Chapter 263: The Young People of Stuttgart
For any other team, playing Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona in three weeks in a row can be a devil's schedule.
It's rare for a team to get out of it.
But Valencia, who have been winning all the time, not only came out of it, but also achieved a very brilliant result.
Three wins in three games, nine points and eight goals, without conceding a goal.
Valencia's strength in La Liga is evident.
After the game, some media said that it is no wonder that Chang Sheng has the confidence to focus on the Champions League, because the current La Liga is really not difficult for them.
Even Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona can't threaten them, so what else can threaten them in the domestic league?
In the Champions League in midweek, Valencia's opponents are Stuttgart.
The team finished second in the Bundesliga last season and are as many as 16 points clear of league champions Bayern Munich.
This does not mean that Stuttgart is too weak.
And just because Bayern Munich is too strong.
This Stuttgart team has many names that will be familiar to you in the future.
Their main goalkeeper, for example, Hildebrand, has set a new record for consecutive clean sheets in the Bundesliga this season. With 884 minutes, it surpassed the previous record of 803 consecutive clean sheets set by Kahn. He has been Stuttgart's main goalkeeper for a long time, and this season he has even driven Wiese to Kaiserslautern.
Their main centre-forward, Kuranyi, scored 15 goals last season, the most homegrown player in the Bundesliga. He has already been called up to the German national team by Worrall. Another rising star.
Hleb, who will be known as the "king of people" in the future, is now the main midfielder of Stuttgart.
Filip Ram, the captain of the German national team and Bayern Munich, is now also on loan at Stuttgart.
Their main defender is also Andre Shindkel, who has been promoted from the Stuttgart academy. Attacking and defending, he switched from a striker to a right-back only last season, and is now also selected for Worrall's German national team, becoming a German international at the age of 21.
The young Stuttgart youth team led by Magath have taken the Bundesliga and Europe by storm and are nicknamed the 'Little Tigers', who finished second in the league last season and have been in excellent form in the Champions League group stage this season.
In the group stage 2 at home: Defeated the mighty Manchester United.
And Magath's Stuttgart did not perform as well in the Champions League as other teams, and their performances in the league were up and down.
Stuttgart have also had a solid run in the league. At the moment the Bundesliga has played twenty-one rounds. Stuttgart has 11 wins, 6 draws and 4 losses, and is in third place with 39 points, only three points behind second-place Bayern Munich.
Such a team is indeed more worthy of attention than Barcelona......
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Home and away is not a good schedule in a two-legged knockout game like the Champions League.
Because they didn't have the chance to make up for their mistakes in the second leg at home.
There's only one way for them to qualify, and that's to win as many games as possible in the first leg.
So this game can be regarded as a complete battle.
For this game, Chang Win is well prepared.
All the main players played. And made targeted arrangements for Stuttgart's tactics.
Magath's Stuttgart are a young guard with young, energetic players and an impactful tactical style.
That's why they are also known as the "Little Tigers".
They have taken the Bundesliga by storm.
At the moment, this is the team that they are most afraid to run against because they are very hard-working. Full of fighting spirit, and they are fast and in good shape.
Now that Valencia is in the outside world, it should be when her physical fitness is not good.
Even if they win against Real Madrid and Barcelona with plenty of fitness, that doesn't stop others from thinking they are close to running out of fitness.
And for good reason. That is, the Champions League is faster paced than the domestic league, and it is more physically demanding. Valencia are fit for the games against Real Madrid and Barcelona. It's just because they put the focus of their fitness allocation on the domestic league.
“…… Because it is clear that Real Madrid and Barcelona are more important than Stuttgart, and it is not good for Valencia to meet such two opponents in a row before the Champions League game. But it's a good thing for Stuttgart. Valencia's fitness is bound to suffer problems in the Champions League, and when we encounter the storm of our youth, that's when Valencia collapses! ”
The German media said that they were particularly confident, and it seemed that Valencia was already in their hands.
Even Magath thinks so, with so many injuries to Valencia this season, he doesn't believe Valencia has not been affected.
But it is clear that this is a mistake of not knowing the enemy well.
If they know enough about La Liga, if they know Valencia and Winning enough, they will understand that back-to-back encounters against Real Madrid and Barcelona in the league are nothing at all!
