Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 261 Cavani is better than Shan Yongzhuo
Mancini places great importance on Cavani and is very worried about whether the defense can contain him.

Meanwhile, Cavani was feeling incredibly frustrated, like he'd been slapped in the face.

Because of Mazzarri's remarks at the press conference the day before the match, Cavani was under immense pressure, as if he were on a hot plate.

When discussing their opponents, Mazzarri expressed great confidence in Napoli.

"I don't think we've entered the group of death. Manchester City and Villarreal are not stronger than us. We are fully capable of advancing from the group stage."

"Our goal is the round of 16, and we are confident of getting off to a good start in the Champions League."

"Manchester City is a good team, but also a good opponent. They are, like us, newcomers to the Champions League."

"Shan Yongzhuo is an excellent striker, that's right, he has scored a lot of goals, but I don't think he is undefendable. No player is undefendable."

"In fact, Shan Yongzhuo's shortcomings are also very obvious. For example, his dribbling skills are very poor. We rarely see him make a brilliant dribble in the game. In fact, we only see him do it once in several games."

"I know his dribbling is amazing, but you may not have done the statistics. He only completes an average of 0.85 dribbles per game."

"Moreover, his physical fitness is very poor, and his average running distance per game is shockingly low, which is not the average running distance that an excellent player should have."

“Relatively speaking, I think Cavani is a better striker. Although he can't score as many goals as Shan Yongzhuo, his contribution to the team is no less than Shan Yongzhuo’s.”

"I think Cavani is better than Shan Yongzhuo."

"..."

Mazzarri went on and on, praising Cavani and pointing out a whole host of Shan Yongzhuo's shortcomings.

In fact, he had a purpose.

If Shan Yongzhuo takes these words to heart, he will fall into a trap. In order to prove himself in the game, he will constantly try to dribble past opponents and keep running. In this way, Shan Yongzhuo will be worn down, and Napoli will gain the advantage.

However, what Mazzarri didn't know was that Shan Yongzhuo took these words to heart and then strongly agreed with Mazzarri's comments on his shortcomings.

However, Shan Yongzhuo will never correct these shortcomings.

"He's right, that's the kind of player I am. There's nothing I can do about it. My dribbling and stamina are really bad."

"Cavani is indeed outstanding. He is a top striker and a formidable opponent."

"As for my average running distance per game, I should be a little better than Berbatov's..."

"Huh? Am I worse than him?"

"Forehead……"

When Shan Yongzhuo was interviewed, he talked a lot, but the reporter could tell that he wasn't angry at all about what Mazzarri said.

On the other hand, Cavani's mentality was a bit off.

Mazzarri's words put him in the spotlight. Not only the English media, but also the Italian media compared him with Shan Yongzhuo, and the unanimous conclusion was that Cavani was completely inferior to Shan Yongzhuo.

In fact, Cavani himself believed that he was no match for Shan Yongzhuo at all, but he did not feel ashamed or resentful about it.

There are so many top strikers in the entire football world, but who can be compared to Shan Yongzhuo?

Cavani didn't find it discouraging.

But being outmatched is one thing, but being publicly shamed and ridiculed is another.

At this point, Cavani was a bit overwhelmed. On one hand, he wanted to prove that although he was worse than Shan Yongzhuo, the difference wasn't that big. On the other hand, he was afraid of performing poorly and being completely crushed by Shan Yongzhuo, which would then lead to a barrage of criticism from the media.

"Damn it, Walter, why did he say those things?!"

Cavani was very frustrated. ...

The next day was the Champions League match day, and football quickly swept through Manchester.

Manchester United's match was away from home, and their opponent was only Benfica. Therefore, most of the Manchester media's attention was focused on Manchester City, who were playing at home.

Manchester City are highly anticipated this season.

Although they are newcomers to the Champions League, the presence of Shan Yongzhuo means there is endless potential, and everyone wants to see how they perform in their first Champions League campaign.

After the pre-match hype subsided, the competition officially began.

As the referee blew his whistle, a huge cheer erupted from the Etihad Stadium, led by the Shan Yongzhuo Women's Cheerleading Team, and all 22 players on the field sprang into action.

Manchester City kicked off first.

Shan Yongzhuo passed the ball to Aguero, who then passed it back to De Jong. The two forwards then ran towards Napoli's backfield.

After running ahead, Shan Yongzhuo felt something was strange because no one was marking him closely; the opposing players were just running normally.

"Aren't you going to keep a close watch on me?"

"This is so great!"

Shan Yongzhuo felt very happy.

In fact, Napoli did not assign anyone to closely monitor him.

Mazzarri's tactical philosophy is a 3-4-3 counter-attacking formation. If he sends out another defender to closely mark his three-man backline, it will have a significant impact on the overall defensive formation.

Using a defensive midfielder to closely mark a player can have a significant impact on counter-attacks.

Napoli's counter-attacks rely heavily on the midfielders' collective forward runs.

The most important reason is Napoli's star striker, Cavani.

Cavani emerged as a surprise last season and quickly rose to fame in European football, but in reality, Cavani is not a striker with top individual attacking power.

Cavani's greatest strengths are his abundant stamina, his ability to cover a great distance, and his excellent teamwork. He can both break forward and drift wide to combine with his teammates. Coupled with his impressive ability to get into scoring positions and his keen sense of goal, these qualities make Cavani a top striker.

However, it would be asking too much of him to rely on his individual abilities to constantly attack the opponent's defense.

Therefore, Napoli's counter-attacks actually rely heavily on the team as a whole, which makes Mazzarri hesitant to send out a player to defend Shan Yongzhuo alone.

Therefore, this also gave Shan Yongzhuo a lot of room to maneuver.

In the 8th minute, Shan Yongzhuo finally received a pass from his teammate, and center-backs Fabio Cannavaro and Marek Hamsik immediately closed in.

"Is this Napoli's defense?"

Shan Yongzhuo immediately sensed that something was wrong.

Although no one was assigned to defend him, there were always people around him. While maintaining the defensive formation, two people would patrol around Shan Yongzhuo at any time, watching his every move.

This time, it's Fabio Cannavaro and Marek Hamsik who are featured.

Dan Yongzhuo only took two steps forward before he was already surrounded and had no room to maneuver.

Then, just as Shan Yongzhuo was about to use his skill, the ball at his feet was intercepted by Fabio Cannavaro, and Shan Yongzhuo himself fell to the ground.

The first attack ended in failure.

(End of this chapter)