Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 578 Barcelona's Confidence

Shan Yongzhuo gave Neymar a scathing critique in the media, and Spanish media immediately published all sorts of news praising Neymar.

If it were Italian or English media, they would definitely laugh at the Spanish media for being so naive. With their deep understanding of Shan Yongzhuo, they would know that when he praises his opponent, it usually means that the opponent will be utterly humiliated by him in the match.

And that's exactly what Shan Yongzhuo did.

In his previous life, he was a Neymar fan for a time and was quite familiar with Neymar's playing style.

In his view, Neymar's playing style is gorgeous, his speed and technique are excellent, and his shooting skills are also remarkable. He is indeed a very rare young talent.

Compared to Shan Yongzhuo, a player with a practical and down-to-earth style of play who focuses solely on shooting, Neymar can do much more on the field.

He can rely on his skills and breakthroughs to constantly attack the opponent's defense, and he can also cooperate with his teammates to achieve very good team offensive results.

These are things that Shan Yongzhuo neither possesses nor likes to use.

However, Neymar's weaknesses are also obvious.

He relies too much on technique, so his physical strength is relatively weak. He even looks like he could fall over at the slightest touch, and he is even slightly inferior to Messi in terms of physical strength.

More importantly, Neymar is too arrogant. When he fails to break through a player's defense, he often gets stuck in a trap. He becomes impatient and keeps trying to break through that player. Sometimes, the more impatient he is, the worse he performs.

After discussing it with Pellegrini, Pellegrini also agreed with Shan Yongzhuo's point of view.

Based on video analysis, Pellegrini believes that Neymar is indeed much easier to deal with than Messi.

Messi's ability to combine passing and dribbling is much better than Neymar's, especially in the area around the edge of the penalty area. Messi has so many options when he receives the ball there, making him a much greater threat than Neymar.

Therefore, in this match, Pellegrini equipped Neymar with a tough nanny, Nainggolan, and gave Nainggolan the big instruction to accompany Neymar three times during the game.

By shutting down Neymar, Barcelona's attacking style, which relies on ground passing, loses a crucial pivot point. Given the characteristics of their players, this will inevitably lead to Neymar constantly battling Nainggolan, while Sanchez is left with endless solo battles.

Of course, the tactical arrangement is good, but the actual performance in the game will depend on the specific actions taken.

Therefore, Nainggolan bears a heavy responsibility in this match.

However, this guy is clearly the kind of bastard who isn't afraid of pressure, especially when it comes to Neymar, whom he doesn't think much of.

"Don't worry, this guy is still too green. I'll take good care of him!"

Nainggolan clenched his fist, behaving exactly like a powerful figure in society.

In fact, he was also holding back a lot of anger. Since arriving in Granada, he had been tortured by Shan Yongzhuo in team training. However, at the same time, the long-term training with Shan Yongzhuo also improved his defensive level very quickly.

Therefore, Nainggolan was full of fighting spirit in this match against another guy who was hailed as a prodigy.

On the day of the match, the Granada team traveled to Barcelona by bus and then entered the Camp Nou stadium.

The other Granada players seemed a bit nervous, especially newcomers Harry Kane and Hakim Ziyech, who had never had the chance to play against Barcelona before and were still looking forward to the legendary Camp Nou stadium.

Nainggolan, who has never played against Barcelona before, doesn't feel this tension.

A tough, villainous player like him is always thinking about causing trouble.

The warm-up is over, and the competition is about to begin.

The Camp Nou stadium was packed. Barcelona fans were giving their all to cheer on their team, even though the match hadn't started yet.

The vast majority of Barcelona fans believed the Catalan media's claims that Shan Yongzhuo, who left Manchester City for Granada, would find it difficult to dominate Barcelona like he did during his time at Manchester City, having lost the support of star players like Silva.

Despite their continued excellent performance in La Liga, including victories against strong opponents like Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

But Barcelona is not comparable to Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, especially at Camp Nou.

Their team will surely be able to avenge their previous defeat here, defeat Granada led by Shan Yongzhuo, and complete their revenge against Shan Yongzhuo over the past few years.

There were also quite a few Granada fans at the stadium, all wearing Granada's red and white jerseys, showing their unwavering support for their team.

Many members of Shan Yongzhuo's women's cheerleading team also came. These Granada girls were all wearing Shan Yongzhuo's number 19 jersey, and their cheers were no less enthusiastic than those of Barcelona's home fans.

In addition, there were many neutral fans in the west side of Camp Nou, but most of them were wearing Shan Yongzhuo's thermal underwear. This fan group consisted of Chinese students and tourists.

They all came to support Shan Yongzhuo and cheer him on.

Soon, the players from both sides re-entered the field, and the match was about to begin.

After the referee blew the whistle to start the match, Barcelona, ​​who kicked off first, steadily organized their first wave of attack.

In fact, the two teams should theoretically know each other quite well.

After all, this is Granada's second season back in La Liga, and the two sides have already faced each other twice last season.

However, in reality, Barcelona knows very little about Granada.

First of all, this Granada team has undergone a major overhaul, even the head coach has changed.

Meanwhile, Barcelona also changed their head coach. Vilanova was seriously ill, which forced them to replace him with Martino, Messi's former mentor.

Martino actually didn't know much about Shan Yongzhuo and Pellegrini, since they had never played against each other. Martino had been coaching in Argentina and had little connection with European football.

However, Pellegrini is very familiar with Barcelona.

So when Pellegrini saw Barcelona get into that familiar rhythm, he wasn't worried at all.

Barcelona's style of play hasn't changed much from before; they still focus heavily on ball control and one-touch passing.

However, compared to before, they have also undergone some changes.

They've reduced the number of passes in their midfield and defense. Compared to the past when they focused more on passing in the midfield and defense to try and control the ball, they're now passing forward much more often, and the passes are more direct.

Most of the time, they will look for opportunities, and once an opportunity arises, they will immediately make a long pass to Neymar, Sanchez, and Pedro.

That's exactly what they're doing now.

This also made their attack look simpler and more direct, relying on the individual abilities of the front three to seek opportunities for breakthroughs and coordination after long passes.

This made Granada look somewhat embarrassed at the start of the game.

(End of this chapter)