"Just received information from Barcelona, ​​Messi has started training alone."

The two-week national team match day has just begun. At the Valdebebas training base in the northeastern suburb of Madrid, Zidane and Yang Yang are having a meeting with Real Madrid's first-team coaching staff to discuss news from Barcelona.

From ancient times to the present, the most important thing in war is intelligence, and football is no exception.

It is no wonder that European teams have special scouts doing these things, such as David Betoni, who currently takes over Real Madrid's intelligence and game analysis, was a former employee who was responsible for the intelligence spy.

Similar to the century-old derby like Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​it attaches great importance to Barcelona's intelligence. As early as a week ago, Real Madrid scouts began to collect and spy on Barcelona's intelligence in detail and conduct targeted analysis.

When Yang Yang and Zidane got the news from David Betoni, they were not surprised at all. Messi's return was within their expectations, because the Argentine superstar is one of Barcelona's most important core combat forces.

Since he was seriously injured two months ago, Messi has been absent and has been working hard to recover. The purpose is to catch up with this game at the Bernabeu, and now it seems that he should be able to catch up.

There are two weeks left, and according to the current recovery progress, it is completely time.

Of course, being able to catch up with the game does not mean that his condition can be adjusted. After all, he was absent for two months.

"Is there only one Messi?" Zidane asked with concern.

"And with Rakitic, the Croats seem to be progressing faster and are already undergoing restorative training."

Now we are in restorative training, and after the national team match day, we will be able to catch up with the last century derby.

"So, they can both get on?" Zidane frowned and murmured to himself.

Yang Yang thought for a moment and shook his head, "Not necessarily, I can go, but Enrique may not be willing to let him go. The key is to depend on his status."

Zidane nodded again, "But it still makes people feel worried."

At the level of Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​every game is a new beginning. No one is sure of it. Because Real Madrid has the advantage in the past, it is impossible to continue to defeat Barcelona in this game.

The strength gap between the two teams is not very different. Any team will have some omissions, be careless, or have major tactical problems, and will be killed by their opponents at any time.

The century derby is definitely the peak showdown with the highest technical and tactical content in football today!

It's like Ye Gucheng and Ximen Chuxue are fighting at the top of the Forbidden City. If the two top masters have a slight distraction, the opponent's sword will pierce your throat.

"I have played many century derby games, so I know that such a game requires extremely high demands on every player, because the intensity and difficulty of the game are extremely high, but in comparison, I think the state of the player is more important. We don't have to choose the strongest players, but we must choose the best players."

Yang Yang said this very seriously, and this is his attitude towards this game.

This is Zidane's first century derby after coaching Real Madrid, and it is also Yang Yang's first game, and he doesn't want to lose.

"Yang Yang is right. The game requirements are very high. The players are in poor condition and will inevitably lower the overall level of the team and give the opponent an opportunity to take advantage of it. Therefore, we only choose the one in the best condition. Even if the strength is slightly inferior, at least we can play out. More importantly, we must form a whole to face the competition."

When Zidane said this, he thought about it again, "I will talk to the technical department and call the national teams to try to make them minimize the playing time of our players, and even stop playing in some unnecessary games."

This is a routine practice for the club. Of course, if the national team does not give face and requires players to play hard, sometimes the club will deliberately ask players to take some countermeasures, including fraudulent injuries.

For example, many Brazilian internationals have never played in the Copa America, and they are accidentally injured before the Copa America.

Yang Yang has not returned to China to participate in the competition in the past two weeks.

In November, the Chinese national team had two World Cup qualifiers, with opponents being Bhutan and Hong Kong, China. Both teams are far inferior to the Chinese team, and it is not a big problem to win the opponent.

After defeating Qatar in the last round away game, the Chinese team has already seized the lead in the group stage of the qualifiers. Bhutan and Hong Kong are both meat on the Chinese team's chopping board and basically cannot escape.

Under such circumstances, Real Madrid came forward to discuss with the national team, hoping that this time, Yang Yang would not be summoned and that he would concentrate on preparing to face Barcelona in Madrid. After all, this is a crucial game.

This is also the reason why Yang Yang is still in Valdebebas.

...

"In the past few years, we have been able to defeat Barcelona, ​​not because we suppress our opponents in passing and controlling the ball, but because we can always work together to suppress our opponents by relying on a compact whole. Our midfield is like a wall, and it is very important that we can always block Barcelona from our penalty area."

Zidane has a very clear understanding of Real Madrid's performance advantages against Barcelona in the past because he has experienced it personally.

When it comes to passing and controlling the ball, Real Madrid will definitely not win Barcelona, ​​which is what the opponent is best at.

