super storm

Chapter 616 Goal shortage

Enter the Devil of Christmas schedule.

In the No.19 round of the Premier League, Liverpool challenged Derby County away.

This was originally the weakest team in the Premier League this season, but Liverpool played very dangerously.

Twelve minutes into the first half, Yang Yang made a threat from the left, and Crouch finally scored a goal, but then Liverpool made a defensive mistake with a free kick and was equalized by the opponent.

Until the final stoppage time of the game, Yang Yang forced a breakthrough from the left and passed it into the penalty area. Crouch headed back and Yang Yang followed up and hit the goal directly, but was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper. Gerrard made a miss in front of the goal.

Two to one!

Liverpool narrowly beat Derby County!

……

Three days later, in the 20th round of the Premier League, Liverpool challenged Manchester City away.

After nine and 10 minutes of fierce fighting, the two sides finally drew [-]-[-].

Yang Yang came off the bench in this game and made several threats, but failed to score.

This is his three consecutive rounds without scoring.

……

Enter [-], January [-]st.

In the No.20 round of the Premier League, Liverpool played against Wigan Athletic at home.

Liverpool suffered a [-]-[-] home draw with Wigan Athletic.

Yang Yang played all the games in the starting lineup, but failed to perform, and his overall state was relatively sluggish.

……

Following the mediocre performance of the Christmas Devils last year, Yang Yang's Christmas performance is even worse this year.

Just after he won the World Footballer of the Year, his state is obviously declining rapidly.

He failed to score in four consecutive games, and Yang Yang's performance began to be criticized by a lot of media, but most of the media and fans were still relatively friendly to him, thinking that after four months of excellent form, it would take some time to adjust whether it was his physical condition or his own mentality.

Dalglish even said in an interview with the media that there is nothing wrong with Yang Yang's strength and professionalism, and what he needs now is to readjust his physical condition and psychology.

"I believe, given enough time and patience, he will regain his form soon."

Many celebrities, including Alan Hansen, also expressed their support for Yang Yang. Players in the Liverpool team, such as Gerrard, Harvey Alonso, Crouch and Dirk, also expressed their voices, saying that Yang Yang has no problem, he just needs a little time.

He was criticized for failing to score in four or five games, which shows that after winning the World Footballer and the Personal Grand Slam, both the media and the fans have higher demands on Yang Yang.

Now, they all demand Yang Yang by the No.1 standard in world football.

……

On January [-]th, the third round of the FA Cup.

Liverpool beat Luton [-]-[-] away.

Yang Yang was not included in the squad for this game.

……

In the middle of the week, in the Premier League Cup semi-final, Liverpool challenged Chelsea away.

After the two sides fought hard for 10 minutes, Liverpool drew [-]-[-] away with Chelsea.

Yang Yang contributed an assist, but still failed to score.

……

In the second round of Premier League No.20, Liverpool challenged Middlesbrough away.

For the purpose of protection, Benitez arranged Yang Yang as a substitute.

Middlesbrough took the lead in breaking Liverpool's goal with an assist from Downing, but it was not until the No. 701 minute of the second half that Didert scored a goal to equalize the score.

Yang Yang came off the bench for 10 minutes and was still very active, but he still failed to score.

……

In the No.20 three rounds of the Premier League, Liverpool played against Aston Villa.

In the first half, Gerrard passed the ball, Yang Yang took the ball from the front of the penalty area and got rid of it and passed it through.

But then Liverpool performed poorly overall, especially on the offensive end.

With the decline of Yang Yang's state, Liverpool's offensive threat has also dropped significantly.

After changing sides to fight again in the second half, Aston Villa scored two goals in a row within 3 minutes. In the end, with Crouch's goal, they finally drew Aston Villa [-]-[-] at home.

Yang Yang contributed an assist, but still failed to score.

Anfield fans were not happy with the draw, as it was Liverpool's last three consecutive draws, which has resulted in Liverpool's lead at the top of the standings shrinking.

After the current 23 rounds, Liverpool ranked first with 56 points, but Arsenal managed to catch up and reached 53 points, only three points away from Liverpool, followed by Manchester United with 51 points.

It can be said that the lead that Liverpool finally established in the first half is now in jeopardy.

On the scorer list, Yang Yang has not scored a goal for a month. On the other hand, in the past month, Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo has scored a lot of goals, scoring a total of eight goals and one assist in six league rounds.

This also allowed Ronaldinho to catch up to 22 goals in the scorer list, only five goals away from Yang Yang's [-] goals.

But even so, even though the Liverpool fans were anxious, they still shouted Yang Yang's name after the game, cheered him on, and hoped that he could get back to his state as soon as possible.

It is human nature to experience a trough after the peak, and everyone will do it.

