Chapter 185 The First Champions League Game (50/136)

The match day of the national team passed in the singing of Avril Lavigne.

In fact, no matter whether it was last season or this season, Valencia didn't have too many international players. At least compared with other giants, they can only be called "the poor team".

Even if Valencia won the league championship, it did not fundamentally change this.

There were nine internationals in Valencia's team last season, namely Spanish internationals Albelda, Mendieta, Canizares, Vicente, and Baraja.

Argentine internationals Ayala and Aimar.

Norway international Karou, Sweden international Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Compared with the real giants, the number of international football transfers is pitifully small.

And for more than half of last season, Baraja has not been selected for the national team.

Even after last season's outstanding performance, the number of Valencia's international players has not increased significantly, but there are two more Portuguese international players.

The two Portuguese, Paulo Ferreira and Carvalho, were unknown and transparent when they joined Valencia.

And as they performed well in Valencia, they became the main force, and as Valencia's performance in La Liga continued to rise.

These two have also been selected for the Portuguese national team.

Although they are still only marginal figures at the moment, they have participated in the training and competition of the national team. As long as they continue to maintain this state and continue to improve in the future, they will be the main players in the Portuguese national team sooner or later.

After selling Spanish international Mendieta and Argentine international Aimar, there are still nine Valencia internationals this season.

Spanish internationals Albelda, Baraja, Vicente, Canizares, Villa, Angulo.

Portugal internationals Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira.

Sweden international Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Argentina international Ayala.

None of the four players that Changsheng introduced this season are international players.

Cambiasso has not yet been selected for the Argentina national team.

Deco is the same, he is a Brazilian, but there are so many talents in Brazilian football, there is no place for him at all, otherwise he would not have come to Portugal to play. If Changsheng hadn't bought Deco, Deco would have obtained Portuguese citizenship in 2003. Then he was recruited into the Portuguese national team by Scolari and became the Portuguese international. But now it seems that he has no chance to become a Portuguese international, because to become a Portuguese international, he must first obtain Portuguese nationality.

Naturalization requires a residence permit for six years. Deco came to Portugal in the summer of 1997 and left Portugal in the summer of 2002. Lived for five years. One year to go.

It is this year that he may lose the opportunity of the Portuguese national team.

Neither Arbeloa nor Mista are international players.

Arbeloa is too young, and Mista is unstable.

In Getafe's best season, he was in the second division. If he is not taken seriously, he is naturally not eligible for the Spanish national team.

Later, after Getafe was upgraded, Chang Sheng left again. Without Chang Sheng, his performance began to fluctuate. And even if Mista performs well, there are too many players like him in Spain. It is normal not to be selected for the Spanish national team.

Some media have previously analyzed that Valencia's strength has not really been enhanced from the number of international players.

But this is caused by the habit of Changsheng signings. Because as a traveler, I know which players will be great in the future, but now they are very poor. They can be regarded as high-quality and cheap players. Naturally, there is no need to spend high prices to buy those famous stars and international players. Therefore, all the players Changsheng bought are future international players, but they are still unknown.

In fact, having more international footballers may not necessarily make you happy.

Especially whenever the national team is on a game day, the entire training base is empty, except for shooting training and physical training, nothing can be practiced.

This will delay the team's training. Not to mention that the main players were injured on the national team match day. As a result, the club's combat effectiveness was damaged, which led to protracted wrangling between the club and the national team.

Valencia currently has only nine international players, so they can still guarantee the integrity of the team on the national team match day.

The usual training will not be delayed too much, and the B team will be transferred to the same training.

This is conducive to Valencia's preparations for the various games of the season.

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So when the first round of the Copa del Rey and the second round of the league, Valencia's performance was basically not affected.

Copa del Rey first round. Valencia played away Manuel Turner Lopez Tener, and Changsheng had all the substitute lineup plus a part of the B team lineup.

Unlike last season, it is obvious that this season the Copa del Rey is used by Chang Sheng as a training occasion.

Even so, Valencia still defeated the opponent 2:0 away. Easily advance to the next round.

Valencia's opponent in the second round of the league is the newly promoted Velva.

Facing such a weak opponent, Chang Sheng made a bold rotation with confidence. All players who have participated in the national team game have all been given time to rest, either on the bench or in the stands.

In the first home game of the new season, Valencia won a clean 4:0.

Four different players scored goals in the game, which fully demonstrated the multi-point flowering characteristics of Valencia's mad dog tactics in offense.

Mista and Cambiasso both scored their first official game goals after joining the team.

