Coaching legend

Klose suddenly got hot, scoring six goals in five league games. Everyone wanted to see how long Klose's form could last.

In the seventh round of the league, Blackburn faced Middlesbrough away. The two teams played offensive football, and the final score was 2-2. Klose did not score.

But it was not because Klose's form declined, but because Klose did not play at all in this game. Not only Klose, but also the main players such as Miku, Deco, and Pires basically did not play.

The main players were only Cudicini and Ferdinand, and the rest of the main players were resting off the court.

George arranged a lineup with the back line from left to right being Gallas, Henning Berg, Ferdinand, and Sun Jihai, and the midfield from left to right being Bellamy, Hargreaves, David Dunn, and Romedal, and the forwards were Davor Suker and Kevin Gallagher.

This was definitely not George playing an alternative, but because the game was played on September 11. Three days later, on September 14, Blackburn will play a League Cup match.

Blackburn won the fourth place in the Premier League, so they can directly enter the League Cup. The first round of the League Cup will be on September 14. After all, the League Cup is George's first European game. So George attaches great importance to it.

Therefore, in the seventh round, George made a major rotation of the main lineup.

Fortunately, Blackburn's substitutes are very powerful. Davor Suker and Kevin Gallagher are indeed old and strong. In the game, Kevin Gallagher received an assist from Davor Suker and scored a goal.

The other goal was David Dunn's header from behind Sun Jihai's cross.

Let Blackburn get a point away from home.

Of course, the Chinese media don't think so. As the first player to land in the Premier League, Sun Jihai is very popular in China. Unfortunately, Sun Jihai only had one substitute appearance in the first few games. This disappointed the Chinese media.

However, it is not that George is unwilling to give Sun Jihai a chance, but because Blackburn has been in amazing form since the beginning of this season. And after Sagnol got the captain's armband, he was very excited. Therefore, this season's performance is many times better than last season.

Only five games have been played, and Sagnol has already had three assists. As a full-back, such performance is already world-class. George has no reason to withdraw Sagnol and give Sun Jihai a chance.

Therefore, until this game, Sun Jihai entered the main lineup. However, Sun Jihai was very calm. Although he had no chance to play, he did not make trouble. George likes Sun Jihai, not only because of his strength. This humble character is also the favorite.

Recently, George has been quite upset because of the rotation problem.

George is unwilling to let Blackburn, which is in excellent form now, rotate personnel. But players with personalities like Bellamy and Gallas are very angry about not being able to enter the main lineup. Although Bellamy is not satisfied, he can still be honest for a while under the strength of Pires and Duff.

But Gallas is very dissatisfied. After Hendry semi-retired, Gallas thought that he should be the main player. In the second half of last season, Gallas' performance was still good. But George didn't expect that he spent a lot of money to buy Ferdinand, and Gallas went back to be a substitute.

These need to be settled. It gave George a headache. So looking at a player with a good personality like Sun Jihai, he was in a good mood.

The Chinese media was very happy. What "Sun Jihai saved George!", "Sun Jihai got a point for Blackburn!", "Sun Jihai's world-class performance!" Such cheesy comments are everywhere.

Even CCTV inserted the moment when Sun Jihai assisted the cross in the news. You can see the influence of Sun Jihai and the influence of football in China in the late 1990s.

Blackburn, a relatively unfamiliar team for Chinese fans, quickly became a team supported by Chinese fans. Because the Premier League has not yet been fully popularized, many fans can only know the news about Blackburn from newspapers such as "Sports Weekly" and "Football News".

But they are happy about it. This issue of "Sports Weekly" is even more popular. Because there is a lot of news about Sun Jihai.

The number of Chinese reporters who want to interview Blackburn suddenly increased. Williams was smiling. Williams even considered that if Blackburn went to China to play commercial games next summer, the profit would be very high.

But George didn't have time to care about the reaction of the Chinese media. Because at this time George was already leading Blackburn to Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Blackburn's opponent in the first round of the League Cup is Belgrade Guerrilla from Serbia. If this team was placed ten years ago, or even earlier, it would also be a strong team in Europe.

In terms of historical glory, Belgrade Guerrilla is something Blackburn can't catch up with.

