Chapter 21 A man born for the FA Cup?
As Leicester City eliminated their rival Stoke City in the third round of the FA Cup, they entered the fourth round.
Therefore, the 27th round of the league that was supposed to be held on January 25th was postponed to February 12th.
Instead, it is a cup match against the Premier League giants "Blues" Chelsea!
This game will be played at Leicester City’s home court.
In the last round, Leicester City reversed course and defeated Stoke City, which surprised and delighted Leicester City fans.
Coupled with the recent excellent form and winning streak in the league, Leicester City fans are very willing to come to the King Power Stadium to cheer for their team.
In just three hours after the tickets went on sale, except for the 3,000 tickets reserved for visiting team fans, all were sold out!
It must be said that the FA Cup is a great opportunity for teams in lower leagues to make money.
Let’s talk about the event prize first.
Entering the first round will earn you a £36,000 prize.
The second round is £54,000, and the third round is £82,000
The further you advance, the higher the bonus.
In addition to bonuses, ticket revenue is also a huge amount of income.
Ticket revenue from the two teams will be distributed proportionally after deducting costs.
Coupled with the broadcast share and other income, the amount is also quite large.
For the English Championship team, this is a good income.
For teams in lower-level leagues such as League One and League Two, these incomes may be their income for several months, or even half a year!
Therefore, these teams naturally send their main players and go all out.
The wealthy Premier League teams don’t care much about Mane.
Therefore, Premier League teams generally use cup games as a training ground for newcomers and substitutes, and rarely send out the main players of the team.
This is why, from time to time in the FA Cup, low-level teams defeat Premier League teams in upsets!
Of course, even if the Premier League team carries out a comprehensive rotation and a full substitute lineup, it is not an opponent that lower-level teams can compete with.
Every player who can play as a substitute in the Premier League team has excellent abilities.
Either there are potential new stars with outstanding talents, or they are veteran players with rich experience in top leagues.
Even if the coaching staff analyzes that Chelsea will make a large-scale rotation in the FA Cup.
However, Leicester City did not take it lightly. Instead, they followed their own plan and carefully practiced the passing and controlling tactics with Ling Feng as the core.
. .
Belvoir Base.
On the first team’s training ground, head coach Pearson’s shouts sounded from time to time:
"Dean (Hammond), dribble less and pass more!"
"Riyad (Mahrez), hold the ball on the right and wait for the defender to cover it."
< br>"Ling, you get into the top position of the penalty area and receive the pass from the inverted triangle."
The Leicester City players wearing long training uniforms on the field were serious. Implementing the coach's tactical arrangements.
In late January in the British Peninsula, the cold wind hit us head on.
Fortunately, the bright sunshine was shining down, which somewhat drove away some of the coldness in the body.
Soon, the intra-team competition ended with the whistle.
Taking off the orange vest that represented the main force, Ling Feng, who was sweating profusely, came to the sidelines and received a towel and functional drink from the physical coach.
While wiping sweat with a towel, head coach Pearson also came to the sidelines, grabbed Ling Feng's shoulders, and began to say:
"Ling, you performed well just now. However, in the face of At Chelsea, if we wanted to control the ball, it would not be that easy.”
"So, I need you to run and keep receiving passes from teammates."
While listening to Pearson explaining the tactical details to himself, Ling Feng drank water and nodded from time to time.
Two consecutive weeks of tactical video courses not only allowed Ling Feng to become familiar with the team's tactics, but also made some progress in his related attributes. And due to the low attributes, even without special training or additional training, Ling Feng's attributes in the [Defense] category have been significantly improved.
[Stealing] has changed from 40 to 42, [Marking] has changed from 35 to 37, and both attributes have increased by two points.
In addition, the [Body] attribute is the most obvious improvement.
Because I know that Ling Feng’s confrontation ability is very poor.
So in the past two weeks, Pearson arranged for a physical coach to conduct specific confrontation training for him.
Under normal circumstances, there are only two situations when the head coach makes a secret for the players.
Either this player lacks strength at this stage, but has great potential;
Either the player is strong enough but has shortcomings.
Whether it is the former or the latter, it means that the head coach attaches great importance to this player.
Because, for those players who have no potential or talent, the head coach will not waste time on them
And under the step-by-step guidance of the physical coach, Ling Feng’s [Balance] attribute It has been increased from 62 to 64, and [Strength] has also been increased from 45 to 47!
Although the improvement is not huge.
However, being able to intuitively see his own growth is enough for Ling Feng to feel that he is getting stronger bit by bit, so he has more motivation to train!
It is worth mentioning that in the last league, he completed the achievements of [English Championship First Goal] and [English Championship Best of the Match], and the two free attribute points obtained were both used by Ling Feng Added to the outbreak.
But this time, after adding points, Ling Feng finally felt a slight difference.
He obviously felt that his explosive power when starting up was slightly stronger.
Not much, but you can really feel it!
The slight changes in his body made Ling Feng think boldly.
What will it look like one day when his [Burst] attribute reaches 99? !
. . .
With the active preparation and training, time soon came to the day before the competition.
That’s the day when the starting lineup for the next game is announced!
All the first team players gathered in the tactical room.
All eyes are focused on head coach Pearson, hoping that his name will appear from the opponent's mouth.
"The starting eleven for tomorrow's game are Kasper (Schmeichel Jr.)."
"Moore."
"Riyad ( Mahrez)"
"Ling!"
After the starting lineup was announced, the substitute list came.
But at this time, Ling Feng turned a deaf ear.
Although I had expected that I would not have to wait long for my first start.
However, the moment he heard his name appear in the starting lineup, Ling Feng couldn't help but feel surges in his heart.
In other words, in tomorrow's FA Cup match, he is about to make his first start in the Leicester City first team? !
I recall that more than half a month ago, my first appearance for the first team was in the FA Cup.
And now his first first-team start is also in the FA Cup.
This made Ling Feng sigh:
Could it be said that I am a man born for the FA Cup? !
(End of this chapter)