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Chapter 233, the System Bureau, right?

“Since the Champions League group stage draw, there has been a lot of talk and speculation about us. We haven’t responded to any of it because I believe actions speak louder than words. Rather than telling those reporters that we are not afraid of the ‘group of death,’ it’s better to show them with a victory that we are unaffected.”

In the away team's locker room at Hoffman Stadium, Sam McNeil was giving his players a final pre-match pep talk.

This is a match in the fourth round of the league, with Tyne playing away against Brighton White Hill.

In the past, this would have been just an ordinary league match.

However, due to the previous Champions League draw results, Tyne has now become the focus of everyone's attention.

Everyone wanted to see how Tyne, who had been placed in the group of death, would be affected and what kind of performance he would deliver.

Furthermore, after three rounds of the league, Tyne is currently in first place.

This incident alone is sensational enough to draw attention to them.

Actually, Lawrence Dadomor's claim that Wang Lie's high-profile posturing made Tyne the target of public criticism is untenable upon closer examination.

Even if Wang Lie hadn't shouted that phrase at the signing ceremony, given Tyne's current league ranking, they would still be the target of public criticism.

Not to mention that they had previously been active in the transfer market, poaching and stealing players that other teams coveted, making them a target of criticism.

Lawrence Dadomor first shot an arrow, then drew a target, attempting to prove that Wang Lie was harmful to Tyne.

If he continues down this line of reasoning, he can only arrive at one conclusion—all of Tyne's problems stem from Wang Lie, so without Wang Lie, Tyne wouldn't have these troubles. Therefore, Wang Lie is the root of all of Tyne's problems.

If he comes to such a conclusion, he will become the object of everyone's ridicule.

Because this conclusion is contrary to common sense.

Tyne's achievements over the past six months are remarkable. Who brought about these achievements?
It's Wang Lie, of course.

According to Lawrence Dadomor's logic, if Tyne wants to get rid of his position as the target of everyone's criticism, he needs to get rid of Wang Lie.

Without Wang Lie, where would Tai En have gotten his current achievements?

If you ask Tyne's fans, would they be willing if the club had never signed Wang Lie in the first place, in exchange for not being the target of public criticism now?

See if Tyne's fans beat you up or not...

Compared to being able to participate in the Champions League, what's the big deal about becoming the target of public criticism?
Is it a good thing that Tyne was previously unknown in European football?
This is why Lawrence Dadomor's efforts to sow discord had little effect.

Because the vast majority of Tyne fans are mentally sound, they know who brought them to this great situation.

Dadomo's remarks can only affect those who already dislike Wang Lie.

Even if Dadomo said that Wang Lie was a vampire who had lived for a thousand years and became stronger by drinking human blood, they would believe it.

However, in order to cultivate an image of neutrality, objectivity, and professionalism, Datomo has to fabricate some dubious theories to deceive people. And those who believe these things seem to become neutral, objective, and professional as well, and are no longer the "brainless haters" that others call them.

※※※

Brighton White Hills have actually had a pretty good start to the season.

In the first three rounds of the league, they won two and lost one, and even ranked first in the league in the second round.

However, after losing to East London United in the last round of the league, their league ranking dropped from first to sixth.

They were replaced by their current rival, Tyne.

Brighton White Hills manager Patrick Mandeville stood on the sidelines, watching the game while biting his fingernails – a subconscious gesture that indicated his nervousness.

The game had only been going on for fifteen minutes, and Tyne had already threatened Bailly Grant's goal twice with his shots.

It was quite a coincidence.

The round before he faced Tyne, who had Wang Lie, last season was also Tyne's home game against Scorsese.

At that time, Tyne defeated the Scouts 3-2, causing a major upset.

He even studied that match in detail and thought he had found the key to defeating Tyne.

That means keeping a close watch on Wang Lie.

At that time, Tyne basically relied on Wang Lie alone, so it was understandable that he thought that way.

His tactics worked for thirty-five minutes – for the first thirty-five minutes of the match, his tactics, which were specifically designed to target Wang Lie, successfully prevented Wang Lie from scoring, and the score remained deadlocked at 0-0.

Unfortunately, it only lasted for thirty-five minutes.

His tactics were far too short-lived...

In the 35th minute, Wang Lie broke through Brighton White Hill's goal with a powerful header.

After the deadlock was broken, his team went on a rampage.

Ultimately, they lost 0-4 to Tyne at home. Wang Lie scored twice in the match, with one header and one penalty.

Based on his previous failures, Patrick Mandeville did not devise any specific tactics to target Wang Lie this time.

They also didn't carefully study the video of the previous round's match between Tyne and Scott.

The last time Tyne beat the Scouts 3-2, it could be considered an upset.

In the previous round, Tyne's 3-1 victory over the Scorsese was anything but an upset.

