Chapter 143 Arsenal

Only two days after the match against Tottenham, Liverpool was back on the pitch for another league game.

The density of the schedule was imaginable.

Playing two games in two days was unbearable not just for professional players, but perhaps even for amateur players. And the intensity of their games could not be compared to that of professional leagues.

The intensity of professional games was absolutely beyond the tolerance of amateur players, let alone high-level games like the Premier League. Even those professional players from China would shout that they couldn't take it after a few games, that their stamina couldn't keep up. That was because the intensity and standard of domestic leagues were far from comparable to those of the Chinese league.

That's why it's said that playing high-level games improves skills quickly. Even if Chen Hero had a cheat, if he always mixed around in the domestic league, he would probably be at best a top domestic player, a second-rate Asian player, and put him in Europe and the world, he might be third-rate.

Playing two games in a row, Martin O'Neill took the rotation system to the extreme—he simply replaced the goalkeeper as well. Reina sat on the bench. Alex Smithies, the goalkeeper who transferred from Huddersfield last season, started.

Everyone except Chen Hero was replaced.

More than half of them were substitute players, but there were also a few main players. This ensured the team's combat effectiveness, so that the difference between the main lineup and the substitute lineup was not too great.

The rotation adopted by Martin O'Neill was not simply a rigid set of main lineups and a set of substitute lineups, but rather breaking up the twenty-odd players, with no fixed main lineup and no absolute substitute lineup. It was always a part of the main force plus a part of the substitutes.

The advantage of doing this was that the strength of the two lineups would not be too different, and the results would not fluctuate. The disadvantage was that the main lineup was not fixed for a long time, and the tacit understanding was affected.

But as it is now, Martin O'Neill has no other way, any problems, at least wait until this stretch of games is over.

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Even with such a rotation lineup, Bolton couldn't resist when facing them at home.

They lost 0:3 to Liverpool in the away game.

Chen Hero shone throughout the whole game. Because he completed a hat-trick.

There were only three goals in this game, and he scored all three of them.

After the game, Bolton's coach said helplessly at the press conference: "I know Liverpool made a big rotation, they even replaced Reina... but what's the point? They didn't rotate Hero. For me, as long as Hero is on the field, Liverpool doesn't count as a rotation at all!"

Some reporters under the stage even began to sympathize with Bolton, who lost the game. Yes, if it were other teams, such a rotation would have affected the team's strength long ago, and the opponents would have had a chance to take advantage of it.

But this rule does not apply to Liverpool. Martin O'Neill claims to be a believer in rotation, but everyone will spit on him—you have the ability to rotate Chen Hero! What do you mean by rotating everyone and leaving a Chen Hero on the field? You still have the face to say that you advocate rotation?

Who doesn't know that Chen Hero is Liverpool's biggest guarantee of victory? If Chen Hero plays well, Liverpool wins, if Chen Hero doesn't play well, Liverpool loses.

Have the guts to rotate Chen Hero!

Martin O'Neill is not so stupid.

It would be stupid to leave the big killer unused, hide it and wait for others to beat him. He's not Saddam. If he had a big killer, he would have thrown it at the United States long ago.

Chen Hero is Liverpool's big killer, not only to be used, but to be used to the extreme!

He is now letting go, and doesn't care what other media say about Liverpool's results being only related to Chen Hero, and not to him, the head coach. No matter what the outside world says, in the history of Liverpool, in the history of English football, in the history of European and even world football, when recording these glorious years, Martin O'Neill, the head coach of Liverpool at the time, will be mentioned, not anyone else.

Chen Hero is so easy to use, why not use him?

The league has only been going on for twenty-two rounds, and Chen Hero's league goals have reached an astonishing thirty-nine.

Such a crazy performance is just commonplace for Chen Hero, and the media are even starting to worry—they don't know what kind of praise to give this player. They have used those words over and over again, and now they have long lost their novelty.

"Great," "legendary," "amazing," "miracle," "incredible," "unbelievable"... they have used these words countless times, and they are still these words over and over again.

But what can they do? Who made Chen Hero's performance always so good? Even if they wanted to pick out some problems, they couldn't.

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After playing the game against Bolton, the Liverpool first team's task was over. They will have a ten-day break. This really makes other Premier League teams envious.

Because the next two games are domestic cup games, according to Liverpool's habits, these two games have nothing to do with the first team.

Five days later, Liverpool will face Arsenal, their opponent in the third round of the FA Cup, at home!

