Who will be the replacement for Modric?

On the pitch after the rainstorm, the midfielders in the team were nervous, and their eyes were glued to the small notebook in Wenger's hand.

Although it is only a training match within the team, even if it is a training match, it actually represents their starting pick in Wenger's heart!

The atmosphere of anticipation and tension lingered on the pitch, and at this time, Wenger raised his eyebrows and glanced at Flamini: "Chen Mo, Mascherado and Flamini. ”

Flamini!

Hearing the name, Flamini unconsciously clenched his fists, and several friends in the team who had a good relationship with him also raised their eyebrows in celebration.

And Nasri and Alexander Song both had slightly darkened eyes.

To be honest, one of the two of them is Chen Mo's substitute, and the other is Xiao Ma's substitute, and it is difficult to be qualified for the position that Modric played last season in terms of playing style, but knowing it, I still have some expectations in my heart, but it's a pity

Both of them were disappointed, but Rakitic next to him did not have much negative emotion, and immediately began to move his body with some excitement.

"This kid has a good mentality."

Seeing this scene, Wenger's eyes flashed with appreciation, and Wenger didn't notice that while he was secretly observing Rakitic, Chen Mo was also observing him.

"It seems that the old man takes Rakitic more seriously."

Chen Mo put on the red vest and stroked his hair with thoughtful eyes.

His teammates all thought that it was a good thing for him to be in a group with him Chen Mo in advance in the training match, but in his Chen Mo's opinion, it was actually the opposite.

The defensive intensity of the training matches was low.

Especially on the defensive end, in order to prevent players from getting injured during training, there are many times in training matches, not to mention shoveling, even if they do their best, there are fewer physical confrontations.

The defensive intensity itself is not high, Nasri's offensive ability is not as good as Chen Mo, if he and Chen Mo are assigned to a team to play Nasri, then Rakitic will not have much room to play at all.

The same is true on the offensive organizational side, because the defensive intensity is not large, Chen Mo's organizational ability will be further amplified, and even Xiao Ma can resist the next part of the organizational role.

To put it simply, playing a training match with Chen Mo in the first team, Rakitic did not have a stage to show his strength.

But it's no problem to go and team up with Nasri.

Nasri is not as good as Chen Mo on the offensive playmaking end, and Rakitic will get more opportunities to get the ball.

Moreover, Nasri does not have Chen Mo's defensive ability, and in this case, Rakitic will have more opportunities to show on the defensive end.

'He's got a good running and a lot of possibility, and when I watched the video before, the defensive awareness was OK. The next thing is to see if his ability to protect the ball and get rid of it can adapt to the game at this level of the Premier League. ”

Waiting for the training match to start, Chen Mo crossed the ball at his feet, thinking constantly in his head.

Arsene Wenger had to buy Rakitic when he had Flamini, a French countryman, in the team, and the key reason was that Flamini's feet were too rough.

Even if it is one-on-one, it is difficult for him to control the ball under the pressure of the opponent, and the ability to get rid of it is almost non-existent.

These two points are lethal for Arsenal who kick the ground and pass to the ground.

Although Arsenal's passing is not as extreme as Barcelona's 70% or 80% possession per game, it also requires a lot of possession and relies on passing to mobilize the opponent's defence to create chances.

The ability to protect the ball is not good, and others will lose the ball as soon as they are pressed, so what is the ball possession rate?

Protecting the ball is key at Arsenal, but the ability to get rid of it is just as important.

Passing and cutting is to seize the moment of the opponent's defensive hole, and immediately launch a fast attack of mercury.

The core ingredient is fast.

Run fast, pass even faster!

"Whoosh" to pass the ball to the opponent's core area to create damage.

But to do this fast, it's not like pressing the pass button like in the game.

Most of the time, the offensive player will have a defender next to him.

At this time, you either rely on the ghostly running position to run out of the space to receive and play the ball before receiving the ball, or you can get rid of it one-on-one after receiving the ball, otherwise the speed will not be able to play at all.

Of course, one-on-one getting rid does not mean that you have to get past the defender, sometimes a sudden emergency stop to reverse the ball, flashing the passing route and passing space is also to get rid of.

In short, Arsenal need the kind of player who can protect the ball in possession and get the ball quickly when the attack is initiated.

Thoughts raced in my head, and in a short time, the training match began quickly under Wenger's instructions.

Naturally, there was no coin toss in the training match, and as Wenger, who was wearing a grey tracksuit and holding his hands behind his back like a morning exercise veteran, blew a whistle, Henry passed the ball back to Nasri in the centre circle.

didn't hesitate, even if it was a training match, Chen Mo rushed to Nasri as quickly as possible, but he didn't go up and stab Nasri with his feet like in the official game, but just suppressed Nasri and didn't let him turn around.

