World's No.1 Football Manager

Chapter 138 Don't look at your phone
Gyeongnam FC is not a traditional strong team in the K-League. It just won the K2017 League Championship in 2 and was promoted to the K1 League.But they performed very well last season, almost creating the Korean version of the "Kaiserslautern Miracle", and finally won the runner-up in the K-League and qualified for the AFC Champions League.

Perhaps due to the incompatibility of the playing style, the Chinese team has long suffered from "Korea-phobia", and the Taishan team is the most outstanding one. For a long time, against South Korean teams, they have lost more than they won. They have only won 16 games against South Korean teams in the previous 2 times, and they have been massacred by large scores many times.

Therefore, this year is the first time for Li Xiaopeng to lead a team to play in the AFC Champions League. His goal is not only to get out of the group, but also to let the team throw away the "Korea-phobic hat" that has been worn for many years.

The Taishan Club attaches great importance to this game, and has made a lot of preparations before the game, and has already made plans for board, lodging, and itinerary.In the last game, many main players were hidden in the snow, otherwise Pengcheng Kaisa would not be defeated. To a certain extent, it can be regarded as sacrificing the league results for the AFC Champions League.

The team must make a choice in multi-line combat. The intensive schedule can easily wear down the team's physical fitness and mentality, and personnel must be rotated. This is also the experience and lessons that the Taishan team has learned from participating in the AFC Champions League for many years.

The Taishan team has been criticized by the outside world as a "foreign war layman". This year, the club is determined to "play a good foreign war and win glory for the country".

This is also an important reason for the large-scale use of reserve team members when the Football Association Cup played against Quancheng on Saturday.Otherwise, with the three major foreign aids coming together, Quancheng would have been wiped out on Saturday, and there would be no need for the final thrilling moment.

Regarding how to play this away game, the coaching staff has fully studied and discussed before this "Southern Expedition and Northern War" and formulated a plan.

In terms of tactics, he still uses his strengths and avoids weaknesses, giving full play to his height advantage, focusing on the top three lanes, and trying to head the opponent to death.

It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven.On the day before the game, there was an unexpected change.

The offensive bridgehead of the Taishan team, Pellet, accidentally sprained his ankle during training before the game, and he will definitely miss the next day's game.

After the field training, Li Xiaopeng called the coaching team to hold an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures.

由于亚冠报名采用的是“3+1”政策（即报3名不限国籍外援和1名亚洲籍外援），所以泰山队的第4外援格德斯（巴西籍）未报名，无法顶替受伤的佩莱。

The Taishan team's striker has been dominated by foreign aid since Han Peng retired. Now the two foreign aid forwards are unable to play, and the team has an embarrassing situation where no one is available.

The coaching staff was having a lot of headaches before the battle. After some research and discussion, they mainly proposed two solutions:
One is to push Fellaini to the front line.Fellaini's height, strength, and header skills are not inferior to Pellet, and he is often pushed up the front line at the last moment of the game, so he can be used as a center forward.

It's just that if he goes to the front line, the defensive strength of the midfielder will inevitably be weakened. The Korean team's style of play is fierce, and the midfield defense is very critical. Fellaini's absence will pose a great hidden danger to the defense.In addition, although he has superb football skills, he is not a forward after all. Many technical actions and first reactions of midfielders are different from those of forward players. Occasionally, he may receive miraculous effects if he plays a cameo, but if he is fixed at the center for the entire game, the effect may not be good.

The second is to tap the potential internally.There is no general in Sichuan, Liao Hua, as the vanguard, and replace Pellet with the current domestic forward players in the team. The advantage of this is that Fellaini is still in the original position, and the personnel structure has only moved one part of the forward line, so there is no need for large-scale adjustments.

But the problem is that the ability of domestic players is too far from that of Italian centers, which is simply the gap between Hanyang and Italian cannons.Originally, the striker was the strongest part of the Taishan team, but now it has become a disadvantage.Moreover, the current domestic players in the team do not have the type of high center forward like Pellet, and changing players is equivalent to changing the style of play.

