Who made him play as a winger/attacking midfielder?

Chapter 93: A Tactical Change! Attacking Midfielder! The First Battle of the Northern Expedition Yields Remarkable Results!

Roma secured a narrow 1-0 victory over Cagliari at home.

Title rivals Juventus avoided an upset this time, securing a comfortable 3-0 away victory against Bologna.

Lazio held Atalanta to a 3-3 draw away from home.

The gap between the top two teams in the standings remains at six points.

And the next round.

The top two teams will face off in a crucial match at the Allianz Stadium in Turin.

Before this.

Both teams have an Italian Cup Round of 16 match.

Roma will travel to Torino, while Juventus will host Genoa.

However, for Roma and Juventus, the priority is still the six-pointer in the league.

As for the Italian Cup Round of 16, we can hold back for now.

Trigolia Training Base.

First team training ground.

"Chang, you better be decisive!"

"Dzeko! Drag back to support! Chang, El Shaarawy, make decisive forward runs!"

"Hey Chang, stop thinking about retreating to provide support. You need to adapt to the situation and maneuver behind enemy lines!"

"De Rossi, Strootman! Stop thinking about serving your teammates all the time, take the chance and kick them!"

"Be careful with your defensive moves; don't make any rash moves!"

"Yes, yes, that's how you kick it!"

The coaching staff constantly reminded and corrected the problems that arose during training.

The training session has ended.

Tomé leaned over to Di Francisco and shared his idea: "Could we try a new formation and style of play?"

"Tell me your thoughts."

"The 4-3-3 formation has been thoroughly studied, and the complementary midfielders actually have overlapping functions that are amplified infinitely."

With his left hand holding a simple tactics board, Tomé wrote or drew circles on several areas of the field with a pen in his right hand: "De Rossi and Strootman will partner as the two defensive midfielders, one to pass the ball and the other to protect it, and the formation will become a balanced 4-2-3-1 formation."

"Nainggolan can't play as an attacking midfielder."

Di Francisco is very familiar with the players' technical characteristics.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have fielded three all-around midfielders who complemented each other's skills to some extent.

His suspicious gaze suddenly cleared as something occurred to him, and his mind clicked: "You mean—start Nainggolan and let Chang Lai play attacking midfield?"

Seeing Tome nod, his inspiration seemed to explode: "Lorenzo can also play as an attacking midfielder. He performs best in that position at Sassuolo, and Ünder has been in good form lately—"

Thinking of all this, Di Francisco shouted at Nainggolan, "Racha, come to my office."

The idea that a head coach has absolute authority over a team is actually a false proposition.

Tactical adjustments often affect the positions of star players, so it's best to communicate with them beforehand to avoid unnecessary locker room problems.

Of course, Di Francisco did not completely defeat Nainggolan, but rather developed corresponding tactical systems based on different opponents.

Once the tactics revert to a 4-3-3 formation, Nainggolan will be a key player as long as he doesn't get injured.

There's really no place for him in the 4-2-3-1 formation.

In this tactical system, Chang Huan is currently the most suitable player in the team to play as an attacking midfielder.

He possesses a broad vision, superb skills, strong breakthrough ability, and surgical-like direct passes.

After calming Nainggolan down, coach Di Francisco's team focused on developing a backup 4-2-3-1 formation.

After the regular training session ended that afternoon, the coaching staff called all the first-team players to the tactics room.

Most players showed no emotional fluctuations.

Nainggolan can be considered the only victim of the 4-2-3-1 formation tactical system.

Lorenzo Pellegrini, Ünder, and Gonalons will be the players who benefit from this new tactical system.

Especially Turkish winger Ünder, who was already mentally prepared to leave the team during the winter transfer window.

However, in the new 4231 tactical system, they will get a stable chance to play!

The 2017-2018 Italian Cup Round of 16 matches kicked off Tuesday night at the San Siro stadium.

Inter Milan clearly underestimated their opponent, Pordenone, a team in Serie C, and fielded a large number of substitutes and young players.

The score remained 0-0 throughout the game, and they failed to score in extra time either.

