Chapter 85 I don’t choose the champion, I want them all

It is not easy to help a talented player who has been questioned by public opinion regain his confidence.

It is said that mental illness is the most difficult to cure. The process of these talented players losing confidence is actually the process of them suffering from mental illness.

Fortunately, Havertz is mentally resilient enough and has been trying hard to prove himself again.

That’s why Li Chen had the courage to give Havertz unlimited firing rights after Ronaldo took a rest, allowing him to take on the responsibility of scoring for the team in the competition with mid- and lower-level opponents in the league.

Having achieved this, it is self-evident how much Li Chen values ​​Havertz.

Even if Li Chen has no plan to train Havertz into Newcastle’s future frontcourt core and first star, he at least wants Havertz to become one of the cornerstones of Newcastle’s team.

At the critical juncture of the championship race, they dared to use the game to train their players, giving young players like Havertz the opportunity to sharpen their skills and build confidence.

Li Chen’s courage once again made neutral fans admire him.

His actions once again proved his determination to help Newcastle train a group of outstanding young players.

Looking at Havertz, van der Ven and Elanga celebrating on the field at this moment, Newcastle fans were filled with infinite longing.

With Li Chen’s strong encouragement, Newcastle, after breaking the deadlock, took advantage of their home advantage and launched a more aggressive and fierce attack on Wolves.

The Wolves, whose morale was severely hit, failed to seize the opportunity to launch a threatening counterattack.

They seemed to be frightened by Van der Ven’s previous rapid charge, and instead became wary of Newcastle’s backcourt players.

It seemed as if they were afraid that one of them would perform well and break through their defense.

Such fear may seem a little ridiculous, but upon closer inspection it is not without reason.

After all, Grimaldo and Elanga, who participated in the defense, both have the ability to counterattack and advance the ball.

Gvardiol, who played as a right center back today, also demonstrated his offensive talent on the wing more than once.

Wolves’ defensive ability is really average, and they dare not bet on whether these talented young Newcastle players can perform another miracle run.

To be on the safe side, we can only continue to shrink our formation and defend well.

However, they can play conservatively, but Li Chen has to consider more emergencies.

The game was almost in the 35th minute of the first half, and the team’s continued attack had not yet resulted in the second goal of the game.

Li Chen decisively signaled Ward-Prowse, who controlled the rhythm in the midfield today, to play more conservatively and lead other teammates in the midfield and frontcourt to control the game situation more.

This is not a difficult task for Ward-Prowse, who has rich experience in the competition.

With the active assistance of Joelinton, Ward-Prowse quickly calmed the game down with his significantly slower organizational dispatches.

Newcastle also entered the halftime break with a one-goal lead.

Neither team chose to make substitutions during the half-time break. The second half of the game started quickly. After the change of sides, Newcastle unexpectedly chose to take the lead today.

Grimaldo and Joelinton worked together and soon made frequent breakthroughs and created dangerous situations in Wolves’ right half defense area.

Relying on Ward-Prowse’s excellent ability to take set-piece penalties, Newcastle also repeatedly took advantage of set-piece opportunities to attack.

In the 53rd minute of the second half, Chris Wood’s header which hit the crossbar made the Newcastle fans in front of the TV see the hope of a two-goal lead very closely!

Unfortunately, after this wave of fierce attack, Newcastle’s siege of Wolves once again fell into an embarrassing situation with strong winds and thunder but no rain.

Li Chen was well prepared for this.

There is no doubt about the passion and impact of the young players in the game.

But they have relatively little game experience and their ability to seize key opportunities is not so mature.

In this case, if we want to reuse them, we must accept the ups and downs of the team’s overall performance.

Li Chen is quite satisfied with the performance of his young players, so he can accept the current situation of the game.

But if he relaxes on the offensive end, he will increase his demands on the defensive end accordingly.

Especially after Chris Wood was replaced by Wilson, every Newcastle player on the field had to return to defense!

