Chapter 114 Can Su Dong do it?
Boloni walked out of the office of technical director Aurelio Pereira with a complicated expression.
At this moment, he looked like crops that had just been baptized by a storm and were wilted.
Just now, in the office behind him, Aurelio expressed concerns about his recent lineup and locker room management.
Of course, this is a nice way of saying it. To put it bluntly, it means dissatisfaction.
Not only Aurelio, but also the outside media and fans are equally dissatisfied.
The most direct and main reason is that yesterday in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, Sporting Lisbon lost 1-3 to Slavia Prague away, which directly sentenced Sporting Lisbon to death.
It is not an easy task to reverse the opponent.
Nicolaj, who Bologna had high hopes for, was silent throughout the game and even failed to create much threat. This was the most fatal thing.
From the press conference after the game, to the airport on the way back to Lisbon, to the door of Alcocheti this morning, countless people asked him the same question: Why Nikulai? Why not Su Dong? This made Bologna feel funny and novel.
Since when did the Soviet Union and the Eastern countries start to be compared with Nikulai, or even suppress Nikulai?
You know, Niculai is a powerful scorer who scored 20 goals in a single season in the Romanian league. He was a center forward who was introduced by Sporting Lisbon at a sky-high price of 5 million euros. He is well-known in the entire European football world.
But what about Su Dong?
He is only eighteen years old and is just a young player who has just started to show his potential.
Shouldn't young players like this play more often as substitutes?
…
Boloni walked along the edge of the training ground towards the first-team training building.
He was thinking about yesterday's game.
Slavia Prague is a team from the Czech Republic, and its overall style is similar to that of Romania. Boloni originally hoped that Nikulai could find the familiar feeling of playing football in Romania in Slavia Prague.
But it turned out that Nikulai was still performing poorly.
Boloni did not doubt the strength of his compatriots. What really surprised him was the performance of Slavia Prague.
The opponent in this game is the famous Czech coach Miroslav Beranek.
Few people may have heard of this Czech head coach, but he is very famous in the European professional football circle.
He does not have a brilliant career resume, and even his early coaching career was not satisfactory. What really made him famous in the European football coaching circle was in 1998, when he spent two years bringing Schmelbursany, a small rural team an hour's drive from the capital Prague, to the Czech First League at that time.
Why is it such a sensation? Because the village where the team is located has only 389 people. Even if you add up all the fans in the surrounding villages and towns, it is less than four digits. What an incredible achievement! But just this alone is not enough to surprise the industry.
At Schmelbursany, Beranek coached a group of outstanding young players, so much so that in 2000, when he left the club to coach the Czech U21, five players in the Czech national youth team came from this small rural team.
More importantly, in the 2002 European Under-17 Championship, Beranek led the Czech youth team to win the European Championship.
Among the five young players from Schmelbursany, Nemetz, Kolar and Simak are now famous Czech players, but the most famous one is the current main goalkeeper of the Czech national team, Petr Cech.
The Czech goalkeeper, who transferred to Rennes in Ligue 1 for 4 million euros this summer, mentioned Beranek in an interview. He said that when he was in Schmelbursany, Beranek told him, "You will become the best goalkeeper in the world."
Later, Cech transferred from the country team to the top club Sparta Prague, where he created the longest unbeaten record in the Czech domestic league and went a thousand minutes without conceding a goal in the European Champions League. Now he has firmly established himself as a starter after just transferring to Rennes.
From this resume, it is not difficult to see that Beranek is not particularly famous, but his coaching ability is excellent.
It was no coincidence that Slavia Prague, under his coaching, froze Nikulai in the first leg.
Boloni didn't believe that Nikulai couldn't break through the defensive dilemma set by Beranek. Would replacing the 18-year-old Su Dong solve the problem? Boloni was still very confident in his vision. He believed that so far, Nikulai's strength was still above Su Dong, but because of various factors such as his condition and confidence, he had not been able to play to his strength.
As long as we give Nikulai enough trust and support, I believe there will be an explosion.
But why do people think that Su Dong should replace Nikulai? Is it possible that Su Dong can do what Nikulai can't do?
Boloni didn't believe it.
…………
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In the living room of the apartment in Parque des Nations, a video of Sporting Lisbon's away game against Slavia Prague was playing on TV.
Su Dong sat cross-legged in front of the TV, watching the game intently. From time to time, he took a pen to write down his observations and some problems that emerged in the game in a notebook.
It was a disastrous defeat.
But even if it is a miserable defeat, there will still be gains.
Not far behind him, Jose Semedo, Pepe and Tonito were all waiting with their chins in their hands, bored.
