Chu Zhongtian was still working on his training plan every day - if the club didn't have a training schedule or a warm-up game that day, he would go to the school stadium to train, and Russell and Borger would definitely be waiting for him there. No matter how windy or rainy, he never stopped, and those two people were never absent. Emily, a busy person, can't guarantee to go every day, but most of the time she is next to cheer for Chu Zhongtian and do what she can. In fact, her role is also indispensable, because with her on the sidelines, everyone's training efficiency has to be improved a lot, and the results are good.

This is the legendary "men and women match, work without getting tired"...... July is the time when the team goes crazy for warm-up games, starting on July 16 and ending on August 12, they have 11 warm-up games in less than a month. Chu Zhongtian didn't think there was anything bad, there was no problem with his physical fitness.

On the one hand, coach Eames arranges so many warm-up games to increase the team's income - the warm-up games also have to sell tickets, and if it is a home ticket, 60% of the ticket revenue goes to himself, and if it is an away game, 40% goes to himself. Another, more important reason was to be able to find Russell's successor.

Russell, as the team's playmaker, has not been able to reassure the team's offense since he left the team, and he fell to the finish line in the final sprint after last season, which is also related to the fact that Russell has not been able to find a suitable replacement or alternative.

Now that they have a month to play warm-up matches, Eames can also experiment and explore these warm-up matches with unimportant results, trying to find a replacement for Russell before the start of the new season, and if he can't find one, find a way.

Since the start of the new season, the squad has not changed much from the previous season, and there are a few people who have come in, but only one person stands out - the young 19-year-old defender Steve, who has moved from Midhurst East FC. Gibson (steve_gibson), Gibson is not from Wimbledon, but he admires this group of people who build their own team, so he came to join the team. He is a defender with good explosiveness, speed and bounce, who can play at right-back or attack midfield on the right, and Eames is hesitating whether to fix him in the right-back position or let him play in attacking midfield. So in the warm-up game, Gibson was a right-back for a while, and an attacking midfielder for a while.

Eames seems to want to develop him as a striker.

The idea was so amazing that even Gibson himself wouldn't believe he could succeed, so it was no surprise that Eames failed. Judging from the first few warm-up games, if Gibson were to attack, he would involuntarily run to the right and then steal Bolger's position, which annoyed Bolger. And no matter how much Eames stressed, he couldn't break the habit.

In the end, Eames had to admit that this kid can't play in the middle of the attacking midfield at all, and if he can only play on the right side, the team now has Bolger, what else do you want him to do? Let him be a substitute? That obviously didn't make it a good deal for him to play as a regular right-back, he was fast and explosive, and he could also get an assist if he played at right-back, and then Borger moved to the middle or simply into the box...... Aside from Gibson, there are no better newcomers in any other position. Especially on the offensive end. Wimbledon's attacking lineup was already strong last season. Cooper, Joe. Schilling is second and fifth in the league scorers' charts, respectively. Sullivan and Gavin. Bolger can also score goals and assists, and all they lack now is the ability to string together this attacking lineup to play the role of "one plus one is greater than two".

After Russell was gone, the man was no longer easy to find.

In the warm-up games, Chu Zhongtian has not had many opportunities to show the results of his practice all summer, because most of the time Eames asks him to defend, and when he is not defending, he sits on the bench...... And Chu Zhongtian found a problem, training and competition are two completely different things. Although he can now pass a lob of more than 40 yards in practice to within 10 yards of his target, he is no longer able to pass so calmly in the face of close pressing and rude defensive maneuvers in the face of the opposition's close pressing. There is another reason why he does not play at the level of training - in training, the target he needs to pass is fixed and stationary, he already knows where he is going to pass in advance, so he only needs to pass the ball with his feet. But in the game, such favorable conditions do not exist, first of all, he rarely knows where to pass the ball next before receiving the ball, and secondly, the target of his pass is not a sparring partner standing still, but a living person who is always in motion, maybe when he sees his teammate, he is still on the left side, and when he passes the ball, he finds that his teammate has rushed to the middle...... Chu Zhongtian knew that if he didn't solve these problems, even if he was skilled in training, he wouldn't be of the best use.

When he was frustrated by the game, he must not have known that in every Wimbledon warm-up game, Russell stood in an unobtrusive corner of the pitch and watched his performance.

※※※ "I'm going to revise my training plan. Another morning, when the four of them gathered in the school court, Russell said this to Chu Zhongtian.

"How?"

"You've mastered all the passing techniques by now and you've practiced it a lot over and over again. It's useless to practice like this. Russell said, "There should be some real fighting." ”

Chu Zhongtian originally planned to propose this to Russell, but he didn't expect Russell to take the initiative first.

