On March 2010, in the 3rd round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur struggled to defeat Stoke City away.

Although Tottenham Hotspur controlled the situation steadily throughout the game, it was difficult to win. After taking the lead with Falcao's goal in the first half, he performed very badly in the second half and was tied tenaciously by Stoke City in the 65th minute.

After that, Tottenham Hotspur had a long time to find an effective way to break the opponent's goal. Until the 87th minute, Yaya Toure inserted a long shot at the critical moment, breaking the goal guarded by Sorensen, scoring the winning goal for Tottenham Hotspur and successfully scored three-pointers from the away game.

Although he won the game, he won a very thrilling victory. On the contrary, his rival Manchester United, although Torres broke the goal just five minutes after the opening of the Old Trafford Stadium, in less than five minutes, Rooney's goal helped Manchester United equalize the score. After that, Manchester United firmly grasped the initiative in the game and threatened Liverpool's goal again and again.

In the end, with Benzema's goal in the second half, he reversed Liverpool at home.

The same is I, but Tottenham and Manchester United's performances have been completely differently evaluated. The former is questioned, while the latter is affirmed. After all, Stoke City's strength is not as good as Tottenham, and Manchester United encounters Liverpool led by Benitez.

Tottenham Hotspur's poor form continued to the Premier League round a week later. This time, Tottenham Hotspur played against Portsmouth, the Pompeii Army. In the whole first half, Tottenham Hotspur's performance was pretty good. Falcao scored another goal, and Ramsey also scored a goal in the first half, helping Tottenham Hotspur take the lead by 0.

But in the second half, the situation turned around and Pompeii launched a wave of counterattacks against Tottenham Hotspur, while Tottenham Hotspur did not have a very effective method. Although he finally managed to defend 0 to the end with the team's defense, he was attacked very miserably by Pompeii.

After the game, although several football commentators mentioned the reason for Tottenham's poor recent conditions, perhaps because Ye Qiu and the coaching staff began to consciously adjust the players' physical fitness and condition to prepare for the devil's schedule in April, more media still criticized them, believing that at such an important juncture to strive for the league championship, Tottenham's performance was not as satisfactory as other competitors.

You should know that in this round, Chelsea beat Aston Villa, Manchester United beat Bolton 40 away games, Liverpool and Manchester City defeated their opponents three goals, and the performance of these competitors is satisfactory, especially Chelsea and Manchester United, who performed very well in the final stage of the season.

Many people have said that although Tottenham Hotspur is still firmly leading by 12 points, the real test for Tottenham Hotspur is still in the three rounds of 34, 35 and 36, because Tottenham Hotspur will face Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United in these three rounds, especially Arsenal and Chelsea in the first two games, which will be the top priority.

But in the 33rd round, the away game against Sunderland Sunderland was not easy. You should know that although Sunderland is currently ranked outside the top ten, the home performance of the Black Cat has always been very ideal. There are many strong teams at the home court, including Arsenal and Liverpool. Manchester United won the away game and it was not easy, and it was a narrow victory in the end.

Therefore, many league analysts and commentators believe that the real test for Tottenham Hotspur has just begun now. If the April game is not well played, the 12-point lead is likely to be exhausted.

To put it bluntly, although twelve points is a huge advantage, in such a dense and strong teams, in the devil schedule, if you are not careful, you may fail anytime and anywhere. Many analysts believe that Tottenham Hotspur should adopt a stable strategy and focus on the league. After all, the Premier League now has a twelve point advantage and it is almost certain to win the championship.

As long as you are not dragged down and affected by the Champions League and survive the devil schedule in April, there is no big problem.

"But judging from the game against Portsmouth, Ye Qiu still has no intention of giving up the Champions League."

Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur, these two teams that last season's Champions League final, are undoubtedly the most eye-catching European football this season and are also the most powerful teams recognized by everyone. Even if Barcelona failed in the final last season, no one would doubt the strength of this team.

More importantly, Barcelona made a comeback this season, introducing stars such as Van Persie, Alexis Sanchez to further strengthen their frontcourt offense, which made Barcelona's offense significantly improve this season.

But this Catalan team still maintains its iconic style of play last season, which is ball control.

Barcelona this season are almost invincible, both in the Champions League and in La Liga. Especially after joining Van Persie, young player Pedro gradually took on the responsibility of attacking on the left side of the frontcourt, while Alexis Sanchez's joining strengthened the right attack, allowing Xavi and Iniesta to sit in the middle of the midfield. The team's ball-control tactics have been strengthened, and offense and defense have become balanced and firm.

As soon as the draw for the Champions League quarterfinals knockout appeared, all media believed that this showdown was the early stage of the Champions League final, because no matter who both sides obtained the final promotion, they had great hope of entering the final and winning the championship in the end, because these two teams are the most powerful teams in today's football world.

