Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 137 Hodgson's Helplessness
During the second day of training, Milner was somewhat distracted, and even the way he looked at Shan Yongzhuo seemed a little strange.

"What's wrong with this guy?"

Shan Yongzhuo also noticed this and asked Balotelli, who was standing next to him.

Balotelli laughed and said, "I guess James probably couldn't satisfy those two girls and was looked down upon by them."

"..."

After thinking about it, Shan Yongzhuo realized that this made sense, and suddenly felt that Milner seemed a little pitiful.

It's one thing for me to be unable to have sex, but Milner is capable of having sex but can't, which is another issue altogether.

Comparing the two, Shan Yongzhuo still felt that Milner was more pitiful.

After a night of madness, no one mentioned yesterday's events today, which is customary, since no one wants to hear Mancini's nagging.

However, Shan Yongzhuo discovered that although these guys had gone crazy all night, their training performance was still very good, especially the Toure brothers, Kompany, and Boateng.

As for Balotelli, he's Mancini's son, so his training attitude has always been rather lazy, which isn't a big deal, but his physical attributes are something that Shan Yongzhuo envies.

Dan Yongzhuo estimated that these guys' physical strength and endurance were probably around 90.
85 is the lowest!

Looking at his pitiful 59 points of strength and 72 points of endurance, Shan Yongzhuo decided to train even harder and work harder.

The next match is the first round of the Europa League qualifiers, against Romanian team Timișoara. Well, Shan Yongzhuo has never heard of this team before.

Mancini led a semi-reserve squad to Romania, and Shan Yongzhuo didn't even make the squad, staying in Manchester instead.

Three days after this match is the league game against Liverpool, so Mancini still has to make some choices.

The attacking partnership of Balotelli and Adebayor was sufficient to handle the situation.

The result of the match was not bad; Manchester City won 1-0 away from home, with Balotelli scoring his first goal for Manchester City, which pleased Mancini.

The training atmosphere within the team is also very relaxed, and the big win against Tottenham in the first round has made everyone at Manchester City very satisfied.

However, the competitive atmosphere among the players was still very tense, especially in the forward line. Shan Yongzhuo scored a hat-trick, and his excellent performance made all the other forwards except Balotelli very nervous.

With the arrival of Shan Yongzhuo and Balotelli, along with Tevez, Adebayor, Jo, and Santa Cruz, Manchester City's attacking line is incredibly crowded.

Tevez, Jo, Santa Cruz, and Adebayor all believe that as long as Shan Yongzhuo integrates into the team normally, securing a starting position is a sure thing.

So, there's only one spot left.

It doesn't really matter if it's Rodriguez or Santa Cruz; neither of them has shown anything particularly special since joining Manchester City, making them unlikely to be competitive.

Balotelli has an unusual way of thinking; he thinks his starting position is very secure.

Adebayor and Tevez are different.

Tevez originally thought his position was secure, but seeing Balotelli score a goal and Mancini's meticulous care for him in training made him very sad.

More importantly, Tevez caused a transfer scare in the summer. Although he eventually stayed, his standing in Mancini's eyes was definitely diminished, a fact Tevez himself was well aware of.

As for Adebayor, he knew very well that he probably couldn't even compete with Tevez, and he probably wouldn't get a starting position. Moreover, he would soon be loaned out.

Like Santa Cruz, he was already working on leaving in the winter transfer window, with Real Madrid as his next destination. This meant Adebayor wasn't too concerned about the competition.

The next match is the second round of the league, with Manchester City hosting Liverpool.

This is the last match of this round; all other teams' matches have already finished.

This is also the most anticipated battle of this round.

However, the media and fans generally favored Manchester City to win at home in this match.

Liverpool finished only seventh in the league last season, a rather poor performance. Their star striker Torres was constantly sidelined with injuries and had been flirting with Chelsea.

Furthermore, Liverpool lost their defensive linchpin Mascherano in the summer, which was a significant blow to the team.

The central axis of Torres, Gerrard, and Mascherano is key to Liverpool's success.

Since joining Liverpool, Mascherano quickly became the core of the team's defense and played a crucial role in the team's backline. However, in the end, Liverpool had no choice but to let him join Barcelona.

Liverpool were one of the main pursuers of Shan Yongzhuo in the summer, but ultimately lost out to Manchester City due to the team's poor financial situation. At the last minute, they could only bring in Portuguese midfielder Meireles from Porto.

This move also infuriated Liverpool's new manager, Roy Hodgson, but there was nothing he could do about it.

In terms of financial resources, Liverpool simply cannot compare with the wealthy Middle Eastern tycoons. A multi-million dollar annual salary is something Liverpool simply cannot offer, and even a transfer fee of 5500 million euros would be difficult for them.

After Hodgson took over Liverpool, he initially thought that Liverpool's status as a powerhouse would attract Shan Yongzhuo to join them. After all, even a fallen giant is still a giant, unlike a nouveau riche like Manchester City. He had repeatedly envisioned Shan Yongzhuo and Torres as a pairing, believing that such a combination would be the strongest attacking duo in European football, capable of dominating the Premier League.

But now, he can only use the combination of Torres and the young French player Ngoro.

In his opinion, this combination was far from what he had envisioned, and more importantly, they would have to face Shan Yongzhuo, who had given Hodgson's Fulham a lot of headaches last season.

Before the match began, Hodgson assigned defensive task to Carragher, instructing him to keep a close eye on Shan Yongzhuo, no matter where he went.

In Hodgson's view, Shan Yongzhuo posed a much greater threat than Bitvis, so this was the only way he could resort to.

On the other hand, Mancini also made ample preparations for this match.

They have fielded their starting lineup.

The attacking duo remains Shan Yongzhuo and Tevez.

The two wingers became Yaya Toure and Milner, while the two holding midfielders were De Jong and Barry.

According to Mancini, Liverpool's midfield strength has declined significantly since losing Xabi Alonso. The Gerrard-Lucas pairing is much weaker than Tottenham's, so there is no need to stockpile two workhorse midfielders.

Placing Barry in the defensive midfield position allows him to control the ball. Although he lacks creativity, he at least has better control than Yaya Touré.

The defense remains the same trio of Lescott, Toure, Kompany, and Richards, which is Manchester City's unwavering starting backline.

The goalkeeper position was taken over by young Joe Hart.

This lineup is what Mancini currently considers the best, given that the team has too many new players and needs to experiment with different lineups to see how they gel.

(End of this chapter)