Alan Shearer was also shocked. "What? Yes! I, I, I...what happened? Why did I say so much?!"

Evelyn asked: "Do you talk more about your professional field? Let me ask you another question. Do you think Southampton U18 will win this game or Liverpool U18? Why do you think so?"

Alan Shearer opened his mouth, and his language became extremely unfluent. "I, I, I, prefer the Southampton U18 team, because, uh, well... I like the Southampton U18 team."

Evelyn: ...

Alan Shearer had a hard time answering such a simple question.

"Okay, it doesn't seem to be a question of professionalism or not," Evelyn said with a smile, "Then let me ask another question. Gu Ran had two head-on speed competitions with Sterling on the court. The first time, Gu Ran's speed didn't seem to be as fast as Sterling's, but the second time, Gu Ran's speed was almost the same as Sterling's. How do you evaluate Gu Ran's performance?"

Alan Shearer's eyes lit up immediately, and after a moment's thought, he said in a steady voice, "...I must use the word genius to describe Gu Ran. Yes, he really is a genius. You know, improving speed, especially improving the ultimate speed, even if it's only 0.1 seconds, requires tremendous training. But Gu was able to break through his own speed limit during the race, which shows that he has a natural physique and a lot of potential that has yet to be tapped."

Hearing this, Evelin couldn’t help but lick her lips subconsciously.

Alan Shearer continued: "Sterling is very fast, but his sprint is not as powerful as Gu Ran's. I believe that as long as Gu Ran can tap his potential, it won't be long before Gu Ran's speed exceeds Sterling's."

Gu Ran, who was half lying on the side receiving a massage, felt a little embarrassed when he heard Alan Shearer's flattery.

However, Gu Ran didn't want to interrupt at this time. If he did, Evelin would definitely come and pester him.

Evelin smiled and said, "Okay, Mr. Shearer, I finally understand it now. It turns out that as long as you mention Gu Ran and analyze and explain Gu Ran, your language becomes fluent and your logic is clear."

Alan Shearer was stunned for a moment, then said excitedly: "Hiss...it seems to be true! Oh my God! This is so amazing! It turns out that I am just crazy about Gu Ran!"

Evelin also said excitedly: “Me too!”

Holy shit…

Gu Ran, who was standing beside him, covered his face, not knowing whether to laugh or cry:

How did you two find common ground? I didn't do anything! I didn't even put my mouth in!

I think I should just pretend to sleep...

Gu Ran closed his eyes tighter.

——The other side.

Liverpool executives left the stands and temporarily returned to their exclusive lounge.

The atmosphere in the lounge was a bit depressing.

Liverpool's top management originally thought that this friendly match would be a unilateral victory for Liverpool U18 over Southampton U18.

To this end, they specially prepared three high-definition cameras to record all aspects of the game, and also made a collection of the team's wonderful performances as a tribute gift to the new boss Henry and his wife Linda...

result……

The first 30 minutes were fine and Sterling's performance was indeed very inspiring.

But in the last 15 minutes of the first half and the injury time, it was all just a show by the Chinese kid Gu Ran! Overtaking from the outside lane, guiding by the magic lamp, long shots, wonderful breakthroughs, and sideways hook shots...

Damn it...

How can this video be shown to the new boss and his wife? Where did the damn Southampton find this B2B shooter wearing the No. 9 jersey and playing as a left back? Gu Ran is simply a cruel and terrifying monster! Compared with Gu Ran, Sterling originally had a little speed advantage, but in the second speed duel, Sterling was not only almost caught up by Gu Ran, but also made a ridiculous low-level mistake because he kicked the ground! Gu Ran's defensive pressure is really too strong! In other aspects, Gu Ran is much stronger than Sterling!

The value of 2 million pounds was suppressed by Gu Ran to only show a value of 200,000 pounds...

Liverpool's top executives all sat on the luxurious sofas in a depressed mood.

Some of the senior executives frowned and smoked Blue Ring cigars, some drank whiskey, and some hugged their miniskirted female assistants to seek spiritual comfort...

At this time, a senior executive stood up and suggested, "Gentlemen, I think we should just not send the video to the new boss and his wife. It would be bad if they get angry and withdraw their investment after watching it."

