I AM the Football Star

Chapter 682 175: As a Player, Never Get Involved with Real Madrid or Barça!

"In any case, you shouldn't go to Barça or Real Madrid!" Lu Yang said with certainty.

One has an internal system so complete that outsiders can't integrate.

The other is full of foreign superstars, so much so that there's no real system at all, and everyone plays superstar soccer, with not enough of the ball to go around.

Both of these teams are currently at black hole pitfall levels!

"As your good brother, I can help you with anything you do wrong, but there's one thing I can't do," Lu Yang said righteously. "If you join Real Madrid or Barça, not even Jesus could save you, bro!"

Morici deeply agreed.

Alright then, from today, watch the Premier League, not going to La Liga anymore!

...

April 14th, the first leg of the UEFA Europa League quarterfinals.

San Remo at home against Ajax.

In this match, neither side had any success in the first half.

But San Remo, deploying a 3-5-2 formation, utilized the width of the field to generate offensive play.

Also using 3-5-2, or rather 3-2-3-2, or even 5-2-1-2, Manchester United plays defensive counterattacks, but San Remo plays high-positioning passing control.

The tactics are completely different.

However, San Remo's offensive threat was limited to the middle and front field, making it difficult to enter the penalty area.

Because they pursue multiple passes in the middle and front field, with frequent player movements and position changes.

For each attack, they start with continuous intersecting runs by multiple players, with distinctive offensive characteristics.

The Ajax coaching staff clearly caught on to this feature of San Remo, specifically arranging their defensive players.

Whenever San Remo made intersecting position changes in the middle and front field, Ajax would immediately contract their formation to compensate for potential positional gaps with numbers.

Their midfielders would frequently drop back into defensive positions.

Inherited some aspects of the total football philosophy, Ajax's midfielders and even forwards weren't bad at defensive duties.

So on the field, San Remo had a significant advantage.

But in reality, San Remo didn't create particularly good chances.

Of course, this also has to do with player conditions.

Today, San Remo's coordination and passing were always a bit off.

Sogel's backward pass was too strong, Canyes' pass was too light, Lu's pass to Kaint wasn't just right, Morici's through ball to Lam lacked assertiveness, and so on.

This is another disadvantage of the position-changing tactic... every link mustn't go wrong.

When perfect, it is simply beautiful football.

But once something goes wrong, it can drive someone with OCD crazy.

Moreover, such "imperfections" can affect the player's mindset, leading to growing doubt about their footwork as the game progresses.

Today, can we still cooperate without any mistakes?

Once this thought occurs, it's troublesome.

Many should have had this experience as well.

When things are smooth, you won't make any mistake in League of Legends while playing Flight of the Bumblebee.

But when things aren't going well, you can't even perform a simple EQ flash R in League of Legends with Yasuo, your fingers feel like they're rusted.

So actually, what Guardiola's team fears the most is not Sterling always failing to score on one-on-ones.

It's the fear of constant errors occurring when shifting positions and passing, leading to the failure of the position-changing tactic.

In the second half, after discussing with Morici, Lu decided they should temporarily stop the position-changing tactic.

This tactic is also a test of players' stamina, if it isn't effective, they might as well revert to conventional tactics.

So Canyes and Lu started a double-wing attack.

Canyes was the main attacker, doing all kinds of fast breakthroughs.

Ajax's main defensive strategy in the first half was to contain.

But against someone like Canyes, containing isn't enough, you need to tackle aggressively.

Ajax was caught unawares, with Canyes breaking through repeatedly.

Sixty-fifth minute.

Bam!

After Canyes broke through, he switched the play with a long pass.

Lu Yang received the ball, cut inside, did two stepovers, and passed it off.

Morici, coming to support, used a backheel to trick the defender when he received the ball coming from the left.

Ajax's defenders had no choice but to come over to cover.

But in the instant they came to cover, Morici released the ball with a direct through pass.

The ball passed over Ajax's defense and landed at Sogel's feet.

Sogel had a man to his right, no time to control the ball, so he shot without stopping it.

Clang!

The ball struck the post.

Bam!

Bai Zhami rushed into the box, and before anyone else could react, scored with a follow-up shot!

One to nil, San Remo took the lead!

And this was the final score of the match.

San Remo won narrowly with a goal, holding their ground at home.

Half a foot into the Europa League semifinals!