Chapter 182 The Power of the Collective

The media was convinced that Chen Hero was using the League Cup to pad his goal stats. Their analysis was so thorough it seemed to make perfect sense. But this time, they were dead wrong.

Of course, Chen Hero wanted to score a lot of goals, but that wasn't the main reason.

What he valued even more than goals was the glory of winning championships. Speaking of goals, he'd already broken Messi's record of seventy-six last season. He believed his own record of eighty-seven would stand for a long time, so he wasn't in a hurry to keep breaking it.

He wanted to lead this second team, made up of reserve players and some youth team players, into the League Cup final, and then lift the trophy.

He couldn't do it by scoring all the goals himself. He had to fully motivate the second team players and get them to play an important role.

As the saying goes, "Three stakes make a fence, three helpers make a hero." He needed help.

That's why he gave up his own scoring opportunities in the game, passing the ball to his teammates so they could score.

No matter how many goals you score, it's all for nothing if you don't win the championship. He needed glory, not just individual glory, but team glory as well. Individual glory was easy for him; for awards like top scorer, he just had to keep scoring. But team glory was not so simple.

He needed the power of the collective.

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The Liverpool first team players, rested from the League Cup, returned for the eleventh round of the league, easily beating Fulham 3-1 on the road. Chen Hero scored one goal and had one assist in the game.

Manchester United, fresh off losing the National Derby, also showed their resilience, battling hard in the League Cup to eventually eliminate Arsenal by a score of 2-1.

In the league, they also defeated Blackburn 2-0 at home.

Just when many were waiting to see them make fools of themselves, they stopped the slide with two consecutive wins.

The results proved that Ferguson was still firmly in control of the team, and they hadn't really been completely crushed by Liverpool.

Having lost the National Derby, Ferguson chose to continue his battle to the end with Liverpool. This decision required courage, but for Ferguson, it was more of a habit…

The current situation was that even though Manchester United had lost to Liverpool, they were still second in the league, continuing to chase Liverpool with twenty-five points.

So Martin O'Neill was right; the real enemy that could threaten Liverpool was still Manchester United.

A lean camel is bigger than a horse, a centipede dies but never falls down, a broken ship still has three pounds of nails… These sayings could all be used to describe Manchester United now.

So Liverpool really couldn't afford to make any mistakes. Don't think that they were leading Manchester United by as many as six points now, because last season they were once ahead of Manchester United by ten points…

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After the game against Fulham, Liverpool set off for Marseille, France, to challenge the local team.

This game was very important for Liverpool. If they could win, they would basically secure a spot in the top spot of the group, and the next two Champions League group matches would be much easier for them.

So for this game, O'Neill didn't dare rotate players; he sent out the strongest lineup.

His goal was to completely defeat Marseille on their home turf!

Chen Hero wasn't a stranger to the city of Marseille, because he'd been there before.

Back then, he was still playing for Zenit Saint Petersburg, and he had faced Marseille in the knockout stage of the UEFA Cup.

Marseille wasn't his opponent back then, let alone now.

He didn't recognize many of Marseille's players now; many of those who had played against him last time had already left the team.

For example, Lorik Cana, the "Marseille Killing Machine" who he had used as a prop to complete a twisting shot and score a goal, had long since left Marseille for another team.

But Mandanda, the starting goalkeeper from the last time they played, was still there, and still Marseille's starting goalkeeper.

I'm sure he still had a deep impression of Chen Hero hanging Captain Cana on his body, completing the turn, and then blasting his goal.

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Marseille's coach, Baup, had been racking his brains on how to deal with Liverpool ever since he returned to Marseille, mainly how to deal with Chen Hero.

Losing 1-4 on the road was simply a crushing defeat.

But it wasn't the end of the road yet; as long as they could win at home, even if it was just 1-0.

At this point, he wasn't thinking about competing with Liverpool for the top spot in the group; he was thinking about securing a spot in the group stage and not letting Fiorentina steal it away.

If they could beat Liverpool at home and get three points, they could continue to hold on to second place in the group. But if they lost to Liverpool, Fiorentina would catch up. The two teams would have the same number of points, and although Marseille had the advantage in head-to-head record, didn't they still have one game to play? So who knew what the final outcome would be? It was better to be prepared.

The problem was, how to defend against Liverpool and Chen Hero?

To this end, he also specifically studied Liverpool's games during this period.

In particular, he watched the live broadcast of Liverpool's home game against Manchester United.