"Gavin, you come." Russell beckoned Bolger up, "You're responsible for interfering with Chu when he gets the ball, no matter what you do, foul him or not, do everything you can to stop him from passing." ”

"What about the target?" Borger asked. He has been a target for more than a month and finds the job very easy. If Chu Zhongtian passes accurately, he catches the ball and kicks it back. If Chu Zhongtian kicked off, it would have nothing to do with him, Chu Zhongtian ran to pick up the football alone.

Russell turned to look at Emily, who was watching the excitement from the side.

Emily pointed to herself, "Me? ”

※※※Emily stood in the demarcated area, and raised her hands excitedly and waved to Chu Zhongtian: "Pass the ball to me, Chu!" yahooooooo――”

Emily's voice came from afar, and Russell said to Chu Zhongtian: "You still pass the ball here, let's start from the beginning, starting with the high lob ball that runs from a small angle." But this time it's a case where someone comes to rob you, and you have two ways: one is to make sure the ball is firmly protected by you, and then pass the ball; The other option is to pass the ball before Gavin comes up to break it, the choice is yours. If your ball is broken by Gavin, you're going to have to do it all over again. ”

Chu Zhongtian nodded.

"Let's get started."

Russell stepped aside and blew the whistle.

"Hey, Chu. Don't expect me to release water! Borger rushed forward.

Chu Zhongtian wanted to push Bolger away, but he didn't expect to push the other party to the ground with one hand...... "Foul!" Russell's whistle followed.

"Did you do it on purpose......" Chu Zhongtian asked as he waited for Borger.

"You don't care so much, a foul is a foul!" Russell interrupted his questioning, "Do it again!" ”

The second time Chu Zhongtian was afraid of fouling, but Boljie successfully posted it, and in this case, Chu Zhongtian wanted to force the pass, but the result was that Boljie stabbed the football when he picked up his legs.

The third time Borger pressed up again, Chu Zhongtian decided to get rid of him and pass the ball, but no matter how he got rid of it, he couldn't find the opportunity to pass, and when the two people were about half a minute apart, the whistle in Russell's mouth sounded again: "Stop!" It's a long pass exercise, not a one-on-one exercise! If you waste so much time, no matter how good the opportunity is, then the defenders around you will not be Gavin alone, but two or three! ”

Russell bared his teeth and claws, and roared.

Chu Zhongtian lowered his head and didn't speak, what he did was really bad.

Emily, who was on target, stood forty yards away and pouted. This is really boring, the first three times, the football has always been on Chu's side, and it has not been passed at all.

Next, Chu Zhongtian finally kicked the ball over, but in order to make a move before Bolger came up, his pass was ridiculously off...... Emily looked up as the ball flew over her, straight over the low wall, and landed behind it.

Russell pointed behind the wall, "Go pick it up yourself, Chu." ”

※※※Taking advantage of Chu Zhongtian's kung fu to run to pick up the ball, Boljie sat down: "I'm tired, it's better to be a target......"

He and Chu Zhongtian fought each other for four rounds, and he was actually not tired, but he spoke exaggeratedly, and he could say that he was tired when he took a breath.

Bolger, who was sitting on the ground, looked up at Russell: "I said Alai, why are you so concerned about things?" I don't think even the coaches in the team are so serious......"

"I'm just doing recovery training." Russell said with a blank face.

Borger withdrew his gaze, pulled a grass from the ground, pinched off the roots with the dirt, and put the stem in his mouth: "Do you want to resume training standing with only your mouth and feet still?" ”

"You have to take care of it!"

"Hah! When do you report from Welling United? Borger asked.

"I don't know, let's see how it recovers." Russell replied absent-mindedly.

When he saw Chu Zhongtian coming out of the gate of the court, he said to his friend who was sitting on the ground: "Get up, continue training." ”

※※※Chu Zhongtian could feel that Russell's training really helped him a lot. He even thinks now that Russell can retire and become a coach, and he will definitely be able to do a good job. People always like to say that so-and-so player has a certain talent, but Chu Zhongtian thinks Russell has the talent to be a coach...... The reason why he dared to say this was because he was getting better and better in the warm-up games.

He's starting to try to play more long balls in the game, and some of the balls are getting closer to his passing targets.

In fact, after the failure to train Gibson as a striker, Eames's next successor is Lee. Sidwell. In terms of foundation, Sidwell is stronger than Chu Zhongtian, at least the passing is better than Chu Zhongtian. Plum. Sidwell played more as Chu Zhongtian's substitute last season, but this is not to say that his strength is not as good as Chu Zhongtian, just that he is not as distinctive as Chu Zhongtian - his defense is not as good as Chu Zhongtian, but his offense is stronger than Chu Zhongtian, his offense is not as good as Russell, but his defense is better than Russell. is a balanced character, both offensive and defensive, but in every aspect is average.

