The Ball at Your Feet

When the time entered July, several transfers in Monaco were also completed.

Abidal went to Lyon and Panucci returned to Serie A. Adebayor of Metz, Maicon of Cruzeiro in Brazil, and Yaya Touré of Bivalen, Belgium, were all signed by Monaco. At the same time, Monaco also formally proposed to Real Madrid to rent Morientes. Although Morientes did not really want to leave Real Madrid on loan, but because his transfer issue was not negotiated, he did not have a position in Real Madrid, and the method of loan is not completely unacceptable to him.

On the one hand, talking about the deal, on the other hand, the Monaco players returned to the team one after another, the team also began to try a new formation, and the biggest change is that Maicon became the main right back.

Originally Deschamps was still going to see who is more suitable for this position after Maicon came. But after watching Maicon play, Deschamps immediately decided on the right back.

"Three million... I found the baby."

Deschamps was very satisfied with Maicon's performance, but Zhao Yaning was a little overwhelmed when the team re-trained after the team assembled. He has adapted to Panucci’s previous playing style and suddenly replaced him with another person. This change made Zhao Yaning feel very uncomfortable. He was playing on the right, directly in front of Maicon, full-back. After the substitution, he suddenly felt that his playing style was a lot different than before.

"I don't know the specifics, but I feel that the defense behind it seems not as good as before. I don't dare to push too much, for fear of causing defensive errors for the players behind me. Moreover, there seems to be some problems with the offensive movement. When playing the ball, the running space has changed a lot..."

Just ask if you don’t understand. This is the best way that Zhao Yaning thought of. For his question, Coach Petit immediately gave him the answer, "That’s because you used to be a winger and there was a defensive player behind him. A type of defender is more suitable for you. And now you have to play a full-back, because the full-back behind you is an offensive full-back, naturally you need to play more securely. You need to be more involved in the defense Only with the midfield organization can we meet the needs of the team."

Petty's idea was not implemented. After learning about Zhao Yaning's problem, Deschamps immediately made a change and moved Zhao Yaning to the middle.

"I hope you play in the middle, but don't stick to the position of the front midfielder." When Deschamps and Zhao Yaning explained, they still didn't use the word shadow front. After all, this word is too easy for young people to drift off. "You can choose appropriately. You can move more forward and shoot more. After all, Dado is not as threatening as Chris when facing the back line alone. You need to use more attacks on the line to create enough opportunities for him. It’s harder to play in the middle. I hope you can adapt as soon as possible."

Petit still has some doubts about Deschamps arranging Zhao Yaning to play this position. But Deschamps had nothing to say about this arrangement. Maicon's excellent offensive and defensive strength on the wing is enough to meet the needs of the team on the right side. It would be a waste of two people with the same ability to put the ball on the same side, it is better to let Jiuli go to the side to connect, and let Zhao Yaning go to the middle to attack the opponent's defense.

Zhao Yaning himself was very satisfied with this arrangement. Zhao Yaning had been eager to try this, and naturally agreed with one bite. During training, his enthusiasm for investment became even higher.

Compared with the joy of Maicon and Zhao Yaning, Yaya Touré was a little frustrated. Although he was also considered good by Deschamps, his defense was too frizzy and his offensive mentality was too high. Deschamps disliked him. He was still sitting on the bench, hoping that he could adjust his mentality before playing the game. This arrangement made Yaya Toure somewhat unhappy.

In mid-July, Zhao Yaning's training on various techniques also received good results. His short pass successfully rose to 15, while the long pass and corner kicks to 14, the shooting technique to 12, and the penalty technique also rose to 12.

In addition to the progress of the long pass did not meet his plan, other aspects of the progress have achieved the expected results. Although Zhao Yaning was dissatisfied with the results of such training, he could barely accept it.

As time went on, Deschamps also brought new news to the team. This news is still very necessary for the team, because this season's game system, there have indeed been many confusions, and the upper management of the team now also needs to increase management efforts.

Last season, Ligue 1 has just undergone a restructuring, and this season, the restructuring is the European Champions Cup. The UEFA Champions League was restructured in the 03-04 season. This restructuring changed the previous two rounds of the group stage into one round, and changed the original method of playing for the quarter-finals through the second round of the group stage into 16 teams directly. Begin to catch and fight each other. This has greatly shortened the length and pressure of the game, allowing the giants to reduce a lot of pressure and be able to deal with multi-line combat more calmly. However, this approach has also made the competition in the Champions League greater. Originally, the two rounds of the group stage must be the strongest team to qualify, but now, the second round of the group stage has become a knockout stage, and the variables of the game will be mostly Up.

But even so, the highest odds in the Champions League is still Real Madrid, who has alternated between the Champions League and the league in the last six years, and has won the Champions League three times. After all, this is 2004, and Real Madrid has always won the championship in even-numbered years.

The odds have been discussed intensely by the Monaco players for a long time. Monaco is a casino. The odds of the Champions League are just an important topic for the players here, but there are not many players who really want to believe in these things.

