The British sports media will follow every team in the Premier League, but in comparison, the big clubs receive much more attention than the average small club.

Millwall, who are promoted to the club, is always mentioned with a prefix - 'entering the Premier League for the first time in history', and the fans' impression of Millwall will be, 'this team is not strong', or 'this team will aim for relegation', or 'it would be good if they can be relegated'.

And then, there was no more.

During the pre-season run-up, only some London media paid attention to it occasionally, and the rest of the media didn't pay attention at all.

Millwall's warm-up game, there are also some reporters to interview, after the game Millwall Club held a press conference, to summarize the game and pre-season preparation-related things, but the number of reporters who came to interview, including cameramen, assistants, etc., all combined, did not exceed 30 people, a large part of which are small media.

Zhang Yang found that he still had to deal with the 'London area media', and he was really not interested at all.

So the press conference became very official.

The game between Millwall and Ipswich did not cause any waves, in the eyes of more people, it is normal for Millwall to win Ipswich in the warm-up game, and the score is not surprising that the score is 3 to 1, if they can't even play a Championship team, their Championship title will be too watery.

Zhang Yang is very satisfied with the team's performance.

The problem revealed in the game remained the same: the whole team had not yet adapted to the new tactics, and they had not yet reached the point of proficiency.

After the game, Zhang Yang only had one sentence, "In the future, until the official start of the season, our main task is tactical training." ”

With ten days to go before the start of the season, Millwall did not look for any warm-up opponents, Zhang Yang discussed with the coaching staff, and they all thought that there was no need to find opponents, they had already played against an amateur league team and a Championship powerhouse, and if they looked for opponents, they would have to find a Premier League level.

That's not a good thing.

Very few teams will want to play in the warm-up matches against their rivals in the same division, because they are opponents themselves.

Out of the confines of English football, it is even more unnecessary.

Millwall will not have any European competitions in the new season, including all cup competitions, and their opponents will all be English clubs, so it makes no sense to add experience to the team against other league teams for the time being.

Then, until the official start of the new season, the schedule is completely fixed.

Millwall just had to prepare for the game.

As the first round of the new season approached day by day, Zhang Yang's heart became anticipatory, and he did not forget a very important job: to add a killer feature to the team.

What is the killer feature?

That's how you can score goals with your individual ability.

Last season, when the team's offense was sluggish, Zhang Yang promoted David Livermore and let him train his long-range shooting ability to help the team score more goals.

That's a killer feature, and Livermore's long-range shot will also make the opponent feel helpless.

Livermore's long-range shooting training relies on the 'Verbal Temptation' ability, which can 'force the designation of followers, and the followers can obtain the ability to designate the Spirit'.

After Millwall won the league title last season, the ability to 'Bewitch of Words' increased, and the number of followers increased by one.

Now it's time to designate a follower again.

Before the start of the season's preparation training, Zhang Yang considered the issue of followers, in fact, his range of options is not large, because the specified promotion effect is related to the trust of followers, he will definitely choose the old players in the team, and they will have greater trust in themselves.

The choice of Livermore was actually a kind of helplessness, at that time, few players in the team trusted themselves, such as Livermore, who had no brains and was still a fringe figure on the team, as long as he gave him a little trust, he would return more trust.

Now it's different.

After more than half a season, with the team miraculously winning the Championship, many veteran players have great trust in their coaching ability, so there are more options.

Zhang Yang drafted two people, one is Jody Morris and the other is Josh Simpson.

"Which one to choose?"

It's a hard question to decide.

Jody Morris's strength lies in his individual ability; Josh Simpson's strength lies in his youth.

In terms of technical prowess, Josh Simpson is a little worse, but he is fast and has a good 'embroidered leg' on his feet, considering that he is not yet 19 years old, it can be said that he is a first-day talent in the Millwall team.

Prior to Zhang Yang's tenure at Millwall, Josh Simpson was doing well, but was only a substitute on the team, just like Curtis Weston.

Zhang Yang directly used him as the main force, because the original right midfielder Bryning was thirty-four years old and couldn't run at all.

Josh Simpson's promotion to the main team was a natural process, and even Bryning did not have any objections, and he did quite well after that, and by the end of the season he was helping the team to score goals.

Zhang Yang also used Simpson as the main force this season.

Josh Simpson's shortcomings are also obvious, that is, his personal ability is not enough, the overall situation is not very good, he is a little frizzy on the field, he was suddenly broken with the ball last season, his experience is not to talk about anything, he is less than nineteen years old, and he has only played in the professional league for one season, it is strange what experience he can have.

Jody Morris is much better.

Morris is almost a perfect player, and even the media admit that 'Morris can't give up his main position to Smitchell', which shows how good Morris is.

