Chapter 433: Three Final Battles, Three Championships (Part 1)
Chen Xiaoliang returned home and continued to tinker with the system.
But before that, the courtyard of his rented house in Cheshire was once again filled with lively conversation.
Ibiza finished fourth in the Spanish First Division, entered the 10-team play-offs, and eventually qualified to become one of the 22 teams in the Spanish Second Division next season.
After completing all the work of the season, the club's players and coaches have gone on vacation. Erica also temporarily put aside her work as general manager, returned to Germany for a few days to visit her family, and then went straight to Cheshire, which she had been longing for.
The reasons were very sufficient, to accompany his sister and report work to the club shareholder Chen Xiaoliang.
Chen Xiaoliang's plan is also very clear, which is to keep the team in the Spanish Second Division for a relatively long period of time, and then send young players from the Red Country from the youth training camp to compete.
Without talking about commercialization and revenue, the tactical level and overall strength of the Spanish Second Division are still much stronger than those of the Red Super League. And precisely because of the poor commercialization, the teams in the Spanish Second Division are generally simple and focused on football itself.
This is completely different from the "100 million pound battle" for promotion to the Premier League, which is also a second-tier league, although "money first" is one of the essences of professional football.
The two red primary school players in the team, Hu He and Guo Jia, performed very well in the Spanish Association League One. If other youth training players can be added next season to ensure that the team does not get relegated from the Spanish Second Division, then this practical attempt can be said to be half successful.
Another day passed and Riise also came. Of course, his purpose of coming was not just to discuss with Chen Xiaoliang and Erica how the Ibiza club should recruit players and update the coaching team next season.
Van der Sar is still recovering in the hospital, but Manchester United cannot delay recruiting players for next season. Although the season has not yet ended, major European giants have already begun to actively contact transfer targets.
Chen Xiaoliang really didn't want to discuss this with only the last three games of the season, which are also the three most crucial games, but Manchester United's transfer strategy now is to cast a wide net. Not only does it have a large scouting team, it also cooperates with super agents such as Mendes, Barnett, Pimenta and Riise, telling them the team's general needs, and then letting these agents provide recommended lists. The transfer team will then analyze the scouts' reports and finally determine the target.
Irankunda, who has already trained with the team, is the target provided by Chen Xiaoliang. His role is to replace Sancho, who has a very low cost-effectiveness and can no longer adjust his mentality.
Chen Xiaoliang gave two names, one defensive midfielder and one central defender.
Reese looked at the names and thought for a while. He knew both of them. One of them had even played against him before...
After looking up at Chen Xiaoliang and getting a confirming answer, Reese immediately took action.
Originally, Roque, who was assigned to Roma, should have been on the list, but Roque has scored 17 goals and 13 assists in all competitions in Roma this season. His value has soared to 50 million euros, which directly attracted Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City and other teams to come in. Barcelona, in particular, had been flirting with Roque for several years. If Riise hadn't shown up halfway, they would have signed the Brazilian striker known as the new Ronaldo long ago.
After finishing the club's affairs, Chen Xiaoliang was finally able to handle his own affairs.
The victory over Arsenal in the last game, plus his solo goal, earned him 12 training points (14→26).
However, this season, apart from the double victory over Tottenham, the draws with Chelsea and Manchester City, and not conceding a goal in the away game against Newcastle, he basically lost the ball when he encountered the BIG7 teams, which also made him lose many opportunities to get breakthrough points.
As for the [Big Club Mission], he got a card called Yongberg's wing breakthrough card, which is not very useful to him now.
He looked at his backpack and simply combined this card with nine other cards, including Ashley Cole, Ronaldo, Zidane, Robert Pires, Bergkamp, Tevez, Torres, Suarez and Materazzi, to increase his long-range shots from 18 to 19.
He really wanted to keep Suarez's biting card and Materazzi's swearing card, but now as a double champion in football, he absolutely cannot do such things on the court. Not only will it cause great controversy, but it will also seriously affect his personal reputation and image.
However, looking at the Busquets acting card, Gerrard slip card and Balotelli fireworks card still left in the card bag, Chen Xiaoliang couldn't help but reveal a sly smile.
After going through all these things, Chen Xiaoliang and the entire team began preparing for the finals.
