Uncle Zha said, "Only Messi doesn t need to defend", this is how I understand

This is from almost a month ago. Klopp is currently the head of global football in Red Bull. He said these two words to the young players attending the meeting at a symposium on youth football held in Leipzig on April 23rd and April 24th.

"In your career, you should practice defense well. There is only one player on earth who doesn't need to defend, and that is Messi."

I used to say that Maradona doesn't need to defend, but Old Ma has passed away. And the previous football king Bailey has also passed away. Unfortunately, Old Ma was still walking in front of Bailey.

The only player left in the football king who is still alive is Messi. After the 2022 World Cup final, he led the team to win the championship at an advanced age. From the perspective of technology, tactics, rationality, game reading ability, etc., it is indeed a recognized GOAT.

I said that Maradona may be the strongest in ability, but that was his peak period; putting Maradona until he was 36 years old was extremely unlikely to achieve the same achievements as Messi.

This just shows the tactical value of the King of Football. In fact, Messi still takes the loss to Germany in the 2014 World Cup final seriously. After all, he was 27 years old at that time, and his physiological age and competitive state were at its peak, but he was unable to lead the team to win the championship alone. In terms of attack power, the Argentina team in 2014 is stronger than in 2022, and there are more than one level. But from another perspective, from the resilience of defense, local to overall coordination, team dedication and tactical execution, in 2022, Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in a ridiculous way in the group stage, the results of the other six games are indeed the most reasonable.

Germany defeated Argentina to win the championship in 2014, which was certainly lucky (Higuain and Palacio successively got golden opportunities but missed them), but the Germans' defense against Messi also reached a high level that could be "structured" in that era. Although the number of times the two players double-teamed Messi in the game has been eleven years, I still remember this data: whether it is successful or not, there are as many as 10 times in the game, 4 times in the first half, 3 times in the second half, and 3 times in overtime. The three of them failed twice to double-team Messi (the ball was passed out in time) and once, and such a defensive effect hit the son of Pampas very heavily.

Why do you say so? Not to mention the importance of the game, the German Legion's persistence in "restricting Messi" is actually not the same as that of four years later, in the 2018 World Cup group stage Argentina tied Iceland 1:1. This title was named after the Iceland national team at that time, which partially built a double-player and three-player double-team group to restrict Messi. In that game, in the first half, the number of times the two men doubled Messi (including attempts, whether successful or not) was as many as 9 times!

Really responded to what I said in the comments about this game at that time:

"It's different when it comes to the World Cup. The big Icelandic snipers, who are like wolves and tigers, all think about 'I beat Messi. Even if I'm not the most powerful one, I'm not far away'."

On average, you have to withstand the impact of two tough guys squeezed into meat pies in 5 minutes. Do you believe it? This is the case with football nowadays. When you are afraid of taking red cards, you cannot put a shovel behind your back. However, under the premise of more scientific training and more reasonable diet, you can run more without the ball, have a higher defense rate, and have greater aggressiveness in close-fitting pressing. I admit that I lack talent, and I use more running to make up for it, and pile up more heads to hit me. What's wrong?

So, since 2010, all Argentina's opponents have been very clear about their position. We are indeed lacking in talent and there is no shame in not being as good as Messi. But it doesn't prevent us from beating him. Especially in the World Cup, something like "feeling compassion" does not exist at all, and it is not an exaggeration to do anything for victory.

Four World Cups, in the long 16 years, the Argentine national team faces other opponents' issues, which are actually similar to the issues facing Barcelona/Paris Grande:

How to find a balance between Messi and other teammates;

and

How to split the strong connection between Messi and other teammates. These two sentences

are actually talking about the same thing.

A famous coach like Uncle Scrambled has personally seen Messi's power. On May 2, 2019, in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, Barcelona beat Liverpool 3:0 at home, Messi scored twice, and Suarez also scored one goal. Of course, Liverpool later completed a 4-0 turn at Anfield, which was one of the remarkable masterpieces under the rule of Uncle Zha.

Actually, if Xiao Deng seized those two opportunities in the first round, there would be nothing Anfield would have happened later. I can only say that Xiao Deng is Xiao Deng, which is incomparable to Zhong Deng, who is now a thigh in Paris.

Look at the picture above, if Uncle Zha can have a Messi in Liverpool...

"If I can coach Messi for one season, it will be my lifelong glory." If I remember correctly, this is what Ranieri, the world's number one god of raising pot who led Roma to live in death this season.

Therefore, Uncle Zha's words are actually his profound understanding of the current development trend of football. Messi's retirement does not mean that there is no successor to the King of Football. One day, whether this magical land in South America emerges again, whether it is Meidong or Meinan, players from other continents cannot withstand it.

The King of Football is the offense, and those outside the King of Football are the defense.

Now the "defensive structure" is still constantly being updated. Before, you can still see the obvious difference between "high-level pressing" and "midfield pressing", that is,:

I can't grab the high position, so I immediately retreat to the central circle area, and the distance between the three lines is closer;

I can't grab the central circle area, so I can't grab the central circle area, so I can no longer catch the central circle area, so that I can quickly gather more people..

If I can't grab it, I will retreat to my own penalty area to set up a bus. If you have the ability, you will fight hard, and I will admit it if I can beat you. The three defensive levels of

can be seen very clearly with the changes in the area on the field.

But since the 2022 World Cup, the evolution of defense throughout the game has become more and more radical. In which area the offensive party passes and receives the ball slightly slower, and the off-ball run is slightly worse. The defense party quickly gathers more heads in this area, and within a few seconds it increases the defense intensity to a level that the offensive party is completely unacceptable until it grabs the ball and makes the offensive and defensive conversion.

The current defensive logic is called "overload".

Paris Greater under Enrique's rule is this logic this season. When the opening whistle sounded, the team kicked the ball directly outside the opponent's sideline at the half-court, and then a large number of defensive heads quickly formed a pressing force in the out-of-throw ball area, compressing the defensive circle to the extreme. He was far away from his own goal and after obtaining the ball, he was able to organize an offense on the spot in the opponent's half. In addition, this guy Zhongdeng successfully passed the tribulation and developed a "center retreat" tactic that no one had seen before. The transition of the "defense to offense" stage was almost up.

Paris Saint-Germain's defensive logic, first of all, bullying the opponent, can't turn it around, and has poor defensive ability. If the offense and defense reaction is slower and the defense error is larger, something will happen immediately.

If you don't believe it, look at Arsenal.

The second one is obvious. There is no Messi in the bullying opponents - the defensive logic of "with Messi" and "no Messi" are completely different. Why don’t you say it, it’s something that everyone can see. Didn’t you see that

Uncle Zha? And it was only obvious after paying the price of "seriously injured". Messi is indeed super difficult to defend, but it is because Messi is difficult to defend that you need to practice defense even more.