Enrique, a master of comprehensive control tactics

Sports Weekly All-Media Reporter Liang Hongye reported that

It is increasingly impossible to win the Champions League championship by relying solely on appropriate tactics, championship luck or a few top players. The Champions League champions today must be a real strong team, just like Paris this season, just like Paris defeated Inter Milan 5-0 in the final. In the past, the big word for the title of "Paris Great" was more like a joke, used to describe the fake character of not a strong team, but this year Paris finally removed the word "big". This is a real strong team with almost no weaknesses in all aspects. How did Enrique turn this "pseudo-strong team" into a real strong team?

The really strong team of Paris started with the ball, not only did they defeat Inter Milan 5-0 in the final, but they can reflect the strength of Paris. A strong team cannot prove its strength through one game. In fact, from the comprehensive data of the Champions League this season, we can find that Paris is a truly strong team. First of all, under the leadership of Enrique, Paris has completely transformed into a team that plays active ball control and attacks. The team's possession rate this season is as high as 59.5%, ranking third in the Champions League, second only to Manchester City (62.7%) and Bayern (61.3). In the pass success rate data list, which reflects the team's overall cooperation tacit understanding, Paris also ranked third at 89%, second only to Manchester City (92.2%) and Real Madrid (90%). Paris ranks first in terms of passes and successful passes, leading Bayern and Barcelona, ​​and is also the only team in this Champions League with more than 10,000 passes. In terms of goals, Paris ranked only behind Barcelona (43 goals) with 38 goals, far surpassing Dortmund, Bayern and Arsenal (31 goals). In terms of shooting, Paris ranked first with 323 times, surpassing Bayern (285 times) and Barcelona (223 times), and even 100 more shots than Barcelona, ​​which is famous for its offense.

In terms of offenses, Paris also ranked first with 1005, and is the only team with more than 1,000 attacks, surpassing Bayern (884 times) and Barcelona (751 times), and 25% more offenses than Barcelona, ​​which ranked third. Even in defense, Paris is far ahead, with a 733 steals ranking first, higher than Dortmund (588 times), Bayern (562 times) and final opponent Inter Milan (558 times). Among the top 10 players in the running distance, there are 7 Paris players, of which João Neves became the running champion of this Champions League with 184.3 kilometers, followed by his midfield partner Vitinia, and thirdly Bayern midfielder Kimmich. Ashraf, Pacho, Marginhos, Nuno Mendes and Fabian Ruiz won 4-8 places. The Paris team ran 1904.5 kilometers in the Champions League, while their final opponent Inter Milan was only 1310 kilometers. If a team can enter the top three in all data that reflects the team's performance, or even dominate the list in multiple data, it will not be surprising that this team will win the championship in the end, and it can even be said to be a natural thing.

So how did Enrique make Paris a completely modern football team that can control the ball, attack, shoot and steal?

Enrique decided that the team would play and control the ball after coming to Paris last season, but this is very difficult in Paris. Enrique initially repeatedly told the players during training: "Press up, stay calm after winning the ball, don't worry, use the goalkeeper to pass the ball, the goalkeeper is open." Enrique told the Spanish reporters accompanying him: "This is very difficult. They have no foundation for youth training to control the ball, and one thing must be explained 20 times." Paris sports director Luis Campos also said: "It is difficult for French players to control the ball, and they have not received this concept education." Because of the team's discomfort, Paris only won 2 games in the five rounds of Ligue 1 at the beginning of last season and lost a game against Nice.

Then, Paris began an unbeaten journey in the league (from round 6 to round 33), but in the Champions League death group, Enrique's team encountered difficulties again, losing 1-4 to Newcastle away, Paris conceded the goal at will, and was unable to seize the opportunity in front of the goal, all of which were the reasons for the failure. The media determined that Paris had another "tragedy", and Enrique's four forward tactics were incomprehensible. Enrique told Spanish reporters: "The time after the failure is the most difficult for the coach, so I would think, what am I doing here? The media said that the four forwards cannot accept it. Do you know why? Because there are only three forwards, and they will not rank 4, they don't have a concept of ××." Fortunately, Paris drew Dortmund in the last round of away games last season and successfully qualified from the group of death.

Not so heavy tactical master?

Enrique once talked about his coaching starting point. He was not a natural coach like Guardiola, but he needed to coach so that his children could see what they could do. "Cucumber (Guardiola nickname) has been a heavy person since his player age. He shouted to Feigo and me every day on the court to lock it and pull it away. I told Feigo that the cucumber was too heavy. I didn't want to be a coach at first, but I needed to let my children see what dad could do. I was a player, but retired, and the children couldn't see me playing football, so I started to be a coach."

As a coach, Enrique may be the coach who gives players the most freedom. For example, Ashraf, who opened the first record in the Champions League final, is a defender. The position change of Paris players during offense has become a headache for all teams. But Enrique is also the coach with the most severe control of the team. As he said at the end of last season, "I think I will do better next season, and there is no doubt about it. Because there is a player on the court (Mbappe) who runs whatever he wants, which makes some situations on the court that I can't control. Next season I have to control everything, all, no exceptions. "Lucas Hernandez said before the Champions League final: "The coach has some requirements, you either do it or don't play, because we all want to play football, so we have to do what he asked for. ”

Enrique told him what the future head coach he imagined would be like during a chat last season. "The future head coach is sitting at a very high place, wearing headsets. When he saw a big brother not returning to the position to defend, he told him to come back and block the road through the microphone. When he saw a player relaxing and not pressing, for example, when he was leading 2-1, he would ask him to press it. It would be better to press an electric shock button, and he screamed and pressed it. ”

