At the turn of the century, a lot of eye-catching teams have emerged.

Louis van Gaal's Ajax, Juventus who reached the Champions League final three times, Real Madrid who won the Champions League three times in five years, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich under Heathfield......

Valencia are the most unremarkable of these teams, as the Bats reached two Champions League finals but missed both of them.

But Cooper's team definitely deserves recognition in terms of tactical gold.

As the third generation of Atletico Madrid's fans and the second generation of the ball, Cesar Mendiodo knows everything about La Liga, and Juanma Lillo has been coaching in Spain for many years and knows everything about La Liga.

In their opinion, from Ranieri to Cooper, it is the result of a continuous lineage.

Valencia last won La Liga more than 20 years ago under Kempes, and their most recent rise was in the mid-to-late nineties, when Aragonés finished runners-up in the league.

But throughout the 90s, from Hiddink's first coaching of Valencia in 91, to the second palace in 94, and then to Aragonés, Baldano and other famous coaches, to 97 in just 6 years, 9 head coaches were changed.

This is not counting Hiddink's second entry into the palace, otherwise, it is exactly 10.

The continuous turmoil has shaken the position of the club's president, Cortez, and made many famous coaches stay away from Valencia, after all, no one wants to take this risk.

So, in 1997, Cortez showed his determination to break the kettle and invited Ranieri, who had just led the Purple Lily Fiorentina to complete the Renaissance from Serie A.

This is a noteworthy watershed.

Before 1997, Valencia were a quintessential Spanish team, dominated by attacking football, with superstars such as Penev, Romario, Ortega and Mijatovic in their squad.

But Ranieri, who was born in Serie A, is good at defending, and after coming to Valencia, he completed a very radical overhaul of the entire technique and tactics of the Bat Army, and also brought in a lot of Italian players.

For example, he drove out Ortega, completely angering the fans of Valencia.

In his first season in charge, Ranieri won a Copa del Rey for Valencia's second time after a long absence, and Ranieri barely managed to get his feet.

In the second season, the 98/99 season, Ranieri began to further reform his tactics, while boldly introducing young players, Angulo and others became the backbone of Valencia, and the use of Mendieta completely activated the Spanish midfielder.

442 tactics, defensive counterattacks, and the cooperation of Lopes and Iliye in front of them made Valencia perform better and better on the field, especially in the league and the Copa del Rey, beating Barcelona three times, and completely changing the impression of Valencia fans on Ranieri.

At this point, Ranieri's transformation of Valencia was a success, and he also handed in a fourth place in the league and a Copa del Rey winner, leaving everyone very happy with him.

But at this time, Atletico's old Hill made a move.

In the summer of '99, the elder Hill poached Ranieri from Valencia, hoping that he would transform Atletico Madrid in the same way that Valencia had been done, so that the Sheets could regain the glory of the Double.

But, what happened next, everyone knew.

Twisted melons are not destined to be sweet.

On the other hand, after letting go of Ranieri, Valencia brought in Argentine Cooper, who had a brilliant coaching record at Real Mallorca and led the team to the Cup Winners' Cup final.

Cooper, who had just created a miracle at Mallorca, was ambitious, and although he also played 442, unlike Ranieri's defensive counter-attack, who grabbed the ball and then quickly passed long balls, Cooper believes that there are serious problems with this style of play.

When facing strong teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid, Valencia can get more space to counter-attack because the opponent will take the initiative to press, resulting in a large space behind them.

But in La Liga, not all teams are Real Madrid and Barcelona, as a strong team in La Liga, Valencia must give up the past style of playing with big feet and long passes, but change to a more Latin style, but also more Spanish characteristics of the layer of passing forward.

As a result, Cooper further revamped the team's midfield on the basis of Ranieri's defensive structure.

Born in the Barcelona academy and nicknamed Pep Guardiola, Gerrard began to become a regular for Valencia, while Mendieta was further unleashed with the introduction of Argentine winger Kili Gonzalez on the left.

Valencia has transformed from a defensive counterattack during the Ranieri period into a 442 diamond midfielder, which not only continues the solid defense of the Ranieri period, but also has a great improvement on the offensive end, and at the same time the scene is also a lot better.

It is with this set of tactics that Cooper's Bat Army is unstoppable in the Champions League.

They even defeated the unbeatable Serie A hegemons Lazio 5-2 in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.

Interestingly, of Valencia's five goals, Lopes scored one, while the other four were all scored by midfielders, with Gerrard scoring a hat-trick.

It can be said that Valencia is now in the limelight, and there is no difference for a while.

Throughout European football, Cooper's bat army has been shunned.

But Yang Hao is excepted.

……

'Valencia is a very holistic team and very versatile, both offensive and defensive, there's no doubt about that.

