Chapter 1 The Post-Match Press Conference

At the post-match press conference, Guardiola was interviewed.

"Yes, Sunderland is a very tenacious team, they did very well." This kind of boilerplate statement is almost always said by every coach, but when Guardiola says it, some people will always seize on it, saying he’s being hypocritical.

In fact, no matter what he says, some radicals will find something to criticize.

In the world of football, there are only retired kings, no gods in active service.

As long as you haven't retired, you will always be subjected to unreasonable accusations.

"That's right, Zhao is a very outstanding player. From the day he entered the English professional league, he has shown a very strong desire. He is eager to win, eager to score goals, eager to make his teammates better. He always maintains a hunger on the field!

This is his first Premier League game, and he did very well both in his cooperation with his teammates and in seizing opportunities!

He can quickly adapt to the rhythm of the Premier League and quickly find his place.

I really like his style. Everyone has seen it, and people who understand football know how amazing his long passes are.

When you see it, you can't help but think, wow... is there really this way of playing football?

There is no doubt that there is."

"Then do you think he will be the best player you have ever coached?"

Guardiola was stunned. Reporters always ask this question.

And his answer is always the same. He will never equivocate on this issue, and he will never make polite remarks.

"He is a very, very good player, and his future is limitless, but at least now, he doesn't have enough honors or enough performance to compare with the best.

Messi has always been the best player I have ever seen."

Hearing Guardiola's words, the reporter stopped pursuing the topic further.

There was no explosive point.

"Next weekend, you will face Arsenal's challenge, and Wenger has also shown great interest in Zhao. Do you have anything to say?

In addition, it seems that Wrightman has been saying some things about Zhao in public. Will this affect Zhao's performance?"

"Wenger is a very good coach, and his vision has always been very good. It's just... for some other reason, we signed Zhao.

As for Wrightman you mentioned, I've also heard some rumors. I believe that with Zhao's character, he won't be too affected. He will adjust his condition and wait for his chance to play at any time."

The Manchester City media did not show much excitement about this game.

Because in the Premier League, Sunderland's level is really not good, and Manchester City's dominance in the Premier League in recent years is obvious to all. If they were to publicize it widely just because they won against Sunderland, it would really not be in line with Manchester City's style.

However, the reports about Zhao Gang have indeed changed a lot.

At least, no media is saying that he is a flop.

Of course, they didn't exaggerate him to the heavens either.

After all, this is the Premier League, this is Manchester City, and there is never a shortage of talent or excellence.

If Zhao Gang can consistently perform and maintain this kind of performance, the Manchester City media will really get excited.

The performance of Manchester City fans and the media is different.

It was really because they had seen Zhao Gang's performance in the friendly match before, and had lowered their expectations to the lowest level.

They thought he would lose himself in the Premier League with Manchester City.

As a result, as soon as he came on the field, bang, bang, bang, swish!

Three passes and one shot, seamless connection with the front line, and at critical times, he can solve Manchester City's stubborn problem with one kick - only passing and not shooting.

This kind of performance is definitely full marks for a new signing!

People are criticized by fans for their poor performance in friendly matches. Now that they are performing so well, shouldn't they quickly come out to apologize and praise them?

"Guardiola, Zhao, sorry, we are just fans, we don't understand football at all. I hope you don't let our words affect your state!"

"Come on, come on, beat Arsenal!"

"We will go to the stadium, you deal with Wrightman on the field, and we will take care of it off the field!!"

At this time, Wrightman's social media was not only occupied by Norwich fans, but a large number of Manchester City fans rushed over. Wrightman was about to be drowned in the saliva of the fans.

His performance on the field has always been fierce and tough, but now, he is already afraid in his heart, and feels that if he goes to the Etihad Stadium, he may be pelted with eggs and rotten fish!

Three passes and one shot. Because of the start of the road to the ball king, Zhao Gang gained seven system points.

Now he has sixty system points, but only ten can be allocated for adding points.

Through several friendly matches, he raised his interception score by five points, so he has ten points to allocate.

Thinking about the previous game, the Premier League's confrontation is indeed very strong, and the league is different from the Europa League. He will always encounter this kind of strong and strong defender interfering with the defense.

So Zhao Gang directly put ten system points on his physique.

"Physical rating 91, reaching excellent level. The host's six ratings have reached 90 or above.

System points will no longer be able to improve the host's ratings above 90.

