"Barcelona was a little strange tonight."
In the packed Bernabéu, Barcelona kicked off first. Within 30 seconds, Zidane, Carlo, Hierro and the others sensed something was off.
There was nothing unusual about the starting lineup.
Goalkeeper: Valdés.
Defense: Alba, Puyol, Pique and Alves.
Midfield: Busquets dropped in, with Iniesta and Xavi in the middle.
Forwards: Neymar, Agüero and Messi.
The only surprise was Messi moving back to right wing, which had been rare in recent years.
Since playing as a false nine under Guardiola, Messi had seldom returned to the right, but this time Martino placed him there, which was indeed unexpected.
But it was nothing major.
Long before kickoff, when they received Barcelona's roster, they saw Agüero and the coaching staff had already been wondering how Agüero and Messi would be positioned.
So what if Messi played on the right?
Players' positions on the pitch change all the time.
The key was what Martino intended to do.
The reason Zidane and the others felt something was wrong was a long pass from Pique.
After the kick-off, Real Madrid did not press aggressively, sticking to their usual tactics. Benzema dropped in to pinch Busquets, and the whole team concentrated their main force in the zone from 30 meters out to the halfway line.
The two center-backs, Pique and Puyol, were basically left free.
The center-backs had many chances to receive the ball, but they did not dare to carry it over the halfway line lightly.
Obviously, after suffering in four games last season, they knew what kind of stranglehold awaited once they crossed the halfway line.
After exchanging passes for about ten seconds, Pique hit a long ball, trying to find Agüero up front.
The Argentine striker used his body to shield Pepe and fought to bring it down, but Pepe was no pushover. He forced Agüero off his spot, and in the end Agüero failed to win the header.
Pepe was ready and nodded it back to goalkeeper Casillas.
That piece of defending earned Pepe applause from the Bernabéu crowd.
On the touchline, Gao Shen and his staff also sensed something was off.
…
From Guardiola to Vilanova, Barcelona have never liked long passes, and even disliked them.
This comes from a deep-rooted gene, they are risk-averse.
But everything has two sides.
Blind reliance on short passing and emphasizing inter-player combinations made the attacking rhythm very monotonous, and many times they could only rely on individual brilliance to change the tempo.
Once opponents figured that out, its effectiveness waned.
This led to an awkward situation in the past. Everyone saw that Barcelona were good at keeping the ball, but they just kept it. Especially against teams with excellent defensive ability, Barcelona often looked like they were keeping possession for the sake of it.
Why?
Because they could not break through.
When a pass failed or the risk of losing the ball was high, Barcelona's choice was to recycle and start again.
This was especially obvious when players' fitness dropped and they could not run as much.
Other teams facing Barcelona's passing game preferred to drop off and play on the counter.
As Gao Shen has always emphasized, Barcelona's defense is really poor.
Either the opponent lacked the strength to counter, or once the opponent could withstand Barcelona's pressure and then counter, Barcelona would be in great danger, even conceding with every strike.
Barcelona's defending was basically like this, and the personnel were the same few. Martino probably did not have a better solution, and it did not fit Barcelona's tradition and DNA.
So Martino wanted to start with rhythm.
If you want to change the previous style that makes it easy for opponents to read your tempo, you have to add more variation.
For example, more mid-range and long-range passes.
This was what Martino did in Gao Shen's previous life.
"I remember when Martino first took over Barcelona, I said that if he wanted to bring any change, it had to be changing Barcelona's passing-control system."
Gao Shen sounded particularly confident when he said this.
Zidane, Hierro and the others nodded.
This was what Gao Shen had said when Martino took the job.
But Gao Shen also said then that this would bring new problems.
First, medium and long passes would lower Barcelona's pass completion. In big games, especially against teams with strong ball control, Barcelona's possession would drop and might not even be clearly superior.
Once possession decreased, Barcelona's defensive problems would be exposed.
Another point was that Barcelona's medium and long passes might not be effective.
Why?
Because of the players' physiques.
Barcelona's players are generally shorter and not strong in duels, which makes them excellent at small, quick combinations in the final third, but poor at consistently winning medium and long passes, especially long balls and high balls.
Just now, Pique played long to Agüero, and the Argentine was simply shoved off his spot by Pepe. That was the best proof.
Pepe did not even need to jump. He let the ball drop behind him, then turned and played it back to the goalkeeper.