The FA Cup, the oldest football competition in human history, was established in 1871.
That year, the Paris Commune Revolution broke out, the German Empire was established, the Qing Dynasty was still in the Tongzhi period, and the future Emperor Guangxu had just been born.
Today, this event has reached its 143rd year.
Coincidentally, the name of the champion of the first FA Cup was "Wanderers". They won the FA Cup five times in the first seven years of the tournament. However, the team was disbanded in 1887. It was not until 2009 that the descendants of the club's players re-formed the team and participated in England's 15th-level league - Surrey South East League Junior Group B.
Even if they could be promoted every year, it would take eleven years to reach the fourth-tier league, English Football League 2, which is attended by all professional clubs...
Arsenal is the most successful club in this competition, having won a total of 14 titles, followed by Manchester United with 12 times. After them, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham have all won the FA Cup eight times.
Because Manchester United defeated Liverpool twice in the league this season with a huge score difference, public opinion before the game was almost unanimous that Manchester United would win the championship.
But in the game against Liverpool, the team never needed too much mobilization. Both Ten Hag and Chen Xiaoliang put defense first in their training in the locker room.
After all, this is the final and there is no room for error.
The starting lineups for both teams were announced 90 minutes before the game.
Manchester United drew the home team tonight, wearing red jerseys and changing the formation to 4-1-4-1:
Goalkeeper Livakovic, as a reward for his outstanding performance this season, Ten Hag gave him a start in tonight's cup final;
Defenders: Dalot, Lindelof, Timber, Luke Shaw;
Single defensive midfielder Chen Xiaoliang, double central midfielders Milinkovic-Savic and B Fee;
Left winger Kwa, center forward Cesco, right winger Rashford.
Liverpool still started with a 4-3-3 formation:
goalkeeper Alisson;
The back four consists of Arnold, Konate, Gvardiol and Tsimikas;
The three midfielders are Barrera, Lavia and McAllister;
The three forwards are Salah, Gakpo and Nunez.
Chen Xiaoliang didn't expect that he would be able to appear at Wembley so many times this season, and he didn't expect to meet Barella, his most disliked opponent, on the court again.
But Barrera is not the kind of person who can afford to lose, which leads to the fact that every time the two sides shake hands before the game, he just touches Chen Xiaoliang's hand to fool him, and doesn't even look at Chen Xiaoliang.
Van Dijk, who was psychologically traumatized by Cesco a while ago, was pressed to the bench by Klopp. The captain's armband was put on Salah's arm. The division was completed, the referee Paul Tierney blew the whistle, and the game officially began!
From the start, Manchester United took the initiative at Wembley Stadium.
They seemed to be proving to the outside world that they deserved any praise and support before the game.
In the 3rd minute, Bruno Fernandes tested Alisson ;
In the 9th minute, Chen Xiaoliang pressed near the right side and intercepted the ball that Lavia passed to Nunez. Then he immediately activated [Good at passing through balls], and with his passing attribute that had reached 21, he immediately sent a wonderful through ball to Rashford.
The ball was kicked directly to the top of the penalty area from just right of the center line, but Rashford, who had just recovered from his injury, seemed not to have recovered 100%, and his sprint speed was a little slower, but he still caught up with the ball, and before Gvardiol touched the ball, he kicked the ball to the left side of the penalty area with a falling side hook.
On the left side, Kva received the ball one step inside the penalty area line. Seeing that he was in a one-on-one situation, goalkeeper Alisson immediately left the goal to attack.
Konate, who had been chasing Rashford from behind, rushed straight to Kvar.
Kva took a step and faced Alisson who was half-crouching in front of him, and kicked a curved ball towards the far corner of the goal!
Lou Yichen: "Shoot! Far corner!"
"oops!"
"The ball actually hit the outside of the post and bounced out of the baseline!"
"Manchester United missed a great chance to score."
Klopp was furious on the sidelines, pointing at Lavia and yelling: "What are you thinking about?! Are you sleepwalking?!"
"If you keep passing the ball blindly, get off me!"
Seeing the head coach furious, the 20-year-old Belgian midfielder had no choice but to admit defeat. He raised his hand and turned his back to Klopp to avoid making eye contact with him.