Therefore Eames intends to take Lee. Sidwell became Russell's successor, and he strengthened Sidwell's offensive training in the interval between warm-up games, and then used the warm-up games to test the results of the training.

Sidwell's performance has not been as frustrated as Gibson's, but progress has been slower. In the words of Ingerich: "If you really can't find someone, you can make do with ......"

This is definitely not what Eames is hoping to achieve, and if he wants to make do with it, there are many more suitable candidates than Sidwell.

Later, he had no choice but to completely abandon the idea of organizing an attack from the middle, focusing on two wing corridors, and determined that the main attacking method of Wimbledon in the new season was to attack from the wing. After Sidwell's return, he will take a position and partner with Chu Zhongtian, Chu Zhongtian is mainly responsible for defense, and Sidwell will step forward to participate in the attack when the conditions allow the right time, which can be regarded as enriching the means of attack, at least Sidwell's long-range shooting is better than Chu Zhongtian.

Although he is still positioned as a pure defender by the coach, in the next few warm-up games, Chu Zhongtian is still tirelessly trying to show the results of his training this summer.

On August 2, in the warm-up match with the Xingang County Athletic Team, Chu Zhongtian suddenly turned around and made a long pass after breaking the ball in the backfield, and the football was accurately sent to the striker Joe. Shirin's side. But Shi Lin himself obviously didn't expect Chu Zhongtian to suddenly make a long pass so far away, and he could accurately pass to where he was, he was not prepared for this ball and received the ball in a hurry, but the football hit his calf and popped directly out of the sideline. Wasted this opportunity to attack, you must know that when Schilling received the ball, there was not a single Newport County Athletic player around him...... "This damn Joe. Shirin! Eames held his head and scolded in annoyance on the sidelines. The team is now down 0-1, if this goal is scored to regain the initiative, and this is almost a free opportunity Shirin did not take it, can he be angry?

"If I were Shirin, I probably wouldn't have been able to catch the ball." Next to him, assistant coach Ingrid said he wasn't working for Joe. Shirin wasted that opportunity to defend himself. He didn't expect Chu to pass the ball suddenly, and it was so accurate...... That's a long pass of more than forty yards! Have you ever seen Chu make such a pass before? ”

Eames let go of his hands holding his head and turned his head to look at Chu Zhongtian at the other end of the court.

He had indeed never seen Chu Zhongtian pass a ball of more than forty yards and pass it so accurately, Chu Zhongtian had not kicked a ball of more than forty yards, but those were all cleared with big feet...... "This is Meng, right?" Eames thought about it for a long time and came to this conclusion. He didn't know that Chu Zhongtian had been practicing for himself all summer vacation.

The subsequent game also seemed to confirm his thoughts, although Chu Zhongtian passed the ball many times, he never passed such an accurate ball again. Although in the end the team relied on Kevin. Cooper's goal equalised and secured a draw, but Chu Zhongtian made Eames care about the only time.

It's only been a season since there was one such pass, and Eames didn't take it to heart. When everyone has a burst of character, Schmeichel scored when he was a goalkeeper, and it was a stunner, Ferguson can't let Schmeichel switch to striker because he scored at a critical moment, right?

※※※ "Russell, you didn't see Chu's pass!" Emily excitedly said to Russell, "What a sudden, so precise!" Not only did the players of Newport County Athletic not react, but even Joe. Shirin didn't react either...... If he had been prepared earlier and had received the ball, it would have been a one-on-one shot! Chu will be able to get his first assist bonus since joining the team! ”

Bolger nodded vigorously beside him: "I testify, Chu's pass was really beautiful. But unfortunately it was only that once. He deliberately bit "only that once" very hard.

Emily glared at him, accusing him of ruining the atmosphere. Borger sticks out his tongue at Emily and grimaces. After spending more than two months with Emily, the relationship between him and Emily has changed from ordinary friends to now closer—it seems to be a good friend, right?

Russell didn't say anything, in fact he was also seen on the spot. Chu Zhongtian's pass didn't feel sudden, maybe he had often trained with Chu Zhongtian in a group before, and he had cultivated a tacit understanding beyond ordinary people. Before Chu Zhongtian passed the ball, he knew that this kid was going to pass the ball, otherwise why would he look up at the situation in front of him many times when he was defending?

As for why he only kicked such a ball once a game. There is only one explanation - he played extraordinarily, and only with that kick. Russell didn't think he would be able to play accurate long balls in the game after just two months of training. Otherwise, how can you embarrass those professional players?

All he could do was teach Chu Zhongtian everything he could teach, and then it was up to him.

What kind of practice can be achieved in the end, and whether he can achieve the goal of leading the team to promotion, Russell can no longer care about these things.

"Well, no matter how beautiful the pass he makes, he still has to practice."

Russell blew the whistle in his mouth.

"Man, we're running out of time."

(To be continued)