Chapter 1 The Worst Case Scenario

Liverpool were held to a draw by West Ham United at their away game, while Manchester City and Manchester United both won. The worst-case scenario had finally arrived.

Liverpool fell from second place in the league. Manchester City widened the gap between them, with a difference of as many as three points, and Liverpool was also surpassed by Manchester United by one point.

In this way, Liverpool's situation became very dangerous. If they wanted to win the championship, Liverpool had to defeat Manchester United in the next game to regain second place in the league, and then keep winning in the following games. Especially the game in the second-to-last round of the league, when Liverpool played against Manchester City at home, that was a game related to the ownership of the league championship.

Of course, all of this was on the premise of winning Manchester United at Old Trafford. If they lost to Manchester United, or drew, it would be meaningless.

Martin O'Neill knew what kind of game his team would face at Old Trafford.

Manchester United did not use all their main players in the last league game either. They also made rotations and adjustments to allow some main players to rest.

The only good news was that after a continuous week of double matches, Liverpool could finally have a good week of rest. There was only one game this week.

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With one week left before the game, the entire English media began to hype up the game. Everyone was discussing the peak duel between Liverpool and Manchester United every day.

This was the England National Derby!

In the first match between the two sides this season, Liverpool narrowly defeated Manchester United 1:0 at home. The scorer was Chen Yingxiong.

Chen Yingxiong was naturally the most watched star.

In the last game against West Ham United, he endured the boos and abuse from the West Ham United fans, and sat on the bench for a full ninety minutes, which showed how much anger he was holding in his heart.

This fire might burn towards Manchester United.

Ferguson really valued Chen Yingxiong. He sent a disc to all the defensive players, which detailed Chen Yingxiong's main technical characteristics, and was analyzed and explained by the Manchester United coaching staff.

Ferguson's requirement for the defensive players was that they must thoroughly understand this disc.

What he said to the players was "In this disc, there is a secret to defeating Yingxiong."

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Rio Ferdinand had played for Manchester United for so many years, but he had never seen Sir Alex so nervous about one person.

But he didn't dare to be careless, because he had suffered a lot from Chen Yingxiong.

So when he returned home, he didn't bother to browse Twitter or play with his wife and children.

He directly locked himself in the study, and then put the disc into his computer.

Chen Yingxiong's image appeared on the screen, along with a subtitle:

Left foot, left foot, besides the left foot, it's still the left foot!

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Manchester United was actively preparing for the game against Liverpool, and so was Liverpool.

However, Martin O'Neill's work focus was exactly the opposite of Ferguson's—he didn't need to consider how to contain which Manchester United player, what he needed was how to let Chen Yingxiong break through Manchester United's defense and various restrictions. As long as Chen Yingxiong could score, Liverpool had a high chance of winning.

Therefore, the training content he arranged for the team was various offensive plans, in the middle, on the wings, combining the wings and the middle... No matter which one, it was centered on Chen Yingxiong, and the football must eventually be passed to Chen Yingxiong's feet.

If Chen Yingxiong was a weak striker, even if he was talented, Martin O'Neill would not do this. Because his body could not withstand the impact of Manchester United's central defenders. But Chen Yingxiong didn't have such a problem. He was always the one who bullied the central defenders, and few central defenders could bully him.

In this way, when he got the ball in the penalty area, he could ensure that the football at his feet would not be lost. If it was Suarez, he had no other way but to feign a fall to cheat for a penalty.

Chen Yingxiong was different. He could hold the ball in the penalty area, whether he shot himself or passed the ball to his teammates.

This was why many head coaches hoped that there would be a Chen Yingxiong in their team, because with Chen Yingxiong, it meant that their offensive tactics were particularly rich and diverse, with many changes, making it more difficult for the enemy to defend. However, such a center forward was too difficult to find. Most of the time, this kind of center forward with a strong body was relatively clumsy, with rough feet, well-developed limbs and a simple mind. The center forwards with skills and awareness looked very tall, but their bodies were very thin, their confrontation ability was very poor, and they couldn't resist the tall defenders in the penalty area at all.

Therefore, there were too few center forwards like Chen Yingxiong who had body, skills, awareness and brains. It was not easy to produce such a one, and Liverpool snatched it away.

I don't know how many people were indignant at Liverpool's dog shit luck.

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Ferguson noticed that all the players he had given the disc to yesterday were in good spirits in today's training and looked confident.

He knew that those people had seen what he had given them.

