Standing under the Irish sky, look up and you'll always see dark clouds that make you wonder when it's going to rain.

But when you put your head down and look straight ahead, you'll see a green savannah, especially in summer, dotted with a few tall and lush green trees, which connect with the cloudy sky at the far end, which will give you a very different feeling.

In fact, many people say that the British Isles like rain, and it is true, but sometimes it depends on luck.

Tottenham Hotspur came to Dublin from London for a training camp丨It's been four days, but I haven't even seen a drop of rain, and my luck is really good, because it has always been this kind of shady and cool weather, which is very suitable for the team to use for training丨

Goalkeepers: Peter Cech, Joe Hart;

Defenders: Daniel Alves, Juan Manuel Vargas, Arbeloa, Thiago Silva, Brad Hangrande, Kompany, Michael Dawson, Gareth Bale;

Midfielders: Mascherano, Yaya Toure, Davies, Cesc Fabregas, Huddlestone, Lucas, Franck Ribery, Arshavin, Messi, Ashley Young;

Forwards: Robin van Persie, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Edinson Cavani and Carroll.

This is the list of Tottenham Hotspur's first-team squad to Dublin, Allen Lennon did not come to Ireland with the team in the end, his agent has informed the team, hoping that the club can consider offers from Manchester United and Chelsea, Ye Qiu did not put him in the squad in the end, but he refused to let go, saying that Allen Lennon is not for sale.

This time, Tottenham Hotspur's training camp was not in Dublin, but in Maynooth, a small town twenty or thirty kilometers west of Dublin, and they stayed at an ancient castle hotel called Caton Manor on the outskirts of Maynooth.

The hotel is very old, covering a very large area, nearly two kilometers from north to south, all of which are detached castle buildings for rooms, and this hotel is best known for its two 18-hole golf courses of world championship standards and a luxurious A Center, and all the buildings of this hotel have a wonderful style and atmosphere that combines ancient and modern, but conflicts with each other.

In fact, Tottenham Hotspur has a total of nearly 70 people, all of whom stay in this hotel, and the cost is not high, because the hotel fully takes into account the advertising effect, so it is almost a half-buy and half-free way to invite Tottenham Hotspur to stay, and even took the initiative to help Tottenham Hotspur contact the only open-air football stadium in Maynooth Town to serve as a training ground for the team.

In fact, in Maynooth, there are green grasses everywhere, and you can play football anywhere, but after all, it is better to have a professional training ground, so that it will be more convenient for the team to practice and train.

At this moment, Ye Qiu was standing in the training ground of Maynoos, watching the chief assistant coach Mauro Tasotti explain the running position and co-defense strategy to the players with the tactical board.

During their time in Dublin, Tottenham Hotspur had three training sessions and one tactical meeting a day, which was very intense, waking up early in the morning, resting for a while after breakfast, doing a stretching session, mainly to recover the body, and then a second training session around noon, which was the strengthening training

Lunch break, start a tactical meeting in the afternoon, mainly the coaching staff to explain the tactical details and points to the players, and the most important thing is to instill in the players, so that the players know what the coach wants him to do, what he should do in the game, and the last training session is in the evening, specifically technical and tactical training

This season's Premier League kicks off on 19 August, with Tottenham's first game away at Bolton, and before that, Tottenham Hotspur did not have any games, so there were five weeks of preparation for the entire league campaign.

Five weeks is not very long, but it is not very short, it depends on whether a team can grind well and integrate, five weeks is indeed very urgent, but for a mature team, it is simply easy to adjust the state, so Ye Qiu attaches great importance to preparation.

While he was busy with transfer operations and club management, the coaching staff had already drawn up a very detailed pre-season preparation, and Tottenham Hotspur's pre-season games were scheduled for a total of six games, mainly in the middle and late stages of the training camp, one after the other, very closely, because the team needed more games to look at the team, find problems, and solve problems.

And in the training camp! In the early stage, the most important thing is to instill the team's tactics into the players.

Ye Qiu's tactical idea for Tottenham Hotspur this season is to bring the old with the new, which is indeed regrettable, originally he wanted to get Zambrotta and Thuram, and even offered a package price of 25 million euros for this, and promised to pay two players their annual salary at Juventus, which has exceeded the current salary structure of Tottenham Hotspur.

For Thuram in particular, the fact that the veteran who has clearly declined is a big temptation in itself, but they all chose to go to Barcelona anyway because Tottenham Hotspur could not play in the Champions League.

Edgar Davies is old, and his condition is not as good as day by day, but he can still use it for the time being, but it can't be guaranteed, and Ye Qiu hopes that he can lead more young players in the team, after all, he and many young players in the team were teammates when they were at Chelsea, and now that they are at Tottenham Hotspur, they should naturally take care of each other.

