Chapter 125 The Benefits of Special Training

Chen Hero's main task in the instance dungeon was actually quite boring. After entering the dungeon, he would warm up for half an hour, and then start repeating the tedious practice of controlling the ball.

The person passing the ball to him was not Basten. Basten was responsible for watching from the side. If Chen Hero didn't control the ball well, he would blow his whistle to stop the training and then analyze with Chen Hero why his ball wasn't controlled well, where the problem was, and how to improve.

The person passing the ball to him was... Maradona.

Because he and Chen Hero were always at odds, one could imagine the situation Chen Hero faced. None of Maradona's passes were easy to receive!

He failed to control the ball the first time, and then Maradona mocked him for a long time.

Chen Hero glared at him fiercely.

"What? Glaring at me? Let me tell you, glaring at me is useless!" Maradona said, kicking a rapidly spinning football over again.

Of course, Chen Hero missed the ball again this time...

Because of the relationship between the two, Maradona's passes never gave Chen Hero any face. They were always delivered according to the standard of "passing in the most difficult way possible."

And also because of the relationship between the two, Maradona's deliberate刁难 *diao nan* (making things difficult) aroused Chen Hero's fighting spirit—*Laozi* (your father) can't lose to you!

So he practiced desperately, bickering with Maradona while working hard.

Perhaps he himself didn't realize that, in the process of competing with Maradona, his ball control ability was greatly improved.

He didn't even care about the purpose of this practice anymore; he just wanted to compete with Maradona.

Of course, Basten knew that Chen Hero was competing with Maradona, which was why he wanted Maradona to pair up with Chen Hero for practice. He knew that Chen Hero was the type of person who became stronger when facing stronger opponents. If the opponent didn't get along with him, then his motivation to improve himself and step on the opponent would be even greater, so he wouldn't have to worry about his progress being slow.

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Chen Hero scored two goals in the match against Newcastle, bringing his Premier League goal tally for the season to twenty-seven.

But he still couldn't surpass Van Persie, because Van Persie had scored thirty goals so far, and the gap between Chen Hero and him was still three.

With seven league rounds remaining, the battle between the two strikers had entered a feverish stage.

On April 7, Liverpool, returning to their home stadium, finally won a game. They defeated Aston Villa 3:1 at Anfield, with Suárez, Chen Hero, and Glen Johnson each scoring a goal.

In another match that ended earlier, Van Persie also scored a goal, and Arsenal drew 2:2 with Manchester City at home.

In the battle for the league title, Manchester City was now three points behind Manchester United. Both Manchester City and Manchester United were eliminated from the Champions League and Europa League this season, allowing them to focus all their energy on the league. As a result, the competition for the league title became even more intense.

In the thirty-third round, Liverpool played Blackburn away.

Chen Hero scored again. As everyone believed, once Chen Hero broke his goal drought, goals would definitely come one after another. However, he only scored those two free kicks. The next two goals were scored with his feet, one a long shot and the other a simple tap-in after receiving a pass from Suárez in the penalty area.

Dalglish was completely relieved. In fact, Chen Hero had the ability to score with his feet, but before, he needed to go through a mental transformation to abandon his old habits, and once a habit was formed, it couldn't be changed in a short period of time.

Now, seeing Chen Hero's performance, he believed that Chen Hero had corrected his habits. At least now, he rarely contested headers in matches. Even if he jumped, he used his chest to control the ball—Brazilian center-backs preferred to do this. When a ball came from the air, they would definitely choose to jump up and use their chest to stop the ball if they could avoid using their head, and then still use their feet to solve the problem.

Now Chen Hero was doing the same, but not out of habit, but out of helplessness.

Although he could score with his feet, not being able to use headers still affected Liverpool's performance. For example, this time Hero's goal failed to bring Liverpool a victory, and they drew again. Being held to a draw by Blackburn away from home, Liverpool's performance was very unstable, exposing many problems.

Among them, the main reason was the maladjustment caused by adjusting a tactic that everyone had become accustomed to for more than half a season.

Chen Hero's form had recovered, but Liverpool hadn't...

But Dalglish no longer cared. Champions League? He didn't even want to think about it. Even if he led the team to win the Champions League, he wouldn't stay with the team to continue playing in the Champions League next season. The goal of participating in European competitions next season had been achieved, and he was now focused on correcting the team's tactical thinking, no longer playing high balls, but emphasizing ground attacks and more ground passes.

Moreover, it wasn't just a matter of the team's tactics needing to be readjusted.

There was also the problem of player configuration. In the past, the team's player configuration was based on the tactical idea of playing high balls. Now that it had suddenly changed, many players were not performing as well as before. In addition, frequent injuries made Dalglish struggle when arranging his lineup. Being able to field eleven players in their positions was already good enough, and he couldn't even consider fielding the strongest lineup...

On April 16, the FA Cup semi-final began. Liverpool met a resurgent Chelsea in the semi-final.

This match was quite brutal.