Ultimately, they had no choice but to resort to a brutal penalty shootout.

Relying on the players' superior skills, they made all five free throws to defeat Pordenone, who made four of five.

Then all three matches kicked off simultaneously.

The battle lasted ninety minutes.

佛罗伦斯3：2桑普多利亚、ac米兰3：0维罗纳、尤文图斯2：0热那亚罗马做客都灵奥林匹克体育场的义大利杯1/8决赛在周三晚展开角逐。

Three other matches also kicked off at the same time.

In the Italian Cup Round of 16 matches between Napoli and Udinese, Atalanta and Sassuolo, and Lazio and Cittadella, Roma made several changes to their starting lineup, clearly saving their energy for the weekend league match.

The formation submitted was the usual 4-3-3.

Goalkeeper Skorupski, defenders Emerson, Juan Jesus, Manolas and Bruno Perez.

Midfielders: Strootman, Gonalons, Chang Huan.

Forwards El Shaarawy, Schick, and Ünder.

Once the match begins, the third midfielder will push one forward to the center of the midfield line.

This results in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Torino coach Mihajlovic noticed the change in Roma's midfield positioning and mused, "So they've changed their formation."

""

This also means that some of the contingency plans made before the game may become useless.

Less than five minutes into the game, the defensive tactics against Chang Huan were already doomed.

Chang Huan's attacking midfielder role may seem to expose his physical weakness in the opponent's core defensive area, but his ghostly positioning, wide field of vision, and various one-touch passing skills allow him to maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses.

While maintaining close marking ensures the safety of the defensive zone, Chang Huan will decisively break through and threaten the defensive line or deliver a surgical through ball if the defenders relax their vigilance.

27 minutes.

Chang Huan, with his back to the goal, ran to the left edge of the penalty area to ask for the ball.

El Shaarawy didn't seem to care whether there were Torino players marking him.

Just send it.

Chang Huan, who was being marked by Valtifiori, passed the ball with one foot.

Instead of passing back to El Shaarawy, the pass went into the space behind Torino's right-back De Silvestri, who was marking El Shaarawy.

A diagonal through ball!

Emerson adjusted his footing as he ran, preparing to block winger Edra who was marking him.

Meanwhile.

El Shaarawy made a diagonal run into the empty space on the left side of the penalty area, drawing Silvestri's defensive attention.

Emerson, with his left foot raised, feinted a pass and cut inside. Valtifiori, who was marking Chang Huan, saw El Shaarawy suddenly stop and get a good chance to receive the ball, so he didn't care about anything else.

In this ambiguous, vital route of infiltration, defense is based on the principle of proximity.

Mihajlovic, standing in the home team's technical area, noticed Chang Huan silently running to the left and creating an open space, and immediately sensed something was wrong.

Strootman moved forward to the edge of the penalty area, where midfielder Joel Obi became the last barrier in front of the center-back.

Another midfielder, Akuwa, realized something was wrong and quickly rushed towards Chang Huan.

But—it was too late.

Emerson passed the ball to Chang Huan, who had run laterally to the left flank of the attack and was unmarked.

Halfway through the race, Valtifiori quickly turned and joined forces with Akwa to form a pincer movement!

Chang Huan passes the ball out with another kick!

This is a combination of masterful one-touch passing, superb ground guidance, and a deadly short pass with attributes boosted to the maximum of 93.

Push hard with the arch of your raised left foot!

He shoved hard into the lower middle part of the rolling football.

Emerson played a through ball to Chang Huan, and the overall rolling trajectory was V-shaped.

The ball, traveling low to the ground, rolled at high speed towards the middle of the left sideline of the penalty area.

"El Shaarawy!"

The commentator's voice rose eight octaves.

"Hehehe—"

The home fans in the stands instinctively gasped in shock.

Silvestri instinctively slowed his leg out by half a beat, and the high-speed rolling football almost grazed his studs.

El Shaarawy seemed to have anticipated this and was not fooled by the other party's movements.

He used the outside of his right foot to dribble the ball across the left sideline of the penalty area and cut into the box!

Right center-back Leyanko had to come out to cover.