When the host improves a rating item above 90 through his own efforts, he can use two system points to continue to improve it for each point."

Zhao Gang understood this limitation. The current system points can only pull the rating items to 90. After exceeding 90, he can only continue to use the system points to improve the rating on this rating item after improving the rating through his own efforts.

However, those low-rated items will not be restricted.

Zhao Gang glanced at his heading rating.

This rating item seems to be able to get a lot of system free allocation points for himself.

"I should train my heading."

The next day, Zhao Gang came to the training base, originally thinking of finding Arteta to explain that he wanted to improve his heading level.

Now his success rate in winning headers is 0.

Not to mention the Premier League, he has never won a header in the Championship.

Before he could find Arteta, another member of the coaching staff, Ventura, found him.

Ventura is responsible for physical training. His assistant David has watched Zhao Gang play more than once on the spot, and once thought that Zhao Gang might not be able to adapt to the Premier League in a short time.

But now it seems that he was a little off at the time.

"Zhao, I saw your first performance. Your physical fitness is barely enough for the intensity of the Premier League, but you seem to be a little confused about the distribution of your physical fitness..."

Zhao Gang nodded. He was a little excited in the first half, and later he couldn't keep up with the rhythm.

"In the next period of time, I will give you special training, not only to improve your physical fitness, but also to use your body, as well as some theoretical and practical courses."

Zhao Gang thought, this is a good thing.

The coaching staff of the Premier League is indeed much more professional than that of the Championship.

"You come with me first, I need to do a comprehensive examination and understanding of your body."

Zhao Gang hesitated slightly. Hadn't he already had a physical examination before joining Manchester City?

"Do you have any questions? You can say it directly. Guardiola is a straightforward coach. He doesn't want players to have any doubts in their hearts, and neither do I."

Zhao Gang said his doubts.

Ventura was stunned. Zhao Gang felt that his eyes were looking at a football rookie.

"May I ask, did you not have a physical coach in the Dragon Kingdom, in Norwich?"

"Yes, I do!"

"Ah, no wonder the level of football in the Dragon Kingdom... Let's do a comprehensive assessment of your body first, trust me, I'm professional in this area!"

Zhao Gang honestly followed Ventura, and didn't dare to ask a word. He felt like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden, too embarrassed.

The more Ventura thought about it, the more magical it became. This Zhao Gang, this magical boy, is really playing football by relying on his talent!

There is no professional equipment or professional people to assist him at all.

Fortunately, he came early, otherwise he might have become mediocre after a few years.

Zhao Gang didn't really know much about this physical coach, he had only heard the name.

In fact, he made a considerable contribution to the establishment of the Barcelona dynasty.

If players want to adapt to Guardiola's tactical system, the distribution and reserve of physical fitness need the guidance of truly top professionals.

Without Ventura, the Barcelona players would probably be injured for the most part while playing.

"Are you giving me the examination?" Zhao Gang walked into the examination room, looking at the various instruments. Although he couldn't name most of them, when he saw those probes, he knew that he might have to take off his clothes.

Zhao Gang couldn't help but ask.

"Haha..." Ventura turned around, his eyes teasing.

Zhao Gang scratched his head, his eyes a little evasive, and his smile was also very forced.

"A beautiful female doctor will have a very significant impact on the various indicators of the player's body, and the test results will have a considerable error!

I am a very rigorous person. Considering this, we have arranged for a man to be the examining doctor. Zhao, you are the best, so I am going to do it myself." Ventura rolled up his sleeves, put away his smile, and kept bending his fingers, his eyes eager.

Zhao Gang shrank his body, and was so frightened that he was stunned. Why did he suddenly feel that this guy was a little不正经 (bú zhèngjīng - not serious, improper)??

"Haha..." Ventura suddenly laughed again, patted Zhao Gang on the shoulder, "I just want you to relax and not be too nervous!"

Ah? Is this called relaxing??

Soon, a beautiful female doctor walked out from inside.

White coat, big waves.

She was tall and had an extremely bright smile. Just one look could make people feel her enthusiasm and make people feel good.

"Eileen Gale, my beautiful assistant, she will be responsible for your examination." Ventura held back his laughter, "Our Manchester City's star of hope, Zhao Gang. A very shy young man, Eileen, don't scare him."

Zhao Gang breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. This old guy Ventura is quite good at playing tricks.

