legendary midfielder

Chapter 149 The Test of Difficult Predicament
Although the team won two games in a row, the team's aging problem finally broke out in the away game against Athletic Bilbao.

Pizzi suffered a groin injury and needs to rest for two months!

Belleron suffered a knee ligament contusion and needs to rest for about 20 days!

Ewaldo had a serious problem with his physical reserves. In the game against Athletic Bilbao, after only 48 minutes of the game, he suffered severe cramps!

The main players frequently suffer from injuries, and the strength of the substitute players cannot keep up, so the overall strength of the team is more or less declining.

Perhaps, the only thing that the head coach Olterra can be thankful for is that Zhang Xu, the core midfielder of the team, has always grown as strong as a cow, free from illness, pain and physical problems!
However, because of Belleron's injury, the team can only play single-core tactics. For Zhang Xu, this is indeed a small challenge and an opportunity to exercise his organizational skills.

In order to effectively improve his midfield organization ability, on the one hand, he worked hard to learn from captain Belleron, watched videos, visited for advice, and even specially used the bring-in star mode during training;
On the other hand, in the simulated training every night, he used single-core tactics, accumulated experience little by little, and improved himself little by little.

Thanks to his efforts, his organizational ability has been steadily improving. Although there is still a certain gap compared with Belleron, he has been able to restore the team to a certain level of combat effectiveness.

On November 2012, 11, Deportivo, who was full of injuries, ushered in the second game of the King's Cup.

In the last game, Deportivo defeated Mallorca with a score of 2:0, but this time, Deportivo played away. To make matters worse, several of Deportivo's main players were injured.

In this case, how to maintain the score advantage and enter the next round smoothly is indeed a headache for the head coach Oltra.

For Zhang Xu, it was also a test.

Facts have proved that this game is indeed full of twists and turns.

At the beginning of the game, Mallorca took advantage of their home court and launched a crazy attack on Deportivo.

Although Zhang Xu is still lacking in offensive organization and the rhythm of the game, he is still very tough in defense and defensive organization.

Therefore, although Mallorca's offensive frenzy wave after wave, it was not able to tear through the defense line under Zhang Xu's organization.

However, football is often like this, when you seem to be very sure, unexpected things will always appear.

In the 303rd minute of the game, Mallorca made a pass from the bottom. Zhang Xu leaped high in the penalty area, grabbed the first point, and gave the football point to Marchena.

What Zhang Xu didn't expect was that Marchena made a mistake in stopping the ball this time. The football hit his right ankle and flew out, rolling more than one meter away from his body.

Mallorca's striker saw the opportunity and immediately snatched the football. After shaking Marchena who was counter-robbing, he suddenly shot!
The football flew past Zhang Xu's eyes, and then dived into the net under his nose!
0: 1!

After Mallorca scored this goal, they seemed to see the hope of tying the total score, and their morale suddenly rose.

The high morale was immediately reflected in the intensity of the attack.

In the following time, Mallorca was an offensive wave almost every 2 minutes, and wave after wave rushed towards Deportivo.

However, at this critical moment, in order to keep the team's rare victory, Zhang Xu broke out again!
In the 5th minute of the game, that is, in the 10th minute of the second half, Zhang Xu made a fierce tackle near the center line, intercepting the pass from the opponent's midfielder, and then stabbed Thomas in front with his toe.

After Thomas received the ball, he immediately started at high speed and plunged into the hinterland of Mallorca.

Soon, he was strongly defended by Mallorca's defenders, and he didn't dribble too much. Seeing Zhang Xu advancing at high speed, he immediately returned the football.

Zhang Xu didn't stop the ball, he pushed the ball directly with the arch of his foot, and pushed the football to Oliveira, and then he bypassed the opponent to intercept his midfielder and appeared on the outer edge of the penalty area.

As soon as he was in place, Oliveira's pass arrived!In front of him, there happened to be a passage leading directly to the lower right corner of the goal!

shoot!Without even thinking about it, Zhang Xu swung his right thigh and slammed the back of the football hard!
After a loud bang, the football crossed a standard straight line, passed through the passage, and plunged into Mallorca's goal!

1: 1!

Zhang Xu's shocking long-range shot knocked down Mallorca's morale that had just risen.

In the end, with Zhang Xu's goal, Deportivo drew away with Mallorca with a score of 1:1. At the same time, they entered the next round of the Copa del Rey with a total score of 3:1!
On December 2012, 12, the No.2 round of La Liga kicked off again.

