Super Prophecy Master

Chapter 361 The Low-key Second Round
The season has just started, and Millwall's schedule is very difficult. It's not because the opponents are too strong, but because there are too many games.

The first two rounds of the league were better, with an interval of one week, which was enough for the team to adjust and rest, but after the second round, Millwall had a big battle with Chelsea.

It was a FA Community Shield match.

The English Community Shield, formerly known as the Charity Shield, was founded in 1908. Its predecessor was the London Sheriff's (De Waal) Shield competition founded in 1898.

At first the game was played at the end of each season, and then changed to around October every year.

In 1908, the first FA Charity Shield was held between Manchester United (English League champions) and Queens Park Rangers (Southern League champions). Communication between football.This confrontation has continued for many years since then, and it has not become a real Super Bowl-like game.

In 1974, Ted Crocker, then secretary-general of the Football Association, proposed to move the 66-year-old Charity Shield to the famous Wembley Stadium, and defined the event as the league champion and the Football Association. Cup championship match.

If a team wins the championships of these two events at the same time, the league champion and runner-up will play instead.

Since that year, the Charity Shield has truly become the "Super Cup" where the two teams compete at the beginning of the season.

The tournament has been played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, since 2002 due to renovation works at Wembley Stadium.

In March 2002, the British government pointed out in a report that the FA had violated the relevant regulations on the use of funds when using the income obtained from the Charity Shield.Since then, the Charity Shield has also been forced to change its name to the Community Shield.

The Community Shield is still more meaningful, and it is England's first championship at the beginning of the season.

Last season, Millwall won the league title and the FA Cup double, and the Community Shield was held between the league title and the runner-up, and Millwall's opponent was Chelsea.

This game was sandwiched between two league games, which made Millwall's schedule suddenly tighter. Zhang Yang also had a headache looking at the schedule, but the schedule must be faced.

During the interval between the first and second rounds of the schedule, Millwall continued to maintain tactical training to make the players more suitable for tactics, but the intensity of training was reduced a lot.

Every player needs to conserve energy for the intensive schedule.

The transfer market is still in operation in August, and the media and various teams seem to have not yet invested in the start of the season.

The media frequently reported on the transfer.

Clubs, of course, are also working hard for the transfer.

In the summer transfers of the Premier League, Chelsea still attracts the most attention. They continue to wave their checks and buy every star they want.

This summer, Abramovich got his wish and bought his 'citizen' from AC Milan - Shevchenko, the Ukrainian nuclear warhead. The deal was reached at the end of June, and the official websites of Chelsea and AC Milan announced at the same time After hearing the news about the transfer of Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko, Abramovich finally bought Shevchenko at what is said to be a Chelsea transfer record price, and officially signed a four-year contract with the "Ukrainian nuclear warhead". The specific transfer fee is not known. It was disclosed to the outside world, but the transfer fee disclosed by the Italian and British media is between 5000 million and 6000 million euros. The transfer fee will be paid in cash and does not involve player exchange.

Shevchenko officially became a member of Chelsea, and he is also another strong support introduced by Abramovich in the summer.

After that, Chelsea continued to wave the checks and signed Feyenoord winger Kalou and Hamburg defender Boulah Luz successively. The two transactions also cost nearly 2600 million euros.

This is still the tip of the iceberg.

Before Shevchenko joined Chelsea, there was already heavy news in the transfer market: Chelsea successfully won the German captain Ballack.

With Real Madrid, Manchester United and other clubs all wanting Ballack, the German captain resolutely chose to join Chelsea. The reason why he chose Chelsea is hard to say, but the media and fans generally believe that it is the temptation of 'high salary'.

Chelsea signed a contract with Ballack for a period of four years, with a total annual salary of 2500 million pounds (after tax), approximately equivalent to 4300 million U.S. dollars.At the same time, such an annual salary makes Ballack's income exceed that of Real Madrid's six superstars, and also surpasses the salary of 700 million US dollars when Vieri joined AC Milan.