This conclusion was actually very simple, and many people knew it, so it was not his exclusive discovery. But many people did not realize what this meant. Or didn't take it seriously at all. Of course, there was another reason—Yingxiong's abilities in other aspects were too prominent, completely covering up his weakness, making many people not pay attention to it.

But he felt that there was a lot to be done here.

If used well, the myth of "Chen Yingxiong is invincible" would also collapse.

This weakness was Chen Yingxiong's left foot.

As a center forward, Chen Yingxiong's left foot ability was indeed very weak. Apart from stopping the ball, his left foot was far from his right foot, whether it was passing or shooting. If his right foot was of world-class level, then his left foot was of amateur elementary school level.

Even stopping the ball was not guaranteed to be done well every time.

Moreover, judging from the information he has since his debut, he has cooperated with several head coaches, but no matter which head coach has pointed out his weakness, or didn't take it seriously, so Chen Yingxiong has not carried out targeted strengthening training for his left foot at all.

He seemed to think that relying on his head and right foot was enough to cope with everything.

Then I don't mind letting him stumble on this.

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The pre-match psychological warfare between the two sides continued as usual.

Ferguson expressed his hatred for Liverpool and his disdain for Chen Yingxiong.

This time everyone could see that Ferguson was playing psychological warfare, putting psychological pressure on Liverpool.

And it was obvious that he had learned the lesson from the first half of the season. This time, he did not praise Liverpool players as the coach of Manchester United. He directly expressed his disdain and criticism for Chen Yingxiong.

"The media always says that Yingxiong is invincible and that Yingxiong is very powerful. But I think this is a wrong view. Yingxiong is not as powerful as you think. He is a human being, he will also make mistakes, and he also has weaknesses..."

In fact, the Manchester United players knew that what Sir Alex said was the truth.

But in the eyes of reporters and Liverpool people, that was another meaning—he was deliberately belittling Chen Yingxiong, trying to anger Chen Yingxiong and make him lose his composure. This was psychological warfare!

But didn't he know that angering Chen Yingxiong might not have the result he wanted?

Before, there were so many opponents who had hoped to anger Chen Yingxiong, and then make him become grumpy, lose his composure, and eventually perform abnormally.

But which time were they successful?

None!

Not even once!

Ferguson thought that angering Chen Yingxiong could make him perform abnormally, then he was very wrong!

Just gloat, and when the game comes, let Chen Yingxiong tell you this truth—this is the end of angering Chen Yingxiong!

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Chen Yingxiong showed disdain for Ferguson's criticism: "He is free to say what he wants, the mouth is on his body. So it doesn't matter, everyone is free to express their opinions, but they also have to be mentally prepared to bear the consequences, that is to say, everyone must be responsible for what they say. I will let him know this at that time..."

He looked confident and showed no signs of being angered at all.

Liverpool fans were very happy—Yingxiong was not angered! Ferguson, you miscalculated, didn't you? Ah ha ha ha!

Now you just wait for bad luck!

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But Liverpool fans soon knew who was going to be unlucky...

Manchester United's home game against Liverpool came as scheduled.

From the moment Liverpool stepped onto Old Trafford, they were plunged into the noise created by Manchester United fans.

In the ranking of the most noise-making fans in the Premier League last season, Manchester United fans ranked second only to Liverpool fans. But now Liverpool was an away game, their fans were too few to form a climate, and Manchester United fans could give full play to their home advantage and send boos to the Liverpool players.

But this was not a big deal for Liverpool players. After all, any Liverpool player should have been familiar with this scene.

Learning to play under pressure on the road was a required course for many professional players. If they couldn't do it, they couldn't become a qualified professional player.

The boos from Manchester United fans would not cause too much trouble for Liverpool.

What really troubled them was Chen Yingxiong...

Before the game, Chen Yingxiong, as the most threatening player to Manchester United in the Liverpool lineup, was the name mentioned the most by the media.

Not counting this game, Chen Yingxiong had played against Manchester United five times before. Twice when he was playing for Napoli, he played against Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final, and three times after he transferred to Liverpool to play against Manchester United in the league.

He scored four goals in five games.

Such a performance was considered to be the most threatening figure to Manchester United in the Liverpool lineup, which was taken for granted.

Many Liverpool fans with bursting confidence even believed that as long as Chen Yingxiong performed normally, they could take Manchester United away without any problems!

But now the situation was completely beyond their expectations, and the person they trusted the most had a little problem!