Reporter Nan Nan reports In 2021, Mancini swept Europe with his three-centre-back formation and won the "Euro 2020" title. A year later, Pep Guardiola also set out to build his own three-centre-back system, which eventually led to the coveted Champions League title. In 2024, in the finals of the junior high school group of the first Centennial School Cup, Shanghai Jiading Xuhang Middle School and Xi'an Tieyi Middle School both used a three-center-back system in the starting lineup. With the help of many high-level coaches and more scientific training methods, our campus football seems to have set off a trend of learning from advanced European football.

Wei Xing, technical consultant of Jinan Licheng No. 2 Middle School football team, believes that more and more high-level coaches in campus football are conducive to helping campus football absorb and digest new things in the football world. "Compared to the physical education teachers in the school, these high-level coaches have a good football foundation and sports experience. If they are full-time coaches, they will also have more time and energy to learn, they will have a better understanding of football skills and tactics, and they will be more comfortable in learning and mastering some new tactical concepts. Wei Xing said.

Due to the participation of Shanghai Jiading Huilong (Shanghai Jiading Xuhang Middle School), the champion of the U13 group of the 2023 China Youth Championship, the competition of the junior high school group of this year's Centennial Famous School Cup has attracted much attention. In fact, the junior high school group of this cup also has the champion of the Shaanxi Provincial Games, Xi'an Tieyi Middle School, the champion of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Liewu Middle School, and Xiamen Jimei Middle School, a traditional campus football team in Fujian Province, which won the top four of the junior high school group of this Cup. Coincidentally, the first three teams invariably used a three-centre-back tactical system. The Centennial Famous School Cup is just an exchange match between famous schools, but on such a stage, the strong school with strong campus football development shows the phenomenon of learning from Europe's advanced technical and tactical play.

In a period of scarcity of high-level coaches, it is considered a "tactic" to be able to place the players of your own side in a symmetrical way on the pitch in a school football match. The formation of campus football was once confined to the 442 and 433 formations used by the national team, and countless players with aura and talent could only find survival space with difficulty under the once rigid framework. Selecting players according to the formation is one of the many detours we have taken in the past.

However, with the development of campus football, more and more schools have opened up the channel between the echelon of professional clubs. Liewu Middle School from Chengdu has been working closely with the city's elite football training institutions for a long time, and their outstanding players have even had the opportunity to represent the Chinese Super League team Chengdu Rongcheng in competitions of all ages.

Hu Hao, coach of Liewu Middle School, said that there is no best formation in the football world, only the formation that is most suitable for the current situation of their team and the ability of the players, "Liewu Middle School does not have a fixed traditional formation, due to the different abilities of each class of students, we will also explore the most suitable style of play for them according to their characteristics." ”

"The choice of three centre-backs is a way we play based on the current staffing of the team." He said: "Both of our wide players have a certain pace and technical characteristics, and from my point of view, I still want to amplify the personality and strengths of the players on the field as much as possible, so there is a certain tendency in the formation and style of play. ”

Rooted in campus football for many years, Hu Hao said that those who think that we lack characteristic football players are not accurate, "As far as I know, we are not short of players with characteristics, there are professional echelons, there are also in campus football, they need coaches to give more encouragement and confidence, and persevere." ”

Shanghai Jiading Xuhang Middle School, which has the strongest junior high school group in this year's Centennial Cup, has opened up a channel with Shanghai Jiading Huilong, a team in the Chinese League, and accepted the concept of Jiading Huilong's youth training system. Gu Haolei, the leader of Jiading Xuhang Middle School, introduced that Raul, the youth training director of Jiading Huilong, has set a development plan for the whole club with a three-center-back system, and Xuhang Middle School, as an important force in the club's echelon training, has been keeping pace with the club's youth training plan.

After defeating Chengdu Liewu Middle School on penalties in the semifinals to advance to the finals, Liu Yin, head coach of Xi'an Tieyi Middle School, said that the gold content of this game is very high, and the opponent's style of play is very distinctive, "The two sides of Liewu Middle School are too distinctive, and I made several substitutions in order to continuously strengthen the restrictions on their two wingbacks." ”

Regarding the three teams in the semi-finals of the junior high school group are using the current popular three-center-back system in European football, Liu Yin thinks: "First of all, it shows that we are all learning advanced things, which is a good thing for our school football. Secondly, it also shows that we have more players with characteristics, and our selection is no longer confined to the template of the past, but can allow players with characteristics to give full play to their abilities and role in the team in a tactic that is more suitable for him. ”

Xi'an Tieyi Middle School has always taken the three-center-back formation as its own team building idea, and has created its own training system according to this idea. Zhang Hao and Liu Yin, there are not too many glamorous traces of their professional football careers, according to their own words, "that is, the level of the echelon", but this does not affect their pursuit of advanced skills and tactics. Liu Yin said: "Mr. Zhang Hao particularly likes the 343 formation, he once said when he was not retiring that if he wants to be a coach in the future, he will play 343." ”

A decade or so ago, when Jang Ho was obsessed with a three-centre-back system, only a handful of coaches in European football, such as Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel, dared to use this formation. At that time, the three central defenders were not as popular as they are today, but Zhang Hao admitted this dead reason, "Why don't we dare to learn and imitate?" ”

Today, all six echelons of Xi'an Tie No. 1 Middle School adopt a unified tactical system, which allows their children to grow up under a continuous system. "Our coaches don't participate in the selection of materials, there is an expert group, we tell the requirements to the expert group, and they decide. The children they choose are quickly integrated into our system. ”

Regarding the campus football talent selection system, Zhang Bin, head coach of Wuhan Hankou Furen Primary School, believes that children on campus are more malleable, and Liu Yin also holds this view. "I have led an echelon team in a professional club in Xi'an, and I have participated in the selection of materials from 2002 to 2003, 2005, including 2009 years.

"Sometimes the difference between the players on campus and the players in the professional echelon is not in the length and quality of training, but in the pressure of their studies. Even though our principal Qingqun has given us great support in the development of campus football, we still have to give priority to ensuring our children's exams. For example, in the case of the high school entrance examination, then we must suspend the child from training for 15 to 20 days, or even a month. "But at the same time, this is also their advantage, the players on campus have better opportunities to receive cultural education, and the level of education must be higher than that of the players who stayed in the professional echelon before." So I would say that it's not bad for kids to be able to play football in schools, they have very smart and good players. ”

Zhang Hao and Liu Yin both agreed with Pirlo's sentence that playing football depends on the brain, and the legs are just tools. "The intelligence of children in school football is based on a certain level of school education, and only in this way can they quickly understand some complex things in football tactics." Liu Yin said.

In terms of building their own campus football system, Chengdu Liewu Middle School, Shanghai Jiading Xuhang Middle School and Xi'an Tieyi Middle School all have their own different models. Regardless of the mode, it is inseparable from the training of high-level competition. In this regard, Liu Yin has a deep experience, "This Centennial School Cup, the intensity of the competition is quite high, and campus football needs this kind of high-level confrontation." A team like Jiading, who go through dozens of games of this level or even higher in a year, and their players react significantly faster to what is going on the field than our players. ”

For the construction of the campus football training system, Xi'an Tie No. 1 Middle School believes that the cultural construction is also very important. Under the influence of Principal Qingqun, Zhang Hao and Liu Yin never relaxed on the construction of the team's moral culture. Liu Yin told the children that at their age, they should not always think about which sneakers will come out with new styles, but should put more thought into how to kick the ball well. "I always tell them, when you kick out, you can wear whatever shoes you want, you don't have to think about it so much now." Liu Yin said.