Chapter 143 A Shadow

“Zhou Yi completely dominates Dortmund's attack! It seems that no matter what position he plays, no matter how far he is from the goal, as long as the ball is given to him, he can always create a threat! This ball he passed to Großkreutz was perfect!"

Duan Xin on TV seemed very excited.

Zhou Jianliang in front of the TV was also very excited. He slapped his thigh hard: "Good ball!"

※※※

On the Südtribüne (South Stand), a huge cheer erupted after Großkreutz scored.

The cheers drowned out everything else.

Marcel Reif had to raise his voice as much as possible in such cheers.

"Zhou Yi! A beautiful assist! Großkreutz has completed his first league goal of the season, which is also Dortmund's first league goal of the season! Unlike the first game of last season, this time, Dortmund entered the game relatively quickly. Although they didn't score until the thirty-sixth minute, they had the initiative in their hands before that!"

※※※

After Großkreutz scored, Bayer Leverkusen's coach, Heynckes, quickly made adjustments on the sidelines.

After observing for half an hour, he found that Zhou Yi, except for the very beginning of the game when he played as a defensive midfielder, became more and more like an attacking midfielder. He returned to his old ways of playing as an attacking midfielder, both in terms of position and style of play.

What does this mean?

Either it means that Zhou Yi himself is not really familiar with the position of defensive midfielder and still prefers to play as an attacking midfielder, so he subconsciously plays as an attacking midfielder.

Or it means that Klopp doesn't have strict restrictions on Zhou Yi's position, but allows Zhou Yi to do whatever he wants.

Either way, it shows that Zhou Yi hasn't changed much from last season. He is still organizing the attack in the way he is best at, in the place he is most familiar with.

Heynckes' adjustment was to arrange for someone to follow Zhou Yi all the time, using a pressing style to limit him from the moment the ball is passed to Zhou Yi, not allowing him to receive and pass the ball easily.

This task was given to Vidal.

While Dortmund players were celebrating the goal, he called Vidal to the sidelines and gave him instructions face-to-face.

"Wherever he goes, I go?" Vidal confirmed to Heynckes.

"Yes, wherever he goes, you go," Heynckes confirmed.

"What if he retreats to the defensive midfielder position?" Vidal asked again.

"Then you follow him," Heynckes said without hesitation.

"Okay, I understand," Vidal nodded.

Next, he ran back to the field, waiting for the game to restart.

Soon, the Dortmund players also finished celebrating, and they ran back to their own half.

The game restarted.

※※※

At the kickoff, Zhou Yi was standing in the defensive midfielder position again. But for Heynckes now, it didn't matter whether Zhou Yi played as an attacking midfielder or a defensive midfielder, anyway, there would be a Vidal following him wherever he went.

After the kickoff, Dortmund took advantage of the momentum of just taking the lead and launched a fierce attack on Bayer Leverkusen's goal.

During this process, Zhou Yi once again raised his position.

Unlike the last time, this time, there was an extra Bayer Leverkusen player beside him.

Vidal followed him closely.

No matter how Zhou Yi ran, it was difficult to shake off Vidal.

At the beginning, as soon as Zhou Yi received the ball, Vidal crashed into him, and the ball at Zhou Yi's feet was immediately knocked away, and Zhou Yi also fell to the ground. Fortunately, the referee called a foul on Vidal, otherwise Bayer Leverkusen could have used this opportunity to launch a counterattack against Dortmund.

From then on, Zhou Yi obviously sped up the speed of passing and receiving the ball, and then kept running, trying to shake off Vidal.

But Vidal was like chewing gum, stuck to Zhou Yi, and it was not so easy to shake him off.

He followed Zhou Yi, running from left to right, from front to back.

He perfectly implemented Heynckes' tactical arrangement - wherever Zhou Yi goes, he goes.

Everyone saw that Vidal was stuck on Zhou Yi.

"Zhou Yi is now like playing football with a person on his back, and the field conditions are not very good, so his performance has been affected..."