"This guy didn't slack off at all in the offseason?!"

Feeling the tremendous pressure coming from his back, Nasri's eyes widened with helplessness.

Chen Mo is short of a league championship and an FA Cup championship is a career slam, and he has just won the Copa America before, in this case, Chen Mo did not slack off in the offseason, and his physical condition is still so good!

Talent is stronger, and you work harder!

In the face of such a competitor, Nasri was inwardly cold.

However, at this time, he was still playing a training match, and he didn't have much effort to think about it, and he swung left and right twice and found that Chen Mo's physical condition not only did not decline, but was a little stronger, and Nasri immediately passed the ball back to Rakitic.

"Xiao Mo is really self-disciplined enough."

It wasn't just Nasri who felt Chen Mo's state.

On the sidelines, the assistant coach also showed an emotional look, and Wenger, who was whistling on his chest, smiled: "Not only because he is very self-disciplined, but also because he has a beast around him that is not inferior to him at all." ”

"You mean"

"Yes, Messi. The two of them have been together almost every offseason,"

The assistant tilted his head slightly, Wenger nodded with a smile, and then showed an extremely regretful look: "Hey, speaking of which, it would have been nice if the club had given me another five million euros." As long as I buy Messi for another 5 million euros, I am even confident that I can catch up with Real Madrid's nine Champions Leagues! ”

"Haha, sir, don't dream. But let me say it, Barcelona should have the same troubles as you now. ”

The assistant coach laughed, but he was right.

Wenger did have a little chance to pay 5 million euros to poach Messi, after all, Barcelona's approach to Chen Mo made Messi feel very unhappy.

It's just that Arsenal was poor at that time, and to be honest, Messi was only sixteen years old at the time, and no one knew how far he could grow in the future.

Not to mention Messi, Chen Mo was sung down by many media when he first landed in the Premier League at the age of sixteen.

It's just that as time goes by, Messi has cashed in his talent step by step, and his value has soared, and Arsenal has become more and more painful.

Arsenal's egg hurts, and Barcelona's side hurts even more.

After all, Chen Mo stepped on their bones twice to set foot on the top of Europe, and the reason was only that Laporta was unwilling to sell players at a low price to Chen Mo to make a place.

The best way to make an unhappy person happy is not to comfort, but to make him see the person who is more uncomfortable.

Thinking of Barcelona's discomfort, Wenger suddenly felt less painful, and shook his head with a smile: "What you said is right." Okay, don't think about these things. ”

"yes, but ah, this Rakitic is really good, it feels like we got the lottery again!"

Looking at Rakitic with the ball on the field, the assistant coach's eyes flashed with appreciation.

Not only assistant coaches.

"This guy plays with a style of football. It's kind of like me used to be. ”

When he once again expanded the defensive area and shoveled out the short pass that Rakitic had just passed to midfielder Diarra, Chen Mo got up and patted the water-stained grass on his buttocks, and glanced at Rakitic with interest.

The training match lasted about 30 minutes, which was not long, but to be honest, Rakitic made a good impression on him.

Rakitic doesn't have the same ability to protect the ball and get rid of the ball as Modric, but he is still passable, and he has good passing vision, strong ball ability, and is very aggressive.

I haven't seen him stop and wait, running almost all the time.

Being very aggressive, combined with excellent passing vision and ball play, these three attributes weaken the shortcomings that come with his lack of ball protection.

This was the case just now, Chen Mo's red team failed to attack, and the blue team launched a counterattack.

As soon as the goalkeeper picked the ball, Rakitic had already run out of space to receive the ball and then scrambled to pick the ball out to Diarra in the open space before Flamini could get it on.

However, Diarra's awareness was not good enough, and he did not run forward two steps to catch the ball but waited on the spot, which eventually led to the ball being intercepted by him Chen Mo.

This is actually very similar to the way he played when Chen Mo's feet were not good enough.

Use a more positive attitude and plenty of stamina to avoid hand-to-hand fights, and then use excellent passing vision and ball intelligence to get the ball out.

"Consciousness isn't the best, but it's adequate. And he's only nineteen years old, so if he can practice his ability to protect the ball, he's a good partner. ”

"Is this the suppressive power of a world champion?"

Chen Mo admired Rakitic a little, but Rakitic had completely different feelings.

Shrugged his shoulders to wipe the sweat stains from his chin, and glanced at Chen Mo, who had returned to his position not far away, his eyes were full of shock.

Chen Mo is observing him Rakitic, and he Rakitic is also observing Chen Mo!