This is not good news for Bayern Munich.

Their best player, the most famous German captain, chose to join Chelsea on a free transfer. While losing their core players and leaving, they will not get a penny of transfer fee compensation.

When talking about the feelings of leaving Bayern, Ballack said, "I think my own decision is correct. I need to go to a new environment and meet a new challenge. Of course, I have the right to choose, and neither does Bayern. The power to force me, I thank Bayern and the Bayern fans, I spent one of the best moments of my career there, as for the fans' accusations, it doesn't matter, it just proves my importance."

Shevchenko, Ballack, and Chelsea once again became the club with the biggest transfer gains in the summer, but their desire to buy stars did not stop because of this. After cleaning up Duff, Good Johnson, Huth and other players, They set their sights on Arsenal star Ashley Cole and Nigerian young talent Mikel.

These two transfers also got Chelsea into double trouble.

First up is Mikel.

Mikel's transfer is very interesting. He first signed an agreement with Manchester United. The transfer fee was 800 million pounds. Chelsea contacted Mikel. Mikel then expressed his wish to join Chelsea. Chelsea almost snatched it from Manchester United. Let's leave Mikel, Manchester United has brought the lawsuit to FIFA. It is said that Mikel's former club also spoke for the Red Devils. Manchester United missed.

Next up is Ashley Cole.

Last year, Arsenal had a private contact with Chelsea for Ashley Cole and Mourinho. As a result, Chelsea, Mourinho and Ashley Cole himself received heavy fines , Ashley Cole had no choice but to renew his contract with Arsenal for three years.

This year, Mourinho publicly stated that he hopes to get Ashley Cole. The consequence is that Chelsea and Arsenal are arguing again. If ordinary players transfer, they will refuse. The key is that Ashley Cole himself He wanted to join Chelsea wholeheartedly, and continued to publicly express his position in the media to put pressure on the club.

Arsenal realize they can't keep Ashley Cole, but they won't make it easy for Chelsea either.

The two sides have been arguing.

Arsenal delayed the transfer of Ashley Cole, and also wanted to take a bite of fat meat from Chelsea.

Chelsea are in double trouble.

When Chelsea's transfer was in full swing, other clubs also had heavyweight signings. Since Manchester United was acquired by the Glazer family, they have been working hard to help the Glazers repay their debts. Funds must have been affected, but they still Carrick was bought from Tottenham Hotspur by writing a check for 2630 million euros.

In order to supplement their strength, Liverpool also started many signings: Paletta, Bellamy, Dirk, Pennant, Lescott, each of them sent powerful players to join, which immediately enriched Liverpool's lineup.

Arsenal are still very poor. Among their signings, only Rosicky is worth mentioning. The transfer fee of 1000 million euros is only "worth mentioning". What's more, they probably have to sell Ashley- Cole, whose worth is much higher than Rosicky.

Tottenham Hotspur used the funds from the sale of Carrick to introduce Chimbonda, Berbatov and Malblanc. The outside media believed that they had strengthened their strength.

Newcastle United bought Duff and Martins, and the two transfer fees also exceeded 3000 million euros.

Other clubs have more or less supplemented.

Compared with the above clubs, Millwall's introduction of players such as Quaresma and Zambrotta suddenly seemed mediocre.

Millwall completed the transfer work early, and by August, many media ignored it. The first-round victory over Blackburn did not get much attention. Under the atmosphere of low-key public opinion, the second round of the Premier League has already passed. coming.

Millwall travels to Manchester for an away game against Manchester City at the Manchester Stadium.

It's also a 'low key' game.

However, in China, which is eight hours away with a time difference, it has become a high-profile game, because Manchester City has Chinese player Sun Jihai, and Millwall is a team led by Zhang Yang.

If popularity can be used to distinguish stars, then Sun Jihai is Manchester City's number one star, and the number of supporters he has is far from that of Corradi, James, or even the former Anelka.