Meireles, who had played for Liverpool and was sold to Chelsea by Liverpool this summer, was sent off with a red card in the match for accumulating two yellow cards.

Liverpool's starting midfielder Charlie Adam and the young player Martin Kelly, born in the nineties, were injured in the match. Martin Kelly's injury was slightly less serious, and he still had hope of making it to the league match at the weekend. Charlie Adam's injury was not optimistic. The results of the examination showed that he needed surgery, which meant that he would miss the remaining matches of the season.

This result left Dalglish very helpless. The team had been cursed this season, with frequent injuries, and they were all serious injuries. Gerrard hadn't been well for a long time, and now he was out for the season. Lucas was just as unlucky as him. Suárez had also been sidelined for more than three months in the middle of the season, and now another midfielder, Charlie Adam, was injured. He really didn't know how to arrange the players.

And after paying such a heavy price, Liverpool eventually lost to Chelsea 2:3 away from home and missed the FA Cup final. The hope of winning a Grand Slam of cup competitions this season was dashed...

Chen Hero didn't score in this FA Cup match, but he unexpectedly had an assist.

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In the thirty-fourth round of the league, Liverpool played Fulham at home.

Hero scored twice again, and also helped Liverpool defeat Fulham 3:0 at their home stadium.

Liverpool's performance had improved as they gradually adapted to the new tactics. At least they could win at their home stadium.

Although their away performance was still a bit unstable...

But considering the team's current situation, it was really impossible to ask for more.

Basically, Liverpool had lost the chance to enter the top four this season. Although they had just surpassed Newcastle with this victory, becoming seventh in the league, they were still nine points behind Tottenham Hotspur, who were fourth in the league. With four league rounds remaining, as long as they lost one match, they would be out of the running this season.

Even if they won all four of their remaining league matches, there were still two teams ahead of them. Besides, as long as Tottenham Hotspur won in the next round of the league, then no matter what the result was for Liverpool, they would be out of the running. Even if they managed to tie on points in the next three rounds, it would be difficult to compete on goal difference.

Therefore, Liverpool only had one task left this season, which was to help the team's top scorer, Chen Hero, win the Golden Boot.

This was an individual honor, and it would also be of great benefit to the team.

After all, it was a glorious thing to have the league's top scorer in your own team.

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Now that the team was mainly focused on ground attacks, Suárez's performance suddenly became active. Before, everything was prioritized in the air, and Suárez, who hadn't used headers for a century, could only be sent to the flanks to cross, or be responsible for controlling the second ball.

His performance was imaginable.

Now, after switching to ground attacks, Suárez's most lethal weapon had the broadest application—his dribbling and breakthroughs.

Suárez was a player who was good at dribbling, and his footwork was already considered top-notch for the Premier League.

So Dalglish's task for Suárez was to use his dribbling to disrupt the opponent's defense and then assist Chen Hero.

This would inevitably sacrifice Suárez's goal tally. If it had been half a year ago, Suárez would definitely not have agreed. He might have even tried to sabotage Chen Hero.

But now, he nodded in agreement without saying a word.

He wasn't a selfish person; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to complete fourteen assists in a season and be elected as Ajax's assist king for that season.

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In the thirty-fifth round of the league, Liverpool played West Bromwich Albion at home. This was a mid-to-lower-ranked team, with no worries about relegation and no hope of European qualification, but that didn't mean they would be without desires. It was important to know that the distribution of television broadcast revenue after the end of the season was based on the team's final ranking for the season. The higher the ranking, the more money was awarded, so as long as there was still hope, everyone wanted to go further.

Before this match, the number of goals between Chen Hero and Van Persie was only two—in the previous round of the league, Chen Hero scored twice, while Van Persie only scored one goal.

The gap between the two had narrowed.

Chen Hero felt the benefits that the instance dungeon training brought him in the match. Although he had only just started training, he was already controlling some balls better than before.

Maradona's passes were as tricky, awkward, and difficult to control as possible, but in a match, who would deliberately pass the ball to Chen Hero like that? So most of the time, his teammates' passes were easier to control than Maradona's.

He also deeply understood Basten's saying that "a good ball control is an opportunity, even if it isn't."

He personally felt it in the match against West Bromwich.

At that time, Adam Johnson's pass to him hit an opposing defender, not only changing direction but also having a strong spin, making the ball difficult to control.

Thanks to Maradona's deliberate刁难 *diao nan* (making things difficult), Chen Hero had a flash of inspiration at that moment, bending his knee joint and using his calf and thigh for a double ball control. The football first hit his calf, and when it bounced upwards, it was pressed down by his thigh. The football, which was originally difficult to control, obediently fell to the ground, controlled very steadily.

Then Chen Hero shot, and the football flew into the opponent's goal.

He scored again!

In this match, relying on goals from Chen Hero and Bellamy, Liverpool defeated West Bromwich 2:0 at home.

Good news also came from another pitch—Arsenal lost to Chelsea at home, and Van Persie failed to score.

Now the number of goals between the two was only one!

Chen Hero had caught up!