Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 141 Tevez, Undeterred

Two consecutive league wins, especially victories against opponents like Tottenham and Liverpool, have boosted the morale of Manchester City, and the players are training very hard.

While his teammates were all working hard, Shan Yongzhuo, just like in Rome, became the one who fell behind, and his training performance was definitely not good.

Mancini took the issue of Shan Yongzhuo's integration into the team very seriously, but unlike Spalletti of Roma, he did not assign someone to provide him with personal guidance. Instead, he decided to leave the problem to Shan Yongzhuo to solve on his own.

This is very favorable for Shan Yongzhuo, as he can train according to his own ideas.

After two Premier League matches, Shan Yongzhuo also discovered that the competition in the Premier League is more intense than in Serie A, making it more difficult for him to receive the ball.

However, the Premier League's defense is more direct and less layered than Serie A's. As long as you can receive the ball smoothly, it's easier to use your skills.

Regardless, his skills are still very strong, and he can always find opportunities in a game. Shan Yongzhuo doesn't need to worry too much about scoring goals; he just needs to focus on normal training.

Compared to tactical training, Shan Yongzhuo is most concerned about physical fitness and strength training. He doesn't plan to use skill points to improve these two aspects, so regular training is crucial.

Three days later, the team hosted the second leg of the Europa League qualifiers at home.

Shan Yongzhuo made the roster, but sat on the bench, while the starting strikers became Balotelli and Adebayor.

Ultimately, thanks to goals from Adebayor and Yaya Toure, Manchester City won 2-0 at home, eliminating Timișoara 3-0 on aggregate and advancing to the Europa League group stage.

The draw for the Europa League group stage took place in Monaco the following day.

Manchester City have made it into European competitions after many years, but as the fifth-placed team in the Premier League last season, they were still placed in the second tier.

However, the draw results were relatively favorable. The opponents were Juventus, Red Bull Salzburg, and Polish team Poznanhet. Apart from Juventus, the strongest team in the first pot, being drawn, the other two opponents were not very strong.

The last team was one that Shan Yongzhuo had never heard of, but Juventus and Red Bull were old rivals, and Shan Yongzhuo had never lost a match against them.

"Don't worry, Juventus is nothing special. I'm a Juventus killer in Serie A!"

His teammates were exasperated by Shan Yongzhuo's arrogant attitude, but after learning more about it, they realized it was true. Last season, Shan Yongzhuo had defeated Juventus twice in Serie A, and Roma's squad was no match for Manchester City.

Thinking about it this way, it seems that Juventus really isn't that great.

Two days later, the third round of the Premier League resumed.

After playing two tough opponents in a row, this round's opponent is much easier to deal with: an away game against Sunderland.

The final score was 2-1.

Manchester City won the game, but it was a tough one. Sunderland played exceptionally well, scoring an early goal in the first half and then putting up a desperate defensive effort.

Manchester City came from behind to win, only securing a last-minute victory thanks to a goal from Tevez.

Shan Yongzhuo scored a goal, a long-range shot using the Mighty Vajra Leg technique. His performance can only be described as steady. During the match, he failed to score despite using the Whirlwind Ground Kick and Ghost Shadow Grappling Hand techniques.

After the match ended, the media coverage of the game became more enthusiastic.

Shan Yongzhuo scored a goal, which was a decent performance, but compared to the first two rounds, it was much less impressive. Some media outlets still believe that Shan Yongzhuo's performance was commendable, as he attracted a lot of defense during the match, which allowed Tevez to seize the opportunity and score the winning goal. However, other media outlets believe that Shan Yongzhuo has completely failed to integrate into the team, and apart from the goal, he had no other contributions; Manchester City seemed to be playing with 10 men for the entire match.

and many more.

Among the pessimistic media outlets, one made a prophetic judgment about Shan Yongzhuo: "Shan Yongzhuo has been unable to integrate into the team for a long time, and his performance may get worse and worse in the future..."

“The competition in the Premier League is very fierce, unlike Serie A where the strength of the teams is more clearly defined. If a player cannot adapt quickly enough, his performance will suffer greatly once his opponents have a good understanding of him…”

Based solely on the reports, it seems that Shan Yongzhuo's difficulties are imminent, or even that he will soon fade into obscurity and become insignificant.

This is a psychological reaction from the English media.

Manchester City's extravagant spending policy is the same as Chelsea's at the time. The English are psychologically unwilling to see Arabs, who know nothing about football, dominate the Premier League with money.

Therefore, what they most want to see is Manchester City's big-spending policy suffer a major setback, with star players coming to Manchester City performing poorly, thus proving that Manchester City's strategy has failed.

However, in reality, no one in the Manchester City team thinks that Shan Yongzhuo performed poorly.

Tevez has a very direct feeling about this.

Previously, Tevez was Manchester City's key striker, and opposing defenders would definitely focus on marking him. Now, the main target of their marking has become Shan Yongzhuo.

Therefore, Tevez felt much more relaxed in this match and seized the opportunity to score the winning goal, completing his first league goal.

Of course, it's unlikely that the proud Tevez would accept Shan Yongzhuo and show goodwill based on this alone.

Tevez did not consider himself weaker than Shan Yongzhuo; in fact, he did not consider himself weaker than anyone else. But that was the reality.

In the national team, everyone considers Messi to be the number one core player of the Argentine team, and everyone else is to support Messi, including Tevez, who is even somewhat disliked in the national team.

After Shan Yongzhuo arrived at the club, everyone saw Tevez as a striker who would go from being Manchester City's top scorer to Shan Yongzhuo's partner, a striker who would assist Shan Yongzhuo.

You can tell from their salaries.

Shan Yongzhuo earns £20 a week, while Tevez earns only £15, and the club has no intention of raising his salary.

This made Tevez very unhappy, and he even threatened to transfer this summer. Although the transfer was eventually stopped, his relationship with the club is not good now, and he is not particularly valued by Mancini.

Tevez was somewhat saddened, but there was nothing he could do; he could only hope to prove himself with better performances.

Now, he can't rush to transfer. He can only transfer after the season ends and his performance surpasses that of Shan Yongzhuo. Otherwise, he'll look rather pathetic.

"If this continues, and Shan Yongzhuo remains tightly marked, I will have many more opportunities. I will definitely seize those opportunities and score more goals than Shan Yongzhuo!"

This was a thought that Tevez hadn't shared with anyone. Although Shan Yongzhuo had already scored 6 goals while he himself had only scored 1, he wasn't discouraged.

(End of this chapter)