Starting With Real Madrid

Coaching for a full season is a completely different concept than stepping in to put out a fire midway through a season.

Although it depends on the specific situation, generally speaking, it's easier to step in midway to fix things.

This is because when stepping in midway, there is already a clear picture of the problems. As long as those problems are resolved, the pressure of achieving results is not as high.

But a full season is different.

The moment you receive the schedule, you must start formulating a detailed season strategy.

After Gao Shen returned from South America, he locked himself in a house in the Bay Area of Naples. Every day, he watched videos with the coaching staff, studied the schedule, created plans, and designed training programs.

In the evenings, he would read in the tactical library. He had now finished reading about Benítez and was studying Van Gaal.

This is another manager worth studying. Van Gaal has profoundly influenced countless managers, including famous coaches like Bielsa and Guardiola.

The Ajax team coached by Van Gaal is also the model Gao Shen is trying to learn from.

Gao Shen had heard many voices from the outside, but he didn't want to pay attention to them. He even told Carlo not to step forward to clarify anything it wasn't necessary. If there was time for that, it would be better spent watching more videos and studying opponents more closely.

Whether it's a mule or a horse, you have to pull it out to know.

Whether you have genuine talent or not does not depend on what you say but on the results you achieve.

...

There is a very important point in the season strategy, and that is the schedule.

In the past two years, the Coppa Italia has frequently changed its competition format. Now, teams from the mid-to-lower levels of Serie A, Serie B, Serie C1, and Serie C2 form 64 teams, which directly play single knockout matches from the first round until the quarterfinals are decided.

From the fourth round, which is the round of 16, the top eight teams from last season's Serie A join in, and the format changes to a two-legged home and away system.

In terms of timing, the first three rounds start in late August, with three matches played in one week.

This is fatal.

A single knockout match is very unpredictable. For a newly formed team like Napoli, the margin for error is extremely low. This requires the team to make very detailed preparations for the season and adjust their status accordingly.

After the first three rounds of the Coppa Italia, the first round of Serie B only begins in September, with Napoli hosting Treviso, who had just been relegated from Serie A.

A newly promoted team meeting a relegated team although it's a home game, the challenge is significant, to say the least.

Not to mention, in the first three rounds of the cup, it is entirely possible for Napoli to encounter a strong Serie A team.

Looking at the league schedule, Juventus, the top opponent in Gao Shen's eyes, is scheduled to be played at home in November.

Relatively speaking, there is still plenty of preparation time for the match against Juventus.

In addition, Serie B has a winter break of more than 20 days from late December to mid-January, which is also a very important period for adjustments.

However, if the team reaches the quarterfinals of the cup, the winter break will be three or four days shorter than for other teams.

But for now, that's not worth considering.

...

From a technical and tactical point of view, Gao Shen's requirements are very clear: high pressing, rapid transitions between offense and defense.

These demands place high requirements on the players' physical fitness and their ability to work cohesively as a team.

But Gao Shen also set even higher standards.

He wants every player to run an average of no less than 10,000 meters in the new season.

This number is truly staggering.

Not only does Buenaventura feel the pressure, but Carlo and Borrell do as well.

Currently, the mainstream running distances are not so extreme. If a player runs 10 kilometers, they are either a midfield defender or a full-back. Who else but Gao Shen would demand that the entire team, except the goalkeeper, run an average of 10 kilometers?

For this number, Gao Shen is not making an aimless demand.

"Zidane told me that as early as 1998, during the World Cup in France, players from many teams, including France, ran distances between 9 to 14 kilometers, with an average of about 10.5 kilometers."

"Of course, we can't use World Cup data to benchmark league requirements, but I think it's a worthwhile reference. I can even predict that in the next four years, the running data across European football will increase significantly, and ten kilometers will no longer be rare."

Even Barcelona, who are known for their running, have players (except the goalkeeper) running less than 10 kilometers in a game. This is because they move as a unit. They seem to run a lot, but the actual running distance isn't that high.

However, under Pep Guardiola, there was more of that collective movement and longer distances, resulting in more and more passes.

Pass the ball and run it out!

This is a basic principle.

Therefore, in the next few years, teams' passing patterns will become more intricate, whereas current teams' passing patterns are sparse.

To put it simply, it's all due to the running distance.

Why does Gao Shen dare to make such a prediction?

