Chapter 119： The true meaning of [greatness]

Gao Shen still underestimated the thickness of politicians' faces.

When seeing Juan Carlos I, the Spanish king shook hands with Gao Shen with a smile, expressing his expectations for Real Madrid under Gao Shen's coaching, and he even said without blushing: " I like your stubbornness!"

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There were a lot of people in the box, including Florentino and Butragueno, who were all smiling as they watched it all.

Gao Shen really wanted to say: Since that's the case, let's talk about the handover of the throne!

But in the end, he resisted the urge, because he didn't know what the consequences of annoying the King of Spain would be.

Why bother?

Juan Carlos I really deserves to be the No. 1 pseudo-fan of Real Madrid. He has watched football for decades, but he still doesn't know much about football. He only knows that Real Madrid has played well in recent games. He encourages Gao Shen to continue This tactical style of play defeated Barcelona in the Champions League final.

Gao Shen agreed perfunctorily, accompanied by a smiling face, but secretly slandered: Nima, that was Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Messi, where was the Chinese cabbage in your royal garden at that time?

But overall, the meeting was quite pleasant.

…

"The king has an exclusive box here all year round. Originally, he didn't eat here tonight."

After leaving the king's box, Florentino returned to his box with Gao Shen and Butragueno, and explained to Gao Shen the reason for Juan Carlos' arrival along the way.

"But when he heard that I asked you to have dinner, he suddenly came and said that he wanted to meet you, so I had to arrange it."

Gao Shen didn't think there was any problem.

Somewhat honored, after all, that is also the king of Spain.

But this kind of meeting is actually not much fun. If he can, he would prefer to meet in private, such as chatting about his fifteen hundred mistresses, or that he doesn't have a beautiful granddaughter or something.

"Tonight, in addition to the three of us, I also specially invited Valdano and Sacchi. Both of them are very experienced coaches and have always wanted to find a chance to meet you." Flo Lentino laughed.

After listening deeply, I became interested.

Both of them are seniors in football.

Jorge Valdano, Maradona's teammate, Argentina's hero in winning the World Cup, and also the world-recognized king of football aesthetics, his column is also sought after by countless media and fans, very thoughtful.

If Barcelona's columnist is Cruyff, then Real Madrid is Valdano.

Of course, unlike Cruyff, who is mainly critical, Valdano is more of a euphemistic exhortation, which is also the key factor for him to always be Florentino's right-hand man.

As for Saki, there is no need to talk about it. The status of this name in football is absolutely supreme.

Gao Shen himself has not read Saki's books much, and even learned the shadow training method from him. Now that he can see himself, he is naturally gearing up.

As soon as he entered the box, Gao Shen saw two middle-aged men in suits and leather shoes, and they all had very conspicuous signs.

Sacchi had a big bald head, wearing a black suit and white shirt, while Valdano had a slightly curly back, wearing a dark blue suit with a light blue shirt underneath.

When Gao Shen and others pushed the door open, the two of them didn't know what they were discussing, and the topic stopped abruptly when they opened the door.

"Hey, Gao!"

When Saki saw the three of Gao Shen, he immediately laughed and stood up to say hello.

In contrast, Valdano is more euphemistic.

This also shows the different personalities of the two seniors.

Florentino graciously introduced the two football seniors to Gao Shen, as well as his personal assistant Manuel Redondo. Real Madrid legends don't matter.

Gao Shen has always been curious about why Florentino invited him to dinner, but there was no answer until the host and guest sat down, and Florentino didn't mean to dominate the scene, but let the topic fall naturally. to Real Madrid.

Real Madrid in the recent period is indeed very topical, especially lofty.

But the biggest concern of the famous coaches is not the technical and tactical aspects of the team, but the management and motivation of the locker room.

They all agree that this is what Gao Shen has done best so far, even impeccable.

In the past two months in charge of Real Madrid, Gao Shen has actually made a lot of mistakes. Some were forced by his opponents, and some were inadvertently. As the so-called authorities are fans, bystanders are clear, Sacchi, Valdano and Butragueno are all around see more clearly.

From the standpoint of coaching alone, Gao Shen is actually very immature.

In front of the two masters, it is difficult for Gao Shen to have the opportunity to play an axe. He listens more and occasionally answers their questions. For example, he does not deny that he is deeply influenced by Saki, including using the shadow training method in training. .

