The season has just begun, and Millwall's schedule is very difficult. It's not that the opponent is too strong, but that there are too many games.

The first two rounds of the league are better, with one week apart, which is enough for the team to adjust and rest, but after the second round, Millwall will have a big battle with Chelsea.

That was the England Community Shield game.

The English Community Shield was originally named Charity Shield. It was founded in 1908. Its predecessor was the London County Magistrate (Dval) Shield Competition, which was first founded in 1898.

At first the match was held at the end of each season, and then it was held around October each year.

In 1908, the first FA Charity Shield was held between Manchester United (English League champion) and Queens Park Rangers (South League champion). At that time, the form was a professional team vs. amateur team, with the purpose of strengthening the exchange between professional football and amateur football. This confrontation has continued for many years and has not become a truly Super Cup-like game.

In 1974, Ted Crocker, then Secretary-General of the FA, proposed to move the 66-year-old Charity Shield to the famous Wembley Stadium and characterize the event as a match between the league champion and the FA Cup champion.

If a team wins the championship in both events at the same time, the league championship and runner-up will be played instead.

Since then, the Charity Shield Cup has truly become the "Super Cup" where the two strong men competed at the beginning of the season.

Due to the renovation of Wembley Stadium, the event has been held at Cardiff Millennium Stadium in Wales since 2002.

In March 2002, the British government pointed out in a report that the FA had violated the relevant regulations on fund use when using the income obtained from the charity shield. Since then, the charity shield has been forced to be renamed the Community Shield.

The Community Shield is quite meaningful and is England's first championship at the beginning of the season.

Last season, Millwall won the double championship of the league championship and the FA Cup, and the Community Shield Cup started between the league championship and the runner-up. Millwall's opponent is Chelsea.

This game was sandwiched between two league games, making Mirwall's schedule tighter. Zhang Yang also had a headache when he looked at the schedule, but the schedule had to be faced.

During the interval between the first and second rounds, Millwall continued to maintain tactical training, making the players more suitable for tactics, but the intensity of training was reduced a lot.

Every player needs to preserve physical fitness for the intensive schedule.

The transfer market is still in operation in August, and the media and various teams seem to have not yet entered the beginning of the season.

The media frequently reported transfers.

Clubs are of course working hard for the transfer.

The most popular summer transfer in the Premier League is Chelsea. They continue to wave checks and buy the stars they want.

This summer, Abramovich got what he wanted and bought his "membersman" from AC Milan - Ukrainian nuclear warhead Shepchenko. The deal was reached at the end of June. The official websites of Chelsea and AC Milan also released the news of the transfer of Ukrainian striker Shevchenko. Abramovich finally bought Shevchenko at the price that was allegedly set a Chelsea transfer record and officially signed a contract with the "Ukrainian nuclear warhead" for four years. The specific transfer fee was not disclosed to the public, but the transfer fee revealed by Italian and British media is between 50 million and 60 million euros. The transfer fee will be paid in cash and will not involve player exchange.

Shevchenko officially became a member of Chelsea, and he was another strong aid introduced by Abramovich in the summer.

Afterwards, Chelsea continued to wave the checks and signed Feyenoord winger Kalu and Hamburg defender Bolaruz, and the two deals also cost nearly 26 million euros.

This is still the tip of the iceberg.

Before Shepchenko joined Chelsea, there was already big news in the transfer market: Chelsea successfully defeated German captain Barack.

With Real Madrid, Manchester United and other clubs wanting to get Barack, the German captain resolutely chose to join Chelsea. The reason for his choice of Chelsea is hard to say, but the media and fans generally believe it is the temptation of a "high salary".

The contract signed by Chelsea and Barack are four years, with a total annual salary of 25 million pounds (after tax), which is equivalent to about USD 43 million. At the same time, such an annual salary makes Barack's income exceed the six Real Madrid superstars, and also exceeds the $7 million salary when Vieri joined AC Milan.

This is not good news for Bayern Munich.

