Chapter 1 A Change of Strategy

No one likes being led by the nose, and Schalke 04 is no exception. So Yang Muge changed his original defensive strategy against Zhou Yi. He began to follow Zhou Yi closely, never leaving him, always within a meter, like Zhou Yi's shadow.

"Lao Yang and Zhou Yi, what constellation?" Sun Pan, who was watching the game on TV in the group, suddenly said.

"Huh?" Guo Nu was stunned.

"What is it?" He Ying couldn't guess for a moment.

"Gemini!" Sun Pan announced the answer.

Everyone looked at the TV screen, and there was always Yang Muge next to Zhou Yi. The two of them stood side by side, ran shoulder to shoulder, and really looked like Gemini…

"Pfft!"

"233333"

It was indeed quite funny, but the people on the field didn't find it funny at all.

When Yang Muge closely marked Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi also felt the pressure.

He had played against many top-notch defensive midfielders, and compared to them, Yang Muge's overall strength was inferior, but he excelled in one aspect: resilience.

Lao Yang was a very resilient player. He was usually inconspicuous and unremarkable, and he wasn't the kind of dazzling star on the field. But if you ignored him because of that, you'd suffer a great loss. He was silent, low-key, and didn't show off, so he was the kind of opponent who was difficult to defeat. He would stick to you, even if he didn't have a chance to appear on camera in a whole game, he wouldn't care, as long as he could mark you to death.

Zhou Yi knew this very well when he was teammates with Lao Yang. In the virtual matches of the past few days, he found that Lao Yang was even stronger than before.

His resilience was like chewing gum, once you were stuck, it was not easy to shake it off.

No matter how Zhou Yi ran, Yang Muge followed him.

Even when he was running off the ball.

The two of them were so close that it was convenient for them to chat.

"Lao Yang, you don't really have to follow me like this, you see I haven't gotten the ball in a minute," Zhou Yi said to Yang Muge next to him.

"Of course, that's because we're in possession," Yang Muge replied.

"Aren't you tired from running like this?" Zhou Yi asked.

"My stamina is better than yours, Zhou Yi," Yang Muge said with a smile.

"Do you think following me will contain Borussia Dortmund's attack? Borussia Dortmund isn't just me!"

"At least it can contain more than fifty percent of Borussia Dortmund's attack, right?"

"..." Zhou Yi was speechless at such a resilient Yang Muge.

"Are you sure you want to keep following me like this?" He finally asked helplessly.

Just as he was speaking, Schalke 04 launched a quick attack, quickly moving from their own half to Borussia Dortmund's goal, and then Farfan shot the ball into Borussia Dortmund's goal!

The entire Arena AufSchalke stadium exploded at that moment, and Schalke 04 fans jumped from their seats and cheered.

In the cheers, Yang Muge turned to Zhou Yi and said, "I won't follow you now!"

After saying that, he ran to the frontcourt to celebrate the goal with his teammates.

Zhou Yi rolled his eyes behind him.

※※※

"Farfan!! Schalke 04 takes the lead! Only ten minutes into the game, they are ahead!" Marcel Reif shouted excitedly. He was not a Schalke 04 supporter, but he was not a Borussia Dortmund supporter either. As a neutral commentator, he just wanted the game to be more exciting and intense. The sooner the goal was scored, the better.

Farfan was also very excited after scoring the goal, and he even took off his jersey to celebrate.

This action earned him a yellow card after the celebration.

But it didn't matter, he didn't take it to heart at all. Being able to score in the derby was enough to excite him.

Draxler rushed up to celebrate the goal with him. Farfan's goal came from his assist.

"Draxler said before the game that he wouldn't let Borussia Dortmund celebrate the championship at Arena AufSchalke, and he is indeed working very hard in the game!"

The Schalke 04 players finished celebrating and returned to their own half. The Borussia Dortmund players were already waiting to kick off in their own half.

Yang Muge was finally no longer next to Zhou Yi.

The Chinese commentator Duan Xin said: "Zhou Yi was active for a few minutes at the beginning of this game, and then he was restricted by Yang Muge. It seems that Schalke 04 was right to let Yang Muge deal with Zhou Yi, because Yang Muge knows Zhou Yi best... His close defense of Zhou Yi also prevented Zhou Yi from having any decent performance in these few minutes. After Zhou Yi was restricted, Borussia Dortmund's offensive efficiency immediately decreased, which gave Schalke 04 an opportunity. That's how this goal was scored..."

In fact, Yang Muge's contribution was not as obvious as Duan Xin said, but it did exist. If Duan Xin was not a Chinese commentator, he might not have noticed it, nor would he have mentioned it. Most people would not notice what Yang Muge had silently contributed.