At the beginning of this season, Ronaldinho still has a scoring drought for more than a month.

But the problem now is that when Liverpool lost Yang Yang, the offense was also affected, which led to the team's overall scoring efficiency becoming very low. The consecutive draws are the best proof.

At the same time, Yang Yang also began to repay the debt of the previous media support.

How did the British media support Yang Yang to grab the World Footballer in the first place, and now they are hyping up his scoring shortage.

Everything is not beyond Yang Yang's expectation.

He also felt very strange about his current situation.

He still trains as before every day, still without any discount, never lazy, and in the game, he still works so hard, and the distance he runs is also a little bit less.

But it just feels a little bit worse.

This was something he had never had before.

It has been more than four years since his debut, and he has never encountered such a situation.

……

In the middle of the week, the second round of the League Cup semi-finals.

Benitez once again showed his qualities of being good at playing cup games. At Anfield, with Gerrard's goal, he defeated the visiting Chelsea [-]-[-] and successfully advanced to the final.

Yang Yang continued to show nothing.

……

Over the weekend, in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Liverpool beat Hawat [-]-[-] at home.

Yang Yang did not enter the squad for this game.

……

At the end of January, in the No.20 round of the Premier League, Liverpool ushered in a defeat.

The away game lost [-]-[-] to the Hammers to help West Ham United.

It was Liverpool's second defeat of the season and also led to Arsenal successfully catching up with Liverpool in the standings.

However, three days later, Liverpool quickly adjusted and defeated visiting Sunderland [-]-[-] at home.

But because Arsenal also defeated their opponents, the ranking in the standings has not changed.

It's just that Yang Yang's scoring drought continues.

…………

…………

In the manager's office at Liverpool's Melwood training ground, Benitez looks worriedly at his assistants.

Paco Yesterdan and Francisco De Michele, who are in charge of physical training, Mark Waller, the team medical director, Dave McDonough, the tactical analyst, and even the masseur Paul Small were called to the meeting.

"What I want to know is, what is Yang Yang's situation now?" Benitez asked worriedly.

During this period of time, Yang Yang hadn't scored a goal for more than a month, and everyone on the team was under a lot of pressure.

Everyone knows that Yang Yang is the core fighting force of Liverpool. When he sneezes, an earthquake strikes Liverpool. Now Yang Yang is neither injured nor has any problems, but his performance is not satisfactory.

"I have followed and monitored him for a week as you said before. I can conclude that there is really no problem with his body. Maybe he was a little tired before, but he is almost recovered now." Team medical director Mark Waller said with a frown.

When Yang Yang had a problem, the whole team was nervous, and everyone was under pressure.

He's Liverpool's baby bump right now.

"There is no problem with our tactics. It is no different from before. I have carefully watched the video of the last few rounds, and the opponent does not have any obvious targeted tactics." Tactical analyst Duff McDonough said.

After a pause, the tactical analyst added: "I also specially analyzed his data on the field. Whether it is running distance or others, it is quite normal, but there is a significant decline in the number of passes, passing threatening balls, and timing of running positions."

"His training is normal." Paco Yesterdam said succinctly.

"In the gym, he still trains with equipment as usual every day, and everything is normal." De Michel continued.

Paul Small saw that everyone had said it, and the office was a little quiet. He hesitated, and replied: "I also think he is quite normal, just..."

Benitez frowned, "What is it?"

"It doesn't feel exciting enough," Paul Small said. "Especially recently, I think he has more pressure than us."

Everyone nodded after hearing this.

It has been a year and a half since Yang Yang came to the team. The club has also conducted a detailed assessment of his character before. He is a very responsible player, self-disciplined and full of professionalism.

But precisely because of this, such people often easily put a heavy burden on themselves.

Of course, this kind of personality is a good thing for players. Yang Yang's ability to go to today and achieve such results is inseparable from his personality.

"I think so too." Yesterdan added, "After winning the World Footballer of the Year, I feel that his whole body has relaxed. He was tense at first, but this relaxation caused his state to decline. Afterwards, he continued to perform poorly and the team's performance was affected. He probably felt a lot of pressure."

Benitez understood what Yeserdan meant.

Sometimes, the more pressure a player is under and the more he wants to perform, the more sluggish he will be on the court.

Just like Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, the more he wants to score goals, the more often he cannot score goals.

But this guy seems to have gotten the hang of it lately.

"Paco, do you have any good suggestions?" Benitez asked.

"Let him rest well."

"have a good rest?"

"Well, give him a holiday, forget about football, don't think about anything, let go of the burden."

Speaking of this, Yesterdan said with a smile: "Just in time, it will be their traditional Chinese Spring Festival in a few days, let him go home to celebrate the New Year."

Benitez thought for a while and nodded in agreement.

(End of this chapter)