Sun Jihai has played in the Premier League for four years. He has been recognized by the coaches, teammates and fans in Manchester City, and has firmly occupied the position of the main right back. On the eve of the new season, there were even calls for him to be the captain of Manchester City.

It also makes sense for Chinese fans to pay attention to Sun Jihai.

Before the match between Millwall and Manchester City, some domestic media called out that 'Sun Jihai will give Zhang Yang a headache', thinking that Sun Jihai would cause huge troubles for Millwall.

In the end, the media that made similar voices were disappointed.

When the 10 minutes of the game ended, the scoreboard showed 0 to 5, as if it was a mockery of Chi Guoguo to all the fans who supported Manchester City, so they had to shut up. Those domestic media who had high hopes for Sun Jihai also All disappointed.

Sun Jihai's performance can only be said to be "passable". He is a qualified defender, but there is no outstanding performance.When defending Darren Bent, Sun Jihai was passed by the latter twice, which also proved the gap between him and world-class players.

The domestic media is still very tolerant of their own players. They still gave Sun Jihai an "excellent" comment, and they think that being able to compete with Darren Bent is already a pretty good performance.

"There is no defender in the world who dare say he can defend Darren Bent. Sun Jihai can cause trouble for Darren Bent and keep the opponent from having a chance most of the time. His performance is already very good!"

This is what the domestic media say.

To a certain extent, this statement is also correct, Darren Bent is very good, expecting Sun Jihai to defend alone, Manchester City's strategy is wrong.

In fact, in Zhang Yang's view, Millwall's performance is very average.

In order to prepare for the Community Shield two days later, the team did not send all the main players. Smicer and Pires had a round of rest, and the defense also sent newcomers such as Barragan and Traore. However, Manchester City performed very well. Poor, they don't pay much attention to defense first, and perhaps it is also the style of Manchester City in history. They seem to be more inclined to play beautiful offensive football instead of focusing on defense.

Manchester City have learned their lesson, five goals speak for themselves.

After the match against Manchester City, Zhang Yang accepted an interview with a Chinese reporter and expressed his satisfaction with the team's performance, "Our performance was good, especially the new players, who integrated into the team very quickly. Some problems It still exists, for example, the connection between the backcourt and the center is not too close..."

This is mostly a David Livermore problem.

The only defensive midfielder is still a character with a 'lower IQ', and his defense is not bad, but the overall situation is a lot worse, but Zhang Yang didn't talk about it in depth, because he knows what the reporter cares about, "I noticed Sun Jihai's Performance, he's been great, he's reached a world-class level, he's done a good job blocking Bent."

"But maybe it's Manchester City's defensive problem. They only send Sun Jihai to defend (Bent). There wasn't enough work done at Millwall."

Zhang Yang affirmed Sun Jihai's performance and shifted the responsibility for poor defense to Manchester City coach Pierce.

The interviewer was very happy to hear that.

Zhang Yang didn't intend to 'ingratiate' Sun Jihai or the Chinese fans, he didn't have to do that, he was just expressing his thoughts.

Sun Jihai's performance is actually very good.

Not to mention compared with domestic players, Sun Jihai is not bad compared to most defenders in the Premier League. Otherwise, it would be impossible to become Manchester City's main defender, get the club's initiative to renew his contract, and be reused by the head coach Pierce.

Manchester City's lack of preparation for the game is obvious, and there is a problem with the emphasis on Darren Bent in the game.

As the runner-up shooter in the Premier League last season, Darren Bent's personal ability is very good, and it cannot be completely blocked by a defender. Even if he is playing against a top team, Darren Bent will be the opponent's key defensive object , Especially in one's own offense, Darren Bent has at least one man to mark, and there will be one to assist in defense.

Manchester City did not pay attention to the defense of Darren Bent, and most of the time only Sun Jihai was watching.

This is the problem.

Perhaps Millwall put too much pressure on Manchester United's offense, and other players also have their own defensive tasks, but no matter how they explain it, Manchester City's lack of attention to Darren Bent is also an important reason for their big loss.

(End of this chapter)