The other senior executives nodded in agreement.

Another senior executive stood up to object, "No, no, Linda knew about this friendly match yesterday, and we promised to show her the video. We can't go back on our word, can we?"

"Why not just not tell them the score and cut in the highlights of our Liverpool U18 team to fool them?"

"That's a good idea. Few of those wealthy bosses really understand football, and they may not watch the highlights we send them."

As soon as this proposal was put forward, it was agreed by most of the senior executives present.

But soon, some senior executives objected: "That's bullshit! The new owner John Henry really doesn't understand football. What he is really interested in is baseball, and the Boston Red Sox is his home team. If we show him the highlights of the football youth training friendly match, he will definitely not watch it. But! Our new boss Linda is an avid football fan!"

"Linda Pizzuti is of Italian descent and has loved football since she was a child. You must know that this time, Fenway Group was able to acquire Liverpool Football Club and help the club to forgive more than 100 million pounds of foreign debt. It was all thanks to our young boss Linda!"

"Linda is not just a pretty vase for us in Liverpool, she is the real new queen of Liverpool!"

"Trying to fool the new queen is simply digging your own grave!"

Another senior executive nodded and said, "Yes, we can fool 61-year-old John Henry, but we can't fool 31-year-old beautiful Linda, who has a master's degree from MIT and owns her own family real estate business."

"So what do you think we should do now?"

The lounge fell into silence again.

Michael Edwards, the head of data analysis at Liverpool Football Club, sat by the window, staring out in a trance.

Edwards said nothing during the debate among the top executives.

——In professional football clubs, the head of data analysis is an inconspicuous but actually very important position.

The data analysis director is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting team-related data and providing corresponding suggestions and even tactical decisions.

Specifically, the data analysis director is responsible for collecting various data related to the team and the game, including players' technical statistics, such as pass success rate, number of shots, running distance, etc. Not only the data of his own team, but also the opponent's team, and even detailed collection of the opponent's defensive and offensive styles, the condition of the game venue, weather conditions, etc.

These data are certainly not collected by supervisors themselves, but by specialized technicians, or by purchasing data packages provided by professional data suppliers, etc.

Once the data is collected, it enters the analysis phase, which is where the supervisor's job comes into play.

Data analysis is a very complex subject that requires the use of various tools and techniques to analyze the collected data. It uses statistics, model building, AI learning, data mining, analytical regression, clustering classification and other methods to summarize and extract patterns and trends in the data, and extract valuable information from it to provide to the coaching staff, so as to help players and teams improve.

Reports submitted to the coaching staff must also be clear and easy to understand, which also requires the data analysis director to produce detailed reports, charts and visualization tools.

In short, with the development of the technological era, big data has become more and more important, and the role of the data analysis director in the club has become more and more important, and his voice has become more and more important, almost like a behind-the-scenes military strategist.

Speaking of which, Michael Edwards is a native Southamptonian. He had heard about the legend of Southampton's "Black-haired Bale" a few days ago. He also knew that the Bucks Steelhorns won the national championship.

However, as a newcomer to Liverpool's data analysis department, Edwards has recently focused on helping the first-team players analyze and classify them - including the introduction of Sterling, which is also due to his data analysis.

So he didn't have much time to pay attention to who the black-haired Bale was, nor did he know who the so-called "Chinese dad of Southampton High School" was.

Until today.

He finally met the legendary "Dad".

Michael Edwards' heart was deeply shocked.

Edwards was also a professional player when he was young, but he was not able to enter Southampton or other senior league teams. Instead, he only played in the reserve team of Peterborough United in English League Two - in his short professional career, he was unable to play in the professional league.

He is short and has poor confrontation ability. Although he works hard, he can never get the recognition of the coach.

Edwards believes that it is simply because the coaching staff lacks vision and is unable to discover and tap the potential of the players. Instead, they rely on their own subjective preferences to decide the players' future.

After retiring, Edwards did not give up his beloved football project because of various setbacks. He was determined to fight for more talented but unrecognized players, so he began to learn data and technical analysis.

He started as a Pro Zone analyst at Portsmouth and later worked as a data collector and analyst at Tottenham. When Fenway Group completed its acquisition of Liverpool, Edwards came to Liverpool FC - it turned out that his job change was very wise.

