After the game against Leicester City, Aldridge invited O'Neill to the office for a chat.

He opened a bottle of good wine, and the two of them sat on the sofa with a lot of emotion.

"The pre-season thinking is still naïve, Leicester City's capital wants to make a difference in the Premier League, the difficulty is not ordinary, even if the players stay focused and put their best into the game, but the poor quality is not something that can be compensated for by morale."

O'Neill drank the wine, bitter in his stomach.

Aldridge nodded in agreement, Leicester City's performance in the new season is polarized, playing a strong team with a good record, basically not falling behind, but when it meets a weak team, it is unlucky, and it is extremely difficult to win.

When the weak team faces Leicester City and pays more attention to defense, even if Leicester City has a Tony + Gudjohnsen combination, it is still weak.

Once the opponent is counterattacked, Leicester City's defensive comprehensive strength is not as good as the opponent's striker.

"Yes, you want to bring Leicester City into the first group of the Premier League, I'll be honest, it's basically impossible, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, even Leeds United, the squad is stronger than Leicester City, the strength of a team, first of all, depends on the individual ability of the players, although it is not absolute, like Tottenham in the past two years, Everton, the lineup is not bad, but unfortunately the team can't be pinched together. Leicester City has a good forward line, no problem in the Premier League, can score enough goals, limit the attack in the middle and lower reaches, basically no problem, but the more you go up the standings, defense is the most important, the team that can be ranked in the front, the attack is definitely no problem, the rest is better than whose defense is better, who can suppress competitors in key battles. ”

O'Neill was thoughtful, and suddenly became interested, and asked Aldridge for a tactical book. Begin to discuss tactics with him.

Aldridge is also quite happy, the game is over, he doesn't want to go home for the time being, he can have someone to talk a little more to pass the time, he should be his companion.

O'Neill's main discussion with Aldridge is the midfielder.

There is no doubt about this man's coaching ability, when Ferguson announced his retirement several times in history, O'Neill was the favorite to succeed, but the first time he chose to go to the Scottish giants Celtic, and the second time he was still in the Celtic position, Ferguson himself regretted it.

O'Neill singled out two teams. One is Arsenal and the other is the new World Cup champions France.

One of these two teams has a forward midfielder and the other does not.

Aldridge calmly told O'Neill that the only difference between the tactics of the two teams is that Arsenal weakened the attack in the middle and relied on the wide attack. France, on the other hand, weakened their attacking line.

The similarities are the same, double back.

The goal is clear: to strengthen the defense.

And that's the way of the future. It's not that people don't want to see talented forwards perform their football magic. But in the context of football's increasing utilitarianism, the defense of a single back is really not reassuring, and if you think about it in turn, you can understand that if the opponent has a super forward and faces his own single back, how high will the one-on-one success rate be? The barrier in front of the back line is simply useless.

Arsenal don't want a midfielder. The main attack is on the wing, and there are people in the middle to respond.

The French team weakened the forward line, it can be said that they are 4231, 433. It can also be said to be 451, and the double back waist is to escort the unborn Zidane.

O'Neill's tactics did not set up a forward midfielder before, and he relied on the side to break through on the counterattack, but now he has a positional battle, and he has discharged the front midfield, but the effect is very unsatisfactory, especially because he does not have excellent forward players, once he loses the ball when organizing the attack, his own defense line will be shaky.

Aldridge gave him the idea to consider using the common Italian one-sided flying wing, that is, the double back is unchanged, add a forward midfielder, and then add a fullback, the offensive focus is to play on one side, and when defending, the front waist assists in defending the side and retreats, at least the system is relatively balanced.

Small teams, can't afford to fly with wings, and there are no good players, so they can only watch the food, and the offensive power is weaker, but at least they won't be beaten back and want to cry without tears.

He and O'Neill discussed until 9 p.m., and then the two went out to dinner together, still discussing tactics at the table.

After the league, there was another week of double matches, with Millwall heading to Europe and the fourth round of the Champions League group stage at Wembley, back-to-back matches against Austrian champions Graz.

In the last round of 7 goals slaughtered the opponent, Aldridge sent a lot of young players, and said lightly at the pre-match press conference: Millwall only needs to win this game again, can declare the group qualification success, the game is not difficult, I will send a lot of young players, let them get trained.

Aldridge did what he said and directly announced the starting list.

Goalkeeper: Keller.

Defenders: Ferreira, Neil, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole.

Midfielders: Pedretti, Gattuso, Lampard.

Wing-backs: Donny van der Meyde, Glen Schal.

Forward: Klose.

This can no longer be considered a substitute lineup, and three more unfamiliar names have entered the media eye.

The two full-backs, Pacos Ferreira and Cole, made their Champions League debuts at a young age, while Pedretti already had the nickname of Junior Makelele.

The Fleet Street correspondents, who knew Millwall well, each held back a smile in their hearts.

Hall is so bad!

Despise the opponent, and indeed send a young lineup, which seems to be a harbinger of arrogance and underestimation.

But look at his starting line-up.

It's a 451!