Vanney is the only striker that Ye Qiu can trust and rely on at present, Van Persie's strength is very good, and there is no problem of adaptation, but he needs to strengthen his physical strength, Ye Qiu now plans to place him in the middle and let him try to play center, while Cavani's body is still too thin and his confrontation ability is insufficient, Carroll is too young, and it is still okay to play as a substitute.

From the camp! In the past few days, Ye Qiu has already vaguely had a prototype in his heart to try to run in

Petr Cech was the goalkeeper, Vargas, Hangrande, Thiago Silva and Alves at the back, Yaya Toure, Mascherano and Cesc Fabregas in midfield, and Ribery, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Lionel Messi in front.

Ruud van Nistelrooy is the kind of scorer who stays in front and waits for his teammates to pass the ball, his scoring ability can definitely surprise you, as long as you can create enough chances, and the most important thing for Ye Qiu now is to let the team have a stable set of tactics to deal with the upcoming league as soon as possible.

Ribery is very good, and his outstanding performance in the World Cup also makes him full of confidence, although Fabregas and Messi are young, but their strength is good, especially Fabregas, who is very old and steady, although the organization of his midfield is still a little immature, but the passing is very threatening, and the overall situation and the ability to sort out the midfield are also very good.

Mascherano will be able to pull back to protect the defence, which is his role at Ajax, and he has done well, while Yaya Toure has been more likely to play with his wide range of runs and presses, filling in the holes in midfield, and he will also need to be ready to deal with the front and back.

Ye Qiu's tactics are actually not difficult to understand, that is, the wings fly together.

With Ribery and Vargas on the left, Messi and Alves on the right, they took turns attacking the opponent's wings, tearing apart the opponent's defense from the wings, and then creating scoring opportunities for Ruud van Nistelrooy in the box.

Of course, this is just a framework, but there are many details in it, such as Ribery and Messi can change positions anytime and anywhere, Ribery is a player with very good left and right feet, although Messi is a left-footed general, but under the supervision of Ye Qiu, his right foot ability is not bad, the two frequently change positions, or cooperate to break through the bottom, or get the ball to meet teammates, or take the ball to cut the ball, can create killing opportunities, and must practice a variety of offensive routines to enrich the team's offensive means.

Unlike at Chelsea, this time Ye Qiu not only has to control the tempo, but also has to fight for possession, but there is one thing that has not changed, that is, high defense

Even after four days of play, the players' defence on the training ground still looks like a mess.

Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Messi, Ribery, Mascherano, Yaya Toure and Thiago Silva are the players who know Ye Qiu's tactical intentions the most, because they play high defense at Chelsea and Ajax, even if the high defense at Ajax is different from Ye Qiu's requirements, it is not difficult to adapt, because some things are the same.

The biggest difference between the defense of the high position and the defense of the ordinary position is that the defense of the ordinary position usually requires the midfield to return to their position as soon as possible except for the players close to the ball carrier, which is called positioning.

But the high post defense is different, because there is a large gap behind you, so once you lose possession, then the next few seconds are very critical and important, you must do your best to get the ball back, and even if you can't get it back, you must not allow the opponent to form a quick counterattack, because you can never run faster than the ball.

Therefore, one of the most important points in high defense is the midfield pressure and counter-robbery, which requires players not to settle down as soon as possible, but to quickly close the nearest player, and other players to surround it for the first time, forming a numerical advantage in the local area, and maximizing the possibility of seizing the ball.

It takes some time to adjust and change the players' awareness, their thinking and their playing habits.

Also, many managers have always had a misunderstanding about high defense, thinking that high defense requires a lot of prerequisites, such as some people say that they need to have excellent skills and tactical awareness like Barcelona, and some people say that they need crazy midfield pressing, but in fact, these are not to the bones.

The heart of the high post defense is in the midfield.

One of the interesting traits of all teams that have defended high has been that the midfield is flexible and flexible.

For example, in Benitez's Valencia, the Bats have two double midfielders who are very good at interception and running, Baraja and Albelda, so what do you do when defending high?

When the team is attacking with the ball, they drag it back, always cruising around the 30-meter area, and do not easily enter the 30-meter area, because when all the teams that play high defense are attacking, the opponent's 30-meter area will become crowded, because you have pressed up, and the opponent's three lines are indented, and it is not crowded?

At this time, there is a requirement for midfielders, not to let the frontcourt players fall into an isolated situation, but also not to create congestion for their own attacking players, which will undoubtedly test the wisdom of midfielders.

Therefore, all teams that play high defense, midfielders generally do not easily enter the 30-meter area, but once they enter this area, they must be able to pose a threat, either to threaten the opponent, or to be broken by the opponent and play a counterattack to create a threat.

It's when you attack with the ball, but what about when you lose the ball to defend?

Press it up

Some people say, you are stupid, there is such a big gap behind you, you still press forward?

