Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 483 Do you want to become famous in one battle?
Manchester City quickly shifted from league mode to Champions League mode. The Champions League quarterfinals are definitely more important than regular league matches, and although Malaga is relatively unknown, their strength should not be underestimated.

Of course, the most crucial figure is Malaga's head coach, Pellegrini.

Pellegrini, nicknamed "The Engineer," is the most prominent figure and true soul of Malaga.

Pellegrini's professional career was unremarkable, and his early coaching career was not successful either.

He led the Chilean Universidad de Chile team, which had won the league title six times, to a dismal relegation. After a series of successful transfers and stints with smaller clubs, he joined Argentine powerhouse River Plate and immediately led the team to victory in the Argentine Apertura Champions League.

The victory at River Plate allowed Pellegrini to successfully land in Europe, becoming the head coach of Villarreal, and leading the Yellow Submarine to its most glorious achievement in the early 21st century.

Under Pellegrini's leadership, Villarreal reached the Champions League semi-finals before losing to Arsenal.

In the league, Villarreal also achieved their best result in history, finishing as runners-up.

Pellegrini's success at Villarreal led him to a prestigious club like Real Madrid.

Although he only stayed at Real Madrid for one season, that season cannot be called a failure. It's just a pity that he encountered an invincible Barcelona that season.

Under Pellegrini's leadership, Real Madrid achieved 96 points in the league that season, just 3 points behind Barcelona.

After Pellegrini was replaced by Mourinho, he joined Malaga.

Under his leadership, Malaga has risen rapidly, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in its history, and now reaching the quarterfinals, making history for Malaga.

Therefore, despite Manchester City having a manager like Guardiola, the Spanish media still have a certain degree of confidence in Malaga.

Pellegrini, that's the source of their confidence.

When it comes to Malaga, it's easy to find a star player in their squad, but they are mostly past their prime.

For example, Shan Yongzhuo's former teammate Baptista, as well as Demichelis, Toulalan, and Rabbit Saviola, among others.

However, the player that Shan Yongzhuo is most concerned about in the Malaga squad is a young player, Isco.

This guy, who was two years younger than Shan Yongzhuo, was someone Shan Yongzhuo knew a little about. In his previous life, he was quite famous and was one of the members of Real Madrid's Champions League dominance team.

Isco started his career in Valencia's youth academy. In the summer of 2011, he joined Malaga for €600 million and quickly became a key player, and recently won the Golden Boy award.

With Isco and some veteran players, Malaga's squad is quite well-coordinated, but compared to top European teams, their squad strength is still a notch below, and they have no advantage over Manchester City.

However, both teams kept a low profile at the pre-match press conference.

After arriving in Malaga, Manchester City checked into a hotel near the Rosé Garden Stadium.

Guardiola refused interviews at other times, only accepting the routine press conference at 6 pm. He did not bring any players with him, and only said some very official things at the press conference. This made the reporters who were interviewing him very angry because there was nothing to report, but they had no way to do anything about it.

The same situation exists in Malaga.

Pellegrini is not a big fan of reporters. He is not like Mourinho, who likes to create big news. He is a relatively low-key coach who usually pays attention to not giving reporters any room to report.

Moreover, after that controversial season at Real Madrid, Pellegrini had even less affinity for the media and became much more low-key in front of them. The press conference in Malaga was quite dull.

Pellegrini did not discuss Shan Yongzhuo or the outcome of the match; he simply stated in a very official manner that Malaga would try their best to play well in tomorrow's game.

After rambling on about a lot of pointless things, Pellegrini left. He drew on his tactical board and pondered over the mess of scraps of paper.

Pellegrini conducted extensive research and analysis on Manchester City and Shan Yongzhuo, but ultimately concluded that there was no good way to limit Shan Yongzhuo.

Through extensive research, Pellegrini also has his own views on Shan Yongzhuo.

Shan Yongzhuo's shooting ability is S+++++ level. In Pellegrini's opinion, such shooting ability is simply unreasonable, and it is no exaggeration to say that he is the best in history.

However, compared to his most impressive shooting ability, Pellegrini believes that Shan Yongzhuo's dribbling skills are also top-notch, no less than those players who are best at dribbling.

Compared to top dribbling players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, and Robben, Shan Yongzhuo's dribbling doesn't seem to be that frequent; in fact, it's not often seen in a single match.

However, almost every breakthrough by Shan Yongzhuo was fatal. Every time he actually got the ball and broke through, the result was often a shot on goal.

In Pellegrini's view, this is the most terrifying aspect.

They are usually almost invisible, completely concealing themselves, and never miss an opportunity to strike, which can be described as a fatal blow.

Compared to Messi and Ronaldo, who have always shone on the field, this is even more terrifying.

If they don't make a move, all is well; but if they do, it's fatal.

Of course, Pellegrini also analyzed in detail a series of things such as Shan Yongzhuo's favorite running routes, breakthrough methods, shooting positions, and passing and receiving personnel data. He also used very professional image analysis to study Shan Yongzhuo very thoroughly.

For example, Shan Yongzhuo's forte is shooting from near the penalty area in the middle, with an incredibly high success rate.

For example, although Shan Yongzhuo is very good at scoring directly from corner kicks, he only does it once per game on average.

For example, Silva, Milner, and Nasri are the three players who cooperate best with Shan Yongzhuo. Once he receives a pass from them, Shan Yongzhuo will most likely choose to break through and shoot.

For example, once Shan Yongzhuo gets the ball near the penalty area, the probability of him breaking through and shooting is as high as 80%, while the probability of him cooperating with his teammates is less than 20%.

Etc., etc.

Pellegrini also made arrangements to address Shan Yongzhuo's characteristics, believing that he had already done his best.

He instructed every player, especially Demichelis and Willigton in the back line, as well as the defensive midfielders, and even Joaquin and Isco on the flanks, on this information.

According to Pellegrini, defending against Shan Yongzhuo is not a matter for a few players, but requires the entire team to work together.

Therefore, he needs to give the players some encouragement.

"Look at what the media is saying, no one can stop Shan Yongzhuo! If you can do it, or even just a few of you can, I believe you'll become famous all over the world immediately!"

(End of this chapter)