The three backs can fight to grab, and this Nima is to lure the opponent to take the bait to attack.

Graz had no hope of qualifying anyway, losing three straight group stage games and a humiliating rout on their home turf, and coming to the away stadium was a bit of a routine formality.

But when they came to London to prepare for the war, could they not hear anything outside the window?

The London media portrayed Millwall as a must-win, and it was a contemptuous lineup with 2 + 3 teams cobbled together.

Soldiers can be killed, but not humiliated!

Grass-you-family, Millwall!

The Austrian champion was furious.

At Wembley, the attack was vigorous.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what Millwall wants to see the most, and it is also the purpose of Aldridge's pre-match remarks and announcements.

He sat in the dugout and dragged his chin to watch the game, which was four minutes into the first half. Gratz, who pressed heavily and was extremely motivated, was crushed by Millwall's counter-attack from the wing.

Pedreti broke the ball in front of the penalty area and counter-attacked, and Ferreira didn't ink, and handed the ball to Van der Meyde in front of him.

Van der Meyde handsomely pulled past the wing-backs before a through ball was handed to Klose, who had successfully countered offside.

Klose lived up to his team-mates' expectations and calmly slotted the ball into the far corner to give Millwall a 1-0 lead.

The number of fans in attendance has dropped today.

After all, the 7-goal slaughter of Graz in the last round almost unanimously believes that the second leg is just a dish.

The process of the game also looks like abuse, but it is inseparable from Aldrich's conspiracy and psychological warfare.

If only Graz hadn't taken the initiative to attack. It takes a lot of twists and turns to fight a tough battle, they are the champion team of the second-rate league, they are really determined to defend, Millwall is not half of the main force, and the game can be nine out of ten?

Graz wasn't discouraged after conceding the goal. Go on the offensive.

Thirteen minutes later, Glenschal broke through two on the counter-attack. He made a one-two with Klose in front of the penalty area, and then countered offside and fired a one-handed shot into the goal.

"Glen Schal also scored! Millwall had a two-goal lead less than 20 minutes into the game. It looks like another massacre, and Millwall's youth storm continues, even Glen Shire, who we all know well, is now only 21 years old! Pedreti, Ferreira, Cole. Will Millwall's three young debutants today be the mainstays of the Lions in the future? ”

Aldridge stood up as Glen Charles embraced Klose, and he walked to the sideline to call Lampard over and put him in position on the counter-attack. Play the role of B2B (no-go to no-go).

A few words of explanation were enough, and Aldridge turned his head to search for Ashley Cole and Paolo Ferreira, but did not see them in the backfield until his eyes were on the celebratory crowd.

Good guys, Glen Schal opened the scoring in the opposition box and both full-backs rushed up from their own box to join in the celebrations

As they walked back, Aldrich gestured at the two and beckoned.

Call the two men in front of them and tell them to be bold and attack in the next game, just play like they did in training.

Graz's players and coaches almost burst into tears, and they didn't plan to stop seeing Aldridge's situation.

Graz started to get a little sluggish, and the two-goal deficit reminded them of the meeting half a month ago, it was a nightmare, will it be repeated today?

They began to shrink their formation, put up a fence and consciously focus on Glenschal, Donny van der Meyde, and Klose, who scored.

Aldridge saw this in advance, so he let the midfielders on both the flanks and the middle come forward to support them.

Just before half-time, Frank Lampard's long-range shot was saved by the goalkeeper and Klose followed up to make it 3-0.

In the second half, Aldridge brought Duff off Glen Shire, and Thierry Henry came on as a substitute for Donny van der Meyde.

However, in the second half, the opponent defended more resolutely, and the danger in front of the goal continued, but he relied on the human wall to protect the city gate, and the final score was fixed at 3:0.

At the end of the game, Aldridge took the initiative to shake hands with the opposing coach, but the other party was annoyed and angry, thinking that Aldridge was humiliating him, and walked away.

Aldridge had a helpless expression and had to shake hands with the assistants of the opposing coaching staff, and then turned around and walked into the players' tunnel.

"The defending champion of the Champions Cup, Millwall, is unstoppable, winning all four games in the group stage, they have two games left, the next round will go to Moscow to challenge Spartak Moscow, the last game at Wembley to welcome Inter Milan, Millwall, who has 12 points, has basically announced that they have advanced to the knockout round, unless they lose the next two games, it is possible to miss the knockout round, but the probability is not very large, considering the points of other groups, 12 points should be able to get the best group second promotion place, In particular, their goal difference advantage is too great. ”

In an interview after the game, Aldridge changed his face before the game, highly praising the Austrian champion Graz, yes, the game is over, at least it is impossible to meet again for more than half a year, Aldridge will naturally give the other party enough respect, as for the contemptuous gesture before the game, it is nothing more than to win the game.

The reason why Aldridge did not send a main player in this Champions League game is very obvious, and Fleet Street knows it without asking: recharge your batteries for the London derby!

Just three days later, Millwall will travel to west London to take on Premier League leaders Chelsea at Stamford Bridge! (To be continued......)