Faced with Newcastle’s deliberate defensive style of play, Wolves, who were only one goal behind away from home, had no choice but to take over the main attack.

Although the finishing efficiency today was much lower than usual, Newcastle was destined to have many counterattack opportunities as they played in the tactical rhythm that they are best at.

Finally, Newcastle secured the victory with Wilson scoring from Joelinton’s counterattack in the 81st minute of the second half.

Despite a large-scale rotation of main players, Newcastle still calmly defeated the visiting Wolves 2-0 and continued the team’s winning streak.

The biggest significance of this game may not be to win all three points, but to give Newcastle supporters more confidence in the team’s future development.

In one or two seasons, Ronaldo, Marcelo and Pepe will eventually fade out of the starting lineup or even announce their retirement.

But Li Chen has now allowed fans to see the great possibility that the young players in the team will successfully take over from the old superstars in the future.

While reusing veterans to enhance the team’s strength and help the club compete for championship trophies, Li Chen has also made plans for future investments and layouts.

Now it seems that his plans did not encounter too many unexpected twists and turns.

The veterans got enough rest and basically accepted the multiple rotation method under his persuasion.

Young players have been given more playing time and training opportunities.

Perhaps this group of young players that Li Chen strongly advocated to introduce still have many problems in some aspects.

They also need more time to correct their own shortcomings and grow.

But under Li Chen’s targeted tactical arrangements, they all showed their dazzling talents and played quite well on the field.

There is no need to say much about Havertz and Gvardiol, two young players who have now established themselves as the team’s main players.

It is under Li Chen’s patient teaching that Van der Ven has increasingly revealed his amazing talent to the fans.

Like the long-distance run he completed before assisting Havertz to score in today’s game.

In fact, Van der Ven had already shown his ability to seize opportunities to break the deadlock in earlier games.

The difference is that Li Chen spent most of the season teaching him to restrain his offensive instinct and participate in the team’s quick counterattacks more efficiently while reducing positioning errors.

The difference between the two is enough to increase Van der Ven’s value from less than 3000 million when he joined Newcastle to 4500 million now!
Elanga, who made Li Chen worry-free, has now increased his value to 3000 million with his improved defense and crossing ability. So many Manchester United fans frequently greeted the families of Manchester United’s management on the Internet because of Elanga’s good performance today.

Saint-Maximin, who was happily sold to Manchester United by Li Chen at the beginning of the season, once became a key figure in team building in the minds of Ten Hag and many Manchester United fans.

As a result, up to now, this guy has only performed well in the first half of the season, and played a few good games when he was encouraged by Ten Hag.

After that, he either slowed down the team’s overall rhythm by using his “king’s style of play” that was outside the team’s tactical system, or he had to frequently recuperate due to muscle injuries.

Manchester United fans have no expectations or confidence in Saint-Maximin.

Perhaps only Ten Hag is still hoping that Saint-Maximin can come to his senses and make use of his sudden realization.

But Ten Hag didn’t think much about it. If Saint-Maximin could really come to his senses, then how could Newcastle have dived into the relegation zone last season if they had used him?

If he could come to his senses, would Li Chen sell him without hesitation instead of keeping him for himself?
Countless cases have proved that it is difficult for such brainless geniuses in football to change their playing habits and become team players.

If Saint-Maximin had any brains, his peak value wouldn’t be just 4000 million, it would be more than double that.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t change himself, and Li Chen didn’t believe he could be used for his own benefit.

Li Chen was so happy to sell him at the beginning, and now Newcastle fans feel that this deal is worth it.

For Saint-Maximin, it is enough to join a big club like Manchester United and get the generous salary he has always dreamed of.

It would be great to win the heavyweight championship trophy at the peak of his career, but it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t get it. He needs to earn a lot of money.

Even if Ten Hag is extremely disappointed with him and chooses to sell him in the summer, he can still take it easy.

Now that he has become a player for a top club, he can also take the opportunity to further raise his personal salary offer.

Anyway, for him, joining Manchester United is a sure-win deal.

