Grass roots glory

Chapter 120 Leader's Temperament
Anfield Stadium has made all preparations for the start of the game. When Zhou Tiancheng and his teammates walked into the stadium through the player tunnel, the three large letters "KOP" on the left side of the main stand were extremely eye-catching.

KOP represents the essence of Liverpool fan culture. Since the establishment of the Liverpool team in 1892, the club has named the exclusive stand for diehard fans. After the stand was built, it coincided with the British soldiers from Liverpool and the South Africans in order to occupy a hill called KOP. After a bloody battle, this stand was named KOP.

There were no seats in this stand at first, and standing and watching the game made diehard fans sing and dance with passion.However, after the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989, the Football Association ordered the demolition of all stands without seats. The KOP was forced to rebuild, and now it can only hold just over 1 spectators.The passion is still there, but the spectacular scene of the year is gone forever.

However, in the hearts of Liverpool fans, the status of KOP is still difficult to shake. These three letters are the abbreviation of "King of player", representing the glory of Liverpool as the monopoly champion of England's top football player era.

When the sign of the KOP stand was raised, the British Sky Sports commentator Bob Clem said murderously: "Liverpool fans are ready, Schalke 04 is destined to come and go today!"

It gives people the illusion that Liverpool is about to face a life-and-death battle that they cannot afford to lose. In fact, they, like Schalke 04, have won two consecutive victories in the first two rounds. Fame is also very important, but Liverpool's determination to win the game at home is almost catching up with the Champions League final.

Marcel Leff is not optimistic about Schalke 04's pursuit of the initiative on the scene: "Anfield is the most difficult devil's home stadium in Europe. The difficulty is no less difficult than going to Schalke. Liverpool has not lost at home in the Premier League this season. Over the ball, even Manchester United suffered a defeat here. Perhaps Slomka should be more pragmatic. It doesn’t matter if the scene is ugly, as long as the final result is good. If Schalke sinks his heart and defends firmly, Liverpool will definitely not be able to break through the goal. It will be easy."

According to the idea of ​​​​taking one point away from home, this strategy works, and there will be absolutely no noise in a draw at Anfield, and a draw with European giants. In Slomka's coaching resume, this is definitely A highlight.

But... Slomka is never satisfied with one point, he is running for the three points!
So as soon as the Belgian referee De Brickley blew the opening whistle for the game, Zhou Tiancheng and Rakitic looked at each other, and the two jointly put pressure on Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.

After Benitez took over the team, Liverpool's main lineup is 4-2-3-1, especially on the central axis, where Xavi Alonso and Mascherano are double midfielders. Germany's position is in the middle midfielder, and Schalke 04's attitude towards the first press is actually very clear.They will not be conservative, and will focus on "taking care" of Liverpool's core and leaders.

Zhou Tiancheng didn't give a chance to the defense at all. He stepped forward with two big strides, and directly slid his head with a shovel. At the beginning of the game, Zhou Tiancheng was the first to get off his horse. At the same time, Zhou Tiancheng also paid attention to tricks. Make moves one step at a time, touch the ball first, and put the person down by the way, so that there is no tendency to maliciously shovel the person. Fouls must be punished, but it is not enough to back a yellow card at the beginning.

"Hey! Be tougher, we need to run more." Zhou Tiancheng yelled in the midfield after getting up.Slomka watched from the sidelines, a look of surprise flashed in his eyes, Zhou Tiancheng set an example at the beginning, not to mention, under normal circumstances he only communicated with individual players alone, and there were very few such acts of overstepping his authority to exercise the authority of the captain .

Westerman came over to express his dissatisfaction with a sullen face: "Zhou, have you overstepped your authority? I'm the captain!" He pointed to the captain's armband, which meant clearly, don't pretend that I don't exist.

Zhou Tiancheng didn't think there was anything wrong, and asked instead: "Heike, I think it's not good for you to greet everyone in the defensive line, so I did it for you. Is there anything wrong with what I said? Against the Premier League team , if we don’t act tougher than them, what else can we do? Or you can think of a way, and I’ll do what you say.”

The two stared at each other for two seconds, then smiled knowingly, Westerman patted Zhou Tiancheng on the shoulder: "It seems that I will not worry about having no successor for the captain's armband in the future."

"Come on, do your own thing well, don't try to let go, I won't take the blame."

Even though he said so, Zhou Tiancheng had actually played a leading role with his actions.After fouling Gerrard in the opening game, Zhou Tiancheng moved to the frontcourt again and directly cut off the ball from Mascherano's feet, creating a counterattack opportunity starting from the frontcourt.

If Rakitic had yelled that sentence just now, it is estimated that not many people would have listened to it, but Zhou Tiancheng was different.His contribution on the court this season is obvious to all. The status of a professional team is not based on seniority, but on contribution.So despite Zhou Tiancheng's young age, the veterans who received his assists all felt that his words were reliable.

So in this counterattack, as soon as Zhou Tiancheng made a steal, the four Schalke players immediately rushed forward.

Although Liverpool's defense was experienced and Carragher appeared in a key position in time to clear Zhou Tiancheng's through pass from the sideline, all professionals could see Zhou Tiancheng's active presence on the field and his role in driving the team.

A hint of surprise flashed in Slomka's eyes. He didn't expect that Zhou Tiancheng would show another hidden temperament in the face of a top team - not only can he be himself, but he can also drive the team if necessary.

And it looked as if he could convince Westermann as captain!

or……

A crazy idea flashed into Slomka's mind for a moment, but then he shook his head and denied it.

After all, you are young!But with this kind of temperament, Slomka believes that Zhou Tiancheng will have a lot to do in the future.

Compared with Schalke's Chinese and German supporters, Sky Sports commentator Bob Clem seemed a little worried: "Schalke 04's 12th week was too active at the beginning, didn't Benitez seriously study this game? The season's Bundesliga list. The all-around midfielder who ranks first in steals and runs and second in assists, doesn't take targeted measures! Look at how they treat Steven Gerrard today, Benny It's not too late for Tesla to change in time."

Is it really not too late?
This time Schalke unexpectedly chose a vigorous sideline kick tactic, Hewedes threw a super grenade, and there were mainly two high points in the penalty area. Kuranyi, who is 1.8 meters eight, and Zhou Tiancheng, who is 1.9 meters three, Westerman stayed in the backcourt and did not come up. If Liverpool seized the opportunity to fight back, it would not be a joke.

The opponent's man-marking defense in the penalty area is very targeted. Carragher, who is 1.8 meters 1.9, marks Kuranyi, and Finnish central defender Hyypia, who is 35 meters [-], marks Zhou Tiancheng. Schalke does not occupy the two high points in terms of height. Excellent, Hewedes still chooses Zhou Tiancheng, the highest height on the field, for his vigorous throw-in, and he doesn't pay attention to any skills, just throws it directly into the sky. Although Hyypia is a few centimeters taller, he is already [-] years old this year "Age", Zhou Tiancheng is [-] or [-] years younger than him, it is completely a PK between two generations, the two took off at the same time, when Hypia jumped halfway down, Zhou Tiancheng was still on top of his head, and the height continued Climbing, in the crowd, suddenly soaring into the sky, so that everyone can only look up to the height, it is really hard not to be brilliant.

CCTV commentator Duan Xuan couldn't help exclaiming: "Wow! My God, Zhou Tiancheng...he flew up!"

(End of this chapter)