"It is understandable that Real Madrid is first, Manchester United is second and Chelsea is third? Who is spending more money than?" Giuly sneered at the odds. "And Juventus is fourth. There is no dispute, Arsenal. Why are the odds higher than Milan? Have they played a decent European game in recent years? And how could there be any weaknesses in Milan as it was last year?"

"And our odds are not as high as Stuttgart's, is it too embarrassing?"

Monaco ranks tenth in the Champions League odds, Bayern, Deportivo and Stuttgart are all ahead of Monaco. And behind them are Lyon and Porto, tied for eleventh place.

Among the top nine teams, Serie A, La Liga, and Bundesliga each have two, and three Premier League teams. And this is basically the top few of the four major leagues. Of course, La Liga runner-up Real Sociedad and Serie A runner-up Inter Milan's odds are not high. After all, Real Sociedad is playing the Champions League for the first time, and Inter Milan's performance in recent years is too bad. . The same is true for Newcastle. Their European war is not favored either.

Monaco's Champions League odds reached 28, which means that people think they have less than 4% chance of winning, while Real Madrid's Champions League odds are 3.3, which means that their odds of winning are 27%. Lyon is worse than Monaco. Their chances of winning are less than 3%, just like Porto in the Portuguese Super League.

Such an estimate is a little frustrating, but the players did not take him to heart.

This kind of thing has too much moisture. For example, Milan, although they were the European champions last season, they were considered defending because they defeated Juventus in the final by a penalty kick and because Juventus’s core Nedved was not present. The odds are not high. And Real Madrid last season because it was their centennial team celebration, they invested too much energy in the league, and encountered Nedved’s excellent performance before losing to Juventus. Many people took Real Madrid. The failure of Real Madrid is regarded as an accident. It is believed that Real Madrid can still rely on their superstars to win the Champions League this year. Therefore, they are also considered by many to be the favorites to win this year.

And for other teams, such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, the top three in the Premier League, the rankings are somewhat overestimated. Arsenal's Champions League record in recent years is actually not very good. Their ability to achieve such a high ranking is still related to the attractiveness of their artistic football. And Manchester United's rankings have always been high, but considering that they are in a transition period, this ranking really doesn't explain much. And Chelsea, let alone, no matter who said, they think that their third odds in Europe is the inevitable result after spending 120 million euros-they are too rich.

As for the rest of them, Deportivo’s European war results have been very good these years, and naturally they will rank high. Although Bayern Munich has said goodbye to the era of green Hollywood, they rely on Barack’s support. , Has not fully shown signs of decay, and naturally supports its reputation. The other Bundesliga team, Stuttgart, has also attracted a lot of attention, and it is only due to the particularity of their youth army that attracts attention.

In fact, Monaco is unconvinced, and there are even more unconvinced than Monaco. For example, Inter Milan, they were in the Champions League semi-finals and runner-up in the league a year ago, but because they fired Cooper, the team went on a big run. In exchange, their ranking is not even as high as Monaco.

Not to mention the teams like Liverpool and Barcelona. They still can't make it to the Champions League.

But the odds are nothing to believe in after all. In football, it is not the strength or weakness that can determine the victory or defeat. Otherwise, how did Bayern, who were defeated by Manchester United in 1999 and lost to Real Madrid in 2000, lost?

After everyone discussed it, they put it aside and didn't care about it anymore. For football matches, do your best and obey your destiny. Who dares to assert success or failure until the last minute?

And soon, a new arrangement for the Ligue 1 league came out.

"Our first game of the season has been set ~www.ltnovel.com~ at the end of this month, July 26th, and Auxerre's French Super Cup match."

The French Super Cup is a match between the league championship and the Champions League. Last season's league champion was Monaco, and the French Cup champion was Auxerre. These two teams will have a game. The last French Super Cup was held on May 27. At that time, Ligue 1 had not yet restructured, and it was still the 34th round of the league, so it was natural to play like that. However, Ligue 1 has just been restructured last season, so when the French Super Cup will be played after the restructuring, it needs to be changed. Ligue 1 moved the game from the end of the season to the beginning of next season, and finally decided on July 27. The game will be played on the same day.

This allowed Monaco's official game to start a week earlier than other teams, and the task was a bit heavier.

"Because we started the game at the end of July, so this year’s friendly match will only be played once. Anyway, the French Super Cup is also a friendly match in a sense, just multiple cups. But the good news is that , We have already contacted the target of the friendly match." Deschamps looked at the team, "Europe's strongest team."

"Real Madrid?" Jiuli asked rhetorically.

"Of course not. I'm talking about the strongest team, not the most famous team." Deschamps shook his head, "Can you guess where it is?"

"Milan." Zhao Yaning said, "It's Milan."

"Yes." Deschamps nodded, "It's Milan, our offseason opponent is AC Milan."

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ps: This odds ranking is the true odds ranking of that year.