"Barcelona are really contradictory right now."
The match continued, but Gao Shen observed and chatted with Zidane and the others, looking very relaxed.
"Their core strength lies in this passing-control system, yet they are bound by it. If they want to break free, if they want a breakthrough, they have to break that system. Once they break it, they weaken Barcelona's core strength..."
Gao Shen was not unfamiliar with this situation.
This is the difficult decision many large companies face when transforming their business.
To survive, you must change, but change will affect your survival.
That is why the larger the company and the stronger its core business, the harder the transformation.
Very few achieve radical change and succeed.
Most either die slowly, or fall into a pit and die during a bold reform.
In fact, even when Gao Shen transmigrated in his previous life, Barcelona were still stuck.
That is why an interesting pattern emerged: Barcelona looked great in the league, but were frequently beaten in the Champions League.
By contrast, Real Madrid thrived in the Champions League then, but could not win the league.
Ultimately, it was the difference between the two tracks.
But the current Real Madrid is no longer the Real Madrid of Gao Shen's previous life.
With Gao Shen's arrival, everything is different.
…
As the game settled, Gao Shen figured out Martino's tactics and immediately adjusted.
He noticed that Barcelona's two midfielders, Xavi and Iniesta, had different roles, so he instructed Modric to press Iniesta and maintain high defensive pressure on him.
He even used a stoppage to call Modric over and told him to stick to Iniesta.
"My request is simple. Every time he receives, you must block him and stop his forward carry. Force him to drop back into his own half."
Modric understood.
Not only that, Gao Shen also asked Benzema and Di María to coordinate with Modric to double-team Iniesta from behind and from the sides when possible, to prevent Barcelona's midfield from receiving comfortably.
Once Iniesta dropped off, Barcelona's front line would struggle to link up.
In addition, Real Madrid had four players at the back, which could effectively separate Neymar, Agüero and Messi, forcing them into isolated duels.
Once isolated, no matter how strong a player is, his impact is greatly reduced.
If Modric's task was to press, then Toni Kroos's task was to drop, take on receiving and distribution, and also assist Xabi Alonso.
German midfielders have a big advantage. Their passing is stable and they rarely give the ball away.
After Gao Shen's adjustment, the entire midfield would operate with Kroos as the hub.
Aside from pressing Iniesta, Modric was like a free man, moving freely at other times.
The biggest difference between Real Madrid and Barcelona was that Real Madrid's players were stronger in duels and faster.
At the same time, Real Madrid's counterattacking became sharper.
…
In the 16th minute, Barcelona once again crossed the halfway line.
The defensive line pushed to just outside Real Madrid's 30-meter area, but Real Madrid's defensive strategy made it impossible for Barcelona to progress the ball.
After Pique exchanged passes with Puyol twice at the back, he spotted a window and sent a long pass toward Messi outside the box.
Almost no one in Barcelona's front line could hold the ball up, and in the end they still had to rely on Messi.
But Messi did not succeed this time.
Pique's ball came quick and firm. Messi struggled to bring it down under tight pressure from Ramos behind him, so his touch popped up. Then Toni Kroos and Di María, who had tracked back, converged from both sides.
Three players smothered him and won it.
After Di María fed Toni Kroos, he spun and sprinted up the left touchline at full tilt.
Barcelona tried to counterpress on the spot, but Toni Kroos leaned into Messi, played forward to Benzema, then ran on to create space, pointing to where he wanted it.
Benzema understood, backed in to pin Pique, and headed the ball into the lane Kroos indicated.
The German midfielder arrived, took Benzema's layoff, and immediately launched a long pass.
By then, Di María on the left was already flying.
The entire Bernabéu erupted.
At that moment, Barcelona head coach Martino shouted from in front of the away dugout, "Why is he on the left?"
God, where is Ronaldo?
Before the second question was even out, everyone had seen it.
Benzema dropped, and Ronaldo went.
Di María surged down the left, caught up with Kroos's long pass, then drove into the left side of the box, forming a clean two-on-two with Ronaldo.
Puyol pulled across and Busquets tracked Ronaldo, but how could he match Ronaldo's speed?
Di María fired a low cross, Ronaldo arrived from the right side of the penalty spot, met Di María's ball in front of the six-yard box, and side-footed it into the right side of Barcelona's net.
From the turnover to the goal on the counterattack, it took only 10 seconds.
(To be continued.)