So, in this deal, countless Manchester United fans and most British media at the time believed that Manchester United made a good deal.

Only the injured world of Manchester United has reached it again…

After the game, Elanga kept saying in interviews that he felt very comfortable playing for Newcastle even as a substitute.

After all, he was playing for the coach who personally promoted him to officially embark on the professional career path.

My technical characteristics have been appreciated and fully utilized, my abilities have been further improved, and not only will I receive a normal salary increase, but I will also have a better chance of winning a heavyweight championship trophy.

Although he still has attachment and affection for Manchester United, Elanga still knows the importance of the realistic development prospects.

During the interview, he kept saying “we Newcastle”, and he almost told the Manchester United club directly through the reporters: “Don’t contact me in secret anymore, I’m afraid Newcastle will misunderstand…”

Having learned from the previous experience, the reporters did not use Manchester United’s recent poor performance as a topic to disturb Li Chen’s mood.

Now that Newcastle is the only major team in the Premier League, the media are all thinking about building a better relationship with Li Chen so as to get more first-hand intelligence about Newcastle in the future.

Li Chen certainly understood what these reporters wanted, and even if they won the game, he was not reluctant to answer a few more sensitive questions.

Therefore, the post-match press conference finally ended with a joyful question-and-answer session between both sides.

The next morning, various British media reported that Newcastle was planning to create a youth storm at the end of the season.

However, many Premier League fans remain skeptical about Li Chen’s statement that he wants to give young players more opportunities.

They really didn’t believe that Li Chen would dare to do continuous training in the final sprint of the championship.

Many old Premier League fans believe that Li Chen is just throwing tactical smoke bombs. He let Ronaldo rest in this round of the league, and he will definitely let Ronaldo continue to start in the next round of the league.

But four days later, Li Chen fulfilled his declaration with practical actions.

Newcastle’s starting lineup in the game against Nottingham Forest changed from 352 to 4231, but the young players were still the main framework.

Gvardiol played as a right back and Van der Ven got the chance to start for two consecutive games.

Sean Longstaff and Palinha formed a double defensive midfielder, Joelinton played as a central midfielder, and on his left and right wings were Anthony Gordon and Havertz.

Starting center Chris Wood.

In this round of the league, Li Chen used steady offensive and defensive tactics to drag Nottingham Forest into a positional battle, which they were not good at.

With his teammates on both wings almost showing full tactical discipline today, Chris Wood once again got his fill of the ball.

After playing for 90 minutes, he made 10 shots, 6 of which were on target and scored 2 goals.

It was thanks to his two goals that Newcastle finally won 2-1 against Nottingham Forest away from home and earned three points again.

Judging from the score alone, it was not so easy for Newcastle to get the three points in this game.

But in fact, Chris Wood’s two goals came in the 33rd and 49th minutes of the game respectively.

Newcastle established the team’s leading advantage at a relatively early stage.

Nottingham Forest didn’t score a goal until the 78th minute of the second half, thanks to winger Dennis’s inward shot.

After that, Li Chen’s defensive contraction meant that Nottingham Forest no longer had any threatening opportunities.

When facing reporters’ interviews after the game, Li Chen frankly admitted that he relied on the traditional wing cross tactics to beat Forest.

Who makes him have a reliable center like Chris Wood?

Their midfield has more confrontational advantages and can continuously connect the front and back fields to transfer the ball to the flanks.

There is a lack of creativity in the middle, so naturally we have to do a good job of defense and leave the offense to the teammates on the wings.

The long pass and lob tactics are only used because Newcastle is more suitable for this tactic now. In Li Chen’s opinion, there is no such thing as a backward tactic.

A reporter followed up on his words and asked him directly whether he would continue to play in this style in the next FA Cup.

Some reporters even asked him whether he would choose to give up the FA Cup, which has become a bit useless now, because of the injuries of the main players?

Li Chen smiled and shook his head, then quickly and firmly gave his answer.

“I don’t make championship decisions.

I want them all.”

(End of this chapter)