Chapter 1 Though the Media Is Boring

It's not so easy to score within the first fifteen minutes of a match, even if the media is being boring.

After all, scoring isn't something you can just do whenever you want, let alone with a time limit requiring a goal within the first fifteen minutes. The difficulty is considerable.

Everyone says that the five to ten minutes at the beginning and end of a match are the most likely times for goals because many players haven't fully gotten into the game and are somewhat absent-minded, making them prone to mistakes.

However, limiting it to a specific player makes it quite challenging.

Many teams dream of scoring within the first fifteen minutes, as it provides a good start to the match. But not all can achieve this.

Generally speaking, goals are indeed more likely to occur within the first ten minutes, but that's relative. Divide that probability by twenty and spread it among individual players, and it becomes even smaller.

Yet, Chen Hero wanted to defy the odds, insisting on scoring within the first fifteen minutes, artificially increasing the difficulty for himself.

※※※

After the match between Liverpool and Aston Villa kicked off, the topic of conversation revolved around whether Chen Hero could score. From ordinary fans to commentators, everyone was discussing it, demonstrating the media's successful hype.

"I think with Hero's current form, conquering Villa Park is quite easy. But whether Liverpool can win is another matter. The last league match exposed some issues. Martin O'Neill's Liverpool hasn't fully gelled yet. They were only able to defeat West Ham United at home due to the brilliance of their star players… From this perspective, Allardyce's words hold some truth. If Liverpool didn't have a star like Hero, it would be difficult to win against a well-prepared West Ham United. And Chen Hero is indeed the player Liverpool spent seventy million pounds to acquire…"

"I think the media's hype about whether Hero can score at Villa Park is quite boring…" Even though he said it was boring, he was still discussing it, indicating the hype's success. "Hero's scoring ability is undeniable, and he's in great form right now. He scored two goals in the last league match!"

"I believe the media's speculation on whether Chen Hero can break through at Villa Park is meaningful. After all, many things have happened to Chen Hero this week, including the war of words with Allardyce, the conflict with West Ham United fans, and the outburst against the BBC's *Match of the Day* program, all of which have consumed a lot of his energy. His form will inevitably be affected… So, it's not certain he can score at Villa Park…"

The commentators and guests had differing opinions. The journalists in the media box were the same. They started discussing the issue as the players entered the field, with various views, divided into two camps. One group believed Chen Hero could definitely score at Villa Park, as it wasn't a devil's home ground and Aston Villa wasn't that strong. The other group thought Chen Hero might not score, with the same reasons as the commentator, believing Chen Hero was affected by too many off-field matters, consuming too much energy and affecting his form.

After the media hyped it up, they themselves got caught up in it, the manipulators of public opinion ultimately being manipulated by it.

※※※

All the arguments were actually meaningless because once the match ended, everyone would know whether Chen Hero had conquered Villa Park.

But some people didn't have the patience to wait ninety minutes…

Chen Hero ran hard on the field, searching for and creating his own opportunities.

He had already told his teammates that he had bet a thousand pounds on himself to score within the first fifteen minutes of the match, asking them to help him. He especially told Sanchez not to wait until the second half to cross the ball to him just because he wanted to win the game.

Actually, everyone bought that bet for fun. It wasn't like anyone really lacked that little bit of money, hoping to get rich from it.

Since Chen Hero had such a strong desire, they might as well give him a hand.

But they didn't have the final say because the team's tactics were determined by the coach. If the coach told them to first stabilize the defense and then attack after the game started, they wouldn't have a choice.

At this time, it depended on whether Martin O'Neill would join in the fun.

He could be completely professional, ignoring Chen Hero and the players' private thoughts, which wouldn't be wrong on the surface. But it would always create a rift with Chen Hero. Dalglish always stood firmly on Chen Hero's side, which some media considered favoritism, but it won Chen Hero's heart. Even after he was sacked, Chen Hero still remembered his kindness.

If Martin O'Neill wanted to have a good relationship with Chen Hero, he had to stand firmly on Chen Hero's side, otherwise…

Actually, a coach shouldn't be so afraid of a player, but if this player was the team's number one star and had a particularly good personal relationship with the club's chairman and general manager, then things would be different. Sometimes, the coach was also a vulnerable group, and the player could be very strong.

For example, the big figures in the team's locker room, Chelsea's John Terry and Lampard, and Real Madrid's Raul in the past, were all big figures who could influence the club's decisions.

Since Martin O'Neill intended to give Chen Hero a hand, the strategy had to be changed. Fortunately, it was just changing the strategy, not the tactics. The strategy was what we would do in the first half and what we would do in the second half, while the tactics were how we would achieve such a strategy.

