For Rangnick, to strengthen the team's strength, there must be a clear direction. He needs to know what the team's advantages and disadvantages are. The team's advantages are naturally sharp offense, while the disadvantage is unstable defense. Hoffenheim scored 86 goals this season, making him the team with the strongest offensive power in the Bundesliga, but they conceded 43 goals at the same time, so the defense cannot be considered good.

So this summer, the team mainly looks for suitable players in defense, and only makes supplements in offense. After Ibisek recovered from injury, it actually means that the team has introduced an attacking player. In addition, the team's attack power is already very strong.

After introducing a central defender, Rangnick will continue to strengthen the team's defense.

However, strengthening defense is not just about introducing guards. You must find out the problem and then prescribe the right medicine. Rangnick believes that the team's defense is unstable, and the main reason is the midfield.

Last season, Hoffenheim was in an unexpectedly good state because of the three forwards. Rangnick was reluctant to win any of them, so he had to change the original 442 formation to 433. This way the attack power was strong, but the defense was weak. Chu Zhongtian was the only midfielder, but most of the time he had to organize the attack, Rangnick also asked him to boldly step forward. Many times he was not in the back defensive position at all. There was a necessary barrier in front of the central defender. Can this defense be good? Although Chu Zhongtian's defense is also excellent. If he lets him concentrate on defense in the back, the team's defense can also be improved to a higher level, but this wastes Chu Zhongtian's offensive talent. This is definitely a matter of picking up sesame and losing watermelon, which Rangnick can't do.

So the key is to get the team's formation back to 442 next season, so that Chu Zhongtian can be equipped with a midfielder who is good at defense. His main function is to steal and intercept in the midfield. In addition, this person's mind must be clear, have a view of the overall situation, be calm, be able to quickly analyze the situation on the field, and after intercepting the ball, you must be able to quickly pass the football to the players in front, of course, including Chu Zhongtian. You cannot stick to the ball, and the technical movements must be concise and quick. He will not be the protagonist of the game, but it is an indispensable key link, and it is the first stop from defense to offense. In this way, Chu Zhongtian can be liberated and devoted to being his free man.

It’s not that if someone defends for a full-time job, Chu Zhongtian can stay in the frontcourt and never come back. That’s not possible. As a libero in the middle and backcourt, Chu Zhongtian must appear at any position on the court. He must retreat to the front of the penalty area when defending, and rush into the opponent’s penalty area when attacking. When defending, he must launch an attack, whether it is passing or dribbling.

This is a more traditional freeman tactic, but the division of labor requirements of modern football players is becoming more and more detailed. If Chu Zhongtian takes care of all his work, the result is that he can't do anything in a game and is just running around. So there must be someone to share his work. This person's ability must be stronger than Chu Zhongtian, or even worse than Chu Zhongtian. His task is to supplement support. Just like the closest comrades around the king, it is to assist, not to monopolize power.

Whether it was Beckenbauer or Summer, they were all assisted by their ranks at the peak of the Liberty position. However, their assistants were all central defenders, while Chu Zhongtian's assistant was the midfielder. This was also the changes that Rangnick made to adapt to the development of modern football by adapting to the development of modern football by the Liberty tactics. Modern Liberty can't think of starting from the position of scavengers like before. The midfielder who is increasingly important is a good choice to open up a new battlefield.

From this summer, Rangnick will further improve the libero tactics with Chu Zhongtian as the core, integrate his soldiers into the team through training, and make every Hoffenheim player get used to this kind of football. Once successful, everyone will see that Hoffenheim is no longer blindly moving forward with fast attacks. Their offensive rhythm will be decided by Chu Zhongtian. His first pass in the defense to offense will determine whether this attack will be fast-paced or controlled. The level of training that the team needs to achieve is that everyone can understand their leader's intentions from Chu Zhongtian's simple pass.

This requires a lot of training and the tacit understanding formed by playing football together for a long time.

