"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sky Sports studio. I'm your old friend, Gary Lineker."
"Hello everyone, I'm Jon."
The opening remarks were the same as always.
With about twenty minutes to go before the match starts, the rosters for both sides have been announced.
“Come on, let’s take a look at the rosters of both teams. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.” Lineker rubbed his hands together and opened a file on his computer. “First up is Leeds United. Lee changed the formation again today! He fielded the 4-3-2-1 formation that he often used at the beginning of the season. This may be influenced by the news a few days ago that Alonso suffered a minor injury in training!”
"The goalkeeper remains Neuer. In defense, Thiago Silva and Kompany anchor the center, with Aleksandar Kolarov on the left and Dani Alves, who rested in the last match, on the right. Modric is the central defensive midfielder, flanked by Philipp Lahm and Javier Mascherano. The two attacking midfielders are Kaká and Rodriguez, with Adriano leading the attack as the lone striker!"
While Rheinkel was resting after reading the list, they took a break.
Jon picked up where he left off.
"Next up is Arsenal playing away. Wenger is sticking with the 4-4-2 formation he used to beat AC Milan, with Almunia in goal. The four defenders, from left to right, are Clichy, Kolo Toure, Senderos, and Sagna. In midfield, Flamini partners with Gilberto Silva as the double pivot, with Fabregas and Hleb playing in the central midfield positions. Up front are Adebayor and Bendtner!"
"It seems both head coaches have made some changes today..." Lineker said with a hint of teasing. "Jon, you should be neutral today, so what's your opinion? Who do you think will be the ultimate winner?"
“Leeds United!” Jon answered in a second without hesitation.
"Huh!?" Reinkel was somewhat surprised. "Why?"
"An intuition!"
Reinkel was speechless upon receiving the answer.
Dude! We're live on stream! You're a professional commentator, and you're trying to judge the outcome based on your gut feeling?!
Jon chuckled mischievously, cleared his throat, and spoke again: "Alright, I'm not teasing you anymore... I do have a lot of faith in Leeds United. Although their key defensive midfielder Alonso is injured, as you've seen, it doesn't really affect Leeds United much. With Leeds United's current squad depth, as long as they don't have 3-4 key players injured at the same time, Lee can easily come up with at least two other lineup systems. As for Arsenal's changes... they're clearly reactive!"
Reinkel grinned: "You've seen all that gossip circulating online?"
Jon nodded: "Actually, I don't think it's entirely gossip! It's obvious that Wenger's attitude towards Gallas has changed since the last home loss to Leeds United. You can tell from the number of games he's played. And after the game against Birmingham at the end of last month, I think Wenger's dissatisfaction with him reached its peak."
"Today's match was so important that Wenger substituted Senderos for Gallas, who was not injured. It seems that if the atmosphere in the Arsenal dressing room doesn't change, it will affect their subsequent schedule."
“I don’t think this has much of an impact.” Lineker and Jon had slightly different opinions. “I read the gossip in The Sun that said the main conflict with Gallas was with Arsenal’s young players. Wenger didn’t let him play today, so maybe those young guys will be more comfortable on the field. Besides… Senderos’s ability… is no worse than Gallas’s.”
After Lineker finished speaking, Jon added out of the blue, "When playing against other teams, whether Senderos starts or Gallas starts, there's not much difference... but when playing against Chelsea and Leeds United, the difference is huge."
"Huh!? What do you mean!?"
"Think about Drogba... and then look at Adriano's stats and playing style, isn't that clear?"
····
In the home team's locker room.
Li Shiguang has finished his pre-match motivational talk.
He didn't give a long speech today.
There's no need for Li Shiguang to elaborate on the importance of this match to the players.
After drawing a few lines on the whiteboard and briefly explaining today's tactical arrangements, Li Shiguang tossed aside his pen and began assigning tasks to each player, starting with Neuer.
Li Shiguang has already seen Arsenal's starting lineup, and it's not much different from what he guessed before. The only change is that Senderos has replaced Gallas in the starting center-back position.
Seeing Wenger's adjustment.
Besides confirming the rumors circulating online recently about escalating conflicts in the Arsenal dressing room,
Li Shiguang also thought of something else.
This is the 2007-2008 season!
At this point, Senderos was already mentally broken by Drogba's dominance!
In the two years when Senderos was on the rise, he was basically only inferior to Drogba; against other strikers, he was still very solid.
But ever since he was outplayed by Drogba in the League Cup final last season, Senderos seems to have lost his will to fight. Not to mention Drogba, he sometimes makes some basic mistakes even when facing other strikers.
Seeing Adriano chatting with Sun Jihai, Li Shiguang could no longer suppress his mischievous thoughts.
"Didiko! Kaka!"
Adriano and Kaka both looked at Li Shiguang at the same time: "Huh!?"
"I'm giving you two a task!"
Li Shiguang first looked at Kaka: "Kaka, after you come on, you can move your position forward a bit so that Kolo Toure can focus most of his attention on you."
"Okay, boss!" Kaka nodded emphatically.
Although he didn't know the reason, since Li Shiguang had made this arrangement, he would just follow it.
"As for you, Didico," a mischievous grin, familiar to everyone in the locker room, appeared on Li Shiguang's lips. "As soon as you get the ball, break towards Senderos! You've seen the Chelsea vs. Arsenal game, right?! You do exactly the same thing Drogba does to him!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com