In this round, the Deportivo team is playing at home, facing the sixth-ranked Real Betis team in the league!
Although Deportivo is ranked fourth in the league, it is only two points away from Real Betis. Therefore, this game is indeed a tough battle for Deportivo, who is short of major generals.

Perhaps knowing that the current situation of the team is not very good, so on the day of the game, as long as the Deportivo fans who can come to the Riazor Stadium, basically all came to the scene to cheer for their team.

However, even with the encouragement of the fans, in fact, as predicted before the game, after the start of the game, it was not Deportivo who played at home, but Real Betis who played away!
Zhang Xu has worked very hard. In order to make the overall operation of the team more normal, he has fully utilized his speed, running quickly, passing the ball quickly, intercepting and defending quickly, and so on.

Despite this, there is still a certain gap between Zhang Xu and Belleron in controlling the rhythm of the game. Therefore, the rhythm of this game has been controlled by Real Betis from the very beginning.

However, Real Betis is also having a hard time, and the reason is also because of Zhang Xu.

Although Zhang Xu still has some shortcomings in controlling the rhythm of the game, his defensive ability and defensive organization are still very good.

Thanks to his efforts, the team's defense is still relatively stable. Real Betis's attacks again and again are like waves hitting the reef. It looks scary, but the reef still stands upright afterwards!
In the end, with a score of 0:0 in this game, the two sides shook hands and made a draw!
This game made Zhang Xu see the gap between himself and the top midfielders, and it also aroused his ambition!

In order to quickly improve his midfield organization ability, he decisively allocated all [-] free attribute points, of which [-] points were added to stopping the ball, and [-] points were added to running without the ball.

In doing so, his stopping attribute went from 52 to 72!
All of a sudden, his ability to stop the ball was promoted from the substitute level of the second tier league to the main force level of the top league!It also makes Zhang Xu's passing and receiving ability truly reach the level of the top league!

At the same time, his off-the-ball running attribute has reached 75 points!Greatly improved his ability to cooperate with teammates.

The improvement of these two attributes has greatly improved Zhang Xu's ability, and also made a qualitative change in his midfield organization ability.It can be said that Zhang Xu, even if he has not reached the level of Belleron, is almost the same. In some aspects, he is even better than Belleron, such as the speed of passing and receiving the ball.

Although Zhang Xu's ability has been improved, the team's aging problem seems to be getting more and more serious, and the team's morale and state are slowly declining.

On December 2012, 12, Deportivo challenged Atletico Madrid away!

Atlético de Madrid is a Spanish Football League team and a traditional powerhouse in European football.Atlético de Madrid is the third-best Spanish football club in history, behind rivals Real Madrid Club de Fútbol and Fútbol Club Barcelona in terms of titles won, season ticket holders and total revenue.

曾获得10次西班牙足球甲级联赛冠军、2次欧冠亚军、2次欧联杯冠军、2次欧洲超级杯冠军、1次世俱杯冠军。

In the Atletico Madrid team, there are well-known Suarez, Falcao, Turan, Costa and others, all of whom are more capable than the generals of Deportivo.

Under such circumstances, it is an away game, and the main lineup is incomplete. Even with Zhang Xu's tenacious defense, it is really hard to predict whether Deportivo will be able to retreat unscathed.

At 7 o'clock in the evening, the game officially started.

Atlético de Madrid deserves to be a traditional powerhouse in European football. Just after the game started, they controlled the situation of the game in their own hands.

In the 8th minute of the game, Falcao's cold shot almost broke through the goal of Deportivo. If Zhang Xu hadn't rubbed the surface of the football with his toe at the last moment, Alzubia would have missed the shot.

In the 12th minute of the game, it was Falcao again. His through ball passed directly past Marchena and came to Costa's feet.

Costa hit the football with a strong shot!
Fortunately, Alan Zubia reacted quickly, and he poked the football out of the bottom line with his fingertips!
The continuous powerful offensive made Zhang Xu tired of coping.

Although Zhang Xu has tried his best, the team still feels precarious!

Sure enough, in the No. 30 minute of the game, Falcao received a pass from Suarez, volleyed, and finally broke through the gate of Deportivo!
1: 0!

Atletico Madrid lead by one goal!
Seeing the football fly into the net, Zhang Xu felt a sense of loss.

Is he really that bad?Can't you control the rhythm of the game like Belleron?
(End of this chapter)