He couldn't gain any valuable experience from this game.

All of England knows Wang Lie is in red-hot form, and everyone knows they should defend against him, but what can they do if they just can't stop him...?

Moreover, after the summer transfer window's "big spending" spree, Tyne's strength has greatly improved compared to last season.

It's unlikely that you can defeat Tyne by simply limiting Wang Lie's tactics.

Mandeville's judgment was correct.

In the 27th minute, the deadlock was broken.

The goal was scored by Tyne's team.

But it wasn't Wang Lie.

It's Vitini!
He capitalized on Miguel Ribeiro's header attempt being saved, cleverly following up with a shot that found the back of the net.

"1-0! Tyne takes the lead away from home! Actually, Tyne had several scoring opportunities before this goal, so this goal was not unexpected, it was entirely expected! At their home ground, Brighton Whitehill played very conservatively, clearly wary of Tyne's attacking firepower—after all, Tyne is currently the highest-scoring team in the league—but they still couldn't hold on..."

"Tyne continued his performance from the last game against Scorsese. The players covered a lot of ground, and it seemed like any of them could be in a position to threaten Brighton Whitehill's goal! They are completely different from their stumbling performance at the beginning of the league. McNeil's team has made visible progress!"

After Vitini scored, Sam McNeil simply pumped his fist in celebration.

He then quickly gestured to the Tyne players on the field, signaling them to continue playing like this and to keep putting pressure on Brighton White Hill.

After this round of league matches, there will be two national team matches.

The league will be temporarily suspended.

Considering that many of Tyne's players are national team members and need to return to their national teams for matches.

Especially Wang Lie, as the team's absolute core player, has to fly back to faraway China. At the age of 38, coupled with the long journey, his physical strength will definitely not be able to hold up.

Therefore, McNeil does not intend to let several key national team players, including Wang Lie, play the full match.

To ensure victory, we must seize this opportunity after scoring and extend our lead.

We absolutely cannot afford to get bogged down in a tough battle with Brighton White Hill away from home.

If a team only wins a game in the last minute, it will have a huge impact on the team.

After returning from international duty, the Champions League group stage will officially kick off, and with the League Cup also in play, Tain will officially enter a busy schedule of playing two matches a week.

Fighting on two fronts presents a severe test for the entire Tyne team.

If the focus shifts to the Champions League later, to avoid falling too far behind in the league due to competing on two fronts, it's crucial to accumulate as many league points as possible now. Although he's determined to fully cooperate in achieving Wang Lie's goal, McNeil still intends to keep his own idea of ​​"leading the team back to the Champions League" as a backup plan.

Even if the team fails to win the Champions League, they can still qualify for next season's Champions League based on their league ranking.

After all, the ball is round, and he couldn't guarantee that Wang Lie's goal would definitely be achieved.

As the head coach, you must make multiple preparations.

Therefore, before the match against Brighton White Hill, McNeil's tactical strategy was to apply maximum pressure to Brighton White Hill in the first half when the team was at full strength, forcing them to make mistakes.

Our goal is to score and take the lead in the first half.

Secondly, having already taken the lead in the first half, he should strive to extend that lead, leaving room for personnel adjustments in the second half.

※※※

After the game restarted, Tyne did exactly as McNeil had instructed, not letting his guard down just because he was in the lead.

Instead, they continued playing the same style as before the goal, launching attacks on Brighton White Hill's defensive third.

Their attack was so fierce that even their starting left-back, Anderson Nova, managed to get a shot off inside the Brighton White Hills penalty area...

However, Brighton White Hill performed better this time than in their last encounter – at least they didn't collapse after conceding a goal.

Mandeville had clearly anticipated this situation and made targeted preparations in advance.

Therefore, Brighton White Hill's players did not experience any disunity or disjointedness after conceding a goal.

They've retreated even more aggressively than before conceding the goal, hoping to concede only one goal in the first half.

When Tyne has to make more personnel adjustments in the second half, that will be Brighton White Hill's chance to counterattack—Mandeville doesn't believe that McNeil would dare to let Wang Lie play the full match when Wang Lie has national team duties.

Mandeville's plan was sound. He wasn't targeting Wang Lie or any particular Tyne player; instead, he simply parked the bus inside and outside the penalty area, indiscriminately defending every Tyne player who entered the defensive third.

Any attacking team would find it very troublesome to face such a dense defense.

Therefore, Mandeville's strategy was sound.

Generally, breaking through a dense defense relies either on crosses from the wings and powerful headers in the middle, or long-range shots from outside the penalty area, or on utilizing the individual abilities of star players.

Coincidentally, Tyne has a superstar player who can both head the ball in the middle and shoot from long range outside the penalty area, possessing exceptional individual ability!
In the 36th minute, Tyne intercepted the ball in his own half and launched an attack.

