and Jesse Lingard and John Stones also scoring and the team seemed to be going crazy.

But after that, England's form began to inevitably drop somewhat.

In the final round of the group stage against Belgium, although Southgate made a large number of changes, the main squad showed fatigue in the knockout round against Colombia and was dragged into a penalty shoot-out by the opponent.

After a narrow 120-minute victory, the main players will of course be more tired, while opponents Italy beat Switzerland lightly and had an extra day of rest, so it is easy to wait for the English to challenge.

Under this situation, England has no choice but to take the Italian team.

After a dozen minutes of onslaught, England had few good chances and even fewer shots on goal.

Seeing that happen, Southgate made a substitution, with the mediocre Kieran Trippier coming off and Trent Alexander-Arnold coming on as Southgate looked to create chances with his pinpoint pass down the wing.

However, Alexander-Arnold's arrival turned out to be a failure.

Although Kieran Trippier was in average form today and his passing accuracy was not enough, he was still very good at running to defend.

Alexander-Arnold, on the other hand, was slower and less aggressive defensively, and in attack he was more likely to find Harry Kane through long passes, but the latter was completely dead.

As a result, Italy defended more comfortably, and even sometimes used the Route 66 left behind by Alexander-Arnold to level out, and used occasional attacks to relieve their defensive pressure.

At this time, England needs a flashpoint, that is, Raheem Sterling, who is good at individual breakthroughs.

However, Desiglio, who was opposite him today, was in very good form, and he stopped in front of Sterling like a moving mountain.

The mountain wasn't very tall, but Sterling couldn't find a room to break through.

As Pan Yi taught, Desiglio didn't want to block the opponent's breakthrough at the first time, but he could entangle the opponent, so that no matter how much the opponent broke through, he couldn't break through to the danger zone.

He can also use his body to slowly force the opponent away, allowing Sterling to go around with the ball, and rubbing outside for a long time just can't get in......

Then Sterling really had to run around with the ball pouting around the perimeter, unable to find a chance to cut in.

The unbelieving Sterling forced his way inside twice, but was cleanly forced into the corner by Desiglio and then easily stretched out his foot to break the ball.

Faced with such a defensive player who does not rush forward, does not rush and does not leave any gaps, Sterling has absolutely no choice.

And just when Sterling was unfaithfully entangled with Desiglio in a row, the most precious time for England now passed minute by minute.

When Desiglio broke the ball past Raheem Sterling for the third time, Southgate couldn't help but make a second substitution.

Raheem Sterling came off with a face and was replaced by Vardy.

The grassroots goalscorer, who was discovered by Pan Yi in the amateur league, has also maintained an efficient goalscoring efficiency (over 20 goals per season) in his move to Leicester City in the Premier League, so Southgate will be hoping that he can use his goals to redeem England's current disadvantage as he did in the league.

"Shrink the defense, don't give that guy space." Pan Yi waved his hand and gave instructions.

Pan Yi is certainly familiar with Vardy.

When he was in Hamburg, Pan Yi used Vardy as an arrow, using his super fast speed and extremely hard shots on his feet to kill the Bundesliga teams to pieces.

And against Jamie Vardy, not giving him room to move is the most effective way to control his attack.

Italy's delaying tactics have dragged the second half for half an hour, and there are only fifteen minutes left, and Pan Yi does not intend to give the opponent any chance.

Now it doesn't look like the counter-attack has worked too well, with only Di Marco's diagonal passes from the flanks and Chiesa Jr.'s individual break-through causing some problems for the England defence.

But this is also normal, Italy was not ready to attack in a big way, and the number of people invested has not been much, and Pan Yi himself did not expect to score many goals through counterattacks.

As the clock ticked by, England's attack still didn't improve much, and Southgate's two substitutions only made England's attack even more compromised.

Trent Alexander-Arnold's substitution of Kieran Trippier reduced his ability to advance in the middle and protect him at the back, while Vardy's substitution of Raheem Sterling reduced England's ability to break up front......

Just when England was pressing on all fronts, Italy's counterattack finally worked again!

Lingard's misplaced pass was cut off by Barella, who made a feint to pass to Tonali and then dribbled forward before delivering a beautiful through-ball.

Chiesa Jr. used his speed to force a breakthrough through Maguire's defense again, and then calmly scored a brace in the face of the attacking Pickford!

It was Chiesa's sixth goal in the World Cup, tied with Harry Kane, who was previously the top scorer!

"Haha, good boy, maybe you can get a World Cup top scorer!"

Pan Yi was completely relieved at this time, if the three-goal lead against England could turn the tables, Pan Yi felt that he could eat that football......

"Another three-to-zero! Italy's performance was astonishing, with the exception of Mexico, where they failed to win, and won all the other games by more than three goals! This also includes the two former World Cup winners, Germany and England! ”

"It's not over yet, it's almost over, England won't have any chances...... Just a few months ago, we were even worried about Italy's ability to compete at this World Cup. ”

"The answer to why Italy can have such earth-shaking changes is obviously in our head coach Pan Yi - I believe that no matter how Italy plays next, Pan Yi's tactical arrangement and preparation before the game in these games are enough to serve as a classic case of targeted layout."

"Including the 3-4-2-1 he used in today's game, he could attack in the first half, he could defend in the second half, and he scored in both of them! It's just amazing! ”

With the passionate commentary unique to the Italian commentator, the camera also turned to Pan Yi's face in due time.

At this time, Pan Yizheng had a faint smile on his face and extended his thumbs to the players who were cheering and celebrating on the court.

The goal came in the 88th minute of the match, and time was really running out.

Five minutes later, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game.

Another 3-0, Italy defeated England and advanced to the semi-finals!

"I'm not convinced."

When shaking hands with Pan Yi after the game, Southgate suddenly said something like this.

Pan Yi glanced at him in surprise, but Southgate quickly continued: "Of course, I am convinced of you personally...... But in this game, you used this strange formation and tactics, and I didn't use my previous targeted deployment, which made my players not play to their full potential......"

"Will I tell you the disposition of my forces when the two countries are at war?" Pan Yi smiled, "This is part of the game in itself. ”

Southgate shook his hand vigorously before letting go: "I hope there will be a chance to fight you in the future." ”

Pan Yi smiled and said nothing, in the future? Maybe I won't have that chance......

Pan Yi doesn't know how long he is going to be a coach, maybe if he can't get the World Cup, he will continue to take it unconvinced, but if he wins the World Cup......

After the Grand Slam, he really doesn't have much motivation anymore, it's better to have a wife and children hot kang head, and then leave a legend to the world......

"Well, the next step is to think about the semi-finals against Croatia. This team is resilient and may be even tougher than England. ”

Pan Yi thought in his heart, and at this time, the players who had finished celebrating had already rushed down from the court, and they didn't flash at all, and ran directly to Pan Yi with a smile.

Seeing them like this, Pan Yi knew that most of these guys wanted to catch themselves and throw them into the sky, which made Pan Yi's face change greatly when he had flashed his waist.

He quickly stretched out a hand to stop the players from moving forward, and shouted: "Wait! ”

The players stopped in confusion, and Pan Yi laughed: "I know what you're thinking...... So be it. Is it okay to wait until you win the championship to do this? ”

The players looked at each other and nodded. And then......

Pan Yi's screams sounded again:

"I'm grass, lighter...... Whoever is the first to rush up will be punished for ten laps tomorrow! …… Ouch! ”

(End of chapter)