Chapter 135 Undercurrent
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After seeing Jones off the next day, Tiger began to feel that this should be the last time he had confronted Jones on the court.
Jones was the first first-tier star Tiger met after officially playing in a professional game. Although he was old and his condition declined at that time, Tiger still understood the strength of top players and felt the world he had never felt before.
At this time, Tiger witnessed the aging of a hero and the disappearance of a famous player. From the League One to the Premier League, Jones saw a lot of things. Perhaps he has a low status in football history, but he is still a unique and unique gang leader with a distinct personality.
Tiger is still very young now, but for the players, they get older very quickly - elites in other industries can still complete a big career in their sixties and seventies, and after they are over thirty, they will start to slowly go downhill, watching the younger generations sway in front of them without doing anything.
But it is obvious that Tiger is still not able to understand this mood very much. For him, the future is still long.
After entering February, Preston ushered in the quarterfinals of the League Cup. His opponent was the London team Chelsea. At Stamford Bridge, Preston players still performed very hard. However, this time, luck stood on the side of Chelsea. Preston created many opportunities throughout the game, but it always only blossomed but not bear fruit. Gulit obviously pays much attention to Preston. All Chelsea's main players played in this game, and at the same time sacrificed the offensive ability of the two players.
Come and stare at Tiger. Tiger has witnessed the style of former deputy leader Dennis Wise. This small midfielder has a strong fighting spirit that is not inferior to Jones. Di Matteo's Italian defensive ability also opened Tiger's eyes. However, even so, Tiger still won the first goal for Preston shortly after the start of the second half. At that moment, Preston fans even thought they had a great hope of entering the semi-finals of the League Cup!
However, the decision to determine this game was Zola, the most popular among Chelsea fans. Zola, who was directly under the free kicks of Diego Maradona, completed two direct free kicks in the second half. One was a beautiful arc at the top of the penalty area, and the other side was a long-distance heavy artillery nearly 30 meters away from the goal. Tiger saw the style of another free kick master beckham. Unlike Beckham's personal style free kick method, Zola shot a free kick in the most orthodox way, which was a short distance run, then started to shoot, but was able to make an extremely weird arc ball.
In the end, Chelsea defeated Preston 2-1 at home and entered the semi-finals of the League Cup. Preston's journey in the domestic cup this season was terminated, which is also a good thing for them. After all, they can focus their attention on the league with all their hearts.
This game strengthened Tiger's idea of training his free kicks more, look at Beckham and Zora. People with excellent free kick skills can have more ways and means to break the deadlock in the stalemate of the game, especially in the top league, with fewer opportunities and the ability to seize opportunities is more important.
Tiger simply increased his extra training after the training every day to one hour. Before, he only had half an hour of one-on-one offense and defense confrontation with Barrett, but now he has added half an hour of free kick practice, but he has not found a good training method, which has made him a little distressed.
"Now practice first. If you can get skill rewards after the end of this season, you will strengthen your shooting. Your shooting strength and skills will be improved, and your ability to shoot a free kick should also be increased." Tiger could only comfort himself like this.
Entering the quarterfinals of the League Cup is also the best result Preston has achieved in the domestic Cup in the past decade. Originally, their performance in the League Cup this year should have been able to go further, but unfortunately their luck is not very good. The Premier League giants were not eliminated in the middle of the way and fought against each other too early. In the process of entering the quarterfinals, they encountered three Premier League teams, including two strong teams, and Preston's luck was not very good.
So despite losing to Chelsea and not going further, Preston's fans did not seem too frustrated, but instead were more confident in the next league.
"Okay, now in the League Cup, we have lost, so we can put all our attention back to the league... There are seventeen rounds left in the league, and we are already thirteen points behind second place Middlesbrough. It is unlikely to get a place to advance directly, so our goal is the playoffs now! Ensure that the top six are our current goals, and the next schedule will be very dense, so we also need to retain a certain amount of physical fitness to cope with the more difficult playoffs... Guys, let us move towards the same goal!"
Moyes has figured it out now. Preston's situation in the league is pretty good now. If you have the opportunity to compete in the Premier League, why not? Just continue to play one game after another. Why bother to demand that you must start the official impact next season? Even if Preston lacks financial resources and stays in the Premier League for a year, the broadcasting fees you receive can make the club's economy better and attract some better players.
