At the Waldstadion in Frankfurt, the World Cup Group B match between England and Paraguay is about to begin, and the players on both teams are warming up.
In the stands, George Lee ended his Nordic trip and came to Germany to watch the 2006 World Cup.
"Don't you think you can't come?" Chris Casper, who was sitting next to him, asked Li.
"It was fine when I first went there, but then I got tired of it. The island is so big, and it's all about this every day."
"I still want to go." Casper complained.
"What are you going to do? It's the World Cup, shouldn't you, the technical director, be here to inspect the players?" George Li said from the side.
"Helen and the others didn't come?"
"She took Winter and the others to Leipzig to watch the Group C match tomorrow."
"Hehe~"
Casper also found it funny that except for the father, George Lee, no one in the family was an England fan.
My girlfriend’s family is Welsh, her biological son is Dutch, and my two adopted sons are Norwegian and Scottish. It's really strange.
It would be funny if one day in the future, George Lee becomes the head coach of the England national team and meets his family members in the international arena.
The more Casper thought about it, the funnier it became, and he couldn't help laughing.
"Why are you giggling alone?" George Li arched his colleague.
"It's okay, it's nothing..."
"Is it true that Alan didn't start the game?" George Li started to ask Casper.
"From the information we received before the game, no."
"Is a midfield combination of Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard and Joe Cole really feasible?"
"Although Alan is one of our own, I still want to say that this midfield combination is very strong, don't you think?"
Li George wanted to tell him that this midfield combination only seemed to be strong on paper.
The entire midfield has no thickness and no priority. England has been encountering the problem of using "double Germany" in recent years. They stubbornly use the 442 formation, placing G4 and L8 in parallel midfield positions, with Beckham on the right and random personnel on the left.
And that damn forward position, what era is it? It's still a combination of two forwards, one high and one high.
It is difficult to win against a weak team, let alone a strong one.
"If we don't get results this year, Eriksson will be fired." George Li suddenly uttered a sentence.
This sentence surprised Casper at first, but when he thought about it later, it actually made sense.
After the game started, England scored immediately.
Only 3 minutes into the game, Beckham took a set kick from the left and hit the Paraguayan penalty area. The Paraguayan player accidentally headed the ball into his own goal.
Casper arched George Li, indicating that what the other party said was not accurate.
"Isn't this just taking the lead?"
"Indeed." George Li didn't say much. After all, England still has the upper hand in terms of hard power.
Li George originally didn't want to come to this game, but he couldn't resist Smith and asked him to come to watch his national team's World Cup debut performance. However, Smith did not start today.
This year Leeds United has three players selected for the England national team, namely Smith, Parker and Mills. It's just that today they didn't get a chance to start, but there were two former Leeds United players on the field, goalkeeper Robinson and defender Ferdinand.
In the game on the field, after England took the lead, there was no good opportunity to expand the score.
He can only frequently use long shots to threaten the opponent's goal, but the effect is not good. Beckham took all the set pieces, while Lampard and Gerrard both hit the ball when they got it. Even the tallest Crouch was outside the penalty area.
"What a kick..." Lee George sighed after England kicked the ball high again.
"You can't just say that just because Alan didn't play." Casper thought that George Lee said that because he regretted not seeing Smith play.
"It's useless for Alan to play. As I said just now, the entire midfield is in a mess. No one is holding back or organizing. Can't you see?"
As the team's technical backbone, George Li didn't believe that Casper couldn't tell. After all, he still knew his assistant.
"What is a good way?"
"Either bring on Hargreaves and Parker to play as a defensive midfielder and free up the two central midfielders. Or bring on Carrick to organize and sort out the situation."
"Are you so optimistic about that Tottenham Hotspur midfielder?"
"There are few technical midfielders in England. It's not that I'm optimistic about him, but there are too few players like him in England."
"Then buy it." Casper also knew that his team was now rich and powerful. Since George Li was so optimistic about it, he might as well buy it.
"First of all, our team has enough Graveson. It would be a waste to buy him as a substitute. What's more, he will be wearing red autumn clothes next season."
"Liverpool... No, could it be..." Casper thought, Liverpool already has Alonso, and now they mainly want to introduce another midfielder to strengthen Sissoko's rotation. .
"Yes, the old man has already taken action, 18 million, he has spent a lot of money."
"Oh~, it's a big deal, but it's also his style."
The two of them exchanged words with each other and chatted for half the game.
During the halftime break, they even talked about their team's lineup for next season.
Grenjaer left, Romedal wanted a lot of people, and Derwig suffered a major injury and wanted to leave the Premier League.
Leeds United suddenly lost several wide players.
Now the only serious wide players left are Milner and the returning Lennon. Van Persie cannot be considered a wide player. After all, he mainly attacks the goal rather than causing damage by breaking through from the wing.
"If it doesn't work, change your style of play. Instead of breaking through from the wing, try something else?" George Li put forward a different view.
"What do you say?" Kasper was obviously moved. What he likes most is that George Lee has been constantly introducing new and innovative styles of play in the team. He can expand his database and have a lot of new materials.
"The side is no longer focused on breakthroughs, but has become a style of play where holding the ball is the first priority and then penetrating layer by layer."
"Uh~" Casper began to chew on his fingers and think about this problem.
"In this way, if we lose the ball, we can counterattack faster, press more thoroughly, and the defense can move forward. Everyone must participate in offense, organization, sorting, and penetration... "
"What we need is not just one Carrick, we need eleven Carricks." Caspar said what George Li just said.
"All players need to be more versatile, offensive players must also defend, and defensive players must also attack. Although we started doing this in the first two seasons, we may do better in the future."
"It sounds like Benitez, all-powerful." Casper immediately thought of the fat man from Spain.
"No, his versatility is the versatility of a player in a fixed position, while mine is the versatility in all positions."
Casper nodded thoughtfully.
^^^
After the start of the second half, Eriksson replaced Irving with Downing and asked Joe Cole to play as an attacking midfielder. Gerrard and Lampard were retained in the midfield.
George Li and Chris Casper looked at each other with contempt on their faces.
In the end, through an own goal from Paraguay, England narrowly defeated their opponent 1-0.
