Chapter 702: Chapter 701: The Four Great Midfielders of Soccer
Injured but must play.
However, players with injuries piling up might just fall because of that.
I’m crying over Manchester City, really!
April 25, Premier League’s 35th round.
Forced to make some rotations, Manchester City drew 2-2 with Leeds United.
If it weren’t for Leeds United’s confirmed relegation and the news of Alan Smith’s transfer to Manchester United making them lose the will to fight, Manchester City might have lost.
May 2, Premier League’s 36th round.
Manchester City, slightly rested, were again drawn by Fulham.
Fulham’s attacking fulcrum Marcelo Blanco landed punches and kicks to complete a goal and an assist.
At this point, Manchester City, having had the chance to clinch the league title early, suddenly faltered.
In two rounds of matches, they were chased down by Arsenal for four points.
The gap between them thus narrowed to two points.
If any one match goes wrong, the name at the top of the Premier League could change.
Sky Sports: "Manchester City is collapsing! Despite Deng Kai’s repeated efforts to save the day, the building will collapse with the increase of injured players!"
The Times: "Just one breath away from everything. Manchester City started too strong this season and now they are at the end of their tether."
Echo Report: "Arsenal is in great form, sprinting at the end of the season! Manchester City’s dominance in games has noticeably decreased, including a steep decline in Deng Kai’s stats!"
Perhaps only "Understanding the Ball Emperor" is still supporting Manchester City.
"Understanding the Ball Emperor": "The African buffalo Essien returns! He has been training with the first team and is highly likely to catch up with the second leg against Inter Milan!"
"Mascherano seems too naive against high-level opponents."
"Essien’s defense is currently unrivaled at Manchester City, his return might be able to limit Crown Prince Viana of Inter Milan’s superb performance!"
On the other side, Italian media are also discussing the upcoming second leg match.
Milan Sport Newspaper: "Inter Milan’s momentum is like a rainbow, the only powerhouse from Serie A to make it to the semi-finals of European competitions!"
Il Romanista: "Adriano, whom Inter Milan actively gave up, may become the biggest obstacle for Inter’s advancement to the Europa League final!"
Torino Sport Newspaper: "Inter Milan has made too many wrong trades in the past two years, selling Adriano for less than twenty million Euros is definitely a grave mistake! Adriano’s current market value has broken thirty-five million Euros!"
Yes!
The Italian media focus more on Adriano, the star out of Serie A.
Transfermarkt recently updated some players’ market values.
Adriano is the most rapidly rising one.
And like Ribery, Lahm, Maicon, Tu Lei, and Cech, these players have also made the list with significant increases.
Manchester City almost contributed to half of the growth rate in football’s GDP!
From weak Adriano to Adriano, Adé made a splendid turnaround in one season.
However, probably because they have already let him go, Inter Milan fans were not willing to recognize Adriano’s brilliance this season.
After all, the better Adé performs, doesn’t it just show how much they undersold him?
But now, they have no choice but to recognize it.
Adriano has scored over thirty goals in all competitions for Manchester City this season!
What does that mean?
Neither Ronaldo nor Vieri scored that many goals in a single season with Inter Milan.
Of course, the Premier League and Serie A are different.
Everybody commonly believes that the defensive quality in Italy’s Serie A is the highest, and scoring goals is the hardest.
So, some say that Adriano’s arrival in Serie A would mean he could score around fifteen goals in one season.
That would be considered a very decent performance for a superstar.
But far from making Internazionale regret letting him go or feel jealous of such a superstar.
Hmm... no regrets.
The ones you sell, you have to say no regrets even with tears in your eyes.
...
May 5th.
Manchester City players took a connecting Emirates flight to the city of Milan.
The next day, both teams were ready for a fierce battle at the Meazza Stadium for the second leg of the UEFA Europa League semi-finals!
"Hello, everyone, I’m Huang Jianxiang, and sitting beside me are Zhan Jun and He Wei. Mr. Han Qiaosheng is refusing all commentary work involving Manchester City because our broadcasting studio’s air conditioning gives him diarrhea every time he comes here, so we hope everyone understands."
Zhan Jun and He Wei smiled slightly in the CCTV-5 broadcasting studio.
So sorry, Elder Han.
"Today, Internazionale has made some adjustments to their front line," Zhan Jun commented swiftly, "They’ve lined up in a 3-4-1-2 formation."
"The two strikers are Vieri partnered with Julio Cruz."
"Julio Cruz is Internazionale’s substitute striker, standing at 1.9 meters tall. Not only is he skilled at playing as a pivot, but his technique on the ball is also quite impressive."
"Some believe Cruz to be a layman’s version of Ibrahimovic!"
Of course, from Deng Kai’s perspective, he thought that Cruz was more like the future Giroud.
With decent quality, yet often playing a substitute role in the team for a long time.
Cruz’s goal-scoring efficiency among substitutes was very high, with him making one hundred and twenty-nine substitute appearances for Internazionale in the future, tallying up forty-nine goals—efficiency perhaps only second to Manchester United’s super sub Solskjaer.
You have to know, the defending and offside rules at that time were quite strict.
They were not the rules later on that encouraged attacking play.
Basically, at this stage, a very excellent striker would have an average of around 0.5 or 0.6 goals per game.
You can’t compare them to the likes of Mei Luo or even future goal monsters like Mbappé and Harland.
He Wei promptly followed up Zhan Jun’s words, "Viana as a lone attacking midfielder, he is undoubtedly the attacking core of Internazionale this season."
"Internazionale fans believe his performance has surpassed AC Milan’s Kaká. He can even be compared with Juventus’ Nedved!"
"There’s even a ranking of new generation attacking midfielders where Kaká, Deco, Ronaldinho, and Viana occupy the top four spots, dubbed the ’four great midfield maestros’ of football!"
"They are the players most likely to challenge Deng Kai in this position in the future!"
It has to be said that Viana’s fate genuinely changed.
If it weren’t for playing with Deng Kai at Sporting Lisbon for one year, by now Viana would have joined Spurs and then become one of the biggest flops in Spurs history.
Where could he have found the glory he has now?
On the other hand, after losing superstars like Ronaldo, Internazionale’s ability to create new stars had indeed declined due to lackluster performance in European competitions.
Viana is now at his peak in Serie A, not the number one attacking midfielder, but certainly within the top three.
However, his reputation in European football is far less than the rising star Kaká.
The huge influence of the Champions League is one reason, and the fact that Viana only played with Deng Kai for one year before moving to Internazionale is another.
Deng Kai’s popularity was just too great.
Moreover, it was in the last miracle year with Sporting Lisbon that was genuinely the most important in reaping the popularity of the previous year while capturing the Champions League honors.