Because defenses are becoming more meticulous.

Football tactics and techniques are constantly evolving upwards. When your defense becomes meticulous to a certain level, you must find a way to counter it.

How to do that?

When you make your defense an impenetrable wall, I will create as much movement as possible, with more running and more pulling, to create cracks in your wall.

More importantly, my movement can also effectively seize advantageous spaces, whether on offense or defense, which is beneficial.

Cruyff once said: Facing offense on a ten-lane road is a failure of defense; facing offense in a narrow alley that allows only one person to pass is excellent defense.

Sacchi once said something similar.

They were all expressing the most fundamental truth: pressing is one of the most basic principles of football. Compressing the space on the field is the key to winning, and compressing space requires running.

Gao Shen is now conveying this concept to the coaching staff, and he will convey it to the players next.

After losing the ball, try to counterpress immediately, while also compressing the opponent's attack into a narrow alley that only allows one person to pass.

Running is the foundation of everything.

"This is a big trend. Only by adapting and doing our best to improve ourselves, improve the team, and enhance the level and quality of our training can we ensure that the team plays at its highest level on the pitch!"

...

As a fan, Gao Shen did not understand the so-called rules thoroughly.

But after becoming a head coach, especially after reading the books of various coaches in the tactical library, he found that rules are actually very important. Even a very subtle rule change can subvert existing tactics.

For example, in 2005, FIFA made changes to the offside rule.

Fans familiar with the 2005 World Youth Championship might remember the second goal scored by China against Germany, where a German attacking player was clearly in an offside position, but because he did not directly participate in the attack, and it was the player arriving from behind who formed a one-on-one situation, the goal was deemed valid.

Before the rule change in 2005, this would have been an offside offense.

There is no doubt that this offside rule was made to encourage attacking play, but it disadvantages the defending side. For all teams that use high pressing, it's simply subversive.

Under the original offside rule, a team had to effectively control an area of about 40 meters on the field, but with the new offside rule, this data expands to 60 meters.

That is to say, a team that uses high pressing now has an effective control area 20 meters larger than before.

So, how large is this area? How much more distance does this require the players to cover?

Why does Guardiola's Barcelona run so much?

In addition to the need for passing and pulling, the more important reason is the need to effectively control a 60-meter area, so the opponent cannot launch counterattacks smoothly.

This will also have another effect: more space in the midfield.

With more space, physical contact between players is reduced, and technical midfielders can gain more advantages. Therefore, a midfield setup similar to Barcelona's Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets trio has more room to operate.

At the same time, with more space, the old-fashioned 4-4-2 midfield setup no longer works because there is too much space in front and behind, making it unreasonable. Thus, formations like 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1, and 4-3-3, which further subdivide the midfield, have emerged.

All of this is based on effective control of a 60-meter area, which requires more running.

...

Gao Shen explained his ideas very clearly to the core coaching team, because they need to implement these concepts into training and instill them in the players through training.

A new era in European football has begun.

A very important reason why Gao Shen did not use high pressing at Real Madrid was the lack of running ability among Real Madrid players.

Any team that lacks sufficient running ability but blindly adopts high pressing will end up with a backline that gets torn apart.

Therefore, if Napoli wants to implement a high-press defense effectively, the players must be capable of covering the necessary distance to control a 60-meter area. This is the foundation for the team's successful defense.

If this can't be achieved, Gao Shen won't even consider a high-press defense, and the entire approach will have to be reworked from the ground up.

"Lorenzo, I believe you can make this happen, and our players can meet your requirements. Of course, this will require our full support in terms of training, facilities, diet, and other aspects," Gao Shen confidently encouraged.

Everyone immediately looked at Buenaventura with sympathetic eyes.

What can be said?

Gao Shen's demands are indeed very high.

Among the six people present, probably only Gao Shen was truly convinced that Buenaventura could pull it off.

But that's because, in Gao Shen's experience, Buenaventura had done it before and done it exceptionally well.

"You bring me a new challenge every time, and each one is more difficult than the last," Buenaventura replied with a bitter smile.

Everyone laughed.

Who could argue with that?

When Gao Shen was coaching Real Madrid, he had asked Buenaventura to adjust the team's fitness in just half a month. Now, the demands were even more extreme.

But with a boss like this, what can you do?

It's also an opportunity to push oneself and improve.