Chapter 33 Playing a Full Set

Ferguson and Manchester United really thought their strategy had worked. Chen Yingxiong was so flattered by him that he didn't know the immensity of the world and forgot who he was.

For the first fifteen minutes of the match, it seemed that this was indeed the case. Chen Yingxiong's performance was very mediocre. If the number of times he appeared in close-up shots was used to prove whether a player was active, then Chen Yingxiong was obviously unqualified. Apart from the beginning, you couldn't see him in the TV broadcast at all.

He looked like Carrick of Manchester United, invisible on the field…

Ferguson sat in the visiting team's coaching seat, chewing gum, always seriously paying attention to the situation on the field. From his face, you absolutely couldn't see any triumph of his scheme succeeding.

It was as if he hadn't played any psychological warfare with Chen Yingxiong before the match.

But in fact, his psychological warfare did work. Chen Yingxiong's performance was very, very ordinary—that was still putting it kindly.

"The match has been going on for fifteen minutes, and Yingxiong has disappeared on the field, almost completely different from the previously omnipotent Yingxiong. I suspect he either hasn't woken up yet, or he's been impersonated!" The commentator was not so polite.

Many people couldn't understand these fifteen minutes of the game.

Especially the Liverpool fans.

They had high hopes for Chen Yingxiong in this match. If they wanted to defeat Manchester United, Chen Yingxiong was the most important figure. If he couldn't perform normally, it would be worrying about the outcome of this match. As long as Chen Yingxiong could perform at his normal level, it wouldn't be difficult to defeat Manchester United at home.

Not to mention the Liverpool fans, even the Liverpool coaches couldn't figure out what was wrong with Chen Yingxiong.

"What's Yingxiong doing?" Assistant coach Sammy Lee asked Martin O'Neill beside him.

O'Neill frowned: "I don't know either."

Finally, there was a dead ball opportunity, and Martin O'Neill walked to the sidelines, pointing at Chen Yingxiong and shouting: "What are you doing—Yingxiong!"

Chen Yingxiong heard the coach calling him and ran over quickly.

The two quickly exchanged a few words on the sidelines.

"Are you not feeling well, Yingxiong?" Martin O'Neill asked.

"No, boss, I'm feeling great!"

"Then what are you doing?"

"You have to play a full set, boss, otherwise how could they believe it?"

O'Neill was speechless.

Chen Yingxiong even comforted his coach: "Don't worry, boss…"

"Okay, stop playing around, Yingxiong!" He pushed Chen Yingxiong back onto the field.

※※※

In the commentators' opinion, Martin O'Neill was very dissatisfied with Chen Yingxiong's performance, so he called him to the sidelines to criticize him.

Then Chen Yingxiong, who was scolded back, suddenly performed well!

If it wasn't because the coach criticized him, what else could it be?

After Chen Yingxiong returned to the field, he immediately reappeared from his "invisible" state. He began to actively participate in the team's game. His performance was completely different from before, and this Chen Yingxiong was the Chen Yingxiong that everyone was familiar with.

Ferguson also noticed this change. He had been sitting in the coaching seat chewing gum, with a normal expression on his face.

But now his expression and movements had changed. He was still chewing gum—that was already a subconscious action—but he clenched his fists and leaned forward slightly.

Manchester United suddenly fell into an unfavorable situation on the field.

Liverpool launched a fierce offensive against Manchester United at their home ground. With Chen Yingxiong as the arrowhead, Liverpool's offensive was higher than the last.

Because it was an away game, Manchester United's initial strategy was to defend and counterattack.

If it were two years ago, Ferguson might have directly attacked Liverpool, but now with Chen Yingxiong, Liverpool's offensive power had been greatly improved. Attacking head-on might only make Manchester United die sooner and more miserably.

Ferguson's plan for this game was that it would be best to get three points away from home. If he couldn't get three points, one point would be acceptable. In short, he couldn't lose the game.

In order not to lose the game, the first thing to do was not to concede a goal first.

But Chen Yingxiong broke Old Sir's fantasy in the thirty-third minute…

"Yingxiong—goooooooooooAL!!! GoAL! goAL!! Yingxiong scored! He leaned against the defender Vidic in front of the goal, and then swept the football into the goal!"

"In front of the goal, Chen Yingxiong is like a huge monster! Vidic is considered a strong central defender, but he still can't do anything about Chen Yingxiong…"

"Liverpool took a 1:0 lead at home! The scorer is Yingxiong, this is his twentieth goal of the season! The league hasn't even reached halftime, and he has already scored twenty goals! It's really terrifying! Such a shooter is indeed a headache for any coach, but also what they dream of!"