Their best player, the most famous German captain, chose to join Chelsea in a free transfer. They will not receive a penny of transfer fee compensation when they lose their core players and leave.

When talking about the feeling of leaving Bayern, Barack said, "I think my decision is right. I need to go to a new environment to meet a new challenge. Of course, I have the power to choose and Bayern does not have the power to force me. I thank Bayern and Bayern fans. I have spent one of the best times in my career there. As for the accusations of the fans, it doesn't matter. This just proves my importance."

Shepchenko, Barack and Chelsea once again became the club with the biggest gains in summer transfers, but their desire to buy stars did not end. After clearing the sale of players such as Duff, Good Johnson, and Hut, they set their targets on Arsenal star Ashley Cole and Nigerian young genius Mikel.

These two transfers also put Chelsea in double trouble.

First it was Mikel.

Mikel's transfer is very interesting. He first signed an agreement with Manchester United, and the transfer fee was 8 million pounds. Chelsea contacted Mikel. Mikel then expressed his hope to join Chelsea. Chelsea almost 'snatched' Mikel from Manchester United. Manchester United had already beaten the lawsuit to FIFA. It is said that Mikel's former club also spoke for the Red Devils. He didn't know what the final outcome would be, but to this extent, Mikel probably missed the opportunity with Manchester United.

Next is Ashley Cole.

Last year, Arsenal had privately contacted Ashley Cole and Mourinho and had already fought a lawsuit with Chelsea. As a result, Chelsea, Mourinho and Ashley Cole themselves received heavy fines. Ashley Cole had no choice but to renew his contract with Arsenal for three years.

This year, Mourinho made a public statement hoping to get Ashley Cole. The consequence is that Chelsea and Arsenal have a dispute again. If an ordinary player transfers, he will refuse. The key is that Ashley Cole himself is determined to join Chelsea and has repeatedly made public statements in the media to put pressure on the club.

Arsenal realized that it would not be able to keep Ashley Cole, but it would not allow Chelsea to get it easily.

Both sides have been arguing.

Arsenal dragged Ashley Cole to prevent transferring, and also wanted to take a bite of fat meat on Chelsea.

Chelsea is in double trouble.

When Chelsea's transfer was in a turmoil, other clubs also had heavyweight signings. Since Manchester United was acquired by the Glazer family, they have been working hard to help Glazer repay their debts. The funds must have been affected, but they still wrote a 26.3 million euro check to buy Carrick from Tottenham Hotspur.

In order to supplement its strength, Liverpool also began to sign many players: Paletta, Bellamy, Kuyt, Pennant, and Lescott. One powerful player has joined, which immediately enriched Liverpool's lineup.

Arsenal is still very poor. Among their signings, there is only one Rosichi, and the transfer fee of 10 million euros is only 'worthy'. What's more, they probably have to sell Ashley Cole, whose value is much higher than Rosichi.

Tottenham Hotspur used the funds for selling Carrick to introduce Zimbonda, Berbatov and Malbrank, and the outside media believed that they had strengthened their strength.

Newcastle United bought Duff and Martins, and the two transfer fees also exceeded €30 million.

Other clubs also have some supplements to a certain extent.

Compared with the above clubs, Mirwall's introduction of Quaresma, Zambrota and other players suddenly seemed very mediocre.

Millwall completed the transfer work early, and by August, many media skipped it. They defeated Blackburn in the first round and did not get any attention. Just under the low-key public opinion atmosphere, the second round of the Premier League has arrived.

Millwall rushed to Manchester and challenged Manchester City away at Manchester Stadium.

This is also a ‘low-key’ game.

However, China, which is outside the time difference of eight hours, has become a highly anticipated game because Manchester City has Chinese players Sun Jihai and Millwall are the team led by Zhang Yang.

If the starlight of a star can be distinguished by popularity, then Sun Jihai is Manchester City's number one star, and the number of supporters he has is far from comparable to Colady, James, and even the former Anelka.

