Chapter 427: Who is it? He actually made a transfer offer of 1 billion euros!
In this round of the league, although Manchester City was affected by being eliminated from the Champions League, they still defeated Aston Villa 2-1 at home and are still 4 points ahead of Manchester United with two more games to play.
Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-2 at home and have 73 points. Newcastle beat Middlesbrough 2-0 at home and have 75 points. Arsenal has one game less and is only 2 points behind Newcastle, which is ranked fourth, while Chelsea with 71 points has fallen to sixth place.
Leeds United was defeated 1-2 by Liverpool at home. The Reds have 81 points, 3 points behind Manchester United, who are in second place with two games less, after one game less.
The top six teams in the standings are in a mess. The top three teams, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool, all have the possibility of winning the championship, while Newcastle, Arsenal and Chelsea, ranked 4th to 6th, have started the most brutal battle for the top four in the league in recent years.
Aston Villa, ranked 7th, has 43 points, 28 points behind Chelsea, ranked 6th.
It is generally believed that the new BIG6 has been formed. Although Tottenham's revenue is still higher than Newcastle's, Newcastle's record and strength are completely not on the same level as Tottenham, which has lost Kane.
In this match, Chen Xiaoliang scored the only goal of the game and showed a "talented" performance in the defense. Although he was commented by the outside world as not being familiar with the center back position, he dominated the position with his strong talent, had 4 headers and 4 interceptions, and was still named the best player of the game, earning 12 training points (2→14) and 2 breakthrough points (58→60).
There are four league rounds and two league make-up matches left, as well as one FA Cup final and one Champions League final. The team will have the last eight important matches in the last month and a half to decide the three-tier championships.
At this stage, Chen Xiaoliang has scored 32 goals and assisted 22 times in the league, 9 goals and 9 assists in the Champions League, and a total of 49 goals and 35 assists in all competitions.
Although his statistics in this season's Champions League are slightly lower than his 13 goals and 12 assists in last season's Champions League with Roma, the data of 49+35 is still too explosive. And everyone who watches football knows that Chen Xiaoliang is currently the number one goal-scorer in the top five leagues, but he almost never misses a goal. Not only does he often score extremely difficult goals, but he also rarely easily receives passes from his teammates in front of the goal to score.
The data is extremely valuable.
You should know that Messi's two strongest seasons in terms of statistics were 91 goals and 22 assists in 69 games in 2012, and 53 goals and 25 assists in 55 games in 2011.
In 2011, Messi won five titles including the Champions League, and in 2012 he scored an incredible 91 goals, but Barcelona did not reach the Champions League final that season.
But it should be noted that since the Ballon d'Or at that time was still awarded on an "annual" basis, Messi's two data were also calculated on an annual basis. But now, after the reform of the Ballon d'Or, the calculation unit has become "season".
Without the support of data from national team games, it can be said that in terms of single-season data, it is very likely that he will achieve 50+40 as Ten Hag said. Even if we are humble and do not say that he is the best, he can be said to be comparable to any legend throughout the ages.
At least De Bruyne, who contributed a career-high 21 assists this season, was quite convinced. He said bluntly that if Chen Xiaoliang was Belgian, he would soon win the European Cup and the World Cup and become the new generation of football king.
The outside world's praise is not just lip service. As Van der Sar is still receiving treatment in the hospital, Manchester United owner Jassim, who is temporarily serving as the club's CEO, has encountered a troublesome problem.
La Liga giants Real Madrid and Saudi club Al-Qaeda have both made transfer offers for Manchester United after the match with Wolves.
Real Madrid offered a transfer price of 400 million euros to buy Chen Xiaoliang, which is already the most exaggerated offer in football history. However, in front of the "Sand Dollar" League's Riyadh Victory, it can only be called a younger brother. The latter directly offered a shocking offer of 1 billion euros! They even promised Chen Xiaoliang an annual salary of 600 million US dollars!!!
This price is 3 times that of Cristiano Ronaldo and 1.5 times the annual salary that the Riyadh Crescent offered to Messi at that time!!!
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has declared that he wants to buy the best players in the world to the Saudi league.
But no matter whether it is 400 million or 1 billion, in front of Manchester United owner Jassim, it is an existence that he is too lazy to even look at. What's more, Qatar, which only gained independence in 1971, has a complicated relationship with Saudi Arabia in history. On the surface, the relationship is good and there is a lot of cooperation, but there are also many areas of competition in secret, especially in football in recent years. Qatar's successful hosting of the World Cup has deeply stimulated Saudi Arabia.
