The damn Christmas Express is here again.

Compared with the intensive schedule of 46 rounds of League One last year and the rhythm of last year's main cup competition, since the new season, from August to December, the main players in the team have been rested very well, and their energy is mainly focused on the league, maintaining an average of one game per week.

The League Cup has reached the quarter-finals, the European Cup Winners' Cup has reached the quarter-finals, and Millwall is next to welcome the FA Cup.

Aldridge feared that the players would become psychologically bored with the game, so he planned to give the main players a good rest over Christmas.

Now he is also adjusting his game plan, and the league advantage for the new season is huge, and he wants to target the European Cup Winners' Cup, the second most influential cup competition in Europe, and the FA Cup, which is the most traditionally valued cup competition in England, and Millwall are the defending champions.

The players also know that at this stage, Millwall's rotation plan will be adjusted.

This is not due to competitive factors, but psychological factors, and when Aldrich will be able to adapt, Aldrich does not know.

However, the players told him about the time.

Thursday's training ended early, Aldridge was in the office to process the papers, before the winter transfer window opened, many clubs have sent offers, although he made up his mind not to sell, but also to look at the terms of the offer, in case there is really a good offer, it is necessary for him to adjust the corresponding conditions for the player's contract renewal plan.

Nedved was the first to knock on the door and walked in, and the other party got straight to the point: "Boss, I don't need a vacation, the past two years." I'm completely comfortable with the pace of the game here. ”

Larson. Trezeguet. Schneider, Makelele and other players also walked in one after another, saying that they did not need a holiday.

The strikers, in particular, are in hot form and although the goal numbers are not concentrated in one player, they are enjoying the game, scoring goals themselves, helping their team-mates to score, allowing them to enjoy every minute of the game.

Players are invited to fight. Aldridge was overjoyed, but some players offered holidays, such as Andrea Pirlo and Capdevilla.

As Christmas approaches, the East London derby is back in flames.

When Millwall re-emerged in East London as a promoted horse, no one could have imagined that just a year later, the Hammers, who had been in the limelight for more than half a century, would find themselves in such an awkward situation: Millwall were at the top of the table and the Hammers were fifth.

The first derby of the season was played at the Lion's Den Stadium.

Given the impact of last season's riots, the FA and police have worked hard to clean up, and this year's East London derby has been much quieter off the pitch, with fewer fans agreeing on a time and place to fight. There will be no frequent scenes of fans rattling on the streets.

But inside the stadium, the atmosphere has not changed at all.

Lions fans held up signs to humiliate the Hammers. The fans of the two teams sang and shouted slogans, and their voices were hoarse and loud.

In the packed stands, the fanatical fans waved their arms and looked hideous, and Aldridge couldn't hear what was going on in the stands while standing on the sidelines, just insulting and laughing at each other anyway.

Redknapp put his hands in his jacket pockets and stared at the situation on the field with a blank face, not that he was stupid, but he looked like that, and his small eyes made people not look good.

The Hammers have struggled with relegation at the start of the season, with mixed results, occasionally breaking out of the relegation zone and falling back two days later.

Coming to the Lion's Den Stadium today, the Hammers fought very fiercely on the field, and the tactical intention was also very clear: to defend to the death! Swing the bus!

Millwall's side started in place of Andrea Pirlo with Ballack, with Zambrotta replacing Capdevilla.

Although there were few personnel changes, and Millwall's offensive was fully dominant, it always looked like something was missing.

Creativity!

That's right, creativity.

Both Ballack and Frank Lampard were able to sort out the midfield and make short and long passes satisfactory, but they were always more than strong, dexterous and playmaking, but there was still a gap between them and Andrea Pirlo's silent performances.

Lions fans laughed at the Hammers: You are a bunch of turtles, you only know how to defend, and you don't even dare to walk through half the court!

The commentators were in high spirits, and the game was more like a hand-to-hand fight in the West Ham United penalty area, with most of the players clustered in the box.

"Maybe Redknapp can stop Millwall's winning streak, and while it's something to be proud of, mentally it might be a victory for West Ham."

"With the way West Ham plays, you don't want to win, you don't want to lose, and if football goes on like this, it's over."

"But what about Redknapp? He doesn't use this kind of team-wide defensive strategy, then he will probably go home with failure, this is a derby between sworn enemies, whether it is the standings or face, Lao Lei can't afford to lose. ”

"Alas, at the end of the first half, the score was 0:0, Millwall had 17 shots on goal in the first half, except for 8 shots that were blocked by the opponent directly with his body, only Ballack's long-range shot hit the post was quite threatening."

As the midfielder walked into the dressing room, Aldridge saw the players sitting there complaining about their opponents.

"They don't want to win at all!"

Trezeguet said angrily that he had been being pinched and flanked by the front and back, and he had a chance to shoot in the first half, which also hit someone, which made him angry.

"There's no room for the cut, it's full of people."

"Grass, when I took a corner kick just now, I don't know who pinched my buttocks, it's disgusting."

Barak's words made everyone stunned for a moment, and then they were all amused.

After laughing, Nedved looked up at Aldridge and asked, "Boss, do you have more long-range shots in the second half?" ”

In the first half, they also played a lot of long-range shots, and the effect was not satisfactory, and the opponent's sweep in the penalty area today was in place.

