Arsenal's two wings have incredibly fast players, their offense is terrifying, but their defense... especially their frontal defense ability, except for left-back Gordon, the others are somewhat lacking.
This is also why the outside world thinks Arsenal is a bit soft.
Especially without their main defensive midfielder holding the central position, they become even softer.
On the San Remo side, Tactical Master Sotu also unveiled a tactical whiteboard.
Lu Yang wrote and drew on the whiteboard: "Morici, Canyes, Kaint, including Lam, if there's an opportunity, directly penetrate their middle! Their central area is dangerously vacant, whoever penetrates scores!"
"If it's tough to guard the wings, then defend the middle, pile on numbers, let them play on the wings. If they can score by crossing, then it's their win!"
Since beautiful possession play can't be broken, then use numbers to park the bus in the middle.
Let's see if you truly are Lionel Messi, destined to break walls!
Soon, the second half of the match officially began.
With the change in San Remo's defensive tactics, the threat from Arsenal to San Remo's goal visibly decreased. Their successful breakthroughs and shots increased, but shots on target decreased.
Accordingly, the number of attacks from both sides also increased.
Theoretically, the goal probability for both sides greatly increased.
But Mr. Winter clearly noticed something was wrong, San Remo was attacking their center.
And Arsenal's midfield was unguarded.
When the attack frequency increased, Arsenal players started running more, sprinting more, increasing their stamina consumption. Once Arsenal's midfielders didn't want to run, their midfield completely disappeared.
Because, originally, it was speed compensating for the lack of defensive ability, and without speed... it's hard to believe.
Mr. Winter wanted to bring on Smith Luo, a defensive midfielder Arsenal bought, who had performed decently. Generally, when Arsenal didn't use the defensive midfielder Plazza, they would use Smith Luo.
But previously, Lu Yang said Mr. Winter's judgment of players had declined, and Mr. Winter wasn't convinced.
He believed that the movements of Lock and Nils could solve the defensive problem.
They didn't need to be defensive experts, they just needed to be in the right place.
Moreover, Smith Luo had also been dominated by Lu Yang before.
"Smith Luo, go warm up!" Mr. Winter hesitated a lot but still felt he should prepare.
As a result, when Smith Luo started warming up, Lock and Nils were instantly filled with motivation, as no one wanted to be substituted, and they started running like crazy.
Nils, facing Lu Yang with the ball, performed a dazzling move and successfully bypassed Lu Yang.
But turning back, Lu Yang pressured Nils to the sideline, where Nils made a hurried cross of poor quality, which Lam intercepted.
Lam launched a long ball to Bai Zhami.
Bai Zhami, in a confrontation with Koschel, lost possession.
The quick turnover of ball possession made for an exciting contest of attack and counterattack.
Soon, it reached the seventieth minute, and the stalemate on the field was still unbroken.
But San Remo's shots on target were increasing.
If Bai Zhami weren't somewhat restrained by Koschel, he might already have scored.
Koschel's defense isn't top-notch, but his movement speed is fast, somewhat like an enhanced version of Lam, with very timely sweeping.
During a throw-in, Lu Yang and Bai Zhami quietly switched positions.
For someone like Nils, Bai Zhami is enough to handle him; Lu Yang had almost dealt with Nils.
Lu Yang wanted to personally tackle the tough nut that is Koschel.
In the seventy-fifth minute.
Bai Zhami rapidly retreated to defend Nils.
Lock advanced with the ball, having no passing route, which allowed Kaint to seize the opportunity to reclaim possession.
Bai Zhami immediately reversed his run.
And this time, Nils didn't follow, as he was too exhausted from his sprints on the wing.
Especially after the confrontations with Lu Yang, which wore him out.
Often, Lu Yang wasn't in a hurry to tackle but pressured him, yet allowed him to laboriously dribble to the goal line.
Looking back now, it wasn't that Nils couldn't be defended, but rather he was exhausting Nils, then handing the nearly exhausted Nils over to Bai Zhami.
Kaint passed the ball to Bai Zhami.
Bai Zhami carried the ball across the halfway line.
Arsenal's right-back Moruno maintained some distance from Bai Zhami, adhering to Winter's defensive philosophy of compensating defensive intensity with speed to avoid losing position.
If it was like this for Lu Yang, even more so for the faster Bai Zhami.
But after crossing the midfield, Bai Zhami immediately cut inside.
Directly challenging the right midfielder Olic.
To be frank, Olic is just a winger, even though he stayed in the central defense when Lock and Nils advanced due to his good sense of positioning, defense isn't something that's useful just by being there.
The value of certain defensive players lies in their irreplaceability.
Especially defensive midfielders.
Bam!
Bai Zhami passed the ball to Morici.
Morici easily ran past Olic, facing an open path in front of Arsenal's penalty area.
White, who was closer to Morici, immediately rushed out of the penalty area to defend Morici.
Morici made a direct pass.
Lu Yang, cutting inside without the ball, appeared in the left area inside the penalty box.
Koschel quickly moved towards Lu Yang, colliding with him.
Using this positioning and collision defense again.
Fully utilizing the center-back's physical advantage over speed-type forwards... if there is a physical advantage.