Jassim would never sell the club to Saudi Arabia, and as an avid Manchester United fan, after spending 6 billion euros to buy Manchester United, he doesn't care about 1 billion, not to mention Real Madrid's 400 million euro offer.
But he also realized that Chen Xiaoliang's popularity might put the club at risk of losing him.
Therefore, he, who originally wanted to give Chen Xiaoliang a raise and sign a new long-term contract, urgently communicated with the transfer, financial and legal teams, and unprecedentedly offered an option contract to the active player.
In addition to increasing his weekly salary from 400,000 pounds to 800,000 pounds, plus various bonus clauses, his total annual salary doubled from 25 million pounds to 50 million pounds. In order to circumvent the fiscal balance bill, he offered Chen Xiaoliang an option incentive for 10% of the club's shares.
Although it is not real equity, the conditions set in the contract are that this part of the options can enjoy the same dividend rights as equity after the end of each fiscal year. Considering that Manchester United's profit before interest and tax is about 170-200 million pounds, it means that while avoiding fiscal balance, Chen Xiaoliang's annual salary has been increased by 17-20 million pounds.
However, even with this part added, Chen Xiaoliang's annual salary will still rank second in European football after Mbappe.
Of course, this also has a prerequisite, which is to ensure a certain amount of data and trophies every season.
And the best part is that every time you win the Champions League, the option ratio can increase upwards to 30%.
Eventually, when Chen Xiaoliang retires from Manchester United, he will exercise his options with the club's owners at the time, and the club will pay cash in installments based on the valuation.
Based on the current starting amount of 10% and Manchester United's current valuation of US$8 billion, it means that Chen Xiaoliang can receive an incentive of US$800 million after his retirement.
Even without considering the future club appreciation and the increase in option ratio due to winning the championship, with just the $800 million, if the 19-year-old Chen Xiaoliang plays for another 20 years and retires at the age of 39, he can get an average annual salary of $40 million.
This can be said to be the largest contract that the mainstream European leagues can offer to active players while meeting the Financial Fair Play Act.
Jasim personally talked to Chen Xiaoliang alone, and Chen Xiaoliang's answer was very interesting:
"Thank you for the forward-looking plan of the boss, but I never discuss new contracts before the end of the season. Now all my thoughts are on the last eight games left."
Sometimes rejection can be a form of "seduction". After being politely rejected by Chen Xiaoliang's "temporarily put on hold", the sincere Jasim became even more itchy and asked the transfer team to pay close attention to whether other clubs had contacted Chen Xiaoliang, and to keep the cornerstone of the club's dynasty revival at all costs.
The players and coaches are unaware of this and everyone is still training and preparing as usual.
After three days of restorative training, which was like a long-awaited vacation, Manchester United welcomed Nottingham Forest, which was ranked second from the bottom, at home. This was a make-up match of the 27th round of the league. On the same day, there was also a make-up match between Arsenal and Wolves.
During these three days, Chen Xiaoliang did not fully recover his previous training rhythm. The soreness in his muscles recovered very quickly due to the effect of [Reduced the duration of all sports-related negative states by half]. However, the problem was that he recovered, but his teammates did not...
So the extra training team did not resume business... In 3 days, they got 9 points of training value (14→23)
With 25 points, Nottingham Forest has every chance of staying in the league, as they are only 2 points behind Sheffield United, which is in 15th place.
In the past, there has always been a saying that "Arsenal, who are fighting for the top four, and the relegation teams are the most difficult to deal with."
They really tried their best tonight.
Head coach Steve Cooper set up a 5-4-1 iron bucket formation, if for no other reason than to keep the 1 point.
B Fee has officially returned from injury, and Casemiro, Lima, Varane and others have basically recovered from minor injuries. Except for Rashford who has to wait for two weeks and Eriksen who is out for the season, the other players have adjusted and recovered.
After the opening, Manchester United launched a fierce attack.
Chen Xiaoliang, who played as a central midfielder and constantly exchanged positions with the starting right winger Bruno Fernandes, became the focus of the team's offense.
The "1" in Nottingham Forest's 5-4-1 formation was not a striker, but the 23-year-old Brazilian Danilo Oliveira, who followed Chen Xiaoliang throughout the defense, while the other nine players parked the bus in front and behind the penalty area.
The most outrageous thing is that Danilo did not even stay away from Chen Xiaoliang during the attack, so that he could defend immediately after the switch from offense to defense.