Tiger was undoubtedly the happiest player for Moyes' decision, so during the next period, Tiger still became the best performer in Preston.
In the 30th round of the league, Preston defeated Huddersfield, who was fighting for relegation 2-1 away. Tiger scored twice again in the game. The two shots in the penalty area were accurate and fierce. They both shots immediately after receiving the pass from their teammates, and they happened to be on the route that is easiest to score. After the game, some media sighed that just by looking at these two shots of Tiger's goal, you would think you saw a shooter rather than a midfielder...
In the 31st round of the league, he faced Stoke City at home, and once again relied on Tiger's goal Preston defeated his opponent with a difficult goal. There were more and more scouts in the stands. Tiger's recent performance is simply phenomenal. Such a player may have paid less attention to in the Premier League, but he is now in the League One! Everyone knows that it is much easier to poach people from the League One team than in the Premier League...
Under the attention of countless people, Tiger's performance became more and more outstanding. Then, in the 32nd round of the league three days later, Tiger's one pass and one shot, helping Preston defeat Portsmouth 2-1 away!
In the 33rd round, Tiger helped Norgan and Gott score two assists, and then created another penalty. He did not take the penalty, but generously gave it to veteran Brian. Brian scored it in one go, helping Preston defeat Charlton three-to-zero at home and win four consecutive victories!
After four consecutive wins, Preston consolidated his third place position and widened the gap between the fourth place Sunderland to three points, leading seventh place Reading as many as nine points. Although it cannot be said that he has qualified for the playoffs, this position is already very stable.
In the next round of the league, Preston failed to maintain his winning streak. They were tied by Norwich at home, but this result did not damage Tiger's performance, with one assist and one goal, Tiger once again leading the game.
Media following the English League One exclaimed that Wolves are coming. Many media said that after winning consecutively and defeating Manchester United, Preston's momentum has reached a peak, especially Tiger's condition is simply too good to stop. If they can maintain this state this season, maybe they are not thinking about winning third place now, but competing for the Premier League championship...
Now in the media, there are also calls for the special promotion of Tiger to be selected for the England national team. Gascoin's performance after transferring to Middlesbrough was not good. Now he has only played four times in the League One and has not scored a goal. From a tactical point of view, the national team also needs an organized midfielder. There are not many front midfielders in the national team now. Although Scholes is outstanding, he is not an organized one. He does not have a midfield like Keane, who is both offensive and defensive. Even if Tiger cannot play the main player, he can enrich the national team's playing style.
Of course, some support Tiger, some support Gascoin. The main point of view of supporting Gascoin is that Tiger is still young after all and has no experience as a national team before. Gascoin's experience is undoubtedly that even a Gascoin who is overweight will play a role that Tiger does not have.
Of course, this kind of noise has no meaning. No one knows how Hodel thinks about it, but this debate has further increased Tiger's reputation - in any case, being able to be comparable to Gascoin as a League One player is already a huge recognition!
At first, Tiger didn't care about this kind of argument because he felt that the national team seemed to be far away to him - he had never been selected into any national team before, and had almost never met the national team players. Of course, he had the ambition to represent the national team in the World Cup, but now he has only played in the low-level league for more than a season. Now there are people who are arguing about this. Is it too early?
For this reason, he even called Rose and asked if he was helping the fire through the media, but the other party just smiled and didn't answer anything.
In fact, Ross did play some role in the middle. This agent's energy is much greater than Tiger imagined, but it was not something Ross did not expect to develop to the extent that almost all sports media across the country participated in this kind of debate.
Tiger didn't know how big a bomb had dropped in English football with his appearance.
After Gascoin, there were indeed many outstanding midfielders in England, such as Manchester United's Beckham, Scholes, Liverpool's Redknapp, and Leeds's Bowyer, but they are not the kind of gorgeous attacking midfielder. Gascoin's performance in the 96 European Championship amazed countless English fans. They began to find that English football can also play so gorgeously. Unfortunately, Gascoin's own unlove has caused his condition to decline sharply over the past year. Apart from the relatively naive fans, no one believes that Gascoin, who is already thirty years old, can still become the previous Gaza, the genius who makes them love and hate.