He wanted to look to Ferguson for inspiration, to see if he could learn a trick or two.

When Ferguson had his team score early in the game, his eyes lit up. He thought this was a good idea—Liverpool always scored first in their games against others, but what if they conceded first? Maybe that would throw them off balance!

In particular, Liverpool's performance in the first half proved this point.

Although Liverpool finally relied on a desperate counterattack in the second half to beat Manchester United 2-1.

But it still made a deep impression on Baup.

He felt that the problem wasn't with Ferguson's attacking tactics; the attacking tactics were fine. The problem was that Manchester United only scored one goal.

This gave Liverpool hope, allowing them to make adjustments at halftime, and also giving them the confidence and fighting spirit to equalize and even come back in the second half.

If Manchester United could have taken a two-goal lead in the first half, Liverpool's morale would have been shattered, and there was no way they could have made a comeback in the second half.

So the key was to attack hard in the first half and score more goals, and to press the attack after taking a one-goal lead.

And Liverpool's greatest strength was their offense; their defense was much weaker in comparison. Pepe was a powder keg; who knew when his brain would go haywire and he would voluntarily ask for a red card. As for Skrtel, he was tall and great at headers, but not flexible enough, and his turning speed was especially slow. Both fullbacks were players with excellent attacking ability, who liked to go forward and participate in the attack, so there were bound to be gaps behind them. The midfield defense only had Inler, who couldn't possibly cover the entire midfield and defense…

So the key to defeating Liverpool wasn't how to prevent them from scoring, but how to score more goals faster and earlier than them!

The more Baup analyzed it, the more he felt it was possible, and he was so excited that he was shaking slightly.

He was even more confident in defeating Liverpool.

The thought that he could beat the currently popular Liverpool at home made him excited.

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Ideals are always beautiful, but reality is always cruel…

Baup once again overestimated his own abilities, as well as Marseille's scoring ability, and mistakenly underestimated Liverpool's defensive ability…

At the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, the crowd was roaring.

Marseille was playing against Liverpool.

The score on the scoreboard was 0-0.

The game had been going on for twenty minutes.

Marseille hadn't scored yet.

Sweat had already broken out on Baup's forehead, even though it was already early November, which was considered the beginning of winter in Europe.

His attacking tactics hadn't worked; although the attack was fierce, they hadn't scored.

Marseille's performance was completely different from Manchester United's in the video.

He only realized at this time that not everything can be copied; you have to see if it's suitable for your own team.

Obviously, Marseille wasn't suitable for attacking.

And it was very unsuitable!

Attacking made Marseille play in a flustered manner, and the ball couldn't stay at any one player's feet for more than five seconds. The intention was to speed up the passing and cutting. But the actual situation was that it often led to Marseille making passing errors…

With the attacking tactics failing, Baup was completely out of ideas.

He could only stand on the sidelines, watching the changes on the field, powerless.

With Marseille out of ideas, Liverpool was not polite.

In the thirty-first minute, Liverpool scored first.

Marseille had tried to attack but failed, and Liverpool scored unintentionally.

The scorer this time wasn't Chen Hero, but Gareth Bale. He received Gotze's through ball on the wing, broke into the penalty area, and scored with a small-angle shot.

With Liverpool in the lead, everything was easier.

The game had completely fallen into Liverpool's rhythm.

Even if Baup tried his best to make adjustments at halftime, it was already too late. In fact, Baup himself knew that adjustments were useless, because he had spent more than a week thinking about this, and hadn't come up with an answer. Could he possibly have a killer move in the fifteen minutes of halftime?

After the start of the second half, Liverpool continued to press the attack.

This time Chen Hero had something to show for it, using a direct free kick to extend Liverpool's lead.

Seeing that the victory was already decided, Martin O'Neill began to make substitutions. This game wasn't worth him spending too much effort on.

Even the strongest opponent in this group was nothing more than this; Liverpool's sights should be set further.

Compared to the league, the Champions League had become less important…

In this way, Liverpool finally defeated Marseille 2-0 on the road, taking their fourth consecutive win in the group stage, and topping the group with twelve points. Not only did they advance ahead of schedule, but they also had a high probability of advancing as the top seed in the group.

And the poor Marseille, this time was even worse than last time. Last time they at least lasted for a whole chapter, but this time they lost their underwear in less than half a chapter.

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Introduction: Zhou Ling was very unlucky. He won the fight, but was accidentally hit by a flower pot…

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In this way, Zhou Ling became the only main god in that world in a confused manner!