The tactics had been arranged long ago and couldn't be changed easily. If they were changed, the players wouldn't adapt, but the strategy could be adjusted. It was nothing more than changing from first defending and then attacking in the first half to attacking directly from the start.

In his pre-match speech, Martin O'Neill told the players his decision, telling them to strive to launch a fierce attack as soon as the game started, taking advantage of the opponent's unstable footing, and to score as early as possible.

He didn't directly say, "I'm doing this to help Chen Hero," after all, he was the coach, and if he really said that, he would appear too fawning. Where was a coach's authority and dignity?

He subtly expressed his support, so the players didn't think he was deliberately making these adjustments, which was very clever.

So after the game started, Liverpool took the initiative as the visiting team, launching a fierce attack on Aston Villa's goal.

It had the air of scoring within the first fifteen minutes.

Aston Villa's coach, McLeish, also saw this.

He also knew about the topic the media had hyped up before, and like O'Neill, he also thought this hype was boring. Whether Chen Hero could conquer Villa Park didn't have the special significance that the media said it did.

But looking at the situation after the game started, Liverpool really wanted to score as soon as possible…

Hey, the media was just hyping things up randomly, they wouldn't have food to eat if they didn't hype things up, but you Liverpool are a giant, don't join in the fun, okay!

McLeish's worries were justified. Aston Villa didn't have the certainty of winning against Liverpool at home, so he planned to act low-key, first defending and then counterattacking—he and O'Neill had the same idea. He wasn't Allardyce, and his ability wasn't as high as Allardyce's, so he could only seek stability.

As a result, the media's hype made Aston Villa a hot topic, being roasted on the fire of media opinion.

Now it seemed to have successfully aroused Liverpool's fighting spirit, Aston Villa was so innocent!

※※※

The game had started for five minutes, and Chen Hero hadn't scored yet.

He had two shots, but neither went in.

Liverpool's attack was indeed very fierce. Within these five minutes, Aston Villa, as the home team, didn't even have one shot.

It showed how miserably they were suppressed.

This didn't look like a home team at all.

Chen Hero was running around in the frontcourt like he had been injected with chicken blood, looking for opportunities. With him being so active, Aston Villa's defense was under a lot of pressure.

Everyone was thinking that the game had just started, and he was so fierce, what would they do for the remaining eighty minutes!

They didn't know that Chen Hero only cared about the first fifteen minutes. If he couldn't score in the first fifteen minutes, he would lose interest. The media was talking about whether he could score in this game, while Chen Hero was betting on scoring in the first fifteen minutes, completely different levels of goals.

So they actually only needed to hold on for another ten minutes, and this amazing pressure would disappear.

In Chen Hero's own view, if he couldn't score in the first fifteen minutes, it would be meaningless. Even if he scored three goals in the subsequent game, getting a hat-trick or something, he would still lose—although no one would think so, he couldn't relax his demands on himself because of that.

So, he had to score a goal in these fifteen minutes.

※※※

In the eighth minute, Liverpool launched another attack. Sanchez was dribbling the ball on the wing, and Chen Hero was cooperating with him, running forward in the middle.

Sanchez kept looking up at the middle while dribbling the ball.

Now in front of them was Aston Villa's entire defensive line and a line of midfielders.

After the game started, Aston Villa's defense was very tight. They listened to the coach's arrangements, defending with all their might, not giving Liverpool a chance, unexpectedly hitting the mark by accident. If they thought they had the advantage of playing at home and attacked fiercely from the start, they would probably have been scored on by Liverpool, whose attack was even fiercer than theirs.

It seemed like this attack wouldn't have a better chance?

He saw Chen Hero in the middle, with Aston Villa's defenders in front of Hero and Aston Villa's midfielders chasing relentlessly behind him.

However, there was still some space between these two lines. With this space… Chen Hero should be able to use it, right?

If it were someone else, they might not dare to just pass the ball to Chen Hero like that, because it would be too rash.

But Sanchez had been working with Chen Hero for two seasons and knew Chen Hero very well.

Of course, he still didn't pass the ball directly to Chen Hero. He was on the wing now, Chen Hero was in the middle, and it would take time for the ball to roll over, enough time for the opponent to come up and close in on Chen Hero.

To ensure that Chen Hero could receive the ball smoothly, he had to do something…

He suddenly cut inside, looking like he was going to the middle.

At this time, the attention of Aston Villa's defenders was immediately drawn to him, and there were signs that the focus of the defense was shifting towards him.

And what about Chen Hero? He didn't rush straight into the penalty area, but suddenly dodged sideways, making a slight change of direction.

The space was pulled out.

Sanchez passed the ball decisively!