The Young Lion

The last round of the 2004-2005 English Premier League season is about to start. The defending champion Millwall won their seventh Premier League title two rounds ahead of schedule. Today's game would have been routine, but because yesterday, the 11-year-old Captain Southgate announced that he would hang up his boots and retire after the end of the season, which made this game very special again. Since Millwall still has the Champions League final to play ten days later, it is safe to say that Millwall is a guest at the Hawthorns. It's been a long time since Southgate started as captain with a lot of substitutes.

Martin, let's talk about the situation of relegation. In the standings, Norwich, Crystal Palace, and West Brom, all three teams may be relegated. In the end, there is only one place to escape. West Brom is not lucky. They ran into Millwall, but the good news is that Millwall has already won the league championship and will not fight against them. At the same time, they have the advantage of home court, and Millwall sent them to the field to prepare for the Champions League final They're all substitute players.

Andy, are you kidding me? Look at Millwall's substitute lineup, the Danish national team's main Glenciel, the Czech midfielder Nedved, the Swedish main striker Larsson, and Villa, Pedretti, Lamour, Barzagli, Neil, Baines, this substitute lineup is more luxurious than the absolute main lineup of the mid-level Premier League teams! Will West Brom really be happy?

Why not? Would they rather face Millwall with Henry, Ronaldinho, Schneider, De Rossi, Alonso, Nesta and other main players starting?

Well, I understand what you mean. In order to be able to stage a victory escape, West Brom can only have fun. Comfort yourself with this idea. Let the morale of the whole team be optimistic and positive, try to win the game as much as possible, and create Miracle!

To evaluate the combat effectiveness of a team, it must first be its strength on paper.

The value of the whole team is a hard standard. A team with a luxurious lineup, no matter how poor the record is, they will always be a popular team in the eyes of the outside world. As for whether they can achieve a record of value. That is the fluctuation of soft power. Tactical mistakes and unreasonable personnel allocation may lower the overall strength.

Nowadays, there are often media sensationalists in public opinion, and they often use Real Madrid's bench to earn attention.

For example, when Raul, Figo, Zidane, and Beckham sit on the bench together, they will hit the title: Real Madrid's bench is extremely enviable!

This kind of news is nonsense!

Because the concepts of substitute and sitting on the bench were secretly replaced!

just like. If Millwall rotates the whole team, take today's game as an example. Who's on the bench?

Ronaldinho, Henry,

Nesta, Kaka, Nesta.

Just these five people!

What will the sum be worth?

However, you can't say they are Millwall's understudies!

They are still the main force, but they are just sitting on the bench at this moment.

However, the reason why Millwall is recognized as a super European team by the outside world is really related to their bench.

This is the thickness of the lineup, not only thick, but also hard!

It's not a sham!

Players like Nedved, Larsson, Glenshire, Villa, Larmor, Pedretti, Barzagli, Baines and other players are often in key battles, when the main players are on the field, they sit On the bench, this represents the luxury of Millwall's bench!

When needed, someone can step up and go into battle to make the head coach feel confident.

A lineup like Real Madrid's is too tough to rotate and collapse. In fact, their lineup is lacking in thickness. It can't be done with just someone, so the head coach can use it with confidence. What's more, Real Madrid's own team building strategy has already The top-heavy problem has emerged, and the Zidane + Pavon policy is reaping bitter failures!

Players from both sides have already stood in the field and waited for the kick-off. Today is the final game and 10 games start at the same time, so the referee has to synchronize with other games, so it was delayed for a minute or two. Then, after the referee blew his whistle , the game officially begins.

Villa lightly kicked the ball to Larson, Larson stopped the ball, turned around, and kicked the ball back to his own backcourt with a long-distance pass.

The ball jumped into the air and flew towards Southgate. Southgate just stopped the ball with his chest, and the stands erupted into enthusiastic cheers!

Normally, Millwall would not pass the ball like this. Kicking the ball back to the back line at the beginning of the game hurt morale a bit, as if he was afraid that the opponent would not dare to attack.

But today, Larson deliberately did this to pay tribute to Southgate, a comrade in arms for many years!

Southgate focused on playing his last game with all his heart.

Yes, this must be his last game.

Even if there is a chance to make an appearance in the UEFA Champions League final, it must be garbage time, and it is just a mere appearance.

All Millwall players are well aware of this, so they took this final game very seriously.

They certainly don't want to bid farewell to Southgate with a loss.

