Green Dragon

Chapter 665 The First Decisive Battle

"are you serious?"

On the first training day after Valentine's Day, in the Liverpool office building, Rodgers was having a serious conversation with Long Shute.

The head coach was even a little anxious:
"This is a decisive final, and the opponent is Manchester City, which is ranked fourth in the league. You actually want me to send a substitute team to play?!"

Rogers' voice was a bit loud, and several assistant coaches in the next room couldn't help but look at each other.

Some people wanted to knock on the door to persuade them to fight, but others stopped them.

"Take it easy, Brendan."

Long Shute smiled and shrugged:

"Ask yourself, do you really think... our rotation is much worse than the main players?"

"Nonsense! This question should be asked of you,"

Rogers rolled his eyes:

"You don't really think that Origi, Ince, Lucas, Allen, Flanagan and other substitute players are better than Coutinho, Firmino, Milner, Henderson, Clay. Yin and Skrtel are the absolute main players, the strength of both sides is at the same level, right?"

Long Shute was still laughing:
"The strength of the rotation is of course still slightly inferior."

Rogers pouted:
"It's good that you know, I thought you were dazzled by your own strength!"

"But... isn't that what we want?"

Long Shute still had a relaxed and happy expression:

"Even the first-grade children know that the strength of the substitute players must be weaker than the main players. Would Manchester City and Pellegrini not know?"

Rogers couldn't help but startled, he frowned and asked:

"what do you mean……"

Long Shute waved his hand:

"Aren't you a tactical genius? You can't even see this intention?"

Luo Tian pondered for 10 seconds:

"...You want to lure Manchester City and attack us?"

"Bingo." Long Shute raised his legs, "But it's not a confrontation, we fight back with them!"

Rogers was in a daze for a while, and finally let out a long breath:

"You must be a demon!"
-
On February 2, Liverpool submitted the entry list one day in advance in accordance with the regulations.

There is no doubt that this list full of substitute players has attracted a lot of attention.

"Liverpool's absolute main force... Only Long and Lovren started the game?"

"Is there a problem with other people's physical fitness?"

"How is this possible? Liverpool is the team with the most thorough rotation!"

"Pellegrini is the main force!"

"Rodgers doesn't really think... he can beat Manchester City with this lineup, does he?"

In the press conference before the game, in the face of reporters' questions, Rodgers really answered:

"Liverpool does not have an absolute main force. Every player has the strength and qualifications to start. As long as he trains seriously and his technical standards meet the approval of the coaching staff, he can get a chance..."

Long Shute also said:
"To deal with a team like Manchester City, I think our squad is enough!"

Pellegrini, who was sitting not far away, almost blew his lungs!

I have never seen such brazenness! -
Pei Gong is a mild-tempered coach, but it is impossible to say that the Chilean engineer has no temper.

In this season, he once became a popular figure in football, but the reason has nothing to do with him.

As early as Christmas, the Manchester City Club announced in a high-profile manner that they would not renew the contract with the current head coach Pellegrini after the end of the season, and the new head coach is Guardiola, who is currently coaching Bayern.

At that time, Manchester City was tied for third in the league with Arsenal, not too far away from the number one Liverpool, and successfully advanced to the knockout rounds in the Champions League. It seems that they have not reached the worst point anyway.

But the Abu Dhabi consortium just announced the candidate for the new coach with a little humiliation.

Many people in the football world stood up to complain for Pei Gong, thinking that the club was too unfair to him. Guardiola, the person involved, may be a gentleman, or he may be under pressure, and he also took the initiative to stand up and express his apology to the Chilean tactfully.

Even Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart publicly expressed his loyalty to the new coach in an interview: "I am sure that under Guardiola's hands, I can play happily. Of course, I am also very happy now playing under Pellegrini and Hodgson."

——Of course, Joe Hart must not have imagined that in the end he would become the one with the worst ending in Manchester City...

Although Pellegrini even welcomed and supported Guardiola, who succeeded him in public, as a man, he always had a little anger in his heart.

He has already won the Premier League championship. Manchester City wants to make a substitution because they think that the team has no hope of making a breakthrough in the Champions League under him.

But... Guardiola won the Champions League at Bayern?

