The atmosphere at today's post-match press conference was a bit eerie.

The full-time score was a glaring 1:0.

The fact that Millwall, the visiting player, lost, and no one can change it.

In the restart, Schneider and Elguera were distracted in defence, with the former making a steal and leaving a gap behind him, and the latter recklessly bumping into Owen with the ball in the box to give Liverpool the winning penalty.

But since the game is lost, the responsibility is on the manager.

Aldrich's face was not good-looking, but he didn't think about passing the blame on others, and he thought about how to deal with the media.

As he sat down to meet the media criticism, David Miller asked a question that stunned him.

"Mr Hall, do you have any assessment of Liverpool's conservative tactics today? For most of the game, Liverpool were in the second half at Anfield, and it was common to see six Liverpool defenders in the box, plus outside the box, within 40 yards in front of goal, Liverpool had nine players defending for almost more than 70 minutes, is this a negative tactic against football? ”

Well?

Belch!

Aldridge looked around the room, the reporters in the audience staring at him intently, most of them with sad faces on their faces, as if they were worried about something.

It seems that this atmosphere is not here to denounce him, nor to see his jokes.

"I don't really understand what you're asking. Liverpool won today. ”

Aldrich suspected he had misheard.

David Miller put it in all seriousness: "Yes, they won, in a very ugly way. If Liverpool continue the tactics of this game in the future. Then even if they keep winning. But it's going to be even more unspectacle than Arsenal, which used to be called a library, and I don't think the fans want to see this kind of football. Millwall lost today, but you still dominated most of the time, and the failure to score on goal with 31 shots on goal only shows that Millwall was unlucky today. ”

As David Miller expounded his point, the other reporters nodded their heads, with the exception of Merseyside's media reporter with an angry look on his face. I think these reporters from London are too shameless, even though Millwall lost, they still licked their faces and praised Millwall.

Aldrich roughly understood the minds of these journalists.

From the public's point of view, the focus battle between Millwall and Liverpool cannot be said to be unwatching, because Millwall's anti-guest pressure on Liverpool is mobilizing the passion of the audience all the time, but the side that makes the audience feel passionate loses, this contrast is unacceptable.

"I know that Mr. Hall is reluctant to judge his peers, but Roy Evans beat you in this way, can you really accept it calmly?"

Richard of the Daily Mail asked indignantly.

After following Millwall for more than three years, he has almost always become a die-hard Millwall fan. The published articles also tend to be professional and objective, rather than just booing without connotation.

Ahem

Aldrich coughed twice. Then he said solemnly: "I can't accept it calmly, because Millwall lost, I'm disappointed with the result, I'm disappointed with the team, you say that the goal is a lack of luck, I think it's a matter of strength, luck on the pitch will only be on the side of strength, so no matter what kind of miracle, it is created by the team with a strong foundation." Millwall weren't strong enough to find the back of the net against a dense defence, but I firmly believe there is room for improvement and we will do better in the future. As for Liverpool, they won the game, which is first and foremost more important than everything, more important than the so-called spectacle. ”

"But you used to scoff at the Arsenal of the Graham era."

"No, I've never denied Arsenal in the Graham era, I've just stated from a neutral point of view, Arsenal in that period played boring games, but I don't think Arsenal's tactics were wrong, and they are not anti-football, as you call it. Football only rules, no ornamental plus or minus points, victory or defeat is reflected by the score, I have seen many European countries coach training course materials, none of them are based on whether the football game is good or not to define the strength of football standards. As a manager, whether you have your own style or not, I think the first thing is to help the team win, winning games is the basic goal, and if you can make the game look good on that basis, that's an ideal, so you can't ask all managers to pursue the ideal when the basic goal is not achieved. ”

Aldrich's words won unanimous approval from the Merseyside media.

They think that this young marshal is really a respectable figure.

While they were also unhappy with Evans' conservative tactics in this game, they were happy to win the game.

If they don't play like this, it will be difficult for Liverpool to usher in another rout with a bang.

Millwall's strength is well known, and Liverpool's squad strength is no longer comparable to that of the Lions, so it is reasonable to be tactically conservative.

Those who are neutral, those who don't care about Liverpool's league standings, of course want to see two teams play attacking football, but that would be self-defeating for Liverpool.

If Evans dares to lose six consecutive defeats against Millwall, he may not even be able to keep his job, so in this case, don't talk about ideal football, beautiful football, it is more practical to keep his job.

Herrera, the godfather of Inter Milan at the time, initially made the team play beautifully, but he just couldn't win the championship, and the old Moratti directly gave the most ultimatum, Herrera had to transform the team to play chain defense in order to get a job, plus unscrupulous means for victory, which created a prosperous international era.

'If all opponents use this kind of negative tactics against Millwall, how will Millwall respond?'

'We'll have our own way, how the opposition will line up, I'm not going to blame, even if the opponent has 11 players standing in front of the goal to defend the goal, I don't care because the opponent is not breaking the rules of football, they can do that, just like we have seven players in the opposition half. The opponent can certainly let nine players go back to defense. ”

Aldrich told the truth again today. Although his remarks made Fleet Street complain in his heart: We are on your side!