What's more, with Nedved and Larsson on the court, there will be no problems with the team's ethos.

However, Millwall also knew that West Brom had to work hard to avoid relegation, so they did not put on the momentum to eat their opponents in one bite.

From the beginning, Millwall showed a very stable posture.

Win steadily and be patient with the opponent. In terms of game mentality, Millwall is definitely better than the opponent. There is no need for them to panic, but what about West Brom? As time goes by, the mentality will definitely change. Players who are not determined will relax, even give up, and absent-minded, while players with an unbalanced mentality may be anxious and frizzy.

Whenever Southgate completes a pass on the field, intercepts, wins with a header, and blocks the opponent's long-range shot with his body, there will be a burst of cheering for him in the stands.

Today, he still looks like a solid and strong defensive player!

West Brom's offensive ability is pitifully low. Although West Brom ranks second to last in terms of total goals scored in the Premier League season, 2 more than Blackburn, they are the team with the lowest home goals in the Premier League!

In the first 18 home games, they only scored 15 goals!

In front of such an opponent whose offense is so weak that it is almost sluggish, even though Southgate's physical explosiveness has dropped a lot, with his rich experience and prediction, he can still calmly resolve the opponent's clear attack with ease.

Aldridge looked at Southgate with a serious face on the sidelines, feeling a lot of emotion in his heart.

In fact, with Southgate's experience, he can indeed play as a substitute in Millwall, at least one more season is no problem, such as West Brom, Norwich, Blackburn and other teams in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League with low offensive capabilities. , Southgate can well complete the task of team rotation to maintain the record.

However, Southgate resolutely chose to retire, not because he couldn't bear the loneliness of being a substitute, but because he was giving up opportunities to other players in the team, like Barzagli and Neil.

Substitutes also need to play to maintain their form. One more substitute will reduce the chances of positioning players in the same position. Southgate is well aware of this, so he chose to retire and announced the news at this time, which can be regarded as letting Barzagli , Neil had a bottom line in his heart, and told them in a different direction that their opportunities in the future will not decrease, but will only increase more than before.

People are always talking about Millwall's future depends on young players such as Ronaldo, Kaka, Villa and so on.

However, people ignore a fact.

The importance of a stable substitute is no less important than the key role played by the absolute main force!

When De Rossi is injured or needs to rest, without Pedretti, the key position of the midfielder will cause the head coach a headache!

How can we ignore the role played by Barzali and Neil when Nesta couldn't make it?

A stable substitute is a firefighter, not only must have the awareness of firefighting, but also be ready and on standby at all times!

Southgate just knows that he cannot be a stable substitute for a long time, unlike Larson, Nedved, and Schneider in another season or two, so he has to give up the opportunity.

Aldridge has also noticed this awareness, so he hopes to give Southgate a better retirement game, and to write Southgate's name into Millwall's highest honor in history, and all of this , which will be implemented in the future.

After all, West Brom is not a team with strong psychological quality. They only won 5 games in the first 37 rounds. The more they lose, the more eager they are to win. Moreover, in the situation where victory is most needed today, their mentality becomes very unbalanced very quickly.

Just after 30 minutes in the first half, they frantically pressed forward and invested in the attack. Millwall's patience was rewarded. They did not confront the opponent head-on to avoid injuries and waited for the opponent to actively expose enough space. Finally, they played a wave of effective fast breaks and directly hit the opponent's penalty area. Glenshire's breakthrough on the side was like a sharp knife piercing the opponent's heart. Villa, who outflanked the support in the middle, was caught The goalkeeper who abandoned the goal fell to the ground, and the referee decisively awarded a penalty!

At the Hawthorn Stadium, the fans of the home team were as desperate as if they had been sentenced to death!

Wild Lions fans chanted Southgate's name in the stands, probably hoping that Southgate would take the penalty.

The players on the Millwall field turned their heads and looked at the backcourt in unison. No one spoke, and the expressions in their eyes and movements were very clear. They also hoped that Southgate would take this penalty!

Southgate, who had been very serious since the start of the game, suddenly lowered his head and smiled.

Because he vaguely remembered that the last penalty kick he took flew away!

And that was 9 years ago!

In the European Cup in 1996, the penalty kick that became the sinner of the England team!

Since then, he has never taken a penalty kick in the club or the national team.

Not even a penalty shootout.

Standing in front of the penalty again after nine years! (To be continued..)

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