Why does Gascoin love? Because he is the purest British. Gascoin, born in Newcastle, is the son of a miner. He is alcoholic, domestically abused, looks bad, and likes to be funny. However, compared with the gentlemen of the court, such a Gascoin makes people feel more real, so countless English people like him. Of course, Tiger is very different from Gascoin in all aspects. However, he, who is an ordinary immigrant and a mixed race, represents another group of British groups - that is, Asian immigrants.
Immigration from the descendants of East Asia and South Asia in the UK is now the third largest population in the UK, twice as many as blacks, second only to white British people and whites in other regions, and mixed races are more than one percent of the total population of the UK. So many people are already a force that cannot be ignored. They are eager to prove themselves in all aspects. Football, the most popular sport in the UK, is no exception. However, due to race and quality and tradition, the professional players in the UK are basically white and black, at most black and white. In this case, the record has been outstanding for more than a year, especially after performing well against Manchester United. Tiger has become an iconic figure in these people's minds. Although Asian immigrants and mixed races do not have enough say in the media, they are enough to cause this storm.
It is precisely because of this that Tiger's popularity is unparalleled.
And his performance did not disappoint those who supported him.
In the 35th round, Preston tied Oxford United three-to-three away, and Tiger made two direct assists and one indirect assist.
In the 36th round, Preston swept Reading five-to-one at home, Tiger scored two goals alone, and countless passes directly made Reading a sieve, and increased his personal league goals this season to twenty.
In the 37th round, Preston tied Sunderland 2-2 away, and Tiger again. The goal before the end of the game saved Preston one point, and also consolidated his third place position. He led Sunderland as much as five points with nine rounds left in the league. As long as there are no big missed shots, he can get the advantage of being away and then home in the playoffs.
While all the League One teams are a little scared of Preston's crazy state, there are still a few exceptions.
For example, Charlton, who is ranked sixth and Sunderland, who is ranked fourth, all their head coaches sneered in their hearts - Tiger is in good shape now, and there is no player in their team who can defend Tiger, but how long can a player's peak period last? The better his current state, the worse he may perform in the playoffs!
Now you can continue to be in the glory. Since you can no longer win the top two and advance to the Premier League directly, then laughing is nothing now. It would be really a joy to laugh if you can laugh to the end of the playoffs!
Charlton did a little more, because if he was in line with his current ranking, the semi-finals of the playoffs would be the sixth-ranked challenge of the third-ranked Preston. Their head coach Alan Kubisley was also very scheming. In that game, he allowed the players to consciously control their state, and eventually lost to Preston by 0 to 3 in order to paralyze Preston's side!
In Kubesley's view, although Preston's team is full of vitality and very strong, they have no experience in the play-offs after all. The only two players with experience in upgrading to the Premier League have never participated in the play-offs. He just wanted to create the illusion that Preston has no opponent in the English League One, and at the same time, they can drain their spirits in the already irrelevant league, and then kill with one blow in the play-offs!
There was an interview with Moyes on bbc5 on TV. On the screen, Moyes said calmly: "We will continue to win all the way until we enter the Premier League."
"Young man, professional football cannot be won all the way by just a fierce attack and rushing." Looking at Moyes who was extremely confident on TV, Kubisley sneered and said.
Obviously, Preston did not seem to have noticed this. They still sent all the main players to fight in every game, but their results were a little ups and downs.
In the 38th round, Preston lost to Ipswich at home by 0-1. The performance of several major players was average, and Tiger was no longer as brave as before.
In the 39th round, Preston drew 1-1 away against Swinton, and they tied their opponents only with a penalty kick in the second half.
In the 40th round, Tiger's form recovered. His two goals helped Preston defeat Crew 2-1 at home, and the other players' form was still mediocre.
In the 41st round, Preston lost to Manchester City 1-4 away. Although the loss had no effect on their ranking, the loss to Manchester City, which was already in the relegation zone, was a big blow. Surprisingly, Tiger did not play in this game.
"Are you finally... starting to feel tired?" Several people sneered like this.
Chapter completed!