They don't know what's the point of watching these game videos over and over again? Is it more fun than live football?
…
"Su, after watching for so long, what have you learned?"
Tonyto sat next to Su Dong and asked with concern.
Ever since he became familiar with Su Dong and the others, this guy moved in with a clear conscience and saved some rent money. He then turned around and bought a car and became a free driver for everyone in the apartment, picking them up and dropping them off at the training base every day.
He didn't dare to take Su Dong or Ronnie's room, but added a bed in Pepe's room.
It’s not because he’s polite, but because Su Dong practices yoga in his room every day, and Ronnie often secretly brings Jordana back to spend the night, which is not very convenient.
Su Dong turned his attention away from the TV, looked at Tonito, and praised, "Beranek is still very strong."
"Of course, this is about winning the European Championship with the Czech national youth team."
"Nikolaj is still anxious. He always goes to the penalty area, but he doesn't know that it is the area with the most dense defense of the opponent. Once he goes in, he can only engage in close combat, which is not a good idea."
Tonito nodded. "Bologna also reminded us of this in the locker room during the halftime break, but there was still no improvement in the second half. I wonder if it is possible that once Nikulai leaves the penalty area, he will not pose much of a threat?"
Su Dong was slightly stunned, and he found that it seemed to be true.
When he thought about this problem, he always couldn't help but put himself into the picture, but he didn't realize that Nikulai was not Sudong. What Sudong could do, Nikulai might not be able to do.
Of course, for now, Nikulai is still stronger than Su Dong in terms of lethality and physical confrontation in the penalty area.
But Su Dongsheng is comprehensive.
Nikulai discovered that if he stayed away from the penalty area, not only would his scoring threat be gone, but his tactical effect would also be greatly weakened. So even though he knew the penalty area was a quagmire, he still had to get in again and again.
To be fair, Nicolaj also played a certain role in Quaresma's last goal.
"If it were me, I would focus on the periphery of the penalty area, pull out more, and connect with the midfield, then I would have more options. Also, I took a look and found that the defenders of Slavia Prague are not tall..."
At the end of his speech, Su Dong smiled mysteriously.
Tonito, Pepe and others looked at each other, and all of them showed an urge to beat him up.
Normally, a height of around 1.85 meters is considered the mainstream height in European professional football, and many outstanding players are basically in this position. But Su Dong is different. He is 1.95 meters tall. What's more terrifying is that his speed and explosive power are particularly outstanding, and his feet are very flexible. This is really despairing.
With his tall stature and long legs, Su Dong often only needs to lean on the defender to receive the ball, and the opposing defender has no chance of getting the ball.
By the same token, Nikulai is 1.85 meters tall, which is not short, but his advantage is not as obvious as Su Dong.
Sometimes, things just don't make sense.
What you cannot do no matter how hard you try, others achieve easily.
…………
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This weekend, in the ninth round of the Portuguese Super League, Sporting Lisbon will challenge Guimarães away.
Although affected by the disastrous away defeat in the middle of the week, the Green Lions are still in high spirits at home.
Just eighteen minutes into the game, Sudong and Ronnie cooperated cleverly on the edge of the penalty area. Sudong dribbled past the defender in the penalty area and shot with his right foot, scoring the first goal for Sporting Lisbon.
This was his fifth Portuguese Super League goal of the season.
After the change of sides in the second half, Sporting Lisbon launched another round of fierce attack.
Su Dong played a stabilizing role in the center position in the frontcourt, firmly suppressing the opponent's defender and creating a huge space for the midfield to advance. In just three minutes, Tonito received passes from Rui Jorge and Paulo Bento and scored twice, winning two goals in a row for Sporting Lisbon.
Although Guimarães equalized the game later, Sporting Lisbon eventually defeated their opponent 3-1 and retained their position as the league leader.
But Porto and Benfica also won in this round, especially Benfica, which beat Ferreira 7-0 at home.
…
After a week's rest, the Portuguese Super League ignited the flames of the tenth round.
But surprisingly, in the home game against Vicente, Su Dong was not selected for the starting lineup and was replaced by Nikulai.
Not only that, Boloni also adjusted the team's defense and Pepe was excluded from the roster.
As a result, Sporting Lisbon lost a goal three minutes into the game and another one in the 21st minute.
Although Su Dong came on as a substitute in the second half, he was unable to turn the situation around and eventually conceded another goal in injury time.
0-3, Sporting Lisbon suffered a crushing defeat at home.
As Porto won this round, Sporting Lisbon gave up the leadership throne.
Boloni explained that the purpose of the team rotation was for the League Cup in the middle of the week.
(End of this chapter)
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