After Danilo began to fall behind Chen Xiaoliang in the 50th minute of the second half, Nottingham Forest sent on 24-year-old English midfielder Morgan White to continue Danilo's unfinished work.
This is almost a suicidal kick.
But Manchester United has more than just Chen Xiaoliang, otherwise they wouldn’t be where they are today.
In the 61st minute of the second half, B Fee dribbled the ball on the right and cut inside a few steps before kicking a short high ball to the right side of the penalty area. Milinkovic-Savic took advantage of his 191cm height advantage and headed the ball to the middle. Cesco broke out of the double-team and raised his right leg to volley the ball, finally breaking through Nottingham Forest's goal and changing the score to 1-0.
With their gates breached, Nottingham Forest could only press forward and try to counterattack and attack, but once the bus in front of their own goal disappeared, it meant that they would directly bear the heavy fire from Manchester United.
Ten Hag continued to use all five substitutions to ensure that players' fatigue and injuries caused by the game were minimized.
But before being substituted in the 74th minute, Kva still assisted his good friend Cesco to score the second goal of the game.
His signature dribbling moves included a series of feints and swaying left and right before breaking into the penalty area, then passing the ball back in a triangle and finding Cesco, who shot into the near corner to score.
2-0, Manchester United won all 3 points without any difficulty.
In another make-up match, Arsenal also defeated Wolves 2-0 at home, officially surpassing Newcastle by 1 point with 76 points and ranking fourth.
No one can remember a team other than the champions, unless they are Arsenal in fourth place.
Manchester United, with one game less, has 87 points, only one point behind Manchester City.
Manchester United, who did not have much rest time, faced Leeds United, who were ranked 16th and on the verge of relegation, at home again three days later.
I still remember that in the first half of the season, it was the Rose Derby against Leeds United away that completely established Chen Xiaoliang's status as the "spiritual leader" in the locker room. Now, half a year has passed, and this Manchester United, which has transformed several times, is no longer something that Leeds can stop, even if you are a relegation team.
In the past six months, the team has encountered a ferocious team like West Ham, top passing and controlling teams like Barcelona and Manchester City, strong teams like Bayern and Liverpool, and an extreme defense like Newcastle.
After winning game after game against Chen Xiaoliang, this group of players not only accumulated great self-confidence, but also developed a temperament - if you are ruthless, I will be more ruthless than you; if you are fierce, I will be more fierce than you.
Using a little force to achieve a great result is only a temporary strategy, and using softness to overcome hardness is not the right way.
Confucius once said: Repay evil with justice, and repay kindness with kindness.
Chen Xiaoliang's style is to repay blood with blood and tooth for tooth, and he always takes revenge on the spot. He is definitely not like Salah against Real Madrid, who never took revenge but kept settling more and more accounts.
In this game, Leeds United, who wanted to show their toughness at Old Trafford, had not yet gotten tough enough before they were softened by the even tougher Manchester United.
It's like you bring a brick to scare the other person, but the other person just pulls out a machete and starts hacking at you without saying a word. Anyone's first reaction would be to run away.
In the 24th minute of the first half, Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball to the left flank, attracted two defenders and then passed the ball horizontally to the top of the arc, assisting B Fee to score a beautiful long shot, 1-0.
In the 39th minute, a cross from the right rib reached the back post, helping Ganacho, who was in the starting lineup, to score, making it 2-0.
Finally, in the 79th minute of the second half, he dribbled the ball to the left rib and passed it directly to Kwa, who came on as a substitute for Ganacho in the 70th minute. The latter received the ball in the small penalty area on the left and shot a low shot that went through the crotch of Leeds goalkeeper Meslier, making it 3-0.
Manchester United fans are already accustomed to such victories, and are no stranger to Chen Xiaoliang's assist hat trick in this game.
With the assist hat trick in this game, Chen Xiaoliang's league record-breaking assists have reached 25 times, which has also widened the gap with De Bruyne's 21 assists in the league.
In this game, he gained 16 training points and 6 breakthrough points (60→66).
However, due to triggering the hat trick reward of 16 training points x 3, it becomes 48 training points (23→71).
After 35 rounds of the league, Tottenham performed very well at home, but without Kane they were unable to score, and despite having the upper hand they still lost 1-2 to the powerful Manchester City.
Manchester City tried their best to maintain its one-point lead and still occupied first place.