Because of this, almost before the game, almost the whole world media were paying attention to this game. Everyone was looking forward to seeing how Ye Qiu restrained Barcelona's ball-handling tactics and how Guardiola would limit Tottenham Hotspur's offense.

It is somewhat surprising that as the game begins, Guardiola's defense is not very clear yet, but Tottenham Hotspur's defense is very clear at a glance. Everyone can see that Tottenham Hotspur's tactic at the beginning is to give up the ball.

"This is a very bold, but very adventurous decision." As a guest of live broadcasting and TV station's special commentator, Italian celebrity Saki was surprised after seeing Tottenham Hotspur's tactics after the opening.

As Cruyff said, if the game is regarded as a duel, then football is undoubtedly the only weapon in the duel arena. Now Tottenham Hotspur has the courage to send weapons directly to the opponent. This really requires courage, and it can be said to be a risk.

Barcelona undoubtedly sent all the main players to play in this game. The goalkeeper was Valdes, the defense was Abidal, Mascherano, Pique and Puyol, the midfield was still Iniesta, Busquets and Xavi, and the front trident was Pedro, Van Persie and Alexis Sanchez.

Compared with Barcelona, ​​which is fully staffed, Tottenham Hotspur has made considerable changes.

The goalkeeper is Cech, the defense is Marcelo, Ziglinski, Thiago Silva and Alves, the midfield is Beckham, Yaya Toure and Fabregas, and the front tridents are Ribery, Cavani and Messi.

David Silva and Falcao were both placed on the bench by Ye Qiu because they both started in the league three days ago and played the whole game. Before the game, the media revealed inside information. It is said that when Ye Qiu announced the start of the league, the Colombia center had communicated with Ye Qiu because he would rather play when playing Barcelona.

As the game began, everyone noticed that even if it was playing at home, Tottenham Hotspur did not adopt the strategy of taking the initiative to attack, but instead took the retreat. Sachi found this not difficult to understand.

"In fact, a large part of this knockout match is to play psychological warfare. Both sides guess each other's tactics and make targeted arrangements. I believe that both Barcelona and Guardiola must have made sufficient preparations for Tottenham's opening attack. Ye Qiu suddenly gave up this style of play, which will disrupt Barcelona's plan."

"Of course, this sudden change is good and bad, because first of all, this change may disrupt the opponent, but it may also disrupt yourself. Therefore, the head coach needs to have absolute control over the team and the players need to be able to adapt to the head coach's changes."

As the game began, everyone gradually discovered something strange, that is, Tottenham Hotspur's possession rate is very low, only 39. This is completely different from what Ye Qiu emphasized in the past. Tottenham Hotspur is used to playing in the ball possession rate of about UU%, and it is almost an opposite ball possession time.

But it is strange that as the side with absolute advantage in ball possession, Barcelona had only one shot in the first ten minutes, and Alexis Sanchez broke through and made a cross from the right. Ziglinski headed the ball to the baseline before Van Persie, and Pique headed the ball to the bottom line for Barcelona's corner kick.

Apart from this shot, Barcelona did not have a second shot, which is incredible, because this should not happen at all with Barcelona's possession rate and the attack power of La Liga teams.

The only explanation is that Tottenham Hotspur's defense is doing well.

"Tottenham Hotspur did not take other teams to face Barcelona's contraction defense at that time, nor did it retreat to the 30-meter area." When the live commentator asked about Tottenham's defense success, Sachy mentioned that Tottenham's defensive tactics were different from other teams.

"Barcelona likes to press and likes to bring its offensive players closer to the opponent's penalty area, but Tottenham Hotspur's defense line did not retreat, but it did not press forward, but if we pay close attention, we can find that Beckham and Yaya Toure are at the back, and Fabregas also frequently come back."

"In other words, Tottenham's defense is very interesting, and the defense line does not retreat, but I retreated the frontcourt and midfield. When the defense line does not retreat and the midfield retreats, as long as Barcelona players take the ball and launch a front-end attack, they often feel like they are in a state of sandwiched attack, front-end and back-end attacks."

"And we should note that Barcelona's wing offensive ability is actually relatively limited. As full-backs, Puyol and Abidal have no problem with their defensive ability, but their offensive ability is relatively weak, and their support for the two wingers in the frontcourt is not enough. Therefore, Barcelona has always paid more attention to the middle and relied on Van Persie's frontcourt to handle the ball. The only one with more wing off attack is Alexis Sanchez, but Tottenham Hotspur has focused on the left."

"The drag of Yaya Toure and Beckham, as well as the retreat of the midfield and frontcourt effectively compressed the defense zone, allowing Barcelona to penetrate the small diagonal passes from the two ribs to have problems, so we see that Pedro has almost no threat, and Alexis Sanchez can only cross frequently at the bottom."