Liverpool's new owner John Henry may not understand football, but as a top businessman he is a great believer in big data analysis.

The Boston Red Sox were able to win the American baseball championship again after more than 80 years, largely because Henry adopted a scientific model of big data analysis and management after taking over.

When Edwards applied for the job with his data model, it was an immediate match with Henry's management ideas.

As a result, Edwards, who was originally unknown, became the data analysis director of Liverpool Club as soon as he arrived, and the entire Liverpool Club took the lead in entering the era of data model analysis.

Many people only know about the later coach Klopp. In fact, before Klopp's arrival, the Fenway Group had already entered the eve of revival since it reused Edwards' big data analysis.

Edwards, who is not very prominent now, will have more and more say in the next few years. He will be promoted to Liverpool's technical director and sports director, join the transfer committee trio, become the person who has the final say in the transfer market in Liverpool's revival era, and eventually become the best manager in the Premier League.

Future stars like Firmino, Coutinho, Salah, Robertson, Alisson and others are all the result of Edwards’ data analysis.

Of course, there are also Southampton players such as Mane, Van Dijk, McQueen, Lallana, Lovren, Klein, Lambert, etc., who were also dug by Edwards himself.

Why are Southampton Club affectionately called "fellow countrymen" by the Red Army fans? Because Michael Edwards, the sports director who was in charge of poaching players at that time, was really a genuine Southampton fellow countryman.

Relying on big data and the "Graham" model he helped to establish, Edwards has almost never lost money in buying and selling players. Even little-known players can be sold at high prices under his management.

During Liverpool's revival, Edwards was even honored as the "God of Love" by fans.

Today's U18 friendly match is actually not within the scope of Edwards' data analysis work. He came here today just to appreciate Sterling's speed.

but……

But he discovered another dazzling data.

Ever since Gu Ran appeared on the scene, Edwards' eyes have never left Gu Ran.

"Hey, Michael? Why haven't you said a word since you came in? What do you think? Tell us now!"

The eyes of all Liverpool executives were focused on Edwards' slightly young face.

"Oh..." Edwards then turned his eyes away from the window, adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and said calmly: "I was just thinking... How much money would it cost to recruit Gu Ran to Liverpool?"

All the Liverpool executives present were stunned.

"……What?"

"Dig Gu Ran?"

"Fuck! Why didn't we think of this? This is such a great idea!"

"Haha! You are worthy of being here, Michael! You solved the big problem that was giving us a headache with just one sentence!"

"That's right, Gu Ran is really a talented player! Players like him should not belong to other clubs, but to our powerful Liverpool!"

"Hahaha! Gu Ran and Sterling... who else on the front line can stop the new generation of Liverpool?"

"Fuck it, I'm already fantasizing about our Liverpool's first Premier League championship trophy!"

"Let's not talk about that for now. With the premise of buying Gu Ran, we can edit all the highlights of this game and give them to our new queen Linda!"

"Yes! I bet Linda will definitely like Gu Ran!"

"We spent 2 million pounds on Sterling, right? I wonder if 2 million pounds can buy Gu Ran."

"Those scabs at Southampton - sorry, no offense, Michael, I mean, those guys at Southampton will definitely not let their rising star go easily."

"I think £3 million would be no problem."

"Hiss, 3 million pounds to buy a youth player, this price can buy a first-class Premier League player!"

"But you have also seen Gu Ran's strength. Apart from anything else, just his speed, he can actually break through the limit during the game! His potential is immeasurable!"

"I don't think this is a matter of money! We need to open our minds! Are we short of money at Liverpool now? No, we lack something that can make the boss and the boss's wife happy! Especially to make the boss's wife happy! Not to mention 3 million pounds, even 5 million pounds would be worth it!"

"Haha! That makes sense!"

"Then we have decided - buy Gu Ran!"

"Let's tell Linda about this, so that it will be justifiable to include Gu Ran's wonderful shots in the game highlights."

"Yes, even if we tie today, or even lose to Gu Ran, it doesn't matter! We can tell Linda that we have been wanting to recruit this black-haired guy for a long time."