Because Rangnick has high requirements for his midfielder who partnered with Chu Zhongtian, he has no good candidates in the transfer market for a while.

However, when it comes to choosing the defender, Rangnick saw another opportunity.

It was mid-June in South Africa. The South African Federation Cup, which was rehearsing for the World Cup one year later, was in full swing. Brazil was invited to participate as the champion of the last Copa America. Their captain is Lucio, who currently plays for Bayern Munich. This is a very powerful player. Although he is 31 years old, his performance in Bayern Munich is still very outstanding and is the pillar of Bayern Munich's defense.

It is such an excellent central defender, but it has been dazzling recently that Bayern Munich does not need him anymore, and he is not in the plan for new coach Van Gaal's next season.

Generally speaking, the transfer period has arrived, and there are many such rumors, which is not surprising. But what makes Rangnick feel that the opportunity has come is that Bayern Munich Club did not refute the rumors in response to this rumor. What does this mean? It shows that Bayern Munich Club does mean to drive away the Brazilians. Obviously, his relationship with the new head coach Van Gaal is not very good, and the club also feels that he is old and has no use value, so he plans to drive him away.

If these inferences are true, it will be a great opportunity for Hoffenheim!

Being able to get a central defender of Lucio's level will greatly improve the team's strength and image. How can such a star player be spared?

Simonic is here, but he is too slow. Lucio is much better than Simonic in terms of speed. Moreover, Lucio has won the Federation Cup, the Americas Cup, the World Cup, and three Bundesliga championships. He is a truly experienced champion-level player.

Rangnick heard rumors that Lucio was very dissatisfied with Bayern's attitude and had already expressed that he would definitely leave Bayern. This is good news for Hoffenheim, but the bad news is that there are many clubs interested in Lucio, including many giants. Can Hoffenheim compete to win other giant teams?

Rangnick decided to take the lead this time, instead of waiting patiently like buying Simonic. Time is crucial. Once this rumor is confirmed by more clubs, Hoffenheim's advantage will be gone. Fortunately, Hoffenheim is the new Bundesliga champion, which is still attractive for a Bundesliga player. In addition, he can also participate in the Champions League, which is also good for those ambitious players. As for personal treatment... Since Bayern Munich wants to let go, it is definitely impossible to make more difficult for transfer fees. In addition, the good relationship between Hope, Rummenig, and Beckenbauer should also play a certain role. In this way, those who save on transfer fees can earn a salary, give Lucio a better personal treatment, and attract him to join the Hoffenheim team.

Of course, Rangnick would not hang himself in a tree. Before Hoffenheim was preparing to contact Lucio's agent, he also prepared a second plan, which was to buy the frustrated German central defender Metzeld at Real Madrid.

Metzeld became famous in the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan. He was once considered the most promising newcomer in Germany. Unexpectedly, he was knocked down by frequent injuries. After transferring to Real Madrid, it was difficult to play due to injuries and ups and downs. Now he is tired of such days and plans to leave Real Madrid. It is said that some teams in the Bundesliga and Greek league are interested in him. Metzeld himself hopes to return to Germany, and of course not to go to the Bundesliga. If there are teams in the Bundesliga who are interested in him, he should be happy to join.

The difficulty of acquiring Metzelde is much lower than that of Lucio. On the one hand, Metzelde is not as good as Lucio's big name, and he will not require too much personal treatment; on the other hand, it is because Metzelde's frequent hand has caused his value to plummet. Real Madrid didn't spend a single euro to buy him, so I believe it wouldn't be too high if he sells it. The third point is naturally related to Real Madrid's new club chairman and Florentino who returns again.

Real Madrid dropped the first bombshell of the transfer market this summer just now. On June 9, they announced that they had won the former World Footballer, Brazilian Kaka from AC Milan for 65 million euros. After two days, Florentino shocked the world football world again. They and Manchester United announced last year's World Footballer, European Golden Ball winner Cristiano Ronaldo, joined Real Madrid, with the transfer fee of a world record of 94 million euros!

