Chen Hero had spoken confidently and simply to the boss.

But when the match actually started, he realized it wasn't that simple!

He was quite familiar with playing his best; using all his strength wasn't difficult.

But to deliberately use only half his abilities, even after playing less than half the match, Chen Hero felt as uncomfortable as playing soccer with a full bladder—he was even running bow-legged. Sometimes it seemed like a chance for him, and normally he would have just gone for it with a kick or a header.

But now, just as he was about to do so, the boss O'Neal's words would flash in his mind, and with that hesitation, the opportunity would be lost.

Immediately, jeers erupted from the West Bromwich fans in the stands, mocking him for having boasted about competing with Messi in Champions League goals, yet in this match, he didn't even know how to shoot.

They even chanted Messi's name to provoke Chen Hero.

"Messi! Messi! Messi!"

Hearing it abruptly, anyone who didn't know better would think Liverpool was playing against Barcelona…

Being provoked by them with Messi, and not being able to retaliate, made Chen Hero feel extremely annoyed.

Damn it!

I'll never rely on these tricks to win a championship again! No matter how strong the opponent, I will defeat them head-on, fair and square!

Chen Hero swore secretly in his heart. From now on, Liverpool and he would use absolute strength to overwhelm any opponent who dared to obstruct him, showing no mercy, holding nothing back. I'll reveal all my cards, and if you have the ability, come and deal with me! I'm afraid you simply don't have that kind of strength!

※※※

"In today's match, for some reason, Chen Hero, who started as a first-string player, seems to be out of form."

The commentators had naturally noticed Chen Hero's situation as well.

"I think perhaps it's due to fatigue? This period has indeed been a difficult one for the entire Liverpool team… With continuous two-front operations, the players' physical strength has been almost completely exhausted… I think when preparing physical reserves before the season, Martin O'Neill certainly didn't expect his team to reach this point, making it all the way to the Champions League semi-finals in one breath! Now he's in a difficult situation…"

"Fatigue" was truly a good excuse, saving Martin O'Neill a lot of trouble.

Any abnormal performance could be attributed to "fatigue," so he didn't have to come out and explain himself; the media would explain it clearly for him.

Because of "fatigue," Chen Hero only had three shots in the first half, one of which was on target, while the other two were either too high or too wide.

At the end of the first half, Chen Hero lowered his head and hurriedly left the field, entering the tunnel to the locker room. It seemed that he was very dissatisfied with his first-half performance, but was powerless to do anything about it, appearing frustrated, with a hint of unwillingness mixed in.

If Medjani, the director of "Liverpool Love," were here, he would definitely applaud Chen Hero's improved acting skills.

The West Bromwich fans in the stands also booed Chen Hero, and the shouts of "Messi, Messi" continued unabated.

In the first half, West Bromwich defended with all their strength, resisting Liverpool's attack, showing considerable tenacity, which filled the West Bromwich fans with confidence in their team, believing they could successfully avoid relegation.

Amidst the boos, Chen Hero entered the tunnel to the locker room, and without stopping, he jogged back to the locker room.

As soon as he entered the locker room, he burst into a curse: "Fucking hell!" Venting a little of the frustration in his chest.

Before the match, he thought that playing dumb to deceive the opponent (bàn zhū chī lǎohǔ) was something he had done before, so doing it again shouldn't be a problem. Who knew that after Chen Hero had only played the first half, he felt that something was wrong.

What was wrong?

It was that Chen Hero suddenly didn't want to play dumb anymore… He knew that he was pretending to be a pig, but others didn't! Others only thought he had really become a pig, and they laughed at him and booed him to their heart's content.

This made Chen Hero very unhappy.

He felt that he was being looked down upon, and he wanted to show his divine power and slap the other side hard in the face.

But the boss wouldn't let him; the boss insisted on him holding back, because if he revealed his strength too early, it would alert the opponent.

Then all previous efforts would be wasted, and Liverpool would really face a bitter battle at Old Trafford against a fully-performing Manchester United…

In the end, it was this method of having to show weakness to others in order to gain the upper hand that made Chen Hero feel uncomfortable, mentally blocked, and aggrieved.

To put it bluntly, it was still due to the team's lack of strength. If everyone had overwhelming strength, they could eat the tiger without playing dumb, so what was there to feel aggrieved about?

