Chapter Twenty-Five: Oliveira in the Doldrums
Given his poor relationship with Inácio, the hero is desperate to hope that Valencia can pull himself together and then equalize or even overtake the score.
But the course of the game did not go as he had hoped.
The bad situation of falling behind at the beginning of the game made the Valencia players suddenly feel a little foggy, and this was not the script they imagined. What was expected to be an easy win suddenly turned into a difficult pursuit.
The contempt for Valladolid before the game, the gap between the score and the actual score, made their minds begin to be unified. Some people want to immediately increase their attacking efforts and then try their best to equalize, because the strength of their own side is far superior to that of their opponents after all. But some want to stabilize the situation first, and not leave a chance for the opponent
As a result, the pace of Valencia's players began to be inconsistent, and even the formation on the field began to be disjointed. Defense, the defensive formation is not stable and fine, the offense, the offense is not enough, the effect is not good, Valencia suddenly fell into the embarrassing situation of not doing well at both ends.
At this point, even the most non-football fans can see that Valencia is in an awkward predicament. When the hero sitting on the bench saw this situation, he could only clench his fists and hurry, there was nothing he could do.
On the contrary, the away team Valladolid took advantage of their morale and began to play frequent counterattacks, although the quality was limited, but from time to time a shot on goal was also enough to test the sensitive nerves of Valencia fans at this time.
For a while, there were constant exclamations over the Mestalla Stadium.
"Mr. Benitez should be shouting from the sidelines." Commentator Alonso seized the clue and said that a manager's on-the-spot ability is reflected in this kind of scene, and the reaction time and response methods are different, and you can see what level a manager's on-the-spot ability is.
Obviously, although Benitez is not a manager who is characterized by on-the-spot command, he has been fully trained in the position of manager of Valencia, and he is more than enough to deal with such small scenes.
"Stabilize the situation first! Stabilize the situation! ”
As soon as Alonso's words fell, Benitez's voice was clearly heard in the ears of the players on the field. As soon as the manager speaks, no matter what the player thinks, he has to obey the manager's command on the pitch.
Of course, if the players themselves are determined to rebel, that's a different story. Thankfully, such a player does not exist in Valencia at the moment.
After being yelled at by Benitez, the pace of the Valencia players finally began to coincide. Rather than immediately attacking and equalizing, they still chose to stabilize the situation first and grind the morale of Valladolid on the opposite side.
It didn't take long for Valencia to take complete control and Valladolid's counter-attack faded until nothing was heard from them.
After seeing that the situation had stabilized, the heroes on the field couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, slowed down the nervous mood just now, and began to observe Valladolid's defenders intently.
Due to the fact that there is not much information about the other party, in order to make better preparations, the hero has to be on the spot at this time.
At this point, he stared at the opposing defender's gaze motionless, almost like two searchlights aimed at them.
The hero's demeanor also attracted Benitez, who had just returned to the coach's seat.
A hard-working little guy. After taking a closer look at the hero for a moment, Benitez knew that he was really doing his homework and not doing superficial engineering to show him. For a manager, such a serious and talented young player could not be more pleasing.
After retracting his admiring gaze, Benitez began to re-observe the game on the field, although the game situation has stabilized, he always has an uneasy premonition in his heart that today's game will not be good.
As the game entered the 24th minute of the first half, Benitez knew he had a good hunch. Although Valencia had already controlled the situation and had the ball in their hands by this time, their attacking line was starting to make trouble for themselves.
The hero on the bench also spotted the problem, and whenever Valencia pushed the football into the heart of Valladolid, there was also a sudden sense of sluggishness, which immediately stilled the attacking momentum that had just been good.
The direct result of this is that Valencia has not had a decent shot on goal so far, and the only shot on target came from captain Albelda's weak header without any real threat.
In the face of promoted Valladolid, who only gave such a table in the first 20 minutes of the game, everyone can see that Valencia's offensive end is in trouble.
Seeing this, Alonso and Sousa also began to explain and analyze the difficulties encountered by Valencia.
"Man, what do you think is wrong with Valencia?" Sosa asked, looking up.
"It should be that the Valencia players have not yet found their form, and Valencia's attacking line has obviously not fully run in after the reorganization this summer, so their attack is a little confusing and unorganized." Alonso said that he had clearly studied Valencia.