After watching the video of the game, Yang Hao talked to the coaching team about his views on Valencia.

He is in charge of the overall situation, and the coaching staff has to understand his intentions, instill in the players in the following training and preparations, and conduct targeted drills.

"Needless to say at the back, let's look at the midfield, Gerrard is nicknamed Pep Guardiola, both offensive and defensive."

If this player hadn't moved back to Barcelona after playing in Valencia, his fame would definitely not have reached the point where no one knows him in 2023, because now in 2000, he is really hot!

was so popular that Barcelona was willing to pay 21.6 million euros for him, which was already a sky-high price at the time.

With Kili Gonzalez and Mendieta on the flanks and Javier Farinos up front, all three are versatile fighters who can attack and defend.

This is the biggest difference between Cooper and Ranieri.

Ranieri's tactical style of play is to crouch and defend and grab the ball and then counterattack with a long pass.

But Cooper prefers a South American and Spanish style, stealing the ball and pushing it through the layers.

It is clear that the latter has higher requirements for the passing ability of the midfielders.

"But you pay attention to it, in Valencia's diamond-shaped four midfielders, except for Gerrard, the other three have a common characteristic, that is, the technique is good, but not very delicate, the passing ability is very good, but the organizational ability is not strong, actively engaged in defense, but the speed is not fast, and the physical strength is not strong."

"Keely Gonzalez is relatively good, Mendieta and Farinos are very obvious."

The so-called omnipotence can also be seen as mediocre many times.

If it's the kind of player who is versatile and superb, sorry, then it's a world-class existence.

For example, the likes of Deco, Luka Modric and Xavi are all versatile and superb, and they are hard to come by.

Mendieta was once close to a world-class superstar, but after his move to Serie A, he completely lost that opportunity.

His physical confrontation is still comfortable in La Liga, and when he arrives in Serie A, he is embarrassed and can't adapt at all.

This is no accident.

Farinos also lost in Serie A, and De la Pena, the younger Fayette, these Spanish midfielders are difficult to gain a foothold in Serie A.

The most crucial point is that they can't adapt to the defensive intensity of Serie A.

Not to mention the foreign aid of Spain, even in Italy, Pirlo's forward midfielder has to change to a back midfielder.

"Aside from the speed of Angulo and Lopes in front, the pace of Valencia's four midfielders is not very good, especially Fariños and Mendieta, who lack speed."

Both players are not tall, about 1.73 meters, but the speed is really not fast.

There are quite a few players of this type in Spain, just like Isco in Yang Hao's previous life.

This will bring a problem, the speed is not fast, how to fight back?

Ranieri's strategy is to play long balls and play with the speed of a striker, but Cooper doesn't do that, he likes to push in layers.

Cooper knew elementary school math formulas, so his strategy was to press forward as a whole.

The pace was slow, but the formation was pressed, the position of the ball was higher, the distance was shortened, and the counterattack was still very slippery.

This is actually the prototype of the 4231 formation after Benitez coached Valencia.

It's just that he took down a striker and became a midfielder, and after the transfer of Farinos, he brought in Aimar, after selling Gerrard, he introduced Baraja, and promoted Albelda, who is now playing as a substitute.

This has made Valencia's entire midfield more pressing, with Aimar able to unleash his attacking talent to the fullest.

And most importantly, after taking the bug López in front, Benitez brought Tenerife's old department, center forward Mista.

It can be said that Valencia's entire set of tactical play, from Ranieri to Cooper to Benitez, is in the same vein, advancing layer by layer, and the lineup has been repeatedly adjusted and innovated.

In the end, the Bat Army emerged at the turn of the century and amazed the entire European football world.

But now, now that Yang Hao has appeared, it is difficult to say whether Valencia can reproduce the scenery of Yang Hao's previous life.

Especially now that Atletico Madrid is in dire straits, Valencia is a hard bone that must be gnawed.

Everyone else is jealous of Valencia, but Yang Hao is not.

Because he knows that in the not-too-distant future, in that much-anticipated Champions League final, Cooper's Valencia exposed their most fatal weakness.

Even, they failed to break through the last barrier in the Champions League final for two consecutive seasons because of the huge flaws in their squad.

Lack of tackling ability!

So, after losing the 2000 Champions League, after selling the bug López to Lazio, Valencia signed high school striker Kalou, and after Farinos sold to Inter Milan, they signed Messi's idol, Aimar.

But in the Champions League final, Valencia still lost to Bayern Munich, which is coached by Heathfield, which can be called a steel chariot.

"Everyone!"

After Yang Hao calculated clearly in his heart, he looked directly at the assistants in front of him.

"For the next week, I want you to help me dig a huge pit for Cooper and his Valencia!"

"A pit that Cooper had to jump into!"