Chapter 241: A perfect start

Goalkeepers: No. 1 Yussie Jass Kleinen (24 years old, Finnish), No. 12 Paul Gerrard (26 years old, English), No. 22 John Mackenzie (24 years old, English)

Defenders: Steve Finnan No. 2 (23 years old, Irish), Sammy Hepia No. 5 (25 years old, Finnish), Marcel Deselli No. 6 (31 years old, French), Daniel Sun No. 4 (21 years old, English), Kaha Karaze No. 15 (20 years old, Georgian), Darren Perth No. 21 (21 years old, English), Sun Jihai No. 22 (22 years old, China), Robert Gianni No. 3 (31 years old, Croatian), Ashley Kohl (18 years old, English)

Midfielder: No. 7 Jozell Jinklaze (26, Georgian), No. 10 Zvonimir Boban (31, Croatian), No. 14 Claude Marklele (26, French), No. 8 Steven Gerrard (19, English), No. 16 Joe Cole (18, English), No. 17 Simon Davis (20, Welsh), No. 19 Attirio Lombardo (33, Italian), No. 21 Matt Holland (25, Irish), No. 30 Jespe Glenshare (23, Danish)

Forwards: Davao Suk (31, Croatian), Kevin Phillips (26, English), Robbie Keane (19, Irish), Luther Van Nistruy (23, Dutch)

Transfer two players, one player left on loan, and four players added. Compared with last season, Leiden East's first team increased to 25 players. The overall lineup framework has not changed much. The most strengthened is the full-back position. The five regular full-backs have made Xiao Ming's choice in these two positions begin to be at ease. The arrival of midfielder Joe Kerr has given Leiden East enough substitutes in the midfield. The only thing that is worrying is the front line. Although it is still the configuration of four forwards, only one player who can compete for the top and make the ball in the penalty area is Van Nie. However, the center who is capable of playing a substitute for Fanny will definitely not be willing to be a substitute. Jankoler's insistence on leaving has proved this.

After all, there are not many players in this world who are strong and willing to be substitutes, especially the forwards. There are only two forwards who can really be world-famous in the substitute position - now Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and later Inter Milan's Julio Cruise.

This kind of striker is hard to come by. After all, the striker needs to keep scoring goals because of continuity. It is absolutely rare for a striker who often fails to play but can complete the task as soon as he goes on the field.

This year, Leiden Oriental's training site was placed at the Leicester training base. However, after winning the Winners Cup last season, they don't need to worry about their warm-up opponents. In addition to the usual warm-up match with local team Walthamstowe United and old friend Tottenham Hotspur, another Leiden Oriental's warm-up opponent comes from Frankfurt in the Bundesliga.

Finally, this warm-up opponent was contacted by Xiao Ming. The chances of Leiden Oriental encountering the other three major league teams in the Champions League in the new season will not be too small. Serie A teams and La Liga teams met in the Winners Cup last season, while the Bundesliga teams are relatively unfamiliar. Although Frankfurt's average performance in the Bundesliga and was almost relegated last season, they are a very distinctive team. The new head coach Magath is a typical German coach. The match with them should help Leiden Oriental be more familiar with the Bundesliga team.

As for what "China derby in the European Warm Up" that Chinese media praised after this warm-up match, it was not considered by Xiao Ming. It was just a warm-up match. Regardless of whether Sun Jihai and Yang Chen would meet in the game, even if they met, how many times can a center forward or a full-back be?

But then again, the performance of these exaggerated Chinese players in the European arena has indeed played a very exciting role in the situation where the Chinese national team cannot enter the World Cup - at least the newspapers with such reports have good sales!

In the training camp in the new season, the team not only accumulates physical energy, but also practices various tactics. Now Leiden Oriental players have their own characteristics. What should they do when they are on the court? How should other players cooperate with whom? Thanks to Leiden Oriental's lineup has been very stable in the past two years. The personnel changes in each season are only small changes, so that they can practice enough tactical cooperation. If half of the lineup is replaced in one season, just running-in will consume all the time, let alone practicing multiple sets of tactics.

In the new season, the role played by Boban in the organization will gradually weaken. Boban showed good condition and physical fitness last season, but after all, he is a player over 30 years old. After another year, his physical condition will further decline. Xiao Ming cannot expect him to play almost all the games like last season. When Boban rests, the organization will be shared by other players. Of course, Gerald is the first substitute in the middle of the midfield. When he appears, the organization will be more expanded by the two wings.

In the three warm-up matches, Leiden East won all the victories. In the first and second half of each game, Xiao Ming started with different players. When Boban was on the court, he also organized the offense. When he was not on the court, Joe Cole served as the front midfielder, Joe Cole organized, and Gerald served as the front midfielder to hand over the organization to the two wings. Gerald was only responsible for the finishing work.

