In his previous life, when Gao Shen was still a student, he had always admired those strategiiuses who could pn and win battles from thousands of miles away.

  He also particurly enjoyed pying the role of a grand strategist. He always believed that some people in this world were truly extraordinary, possessing incredible intelligehese individuals could devise intricate pns based on a variety of information, foresee opportunities, and predict every move far in advance.

  It was akin to Mei gsu iV series Nirvana in Fire.

  Gao Shen had once imagihat highly successful business elites must operate in the same way. For instance, figures like Warren Buffett, the "god of stocks"; Bill Gates, who famously dropped out of college; others like the two wealthiest individuals who could casually earn 100 million, or the richest entreprehriving on a relentless "996" work culture.

  This perspective sted for years until Gao Shen's thoughts gradually matured.

  When he was just a small cog in the corporate mae, he stantly looked up to his superiors, from pany leaders to department heads, w how they could be so impressive, always making such wise and calcuted decisions.

  However, as he began to take on leadership roles himself and his subordiarted looking at him with simir admiration, he realized something important: it wasn't so much about having a precise, unparalleled vision, but rather the advahat came from access to different levels of information.

  Gradually, he began to uand that those he had once admired were not particurly exceptional. They too fumbled duriings, hesitated when making decisions, made mistakes, and scrambled to fix their blunders in every ossible.

  He had witnessed a promi industry leader make a premature annou, only to suffer heavy losses and public humiliation.

  He had also seen a pany that had been decred dead and on the brink of bankruptcy suddenly e back to life because one of their long-ed products uedly gained market tra.

  He had even seen he, supposedly invincible panies did not really possess the ability to peps ahead. They merely picked a dire, ied heavily, plunged in headfirst, and experimented relentlessly. Out of dozens of attempts, perhaps only one succeeded, and that single success would be touted as a legendary story of triumph.

  Even if something was clearly beneficial for everyohe process of implementation would iably veer off track, spiraling out of trol and ultimately resulting in disastrous sequences.

  Gao Shen had once heard an adage: "Why is failure the mother of success?"

  The reason is that every individual, every family, every pany, and even every try is always taking steps forward, trying and failiedly, and tinuously correg their course.

  There has never been such a thing as winning from thousands of miles away through fwless pnning!

  What exists instead is moving forward oep at a time.

  This truth applies to individuals, businesses, nations, and even football.

  And this underscores the importance of on-the-spot deaking!

  Pre-game strategies are like pnning and preparation before a match. They certainly be well thought out, but ohe oppo begins to adjust their tactics during the game, if you fail to respond in time and lose trol of the details, the match will eventually deviate from its interajectory.

  ---

  For the match against Arsenal, Gao Shen began preparing as soon as the draw results were announced.

  However, the most crucial part of his preparation was identifying Arsenal's weaknesses.

  At this stage, Gao Shen had not yet decided how to approach the match or what lio use when traveling to London.

  This was because iional matches posed signifit uainties for preparation. It was critical to determine whether any of his pyers had sustained injuries during national team duty and how they had recovered upon their return.

  Simirly, Arsenal were also affected by the iional schedule. How prepared were they?

  These were all factors that needed sideration.

  Intelligehering and analysis were what Gao Shen prioritized most, which was why Lucas' analysis department, where Lucas himself served as director had been tinuously expahe department now had six members, making it the most signifit division in Castel Volturno in terms of staffing.

  Informatiarding Arsenal and the uping match came flooding into Naples from all dires like a snowstorm. After being filtered and reviewed, it all nded on Gao Shen's desk.

  Sihe 2004–2005 season, Arsenal had pyed 21 home games in the Champions League, losing only ohat lo occurred in 2006, when they lost to Real Madrid.

  And during that match, the head coach of Real Madrid was Gao Shen.

  In other words, over the past five years in the Champions League, Arsenal had only ever beeed at home by Gao Shen, whether at Highbury Stadium or the Emirates Stadium.

  Since moving to the Emirates Stadium in 2006, Arsenal had remained uen in Champions League home games.

  If the Champions League qualifiers were included, their uen streak would be even more impressive.