Wang Lie had retreated very deep, but Pisano did not choose to pass the ball to him.

Instead, it was passed on to Cabella.

Cabella used his exquisite footwork to dribble the ball forward.

During this time, Vitini and Ribeiro, who were positioned in front, kept making runs to draw the attention of Brighton White Hill's defenders.

Then Cabella passed the ball to Wang Lie, who was coming up from behind.

In fact, Brighton White Hill's players did a very good job in this defensive play.

Their conceded goal was not due to a lapse in their defense against Wang Lie.

Quite the opposite.

When Wang Lie ran up from behind, he immediately attracted the attention of the Brighton White Hill players.

They knew Cabella would pass the ball to Wang Lie—it was practically an open secret!
Given Wang Lie's current form, when a goal is needed and there's a shooting opportunity, how could he not be the first choice?!

So Brighton White Hill midfielder Jamie Donnelly immediately rushed up to try and stop Wang Lie from getting the ball.

As a result, Wang Lie kicked the ball first, clearing the way and leaving Donnelly with nothing to catch!

Then he dodged the opponent, caught up with the ball, and shot without adjusting his stance!
At a distance of 28 or 29 meters from the goal, the football was blasted towards the goal like a cannonball!

Brighton Whitehill goalkeeper Bailly Grant made a save attempt but failed to touch the ball.

The football flew straight into the goal!

Tyne took a two-goal lead in the first half!

Actually, Wang Lie's shot wasn't a particularly good scoring opportunity before it happened.

As he dribbled past Jamie Donnelly, Brighton White Hills centre-back Andrew Stockley was already on his way to block him.

Just after he shot the ball, Stokely rushed in front of him and collided with him...

It can be said that after Wang Lie got past Donnelly, if he had just taken one more step, he would have lost the space to shoot.

Even under such extreme circumstances, Wang Lie seemed to have made a mistake, yet the football flew into the goal.

Before this goal, were there any particularly brilliant tactical plays in Tyne's attack? Did they demonstrate the training level of Tyne's team?

It seems like they didn't have any of those qualities; it was just a Premier League-level performance.

Even compared to Brighton & White Hill's performance, this attack was quite ordinary.

Even this last shooting opportunity was by no means good.

But Wang Lie managed to turn such an unremarkable attack and a somewhat forced shooting opportunity into a goal.

So even though football is a team sport that emphasizes collective cooperation, people are still fascinated by stories of individual heroism.

Because sometimes, it really does take just one moment for a superstar to shine to decide the outcome of a game.

Which young football fan wouldn't want to be such a hero?

"2-0!! Wang has scored again! He has scored in four consecutive games this season! Including last season, he has scored in ten consecutive league games across seasons! He is only one game away from his own record of scoring in eleven consecutive league games! It's unbelievable! A 38-year-old veteran can still break records!"

"To be honest, Wang's current performance frightens me... In the history of world football, there have been players who were still playing in top leagues at the age of forty, and there have been players who were still able to win the league's Golden Boot at the age of thirty-eight, but none of them have shocked me as much as Wang is now! Eight goals in four games in the first four games of the new season, an average of two goals per game, is something I have never heard of at his age! I can't imagine, and I dare not think, how many goals Wang will be able to score in the end this season if he continues to play like this... The only thing I can do is wait, wait for that moment to come!"

"...Although Ronaldo just won his fifth Ballon d'Or, I still have a bold statement: he might not win this year's FIFA World Player of the Year! Unlike the Ballon d'Or, which spans a season, the FIFA World Player of the Year is based on a player's performance over a calendar year...I personally believe that the best player in 2037 should be Wang! At least if I had the right to vote, I would definitely vote for Wang!"

……

Commentators from all over the world have offered Wang Lie their warmest praise.

Wang Lie himself was also very happy.

He turned 32 on August 15th, during the first round of the league.

He needs another twenty-one goals to be young again.

Twenty-one balls... At the time, he thought that was something very far away.

For the average player, scoring 21 goals might take an entire season to achieve.

Even if Wang Lie has cheat codes, he thinks he might still need half a season.

As it turned out, only three rounds of league play had passed, and he had already scored six goals...

Progress is encouraging!

As Tyne players celebrated their two-goal lead, Brighton White Hills manager Patrick Mandeville looked up at the sky from the sidelines.

He really wanted to ask God if God was deliberately targeting him.

In the last time the two teams met, his team was also down by two goals in the first half.

Moreover, the opposing team's goalscorers and the order in which they scored were exactly the same:
Vitini opened the scoring for Tyne, and then Wang Lie extended the lead...

It was agreed upon, right?

A classic reissue, right?

Such a coincidence makes it no wonder that Mandeville harbored suspicions about the "System Bureau".

Are we going to lose 0-4 on our home turf again?!
(End of this chapter)