Chapter 422: Chapter 421: Abandoning 4-3-3, Switching to 3-2-3-2
September 8, Portuguese League’s fourth round.
The much-anticipated Lisbon Sporting drew 2-2 with Leiria.
Four rounds without a win!
Even the most foolish could see that the five-time champions were having trouble.
This was a significant departure from what fans expected of them.
Everyone was expecting the five-time champions to blaze through the season, unstoppable!
But now, they sit firmly in the relegation zone, this... could it be they’re leading Lisbon Sporting into the Primeira Liga?
What kind of strategy is this?
Could it be that Lisbon Sporting is experiencing a collective rookie wall?
It’s possible, but... isn’t Deng Kai purported to be the future superstar on par with Johann Cruyff?
If he can’t carry the Primeira Liga, could he be a flop?
Many teams have already played five or six matches this season.
For teams with new signings, one can generally gauge the level of the newcomers by now.
Several stars have not performed as expected and have been categorized as "suspected flops."
This includes two high-priced transfers.
Veron, the White Witch, transferred from Lazio to Manchester United.
Mendieta, Europe’s best midfielder, transferred from Valencia to Lazio.
Now, the MVP regular, the next Cruyff, the six-time champion Deng Kai, has also made it onto this list.
...
Lisbon Sporting has been frequently holding tactical meetings internally of late.
As a participant, Guardiola was very clear about what had happened within the team during this period.
Before the start of the season, influenced by Deng Kai’s strong advocacy, the team chose the 4-3-3 as their standard formation.
However, after several rounds, this formation was deemed currently unsuitable for Lisbon Sporting.
The formation requires two extremely top-notch wingers, both with strong cutting-in abilities.
Ronaldo and Ronaldinho meet these criteria.
Even though Ronaldinho doesn’t play his best on the right, he still meets the standards with his exceptional individual skills.
The formation also needs a very capable center forward.
In this regard, Drogba was not quite up to standard.
After last season’s development, Drogba had become functional and offensive.
But it still wasn’t enough.
He needed more growth.
In the 4-3-3, the two wingers and midfielders sometimes stretch very wide, which requires Drogba to have the ability to solve problems on his own.
Therefore, Drogba’s inadequacy directly lowered the team’s lower limit and failed to provide consistent lethality for the team.
Switching to Ibrahimovic as the starter solved the lethality issue, but the attack pace significantly dropped.
Stimulated by Ronaldinho, Ibrahimovic essentially became a center-forward version of Ronaldinho, even invoking Ronaldo’s tendency to dribble excessively, leading to frequent occurrences of "zombie dribbles" and "electric bike" moves.
Furthermore, the 4-3-3 demands high stamina from the midfield players, which Deng Kai and Kaka did not lack, with Kaka showing a very positive attitude.
You could even have him play box-to-box if needed.
However, Guardiola couldn’t meet the demands of the position and tactics as a holding midfielder.
Perhaps he could in Cruyff or Van Gaal’s systems, but not in Deng Kai’s or the future Guardiola’s system.
The formation requires a player with excellent defensive skills.
In this team, only a prime Matthaus could fulfill that role. Even Matthaus at the tail end of his second stint at Bayern Munich would do.
But the Matthaus that Deng Kai had coaxed out of retirement just wasn’t up to the task.
Pepe might be capable in another two or three years, but he too is currently not ready.
As for the others, they were even further behind.
Ultimately, this tactic placed extremely high demands on the two full-backs.
It required the full-backs to have strong offensive capabilities, the ability to push forward, speed, dribbling, and crossing.
Of these, Maicon was almost a perfect fit.
Evra fell quite short.
But even Maicon had a fatal flaw, which was a problem with timing.
This wasn’t a defect, it was a normal phenomenon.
Only with more experience could one grasp timing better.
So there was no solution to this problem.
Without two full-backs up to standard, the intensity of the two wingers would be wasted, and the midfield issues would be exposed.
One thing led to another.
"Since the two full-backs can’t meet the standards in the short term, we’ll have to ’switch it up’," Deng Kai indicated for Maxa to play the new PPT, and a 3-2-3-2 formation appeared on the screen.
This was close to Sporting Lisbon’s formation last season.
One less winger, one more attacking midfielder.
But structurally, the differences were actually significant.
"Ronaldo and Drogba as the two strikers, Ibrahimovic as the regular substitute, and Wu Xudong to supplement the strike force."
"Ronaldo, me, and Kaka as the three attacking midfielders."
"We’d pile five guys upfront, with only one goal in mind, to either kill the opponent or get killed by them!"
"If Ronaldo and Kaka have enough stamina, they can extend to the flanks to take on the roles of wide midfielders and expand our tactical width. However, by doing so, it will be difficult for them to have the energy to join in on defense."
"So we need two strong defensive midfielders. Initially, I suggest Matthaus paired with Guardiola, with Yaya Toure and Veloso as the main substitutes."
"For offense, we bring on Yaya Toure. For defense, Veloso. If we want to lose the ball, we bring on Deschamps."
Deschamps: ???
Deng Kai made a joke, "Of course, all of our defensive midfielders, in theory, could also try out as substitute attacking midfielders, so we won’t be short of people in the midfield. This will be our biggest advantage."
"As for the three central defenders, I suggest Pepe, Vidic, and Barzagli to start, with Evra, Feng Te, Maicon, Wu Xudong and others as substitutes."
Afterward, the assembly voted and passed Deng Kai’s proposal by raised hands.
Only Matthaus had an objection; he didn’t want to start because it was too tiring for him and he felt he was not at his best physically.
After all, he had just broken up with Marlene and found a supermodel girlfriend in Portugal.
The early days of a relationship could drain one’s physical energy, you know.
Considering Matthaus was also born in the Year of the Dog, disagreeing might lead him to retire on the spot.
Deng Kai had no choice but to step back, leaving Matthaus’s position to the likes of Yaya Toure, Deschamps, Pepe, and others to start in turns, in search of the best lineup.
The meeting attendant, Feng Te, was secretly thrilled.
He was very supportive of Pepe becoming the starting defensive midfielder.
Because that meant he would become one of the starting central defenders.
Hahaha!
In his excitement, Pepe even poured an extra cup of tea for Matthaus, who had graciously stepped out of the competition.
Matthaus: "I think we can develop Maicon a bit more, you’re still considering playing double full-backs, aren’t you? Maicon’s speed going forward is very fast... Ah, hot, hot..."
Feng Te purposefully spilled boiling water onto Matthaus’s lap, performing a "pants have gravity" trick.
However, the topics discussed at this meeting were difficult to implement directly in the next game.
The team had merely changed the training formation, but it wasn’t something that could be used in the short term.
It wasn’t because the players were unfamiliar with the tactics or didn’t suit them; in fact, they were more suited to this style of play, which was very similar to last season’s.
The reason they couldn’t implement it was because the next game was a UEFA Champions League group match.
This time, even with Deng Kai’s financial might, there was no way he could take the field.