Joe Kohl's skills and imagination made Boban highly appreciated. At the same time, when he was in AC Milan, Boban played two sides many times. He was very happy to teach this junior some of his experiences. Another Kohl seemed to be more low-key. After changing to the left-back, he began to pay close attention to some of Girney's movements. Soon he found that his characteristics were indeed very similar to Girney - his speed was fast and his ability to surpass others. However, Girney also had a long-range shot, especially the ground-facing arc ball, which showed the deep technical skills unique to former South players. To be honest, the former Yugoslavia's system of training young players was the best in Europe. Before the Bosman transfer rules began, the former South was the arsenal of other European leagues. It was just that the war and social turmoil ruined all this. Even so, after the society was slightly settled, their outstanding players were still emerging one after another.

Garney's outstanding performance on the training ground made Ashley Cole begin to be full of confidence in his new position. Since his characteristics are so similar to Garney, it would not be a problem if he studied hard and became a full-back as excellent as him, right?

Compared with Garney who quickly showed excellent form as soon as he came, Davao Suk, the most famous transfer, seemed to be in a mediocre state. After all, his technical characteristics were a bit out of place compared to the rhythm of the Premier League. Boban could still show good form when he was behind him. However, if the player behind him was not Boban, his handling of half-high balls and ground balls was not particularly outstanding, especially when the defender was close to each other.

Xiao Ming saw all this, but he didn't care too much about it. The main forward partner of the new season will be Fanny and Phillips, while Suk and Keane Jr. will be substitutes. Suk has experience and Keane Jr. has speed. In fact, for a team, it is more suitable to have several distinctive substitute forwards. Substitute forwards are used to make changes at critical moments, rather than constantly impacting the main lineup, causing unnecessary trouble and pressure in the locker room.

Five days before the start of the new season, the first official match of the English League was kicked off at Wembley Stadium. Although Beckham's free kick helped Manchester United score the first record, Arsenal defeated his opponent with two goals in the second half and continued to maintain a huge advantage over Manchester United after Wenger took office. The hero of Arsenal's victory in this game was Nigerian striker Canu. He first scored a penalty created by Vieira, and then assisted Palor, who came on the bench, to overtake the score. Arsenal won the first championship of the season.

The Arsenal players who returned from France's training are obviously much better in physical condition than Manchester United, who just returned from Australia and the Far East, and they are in a state earlier - Xiao Ming smiled and said nothing - Leiden Oriental has been staying in London to train, and its physical condition should be better than them. Without the fatigue after a long journey and the ties of national team games, Leiden Oriental will definitely be able to enter the league in the best condition.

On August 7, the Premier League officially started, and the new season's match began again. In the next ten months, twenty teams will fight for their own destiny, whether it is the championship, the relegation, or the mid-range team.

Leiden Oriental's first opponent in the league is the newly promoted Watford. The Hornets finished fifth in the League One last season and finally entered the Premier League through the play-offs. Their arrival balanced the number of London teams in the Premier League - Wimbledon went down and Watford came up.

However, Xiao Ming did not want to give his companions in the London area any mercy. Although the first game was away, Xiao Ming did not want to miss this opportunity to score three-pointers.

In history, Watford's performance may be just slightly better than Leiden Oriental. He has won the runner-up in the top league and the FA Cup, but most of the time they are like Leiden Oriental, struggling in the low-level league. The origin of Leiden Oriental and Watford lies in their striker Kevin Phillips. Three seasons ago Leiden Oriental poached Phillips from Watford for 300,000 pounds. Now Phillips has become an England international, while Watford is still an undefeated weak team in the Premier League.

Watford retained most of its main players in the new season, but did not introduce any outstanding players. The only thing that can be considered heavyweight signing was that they bought the young Dutch forward Nolding Watel and Icelandic forward Herculesen, and there was no action other than that.

Teams that use the English League One lineup often die very ugly. Although Leiden Oriental only introduced five new players last season, it is important to see that most of their main players actually have the strength to gain a foothold in the Premier League and have a tacit cooperation with each other. The unbeaten season and the highest point record in the English League One fully demonstrates this point, but at the beginning of the season, their results still seemed very bad - from this we can see how wrong it is to just barely pass the playoffs test that Watford appeared in the Premier League without any big moves in the transfer market.

At the Vicarriz Stadium, Leiden Oriental used their performance to make 20,000 Watford fans feel the huge difference between the Premier League and the League One.