Sun Jihai has been in the Premier League for four years and has been recognized by coaches, teammates and fans at Manchester City, and has firmly occupied the position of the main right-back. On the eve of the new season, there have been even calls for him to be the captain of Manchester City.

It makes sense for Chinese fans to pay attention to Sun Jihai.

Before Mirwall's match with Manchester City, domestic media also called for "Sun Jihai will make Zhang Yang very smart", believing that Sun Jihai will cause huge trouble for Mirwall.

The media that made similar sounds were disappointed in the end.

When the ninety-minute game ended, the 0-5 on the scoreboard seemed to be a bare-hearted ridicule to all the fans who supported Manchester City, which forced them to shut up. The domestic media that had high hopes for Sun Jihai were also disappointed.

Sun Jihai's performance can only be said to be "passed". He is a qualified defender, but he has no outstanding performance. When defending Darren Bent, Sun Jihai was swept by the latter twice, which also proves the gap between him and world-class players.

The domestic media are still very tolerant of their players. They still gave Sun Jihai an "excellent" comment and believed that being able to compete with Darren Bent is already a pretty good performance.

"There is no defender in the world. I dare to say that he can defend Darren Bent. Sun Jihai can cause trouble for Darren Bent, so that the opponent has no chance most of the time. His performance is already very outstanding!"

This is what the domestic media said.

To a certain extent, this statement is also correct. Darren Bent is very good. It is wrong to expect Sun Jihai to defend alone.

In fact, in Zhang Yang's opinion, Millwall performed very well.

In order to prepare for the Community Shield in two days, the team did not send all the main players. Smitchell and Pire all rested for a round, and the defenders were also sent out by new players such as Baragan and Traore on the back line. However, Manchester City's performance was very poor. They did not pay attention to defense first, and perhaps it was the style of Manchester City's history. They seemed to be more inclined to play beautiful offensive football rather than focusing on defense.

Manchester City learned a lesson, and five goals speak for themselves.

After the game against Manchester City, Zhang Yang accepted an interview with Chinese reporters and said that he was quite satisfied with the team's performance. "We performed well, especially a few new players, who integrated into the team very quickly. Some problems still exist, such as the connection between the backcourt and the middle lane is not too close..."

This is mainly David Livermore's problem.

The only midfielder is still a 'lower IQ limit'. The defense is pretty good, but the overall situation is much worse. However, Zhang Yang did not go into the deepest discussion because he knew what the reporter was concerned about. "I noticed Sun Jihai's performance. He is very good and has reached the world-class level. He did a good job in blockade against Bente."

"But maybe it's Manchester City's defensive problem. They only sent Sun Jihai to defend (Bent), which is a bit difficult to understand. Even Manchester United and Arsenal will not let Bent play. I think the opponent's head coach has not done enough work in preparing for the game against Millwall."

Zhang Yang affirmed Sun Jihai's performance and put the blame for poor defense on Manchester City coach Pierce.

The reporter was very happy to hear the interview.

Zhang Yang did not intend to "curry up" with Sun Jihai or Chinese fans. He didn't need to do that, he just expressed his thoughts.

Sun Jihai's performance was actually very good.

Not to mention that compared with domestic players, Sun Jihai is not bad compared to most defenders in the Premier League, otherwise he would not be able to become Manchester City's main defender, and was actively renewed by the club, and was reused by head coach Pierce.

It is obvious that Manchester City's lack of preparation for the game is not enough, and there is a problem with the importance attached to Darren Bent during the game.

As the runner-up scorer of the Premier League last season, Darren Bent has excellent personal abilities and cannot be completely blocked by a defender. Even if they play against top teams, Darren Bent will be the opponent's key defense target, especially in his own offense, Darren Bent has at least one person to guard the defense and one person to assist in the defense.

Manchester City did not pay attention to Darren Bent's defense, and most of the time, only Sun Jihai was staring at it.

This is the problem.
Chapter completed!