Has anyone ever seen Real Madrid or Barcelona play dumb?

No, of course not. Because they don't need to at all!

What's most important in the martial world… no, the soccer world? Strength, enough strength, connections and luck are only temporary, only strength is hard currency, like gold.

If Liverpool had super strength, would they still need to look at Manchester United's face and play dumb?

In fact, it was because Liverpool didn't have the absolute strength to suppress Manchester United that they needed to resort to these off-the-field tactics.

Why hadn't Chen Hero felt uncomfortable about playing dumb to deceive the opponent in the past, and had even been happy to do so? Because at that time, his own strength was relatively weak, and his status wasn't as high as it was now, his vision and mentality were also different from today. To give a simple example, someone who is used to being an emperor, although he complains all day long about being an emperor, crying about being an emperor being tiring, but if you ask him to hand over the throne and become an ordinary person, he definitely wouldn't want to, and might even fight you to the death, preferring to die rather than submit.

Chen Hero is now like this, after being in a high position, becoming one of the top three players in world soccer, he has gradually become unable to accept letting himself play the role of a pig or a clown again. His mentality is already different from before.

He hadn't realized this before, so when the boss asked him to play dumb to deceive the opponent, he had happily agreed.

But now, he found that he really wasn't used to it.

He was going to talk to Martin O'Neill.

※※※

In the West Bromwich locker room, the coach was encouraging the players: "They can't run anymore! We must use more aggressive running, drag them down, prevent them from stopping, make them unable to breathe, and that will be our chance!"

The most threatening Chen Hero's performance today was as if his body had been emptied out. West Bromwich, both the coach and the players, were full of confidence and fighting spirit against Liverpool at home.

On the other side, Chen Hero pulled Martin O'Neill aside for a private chat.

"I can't do it, boss," Chen Hero complained to O'Neill.

O'Neill was surprised: "What's wrong? You're doing great, Hero. You almost deceived me too…"

"But I feel uncomfortable…" Chen Hero told O'Neill what he was thinking.

After listening, O'Neill also felt that this matter was very troublesome. Of course, he couldn't force Chen Hero to do something he didn't want to do. If it were someone else, maybe he would force them, but Chen Hero's status in Liverpool was different. The Liverpool boss and general manager were very close to him, he just didn't want to deal with those things. If he opened his mouth, he could definitely become Liverpool's second manager, an invisible one.

Therefore, he couldn't force Chen Hero.

But if Chen Hero didn't cooperate, his plan would be ruined, so he had to re-explain the necessity of doing so to Chen Hero, hoping that Chen Hero would endure this time for the sake of the overall situation.

After listening to O'Neill's explanation, Chen Hero was silent for about half a minute, and then said to him: "Okay, boss… But I hope, I really hope that we can win championships without resorting to such means in the future. I hope we can use absolutely powerful strength to crush our opponents, so that they can't even think of resisting! They must accept this reality—Liverpool is simply not something they can compete with!"

Hearing Chen Hero's words, Martin O'Neill was a little emotional: "Do you think I don't want that, Hero? I want to too, but the problem is that our strength hasn't reached that level yet? When we suppress Manchester United like we suppress Manchester City, do you think I would still need to go to so much trouble? Absolute strength, it's easy to say, but it's not easy to achieve!"

Yes, if strength could solve the problem, who would bother to think of this plan? It's exhausting and thankless.

Chen Hero didn't expect the boss to react so strongly, it seemed that he had also been under a lot of pressure recently. If the plan succeeded, he would be able to bring Liverpool their first-ever Premier League title, and he might not be the biggest hero. But if the plan failed, in addition to losing the championship, he would also bear the infamy, be cursed by countless people, all the responsibility would be placed on his head, and he would have to bear all the blame.

He suddenly felt some sympathy for this head coach, whom he always felt didn't get along with him as well as Dalglish did…

In the team, he was the number one star, Gerrard was the number two star, and he and Gerrard enjoyed all the glorious things, but once there was a problem, the responsibility fell on O'Neill, the head coach.

But he had never shown any dissatisfaction in front of him, and to be fair, he was really not bad to him, and he could agree to any excessive demands he made.

Should he really treat him as his head coach?

He nodded: "Okay, boss. I understand. For the sake of this historic championship, even if I really have to be a pig, I'll accept it! Damn it… A pig can bite someone to death if you push it too far!"