Moyes was studying the game footage of Zenit Saint Petersburg, their next opponent in the UEFA Cup group stage.

The Russian domestic league was too closed off, so all he could get was Zenit's UEFA Cup matches.

Although Everton was currently ranked first in the group, and qualifying wasn't a problem, they still wanted to fight for a favorable ranking as much as possible.

He noticed that Zenit Saint Petersburg had a few players with some potential. He noted down their names and jersey numbers, planning to remind his players about them during the tactical meeting.

Andrei Arshavin, of course, was a player who had already made a name for himself in Russia. Perhaps ordinary fans knew nothing about him, but Moyes, as a professional coach, had heard of him to some extent—although he hadn't watched Arshavin play much...

Another threatening figure was their attacking midfielder, Domínguez. This Argentine player rose to fame in the 2001 World Youth Championship, where his teammate was Saviola, who played for Barcelona. Unfortunately, he broke his leg in the match against France in the World Youth Championship, and since then, he had disappeared from mainstream football circles. Later, he heard that he went to Russia. He didn't know why he made this decision. For many people, Russia, a bitterly cold place, was simply not suitable for football, and going to Russia was tantamount to self-exile, especially for a player with such a promising future... Now he was Zenit Saint Petersburg's main attacking midfielder, playing a very important role in the attack.

Another threatening person was their defensive midfielder, the on-field captain, Tymoshchuk. This Ukrainian national vice-captain had a natural leadership temperament. His interceptions and running in midfield would be a great threat to Everton's attack. Moreover, he not only knew how to defend, but he would also launch attacks. He was the key node in the transition between attack and defense. In many cases, Zenit's attacks were launched through his interceptions in the middle and backfields.

If they wanted to stop Zenit's attack, maybe they would have to start with Tymoshchuk.

The last threatening person was their center-back, Martin Škrtel. This young center-back had attracted the attention of some major European league teams with his outstanding performance. It was said that Liverpool intended to lure him to join them.

Škrtel, who was 1.91 meters tall, had excellent aerial defense ability. Because he had played ice hockey when he was a child, his physical fitness was excellent, and his explosive power was extremely good. He would not be at a disadvantage in physical confrontation with any striker. But he was not without weaknesses. Tall center-backs had a common weakness, which was slow turning. Agile strikers would be his nightmare.

Moyes thought about it. Almost all of his players were fast strikers, such as Andy Johnson, James Vaughan, and Yakubu.

Perfect for dealing with Škrtel.

With this thought, Moyes had basically decided on the basic tactics for the game against Zenit—speed. Use the speed of the front line to constantly attack Zenit's defense, making their tall defenders at a loss and unable to find north.

In addition, Moyes also noticed that Zenit had a big center forward. He was very conspicuous on the field because his figure was really... too burly, like a giant bear.

At first, he paid a lot of attention to this striker. In any case, a striker with this physique would be the nightmare of the defense. Bayern Munich and the German national team used to have a center forward named Jancker, who was 1.93 meters tall and weighed 91 kilograms. He was like a heavy tank on the field. Although his technique was extremely rough and his speed was slow, he had good skills in holding the ball with his back to the goal and a powerful right-footed shooting ability. As long as he played, he could cause a lot of trouble to the opponent's defense. Even if he couldn't score, he could attract defensive firepower for his teammates and create opportunities.

Even more threatening than him was the Czech center forward, Jan Koller. He was 2.02 meters tall and weighed 103 kilograms. As long as he was in the penalty area, even if he just stood there without jumping, it was a big enough threat.

Therefore, Moyes originally listed Chen Hero as a threatening figure who needed to be carefully examined.

Who would have thought that after watching a few Zenit UEFA Cup game videos, he found that this striker had almost no other strengths except for being good at headers. His body was not flexible enough, his footwork was extremely rough, and apart from headers, his shooting skills were also not good... He was even surprised—how did this guy get on Advocaat's starting list?

The result was that this big guy started almost every game in the UEFA Cup, but only scored one goal, and it was still scored in the game against Larissa, the weakest team in the group. Although that goal helped the team win, it was not brilliant at all, and it could not reflect his strength—it was more like luck than strength. He was lucky that he appeared there, and then looked at his amateurish leg swing and volleying action. It was really lucky that no defender poked the ball away first...

Moreover, this goal reflected more of the defensive mistakes of Larissa's defense, rather than Chen Hero's agility and skill.

Moyes thought for a while, and finally crossed out "hero"'s name from the paper.

He felt that a center forward who only looked strong and had a good header was not a threat to his defense.

His two center-backs, Joleon Lescott and Joseph Yobo, were both tall and strong people who were good at headers. It should not be a problem to defend this person. When the ball was in front of their goal, there would never be such a low-level mistake as when he swung his leg to volley and there was no defender around him!

※※※

When flying from St. Petersburg to Liverpool, England, many Zenit players exclaimed, "England is so warm!"

