Chapter 1 Liverpool's Home Game Against Aston Villa

Liverpool's manager, Martin O'Neill, continued to rotate players for the home game against Aston Villa, but not on a large scale. He planned to continue the rotation in the match against Juventus. Some players who participated in the first leg against Juventus would not play.

But Chen Hero was not rotated.

Chen Hero started the game against Aston Villa. Reina wore the captain's armband; Gerrard did not play.

Although there was continuous rotation, the team's fatigue was evident from the start of the game.

Liverpool weren't made of iron, or rather, even if Chen Hero was, the other Liverpool players weren't. They had been fighting continuously, and these matches were all very important.

Another source of pressure was the winning streak.

At some point, the winning streak had become a burden…

Liverpool players all wanted to continue winning, but they also knew that every victory was hard-earned. To make matters worse, they began to feel that they had to win, that they had to continue this winning streak, or something would be wrong. When something becomes the norm, something indispensable, it's no longer enjoyment, but a burden. This is why many people feel that once a hobby becomes a job, it becomes a misery.

When victory becomes a task that must be completed, it becomes a burden.

The Liverpool players were now bearing this burden.

Although Chen Hero didn't feel it was a burden, he couldn't represent the whole team. Liverpool was made up of more than twenty living people with different thoughts, personalities, and tempers, not more than twenty Chen Heroes.

So no matter how strong Chen Hero was, it was useless. Football is a team sport… No matter how strong Chen Hero was, he couldn't turn football into a singles game.

Although Chen Hero seemed full of fighting spirit and energy on the field, his teammates were already running out of steam.

Liverpool's offense was very fast, mainly supported by the speed of Gareth Bale, Sanchez, and Suarez, and of course, Chen Hero's speed wasn't slow either.

Now, apart from Chen Hero, the other three were not as fast as before.

This was very obvious, as everyone could see through the television broadcast.

The quality of the attack was declining. Chen Hero often found himself in a situation with no support.

In the past, if Liverpool couldn't launch a fast break, Chen Hero would control the ball in the frontcourt, and then his teammates would quickly insert themselves, coming up to meet him. The enemy's defense was immediately scattered by Liverpool's frontcourt attacking combination.

Now it was different. When Chen Hero got the ball in the frontcourt, his teammates were noticeably slower to come up, and the number of times they did so was also less than before.

More often than not, Chen Hero had to fight alone.

Although Chen Hero's ability to fight alone was still very strong, the problem now was that Liverpool's number of attacks had decreased, so no matter how strong he was, he had no chance to use his skills…

Martin O'Neill naturally saw the team's current predicament from the sidelines, but he had no way to change it.

Ultimately, the team's lineup was too thin, and the gap in strength between the starting players and the bench players was too large. This situation, which started with Benitez, wouldn't be completely resolved in a year or two, even with Martin O'Neill's efforts.

This season, they could only hold on, and then start buying players to strengthen the team in the summer. This time, they not only had to buy players who could play as starters, but also some substitutes. Then they would clean up some of the current team's substitutes, ruthlessly eliminating those players who could no longer keep up with the team's requirements.

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As a result of not being able to keep up with their physical strength, Liverpool didn't get any good scoring opportunities at home for a long time.

Aston Villa scored first, and in the twenty-seventh minute, Liverpool fell behind.

The television broadcast gave close-ups of the facial expressions of most of the Liverpool players in turn.

Suarez, Bale, Sanchez, Skrtel, and Sahin all looked dull, just opening their mouths and panting.

Only Chen Hero spread his hands, indicating his helplessness.

He was helpless because the game had only been going on for less than thirty minutes, but he felt very uncomfortable. It was so depressing to play… He couldn't use his strength.

Yes, that was the feeling.

※※※

Chen Hero was indeed very strong. Even in such a depressing situation, he helped the team equalize the score less than ten minutes after the start of the second half.

This wasn't an opportunity at all; he used his body to carve a bloody path to the goal.

Then he blasted the ball into Aston Villa's goal.

After scoring, Chen Hero tore at his jersey, venting the depression in his heart to his heart's content.

The fans in the stands at Anfield also let out a huge cheer. Like Chen Hero, they were extremely depressed, and finally took this opportunity to vent their frustration.