Belgrade Guerrilla was already one of the Yugoslav football hegemons in the Yugoslav era. It won the Yugoslav Football League championship 11 times. And in less than ten years after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Belgrade Guerrilla still won 5 league championships.

And there were also 5 Yugoslav Cup championships. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Serbia has won the cup championship three times.

This is one of the absolute football hegemons in the history of Yugoslav football. Together with the Belgrade Red Star team, which is also in Belgrade, these two city rivals are the top teams in Yugoslavia.

And this team is not bad in international competitions. In the international arena, the guerrillas have won the runner-up of the 1965-66 UEFA Champions League, the 1978 Central European Cup, the quarterfinals of the 1989-90 European Cup Winners' Cup, and the top 16 of the UEFA Cup four times.

However, history is history after all, and history cannot be eaten.

No matter how glorious the history is, it cannot cover up the fact that the Belgrade guerrillas have declined.

The Yugoslav team was a world power at that time, but since Tito's death, the situation in Yugoslavia has been turbulent. Later, Yugoslavia disintegrated, and this year's Kosovo War. In recent years, the situation in Serbia has become increasingly unstable, and many talented Serbian players have fled Serbia when they were young.

Therefore, the performance of the previously powerful Yugoslav football has been declining year by year in recent years. Even the Belgrade Red Star, a European powerhouse at the time, has become a dish among the European powerhouses. Not to mention the current Belgrade Guerrilla.

In fact, Blackburn has already reported to UEFA. In view of the unstable situation in Serbia, can it change to a neutral venue for the game?

After all, just over three months ago, NATO planes bombed Serbia. Although more than three months have passed, George is still worried. Although there is no popular so-called terrorist attack, who knows whether Belgrade will be safe.

However, UEFA still rejected Blackburn's application. UEFA officials said that Serbia is now free from the shadow of war and there is no danger. This made George very angry.

George certainly knew that peacekeeping forces from various countries have entered Serbia. But who doesn't know that Serbia now has not only NATO troops, but also Russian troops. When they seized Serbia, some conflicts broke out.

Although it was just some simple conflicts and did not escalate to war. But the hatred between them was still very strong.

George was unwilling to go to Serbia at this time.

But there was no other way. UEFA, you are a bunch of bastards, my life is not a life. George complained in his heart, but still went to Serbia obediently.

…………

Belgrade, the current capital of Serbia.

Belgrade has a very long history. It has been the capital of Serbia since 600 years ago. When George and his team arrived at this city with a long history, they found that it was full of ruins. A piece of ruins, you can also see groups of street children.

George didn't understand politics and didn't want to get involved in politics.

But seeing these groups of orphans and the elderly, George could only shake his head.

The country has become like this. The first issue that fans are considering now is survival. How can they have the energy to think about football. And those players are even more so. After more than two months of bombing, how can they still have the mind to play.

The decline of Yugoslav football, war is definitely the first factor.

If there had been no war and Yugoslavia had not disintegrated, Yugoslav football would have been a world powerhouse like France, Germany, and Italy today. What a pity.

On the first day, Blackburn just rested. After all, the ruins of Belgrade had a huge impact on everyone.

On the second day, Blackburn went to the stadium for adaptive training. Fortunately, NATO bombs did not blow up the stadium. However, it has not been repaired for too long, and the grass here is very poor. Compared with the grass of Premier League clubs, the grass here can only be regarded as the grass of middle schools.

Even the worst stadiums in the Premier League have grass several times better than here.

George frowned. This kind of grass is the worst for a technical team like Blackburn. George even stepped on it. It was really too bad.

"George, this grass..." Carl came up and talked to George with a wry smile.

George nodded.

"Forget it, this may be a better stadium in Serbia. Serbia has been fighting every day in recent years, where is the money to repair the grass." George sighed. "But the gap in strength cannot be made up. Think about it, where do they have time to train during this period? As long as we play well, there will be no problem in the game."

"Well, Serbian football has declined."

For the current Belgrade Partisan, George does not even have any specific information. Because the situation in Serbia this year is too turbulent. But George is not very worried, the gap in strength is there.