The players from both sides entered Elland Road Stadium under the guidance of the referee.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Elland Road Stadium. Shall we give the Leeds United lads some encouragement?" The commentator, Erre Geddy, also began to liven up the atmosphere.
But he was met with only a chorus of applause, while most of the home fans were still complaining about Leeds United's starting lineup.
At this point, the forwards from both teams were already standing near the center circle, waiting for the referee's whistle.
Seeing the rather lukewarm atmosphere, Li Shiguang frowned slightly.
After all, apart from Howard, all the other players in today's Leeds United team were either recruited from the free market or promoted from the youth team by Blackwell before Li Shiguang's rebirth.
If it weren't for the system, Li Shiguang really wouldn't be able to recall any of their names. (The author consulted a lot of materials and indeed couldn't find a relatively complete Leeds United squad for the 2004-05 season. But that's not important! The other new signings besides Howard will gradually make their appearances, and the descriptions of subsequent matches will focus on these players.)
After Blackwell announced the starting lineup yesterday, Li Shiguang discovered that only Howard was in the starting lineup, while the other new signings he brought in were only on the bench. Later, Li Shiguang even went to Blackwell himself to ask about it.
Blackwell's reasoning was also quite sound: the players Li Shiguang bought had only just joined the team and had only been integrated with the team for less than a week, so he could only put them on the bench for now and make adjustments based on the situation on the field today.
Although he knew Blackwell was unhappy that he hadn't consulted Blackwell about the player recruitment.
However, since the old man is still the head coach of Leeds United, I can't interfere too much in arranging the team's lineup.
Regardless, they need to poach a head coach during the winter transfer window and get rid of Blackwell.
Leeds United doesn't need a manager who goes against the owners.
.............
With the referee's whistle, Leeds United's first home game of the season officially kicked off.
Derby County's players immediately took advantage of their kickoff and launched a fierce attack on Leeds United.
Derby County's manager also noticed that Leeds United were in a state of instability and low morale, so he directly asked Derby County's players to speed up the pace from the start and try to score as soon as possible.
In just over 20 minutes of play, Derby County had already taken 9 shots, including 3 that nearly broke through Howard's defense.
Fortunately, Howard, equipped with the Buffon template, possessed a reaction attribute as high as 97 and managed to save the ball on the goal line.
Seeing the current situation on the field, the already dissatisfied fans could no longer hold back and began to hurl insults at the Leeds United players.
"These useless guys! Can't they even kick the ball past midfield?"
"You guys weren't even playing with your hearts!"
"Look at your defense, the entire back line is making one mistake after another, it's a joke."
"The game has only been going on for about 20 minutes, and the other side already has 9 shots on goal. If you keep playing like this, you bunch of useless players will only be able to play in League One next season!"
"Didn't you guys see how dangerous that shot was? If it weren't for Howard..."
"Huh? Right, Howard's reaction was really quick just now. If it weren't for him, we would have fallen behind."
Amidst the cacophony of shouts and curses, some strange sounds suddenly emerged.
In the first 20 minutes or so, Howard was probably the best performer for Leeds United.
Some less emotional fans noticed that Howard's performance had miraculously improved after the game started.
During the warm-up, Howard would occasionally drop his hands during saves.
However, after the game started, under the opponent's high-intensity bombardment, Howard performed extremely steadily. Apart from a few high-threatening shots that he saved, he caught all other shots steadily without dropping the ball.
At this moment, Derby County completed another long-range shot, which Howard once again pocketed.
Howard had only joined the team a week ago, and his performance in previous training sessions had been mediocre. In addition, his reputation for butterfingers was well-known, so the Leeds United players did not have high expectations for him.
However, it should be noted that Buffon, as the captain of both the national team and his club, possesses extremely strong mental attributes and leadership qualities.
Meanwhile, Howard, who was modeled after Buffon, not only made several brilliant saves, but also showed a hint of leadership qualities.
He walked towards the edge of the penalty area with the ball in one hand, pressed down with the other, and shouted loudly to his teammates: "Slow down! Don't let them lead us by the nose, disrupt their attacking rhythm, and we'll find opportunities to counterattack!"
Seemingly inspired by Howard, Leeds United's players slowed down the pace and began passing the ball around extensively, attempting to penetrate the defense with short passes and try to get the ball into Derby County's half.
After nearly half an hour of relentless bombardment, the Derby County players' stamina was rapidly depleting.
And so, the second half of the first half ended in a relatively calm atmosphere.
Blackwell, who had just returned to the Leeds United dressing room, was furious. Before the match, his tactics for Leeds United were simply to play high balls and try to break through the opponent's goal through headers or set pieces.
Seeing that the team wasn't executing his tactical plans after catching their breath in the first half, he yelled at the players with a livid face, "What are you doing? Didn't you understand what I said? Push forward, long passes, passes into the opponent's penalty area! Understand?!"
So after the start of the second half, Leeds United began to press forward aggressively, and instead of slowly advancing into Derby County's penalty area with short passes, they launched long balls into the opponent's penalty area time and time again. Unfortunately, almost all of these passes were caught by the opposing goalkeeper.
Unfortunately, the Leeds United players, whose average ratings in the Lee Time system are only 50-60, do not possess strong individual abilities.
On the contrary, Derby County, through several efficient counter-attacks, put Leeds United's goal under constant threat.
Fortunately, Howard's attributes were at their peak at this point, making all sorts of saves to keep the goal intact.
Seeing Howard's outstanding performance, the Leeds United fans in the stadium have completely changed their attitude towards Howard before the game and have begun to praise him. Some fans have even started to praise Li Shiguang.
"Oh my God, did you see that? He managed to save that shot."
"Yes, I apologize for the insults I gave him before the show started."
"Timothy, my house is right next to yours, and I'm single!"
"Hey, take off your mask, I know you're not Howard!"
“Young man from the East, I take back what I said before. You have a good eye for people.”
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