Sports: Gao Tianyi Xie Pengfei shines in the Shenhua diamond-shaped midfield, or gives the national football coach Ivan more confidence
Live broadcast on April 2 After Shenhua defeated the Taishan team 3-0 away, Yan Yiwei, a commentator of "Sports Weekly", commented on the 442 diamond-shaped midfield position formation arranged by the Shenhua team in this campaign, and he believes that the success of Shenhua's tactics may also give the national football coach Ivankovic, who is also good at diamond-shaped midfielders, more confidence to realize his tactical ideals.
In this battle, Shenhua once again discharged the formation of 442 diamond-shaped midfield positions. In the 2-0 away win over Meizhou Hakka in the first round of the league, Shenhua also lined up a diamond-shaped midfielder's starting formation. The difference is that in Shenhua's diamond-shaped midfield position this time, the current international player Gao Tianyi replaced Yu Hanchao in the first round as a fullback. Another current international player, Xie Pengfei, replaced Malele and formed an attacking trident with two foreign players, No. 9 Luiz and No. 10 Teixeira. This is the first time that the two Shenhua internationals have been in the starting lineup this season, and as a result, both of them are at home in the tactical system of Shenhua's diamond-shaped midfield, and their ability to penetrate the ball through has been fully released, and both have completed an assist, (Gao Tianyi's assist goal was cancelled due to Luiz's offside). It can be said that the tactical value shown by these two international players in the diamond-shaped midfield position is enough to give the national football coach Ivankovic, who is also good at the diamond-shaped midfield, the confidence to realize his tactical ideals after better running in the team.
Shenhua's goal in the fourth minute was similar to China's first goal in the 4-1 Singapore game. That time, the Chinese team was composed of Gao Tianyi, Wu Lei and Zhang Yuning who completed three penetrating direct passes, and finally scored with a single shot by Wu Lei. This time, the Shenhua team was made by Wu Xi, Xie Pengfei, and Luis to complete four penetrating direct passes, and finally Teixeira scored with a single shot. Around these two goals, we can observe the problems of the defensive side at the same time: whether it was the Singapore team at that time or the Taishan team this time, they were quickly counterattacked by the opponent when they pressed on it hard.
Why is there so many people piled up in the midfield, or is it so quickly counterattacked by the opponent to form a single knife? The answer is simple, the ball is faster than the man. Whether it was the national team last time or the Shenhua team this time, these two counterattacks did not rely on the speed of the players to tear through the opponent's defense. Although both Wu Lei and Teixeira can score these two one-on-one goals, it is directly related to their ability to sprint at high speed with the ball. However, the reason why there is such a good one-knife opportunity is precisely because these aforementioned players penetrated the ball through a simple through pass, and "easily" penetrated the multi-layered defense of the opponent's midfield and backfield.
The two goals scored by the national team and the Shenhua team best reflect the tactical essence of the so-called diamond-shaped midfield: through efficient penetrating direct passes, the ball penetrates through the opponent's multi-layered and dense defense, and the players of their own side receive the ball behind the opponent's defender to get a good opportunity to shoot. It's a pity that Ivankovic has only taken over two games after all, and most of the game time, the national football team seems to pay attention to the direct ball penetration is not uniform enough, so that it is not enough to show the tactical essence of the diamond-shaped midfield in the game. The team is weak at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and the direct pass penetrates the ball and needs to be strengthened. On the other hand, Shenhua, the diamond-shaped midfield of the battle between Shenhua and Taishan gave full play to the essence of this tactic. Moreover, we can see the irreplaceable value of the internationals in this tactic.