Football: Rebirth 04, I Create a Black Shop in Football

After this round of matches, the first round of the 2005-2006 UEFA Champions League group stage will be held in the middle of the week.

Although Li Shiguang was reborn, it was too long ago. He only vaguely remembered that Barcelona won the final championship this season, but he couldn't even remember who Barcelona's final opponent was.

In the past, as long as he was not too busy at work, Li Shiguang basically did not miss any UEFA Champions League game. At that time, he often watched the game in the middle of the night, and went to work with two huge dark circles under his eyes the next day, and was often scolded by his superiors.

Now, he has come to the era, and he has become a head coach, so he will not miss it.

Thinking that it would be a preview for next year, when the Champions League group was released, Li Shiguang had already analyzed the qualifying situation of each group from the perspective of the four Premier League teams.

Among the four teams competing in the Champions League this year, Arsenal was divided into Group A. From the perspective of paper strength, among the other three teams in the same group, only Ajax from the Netherlands may pose some threat to Arsenal. Although it has not been in good form recently, I believe that with Wenger's ability, the team should be able to adjust quickly, so Arsenal should have no problem qualifying from the group.

Manchester United was divided into Group D, with Villarreal from La Liga, Benfica from the Portuguese Super League and Lille from Ligue 1. In all aspects, Manchester United has an absolute advantage in Group D, so Li Shiguang believes that Manchester United can also get a qualifying spot.

What's more funny is that Chelsea and Liverpool were divided into Group G together, but Real Betis and Anderlecht in the same group are average in strength. If nothing unexpected happens, the two teams should be able to qualify together.

Chelsea and Leeds United played first on Wednesday, and both teams defeated their opponents. But Thursday's game surprised Li Shiguang. Arsenal defeated their opponents smoothly at home, but Manchester United shook hands with Villarreal away.

After the game, seeing Ferguson's gloomy face on TV, Li Shiguang knew that Manchester United players would inevitably be scolded by Sir Alex Ferguson after the game!

After the Champions League schedule is over.

Leeds United is also about to usher in another round of three games a week.

This Sunday they will play against Middlesbrough, the opponent in the 7th round of the league, at home.

Then next Tuesday they will face the first opponent of the League Cup, Bournemouth from League One.

After playing Bournemouth, they will rest for 2 days, and then rush to Liverpool to challenge the "Toffees" Everton away.

Such a dense schedule not only made Li Shiguang complain about the poor arrangement of the English Football Association, but also reaffirmed his determination to continue recruiting players in the winter. Now the first team has only 21 players in total, which is not comparable to other clubs that have 29 or 30 players.

On Sunday afternoon, the Elland Road Stadium, which had been silent for almost a month, returned to its former weekend bustle. The shouts of Ere Geddie and more than 20,000 Leeds United fans once again surrounded the entire stadium.

Leeds United certainly lived up to expectations and took away the opponent 2:0 neatly and neatly, continuing to remain unbeaten.

But people are subject to misfortunes at any time, and there are unexpected changes in the world.

In the League Cup match on Tuesday, what Li Shiguang had been worried about finally happened.

Originally, the opponent in this game was only a team from the third-level league in England, and its overall strength was not very strong. Li Shiguang also struggled for a long time before the game, but in the end he chose to send his strongest lineup, thinking of a wave of attacks, it would be best to establish a sufficient lead in the first half, and then adjust during the halftime break.

But things did not develop completely as Li Shiguang expected. The lead was indeed in the lead. In less than 40 minutes, Leeds United scored 3 goals, but the price paid was indeed a bit high.

First, Modric was injured and fell to the ground in a fight with the opponent. After a simple check, the team doctor directly made a substitution gesture.

Then Bale and Ribery were injured one after another, especially Bale, who suddenly sat down during the process of running without the ball. After leaving the field, the team doctor also briefly checked, and then shook his head gently to Li Shiguang, indicating that he would be sent to the hospital.

Before the end of the first half, his main midfielder and two wingers were injured and left the field one after another, which made Li Shiguang feel numb. After returning to the locker room, he had achieved the first half.

The joy of leading by 3 goals has disappeared.

Although the game was won in the end, Li Shiguang had already felt a little uneasy.

As expected, before he left Elland Road, he received a call from Allen. Modric and Ribery needed to be injured for at least 3-4 weeks, and Bale had strained his calf muscle. It was estimated that he would need 4-5 weeks of rest to recover.

But the injury of Leeds United has not ended. When facing Everton in the middle of the week, Leeds United's experience seemed to confirm the old Chinese proverb "The hemp rope always breaks at the thinnest part, and misfortune only finds the unfortunate."

Kompany and Lahm were injured again in the game.

Moreover, the overly dense schedule resulted in the players having little time to rest.

So after the game started, Leeds United was able to play back and forth with Everton in the first half, but after the game time reached 70 minutes, due to the rapid decline in physical strength, Leeds United's players gradually couldn't keep up with Everton's offensive pace. In the last 10 minutes, there was a large-scale cramp phenomenon.

In the end, Everton scored 1 goal each by Arteta and Osman before the end of the game, 2:0! Everton gave Leeds United its first defeat after returning to the Premier League!

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Perhaps it was due to the impact of a large area of ​​injuries, or perhaps it was because of losing the game. On the way back to Leeds, the atmosphere of the whole team seemed very low. Li Shiguang also looked at the system in the car and found that the state of the whole team had changed from the previous positive to normal.

So after returning to Leeds, the first thing Li Shiguang did was to announce that the whole team would be given two days off, so that the boys under him could have a good rest, and have time to spend time with their families and adjust their mentality.

The only exception was himself. He only rested for half a day on Monday and came to the Thorp Arch Base after lunch.

He had to prepare tactically in advance.

After the match with Everton, Leeds United now had a total of 5 injured players. Even if there were no new injury lists in the following games, at most, there were only 16 first-team players left to use. However, in competitive sports, athletes' injuries are always inevitable, not to mention high-intensity confrontation projects such as football.

However, it was useless for Li Shiguang to worry. There were still more than two months before the winter transfer window opened. If there were new injuries later, he would probably have to transfer people from the youth team.

Just as he was thinking, a figure pushed open the door of the office.

"Boss, this is the report on several injured players just given by the medical team and the latest scout report you asked for. I brought it to you."

A crisp female voice came from the door.