If the people of Liverpool, who were shrinking their necks and wrapping their entire bodies in thick coats on the street, heard these Russians' excited voices, they didn't know what they would think.

But for people from a city where the average winter temperature was around minus thirteen degrees Celsius, and the lowest temperature had been minus thirty degrees Celsius, this coastal city in England could really be considered warm...

This was Chen Hero's first time in England.

When he and his father were self-promoting like ascetics, they had not come to England because they knew that they would not be able to get a work permit, so they would definitely not be able to represent the teams of the four English football associations in the game. So England was not in their plan from the beginning.

Playing football in St. Petersburg, his main area of activity was in Eastern Europe. Following the team to away games, the farthest place he went was Vladivostok. The closest place to the central area of European football was Greece—he followed the team to play against Larissa.

Chen Hero had heard of the city of Liverpool and the team, which were very famous.

This was a historic port city, located on the east bank of the Mersey Estuary, with a population of nearly 500,000. Its unique Irish immigration tradition, as well as trade with all parts of the world, made Liverpool particularly different from other cities in England.

In this regard, it was somewhat similar to St. Petersburg's status in Russia. Both were immigrant cities, both were close to the estuary, both had trade relations with all parts of the world, and both seemed somewhat different in their own countries.

This city was famous in the football world because of two great teams.

One was naturally the great Liverpool, which was the most successful club in the history of English football. It's just that they have had bad luck recently...

The other great team was Everton, Zenit's opponent this time.

In English football, the red and blue duel was an eternal theme. All the die-hard teams had red and blue colors on their jerseys. For example, Manchester United and Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton. Red and blue were the most used traditional colors by English teams, which was why so many die-hard enemies used these two colors.

Compared with Liverpool, Everton was slightly less famous in the world of football, but in England, they were equally famous. They were the only team to have played in the top league for one hundred seasons, and were one of the founders of the Football League. In more than one hundred years, they have won nine English top league titles, five FA Cup titles, and one European Cup Winners' Cup title.

Such a team definitely had a more brilliant history and record than Zenit.

Compared to them, Zenit was simply not worth mentioning.

This was why the English media believed that this group match was without suspense. Everton would easily defeat Zenit at home and advance to the knockout stage as the top of the group.

The Russian media was not very optimistic about Zenit's future either. After all, it was too difficult to beat Everton away from home.

The situation in this group was like this: Before the match on December 5th, Zenit had played three matches, with one win and two draws, accumulating five points, and was temporarily ranked second in the group. Everton had one game less, with two wins in two matches, accumulating six points, and was ranked first in the group. Next were Nuremberg and Alkmaar, both of which had one win, one draw, and one loss, accumulating four points.

With two rounds of matches left, Zenit's group stage would be over after they finished the match with Everton. If they lost to Everton, their score would still be five points. And Everton would be at the top with nine points, and it was almost impossible for any team to shake their position. Everton would qualify for the knockout stage as the top of the group.

At the same time as the Zenit and Everton match, the two teams with the same points would also fight each other. If Alkmaar and Nuremberg could determine the winner, the winning team would rise to second place, provided that Zenit lost to Everton, and Zenit would be squeezed into the very dangerous third place.

If the two teams drew, the three teams would all have five points, but Zenit would be idle in the last round of the group stage, and Nuremberg and Alkmaar would still have one match to play. Nuremberg would challenge Larissa, the weakest team in the group, away from home, and the chances of winning were quite high. And the match between Alkmaar and Everton was also full of variables. No one knew whether Everton, who had already qualified in advance, would send a substitute lineup for rotation, because everyone knew that the Premier League schedule during Christmas was the most intensive, and that group match was just on December 20th...

Therefore, in the last round, Zenit could only watch the other four teams fight each other, completely unable to control their own destiny. Life and death were in the hands of others.

This was very dangerous.

If Everton let Alkmaar go, and Nuremberg won against Larissa, these two teams would rise to second and third, thus squeezing Zenit to fourth and being eliminated.

And the root of all this was that Zenit lost to Everton away from home in this match.

Therefore, in order to firmly control their own destiny, Zenit must take down Zenit away from home.

The media was not very optimistic about Zenit.

"They played too badly in the previous few matches. They only won against Larissa, the weakest team in the group, and they barely won... You must know that Larissa has only scored three goals so far, and two of them were scored in the match against Zenit! Zenit only achieved a draw against the two most important opponents, Nuremberg and Alkmaar, thus forcing themselves into a dead end!"

The St. Petersburg media was very pessimistic about Zenit's expedition to England...

※※※

ps, A new week has arrived. While you are voting for monthly tickets, don't forget to increase clicks and recommendations for Forbidden Zone! There are recommendation tickets every day, purely free. It's a waste not to vote, so why not vote for Forbidden Zone!

Thank you all!