Chapter 163 Bodyguard

When Chen Hero's black Land Rover Discovery 3, protected by two police cars, one in front and one behind, drove into Napoli's Castel Volturno training base, his teammates were already used to his style of having police cars escort him to training.

Yes, they were used to it. After all, he was doing it for his own personal safety.

Besides, it wasn't free. It was said to be quite expensive… Although it looked impressive, the money was flowing away.

As a regular feature, the fans who gathered early in the morning outside the training base, hoping to get an autograph or a photo with their favorite idol, greeted Chen Hero's arrival with huge boos and various obscenities, not forgetting to give him the middle finger.

The media, however, reacted calmly to this scene. They had stirred it up in the first place, and now they "retired with honor," calmly dissuading and scolding the excited fans. In short, they took all the credit.

But this time, Chen Hero showed his new teammates something unusual—in addition to the eight policemen in two cars acting as bodyguards, the person who got out of the driver's seat of his car wasn't his agent, De Kela, as everyone knew, but… a tall, dark-haired beauty!

After the woman got out of the car, she stood by the door and looked around, her cold eyes silencing the fans who were shouting "I'm going to fuck your mother."

The noise on the scene immediately decreased by eighty percent.

The Napoli players who were watching the excitement outside the parking lot dropped their jaws when they saw this beauty walk around the front of the car, open the door, and then Chen Hero emerged from inside.

This… this… eight policemen weren't enough, this bastard even hired a beautiful driver! Was he a newcomer who had just joined the team, or an established leader who had been sitting on the throne of this team for a long time?

But Chen Hero's subsequent explanation made them feel even more unbalanced.

"She's not my driver, she's a bodyguard and driver." Chen Hero explained to his teammates, who were envious, jealous, and hateful. His Italian was barely at the beginner level, but that didn't stop him from gesturing and explaining the matter to his teammates in broken Italian.

Of course, in the eyes of his teammates, his explanation was a second boast…

In fact, one factor is crucial in learning a language: you have to dare to speak, dare to express yourself. As long as you dare to speak, even if your pronunciation is inaccurate, your grammar is wrong, and your words are misspelled at the beginning, you can slowly correct these problems as you speak.

But many people are afraid of being laughed at, so they don't dare to open their mouths at all. Chen Hero didn't have this concern. He wasn't afraid of being laughed at, he opened his mouth and spoke, regardless of whether his pronunciation was awkward or his grammar was nonexistent. If he couldn't remember a word, he would just find one that he thought sounded similar, regardless of whether anyone could understand it.

But it was precisely because of this that he was able to make progress in learning the language.

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In the locker room, Chen Hero got along reasonably well with his new teammates. Although some people didn't seem to like him, they didn't show it too obviously on the surface. At most, they just didn't take the initiative to talk to him in the locker room and remained silent during training. On the surface, everyone was still friendly.

But on the field, Chen Hero's difficulty in integrating into the team was much greater.

Because he fell short of what Reja hoped for.

The current Napoli team plays a 3-4-1-2 formation, with three defenders, four midfielders lined up in a row, and in front of them is a relatively free attacking midfielder, who could be an attacking midfielder, a shadow striker, or a winger. In short, the position is very flexible, mainly on the left side. There are two forwards, one at the front and one slightly behind and to the right, both in very flexible positions.

The characteristic of this tactic is change.

Everyone is constantly running, looking for opportunities to cooperate and find openings.

The Italian coach's research and obsession with tactics opened Chen Hero's eyes.

When he played in Russia, there weren't such complex and changeable tactics. Advocaat designed a very simple tactic for Zenit—based on Chen Hero's good heading ability and strong physique, they mainly focused on sharp wing breakthroughs, starting from the wing and creating opportunities for Chen Hero. Even if there were changes, it was just changing the location of the pass from the wing to the backcourt…

Chen Hero's task at Zenit St. Petersburg was very simple—to score goals. He didn't need to run around with his teammates in the frontcourt, seeking cooperation. At most, after controlling the ball, he would pass it to Dominguez, who was coming up from behind, or Arshavin and Hill, who were coming up on the wings. Such passing cooperation was still very easy for him.

But everything changed after he arrived in Napoli.

As an Italian coach, Reja has a lot of research and requirements in terms of tactics. In his tactics, Chen Hero, who is the center forward, must run actively and seek cooperation with his teammates, especially Lavezzi and Hamsik.