They were just a little bit away from conceding the ball at the start of the game, and Klopp's roar made Liverpool's players afraid to try any risky moves, including long-distance through balls and a large advance of the back line.
But in this way, the three strikers in the front field immediately lost the support of the midfield and back field, and had to fight on their own, and the team's offense became much less threatening.
This made Gerrard, who came to the stands specially to watch the game, shake his head.
In his heart, he had been waiting for Chen Xiaoliang to realize that it was a wrong choice not to join Liverpool, but now even he himself could not help but admit that he might be the one who was wrong.
Liu Yue: "Manchester United has too big a psychological advantage. In other words, Liverpool has too much psychological burden. Their performance seems to show to some extent that they themselves do not believe they can win."
"Except for Nunez and McAllister in the midfield, the other players seemed to dodge or pass the ball as soon as they saw Xiaoliang coming to defend. If this was a tactic deliberately arranged by Klopp, it would invisibly increase the players' fear of the enemy."
In the 24th minute, Manchester United created another chance. Kwa was brought down by Arnold when he broke through on the left, and the referee Paul Tierney awarded Manchester United a free kick.
Luke Shaw originally wanted to take the penalty, and his left foot could have directly delivered the cross from the left side.
But Chen Xiaoliang walked over, Luke Shaw nodded to his captain and immediately stepped back.
"Beep!" Paul Tierney blew the whistle, signaling the start of the game.
Chen Xiaoliang's eyes were always on the back point, where Lindelof and Milinkovic were wandering around, and Alisson even consciously took half a step back.
He took a step forward and kicked a curved ball with his right foot!
Lou Yichen: "The ball flies to the back point!"
"Ouch!!! Alisson! This ball is actually a direct shot!"
"Alisson was well prepared, he jumped back and blocked the ball with his fingers!"
"Why do I feel like Xiaoliang has been very active in taking free kicks recently? He scored a goal against Arsenal last time and almost scored again today."
"Manchester United takes a corner kick from the right side. Let's see if Xiaoliang will take the penalty."
Liu Yue: "B Fee still takes the penalty."
Lou Yichen: "One day he might be happy and shoot a curved ball directly at the goal from a corner kick."
They both: “Hahaha.”
B Fee took a corner kick, Milinkovic-Savic beat Nunez to get a header, but it was blocked by Alisson again.
In the first 30 minutes, Alisson became the busiest player on Liverpool's side.
The camera turned to Gerrard in the stands again, with a look of disappointment on his face.
Although in the Sky Sports live broadcast room, his former partner Carragher was still talking endlessly about Liverpool's preparations to defend first and then make a strong push in the second half, if Gerrard heard this, he would definitely say "rely on the defense".
Of course, he also came to learn tactics today. Both Klopp and Ten Hag are much more mature than him from a coaching perspective. However, as a legendary player, he can easily see that Chen Xiaoliang's retreat allows Manchester United's two central midfielders and three forwards to press forward more. These five people have speed on the two wings and height in the middle. They can counterattack and fight in positions. In this way, Liverpool's midfield and backcourt will be completely unable to press forward.
What's more, behind them, there is Chen Xiaoliang, who is impossible to catch up with even if he runs, and who can make a precise long pass behind him at any time.
Liverpool played slower and more cautiously, but Manchester United kept trying to break the score by suddenly speeding up.
In the 34th minute, they made an extreme attempt.
Salah's shot went over the crossbar and Livakovic took a goal kick.
Tingbel, who was lagging behind, saw Chen Xiaoliang running to the right to support him, and passed the ball with a big foot.
Dalot, who was running at high speed along the right side, ran forward under the pursuit of Nunez. While receiving the ball, he used the inside of his foot to pass the ball to Chen Xiaoliang on his left.
Seeing Chen Xiaoliang was about to receive the ball, McAllister on the center line and Barrera on the side immediately surrounded him.
But Chen Xiaoliang did not stop the ball. He pushed the ball forward with his right foot. The ball passed between the two men and rolled quickly to Rashford's feet in front, instantly breaking through Liverpool's midfield defense.
Liverpool left-back Tsimikas accelerated almost at the same time as Rashford, but the difference in sprinting speed caused him to be gradually left half a body length behind by Rashford.