However, the Liverpool players didn't rejoice for long, and the rest of the game continued to frustrate them.

In the seventieth minute, Skrtel pushed an Aston Villa player to the ground in Liverpool's penalty area, and the referee unhesitatingly awarded a penalty kick.

There was no suspense about this penalty, and Aston Villa took the lead again.

After this, Liverpool should have launched a frantic counterattack. But they didn't.

The Liverpool players acted as if they were the ones in the lead, playing unhurriedly, and there was no sign that they had the desire or ability to equalize the score.

It wasn't that they didn't want to equalize the score, but that they didn't have the strength to do so.

Because they couldn't run anymore.

Even Suarez, who was good at running, cramped up in the eighty-first minute, which said a lot.

Although Martin O'Neill used up all three of his substitutions, it didn't change Liverpool's situation.

In addition to physical fatigue, there was also psychological fatigue. When your heart is tired, you really can't fight anymore…

Now, Liverpool couldn't get nervous even if they wanted to, couldn't fight even if they wanted to.

When Aston Villa scored that penalty, the string in the hearts of many Liverpool players snapped…

Once this string snapped, the sound of the Liverpool orchestra was in chaos.

A chain reaction followed.

In the end, Martin O'Neill gave up.

He returned to the coaching bench, crossed his legs, and sat there without moving.

He had already thought in his mind how to comfort the players when the game was over. Don't let them lose confidence and fighting spirit because of this game.

—At this time, losing a game is losing a game. Losing one game might be a relief… If this goes on, the players' mental stress will be too great.

Anyway, we're still ten points ahead of Manchester United. Even if we lose this game, we still have a seven-point advantage.

Losing one game isn't the end of the world.

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"The game is over! It's unbelievable! The invincible Liverpool lost to Aston Villa at home! Their thirteen-game winning streak has come to an end!" The commentator shouted when the referee blew the whistle to end the game.

"In this game, Liverpool's performance was indeed not very good. The whole team was almost out of form, except for Hero… But this is because they are too tired… Continuous battles, coupled with huge psychological pressure, finally overwhelmed these players…"

The television broadcast gave a close-up of Chen Hero.

"If there's anyone who is most unwilling in this game, it must be Chen Hero… He scored a goal in this game, once helping the team equalize the score, but he didn't play the savior of the team."

As the commentator said these words, Chen Hero was accepting an interview with a television reporter.

He was in a very low mood.

"Yes, I've scored in nineteen consecutive games, but so what? Our team lost, and I'd rather not score a goal in exchange for a victory for the team… Okay, that's it…"

He didn't finish answering the reporters' questions, and hurriedly left the mixed zone and returned to the locker room.

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The mood in Liverpool's locker room was low, and everyone was frustrated by the loss.

Martin O'Neill pushed the door open and clapped his hands. "Alright, lads! Don't take this game to heart. Pack up and go home! We just lost one game, and we're still seven points ahead of Manchester United. There's nothing to be nervous about! Release the pressure. The winning streak has ended, but it doesn't matter. Now the winning streak has become a burden, and I'd rather it be ended!"

Assistant coach Sammy Lee also shouted loudly: "Go take a shower, go change your clothes, go think about who you want to be lying in bed with tonight, just don't think about this game!"

Some people couldn't help but laugh, and the atmosphere finally became a little active.

But overall, it was still far worse than before.

Martin O'Neill had no choice, he could only stand in the locker room and look at the players who were in a low mood with worried eyes.

It's just the failure of one game, can't you guys not take it so seriously!

Although I want my players to have a strong desire to win, the desire to win must be used in the right way. No matter how much you brood over the lost game, you can't change the result. Instead of that, it's better to relax a bit…

At the same time, he was also worried that even if he tried his best to help the players adjust their mentality, a flurry of media hype would bring them back to square one.

Liverpool finally lost a game after thirteen consecutive wins and eighteen consecutive unbeaten games, which would definitely be big news for English football.

Martin O'Neill could guess with his knees that from tonight until tomorrow and the day after, there would be no shortage of news reports and comments about Liverpool's loss in the media.

At that time, who knows what kind of weird things will fly out.

Those people are afraid that the world won't be in chaos, and they obviously don't care about Liverpool's life or death.