"Yes, I think I have these problems too. But I don't think that's the biggest problem, and if that's all there is, then Valencia's attack won't be able to do that much, after all, they are facing a relegation favourite. Sosa duly proposed a different proposal, said.
"Oh, is it? So what do you think went wrong? ”
The two sang and harmonized, and the analysis content was very fluent, which seemed to be full of tacit understanding. The mutual questions and answers in their conversations are not really about who knows less and who knows more, but some means of hosting the show.
After being asked by Alonso so much, Sousa began to tell her analysis.
"These are the secondary issues, but the most important thing should be the lone arrow in Valencia's 4-3-2-1 formation today, Brazilian striker Oliveira. The $12 million Brazilian striker doesn't seem to have found the rhythm of La Liga at all and hasn't integrated into Valencia's tactical system. You look at the few runs he made and how he dealt with the ball when he got it."
Sosa's analysis hit the nail on the head, and after citing a few examples of Oliveira's problems, almost all fans who watched the TV channel looked approving.
At the same time, Benitez was already aware of the problem at this moment, but he did not find a good solution for a while.
La Liga is not like the Premier League, where the manager is in charge of the team's competitive power, and Rafael Benitez is not the godfather of Alex Ferguson's iron fist, and his more scriptive personality is unable to make decisive decisions at this moment.
Oliveira's high price of $12 million, coupled with the fact that the game only played for more than 20 minutes, Benitez, who took into account the feelings of the players and the attitude of the club's top management, decided to postpone the adjustment.
Such a move of his is incomprehensible to the hero. Of course, there is no way for him to be Benitez, and he doesn't know that the manager himself has unspeakable difficulties.
Although there is no contradiction with Oliveira, the hero feels that if he becomes the head coach, he will definitely take him off without saying a word and let the other strikers play.
The state of the players is a very uncertain thing, sometimes good and sometimes bad, and even no one can figure out the time of adjustment. Sometimes it's broken, and a player can adjust back in a game, but sometimes, it's not just a few games, even if it's more than half a season, or even a whole season.
Although I don't know what Oliveira's situation is this time, just based on his shot in the 35th minute of the first half, the hero is sure that he will not be able to recover his form in this game for the time being.
It was Valencia's best chance of the entire first half, coming from Aimar's delicate through ball after a two-man run in front of him.
The pass was like a scalpel, cutting through Valladolid's seemingly tight defence and quickly into the box. At the same time, Oliveira also showed good physique and running awareness.
He pressed forward to make sure he wasn't offside, then turned around and picked up speed with all his might, shaking off the entire Valladolid defence. So far, he and Aimar have been very successful in their passing.
Valencia fans also smelled the goal at this moment and felt that the goal should have been secured, and many of them had already raised their hands and were ready to jump up from their seats to cheer for the goal.
But then, Oliveira's first touch of the ball brought their chok-up cheers back into their stomachs.
It's hard to imagine that a Brazilian striker, who is already famous, would stop the least difficult pass a metre away from the ball and fall right into the arms of a goalkeeper who has already attacked out of desperation.
Accompanied by the sparse sighs of Valencia fans, Oliveira himself couldn't help but cover his face with his hands, looking like he had no face to see.
The impact of his rotten arrival at home is comprehensive.
First of all, Inácio on the sidelines couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, his face full of happiness for the rest of his life.
The hero on the bench thumped his chest and lamented such a great chance to score. He had already rushed out of the bench and was ready to score, but he could only look up and sigh helplessly at this time.
But the good news is that he doesn't have to go back to the bench.
Because even Benitez, who has a good old personality, can't continue to endure Oliveira's inaction at this moment, with a wave of his hand and a shout, the shooters on the bench all went to the sidelines to start warming up, including heroes.
At this time, the camera also swept over the group of heroes in due time, telling everyone that Benitez finally couldn't sit still and was about to change his moves.
In the case that most people deliberately ignore the hero and start to analyze who is most likely to play, the hero's appearance is to make the eyes of the four and a half people light up and shake their spirits.
"Ahh Brother Hero! ”
"This kid is really valued by Benitez"
"Baby son, is this going to play?"
"I don't know, it depends on the people"
"Ouch!"
"Hmph, I don't know, I don't know, I don't care about my son at all."
(The young father who was injured in the waist was silently crying)
In addition to these four people, there is also half of the people who are Inacio.
"Who is that Chinese teenager, it's a little familiar!"