This was unfair to Yang Muge, but Yang Muge didn't care whether it was fair or not. He just had to do his job well. Other people's comments were not important to him.

After the game restarted, Yang Muge quickly found Zhou Yi again in the crowd and came to his side.

Zhou Yi didn't chat with Yang Muge this time. He was thinking seriously. If there were no accidents in this game, he would face such a situation throughout the whole game - Lao Yang would definitely follow him one hundred percent of the time, unless he was substituted, but he believed that Schalke 04's coach Stevens should not be so idiotic as to substitute Lao Yang.

So, how could he organize the attack when there was always someone shadowing him?

If there was really no good way to organize the attack, then he wouldn't organize it.

This was Zhou Yi's countermeasure.

Because as he had said to Lao Yang, Borussia Dortmund wasn't just him, Shinji Kagawa also had a good passing ability, and he could also organize the attack. He was originally a defensive midfielder, mainly controlling the rhythm.

Moreover, after Schalke 04 had just scored a goal, what Borussia Dortmund needed was not more through balls, but to stabilize the rhythm and frustrate Schalke 04's sharpness. They had just scored a goal and would definitely be thinking about taking advantage of the situation to score a few more goals.

At this time, if Borussia Dortmund were to attack head-on with them, they would probably be defeated because their morale was not as high as the opponent's.

So at this time, they had to use "softness" to dissolve Schalke 04's "hardness", just like practicing Tai Chi. Using softness to overcome hardness, dissolving all of Schalke 04's strength into nothing!

Zhou Yi passed the ball back and sideways more often, and Yang Muge couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't just defend in front and intercept the ball, could he? If he did, Zhou Yi would most likely pass the ball directly to the front. With Yang Muge's understanding of Zhou Yi, he was sure that Zhou Yi would definitely do that.

So he could only block him behind Zhou Yi, preventing him from going forward. As for Zhou Yi's passes back and sideways, he mostly just interfered, hoping that Zhou Yi would pass the ball off target under his interference. But with Zhou Yi's ability, it was not easy to pass it off target.

Under Zhou Yi's continuous passes back and sideways, the rhythm of the game was gradually slowed down, and Schalke 04's morale, which had risen after scoring the goal, gradually decreased in the slow-paced game. But they were still not willing to let go of this excellent opportunity.

The decline in morale and the unwillingness in their hearts made them somewhat divided, and the Schalke 04 players showed a little impatience.

In Zhou Yi's view, this was a good opportunity.

Any disunity in the opponent's thoughts would provide him with the conditions for a counterattack.

Now the only question was how to send the ball to the most critical place, ensuring a fatal blow without alarming the enemy.

Yang Muge was still following him closely. If Zhou Yi went forward again, it would not be just Yang Muge defending him. He would face a more severe defensive environment, and the space would be almost compressed to zero.

This was the Revierderby, and Zhou Yi was not exaggerating. He would really encounter such a situation.

So how to launch an attack?

Zhou Yi was still constantly looking around in the game, observing the situation, and trying to remember every corner of the field.

Through observation, he found that Schalke 04's defense was not completely without loopholes. Because they wanted to score more goals, Schalke 04's attacking line was pressing relatively high. In order not to be disconnected from the front and back, their defensive line was also slightly advanced. Only when Borussia Dortmund played the ball into their frontcourt would their defensive line quickly retreat and shrink back into the penalty area. Before that, they were all outside the penalty area.

Although the distance from the defensive line to the goal was not particularly far, and the space was not particularly large, Zhou Yi felt that according to the pattern of Schalke 04's defensive line, it could be used well.

Of course, any attack could not rely on Zhou Yi alone, and required the cooperation of other teammates. But Zhou Yi was not worried about this problem, because he had a group of very good teammates who knew his playing style and knew how to run and respond to him.

So he just needed to send the ball out.

Thinking of this, he ran forward a few steps and came near the center line.

Then he did not stand with his back to the attacking direction, but moved horizontally along the center line from the wing to the center circle. The speed was not fast, just like his usual jogging, and there was no sign of anything.

Subotic passed the ball up from behind, first to Sven Bender, and then Sven Bender passed the ball to Zhou Yi.

In general, in this case, Zhou Yi would continue to pass the ball sideways or back, like before, to control the rhythm.

No matter how Zhou Yi passed the ball, Yang Muge still pressed forward according to his usual tactics, preventing Zhou Yi from passing the ball forward or breaking through.

But what he didn't expect was that Zhou Yi didn't stop the ball. He directly kicked the ball passed by Sven Bender sideways with his right foot, and the ball flew past him, directly towards... Schalke 04's backfield!

"Zhou Yi... a through ball over the top!!"