But the Merseyside press praised Aldridge.

The young handsome is a real man.

Winning is winning. To lose is to lose.

I don't complain if I lose today, and I am determined to win back when I play again next time.

Isn't this football?

You can't afford to lose.

What's more, when Aldridge first took charge of the team, he played very conservative tactics, and the defensive counterattack made all teams in League One dizzy, and the media also ridiculed Millwall as a track and field team on the football field.

Liverpool's home win over Millwall seemed to be a silent reminder to the other teams: to play Millwall, you have to play like us!

Four days later, Aldridge was really mad.

Millwall play Wimbledon away. Not only did the game not win, the two sides did not score a goal, and the tactics used by the mad gang were similar to those of Liverpool, anyway, they were shrinking, and they also used lethal tactics.

Andrea Pirlo and Capdevilla went off injured, and Frank Lampard's Community Shield was tackled to a cracked calf bone, leaving Millwall with three injuries less than a month into the new season.

Aldridge protested against the referee's direct red card during the game, and even after his post-match appeal, the FA ignored him. Dismissed it outright and imposed a three-match suspension.

The last league game at the end of August. Millwall host Martin O'Neill's Leicester City.

Aldridge sat in the stands and watched the game with a calm face.

O'Neill is a tactical and pragmatic head coach, so he led the team to the Lion's Den and did something about shrinking.

Millwall continued to dominate the game but lacked the back of the net against a dense defence.

"Son, the team is okay, right? Why has your luck been so bad lately? ”

Arthur, who was sitting next to Aldrich, looked worried.

Millwall is scoreless, Leicester City has set up a dense defensive formation to compress the space with a static position, which directly leads to Millwall's players running no space, it is difficult to get the ball in the threat area, and it is also a luxury to get rid of it on the spot, and the long-range shot is either blocked or flying, and it seems that it depends on luck to break the goal.

"We were champions last season and all the teams in the new season have been very mentally minded when they come across us, so it's not about luck."

Aldrich's head was racing.

If Millwall is allowed to play Arsenal, a team like Newcastle United that dares to attack, even if they play more with less in attack, Millwall has both space and ability to penetrate the opponent's defence.

But when encountering Liverpool's own strength and iron-hearted defensive counterattack to the end, or Wimbledon's hand-to-hand combat tactics, Millwall's advantage was minimized, and Leicester City's style of play today is almost the same as Liverpool.

O'Neal has been coaching the team for a year and a half, and from Aldridge's eyes, the team's defense, if it weren't for the player's ability limitations, they would be able to become a top-tier defensive line, which reflects O'Neal's coaching ability, giving him second-rate defensive players, building a near-first-class defensive line, dwarfing Kevin Keegan, with first-class defensive players, but tinkering around, the team's defense has become rugby.

Leicester City's counterattack is also very simple, there is a bridgehead Tony in front, and after the defense is successful, the ball is handed over to Vanney who runs out of space, and then someone on one side of the two wings is inserted at high speed, and Toney divides the ball to the side, and no more than three troops are invested in the whole attack.

Claude Makelle made eight interceptions in the game, two of which were split wide by Toney, and Millwall's defence would have sounded the alarm had it not been for Schneider and Zambrotta's swift follow-up to disrupt the opposition's attack.

When the whistle blew at the end of the game, the live camera focused on Aldridge in the stands, and Arthur next to him covered his face and looked very depressed, while Aldridge was expressionless.

The defending champions have suffered two draws, one defeat and a three-game winless run after two big wins in the new season, picking up just two points, while Aldridge's ban continues.

"The test for Hall is here again, this is probably a problem for the whole Premier League team to give him, how to break the dense defense? When the opponent is in a static way in the back line for 90 minutes, you will feel that the opponent has no pursuit, and does not want to win the game, but this reflects their fear of Millwall, yes, they may not have expectations to win, but they are more unwilling to accept defeat, or be washed by Millwall's bloodbath, many teams in the Premier League last season were beaten by Millwall without fighting back, even the traditional three giants were double-killed, the middle and lower teams tried to protect the choice of a draw, who can blame them? Will Hall be able to get Millwall, who is now the target of the crowd, back on winning tracks? It's his challenge, it's Millwall's challenge, and maybe it's a battle for the Lions to play alone against the whole Premier League side with passionate football, and we're disappointed with today's game, but we should be looking forward to the final outcome of this war in the future. ”

Martin Taylor gave a poetic emotion at the end of the game.

Aldridge is indeed planning a new round of plans to transform the team, in fact, he is reluctant to do so, because the team is going to play in the Champions League this year, although it is not a big change that hurts the muscles and bones, but the requirements for the players will be higher, if the team can not adapt to the changes in the short term, the season will be declared to be over in advance.

Just as Aldridge was about to leave for the UEFA Champions League group draw ceremony, a bad news shocked Britain and even the whole world.

On August 31, 97, Princess Diana died in a car accident in Paris, France! (To be continued......)