He designed many running routes for Chen Hero.

And this seemed like a book from heaven to Chen Hero, who usually didn't pay much attention to tactical training…

It can't be said that Chen Hero was too bad. After all, he had been in the professional football world for two years, and he still had basic tactical literacy. But the complexity of the Italian tactics was still too complex for him, with his two years of experience. Like cuneiform writing, he couldn't understand it at all.

Italian coaches are mostly called "academics," not because they all come from academies, but because their research on football tactics is like doing academic research, very rigorous, serious, and very interested… In fact, not only Italian coaches, but any coach working in the Italian league will be subtly influenced by this and become like this.

Let's compare the football of Italy and England. Even in Italian youth football schools, you will find that the training time is very long. The coach will have the players gather around in a circle and explain the technical and tactical details in detail. During Cooper's time at Inter Milan, they often practiced tactics for thirty seconds, and Cooper would call a stop and explain his tactical requirements in detail. Any slight mistake would not be tolerated. Italian football is a precise football, completely different from the rough football of England.

Ray Wilkins, a technical official of the English Football Association, once said: "In England, the simplest training that players are most willing to accept is to set up a goal and have everyone play against each other!"

Zola, when he was at Chelsea, once proudly said that he could adapt to all types of tactics, because all kinds of tactics had been practiced in his football education since he was a child.

Vialli made such a metaphor: if you let an Italian boxer fight an English boxer, the Italian boxer will first consider the opponent's characteristics. He is always protecting himself, waiting for the opponent's flaws; the English boxer is completely different, he will go forward wholeheartedly, not paying much attention to the opponent's situation.

In football, this is the background thinking of Italian football tactics. In Italy, as long as you have a little relationship with football, whether it is the stands of the stadium, the media, or bars and friends gatherings, when talking about football, people will always discuss things such as how the four defenders of Lazio should stand in parallel; for example, when the opponent plays a single forward, whether a central defender should retreat a little; for example, when Seedorf plays, whether Serginho's overlap is more effective than Jankulovski, because Seedorf often cuts inside, etc.

Therefore, when you look at various sports newspapers in Italy, 442, 352, 433, 4321, 4231, 4312, 532, 541, 343… various formations are endless, and this is just the initial formation, and the changes in the formation are endless. Whether the midfield is "diamond-shaped"? How should the two midfielders move? Zone defense or man-to-man marking? Is a sweeper needed? Therefore, the rhythm of Italian teams is also fast and slow, and in terms of tactical richness, no one in European football can match it.

Gold medal coach Trapattoni has always believed that the tactical leadership of Italian football is the number one in the world. "The coach's tactical flexibility is a reflection of his personal value."

Reja's current approach is very much in line with people's typical definition of an Italian football coach—tactical supremacy.

In such a country that is so obsessed with tactical research, it is not surprising that the "catenaccio" tactic, which later became famous and became an art, was born… And although the creator of the prototype of the "libero," the "sweeper," was the Argentine coach Herrera, he invented it when he was coaching Inter Milan, and the Italian football tactical atmosphere must have given him such inspiration.

Studying tactics, learning various tactics, and adapting to changeable tactics are commonplace for Italian coaches and players, just like needing pasta and pizza in life.

But for Chen Hero, who came from China's rough football training and was spoiled by Advocaat in Russia, he could not adapt to this complex tactical requirement at all…

He often stood in the penalty area during training, waiting for his teammates to pass the ball to him—he did this in Zenit St. Petersburg. Then the football would obediently be sent to the top of his head, and all he had to do was jump high and head the ball into the goal. Then the applause of his teammates and coaches would sound on the training ground, and Denisov and others would pretend to embrace him and celebrate the goal.

But here, as long as he dared to do so, he would hear a harsh whistle—the training would be suspended. Then Reja would stride up to him and tell him, with gestures, that he shouldn't be standing there stupidly in the penalty area, because that would make it very easy for the opponent's central defender to mark him. He should run quickly, pull to the wing, pull the central defender out, and create space for Lavezzi to break through at the same time.

Chen Hero found that his offensive weapon, which he was proud of in St. Petersburg, seemed to be worthless when he came to Italy. Reja didn't care that his header was very powerful or that his body was very strong. He just wanted him to integrate into the team's existing tactical play. He not only asked him to run frequently, but also passed the ball to his feet… This made Chen Hero, who was used to going high, very uncomfortable.

He began to feel lost.

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