Chapter 1 After Easily Defeating Tottenham Hotspur

After easily defeating Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool's next opponent was Blackburn, in the League Cup semi-finals.

Everyone in Liverpool's reserve team was training hard, energized by the upcoming League Cup final.

The League Cup was a double-edged sword for Liverpool's first-team stars—tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away.

So they didn't participate in the competition from the start. Only Chen Hero went because he wanted to rack up goals.

But for the reserve team players, this was a rare opportunity to play—not just training, but an actual match. They didn't need training right now; they needed matches, proper matches. Although they had reserve team matches to play, could those compare to the League Cup or FA Cup? The reserve league might get four or five hundred spectators at best. Television broadcasts? Forget about it!

But in the League Cup, no matter how trivial, there were still over twenty thousand fans and television broadcasts. The media paid attention to these games, which was incomparable to the reserve league.

So everyone valued this opportunity highly. They knew the league and the Champions League were beyond them; their strength wasn't enough. Fortunately, England had two domestic cup competitions, so they didn't have to worry about not playing matches.

Whenever this happened, they were particularly annoyed—why did Premier League teams have to start in the third round of the League Cup and FA Cup, and not directly from the first round? That way, they could play two more games in each cup competition.

In fact, these reserve team players didn't just want to play more games for the simple reason that they loved football. They also had to consider their future. The more games they played, the more opportunities they had to show their faces, which could attract the attention of scouts, earn the favor of other teams, and perhaps secure a good future for themselves.

Unfortunately, such good opportunities belonged to a very small number of people, so most of the time they were like concubines hidden deep in the cold palace, still waiting to be selected by the emperor, conceive a dragon seed, and leap through the dragon gate overnight, rising to the rank of noble consort, or even empress.

Although their luck wasn't good and their strength wasn't great, the right to dream was free, and everyone had it.

So everyone continued to look forward to it, taking every League Cup and FA Cup match seriously.

Therefore, they were particularly grateful to and fond of Chen Hero. Because Chen Hero's arrival gave them more opportunities to play. If it weren't for Chen Hero, they might only play two or three games at most, and then the season would be over.

Yes, for the first-team stars, the end of the season was marked by the last league match or the Champions League final. But for them, being eliminated from the FA Cup meant that their season was already over.

After Chen Hero arrived, they could play several more games, and have several more opportunities to show their faces in front of the media and scouts. For the sake of their future, they naturally had to desperately support Chen Hero. Of course, they knew that Chen Hero was stealing the limelight, everyone was discussing his name, the real protagonist, and what about them? They were all supporting characters.

But they also knew very well that someone like Chen Hero, no matter how outstanding or how much of a protagonist he was, could not be valued by those scouts, because there were hardly any teams that could afford to buy him now, and even if they wanted to buy him, they would have to see if Liverpool would sell him. So even if Chen Hero was outstanding, the scouts would not come to observe Chen Hero.

Chen Hero's performance would not affect others at all.

On the contrary, if others performed well, assisted Chen Hero with a goal in the game, or fully demonstrated their strength in the game, they could gain the favor of those scouts and maybe successfully transfer to a team where they could get a starting position.

Even if it was just a role player, it didn't matter, as long as you completed your task, you would naturally fall into the eyes of interested people, so why worry about being ignored?

Therefore, Chen Hero was like a catalyst. His existence could drive the performance of other players. Because of him, Liverpool continued to win. While he received praise, others would also be praised by the media. You see, in the post-match scores of the winning teams, there are very few players with low scores.

Now another League Cup match was coming up, and everyone was training hard, hoping to defeat their opponents in the semi-finals and advance to the final with Chen Hero.

They also hoped that they could help Chen Hero in the game, even if it was just completing their defensive tasks, that could at least be regarded as letting Chen Hero have no worries.

※※※

However, before the last day of training before the match, they didn't see Chen Hero and first-team coach Martin O'Neill at the second training ground.

Reserve team coach Clarke read out a list before the start of training, with about nine names on it.

After reading the list, Clarke said: "You guys follow me to the first training ground."

Those whose names were called looked at each other.

They couldn't figure out what was going on.

They knew that the first training ground was where the first team trained, but they didn't understand why they were being sent to the first team's training ground. Tomorrow was the League Cup semi-final, shouldn't they stay here and train with the team, instead of running to the first team's territory?

If it were normal times, they would be very happy to go to the first ground, because it meant they could train with the first team, and have the opportunity to play for the Liverpool first team, play in the league, and if they were lucky, maybe even play in the Champions League.

But now, they would rather stay at the second ground, so they would have the opportunity to play in tomorrow's League Cup semi-final.

That was the semi-final!

More people would pay attention to it than usual League Cup matches, more media and scouts would come, it was a big occasion!

Clarke cleared up their confusion: "You will be with the first team to participate in the League Cup semi-final tomorrow!"