Liverpool had a goal-scoring battle with Brentford at home, beating the Bees 3-2 and topping the league's scoring list with 96 goals. With four rounds left, they are 7 points behind Manchester City, who have played one more game, so there is still a theoretical possibility of winning the league title.
Arsenal had just overtaken Newcastle to move up to fourth place, but suffered a setback on the road, being tied 1-1 by Sheffield United. They were overtaken again by Newcastle, who beat Bournemouth 1-0 away, and dropped to fifth place.
Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 3-0 and continued to closely follow the fourth place.
At this point, all the games in April have ended, and the final feast of the season and the toughest main courses will be served one by one.
The first game on May 2nd is the make-up match of the 30th round of the league and the 214th Manchester United derby, in which Liverpool will host Manchester United at Anfield in the English national derby.
Liverpool manager Klopp has said countless times this season that in most other years, Liverpool's points this year would have been enough to secure the league title.
They currently have 84 points in 34 games, and 6 points in the remaining 4 games. A score of 90 points is indeed enough to win the championship in most Premier League seasons.
After being depressed for half a season, Klopp also realized that the biggest gap between him and the two Manchester City giants is not in the coach, tactics or lineup configuration, but in the lack of a superstar like Chen Xiaoliang and Haaland who can dominate the world in troubled times in the team.
However, this kind of player is hard to come by, and he has already faced the reality in his heart.
But it doesn't matter if he can't win the long league game, he must win the Manchester derby in one battle, especially after losing 6-0 at Old Trafford in the first half of the season, which made him toss and turn and suffer from insomnia every night.
Although he does not have any superstars under his command, after further running-in this season, Gakpo and Nunez have taken on the main responsibility of the offensive line and formed the new Red Arrow Trio with Salah.
In the midfield, the 20-year-old Belgian midfielder Romeo Lavia was bought from Southampton in the winter window. He formed a super midfield triangle combination with Barella and McAllister, who is tough, fast and powerful.
The updates in the front of the midfield also ensured that his high-running, high-pressing and high-tempo tactics, known as "heavy metal football" by the outside world, could be reproduced. He was called the strongest third place in the history of the Premier League by many fans.
In the Europa League, they also reached the final and will face La Liga's "Yellow Submarine" Villarreal.
At the pre-match press conference, Klopp once again vowed to avenge the 6-0 defeat.
Compared to Ten Hag's calm and steady speech at the press conference, who did not want to focus on the personal grudges between the two teams at the end of the season, Chen Xiaoliang's speech was concise but direct:
"Our current goal is to win the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League."
"If he wanted to talk to me about the FA Cup final, then I might be interested."
"But the Premier League title? Does it have anything to do with them?"
When Chen Xiaoliang said this, he shrugged, smiled slightly, and stopped talking, causing the reporters in the audience and Ten Hah next to him to laugh.
Although Chen Xiaoliang said it bluntly, Klopp said that he only cared about revenge, but that was not what he had in mind.
If they can beat Manchester United in this make-up match at Anfield, they will only be 4 points behind Manchester City and 3 points behind Manchester United with three rounds left in the league.
It is not impossible to catch up to 4 points in three rounds of games.
In addition, they will face Manchester United in the FA Cup final. As long as they win this game, their morale and confidence will be boosted. If they then win the Europa League, it is not impossible to achieve a small treble in the season.
As this game is of great importance at the end of the league, the Premier League released the starting lineup 2 hours before the game in order to create momentum.
Home team Liverpool 4-3-3:
goalkeeper Alisson;
The back four: Arnold, Van Dijk, Gvardiol and Robertson;
The single defensive midfielder is Lavia, and the double central midfielders are Barrera and McAllister;
The three forwards are Salah, Gakpo and Nunez.
Away team Manchester United 4-2-3-1
goalkeeper David de Gea;
The back four: Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Lima and Luke Shaw;
The double defensive midfielders are Milinkovic-Savic and Casemiro, and the central midfielder is Chen Xiaoliang;
Left winger Kva, center forward Cesco, right winger B Fee.
This kind of game does not require any mobilization before the game. Ten Hag made the final tactical requirements in the locker room based on the starting lineups of both teams, which even the fans could predict without any guessing.
Then Chen Xiaoliang stood up, took off his coat, and all the players gathered in the middle.
Chen Xiaoliang: "What do you guys think we should do tonight?"
Everyone: “Fuck!”
Chen Xiaoliang: "What! Do!?!"
Everyone: "Go! To! Death!!!!"
