Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 130 Tevez, Unconvinced

Nine o'clock.

The entire Manchester City squad has officially assembled.

Head coach Mancini arrived on time, his face serious, and began his first formal speech: "Many of you are players I trust, and many have been with the team all along. It makes no difference to me."

"I won't give special treatment to anyone, so you can put aside any ulterior motives, patiently train hard, and prepare for the new season..."

Mancini went on and on, but it was all meaningless. Manchester City is no longer the relegation-threatened team it used to be. Almost every player in the team is a star, and they are all seasoned veterans. Even those promoted from their own youth teams are mostly returning from loan spells.

The morning session mainly consisted of physical tests, and the results came out around noon. Most players' results were pretty good, which shows that they had a relatively healthy holiday.

The training then officially began.

The first week of training focused on physical conditioning, which is crucial for players to build up sufficient stamina. With many club matches in the Premier League, physical fitness is essential for getting enough playing time.

There is also free time during training, where everyone can relax and do ball training. The staff will also prepare a lot of props.

Shan Yongzhuo has partners; he practices simple passing with Balotelli and Boateng.

The team atmosphere is generally quite strange, with very strong cliques, which is a major drawback of a mercenary team like Manchester City.

Unlike the newly emerging Chelsea of ​​that time, Chelsea brought in English stars like Terry and Lampard, quickly gaining control of the dressing room and bringing stability to it.

Manchester City, however, lacks such a person. Captain Tevez is very strong, but he doesn't have that kind of prestige. On the one hand, he transferred from Manchester United, and on the other hand, Tevez has an arrogant personality and is not the kind of person who can stabilize and unite the dressing room.

Tevez is not an easy person to get along with, and Manchester City's signings this summer have made him feel insecure.

Shan Yongzhuo's arrival at Manchester City for €6500 million has put a lot of pressure on Tevez.

Tevez doesn't think he's weaker than Shan Yongzhuo, or rather, he doesn't think he's weaker than anyone else, but his transfer fee to Manchester City was only a little over half of Shan Yongzhuo's, and his weekly wage was also less than Shan Yongzhuo's.

This made Tevez very unhappy, and he didn't look at Shan Yongzhuo very kindly during training.

Shan Yongzhuo naturally sensed the disdain and contempt in Tevez's eyes, but he didn't care at all. Although Tevez was likely to be his future strike partner, he didn't need his teammates' cooperation or Tevez to pass the ball to him.

Shan Yongzhuo's football style has always been about playing his own game; it doesn't really matter who his teammates are.

Then it was early August, and Manchester City's preparations were in full swing, with the whole team focusing on physical and tactical training.

However, Mancini felt a headache.

Although Mancini is a head coach from Italy, he is different from traditional Italian coaches.

Most Italian head coaches are known for their strong tactical abilities, and successful head coaches are mostly midfielders and defenders. There are not many successful cases of players like Mancini, who played the number 9 position, becoming head coaches.

While Mancini's preferred formation appears to be a 4-4-2, it is actually a variant of the 4-2-2-2. He likes to use two workhorse midfielders, two playmaking wingers, and two forwards.

His tactical core is actually Italian-style defense, while the core of his attack is the two attacking midfielders on the wings, relying more on their individual abilities.

When it comes to using strikers, Mancini doesn't have many effective methods; he relies more on the individual abilities of the strikers.

This is good news for Shan Yongzhuo, as Mancini's positioning for Shan Yongzhuo is more in line with his own playing position, number 9.

In tactical training, Mancini still positioned Tevez in a more advanced position, while having Shan Yongzhuo drop back and operate more around the edge of the penalty area. Shan Yongzhuo was highly anticipated.

However, a problem arose: Shan Yongzhuo's tactical ability was extremely poor, and his teamwork was also very bad. Although he tried to learn patiently, it was to no avail.

Before the start of the new season, Manchester City played two preseason friendlies, but the results were very poor.

Their opponents are Championship teams Coventry City and Reading.

During the match, Shan Yongzhuo played in the number 9.5 position, but his coordination with his teammates was almost non-existent. He was unable to form good tactical cooperation with either Silva or Milner behind him, or with his strike partner Tevez.

In many instances, Shan Yongzhuo and Silva's runs overlapped, causing some chaos in the attack.

However, Shan Yongzhuo scored 3 goals in 2 games, all of which were scored through his individual ability, which gave Mancini some comfort.

"Are we really going to let him play as a free agent in the frontcourt?"

Mancini is also thinking about this issue.

Shan Yongzhuo's tactical ability is very poor, and his teamwork is also very poor. In addition, his running position in the frontcourt is very unpredictable, which means that he is unable to form a good teamwork with his teammates.

However, he also scored the most goals.

In both matches, Tevez cooperated well with his teammates and constantly attacked the opponent's defense, which was a very outstanding performance, but he only scored one goal.

Shan Yongzhuo had no coordination with his teammates and touched the ball very few times, making him almost invisible on the field. However, he scored 3 goals with just 4 shots, which was the most unbelievable thing for Mancini.

In the end, Mancini had no choice but to compromise.

With the league season approaching, Manchester City's training sessions have focused on small-group drills, with more free time available.

In the afternoon, the assistant coach came over with a list and announced the roster for tomorrow's competition.

"Tevez, Barry, De Jong, Barry, Kompany, Kolarov, Silva, single..."

The assistant coach finished reading the roster and left, announcing the team's official disbandment and telling everyone to rest and prepare for tomorrow's game.

Dan Yongzhuo made it into the roster, but not as a starter. However, he didn't care and was about to leave when he heard Balotelli muttering next to him, "Damn it, why isn't Super Mario a starter?"

Seeing Shan Yongzhuo looking over, Balotelli immediately grinned, revealing his bright white teeth, and said, "I'm not talking about you, Shan. Our partnership is the strongest. Why is Tevez starting? His ability is not as good as ours."

"..."

Dan Yongzhuo was speechless. Luckily, Tevez had already walked far away and hadn't heard Balotelli's words.

However, Shan Yongzhuo still felt that it was best to stay as far away from Balotelli as possible in the future, because with that kind of personality, he was bound to cause trouble sooner or later.

"I'm going to find Robert and ask him why!"

Without saying a word, Balotelli rushed toward Mancini's office.

Watching Balotelli leave in high spirits, Shan Yongzhuo shook his head and silently mourned for Mancini. With this guy in the team, Mancini would probably have a lot of headaches in the future.

(End of this chapter)