Although he had watched Chen Mo's game on TV countless times before, after actually kicking it, there were only two words left in Rakitic's heart - too strong!

Not only can you find others on the offensive end who can't see the offensive route at all, and you can't grab it one-on-one when protecting the ball, but the running position is very ghostly, and it often disappears into the vision map in your mind, and more importantly, Chen Mo is also terrifyingly strong on the defensive end!

There is no counterpoint.

Rakitic couldn't feel Chen Mo's physical pressure, but Chen Mo's sense of complementing alone had already made him directly turn into a little fan.

Consciousness is completely covered!

In the last 30 minutes, because they played more relaxed, the pace of attack and defense was relatively fast, their blue team had many opportunities to counterattack, and he Rakitic could also run out of the space to receive the ball, but!

Can't get out of the ball!

Unless Chen Mo inserts into the penalty area to participate in grabbing points, every time he Rakitic finds the best point of the ball, he will inevitably follow Chen Mo!

It's hard to kick!

But in fact, it wasn't just Rakitic who was playing hard.

Vlamini is even more uncomfortable than Rakitic!

After three seasons as a substitute at Arsenal, how could he not know what kind of players Arsenal are lacking right now?

I can get the ball!

I can play the ball!

The defense covers a large area!

Rakitic's ability to handle the ball is still lacking, but he does a good job of playing the ball and covering the area!

There is a faint bad premonition in my heart, but there is no way back at this time.

Soon, under Chen Mo's gaze, Flamini began to play more and more seriously, and the physical confrontation on Rakitic became stronger and stronger.

It smells of gunpowder!

However, whether it was Chen Mo, the captain, or Henry, the big brother, or the head coach Arsene Wenger didn't say anything.

Whether it's for the team, for Rakitic or for Flamini himself, competition is a good thing, after all, football still depends on strength, and healthy competition will make players grow faster.

The two contenders for the starting XI were getting hotter and hotter, but Arsene Wenger on the sidelines watched for a while and then lost his attention to the two.

With his hands on his chest, his eyes kept wandering on left winger Bale, left wingback Marcelo and Chen Mo playing in the right midfielder, and then wrote and drew in a small notebook.

While observing, he wrote and painted for about ten minutes, and he stopped the game.

"How did you feel just now?"

"It's okay, but"

The sun was shining, Wenger walked in front of him with a small notebook, and when he heard his question, Chen Mo, who was squatting on the ground and drinking water, raised his head: "Our left side is estimated to be a big problem." ”

Now Arsenal's left-sided combination is Marcelo Gabel.

Marcelo is a Carlos-style attacking full-back with a strong attacking ability to plug in.

Bell is also very capable of breaking.

This left-sided combo looks great, but the problem is that there is no playmaker on the left.

Although Modric was behind on the left side last season, he still took on the playmaking task on the left, but now Modric has been replaced by Flamini, and Bale, who is now only 19 years old, is nowhere near as good as Thierry Henry.

This led to an embarrassing situation where there were two supercars on the left side, but there was no gas.

Hearing Chen Mo's answer, Wenger smiled and nodded: "You are still as sharp as ever. It is true that we are now lacking playmakers on the left, so . I'm going to let you move more to the left side next season, how about that? ”

"Let me go to the left?"

Chen Mo raised his eyebrows, but there was no surprise in his eyes.

He's a right-footed player who can be more lethal when he cuts inside on the left, but because he was Henry's Magic Flute on the left side last season, he doesn't really need to strengthen the firepower on the left side.

More often than not, he helps Di Maria relieve defensive pressure on the right side in order to achieve a lethal pull effect on both the left and right.

And now Arsene Wenger told him to play on the left.

Thinking of this, Chen Mo drank saliva: "It's no problem for me to kick the left side." But chief, is our right side going to blow up? ”

There is no shortage of attacking firepower on Arsenal's left side, after all, the wingers and full-backs are very attacking players, and the difference is the playmaker, but Arsenal only has Di Maria on the right side.

Di Maria has grown rapidly after the baptism of the tournament in the past few years, but the problem is that the attacking ability of right-back Klich is not strong, and Di Maria alone cannot form a dominant force on the right side.

"I know, but there's no way. There is no cheap and easy-to-use top right-back on the market now, and Henry's body is difficult to support him to play the whole season. This season I hope you have to be more aggressive when Henry isn't playing! ”

"More aggressive?"

Chen Mo raised his eyebrows, and Wenger nodded seriously: "Yes, more aggressive, I want you to play like Ronaldinho two years ago, I hope you can become the king of the Premier League this season." ”

(End of chapter)