With regard to these two programs with their own advantages and disadvantages, everyone's opinions are not unified, and everyone has their own opinions, and they can't agree on what to do.

Li Xiaopeng also hesitated, and after contemplating for a moment, he suddenly asked Gao Yuan: "Xiao Gao, what's your opinion?"

Gao Yuan is just a data analyst. After he reports the opponent's situation, he has nothing to do. As a team manager, he can't even be regarded as a core member of the coaching staff.At this moment, Li Xiaopeng suddenly asked for his opinion, which surprised Gao Yuan and made everyone else secretly speechless.

However, regarding this issue, Gao Yuan had thought about it many times in his heart, but he spoke lightly and did not express his opinion hastily.Now that Li Xiaopeng took the initiative to ask, he no longer hides his secrets, and confesses his thoughts.

"I think these two solutions have their own advantages and disadvantages. Although they are not perfect, they both have merits. I think they should be integrated and take their essence."

Li Xiaopeng raised his eyebrows and asked, "How do you say it?"

"Since Fellaini lacks mobility as a striker, and our domestic players are not good at heading, why not team up as a partner? Simply change the formation and play 4-4-2, with Fellaini partnering with a domestic striker. This has both height and mobility. Doesn't it make up for the loss of Pellet's absence?"

Li Xiaopeng didn't say anything, but someone in the coaching staff laughed.

"Xiao Gao, you are still too young! Is it possible to change the formation? It is true that according to what you said, our striker has been strengthened, but what about the midfield? What about defense? You must know that our opponent is a Korean team, or the Korean team at home. They will definitely fight for the midfield and attack with all their might. Now you not only want to push Fellaini to the front line, but also reduce one midfielder. Haha, boy, that's not how the ball is played!"

Someone in the coaching staff educated Gao Yuan. Although he didn't say anything harsh, he didn't hide the ridicule and distrust between the lines.

Gao Yuan smiled lightly, and said neither humble nor overbearing: "This is what I want to say next. Why Chinese football is afraid of South Korea, I think there are more psychological problems. The overall strength of Korean football is much stronger than ours, but most of their good players are in Europe, in the Chinese Super League, in leagues in various overseas countries, and how many elite players are there in the real K-League clubs? Take Gyeongnam FC as an example. According to my observation, their strength is definitely inferior to ours. The tone has introduced 22 players, the coordination is far from perfect, and the skills and tactics are not formed at all! In terms of strength, we don't have to be afraid of them at all!
Another point is the psychology of the players on the field. I think the starters should not play step by step according to their strength. Facing the AFC-level games and opponents like Kyungnam, we should do something special. If there is not much difference in strength, we should focus on selecting players with strong psychological quality in the same position.

In the past, those Korean-phobia and black 3 minutes in Chinese football, is it because of lack of strength?In fact, the difference is just one breath!The Koreans withstood the pressure, but we didn't. "

As soon as this remark came out, the audience was silent, and everyone was thinking about what Gao Yuan said, which seemed deviant, but it seemed to have some truth.

Chinese football is often not killed in battle, but scared to death, just like a mouse seeing a cat, trembling with fright when it hears that the opponent is the South Korean team, and cannot play [-]% of its power out of ten.

However, in such an important game, temporarily changing the lineup, and not judging the heroes based on their ability, but choosing a hero with a strong psychological quality, why does it feel a bit unreliable?How can the AFC Champions League be a trial and error testing ground?
"There is no clear indicator of psychological quality, who can define it?" Someone asked.

Gao Yuan really wants to tell everyone, I can define it!Lao Tzu has a system and opened his eyes, so it is clear at a glance who has a strong psychological quality.

But he couldn't say this, so he could only casually say, "We've been together for such a long time, whoever has strong self-confidence and good psychological quality is obvious to all, and it's easy to choose."

Everyone in the coaching staff began to discuss in whispers, and Li Xiaopeng was also pondering, and even paced back and forth in the conference room involuntarily.

After thinking for a long time, he made a final decision.For the sake of stability, he did not fully adopt Gao Yuan's suggestions, but he also adopted some of them.