"If Luis Enrique let Messi play this game, he must be trying to compete with us for passes and control. If it is not for Messi, then we have to be careful."

After Xavi left the team, Barcelona's core passes and controls were Messi, Iniesta and Busquets. Among these three players, Iniesta and Busquets were in the midfield, and Messi often retreated to the central defender position.

It is obvious that this is to make up for the weakening of midfield pass control after Xavi left the team.

It can be said that this style of play is a tradition that Barcelona has penetrated into the bones, and they can't forget it.

If Messi does not play, Barcelona's midfield pass and ball control ability will be much weaker, which will be an opportunity for Real Madrid, but it can also be the other way around. Barcelona will adopt a different tactical style from before, and Real Madrid must be careful.

"What do you think?" Zidane looked at Yang Yang.

In the past, he had been in private communication, and since Yang Yang became his chief assistant coach, he had to analyze the intelligence and tactics of the enemy and us with Yang Yang before almost every game.

Yang Yang has become accustomed to this, and his mind is full of analyzing the current situation and showing a look of thinking.

"I discovered a very interesting thing in these two games against Paris Saint-Germain." Yang Yang suddenly laughed.

Everyone was a little puzzled, and Zidane was even more curious, "Let's hear it."

"I suddenly realized that Tony Kroos was really interesting."

Everyone was puzzled. Is this an obvious matter?

How can it be that the core of the world champion's midfielder and one of the top midfielders in the world today be the best in football?

"Do you remember our tactics against Paris Saint-Germain?" Yang Yang asked Zidane without explaining much.

After thinking about it, the French vaguely guessed what Yang Yang meant, "You mean, Tony Kroos pressed forward?"

"Yes, his control of the situation, his judgment and grasp of the timing, and his defensive ability..." Yang Yang shook his head with some amusement, "He is quite a complicated person. He is said to be a front midfielder, but the pace is slow and he can't play. He is said to be a back midfielder, and the defense is too poor, so we have always used him as a central midfielder."

Everyone nodded frequently. This is true. Whether it is Ancelotti or Zidane, they use him like this.

"But I discovered this game against Paris Saint-Germain. He has a very good grasp of the timing of the front pressure. He can always pinch the point of Paris Saint-Germain, making the opponent play very awkward. His defensive ability is not very good in the midfield position, but when he presses front and back, he looks very good in the frontcourt position, and he is very diligent."

After listening to it, Zidane thought about it carefully and it was true.

Whether it is Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Heinx, Guardiola and Ancelotti, no one obviously uses his current waist, and he doesn't play well in the back midfield, which makes him feel like he's not going to be high or low.

But now that Yang Yang said this, everyone suddenly realized that if he really used this way, Tony Kroos would be very useful. More importantly, he can play his characteristics in the tactical framework of Real Madrid.

"You mean, use the way to play Paris Saint-Germain to play Barcelona?" Zidane guessed.

Yang Yang laughed and shook his head, "No, that's too conservative."

Everyone was amused by him. This was the statement that some tabloids outside criticized Real Madrid, but in fact, they could defeat Paris Saint-Germain away from home and won the French Ligue 1 class bully in both rounds. Who dares to say that Real Madrid is conservative?

"Barcelona's strongest weapon is their offense, and its biggest weakness is their defense. These seemingly contradictory two parts are supported by the midfield. Therefore, when we play Barcelona, ​​we must directly suppress their midfield, steal the ball as much as possible, and launch a quick counterattack as soon as possible, and face their defense directly."

What Yang Yang said is the experience of Real Madrid defeating Barcelona in the past few years, which can be said to be successful every time.

This is the case at heart, but in each game, the opponent's arrangements are different, and the way to achieve tactical goals is naturally different.

It's like this game, with Messi and no Messi, these are two different ways of playing.

Real Madrid also needs to prepare two different solutions for this, but the tactical purpose that they want to achieve is what Yang Yang said, after stealing the ball as much as possible, and directly face Barcelona's defense line through counterattack as quickly as possible.

But what does this have to do with Tony Cross?

Didn’t Real Madrid always play like this?

"Okay, can you stop keeping it? Just say it!" Zidane laughed and scolded Yang Yang, which was a bit of what he admired the most, that is, Yang Yang always found some places that others could not think of and had some interesting ideas.

When Zidane sighed helplessly when he saw that Yang Yang hadn't planned to say it, "Hurry up and say it, I'll treat you all to a good meal."

Everyone was overjoyed and looked at Yang Yang.

Only then did Yang Yang smile and say a trick.
Chapter completed!