The Legendary Chairman Novel - Chapter 823
823 Leeds United’s Rotational Strength
Now the outside world has been spreading the news that Benitez’s position is unstable and class is coming to an end.
The news is certainly bad news for Liverpool, who are in turmoil, and it will affect Leeds United’s performance in the upcoming games.
At this time, the media reporters also interviewed Zhong Cheng and asked him what he thought about the match.
“To be honest, I don’t think Rafael Benitez’s position is unstable,” Zhong Cheng said. “The Liverpool management trusts him very much. I believe that at this time Liverpool will definitely support Rafael Benitez. After all, Rafael Benitez’s performance in leading the team was good. After all, Rafael Benitez is still the champion of the Cup.”
When the reporters heard this, they immediately asked, “May I ask Mr. Loria, do you mean that Mr. Benitez will not be able to lead Liverpool to the Premier League title?”
Zhong Chengshi chuckled, “It can be said that our Leeds United will be the Premier League champions!”
When the media reporters heard this, they were really unable to refute it.
After all, after Zhong Cheng accepted Leeds United and their promotion to the Premier League, Leeds United were all Premier League champions.
Media reporters also wanted to ask about Zhong Cheng Liverpool. Zhong Cheng shook his head and did not participate in these matters anymore.
To be honest, this matter has nothing to do with Leeds United.
Liverpool have indeed made a lot of money this season and brought in a lot of players. However, Liverpool’s results this season have not been very good. They will not affect Leeds United, so Zhong Cheng is not paying much attention to them.
And Zhong believes Liverpool will not fire Rafa Benitez at this time. And in Zhong Cheng’s memory, Benitez left Liverpool after more than two years. He still has a long, long life in Liverpool, okay?
Shortly after Zhong Cheng’s interview, Liverpool’s top management stepped forward once again.
Liverpool executives have begun to dispel the rumours that they have no intention of changing coaches, that Rafa Benitez is doing very well at Liverpool and that the club has great faith in Rafa Benitez and believes he can lead the club to good results.
Liverpool Football Club executives have also made it clear that there have been too many changes this season, so the team needs a new fit. Even if they do not win the Premier League this season, Liverpool will still be able to accept it. They are hoping that Rafa Benitez will make preparations for next season’s Premier League title through this season’s run-in.
Rafael Benitez also spoke up: “I am doing very well at Liverpool, although the team is not doing very well and it is my responsibility to do so.” But we have had too many turnovers and we need more running-in time. Liverpool will be in the top four of the Premier League at least this season and we will go further in the Champions League!
Yes, Benitez is now more interested in the Champions League.
Liverpool won the Champions League last season and reached the Champions League final last season. Benitez has long coveted the Champions League title and wants to win a second Champions League title!
Liverpool fans were delighted to hear Benitez’s words. They are supporters of Rafa Benitez and believe he can lead Liverpool to glory.
As a result, the crisis for Liverpool has gradually been resolved, and everyone has turned their attention to the other teams in the Premier League and started to discuss the problems of other teams.
–Division Line–
After the game against Arsenal, Zhong Cheng led the Leeds United players back to Leeds.
The Premier League squad are well on their way to the FA Cup as they face the third lap of the season at home. By the time of this round, all the teams participating in the FA Cup will have made their debut.
In this match, Leeds United’s opponent is Manchester City, who are also from the Premier League.
It can only be said that Leeds United’s luck is not very good, many Premier League teams at this time also met the League team, and Leeds United met the Premier League team, this luck really did not sleep.
Manchester City have also brought in a lot of players this season. They have a Middle East consortium to buy them, and there are even rumors that they want to buy Real Madrid’s Brazilian striker Robinho. However, they did not succeed, but they did not give up. They were still chasing after Robinho.
Manchester City are doing well this season as they are seventh in the Premier League next year with 39 points behind sixth-placed Liverpool.
Therefore, Manchester City’s strength was quite strong!
However, this was a rare opportunity for the young players of Leeds United, as they rarely had the chance to play against top teams in the Premier League, and even when they took turns, they rarely mentioned such a match, encountering an opponent like Manchester City.
Meeting Manchester City was a bit unlucky for Leeds United, but it was very lucky for the young players of Leeds United because they could play with these masters, which would be great for their growth.
Of course, the youngsters at Leeds United are hoping that they can beat Manchester City and go further in the FA Cup so they can get more chances to play.