"We can also say that this friendly match was specially held to further test Gu Ran's abilities."

"That's right! We can even say that we bought Sterling in order to create an opponent for Gu Ran. Our real goal is actually to buy Gu Ran!"

"Right, right, right. This way it doesn't matter even if I lose, hahaha!"

"The key is... who will negotiate with Gu Ran?"

Liverpool's top executives looked at each other in confusion.

Edwards cleared his throat. "Although I am the head of data analysis and it is not my job to poach people, I also graduated from Southampton High School, so I am considered Gu Ran's schoolmate. I think if I come forward, Gu Ran will not reject me."

"Aha! Excellent!"

"Michael! Liverpool's future depends on you!"

"Come on, Michael, we are all optimistic about you!"

"Thank you..." Edwards nodded.

Is there anyone who can refuse an invitation from the giants of Liverpool?

Anyway, I don’t believe it!

Edwards is full of confidence and looking forward to the moment when the game ends...

After the half-time break, Liverpool's top executives, who had already discussed countermeasures, returned to the stands with beaming faces.

Different from their previous mentality, the Liverpool executives now no longer regard Gu Ran as an opponent, but as Liverpool's future main player.

Liverpool's top executives looked at Gu Ran with anticipation.

Edwards even hoped that Gu Ran could score a few more goals, so that when Linda saw the highlights, she would like Gu Ran even more.

...Gu Ran felt weird.

Before the second half of the game started, he felt that the atmosphere on the field was a little strange.

It’s like... someone is remembering me.

Gu Ran didn't think much about it. He put on his sneakers, stretched his muscles, and walked onto the court with his Southampton U18 teammates.

"Defeat Liverpool U18!"

"roar!!!"

With Gu Ran's two equalizing goals, the morale of the Southampton U18 team was very high.

Liverpool U18 players also returned to the field.

The two sides changed positions.

Sterling stood in the forward position, his eyes involuntarily looking at the opposite left-back Gu Ran.

Gu Ran gave Sterling a happy grin.

Sterling suddenly felt as if he was about to be eaten alive...

Beep! With the referee's whistle, the second half of the game began in a tense atmosphere.

Liverpool U18 team kicked off first.

After the halftime break and psychological adjustment, Liverpool U18 team obviously strengthened its attack.

This is their home ground, there are three high-definition cameras on the sidelines, and Liverpool executives are waiting expectantly in the stands, so each of them must give their all to win this game.

Liverpool U18's core tactics still rely on Sterling's impact speed.

Although Sterling was severely restricted by Gu Ran in the last 15 minutes of the first half and even made a mistake that made his opponent happy, Sterling's strength is unquestionable.

In the 48th minute of the second half, the midfielder of Liverpool U18 team used his physical advantage and footwork to pass two Southampton U18 defenders and pass the ball to the empty area on the right.

The right side of Liverpool U18 corresponds to the left side where Gu Ran is.

Although they knew it was difficult to break through Gu Ran's side, Southampton U18's defensive formation on the right side was relatively stable, and there was more space on Gu Ran's side.

Moreover, Sterling is more accustomed to playing as a right winger.

When the Liverpool U18 midfielder passed the ball, Sterling quickly started to run in.

Southampton's left midfielder immediately retreated to defend, but Sterling passed him as if he were crossing the street at four o'clock in the morning.

Sterling also regained his confidence in speed! But...

Sterling's confidence lasted less than a second.

Before Sterling could dribble the ball to the dangerous area 30 meters on the left side of Southampton U18, Gu Ran rushed towards him at a diagonal speed with the wind!

This time, Gu Ran's speed was even faster! Almost in an instant, Gu Ran rushed in front of Sterling, within reach! Sterling was immediately paralyzed! The Liverpool executives in the stands couldn't help but exclaimed! There was also a hint of excitement in the exclamation! The speed and power of this sprint made people's adrenaline soar! What's more amazing is that in the first speed duel with Sterling, Gu Ran was at least two body lengths behind Sterling, but in the second speed duel, Gu Ran was able to keep pace with Sterling.

Now this is the third speed duel between the two!

Gu Ran can already surpass Sterling's speed! Gu Ran is about to eat Sterling alive!!!

(End of this chapter)