Rashford caught up with the ball, took a few steps with the advantage of half a body length, ran to the right sideline of the penalty area and passed the ball into the penalty area. Cesco, who had run ahead in the middle, left Gvardiol and Konate behind, and pushed the ball into the penalty area line.
At such a close distance, Alisson had no time to wait for the ball to come out before making a decision to save the ball. Apart from diving, he could only lean his body horizontally to expand the blocking area as much as possible.
But he guessed the wrong direction, and Cesco's shot hit the right side of the goal, scoring easily.
Lou Yichen: "In the 35th minute, Manchester United used a very fast advance from their own goal directly to the front of Liverpool's goal, and striker Cesco scored a goal!"
"The subtitles are out. This ball took a total of 8.6 seconds from start to finish!"
"All the Manchester United players rushed over and hugged each other tightly!"
“Haha, the director focused on Klopp again. He seemed to want to shout something to the players, but finally chose to sit back on the bench!”
Liu Yue: "They couldn't attack when they pushed forward, and they couldn't defend when they retreated. Liverpool played very awkwardly today and didn't create any good chances. It was basically just small cooperation between the three players in the front court, and then ended with long shots."
"The central defender duo of Timber and Lindelof performed very well. It can be seen that not only did Ten Hag rotate Lima and Varane on the bench for the last round of the league three days later, but he also fully recognized the abilities of these two players."
"Especially Timber, who played more in the second half of the season, played very well whether as a full-back, center back or defensive midfielder."
After scoring the goal, Manchester United seemed to be playing like crazy. Before the end of the first half, Chen Xiaoliang suddenly rushed to the frontcourt to receive the ball. Facing Barrera's defense, he first broke through to the right and forced his way past with his physical advantage. Then, facing the encirclement of Arnold, Konate and Lavia, he did not pass the ball, but chose to rush forward with the ball directly.
When approaching Konate, Chen Xiaoliang changed direction to the right. Lavia rushed over from the side and tackled. Chen Xiaoliang immediately changed direction to the left and dribbled the ball from behind Konate before Arnold pounced on him. The ball rolled into the penalty area. Chen Xiaoliang accelerated and shook off the double-team of four people and rushed into the penalty area!
Seeing Alisson guarding the near corner, he directly kicked the ball with his left foot to the far corner, but the ball hit the far corner post and rolled out of the bottom line!
Chen Xiaoliang turned around and smiled at Cesco and Kva who were following him, then raised his hand. His teammates and fans immediately applauded him.
But what’s interesting is that after the broadcast camera replayed the previous shot, it turned to Nunez.
Barrage:
[Kvartovitch hit the far post, Xiaoliang’s shot went wide, did the director mean that Nunes was using his power?]
[Four of them couldn't stop him, how good it is for Xiaoliang to play as a striker]
[He plays as a striker, who plays as a defensive midfielder? Did you forget that Milinkovic was beaten into a sieve by Nunez in the last game? Besides, there are two big games to come, so they have to rotate.]
[With Chen Xiaoliang's speed, I won't watch the Olympics without him]
…
Klopp on the sidelines was silent.
After one season, he finally understood why he could treat Manchester United to 7-Up last year, but this year he was completely helpless against his arch-rival.
The team lacks a super leader and a superstar. After Henderson and Milner left the team, no matter who wore the captain's armband, it seemed too quiet.
It's fine when the wind is with you, but once the wind is against you, no one can stand up and motivate the teammates around them to move forward against the wind.
He fell into the same dilemma as Guardiola. The label and imprint of the head coach were too heavy, and the players on the field seemed to rely on the head coach's decisions to play.
If we win, it is the head coach's credit; if we lose, it is also the head coach's responsibility.
But the head coach is the one who cannot replace the players.
In addition, two world-class stars Van Dijk and Salah are obviously aging, and neither Nunez nor Konate can reproduce their former great roles for the time being.
Although Klopp would not say it, he had already realized in his heart that the Manchester United team in front of him was no longer one he could contend with.
He must apply for more transfer funds in the summer, completely transform Liverpool, and narrow the gap with the two abnormal teams in Manchester City in order to rebuild the team's competitiveness.
However, when people are struggling, they often think of things that they would not or dare not think about normally.
Suddenly, an evil idea came into his mind.