Enrique is extremely serious about tactics. He has a coach lift next to the training ground at the Paris training base. During training matches, he will stand on the raised lift with his assistant to watch the training station. All training is videotaped and can be processed with football special software. If Enrique wants to teach the team a tactical class, he doesn’t have to go back to the conference room, because a large screen is installed next to the Paris training ground. Enrique lets everyone sit on the turf and listen to tactical analysis and explanation. Paris President Algelefi said: “I think we and Leverkusen are the only two teams in Europe that have large screens installed in the training ground. "Enrique's most of the time he spends his time analyzing his game and opponents in front of the office computer with his assistants. This is natural, but more time is analyzing Paris's own training videos. In the training base, Enrique works from 8 am to 9 pm every day, and Algelefi expressed anxiety about this, "I'm worried about his health. He works from 8 am to 21 am, and lives completely in football. I suggest he go out for more and divide himself from his work more. ”

Vitinia and Dembele are definitely the two most critical center-axis players in Enrique's tactical system. Vitinia gave a straight pass to Duere, who assisted the first goal in the final, and Dembele is the best player in Paris this season, especially since he played the fake center. In fact, whether it is the back midfielder Vitinia or the fake center Dembele, this is not their natural position. Vitinia played the back midfielder from the midfield break of Real Sociedad last season's Champions League home game. Enrique motivated the team to shoot the ball in the backcourt while also switching Vitinia to the back midfield position. "We have 8 people behind, and they only have 6, not 16, why don't we dare to play? Viti swapped with Fabian in the second half and retreated deeply to the front of the penalty area. "From then on, Vitinia became the person who took over the overall situation of Paris' midfield. Dembele's first fight against fake center was in the second game against Real Sociedad. Enrique said in a meeting with the coaching staff: "At this moment, the coaching staff of Real Sociedad are preparing for our starting center and two wingers. We want to give them a surprise, so that Dembele can fight against fake center, Mbappe and Muani play on both sides. ”

Dembele's counterfeiting center allowed Enrique's Paris to take advantage of this season. For example, before scoring the fourth goal in the final, Dembele retreated and got the ball in the middle and backcourt and passed Kvarats directly to score. For example, when he defeated Arsenal 1-0 away in the semi-finals, when Vitinia and Fabian Ruiz were pressed at the same time, Dembele retreated deeply and directly got Nuno Mendes' pass and broke through. In the end, Dembele got Kvarats' cross in front of the penalty area to score the ball. As the center, Dembele suddenly retreated and could break the balanced midfield situation, and suddenly added a pass point to Paris, because few central defenders would follow the center back to the backcourt or even take the ball in the back midfield position. We are very It can be said that Dembele's counterfeit center is the best player Guardiola has played in the counterfeit center position after Messi started the counterfeit center.

Forwards must defend

Paris is the team with the most interceptions in the Champions League this season, and it is also one of the teams with the average interception distance from the opponent's goal, reaching 45.4 meters, which means that most opponents' ball rights have been cut off by Paris when they are not crossing the center line. As a team that actively controls the ball, close front court is a compulsory course for Paris and one of the team's pillars. Enrique always praises the forwards' defensive performance. "If we analyze in depth the aspects of Paris' progress this season, the first thing is that the forward's defensive ability has been improved. This is a concept that is not easy to advance, because you first need to change the philosophy of the strikers, whether it is Dembele, or Kvaratskhelia, Douai and Balcola. ”

Enrique is not a coach who likes to give strikers a defensive immunity. Although he sometimes has to do so, he coached a team with Messi, Neymar and Suarez at Barcelona, ​​but after leaving office, he once sighed: "If there is a player in your team that is not defending, then we can design a set of tactics to fill this vacancy. If there are two who don’t defend, okay, then we will design another set of tactics, but if there are three who don’t defend, there is nothing we can do about it. ”

We can see Enrique's philosophy from a defensive class specially prepared for Mbappe before the second leg of Paris against Barcelona last season. Enrique said to Mbappe: "I know you like Michael Jordan. Jordan leads his teammates to defend like a bitch. You should oppress Kubasi like a leader, prevent him from moving forward, suppress Terstergen, and make him have to quickly get the ball out. I know your characteristics are to score goals, but that is not enough for me, if you can't help the team while you are offensive, of course there were two high-level players in the last game, you need to help the team while you are defending, you need to take two of your brothers Dembele and Muani to oppress the opponent's defense, you will lead the team like a leader like a role model, do you know what will happen to us after you do this? We will run like a machine. ”

Mbappe did not leave the team with Paris' first Champions League trophy, and the person who raised the trophy became Dembele. As a fake center, Dembele, in addition to the timely retreat of the midfield and increasing the number of midfielders as we said above, another most important task of Dembele is what Enrique asked Mbappe to do before, which is to constantly oppress the last central defender and goalkeeper. Just as in the final, every time Sommer was preparing to serve, Dembele made preparations before the start of the sprint game. Once the Inter Milan player touched the ball, Dembele ran over and suppressed like an arrow from the string. This was the most important in Enrique's view, and even far exceeded the goal. After the final, Enrique said to Spanish reporters: "Dembele is a leader, but not just a verbal leader, but a leader who can give an example. Have you ever seen a player who oppresses Archerby like this? Can you tell a player that his name can suppress Archerby and Inter Milan goalkeepers so much? When you can press down so much, you are the leader, and the rest are only goals left. ”