Compared with last season, Leiden East's starting lineup has not changed much. Among the four new players, only Garney got the chance to start. Goalkeeper Jasqueline, right back Daniel, left back Garney, center back Hepia and Deselli, midfielders Jinklaze, Marklele, Glenshare and Boban, and the forwards are still a combination of Fanny and Phillips.

Although there was only one starter, Leiden Oriental's tactics have changed a lot from last season.

When the two fullbacks were assisted, it seemed that they were more likely to be more effective. Garney on the left side had been at the left forward position for many times, while Jinklaze was more likely to be in the middle, Boban retreated and participated more in the organization. The position retreat also reduced the defensive pressure he faced, both the passing frequency and success rate increased a lot compared to last season.

This tactic made Watford unexpected. They put a lot of effort into the left defense to deal with Jin Clarze, one of the best left-handed strikers in the Premier League last season, and they encountered a very fast, with a completely different breakthrough characteristics from Jin Clarze but more threatening. Jin Clarze, who came to the middle, would be more difficult to defend, after all, he had a broader space.

Just thirteen minutes passed in the first half, Leiden East scored the first official goal of the season. Garney's breakthrough from the side suppressed Watford's wing defense and then passed the ball back. After Jinklaze received the ball, he passed the penalty area. Fanny's jump from the middle confused the sight of the opponent's defender. The short Phillips suddenly broke out from the crowd. A lion shook his head less than five meters away from the goal, and the ball went directly into the net!

Watford's defense was completely empty. Although there were four defensive players in the penalty area when Jinklaze passed the ball, Jinklaze's excellent pass deceived everyone. After Phillips ran to the position, he only needed to take off comfortably and then headed the ball and completed the shot.

Xiao Ming stood up and smiled and applauded. There was nothing to be proud of leading the new team away, but Phillips showed excellent condition since the pre-season training camp. After more integrated into Leiden Oriental's new offensive system, his sense of smell and running in front of the goal were fully demonstrated.

Such forwards are actually difficult to defend because they don’t get the ball too many times and don’t seem to be active in running. Most of the time, they just do useless work on their defense, but as long as you relax a little, maybe they will immediately seize a chance, score a goal, and then run wildly.

This kind of fox-like striker in the penalty area has become less and less in later generations, especially after Inzaghi became older, which is also due to the trend of modern football development. The task of the striker is no longer a simple goal, but a more responsibility.

After leading, Leiden Oriental played more easily. They had adapted to the rough defense and large-scale running brought by Watford from the League One more than a season ago. What's more, they have been baptized by the Premier League and the Cup of Winners and fully played their technical role. Leiden Oriental's midfielder made the Hornets players swim around by dispatching back and forth, and on both sides, they were always ready to send a fatal blow.

In the 26th minute, Boban made a straight pass from the middle. Van Nyla pulled out of the penalty area and leaned over the opponent's defender to stop the ball, then moved the ball to the side. Glenshare, who was inserted at a high speed on the right, received the ball and entered the penalty area. Before the opponent's defender came up to press, he directly shot from a small angle. The ball flew into the far corner of the goal against the lawn. Watford's goalkeeper struggled to save the ball and could only do nothing.

After two goals were scored by his opponents, Watford players were seriously hit in confidence, especially the opponent seemed to have scored two goals in an understatement - is this the gap between the Premier League and the League One?

After the start of the second half, Watford once grabbed the flaw of Garney's assist and back to the front and returned to the defense without timely return, but Garney quickly made up for the merits. After assisting again, Garney's shot hit the opponent's defender and bounced into the penalty area. Phillips appeared in front of the ball again, and then easily shot and scored twice!

Seeing that the overall situation was decided, Xiao Ming began to frequently dispatch troops. Suke replaced Fanny. He wanted to see how powerful the forward partner was without Fanny's next forward partner. Joe Kerr replaced Glenshare who scored the second goal. After missing this speed winger, Leiden East's attack midfielder was all good at skill, and Leiden East's offense would be more concentrated on the ground.

Leiden East, who completed these two substitutions, did not stop the offense. The midfielder composed of three technical players began to launch an attack through continuous short pass penetration. Although this offense is often not efficient, it is quite pleasing to the eye. The ball kept rolling back and forth on the lawn, just like playing a beautiful music.

However, the fourth goal was completed through a wonderful counterattack. Jinklaze intercepted the ball in the backcourt and distributed it to Boban and then firmly stepped forward. Boban passed it to Joe Cole, and Kerr passed it to Suke in front again. Suke divided the ball to the side. Jinklaze, who had just run to the position, didn't need to stop his steps, and directly dribbled the ball to form a single shot. Then, facing the attacking goalkeeper, the shot was pushed to the far corner, locking the final score to four-to-one.
Chapter completed!