As soon as these words were spoken, they caused a stir among the players!

The selected players suddenly understood, their faces full of pride and happiness.

Those whose names were not called were disappointed, envious, and jealous.

In the end, the nine lucky ones, with the envious and jealous gazes of their teammates, were taken to the first ground by Clarke, while those who were left behind seemed to have no intention of training.

※※※

After changing his jersey, Chen Hero didn't go directly to the training ground, but left the training ground, preparing to go to the second ground, and then he was stopped by coach Martin O'Neill.

"What are you doing, Hero?"

"Training. Isn't there a semi-final tomorrow?" Chen Hero felt that the boss's question was too idiotic. Usually when there were League Cup matches, O'Neill would wait for him, but now he was asking him what he was going to do.

"Oh, then you don't have to go, you can go back." O'Neill nodded when he heard it was because of this.

"What's wrong?" Chen Hero was puzzled.

"I won't send the entire second team tomorrow. It will be a mix of the first and second teams, so I had them called to the first ground to train with us."

Chen Hero was stunned for a moment, and then he understood.

They had already reached the semi-finals, and one more step would be the final. No matter how much the boss thought the League Cup was a double-edged sword before, it wasn't a double-edged sword at this time.

No one would嫌冠军少 (xián guàn jūn shǎo - dislike having too many championships), and since they were only two steps away from winning the championship, and it wouldn't tire the first team out too much, why couldn't they try their best to win a League Cup championship?

He also nodded, and then turned around and returned to the first training ground.

Since the coach had made a decision, then he had nothing to say, just follow it. He had no other thoughts.

He guessed correctly, Martin O'Neill was indeed planning to冲击 (chōng jī - strive for) the League Cup championship.

Martin O'Neill didn't value the League Cup before because the League Cup had to start from the third round, and it would take at least five games to reach the final, and if they happened to draw and needed a replay, then it would have to be increased.

The risk was too great, the investment was too great, and there was no guarantee of returns, so the cost-effectiveness was not high. Such a competition was naturally a double-edged sword.

But if the League Cup was placed in front of him, and it would only take one or two games to add a championship, why not do it?

Therefore, Martin O'Neill decisively made the decision that from the semi-finals onwards, the first-team players would participate in the war.

If Liverpool could reach the final, then even these nine second-team players would have their share, and the main lineup would be fully involved. At that time, Liverpool appearing at Wembley Stadium would be no different from the Liverpool in the league and the Champions League.

At that time, Martin O'Neill only had the championship trophy in his eyes.

※※※

The nine second-team players came to the first team's training ground, they had been here before, there was nothing strange about it. Their excitement about fighting alongside the first-team stars and then playing in the League Cup semi-final hadn't passed yet.

Chen Hero came up to greet them and asked, feeling a little strange: "Why are there only a few of you?"

"Coach Clarke only called our names!" The person who answered Chen Hero was quite proud, he had a sense of "我是百里挑一 (wǒ shì bǎi lǐ tiāo yī - I am one in a hundred)."

Hearing his answer, Chen Hero frowned slightly.

When he heard the boss say it before, he thought the entire second team was coming to the first ground, just like before, playing a match with the first team, and then picking out the players in good condition to form a joint force to play in the League Cup semi-final.

He didn't expect only nine people, these nine people only accounted for one-third of all the reserve team personnel, which meant that two-thirds of the reserve team players did not qualify to participate in the next League Cup semi-final.

But before this, every League Cup match only had teammates from the second team and himself, one person from the first team. The people from the second team were the main force, and he was actually here to help.

Every second-team player had a share, as long as they performed well in training, they could be selected into the final eighteen-man squad. Excluding himself, there were still seventeen people who were qualified to participate in the League Cup match. That was a full two times more than the nine people now.

Chen Hero always felt that something was wrong, but he didn't continue to investigate this issue, because training was about to begin.

First-team assistant coach Sami Lee stood in the field, loudly calling all the players to warm up first, and then come to train.

The second-team players enthusiastically joined the flow of people warming up.

Chen Hero followed beside them, as if he was originally a member of the second team.

※※※

Clarke returned to the reserve team and continued his training.

Then he quickly discovered that the atmosphere of the reserve team was different from before, many players' minds were obviously not on training, and many people seemed listless.

He was stunned for a moment, and then he understood what had happened.

They had lost their goal to strive for, so naturally they had no fighting spirit.

Alas, it seems I overlooked what the League Cup meant to these people. When we were considering the issue, we only thought that the League Cup was a championship that Liverpool could compete for...

But there was no way, if we still relied on these people, it would be hard to say whether we could break into the final, let alone win the final and win the championship.

For the overall interests of the team, we can only sacrifice the personal interests of these people now.

He shouted: "Everyone, cheer up!"

It didn't have any effect.

He sighed.

Forget it, let them be. Anyway, the reserve team is originally a place with little hope...