Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 162 I can learn a lot from him
The day before the game.

The Manchester United players gathered together, and Ferguson conducted a 40-minute tactical training session, mainly to discuss issues for tomorrow's match.

Ferguson wasn't 100% confident about the match against Manchester City, even though it was at Old Trafford; they only felt that Manchester United had a slightly higher chance of winning.

Manchester City have become a direct rival to Manchester United this season, something they didn't expect.

Manchester United's goal is naturally the league title, and their sights are set on Chelsea, Arsenal, and even Liverpool. However, the addition of Manchester City to their competition is still quite unexpected.

Although Manchester City spent over 2 million euros in the summer and even acquired Shan Yongzhuo, last season's European Golden Boot winner, Ferguson believed that a mercenary team built by piling up star players could not win the championship directly.

Although Chelsea had done the same thing before, that was under Mourinho's management. Despite the constant verbal battles, Ferguson admitted that Mourinho was indeed a very great manager.

As for Mancini... well, Ferguson doesn't take him seriously.

Ferguson wasn't alone in sharing this view; after all, there are numerous examples of failed attempts to assemble a star-studded team, with Real Madrid and Mourinho's later Chelsea being typical examples.

Moreover, the overall level of the stars who went to Manchester City is not very high. Apart from Shan Yongzhuo, Tevez, Kompany, David Silva, Balotelli and others cannot be considered top stars.

However, since the start of this season, Manchester City has shown amazing fighting spirit and their performance has been absolutely brilliant.

英超11轮战罢，曼城取得了9胜2平的不败战绩，以29分高居榜首，欧联杯中也是取得了3胜1负的成绩排在小组第一。

Manchester United continued their old problem at the start of the season: a slow start. Although their performance improved later, they have only managed to get 23 points so far, ranking third in the league.

Facing Manchester City in this round, their ultimate goal is definitely to defeat their opponent and narrow the gap in points.

Ferguson attaches great importance to this match, and the key to that importance lies with Shan Yongzhuo.

The whole world knows that Manchester City's continued success is due to Shan Yongzhuo's incredible goal-scoring record; his individual goal tally has surpassed the total goals scored by the entire teams of many lower-ranked Premier League clubs.

This is really crazy.

In this tactical lesson, Ferguson devoted most of the time to how to limit Shan Yongzhuo, conducting a detailed analysis of his characteristics and explaining to each player exactly what to do.

As for the other Manchester City players, Ferguson wasn't particularly concerned.

Mancini?
Ferguson knew him well, and in his opinion, Mancini's proud 4-2-2-2 formation wouldn't hold up in the Premier League.

Moreover, Ferguson has great confidence in Manchester United.

Although they lost Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United still had players like Berbatov and Rooney, and Scholes continued to shine.

Manchester United have been working together for years and have proven their strength. Ferguson does not believe that Manchester City's mercenaries can compare with his squad.

Therefore, the key to the problem still lies with Shan Yongzhuo.

That's the biggest problem.

……

Inside Manchester United's training ground, a group of players sat in a circle, resting. They waited for the time to end so they could go to the restaurant for lunch and rest before preparing for the afternoon's match.

Berbatov sat on the edge of the field.

Sitting next to him was Scholes, the only surviving member of Manchester United's golden generation.

“Dimitar, don’t worry, you’re no worse than Shan Yongzhuo.” Scholes noticed that Berbatov’s expression was a little strange and comforted him in the manner of an older brother: “You are the same type. What he can do, you can definitely do too.” Berbatov gave a wry smile but did not say anything.

Can I do what he can do?

Berbatov was very skeptical; he felt he could only achieve Shan Yongzhuo's average running stats per game.

Berbatov felt a lot of pressure in this match, as Rooney was unable to play due to injury, and his partner became Park Ji-sung.

This South Korean is very fast, but his attacking ability... well, let's not even talk about it. He's probably only slightly better than the defensive stalwart Vidic, and even worse than Vidic in heading.

Berbatov has been a subject of much criticism since joining Manchester United two seasons ago, mainly due to his low average running distance per game.

Since joining Manchester United, his average running distance per game has been only a little over 5000 meters, which is quite poor for a professional player.

Fortunately, his goal-scoring record is quite good, and last season, with the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Tevez, he was given even greater responsibility.

However, Berbatov's performance was disappointing, scoring only 12 goals in the league and none in other matches.

These statistics are really bad, so his lack of effort in running has been brought up again.

So, in an attempt to salvage his precarious career, Berbatov withdrew from the Bulgarian national team in the summer, giving up his vacation to intensify his training.

His hard work paid off when he came off the bench to score in the first Community Shield match of the season, helping Manchester United defeat Chelsea. In the fifth round of the Merseyside derby, he scored a hat-trick, becoming the first Manchester United player in nearly 20 years to achieve this feat.

With 11 rounds played so far in the league, Berbatov has scored 8 goals, ranking second in the top scorers list, a performance that has been unanimously recognized by the media.

However, Berbatov found that the media, always eager to capitalize on his average running distance, were still focusing on his performance, but this time, it was praise.

English media have made a surprising discovery: the top two scorers, Shan Yongzhuo and Berbatov, are also the two laziest players in football.

With 21 goals and an average running distance of 3400 meters per game, he ranks first in the Premier League top scorer list and last in average running distance among professional players.

With 8 goals and an average running distance of 5300 meters per game, he ranks second in the Premier League top scorers list and second to last in average running distance among professional players.

This strange phenomenon astonished the English media.

"The Premier League has become a playground for lazy players!"

Some media outlets ran headlines like this, but most people just laughed it off.

However, Berbatov is very concerned about this. He is a tall center forward, but he doesn't like physical contact and running.

Relatively speaking, Berbatov is a striker who is very good at seizing and winning opportunities. He doesn't like to create opportunities by running around, and often he can even create his own chances to score incredible goals.

This is an ability that Berbatov has always been proud of. If he sees a player who can seize opportunities even better than himself and who is even less inclined to run, Berbatov is actually quite happy.

Moreover, Shan Yongzhuo's goal tally was simply too dazzling. He scored far more goals with far less running than Berbatov, which made Berbatov both envious and admiring of Shan Yongzhuo.

In Berbatov's view, Shan Yongzhuo was a complete confidant and the ultimate role model for strikers of his type.

Therefore, Berbatov decided that he must observe closely how Shan Yongzhuo managed to do it.

"Perhaps I can learn a lot from him!"

(End of this chapter)