I spent more than 100 million in the transfer market, so I naturally had to sell people to balance the fiscal revenue and expenditure. So now Real Madrid is eager to clean up a group of players in the team that are useless to them. Real Madrid is actually another form of supermarket. In the past few years, they bought many excellent players from all over the world, and the cost is quite expensive. However, in recent years, because they have not achieved any results, the players who joined at that time have now dropped their value.

After the new chairman takes office, he will inevitably cleanse the previous power, so these players have become the targets of being cleaned. Everyone can choose the players they are interested in from the Real Madrid lineup at this time and then bargain with Real Madrid. Because they are eager to clean up the players, Real Madrid generally does not make too much trouble on the players' value at this time, and will often sell them at a price much lower than the market price. Real Madrid is not worried about losing money because they are not short of money at all.

Sneider, Van der Fate, Robben, Metzelder, Gago, Drente, Lassena Diarra, Guti, van Nisstruy... and other players have all reported transfer rumors, and even Higuain and Raul are considered to be the targets of Florentino's focus on cleaning.

With so many players, it is the treatment of the core players who just go to other teams, but they either sit on the bench or are cleaned up in Real Madrid. Real Madrid is really generous.

Rangnick not only wants to buy a defender, but also needs an experienced striker, preferably a Champions League experience. He turned his attention to Real Madrid again and found the person he wanted - Dutchman Van Nistruei who just returned from injury.

Van Nie's knee injury worsened at the end of last year and had to undergo surgery. After the operation, Van Nie actively recovered, hoping to use his performance to strive to enter the Dutch World Cup lineup. However, Real Madrid has changed a lot this season. After buying Kaka, Ronaldo and other attackers, it is not satisfied. It is said that Florentino has personally flew to France and plans to invite Benzema to join. In this way, the 33-year-old Van Niestroy has almost no living space in Real Madrid. If he can't play the game, Van Nie's dream of the World Cup will be shattered, and the Dutch head coach cannot make a player who can't even play in the league to be selected for the national team.

So in order to get more opportunities to play, Van Nisstrui must leave Real Madrid, although he had a good time at Real Madrid before being injured.

Rangnick believes that Van Nisstrui is the center he ideally - comprehensive technology and top-notch awareness. Although he is old, his previous games have not affected his condition. At the same time, he also has rich experience in the Champions League. He and Real Madrid teammate Raul are currently the first two scorers in Champions League history. His joining can definitely help the team go further in the Champions League.

In addition, Demba Ba's agent is discussing a contract renewal with the club. Demba Ba's agent offers too high prices, and the club disagrees. So his agent contacted Stuttgart. Stuttgart is very interested in the powerful forward who scored 22 goals last season. Demba Ba's agent intends to use this to force Hoffenheim Club to submit. He believes that Hoffenheim Club will never dare to let a forward who can score 22 goals in a single season.

Unexpectedly, Hoffenheim did not submit, they immediately contacted Real Madrid's Van Nistruei Demba Ba's agent misjudged the situation, thinking that Hoffenheim contacted Van Nistruei was just a rumor, and the purpose was to put pressure on them. If he and Demba Ba were soft at this time, all their efforts would be wasted. So on the one hand, he continued to forcefully declare that Stuttgart was interested in his players and was ready to buy them, and on the other hand, he firmly disagreed with the requirement to lower his salary.

Unexpectedly, Hoffenheim club was even more amazing than him. Not long after, the media began to rumor that Denba Ba was ungrateful and wanted to switch to Stuttgart. This made many Hoffenheim fans very angry. Even the Hoffenheim players on vacation were dissatisfied with what Denba Ba did. Sarrihovic directly criticized Denba Ba in an interview with reporters: "He should know, when he was still an unspoken person, who gave him the chance? He was able to win the Bundesliga championship and score twenty-two goals in a season, and who is it because of? I think a player should have a basic sense of gratitude. Now that he is famous, he remembers that big places pursue higher salaries, I think he will definitely regret it in the future!"