Logically speaking, the third round is the first game of the FA Cup for Premier League teams, so in general, Premier League teams will draw those lower-level league teams that have advanced through the first two rounds of the knockout stage, such as Championship teams and League One teams, and if they are lucky, they will also draw League Two or even amateur teams.

But this time, Liverpool's luck was so bad that they drew Premier League powerhouse Arsenal in the FA Cup...

And it's not just that simple.

In the quarter-finals of the League Cup four days later, Liverpool's opponent is also Arsenal.

Fortunately, both of these games are at home, so they don't have to run to London, which is their advantage.

And for Wenger's Arsenal, the best, and perhaps the last, opportunity to beat Liverpool is in the FA Cup and League Cup.

In any case, the reserve team is not as good as the first team. Even with a Chen Hero.

Similarly, in any case, Arsenal is a strong team, even if they are not as good as before, they are still strong contenders for the Champions League spot.

For Wenger, with two consecutive games, he has plenty of time to understand and get familiar with this reserve team, and also to let his team adapt and play against this team.

Even if Arsenal loses the first FA Cup game, they will have accumulated valuable experience. He is ready for the second game.

In Wenger's opinion, it doesn't matter if he loses the first FA Cup game, the second game is the final.

It's not that the League Cup is more important to him, nor that the League Cup is closer to the final and has a better chance of winning the championship. It's just that the FA Cup happens to be before the League Cup, if the League Cup is first and the FA Cup is later, he would also think that it doesn't matter if he loses the League Cup, the FA Cup is the final.

This has nothing to do with who is more important and who is more likely to win the championship.

Wenger didn't think that if they beat Liverpool, they could win the League Cup. He hasn't thought that far yet, he just wants to be able to beat Liverpool.

In the past two seasons, there are not many teams that can beat Liverpool, and there are even fewer teams that can beat Liverpool fairly.

Wenger hopes that his team can complete this task.

For him, this may be more important than winning the championship.

Because for a long time, Liverpool has become a nightmare in Arsenal, and also in other Premier League teams. If they can't beat them, they will never be able to get out of this nightmare.

Not to mention fighting for the championship.

Even Ferguson, such a strong person, after fighting with Liverpool for several years, could only end his career with retirement, which is embarrassing.

What Wenger has to do now is to lead the team to beat Liverpool fairly once, and then announce to the world—Liverpool is not invincible! We Arsenal are not vegetarians either!

This victory may become a turning point for Arsenal this season... no, maybe it's a turning point for these few seasons without any harvest.

If they can beat Liverpool, Arsenal's morale can take advantage of the situation and recover their lost ground in one fell swoop, and they may be completely restored next season.

For other teams, playing Liverpool twice in four days is definitely a disaster.

But Wenger doesn't think so.

After all, he is a famous coach, the helmsman of the wealthy Arsenal.

He understands that the greater the risk, the greater the profit. It's necessary to seek wealth and glory in danger. At this time, it may be possible to obtain unexpected and generous returns.

Sometimes, you need to take a little risk.

In fact, Wenger had already started preparing for these four days of games last year. After the FA Cup and League Cup draw results came out, he began to arrange some special subjects in training aimed at Liverpool.

The main purpose is to curb Liverpool's fast counterattack, and at the same time limit Chen Hero.

This time his tactics are neither shrinking back to defend, nor attacking against Liverpool. Instead, he pays more attention to control, keeping the ball firmly under his feet, weakening Liverpool's chances of controlling the ball, controlling the rhythm of the game in his own hands, and letting the game enter the field that Arsenal is best at.

And Liverpool? They can only be led by the nose by Arsenal.

As for Chen Hero, such a powerful big guy, Arsenal's defense against him is not very strict, but more energy is put on his teammates.

Wenger believes that Chen Hero is obviously too powerful. Unless he can arrange eleven people to follow him every step of the way and surround him in the middle, it is very difficult to freeze him for the entire ninety minutes.

For this reason, he took another approach—I can't freeze you Chen Hero, but I can freeze your teammates!

Although his teammates are all super-strong players, they are better than Chen Hero, this non-human monster. His teammates are at least still on Earth, Chen Hero has already broken through the sky.

It is still possible for human beings to curb the performance of Chen Hero's teammates. Curbing Chen Hero's performance... no one would want to try this even if the end of the world comes.

But even so, if you want to beat Liverpool, it is not enough to just rely on this tactic, you have to play some strategy...