Ventura turned and left. Zhao Gang could feel that this guy was already grinning from ear to ear just by looking at his back.

"Hello!"

Eileen took off her white gloves and shook hands with Zhao Gang gently.

Zhao Gang couldn't help but look her up and down. Wearing such clothes, she didn't look like a proper doctor, but like someone playing cosplay.

Under Eileen's instructions, Zhao Gang took off his top.

Zhao Gang recalled that he had only been in contact with three women in England.

Two of them asked him to take off his clothes as soon as they met. Ollie was more normal and didn't ask him to take off his clothes.

Fortunately, he had some experience when shooting the ultimoh ad before, so he wasn't too embarrassed this time.

"Wow!" Eileen couldn't help but exclaim.

Zhao Gang is quite satisfied with his current figure. He used to be a "white-cut chicken" (báizhǎnjī - pale and weak physique), but later he trained hard and with the help of the system, his muscle lines are now almost perfect.

When Zhao Gang took off his pants, Ollie blinked her eyes, turned around, and took a deep breath.

"ultimoh is very shape-fitting, I recommend you try it." Zhao Gang found a good excuse and promoted his endorsement by the way.

ultimoh should really give him more money, otherwise he would be sorry for being so attentive.

"I will definitely try it, thank you."

Eileen turned around and started her work.

She was very serious and careful, and also very gentle.

It took almost an hour to finally complete it.

Zhao Gang also realized for the first time that the job of a physical examination is also quite tiring. Eileen was sweating and her face was turning red.

It's not easy to earn money!

"This is my number. You can contact me if you feel any discomfort in your body. You can contact me 24 hours a day." Eileen handed over a business card.

Zhao Gang took it. This service is really thoughtful.

You can find her 24 hours a day.

After putting on his clothes and leaving the examination room, Zhao Gang not only trained to maintain his condition and prevent his rating from dropping, but also started heading training.

Because this is the easiest item to improve the rating.

Arteta was a little strange at first, what's so good about practicing heading?

It wasn't until he started professional training on Zhao Gang that he discovered the problem.

At first, he even thought that Zhao Gang was fooling him, and almost got angry because of it.

Because Zhao Gang's joke was too big, it was simply treating him, the coach, as a fool!

Little by little, he realized that Zhao Gang wasn't joking, he really couldn't do it!

He was the kind who couldn't do it at all!!

More amateur than amateur.

"Zhao, how did you get into the Manchester United youth training camp, and how did you train in the youth training camp??" Arteta's expression was extremely serious. Heading is the most basic training, a compulsory project, and an assessment project.

This was the first time in his life that he had seen a professional football player who couldn't head!

"Why were you able to pass the assessment to become a professional football player? Didn't the Manchester United youth training camp Norwich assess it??"

"Uh, Manchester City didn't assess it either." Zhao Gang scratched his head. Arteta narrowed his eyes, feeling that there was a big problem with the coaching staff's work.

Who would have thought that someone who killed everyone in the Europa League, and whose earth-shattering kick almost booked the Puskas Award, couldn't head!!

"You really opened my eyes. Didn't Manchester United's youth training camp notice this problem?"

Zhao Gang hesitated for a moment, and was embarrassed to say that going to Manchester United was not for training at all, but just for gilding.

Arteta shook his head. No wonder, no wonder he had watched so many videos about Zhao Gang, and there wasn't a single header.

Header clearance, header competition all failed. He thought it was because he couldn't block the defense, but it turned out that he couldn't use his head to head the ball at all!

"It doesn't matter, it's not difficult!" Arteta began heading training for Zhao Gang.

Manchester City players resting in the distance, looking at Zhao Gang sticking out his butt like a seal, clumsily heading the football, were all holding back their laughter.

Aguero's eyes were about to pop out.

He was taking pictures like crazy.

Hey, a midfielder who can easily tear apart the defense with a kick from sixty meters away, a forward who can pass five people in a row and settle the game with one kick.

A super player who can pass people like passing through stakes can't head!

It's not that his heading is weak, it's that he can't do it at all!

Aguero was in the distance, and after taking the photos, he went all the way heading the football, heading it while constantly turning around Zhao Gang.

"Hey, Zhao, look! Look!"

"Hehehe... I knew how to do it at six years old... hehehe..."

"Are you trying to die!?"

"Hehehe..."