This undoubtedly requires skill, not to blindly press forward, but to predict the opponent's possible ball routes when the frontcourt players surround the opponent's ball carrier for the first time, and strangle these ball routes in time

Therefore, the midfield defenders who defend high generally cannot be large-scale running midfielders such as Essien and Gattuso, but those who have excellent awareness, strong positional sense, and sufficient anticipation ability.

Therefore, the core of high post defense is not whether the technique is delicate, of course, you must have the ability to hold the ball and pass the ball in the narrow gap, otherwise what kind of high post defense do you play?

However, the requirements for technical skills are only limited to this, but the requirements for the team's midfielders, as well as the team's overall system rigor from front to back and the awareness and execution of the players have very high requirements.

Benitez's Liverpool and Ye Qiu's Chelsea were called the two teams with the highest tactical execution, because they both wanted to play high defending, and playing high defence without excellent overall tactical execution was purely looking for death.

Why can't Manchester United play high defending?

Don't you want to be Ferguson? He thought, he was crazy to think about it, but the problem was that the players at Manchester United were not suitable

After Ye Qiu came to Tottenham Hotspur, he directly sold the two big players Defoe and Robbie Keane, because they were not suitable for this set of tactics, and Allen Lennon did not have to stay for Ye Qiu, because he may not be suitable, because his side breakthrough is more about speed.

Ye Qiu watched the players on the pitch and listened to Mauro Tassotti shouting the players' names and pointing out his problems in the game, while goalkeeper coach Frans Hawk kept pointing out the players in front of Cech and Joe Hart, signaling that they should take the initiative to expand their defensive range.

All of this made Ye Qiu full of hope for the future.

When Tottenham Hotspur is in Dublin for an intensive training camp and! When preparing for the game, Eliza Moon, who was in London, was running the team in an orderly manner, making some necessary repairs to the White Hart Lane Stadium, and contacting sponsors for the team, trying to improve the team's operating income, etc.

And the team started the training camp! A week later, the transfer rumours of Alan Lennon, who had not been able to travel to Dublin, finally came to an end, and Chelsea, who were desperate to further improve their wide strength, and felt that they were still unhappy with the two big players of Duff and Wright Phillips, finally got Alan Lennon for 25 million euros.

Tottenham Hotspur also announced the end of this season's transfer market after the transfer was completed, and according to outside speculation and calculations, Tottenham Hotspur made a total of 30 million euros in the transfer market, but only Tottenham Hotspur's internal executives, such as Eliza Moon and Ye Qiu, knew that Tottenham Hotspur made a profit of 60 million euros.

This money will be used by the team to prepare for the construction of the Theobald training base in the north of Enfield, and strive to build the Theobold training base into the world's top and most complete training center in two to three years.

Two weeks after arriving in Dublin, Tottenham Hotspur finally had their first warm-up game against Irish league powerhouse Shamrock Rovers, a powerhouse in the Irish Premier League, who were relegated from the Irish Premier League last season.

In the face of this team, Tottenham Hotspur played a sharp attacking football in Dublin, the breakthrough of the two wings was very fast and sharp, and the overall rhythm of the team was also very light and fast, the typical rhythm style of a Premier League team, but it was obvious that they wanted to play more delicate cooperation, but they lacked tacit understanding with each other, and the tactics were a bit disordered.

But even so, Tottenham Hotspur beat Shamrock Rovers thanks to two goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy.

In this game, Tottenham Hotspur got UR possession, and the overall strength occupied an absolute advantage, but the team still had obvious deficiencies in attack, and some problems were also exposed in defense, that is, the tacit understanding between Hangrand and Thiago Silva in the division of labor.

According to Mauro Tasottti, any defence is not a problem for a centre-back, the question is whether the defensive system is built in a reasonable way.

Some people will say that a tall and strong player like Hangrande, who has excellent frontal defense and air defense ability, is afraid of fast players to break through, but the question is, how can you set up your defense to know this and insist that he face the player he is afraid of?

If you encounter a fast player, then let Thiago Silva go up and watch, and Hangrande dragged his feet to help the defense, which not only formed the level and depth of the defense, but also avoided Hangrande's disadvantages and played to his strengths.

Of course, everyone knows that the opponent knows that your player's weakness will definitely be exploited, so in addition to the player's personal ability and strengths and weaknesses, the system and the player's tacit understanding with each other is also very important, in fact, Ferguson is very respectful of the latter, so he has been reluctant to introduce defenders.

After three days of playing Shamrock Rovers, the team had another warm-up game, this time against Irish Premier League side University College Dublin, before Tottenham Hotspur beat them again, with Ruud van Nistelrooy, Franck Ribery and substitute Robin van Persie scoring in succession.

After two warm-up matches, Tottenham Hotspur also returned to London after a three-week training camp in Dublin, Ireland, and soon had a game of real team value against Inter Milan