Chapter VII: Rooney's Problem

"Lee! I have to say..... you're really...awesome! ”

After a sprint training session, Rooney stood next to Li Qingshan with his knees and said breathlessly.

Although this kind of physical training does make the players physically consume a lot, there are very few people like Rooney who start to gasp like this after a round, of course, like Li Qingshan, who has nothing to do, is Li Qingshan alone.

Li Qingshan looked at Rooney, who was panting, and sighed in his heart.

He remembered Ronaldo, who was the same age as Rooney, both of whom are in their thirties this year, but in terms of physical fitness alone, Rooney is already far behind Ronaldo.

Thirty was supposed to be the peak age of a footballer, but when it came to Rooney, it looked like he was already thirty-five. Today's Rooney no longer has the speed and explosiveness of his youth. And now, even the physical condition is worrying.

This is not without reason.

On the first day Li Qingshan came to the team, he invited all the players to have a meal. Chinese are still very good at how to build good relations.

At the dinner, Li Qingshan can be regarded as seeing another side of the English players.

Men in England are generally good at drinking, and Li Qingshan has seen many alcoholic English men when he was in Lianman before. It's just that they were amateur players at the time, and they didn't drink anything.

But as a professional footballer, it's terrible to drink so much.

A group of professional athletes pushed their glasses and changed their glasses of wine to the point of being unconscious. Li Qingshan has seen such a thing for the first time.

There are also many players in La Liga who can drink, but Li Qingshan has never seen Rooney drink like this.

This is probably the main reason why Rooney's form has fallen so badly as soon as he has passed 30.

Li Qingshan wanted to speak and stopped, but in the end he didn't say anything.

Everyone has their own choice. Even if Rooney is a heavy drinker, he is already famous, maybe Rooney himself doesn't care how long he can play, and he is a newcomer to the team, what position can he have to mention this kind of thing.

In the dross of football culture in England, alcohol has never been able to get around.

Even now, and in an age of professionalism, players are rarely blamed for going out for a few drinks in a nightclub, let alone in the seventies and eighties, or even earlier.

Li Qingshan could only be secretly vigilant by himself. He wants to play for many more years.

………

On 18 July, Manchester United played their first match of the International Champions Cup, taking on América Mexico from Mexico.

The game was played at Century Connect Field in Seattle. It was originally built for football games, but it can also host soccer games and is shared by NFL team Seattle Seahawks and MLS's Seattle Sounders.

Despite the fact that Mexico America is the team of Mexico, the southern neighbour of the United States, the majority of Manchester United fans in red jerseys still make up the majority of stadiums.

After all, the United States is a country with an English-speaking cultural circle, and it is not the same path as Mexico's Spanish-Latin cultural circle. As a British giant, Manchester United has a very high reputation and influence in the United States.

Therefore, Americans who like to watch all kinds of sports games, even for such a warm-up cup game, are quite enthusiastic, especially when the side of the game is still the famous Manchester United, there are many American gentlemen who help the old and the young to walk into the stadium with hamburgers and fries wearing Manchester United jerseys and Seattle Seahawks caps, just like coming to a grand party.

Manchester United, as a team, has an undoubted overall reputation, but in the past two years, Manchester United's star has dimmed a lot. Not to mention comparing with Real Madrid, which is a big star in every position, even teams like Atletico Madrid and Dortmund, Manchester United's lineup is not luxurious compared to them.

Fortunately, with the addition of Li Qingshan, at least Manchester United has a star who can afford to support the scene.

When Li Qingshan walked into the football field converted from a football field with the team, many Chinese fans who came to the stadium to watch the game began to chant Li Qingshan's name, and under their leadership, those Americans who loved to join in the fun also began to chant.

There is no doubt that Li Qingshan is the player who gets the most cheers on this stadium.

América Mexico is a giant team in the Americas, but they certainly don't have enough to see against Manchester United.

Because it was a warm-up game, there were no restrictions on substitutions, so Ancelotti could also make the most of this game to experiment with different formations and tactical plays.

Carlo Ancelotti started with a 4231 formation.

The goalkeeper is undoubtedly David De Gea, with right wing-back Valencia, centre-back Carlo Ancelotti using a partnership between Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo, and new signing Blind at left wing-back.

The two midfielders are Kramer and Herrera, with Di Maria on the left and Juan Mata on the right, and captain Rooney in the midfield position.

Center Li Qingshan.

The 4231 lineup relies heavily on the dominance of the center, and at this point, there is no doubt that Li Qingshan can do a good job.

In the first half of the game, Li Qingshan completed two header goals, Di Maria and Mata, one left and one right respectively crossed to assist Li Qingshan to score.

In the first half of the game, Ancelotti was still satisfied with the offensive performance, but in defense, it gave Ancelotti a huge headache.

Despite the first half of the game, Manchester United, with their far stronger overall strength than their opponents, has always pressed América Mexico into their own penalty area. However, América Mexico had only two counter-attacking chances in the first half to take advantage of a mistake by Chris Smalling's header to score.

Playing directly behind the two centre-backs, the England international was a bit scrambling to use his pace to attack Smalling's defensive zone. The tall Chris Smalling is not good at defending this kind of behind-the-back ball.

It looks like he has to put some pressure on Edwardwood's side and bring in a reassuring centre-back to guard the defence.

And the problem that also gave Ancelotti a headache was about Rooney's position.

Putting Wayne Rooney in the midfield position now looks ......... He didn't play much. In attack, Ancelotti mainly hopes to go on the side and create opportunities for Li Qingshan through crosses from both sides.

And Rooney's main responsibility in the offensive position is to get into the box and act as a point-grabbing player. If it was Rooney when he was younger, I believe he could have done well.

But now Rooney, the impact is not as good as before, and the skills in the penalty area are against the players of Mexico and America, he is a little untenable, let alone those muscular men in the Premier League.

In terms of defense, Rooney's position is also very crucial, he needs to turn into a defensive state as soon as possible, delay or directly cut off the opponent's direct counterattack from the middle.

Rooney, on the other hand, despite his hard work in defense and movement, has always been a forward, and he is expected to make good defensive picks and complete high-quality one-on-one defenses............ That would be unrealistic.

It would have been fine if Rooney had been an ordinary player, but he was still the captain of the team.

Looks like it's time to talk to Rooney......