Cambiasso also contributed one assist and Mista had two. After the game, Mista was selected as the best player of the game.

He used his actual actions to prove that Chang Sheng didn't buy him because of favoritism.

But he can play a role in Valencia.

In the game, Mista's tireless running was of great help to the team.

Even Moen, the commentator, said that Mista looked like a real mad dog.

After the second round of the league with Huelva, Valencia ushered in their first opponent in the UEFA Champions League at home. They are also considered to be the strongest in this group and can compete with Valencia for the first place in the group. ... "Red Army" Liverpool.

This is also Chang Sheng's first Champions League game.

In Chang Sheng's mind, perhaps influenced by the mentality of fans in later generations, he always felt that the UEFA Cup is far inferior to the Champions League. The only real European competition is the Champions League.

So he didn't feel it when he played in the UEFA Cup last season, but he seemed very excited when he played in the Champions League.

Lin Mo released the first task of the Champions League. The task requirement is very simple, that is, to win the Champions League for the first time, in other words. Just beat Liverpool.

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Liverpool's coach Houllier is in a good mood now, because he thinks this away game will be very easy for Liverpool.

When the lottery results came out, he was full of confidence. I feel lucky to be in this group. A real good pick.

In his vision, Liverpool will finish first in their group, with Valencia finishing second - if they are lucky.

This idea was reinforced when his scouts sent him weekly reports on Valencia matches.

Facing Valencia's inverted tactics. Liverpool's countermeasure is defensive counterattack.

In fact, defensive counterattack is Houllier's standard tactic in Liverpool.

Since Houllier took over Liverpool, he began to transform the defense. A series of defensive players were introduced. In the future, Liverpool's defense will be Dinghaishenzhen Hyypia, and Harman.

Henkoz, who can only be regarded as second-rate, can form a pair of successful central defender partners with Hyypia, which is inseparable from Houllier's hoarding of heavy troops in Zhongouchang.

The compressed backcourt allowed the two tall central defenders to give full play to their man-to-man defensive capabilities, plus a nervous Westwood. Transformed from three backs to four backs. Coupled with Harman, the midfielder with the strongest interception ability in the Premier League, this is the defense that Houllier has used for five years.

As a Frenchman, his transformation of the defense is more conservative than that of the British.

This kind of defense is used to deal with Valencia's inverted attack, and Houllier thinks it is enough.

The thing that decides the outcome of the game is the offense.

In terms of offense, Houllier emphasized the word "fast". This word runs through Houllier's entire offensive thinking. Houllier gave full play to Owen's unparalleled start-up and direction-changing speed, and passed the ball straight behind him concisely, "shooting a line". Under Owen's impact, the bulky England defenders couldn't turn around and looked at the ball sighing. This is also the reason why Irving performed so well in those years and even won the European Golden Globe Award-fed out by tactics.

Houllier, who had tasted the sweetness, introduced counter-attacking forwards with good speed in the next few years, and gave up Fowler, who had a keen sense of smell in front of the goal. At the same time, the ball from the midfield is also very fast, mainly long passes and mid-range direct passes.

This is Houllier's offensive tactics.

And this set of offensive tactics. In Houllier's view, it just happened to restrain Valencia's frontcourt pressing tactics.

Just go for the Husky frequently from the backfield.

Then let Owen respond and dribble the ball.

In fact, this season, Houllier is also trying to make tactical reforms. Let the previous simple and crude tactics change to more technical tactics. This is just the beginning, but against Valencia. He intends to temporarily abandon his own reforms and win the ball first.

In order to win, he chose more utilitarian tactics. Just like when he first arrived in Liverpool, in order to win, he chose to abandon the team's offensive style during the Evans period, focus on adjusting the team's defensive system, and established the basic tactical idea of ​​"stabilize the ground first, wait for an opportunity to counterattack quickly" .

Make sure to win, always come first.

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Because of his confidence, Houllier took the initiative to provoke a war of words.

Before leaving for Valencia, he said in an interview with the English media at the airport: "I don't have any problems with my body, and the same is true for Liverpool. We are confident to win this game!"

When he said these words, with a faint smile on his face, he seemed full of confidence.

The media in England seemed to be infected by Houllier's confidence.

They have focused on portraying Houllier's confidence in their press releases, painting a wonderful prospect for Liverpool fans.

"Houllier looked confident and that's a positive sign..."

"Although it is an away game, although the opponent Valencia is currently in a good momentum, we must firmly believe that in the Champions League, Liverpool's experience is definitely greater than Valencia's! Liverpool has won four European Champions Cups. Valencia How many are there in West Asia?"