El Shaarawy accelerated and cut inside with the outside of his right foot, using a series of leg swings to reach the edge of the left side of the six-yard box.

A powerful low shot!

Leyanko's fall to the ground slowed down his blocking speed, and the ball rolled quickly towards the far end of the goal.

The 2.02-meter-tall Serbian goalkeeper Vanya Milinkovic was out of reach.

The away team players huddled together to celebrate the goal.

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri, sitting in the stands, frowned, seemingly worried about the crucial six-pointer at the Allianz Stadium in Turin three days later.

This match was clearly Di Francisco testing new tactics.

The result fully utilized Chang Huan's technical strengths!

The live broadcast director recreated the exciting moment, leaving the fans watching in awe.

Oh my god, that was so stylish! He played the entire game with a single kick!

[An unbelievable through ball! Is this the true power of attacking midfielder Chang Huan?]

Who says Chang Huan can't adapt to being closely monitored?

[Two games without an assist is really ridiculous, you haters! Your dad is Ting, your dad!]

With the score in the lead, Rowan played steadily, making full use of the 4231 formation's three-point advantage to contend with Du Guang.

The tactics were adjusted to defensive counter-attack, waiting for an opportunity.

The backward Duguang did not seem to be in a hurry to catch up, but instead adopted a gradual approach to advance step by step.

However, his uncreative passing made it difficult to break through the defense and thus unable to threaten Skorupski's goal.

Both sides had their moments of offense and defense.

Overall, the attack from the pavilion was more threatening than the attack from the Luo bow.

Chang Huan possesses strong dribbling and passing abilities, and his presence in the midfield attracts a lot of attention.

The opening goal was scored from El Shaarawy's side, and for the remainder of the first half, El Shaarawy also began to focus on Ünder on the right wing.

Compared to El Shaarawy on the left wing, the Turkish starlet has a stronger explosive ability.

42 minutes.

Luo Kui organized an attack from the backfield, and Chang Huan, who had dropped back from the middle, made a long pass to El Shaarawy.

The overall offensive strategy shifted to the left flank, forcing Du Guang to focus his defense on the right flank.

Chang Huan, who had run to the left flank, waved to signal left-back Emerson to press forward boldly, while simultaneously running sideways to the right of the center to direct Strootman to press forward and link up the attack between the center and left.

Emerson, running along the left flank, made a powerful cross to the middle.

Strootman, positioned in the passing lane, let the ball pass, and Chang Huan, in the middle, lowered his left shoulder.

He made a sudden stop and pull to the left front!

Valtifiori's center of gravity subconsciously shifted to the right.

Chang Huanshiyi extended the angle of his right foot's arch, making full use of his ankle's flexibility to push the ball forward to the right, and then used a change in rhythm to complete the breakthrough.

Acqua, who was positioned on the left side of Torino's midfield, quickly moved into position.

With his wide field of vision, Chang Huan spotted something and suddenly thrust his left foot forward with a straight pass to the right!

The low-flying football rolled diagonally from the Du Guang Middle Road defense line, passing through the right flank space and rapidly rolling towards the inside corner of the right penalty area.

"Hygiz-Yundal!"

Ünder, fully charged forward, made a run down the flank from the outside against Molinaro, the left-back of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

34-year-old Molinaro's turning speed was noticeably slow, and he could only watch helplessly as the other team overtook him from the outside.

Left center-back Moretti anticipates the ball's trajectory and slides in with a sliding tackle.

But—Yundar is even faster when it gets going!

He poked the ball out with the tip of his left foot.

Moretti tackled the man inside the restricted area!

The assistant referee immediately raised his flag and waved it frantically to indicate that a foul had occurred.

All attention was focused on the referee, Giampaolo Calvarese.

A fraction of a second later.

In fact, Giampaolo Calvarese, who was in a good position, saw it very clearly. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, then raised his head and blew his whistle, his right index finger pointing to the penalty spot with great tension.

Penalty!

"6

Sky Sports Italia commentator Fabio Carreza exclaimed: "Chang-Huan's through ball has torn apart Torino's defense! Hejdiz Ünder has won a penalty!"