Aldridge wrote and drew on the tactical board, then pointed to the bottom line and said: "The full-backs should strengthen the depth attack, and the left and right wingers should not blindly cut in, and maintain a sense of distance and layering." A formation that involves the opposing side. In the second half, I would have brought on Luther. You replace Jaap and David in front of the opposing goal. ”

He explained his tactics, relying on the two wings to stretch the depth of the attack, maximizing the opponent's defensive formation, and adding a center forward in the box, behind them, two wingers in the top corner of the box, and Ballack and Nedved outside the box. Let the attacking players use the layers to cut through the opposition's defence, and if the opponent slips through the cracks at a certain point, there are Millwall players at every point.

'On the flanks you can do more to break through the opponent, but in the penalty area, if you don't have a shot on goal, you can also try to control the ball first and suddenly change the tempo to make mistakes for the opponent.

The players listened intently and remembered where they should be in the second half of the attack, although it was not a dead law and the players were flexible. But the general tactical requirements must be kept in mind.

Sometimes a goal is not just a goal, a goal, but also an assister. The goalscorers work together, and the movement and involvement of teammates who have never touched the ball play a vital role in what the spectators don't care about.

When the players returned to the pitch in the second half, Aldridge also sat down directly in the dugout after the substitution.

"Hall decided to make a substitution at half-time, he replaced the central defender Stam with Ruud van Nistelrooy, this substitution is nothing to discuss, Stam and Southgate two players stayed in the second half is a waste, at the end of the first half Stam rushed up to the striker, but unfortunately in addition to grabbing the header can not provide more help, now replace a positive Indian center forward to strengthen the attack, let's see if Hall's substitution will have an effect."

West Ham United retreated at the start of the second half, with Millwall almost alone Southgate in the second half, with Claude Makelele roaming around the centre circle to watch out for counter-attacks, with two full-backs, Zambrotta and Schneider, both crossing the halfway line and taking turns to step forward at the right moment.

Millwall's offensive formation in the front field has become a double center forward in front of the penalty area, with two forwards on the edge of the big penalty area in the middle, and two center forwards in the penalty area, forming a hierarchical siege trend.

Aldridge sat calmly, strong teams to break dense defense is a world problem, he is not afraid of attacking teams, like Chelsea can play counterattacks, will give Millwall offensive space, but afraid of this kind of hard-hearted defense of the opponent, because the opponent's defense is mostly static and dense, the penetration space is compressed to the limit, the impact advantage of the striker is minimized, especially the speed advantage is also stifled.

The stalemate continued, but Millwall's advantage grew, and although the Hammers players were defensive, their defense was not airtight, and occasional mistakes required their teammates to help defend, and the spirit was highly stressed.

Twenty minutes later, Aldridge brought on Frank Lampard for Claude Makelele.

Makelele was also more understandable when he was substituted, he was too idle to do anything, rushed up, the crowd was too dense, Nedved passed back to him to make a ball, and as a result, he kicked and flew to the stands.

Although Lampard is still young, at least his long-range shooting ability is stronger than the current Makelele, but Aldridge still told him not to attack too fiercely when he sent Lampard, there are enough people in front, and it may not be a good thing for him to go up again, and the players must always maintain a reasonable standing distance and formation system, otherwise they will really have to go back to play 127 tactics.

Millwall frequently used full-backs to pull West Ham United's defensive formation, and this tactical idea of pulling back and playing the ball was similar to Manchester United's flying on the wings, except that the pendulum swinging from side to side was placed horizontally, allowing the opponent's defence to move back and forth, thus creating gaps.

Sometimes crossing, sometimes knocking back in front of the penalty area, the way the pass stimulates the nerves of the fans in the stands.

Ruud van Nistelrooy increased his threat from the spot, and he even missed a shot from close range that was blocked by the opposition defender on the line.

In the seventy-ninth minute of the game, Millwall's chance finally came.

Nedved received the cross and then kept the ball directly to Larsson on the left, who took the ball and made a feint to rush forward, in fact, the ball was in place, but the West Ham United defender was highly nervous, confused by his movements, and also moved backwards, and found that after being cheated, the entire defensive line pressed forward again, and it was the rhythm change between this movement and stillness that made their defensive line flawed, and Larsson passed the ball between the legs of the defender in front of him. Zambrotta immediately crossed the ball from an offside position, and Trezeguet in the middle was covered by Ruud van Nistelrooy, who fell to the ground and sent the ball into the net.

The ball rolled into the gate against the inside of the post, and the scene was boiling, and the players ran like crazy to celebrate.

Aldridge couldn't see how the ball got in the dugout, only the general process, and the rest had to make up for it by himself.

However, when he saw that the goal was effective, he immediately rushed out, clenched his fists and waved a smile.

Redknapp was so angry that he kicked the billboard on the sidelines.

Aldridge quickly made a change, replacing goal-scorer Trezeguet with Elgra to bring the team's formation back into balance.

Before he kept changing offensive players, in fact, he was also leading the snake out of the hole, but Lao Lei was not fooled, now, he doesn't care what Lao Lei thinks, anyway, he is not afraid of the opponent's attack, at least the defensive system will not have problems. (To be continued......)