Morris is no worse player than Mitchell, he is five years younger and in the prime of his career.

Zhang Yang carefully considered, and he didn't think of who to choose, he could only use the old method, and called the two of them to ask, it was Morris who was called that afternoon, Morris walked into the head coach's office with some doubts, and then was asked a strange question, "Jodi, I think you are very talented in free kicks, how about you train more free kicks in the next period of time?" ”

"I have a talent for free-kicks?"

Jody Morris was skeptical, and he seemed to understand what he meant, "Boss, it's true that there are no free-kickers in the team, but my level is not very good. In fact, I trained hard 10 years ago and I remember saying 'David Beckham' all over England, but no matter how hard I tried, it didn't improve much. ”

"Really?"

Zhang Yang found that he couldn't 'fool' Morris.

Morris's tone was quite affirmative, "Sure, we need a good guy to kick free-kicks, but I think the new arrival Vladimir (Smitchell) is very good, and there will be free-kicks for him to play in the future!" ”

Zhang Yang didn't know what to say.

Morris was still thinking to himself, "I can also play in some good positions, but whether I can score or not depends on luck, free kicks are not something you can be good at just playing hard, that requires talent." ”

"Boss, you haven't been a professional footballer, you may not know too much, but there are some things that really require talent, and there are not many players in the world who play good free kicks, and there are only a handful of them who are very outstanding, such as ......"

“……”

For the next five minutes, Zhang Yang kept listening to Morris's chatter, and his ears were uncomfortable, and he found that he had been 'educated' by Morris, and finally he said weakly, "Okay, you go first, I'll think about it again." ”

"Then I'll go first."

Morris seemed to feel that it was rare to 'educate' the coach, and his mood suddenly became very good, and he hummed a little song in the corridor.

Zhang Yang hammered the table hard to vent, gritted his teeth and said, "It seems that it can only be Little Joe (Josh Simpson)!" ”

This is Zhang Yang's private acquisition of a 'nickname', there are too many players in the team who start with the pronunciation of 'Joe', Jodi, Joey, Josh, in order of age, it happens to be Big Joe, Middle Joe, Little Joe, but thinking about Simpson's appearance, with the nickname of 'Little Joe', I feel the desire to vomit.

The next morning, the whole team gathered.

After the roll call of the whole team ended, Zhang Yang pulled out Josh Simpson alone and said in a forced tone, "Little Joe! That's you! ”

"What?"

Many people were stunned, "What the hell is Little Joe?" ”

Zhang Yang quickly coughed lightly and said, "Josh, I'm calling you." ”

"Huh? Boss, what's the matter? ”

"From today onwards, you have to arrive an hour early in the morning, practice for an hour in the evening, and use two hours to train on free kicks." Zhang Yang put on an attitude of knowing horses, "I found that you are very talented in free kicks, and you will definitely be better than Beckham in free kicks in the future." It's up to you to take our set-pieces, and you'll definitely be England's leading free-kick taker in the future, and you'll be David Beckham's successor, and even better than him! ”

Zhang Yang said and gave a thumbs up.

Everyone else was stunned.

David Beckham's successor? Josh Simpson also plays as a right-wing, which is not an exaggeration, but only if Simpson can make a name for himself, such as scoring ten or eight goals in the Premier League?

The next moment, many people laughed, and their focus was 'one hour more in the morning and afternoon'.

"Josh, no, little Joe, work hard in the future! You're David Beckham's successor! ”

"Little Joe, you are our hope!"

"England are counting on you to win the World Cup!"

"You must work hard!"

“……”

Josh Simpson was about to cry when he received two pieces of bad news: one was that he had to wake up early and go back an hour late in the afternoon; One is, he has an extra nickname, what the hell is 'Little Joe'?

Many of the team were laughing and thinking it was funny, and they kept speculating, "Did Josh offend the boss?" ”

"Quite possibly!"

Many people are thinking like this, they think of Simpson's new girlfriend, "Will she have something to do with the boss?" ”

I also think of what Simpson joked in the locker room, 'If I walk down the street with the boss, passers-by will definitely think of him as my brother', could it be that this sentence was known to the boss?

The only one on the team who didn't participate in the discussion was Livermore, who comforted Simpson instead, "The boss asked me to train for long shots, you see? My long-range shooting ability has improved rapidly, and now the boss says that you have a talent for free kicks, you should be happy, maybe you can really be better than Beckham in the future! ”

This sentence made Simpson very pleased.

But at the beginning of the training, Jody Morris revealed a sentence that made Simpson's heart half cold, "Yesterday the boss approached me, and he asked me to practice free kicks, but how can I believe it so easily?" Morris said and looked at Simpson with pity, "It's a pity you don't even have a chance to refute." ”

“……”