At this moment, Barcelona launched another attack, and Alexis Sanchez still got the ball on the right. Marcelo stood at the position and marked Sanchez one-on-one on the right. But at the same time, Tottenham Hotspur's Beckham and Fabregas were both cruising around Van Persie, making it impossible for the Dutch to effectively respond to Sanchez.

But at the same time, Pedro cut from the left to the middle, and as long as the ball was passed, he could insert into the penalty area anytime and anywhere.

It should be said that Pedro is the typical player who wins without the ball, but this time Yaya Toure is always close to him and always between him and Van Persie. This makes even if Van Persie gets the ball, if you want to find Pedro, you still have to go through the defense zones of Fabregas and Yaya Toure.

Sure enough, Sanchez could only pass back to Xavi when he couldn't find the opportunity. Fabregas ran towards Xavi immediately, and Ribery was also retreating to defense, which made Xavi immediately fall into a state of front and back attack and had to pass back to Busquets. As soon as the latter took the ball, Barcelona's attack slowed down.

Barcelona's offense slowed down, Tottenham's defense immediately regrouped, all players returned to their positions, and the entire defensive formation was adjusted back to the most reasonable position.

"Elasticity is very elastic. Whether it is a diagonal or a parallel line, Tottenham Hotspur's defense seems very elastic. This is the essence of a typical Italian chain defense. If you don't fight with you physically or compete with you at speed, you just rely on delays, blocking and other methods to force you to fail to form effective breakthroughs and penetration."

Saki laughed when he saw this, "I said in the column before that one of the most important reasons why Tottenham Hotspur's defense has become solid this season is that they have established this solid, stable, and effective elastic defense mechanism, which can adjust their defense very quickly anytime, anywhere, according to the situation and the changes in the opponent's ball. Especially in the detailed player formation, it is organized very closely and the cooperation is also in place."

At this time, the commentator had to interrupt again and explained what formation is.

Generally speaking, fans have only heard of formations, such as 443l, etc., but rarely hear of formations.

The so-called formation can actually be regarded as the overall framework of a team, that is, the distribution of players' positions, but the specific details, or the application of tactical details in the game, depends on the formation, so formation refers to the entire team, and formation may only refer to players in local areas, such as whether the four people in the defense line are in parallel or shallow disc positions, which is the formation.

"It should be Mauro Tasotti. He has a very unique understanding of defense, and he is very familiar with and understands the essence of Italy's defensiveness." Saki chuckled and mentioned his compatriot, who could also be said to be Saki's favorite disciple during AC Milan.

"Tottenham Hotspur's defense is very layered and has very targeted changes. This elastic and layered defensive system has a very strong Italian football flavor."

"Barcelona is in trouble"

As it turns out, Saki's judgment is correct.

Barcelona has a high ball possession rate, and even increased the ball possession rate to about %. This is already an incredible time for Tottenham Hotspur, but the problem is that Barcelona has never been able to effectively penetrate into Tottenham Hotspur's defensive system.

As Saki said, as long as they take the ball and launch a head-on attack, they are like being in a sandwich cookie, with attacks everywhere in front, back, left and right. Moreover, Tottenham Hotspur’s defense is best at slowing down your pace, or forcing you to slow down, and then they have plenty of time to adjust targeted defense based on your offensive characteristics and direction.

It is incredible that in the first half hour, Barcelona actually did not shoot the second shot outside the corner kick in the sixth minute after the opening, so that Barcelona's head coach Guardiola walked to the sidelines, watching the game incredibly incredible and thinking hard about coping strategies.

"Barcelona players are very unacceptable to this defensive approach. Ye Qiu has obviously learned a lot of experience and ideas from Hiddink's Chelsea, Italian football, and Dutch football. In addition, Mauro Tassoti, Tottenham Hotspur said this season that he would strengthen his defense, and now he has shown his level."

Sachy is obviously very interested in Tottenham Hotspur’s defensive system and appreciates it very much, but this is definitely not just because Mauro Tasotti is his former disciple, but also because he himself is full of interest in this tactical innovation.

"However, Tottenham Hotspur must also pay attention. Blind defense is definitely not a solution. Defense does not break Barcelona's goal. Moreover, from the first half hour, Tottenham completely gave up the penetration and advancement he had in the past, but instead took longer diagonal passes to launch an attack and opened Barcelona's formation."

"In general, Ye Qiu has good ideas and ideas, and his tactics are very bold and courageous, but the defense works, but there is no threat to the offense, which is also a problem."

When talking about this, Saki took a look at the time and it was almost thirty-five minutes, and there were only ten minutes left before the end of the first half. Is there a possibility of scoring a goal?
Chapter completed!