Yes, why did such an outstanding center forward choose Liverpool in the end!

Many wealthy teams felt injustice.

Compared with other wealthy teams at that time, Liverpool really didn't have any advantages… But he just happened to have a big brother who had a special relationship with Chen Yingxiong!

It's true that human relationships determine everything, and Chinese people still pay more attention to human relationships.

※※※

Watching Chen Yingxiong hug Adam Johnson, who passed the ball to him, after scoring a goal, Ferguson couldn't help but clench his fists tightly.

This person… How to deal with him!

He has been playing for Liverpool for more than a season and has played against all Premier League opponents. None of the coaches have ever regarded him as a rookie. They wouldn't think that he has adaptation problems just because he changed a league. No one would underestimate him.

Everyone attaches great importance to him, so they have been studying him from the beginning.

At first, they thought that Chen Yingxiong was best at headers, so they wouldn't let Liverpool's wings pass the ball up… Later, they found that this trick didn't work. Even if you could prevent Liverpool's wings from passing a single ball, you couldn't stop them from having corner kicks and various frontcourt free kicks…

Later, they discovered that Chen Yingxiong suddenly stopped using headers. Everyone was overjoyed. They felt that although they didn't know why, Chen Yingxiong without headers was still Chen Yingxiong? The threat was simply declining in a straight line!

Who would have thought that he didn't rely on headers and abruptly reversed Van Persie at the last moment, winning the league's Golden Boot. And since the start of the new season, Chen Yingxiong hasn't scored a single header so far, and he has already scored twenty goals. What does this mean? It means that he doesn't rely on headers at all to win the best scorer! If he used headers, it would be too boring—is it interesting for a world boxing champion to bully a kindergarten kid?

Later, everyone didn't try to contain Chen Yingxiong tactically, but started using some off-the-field tricks, such as psychological warfare… But whether it was to provoke him or praise him, these methods were all useless!

Then what other way is there to stop him?

It seems that the only way is to expect him to be defeated by his own personality flaws…

However, now it seems that this hope is also very slim.

When Chen Yingxiong debuted at Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia, he was criticized by many Russian media, who believed that players with his personality would definitely not have a very successful career in the end, nor would they go very far. In the end, he would be dragged down by his personality and gradually be forgotten and disappear from people's sight.

But they were all wrong. Chen Yingxiong is doing very well, and he thinks that this is inseparable from his personality.

※※※

After Chen Yingxiong scored a goal, he hugged his teammates. Everyone was most concerned about why he performed so poorly in the first fifteen minutes of the game, and then returned to normal now. What exactly did the boss say to him?

Everyone saw Chen Yingxiong's performance in those fifteen minutes, but they were usually too close and embarrassed to say it. Now that Chen Yingxiong is performing normally, they can ask what's going on.

Chen Yingxiong frankly said: "The first fifteen minutes were intentional."

"Intentional?" Everyone was stunned.

"Yes, Manchester United thought that praising me would make me complacent, so I cooperated with them. If you're going to act, you have to act like it, that's professional ethics!"

A group of people was speechless.

Chen Yingxiong chuckled: "Actually, if someone else came to praise me like that, I might have really fallen for it, but the one who praised me was Manchester United's coach… This matter is too unusual, I'm not stupid."

"You kid!" Škrtel grabbed Chen Yingxiong's hair and rubbed it randomly. "You kept all of us in the dark!"

"Hey, you also know how many paparazzi there are now, their noses are very sensitive! I don't want to take risks…"

"Go to hell! Are you not trusting us!"

"Do you think we are the kind of big mouths who will tell the media anything we know!"

"Yingxiong, it turns out you have never regarded us as your teammates, I'm sad!"

"That's right! That's right! You don't trust us enough! You must be punished!"

"Treat! Treat!"

"That's right! Treat! Treat! Treat!"

……

Amidst the shouts of "Treat! Treat!" from his teammates, Chen Yingxiong raised his hands in surrender: "Okay, okay, I'll treat, I'll treat…"

Only then did his teammates stop.

A tense and fierce English national derby was made into a relaxed atmosphere by Chen Yingxiong… Liverpool players did undergo some changes under his influence that they themselves may not have noticed… A wealthy team is still a wealthy team, but the players of the wealthy team are not burdened by Liverpool's poor record in the past few years.

In the new season, they changed their coach, as if everything started all over again.

This team exudes a vibrant vitality, like an old tree that is about to wither, everyone suddenly finds that its branches have sprouted tender green buds…

It's just that not many people have realized this yet, not even Chen Yingxiong himself.