  I years, whether it was A, Liverpool, or this season's Roma, none had mao secure victory at Arsenal's home ground. This was a major source of pride for the Gunners.

  For Arsenal, this was their greatest psychological advantage.

  At the same time, Arsenal, like Napoli, was the youeam in this season's Champions League.

  The average age of the Gunners was just 23 years old, slightly older than Napoli by a little over a year.

  Both teams were primarily posed of young pyers, both adhered to a passing and movement-oriented pying style, and even their formations were strikingly simir.

  Arsenal's ret strong performances could be attributed to Wenger's ability to seamlessly switch between two tactical systems: the 4-2-3-1 and the 4-4-2.

  ---

  "When pying away, they use the 4-2-3-1, which is more banced; at home, they use the 4-4-2, which is more attack-focused."

  "Arsenal's ret form indicates that their pyers have mastered the rotatioweewo tactical systems."

  At the coaches' meeting, Lucas analyzed Arsenal's current situation.

  "Additionally, they have their own attag trident: Van Persie, Adebayor, and Walcott, as well as pyers like Nasri and Fabregas. These attackers form tight offensive es in the front, frequently interging positions, which will undoubtedly create signifit challenges for our defense."

  Lucas' analysis rgely aligned with Gao Shen and the coag staff's observations about Arsenal.

  It was difficult to succeed with just one fixed formation, unless you trolled possession as overwhelmingly as Bara.

  This season, Maer United had alternated between the 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 formations, while Arsenal rotated between the 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 systems.

  Napoli, simirly, utilized both the 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 formations this season.

  It was clear that the 4-2-3-1 formation remained quite popur.

  Gao Shen believed that no matter how Arsenal adjusted their tactics, some aspects of their game remained sistent.

  For instaheir relian wide py.

  From the past to the present, Arsenal had always emphasized wing py as their main attag el.

  In earlier years, they relied on Ljungberg, Pires, Henry, and Reyes. Now, it was Walcott, Nasri, and Arshavin.

  Even their fullbacks were chosen based on their offensive capabilities, which ofte gaps in Arsenal's defense.

  Additionally, Wenger's teams had long struggled with transitioning from attack to defense.

  Since Gao Shen's time coag Real Madrid, he had always emphasized the speed and efficy of transitioween attad defense.

  The so-called transition from attack to defense involved both ung swift terattacks and quickly regrouping defensively.

  Gao Shen had previously noted Wenger's insistenaintaining short passing distances, requiring pyers to stay within teers of one another. While this stant movement optimized their offensive game, it also ed enormous amounts of energy.

  This excessive running brought about another issue: when Arsenal trolled possession, they could dictate the tempo and exploit their wide pyers. However, ohey lost the ball, their formation would often fall apart.

  How to quickly regroup aablish a defensive shape had always been a major issue for Arsenal.

  In the past, when pyers like Vieira, Gilberto Silva, and Sol Campbell were around, their individual abilities allowed them tahe defense in the midfield and bae quickly, minimizing these problems.

  However, after those pyers left, the cracks began to show.

  For example, in midfield, Fabregas repced Vieira. While Fabregas excelled at anizing attacks, could he fill Vieira's defensive role?

  Not to mention, in terms of physicality and defensive capability, the Spanish midfielder was on airely different level pared to Vieira.

  After Wenger implemented his policy of not renewing tracts with pyers over the age of 30, experienced pyers left in droves, l Arsenal's average age but also depriving the team of valuable experience.

  As a result, when Arsenal transitioned from attack to defehey no longer had key figures to stabilize their formation as they did before.

  This is why Arsenal noeared sile.

  Wenger's Gunners had ruggled offensively. With their passing and movement, attag was never an issue.

  But Arsenal's Achilles' heel had always been their defense.

  If their defense was unstable, no matter how brilliant their attack was, it was nothing more than a castle built on sand.

  "So," Gao Shen cluded his analysis, expressing his core strategy.

  The match had to be approached step by step, but the fual approach against Arsenal would remain unged. This was the dire Gao Shen had set for Napoli.

  "In our uping training sessions, we'll focus on drills for wing-based attag and deferansitions. We'll aim to py at a high tempo, in the simplest, most direct, and sharpest ossible, to defeat Arsenal!"