Public opinion is one-sided and defensive to Demba Ba. Demba Ba's agent still believes that this is Hoffenheim's plan, and the purpose is to force them to submit. This is a critical moment, so you must withstand it.

Unexpectedly, on June 17, the official websites of Real Madrid and Hoffenheim suddenly announced at the same time: Van Nistruy will join Hoffenheim for free transfer!

In order to thank Van Nystruei for his contributions to Real Madrid for his three seasons, Real Madrid has been very humane and has not made things difficult for Van Nystruei and Hoffenheim in the transfer. They are so generous that they do not charge Hoffenheim's transfer fee, so that Hoffenheim can provide Van Nystruei with a higher salary.

Hoffenheim signed a contract with Van Nisstrui for two years. At his age, these two years will be the last two years of Van Nisstrui's career. He seems to be destined to retire at Hoffenheim. In terms of annual salary, his pre-tax income of 3.5 million euros (thanks to many friends on Weibo for their help), although it is far less than his income at Real Madrid, for a player who is at the end of his career and is eager to play in the game, this difference is no longer something he cares about.

While announcing Van Nystruei to join the team, Hoffenheim Club also notified Denbaba's agent that the contract renewal negotiations would end and the club would no longer negotiate with them about the contract renewal. Anyway, Denbaba and the team still have two years of contract, either Denbaba will play in the team with their current salary for two years, and then compete with Obasi, Ibissevic, Wellington, and Van Nystruei, or look for what they said to find Stuttgart who is interested in Denbaba.

Because he said too much before, Demba Ba's behavior has already aroused many dissatisfaction in Hoffenheim, and it is obviously not good for him to stay in the team. So Demba Ba's agent had to go the second way to find Stuttgart. Stuttgart was indeed very interested in Demba Ba. They expressed this interest in the middle of last season. At that time, Hope and Rangnick both firmly denied the rumors that they wanted to sell Demba Ba to Stuttgart. Now it's different, the team is rebuilding, Demba Ba is no longer the indispensable person. If he wants to leave, he can leave.

So Demba Ba finally turned to Stuttgart for 10 million euros. Not many fans expressed regret for his departure, because everyone was still immersed in the joy of joining the team with a scorer of level Van Nystruei. Although Van Nystruei was a little out of date, for Hoffenheim fans in small places, Van Nystruei is still the "king of the small penalty area" that scares the enemy.

"We can finally enjoy the performances of world-class stars for us from a close distance!"

Excited fans left messages on the club's official website.

"Idiot! Chu is also world-class!"

"Ah, yes... But in terms of previous fame, Fanny should be bigger..."

"Chu Future must be world-class, but Van Nisstrui is not bad either. I am very happy that he can join our team. It is said that because our team can participate in the Champions League and just won the Bundesliga championship, which attracted him?"

"Well, although I don't like the Dutch, except this Dutch."

"It seems that the old man Hope is really ambitious. He bought Simonic and Van Nystruei. It is said that he is still chasing Lucio and Metzeld... Hoffenheim next season really makes me full of expectations!"

Comments about Demba Ba's departure did not even appear on the first page of the message board of Hoffenheim's official website. The previous series of words and deeds of Demba Ba's agent have long lost everyone's favor for this player.

So far, Hoffenheim has spent seven million to buy two veterans, but Hope and Rangnick's actions will not end there. They are still continuing to attack Lucio, hoping to continue to surprise the fans.

This summer, Real Madrid fans are undoubtedly the happiest, because they have the two dream superstars Kaka and C. Ronaldo. But in this small place Hoffenheim, the fans here are also happy, because they are witnessing the team gradually becoming stronger, which makes them full of expectations for next season.
Chapter completed!