News of Kevin Keegan officially joining the Saints began to ferment. In addition, the club also introduced a yellow-skinned Asian this season. For a while, many reporters came to the south coast of England and asked whether Southampton was going to enter China. market.
Many reporters speculated that the reason why Kevin Keegan favored Wang Xiaodong was entirely because of Sun Jihai's outstanding performance in Manchester City.
However, judging from the qualities Wang Xiaodong has displayed so far, he is completely different from the polite, humble and courteous Sun Jihai.
Can a fledgling, unruly, and ignorant boy really be able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the team's defense?
The media first put a question mark on Wang Xiaodong's performance.
Soon, the new season begins.
Saying goodbye to the hustle and bustle of the Premier League, this season Southampton will begin to be reborn in the English Championship.
The Saints hoped that the man with the clip could bring victory to the team, but the team suffered a waterloo at the start of the season.
In the first round, they faced Queens Park Rangers at home. As a result, they were caught up by their opponents twice in a row after taking the lead twice.
Even in the last 5 minutes of the game, the opponent scored a winning goal.
At this time, no matter whether it was reports about Walcott being a genius or Wang Xiaodong being a fool, all reports disappeared, and everyone pointed the finger at Kevin Keegan.
Three days later, the second league game arrived.
This time, Southampton drew 1-1 with Norwich in the away game and did not "struggle" in the relegation zone from the beginning.
The team still has no victory, which for fans who are eager to win has once again increased their dissatisfaction with the club.
Returning to home for the third league game, they faced Crewe Alexander.
This time Kevin Keegan learned a painful lesson and the 442 formation was directed towards the offense. Soon, Southampton led 2-0 with goals from Ricardo Fowler and Belmadi.
The lead lasted until the 80th minute, when the fans unfurled banners prepared in advance to celebrate the first win of the season, something unexpected happened.
First, our own defender Thomas Hutto made a mistake in clearing the ball and sent the ball to the opponent's forward, who succeeded in pushing the ball.
In the last minute of the game, Mills tackled the opponent's forward in the penalty area and clashed with the referee and the opponent's forward.
The red dot package poured cold water on the fans' heads. Until the opponent scored a penalty kick, many fans did not react.
Why did the victory that I saw in front of me disappear like a cloud of smoke in the blink of an eye?
As a result, all the media fire is focused on Kevin Keegan. If the England legend wasn't injured, the angry fans would have even jumped over the fence to attack him personally.
After the game, people gathered outside the Staplewood training facility. Fans posted "I want victory" banners on the wooden fence to express their dissatisfaction with the team.
Obviously this season they hired a big-name coach, bought a few players to supplement the lineup, and even promoted a talented forward from the youth team, but why did the team play like this?
2 draws and 1 loss, 14th in the standings. How can you surpass this level with such results?
In the face of the clamoring fans, the security guards at the training base turned a blind eye.
The team was not performing well and they had no intention of maintaining order.
...
"Hey! Dong, don't always think about how to control the ball, try a header first!" Assistant coach Hawke shouted to Wang Xiaodong on the court.
"OK!" Wang Xiaodong did not refuse, raised his head, and rushed towards the high ball kicked by the assistant coach.
"boom!"
The ball hit Wang Xiaodong's forehead accurately and bounced farther away.
[Aiming value +1]
"Dong, you can't always be like this."
"What's wrong? Didn't I hit it?"
Every time he can hit a high-altitude ball from someone else with his forehead, his aiming value will be accumulated. For this reason, Wang Xiaodong is still a little complacent. After all, many main players can't compete with him in heading the ball.
"Heading is not based on 'top'." Hawke patiently explained, "Heading is generally divided into two stages. The first stage is what you just said, 'top first and then talk.' The second stage is The stage is 'where to put the ball'."
"You did a great job on the first item, but there is still no progress on the second item."
With that said, Hawke pointed to the ball that Wang Xiaodong headed, "Header clearance like yours, where you head the ball directly from the top of the penalty area to the opponent's half, is only used to delay time. When the conditions are right, you should try your best to pass the ball to unguarded teammates so that you can control the ball, do you understand?"
"Okay, what do you want me to do?" Wang Xiaodong spread his hands. Football is sometimes a delicate job, which is exactly what he does not have.
"Let's do this, I'll give you a few locations, and you try to get the ball here as far as you can."
Hawke said, placing a few markers next to Wang Xiaodong, and then threw the ball to Wang Xiaodong from a short distance, asking Wang Xiaodong to push the ball to the target point as much as possible.
boom!
[Aiming value +1]
[Aiming value +0]
Two aiming value prompts popped up in succession, which meant that Wang Xiaodong's ball was hit, but not in place.
Seeing that the ball's landing point was more than two meters away from the marker, Wang Xiaodong's unwillingness to admit defeat came back.
"Come again!"
[Aiming value +1]
[Aiming value +0]
Kevin Keegan frowned on the sidelines. He has been bored to death by the media these days.
Southampton is reorganizing, and it is inevitable that the team's strength will decline significantly.
A poor start, as Kevin Keegan expected.
However, the team failed to win three consecutive games, and in two of them, they took the lead and were tied by their opponents, which is a bit uncomfortable.
Judging from the process of these two games, the team still has the strength to win, but it was just that the team had a problem at the end of the game and was caught by the opponent.
So where is the problem?
Kevin Keegan glanced at Walcott who was practicing a return run. The little tiger was beginning to take shape. He was in the process of adapting to the team's formation. It won't be long before he can find an opportunity for him to come off the bench.
But judging from the first three games, it is not too difficult for the team to score goals, so there is no need for any changes on the offensive end for the time being.
Then he turned to look at Wang Xiaodong who was practicing heading the ball. From the initial deviation of two or three meters from the target, now he can barely head the ball to the target range of one meter. There are even a few balls that directly knock down the marker. .
Although all technical abilities are rough, Wang Xiaodong is serious about learning and his learning speed is not slow.
This reminds Kevin Keegan of Sun Jihai.
When Sun Jihai first arrived at Manchester City, his abilities were average.
But with his hard work and talent, he finally became the main full-back in Manchester City.
"God is fair. He gave Africans speed, Nordic physiques, South Americans technology, and Asians hard work."
Sun Jihai's success at Manchester City made Kevin Keegan understand that no talent is inferior.
Any talent that can be used to its extreme can become an excellent football player.
Now, Wang Xiaodong possesses two kinds of talents.
What will happen if such a young man is well-sculpted?
Thinking of the red card and suspension of the main defensive midfielder Mills for two games, he had to add someone to this position...
winter?
A bold idea arose in Kevin Keegan's mind.