Valencia won these two teams quite easily.
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The German media believe that their "Little Tigers" in Stuttgart can break Valencia with youth and momentum.
And Valencia naturally has a way to deal with their youth without limits.
Four days before the start of the game, after the league game against Barcelona, Chang Sheng told everyone at the beginning of training what they were going to do for this game.
"Against opponents who are very aggressive, we use control tactics. Keep the football firmly under your feet, so that they can't rush, so that they can't run. In this way, their physical advantage is almost non-existent for us. Chang Sheng said to his players.
'So it's not a big deal, it's played according to our tactics, like any previous game. Remember. As long as we can keep the football under our feet, it doesn't matter who the opponent is. We can all win! ”
Valencia vs. Stuttgart, the tactic given by the winning constant is to control the ball.
Constantly passing the ball back and forth, so that Stuttgart couldn't rush out even if he wanted to. At that time, no matter how much strength Stuttgart has, it will be useless, you will not be able to get the ball at all!
Of course, this game will not be very good, and it is estimated that the number of shots on goal on both sides will not be too much, because the pace is slow, so the scene will not be exciting and intense.
But it doesn't matter so much about Chang Sheng. He is never responsible for the appetite and vision of the audience.
He is only responsible for victory.
His team played the best tactics in Europe. But at heart, he was a very utilitarian person.
In order to win, he can do whatever it takes, what is it just as difficult as a scene?
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When Stuttgart came to Valencia, they were full of confidence.
Magath's tactics are simple, try to score away from home, and the result doesn't matter. As long as there is another goal. Use Stuttgart's impact to bring down Valencia and break them physically. In this way, when it comes to the next round, Valencia is basically just the last straw.
When the time comes, what is there not to do on Stuttgart's own home turf?
Magath has such confidence in his team. Because his team is the hardest team in the Bundesliga, but the players who can persevere. The physical fitness will not be bad.
I heard that Valencia, who are often winning, is also a team with a lot of training intensity in the middle of the night. However, at the moment, the overall level of training in Spain is not as good as in Germany.
It is said that Valencia, who has practiced the hardest, is nothing more than that.
Magath's confidence continued into the game.
Then the game started and he realized that something was wrong.
Once the game started, Valencia kicked off and then they used the kick-off opportunity to keep the ball firmly at their feet.
It's just passed back and forth. Passing back and forth......
Stuttgart is truly youthful and invincible, and from the beginning of the scene it is like a dog chasing its prey. Run after the shifting football.
No matter where the football goes, they chase it.
It's as if you don't know tiredness at all.
Even if Valencia passes the ball back to goalkeeper Canizares, they will have to chase it.
They thought it would put enough pressure on Valencia's players to make mistakes, such as passing back to the goalkeeper, but the goalkeeper didn't get it......
But alas, they thought too beautifully.
They chased for fifteen minutes, only completing two shots, and most of the rest of the time, they were led by the nose by Valencia.
Chang Sheng was running so tirelessly on the sidelines with the Stuttgart players that a sneer appeared on his face.
From the day he arrived, Valencia's training focused on two things, one was physical fitness and the other was receiving the ball.
This kind of training content is still a major part of the training to this day.
Plus his training skills.
The passing ability of the Valencia players is now qualitatively improved compared to just over two seasons ago. Even goalkeeper Canizares' [pass] value is seventy-five.
Valencia's formal training program "Monkey Teasing" is different from the ordinary team's Monkey Teasing, rich and varied, and Chang Sheng and the coaching staff have put a lot of thought into it, from three people to five people, and then to eleven people. From a small range, to a large range, from one person to three people......
There are all kinds of them, just to simulate the various situations that may arise during the game.
Their training intensity standards can be more demanding than in competitions.
So Chang Sheng is not worried about Stuttgart's pressing at all.
This kind of pressing can only make the Stuttgart players feel tired very quickly, and it is impossible to steal the ball from Valencia.
It's good to be young and energetic, but it's not a good thing to rush around like that, like a headless fly.
As long as he continues to pass like this, it won't be long before Stuttgart's fitness reaches a bottleneck. But it doesn't matter how physically fit they were before.
The more ferocious Stuttgart runs now, the worse the death will be.