Sacchi gave a lot of suggestions and opinions, such as some of his unique training methods.

"Actually, your experience in coaching Real Madrid is really similar to mine."

Sacchi is like a natural orator, can talk about everything, and he is very interested in the deep.

Perhaps because of what he said, both had a very similar experience.

In Italian football, Sacchi has a nickname called the Hillbilly.

As the name suggests, he came out of a small country town and grew up with three ideals: director, screenwriter and football coach.

Luckily, instead of being a director and a screenwriter, he became a head coach.

In fact, he has no football talent. He worked as a salesman in his father's shoe factory as an adult, which trained his eloquence. There was a team called Luko in his hometown. With his strength at the time, he was not enough to join this team. Team, but he became the head coach of this "strong team" by chance.

He was twenty-six years old then.

The players in the team are generally older than him, for example, the goalkeeper is 29 years old and the striker is 32 years old.

But unlike Gao Shen’s first-time coaching stellar performance, Sacchi’s debut was not ideal, and he didn’t see any talent at all.

"I was fascinated by Holland's total attack and total defense. I also liked Real Madrid and Brazil's football. I like to study and think. I want to understand how their players play on the field and how the whole team is. In operation, this is a dynamic system that is well worth studying."

Many people now say that Sacchi's ideas were very advanced, but he believes that there were already a lot of discussions in this regard in Italy at that time.

In the 1960s, under the coaching of the Swede Lidholm, AC Milan achieved remarkable results in European football, which in turn led to the transformation of the entire Italian football tactics, making free men the standard configuration.

By the 1980s, almost the entire Serie A was played by free agents.

Juventus lost to Hamburg in the Champions League final, which triggered a reflection on the free agent tactics in Italian football at the time. Although the old lady soon won the championship in Heysel, it was difficult to resist this wave.

Liedholm, who carried forward the free agent tactics in Serie A, took the lead in seeking changes. He began to adopt a hybrid regional defense in Rome, but Sacchi at that time believed that this was not a good way.

Liedholm's Roma appear to be zoning, but the players are actually marking in their own areas.

Sacchi believes this is because Liedholm is unwilling to give up freedom and man-to-man altogether.

Therefore, after he took over Liedholm's AC Milan coaching position, he completely set off a revolution, which is the era of the Milan dynasty that many people talked about later.

"Kid, you have to know that as big as a country, as small as a team, or a person, in fact, they all have their own unique characteristics. We in Italy have a defeatism complex, and we are used to being weak. For example, Brera said , We are physically worse than others because of our eating habits, so we can only take defensive tactics."

"But when I was young, I went to many countries with my father. I don't agree with this view. Even if we do better than other countries in other sports fields, how can we say that our body is not as good as others?"

"The real problem is here." Saki pointed to his temple, indicating that there was a mental problem.

"The laziness of character and the mentality of being successful have bound us and made us unwilling to change ourselves."

Sacchi's remarks are of course talking about the football atmosphere in Italy at that time, but he is not talking about the current Real Madrid. UU reading even thought of football in his own country.

"In my football philosophy, greatness is something that goes beyond trophies and medals."

"Van Basten asked me an interesting question back then: Why do we not only have to win, but also win convincingly? I couldn't give a convincing answer at the time, but now, I can."

"French football magazine once selected the ten greatest teams in football history, and the world football also has a similar selection, and my AC Milan is ranked fourth, the first three are Hungary in 1954, Brazil in 1970 and Holland in 1974 were all national teams."

"That's my answer to Van Basten, that's why!"

It was the first time that Gao Shen heard the words of the seniors at such a close distance. Although he could see some things from the tactical library, it was far less shocking than hearing what the parties said on the spot.

What's more, Saki himself is a very good speaker.

"I've concluded that all these great teams have one thing in common, they control the ball, they control the field, they control the rhythm, they even control their opponents."

"In other words, when attacking, they control the ball and when defending, they control the space."

When Gao Shen heard this, he couldn't help but be shocked.

Saki's words undoubtedly speak the truth.

That was the case with his Milan dynasty, and later Pep Guardiola's Barcelona dream team was the same.

These teams are great, and they all have this in common.

And this should be the common goal pursued by all ideal head coaches. Although few teams have been able to achieve it throughout the ages, it does not prevent everyone from working hard towards this goal.