The formation has not been adjusted rashly, and it is still 4-2-3-1. The top striker of the reserve team and domestic forward Cheng Yuan are the first strikers; Fellaini is still partnering with Hao Junmin as a midfielder.

However, individual players have made fine-tuning. The left back did not use the stronger veteran Zheng Zheng, but the young player Liu Yang who is not afraid of tigers; and the bench has changed a lot. Cui Peng, Zhou Haibin, Zhang Chi and several other veterans who were originally planning to rest have re-entered the bench list.

As for the effect, we can only watch the game.

The match between Gyeongnam FC and Taesan in the AFC Champions League started on time at 19:00 local time (18:00 BJ time).

An hour before the game, the list of 18 players was announced on the Internet, and there was another round of criticism.

"What's the matter with the forward line? He actually went to Chengyuan! He played in the reserve team and couldn't even play in the Chinese Super League. He actually went to play in the AFC Champions League. I'm so embarrassed!"

"Prefect Li is arranging troops indiscriminately again. If you lose this game, get out of class!"

"Haha, in the last league game, you even made excuses to save your strength for the AFC Champions League. Let's see what excuses you can find after you lose!"

"The excuse has been found, it must be attributed to Pellet's injury"

"What is Li Xiaopeng capable of? It's nothing more than clinging to the thigh of the foreign aid. If the foreign aid's father is injured, he can't recruit."

"Have you seen the substitute list? All old guys! They are all Li Xiaopeng's brothers, Li Taishou is nepotism!"

"Where are the young team members? Prefect Li, you suppress the young people!"

"Cui Peng is as fat as a ball, are you still going to let him play! Let him play if the prefect Li has the guts, and if I don't lose, I will go to the Olympic Games naked!"

"Prefect Li, I will definitely let these old guys play, but it must be the last 1~2 minutes of garbage time, because as long as they play, they will be able to share bonuses!"

"Prefect Li dismisses get out of class"

······
Gao Yuan saw these comments on his mobile phone before the game, and was so angry that his liver hurt.I really don't know if these people are deliberately slandering or they are really out of their minds. Is there any coach in the world who does not hesitate to be nepotism at the cost of losing?The coach gets along with these players every day and observes their competitive state. Isn't it better for keyboard warriors to understand the actual situation?

It is my own idea to reuse old players with good psychological quality, why should I blame Director Li!

After all, he was young and energetic, so he couldn't help registering an account "JWWJ," and posted a post on the post bar.

"The AFC Champions League is such an important game, and the pressure is so great. Shouldn't the old players be allowed to fight? This kind of foreign war that concerns the reputation of Chinese football, is it a field for training newcomers? I think there is no problem with the team formation directed by Li."

As a result, as soon as this post was posted, it immediately attracted a storm of ridicule and abuse.

"Look, the club's fifty cents are here!"

"Washing dogs!"

"This guy is demented! Hurry up and wake him up with piss, the one with yellow urine goes first, and the one with diabetes comes second, so don't give him a taste of the sweetness!"

"Li Xiaopeng has benefited you so much, you worked so hard to lick his ass!"

"Hupeng Party, hurry up and get out of Team Taishan with your master"

·······
Gao Yuan is about to explode with anger, these people are not reasonable at all, are they speaking human words!If you talk about techniques and tactics with them, they will scold you!You reason with them, and they scold you too!You tell them the truth, and they scold you!

These keyboard warriors are not blind at all, but black-hearted!

Han Peng cheerfully put his arm on Gao Yuan's shoulder, and said with a smile: "Little brother, you are still young, and you don't even know the rules!"

"What rules?"

"Hehe, don't look at your phone from the hour before the game to the day after the game!"

"why?"

"I'm afraid you'll get sick from anger!"

"..."

Gao Yuan was speechless.

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ps: There was an earthquake in Jinan! 2020 is really an eventful year!I hope that the disaster will be turned into good luck, that the country will be prosperous and the people will be safe.

(End of this chapter)