Observing the reaction of the Chinese media after China's 3-2 loss to Saudi Arabia may be something even more disappointing than the Chinese team's loss. Media people feel that they know the ball very well, but they insist on a very backward concept, always look at the current problems from the perspective of the past, in such a field of public opinion, it is difficult to discuss football and draw constructive conclusions.
One of the most typical points of view is that if Li Tie puts 3 Brazilian partners Wu Lei in the starting lineup to lead the attack, there will be 3 or 4 undefended players in the front field of the Chinese team. Therefore, they believe that Li Tie is right not to let the Brazilian start, and must be able to send a "non-defensive" Brazilian when the opponent is already ahead, the thinking is lax, and the physical fitness is declining.
This view is actually the football theory of the 1980s and 90s, represented by Italian football. Some of the football coaches who became famous in that era were active for the first 10 years of the 21st century, but have been completely silent in the last 10 years. One of the most impressive ones is Novillino, who was born in Brazil himself, but the football philosophy is completely old-fashioned Italian football, and the favorite way to speak is: "If we send whoever is who, we have one less person defensively." ”
The concept of full-time defensive or main defensive players has been completely overturned in the past 10 years, such as the Italian national team that won Euro 2020, their midfield from the main player to the substitute can not be regarded as a "professional defensive midfielder", Gattuso, Palombo and other players have disappeared, the bottom of the Jorginho is a technical Brazilian.
What overturns the old-fashioned football theory of stacking defenders? The development of offensive tactics represented by Ancelotti and Guardiola. Ancelotti put Kaka, Seedorf and Pirlo, who had originally played in the front, on an almost vertical line, pioneering the concept of football's "deep attack", the opponent encountered the first wave of stormtroopers retreating and contracting, but AC Milan's offensive strength pushed forward layer by layer. Guardiola has provided a lot of teaching materials for the world of football in the use of the width of the stadium. Baldano once joked, "Guardiola goes to the beach to play football and directs one teammate to stand in the water and the other to climb on the rock." ”
In today's football world, no team has been able to achieve long-term success by focusing on destruction through a comprehensive retreat. When you fully retreat, it actually becomes a geometric model for the other party to fiddle with, the other side attacks the side so that you are pulled apart horizontally, can't find the gap and then reverses to attract you to press out, longitudinally is pulled, and then hit the other side road to be pulled sideways. Saudi Arabia's second goal was typical: the Chinese team retreated, Saudi Arabia passed a long pass to the right, so the Chinese team moved collectively to the right side, and then Saudi Passed the left goalpost, and the forward just happened to kill.
Statistics also overturns the theory of a total retreat of stacked defensive players from another perspective. Since the 1990s, FIFA lecturers who have come to China to lecture have almost been trying to convey a message: according to statistics, the easiest chance to score goals in football games comes from attacking in the midfield. Ironically, media people who think the Brazilians are not defensive must ignore how the Chinese team scored the second goal, and it was the Brazilian who broke the ball.
Defensive counter-attack tactics still exist in modern football, and exist on a large scale, but the defensive counter-attack tactics that can achieve results have a premise: not to rely on the accumulation of defensive players, but to let enough offensive players participate in the defensive counterattack system, which is a defensive counterattack tactic with the ultimate goal of attack, Tuchel almost won the Champions League with such tactics in Paris Saint-Germain in 2020, and finally won the Champions League with such tactics at Chelsea in 2021.
Going back to Inter's treble in 2010, many people only remember Mourinho's barrel formation, but forget that Mourinho has at least four players in the front: Diego Milito, Eto'o, Penderv, Sneider, plus a all-round macon on the right.
So, how do you get offensive players into the defensive system effectively? What is reflected here is the ability of a coach. The defense of modern football, if you have to put the defenders one-on-one, then it must be a bad, dangerous defense. The core element of modern football defense is to block the opponent's ball path, and it starts from the moment the opponent's backcourt is played. One of the keys to Italy's Euro 2020 win is knowing everything about the ball from any opponent, and the players know very well how to crack the opponent's attack and destroy it layer by layer from the front.
The Chinese team was actually a very passive defensive approach to the first half of saudi arabia, as mentioned above, allowing the other side to fiddle with back and forth as a geometric model. If you look closely at the slowness of Saudi Arabia's passing and receiving, you will really be angry at the great time wasted by the Chinese team.
In fact, in today's world football, most teams will not be very rich in routes and ways of playing, often concentrated in 1 or 2 people, concentrated in 2 or 3 routes. Especially against a team like Saudi Arabia, it is too crucial to study their exit route beforehand. It is also necessary to study how to launch a quick attack immediately after intercepting the ball, and practice it during training in the team. This is where Li Tie's coaching staff is seriously deficient, because they have been training intensively and have a whole month to prepare to practice, but against Saudi Arabia, only one idea is seen: I am afraid, I want to retreat to defense.
Li Tie has been in Brazil and should have a certain communication ability with Brazilian players. In a full 1 month, from research to drill to communication to perfection is absolutely possible. On the contrary, Brazilian players were sent in the second half, and they had to get acquainted with their opponents on the spot. Luo Guofu's foot is wonderful, but the real good play is in the later stages, the Chinese team let the Saudi Arabia midfield began to make mistakes, you can see that the Brazilian players are not only good in technology, but also developed a good ability to read the game from an early age.
Some people criticize the Brazilian for not defending and emphasizing the imbalance between attack and defense with the third goal lost by the Chinese team, but it is necessary to know that the Chinese team won the half 2-1 in the second half, if the whole chinese team is 2-1, or 1-1, what is the goal lost?
Many current fans may not know some of the "obsessions" of Chinese football media people, which have been the same from the 90s to the present. For example, Horton to Milu period, many media people insisted on the national team who played the "front waist", because they were deeply influenced by Maradona, thinking that the one with the best ability to carry the ball was sent to the forward in the No. 10 position, 4312 was invincible, so there were Various debates and versions such as Peng Weiguo's forward (the classic game for Li Tie), Zhang Xiaorui's front waist, Yang Chen's front waist and so on
This may be the eternal dead knot of Chinese football, and the topics and concepts discussed in our public opinion field always belong to more than ten or twenty years ago.
Author: Wang Qinbo