Therefore, Leeds United’s young players and rotation players attach great importance to this match. They are hoping that Leeds United can defeat Manchester City.
Now, the weather in Leeds United is much better!
It had been a few days since it had snowed in Leeds. Although the weather was still very cold, it was much better than snowing. Especially the conditions of the field, so the Leeds United are very confident in this match.
Before the game, Zhong Cheng told reporters: “For this game, Leeds United will definitely make a rotation, because our focus this season is on the Premier League and the Champions League. For the other cup matches, we choose to use young players!”
The media reporters thought about it carefully. The past matches were really like this!
Leeds United’s youngsters are also in the limelight, performing well in the Carling Cup and making it straight into the final four. In just three days Leeds United will face Chelsea in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final.
Therefore, media reporters were very familiar with the strength of Leeds United’s rotating players and young players. They were uncertain about this match. Who would win this match?
In the pre-match predictions made by the major media, it was clear that 44% of the respondents believed that Leeds United would win, 12% that they would draw, and 44% that Manchester City would win. It was really half to half.
Therefore, many sports channels in England will broadcast this match the FA Cup!
This match attracted a lot of attention. Everyone was guessing who would win?
–Division Line–
On the day of the match, the weather in Leeds was pretty good, and the sun was blazing in the sky.
However, as the wind blew, he still felt a little cold. The impact on the players on both sides is still quite big, I don’t know who will be more accustomed to this kind of weather.
The Leeds United squad was obviously rotating today, with the starting lineup as follows:
Goalkeeper: Simon Mignolet
Fourth Guards “Left to Right”: Gareth Bale, Matts Hummels, Gary Cahill and Glen Johnson
Single waist: Mohamed Sissoko
Three avant-garde “Left to Right”: Frank Ribery, Yaya Toure and Shao Jiayi
Twin strikers: Robert Levandovsky and Alexander Pato
This was one of Zhong Cheng’s starting lineups today, with the exception of Mohamed Sissoko and Frank Ribery, both rotating players. Because Mohammed Sissoko had just recovered from injury, and Frank Ribery had returned from the World Cup, they had not been substituted in the last league game. Zhong Cheng wanted them to use this kind of game to get back into the Leeds United squad.
Manchester City played almost all of their first-team games, but they did occasionally make some adjustments and rotations. It could be seen that Manchester City valued this game very much, and they also had a desire to go further in the FA Cup.
At the beginning of the game, Manchester City launched a ferocious attack and surrounded Leeds United.
Leeds United, on the other hand, were the old-fashioned defensive counterattack. The first was to do their best to defend and not give the opponent any chances. Only by stabilizing their defense would they be able to play a better offense.
At this time, Zhong Cheng paid great attention to the importance of defense.
Sure enough, Manchester City’s offense was very sharp, but against Leeds United’s defense, they still didn’t know what to do.
In the thirty-third minute of the first half of the game, Leeds United launched a very fast counterattack. Simon Mignolet threw the football out quickly and launched a quick counterattack. Leeds United only passed Shao Jiayi and Yaya Toure’s touches in the middle. Then the football came under Alexander Pato’s feet in the penalty area.
Alexander Pato saw the Manchester City goalkeeper, then shot the soccer hoop into the far corner of the goal, 1-0.
Alexander Pato showed his strength and his worth. Alexander Pato has scored more goals since joining Leeds United than reporters had expected at the start of the season and is a promising new star.
The 1-0 score was maintained until the end of midfield. Soon after, half-time came and the players from both sides returned to the dressing room to rest. It didn’t take long for him to return to the field and start the second half.
In the second half of the game, Leeds United continued to defend and retaliate. Manchester City were going to level the score and press down heavily with holes in their defence.
In the twenty-first minute of the second half, Leeds United seized the opportunity.
This time, Leeds United was still a counter-attack, but the football was blocked by the defenders of Manchester City. Leeds United had the chance to get a corner kick.
This time, Frank Ribery was standing in the corner. He was here to serve the corner.
Originally, Shao Jiayi wanted to go, but seeing that Franck Ribery had gone, he gave this opportunity to Franck Ribery!
Franck Ribery made a beautiful arc and quickly sent the football into the back of Manchester City’s box. Matts Hummels jumped up high and smashed his head into the football, which flew towards Manchester City’s goal.
The Manchester City goalkeeper was caught off guard and the football flew into the Manchester City goal without any suspense.
Leeds United beat Manchester City 2-0 at home to advance to the fourth lap of the FA Cup.