Stupid middle eastern oil daddy, I will show you how amazing engineers are!
-
On the penultimate day of February, the 2th finally arrived.

At Wembley Stadium in London, as many as [-] seats are already full.

Although the champion of the League Cup only has a bonus of 10 pounds, each team's share from ticket sales... is more than 100 million—even if a ticket is at least 50 pounds, 450 tickets are still 100 million, deducting the organizer It is really easy for the participating parties to get 50 million yuan, not to mention that it is unlikely that a final ticket is only [-] yuan.

In addition, 100% of such finals will be scheduled for live TV broadcast in prime time on Sunday, and no other games will be arranged at the same time, this broadcast income is also quite considerable.

"The 15-16 English League Cup final is less than 10 minutes away. Just now, Zhang Zhi and I have led everyone to review the road to promotion between Manchester City and Liverpool. If you have just turned on the TV and computer, or for this I don't know much about this event, please allow me to give a brief introduction..."

Half an hour before the game, Zhan Tianjun had already started his work:
"The League Cup, the full name of which is called the English Football League Cup, was established in 1962. Every year, there are four levels of leagues in the Premier League, the British Championship, the League One, and the League Two. A total of 92 teams compete for the cup. Compared with the oldest The FA Cup doesn't have a particularly long history, of course, it's a relative term."

"hey-hey."

"When it comes to the establishment of the League Cup, we have to mention the interest dispute between the two major organizations, the FA and the English Football League. In order to compete with the FA, which controls the league and the FA Cup, the Football League established the League Cup However, it is a pity that even after more than 50 years of development, the League Cup is far inferior to the League and the FA Cup in terms of status and influence. The famous coaches like Neo think that the event should be canceled. However, in today's fierce competition in the league and the Champions League, the League Cup has become one of the few championship trophies that teams such as Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham can count on... ..."

Zhan Tianjun took out his data again:

"In the 54-year history of the League Cup, the Red Army Liverpool is the team that has won the most championships. They have won a total of 8 championships. The most recent time was four years ago when they beat Cardiff City in a penalty shootout. Won the only championship since 4...

Today their opponent, Blue Moon Manchester City, has won 3 championships. The most recent time was 2 years ago, when they beat the black cat Sunderland 3-1. Under the leadership, he won the second Premier League championship in the club's history and won the double crown of the season...

In the Premier League this season, Liverpool beat Manchester City 4-1 in an away game. It is worth mentioning that in that game, Long Shute did not play because of a severe cold, and the Red Army did not come up with the strongest lineup..."

The commentator was introducing the information, and the live announcer at Wembley Stadium had already started broadcasting the starting rosters of both sides, and the players of the two teams also slowly entered the field along the player tunnel.

In a normal game, both teams will of course play at the same time, but this is the final after all, and the organizer requires the two teams to come on stage one by one with the DJ's roll call...

Anyone who has participated in various competitions knows that generally the first one to appear on the stage usually has a low score, because the audience and judges are not fully prepared.

So when the Red Army captain Long Shute was the first to play, although he got huge cheers, he always felt that it was not as shocking as the voices of more than 4 people at Anfield.

Fortunately, most of the backup goalkeeper Bogdan is behind him, and he doesn't have to worry about being overshadowed by his teammates, otherwise he will lose face...

Gomez, Badstuber, Lovren, Flanagan, Lucas, Allen, Lallana, Ince, Sturridge...

In addition to Long Shute, only Lovren and Lallana are regular members of the main lineup. The former main striker Sturridge has gradually become a substitute due to frequent injuries.

When Liverpool's starting 11 players stood up in the midfield, Manchester City captain Kompany also led his teammates to slowly come out.

Caballero, Sagna, Otamendi, Clichy, Fernando, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Sterling, Aguero...

Looking at this lineup, Long Shute couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth.

Pei Gong, Pei Gong, do you have the heart to let them compare defense with us when you send out such 11 players?

Before he could fully laugh, there was a wild booing from the stands.

The boos came from a large red grandstand.

And the object of these Liverpool fans booing...of course is the former genius monster at Anfield, the hope of Liverpool's revival, and the one who resolutely switched to Blue Moon last season...Raheem Sterling!
That is the biggest traitor of the Red Army!

(End of this chapter)