Duan Xin frowned as she spoke.

Zhou Jianliang in front of the TV also frowned.

He knew his son's weaknesses very well. Such close marking, even without physical contact, forcing Zhou Yi to keep running, was a great drain on his stamina.

You know, the stamina consumed in a rainy game is faster and more than on a normal field.

So running like this, Zhou Yi's stamina is being consumed faster than in a rainy game!

At the same time, Marcel Reif said on the scene: "Zhou Yi is trying to get rid of Vidal, but no matter where he goes, there is always such a person beside him, Vidal is like his shadow..."

Zhou Yi obviously realized this as well. If he continued to run like this, he might not be able to get rid of Vidal.

Anyway, the first half is almost over now, and Dortmund is one goal ahead, so the need for goals is not so urgent. So Zhou Yi simply didn't run so much anymore.

From constantly running to find gaps to walking around, without caring about gaps.

Of course, his teammates would still pass the ball to him, but Zhou Yi mostly passed the ball back and sideways, and always chose the closest, easiest, and safest route to pass, rarely passing forward anymore.

His passing was actually very boring, but it made it difficult for Vidal to steal the ball.

His teammates saw that Zhou Yi always had Vidal beside him, and then saw Zhou Yi passing the ball back to them, and they more or less knew what it meant - pass the ball to Zhou Yi less during this time, so they turned around and passed the ball to others.

Vidal, who had been following him, was not very satisfied, because every time he rushed up, Zhou Yi would kick the ball back...

This made him feel like he had run for nothing.

So when moving with Zhou Yi, he said in German beside Zhou Yi, "Hey, Chinese kid, are you Chinese so timid?"

This kind of regional attack is often a powerful move. Once said, it has a strong attack power and can instantly anger the opponent.

This is also one of Vidal's trash-talking attack methods. He hopes to use this method to anger Zhou Yi and make him lose his composure.

Generally speaking, this approach is always effective in games.

The most famous example is in the 2006 World Cup final, when Italy's defender Materazzi used trash talk to attack France's captain Zidane, causing the latter to be furious and headbutt Materazzi, earning himself a red card, bidding farewell to the game in advance, and also making himself and the French team miss the Hercules Cup.

On the basketball court, because the space is small and the direct contact distance between players is closer, trash talk is common and even a well-known tactic.

On the football field, because the space is too large, players are often far apart, so trash talk is not very popular.

But whenever there is an opportunity, such a distinctive tactic will appear.

It's just that Vidal met an oddball who was not an ordinary person this time.

After he said this, Zhou Yi didn't react and continued to run. It wasn't until about a second later that Zhou Yi suddenly turned his head and looked at him with a confused look, asking in English, "Excuse me?"

Vidal was stunned - didn't this kid understand?

This made him feel a little frustrated. This kind of trash talk cannot be repeated, and if it is repeated, it will not be lethal. It's like telling someone a joke, and after telling it, the other person doesn't laugh, and you have to explain the joke again, which is too boring.

But Vidal quickly reacted - this kid has been playing in the Bundesliga for a season, and there is no problem communicating with his teammates, so how could he not understand what he just said?

So he snorted: "Pretend, keep pretending! You can't understand?"

Zhou Yi frowned, making a listening expression, as if it was difficult to understand Vidal's words.

Then he replied in fluent German: "Ah, I'm sorry, your German has an accent, which makes it a bit difficult to understand, I'm sorry. But what did you say in the previous sentence?"

Vidal almost turned around and left in anger - if he hadn't remembered what his task was when he was about to turn around, Vidal might have really left.

Trash talk meets shamelessness, and there is no way...

But if Vidal was a little more shameless, he would really repeat his map cannon just now to see how Zhou Yi would respond.

But unfortunately, Vidal's temper is a bit explosive, his personality is straightforward, but he doesn't have Zhou Yi's wit, so he was so angry by Zhou Yi that he couldn't speak.

Zhou Yi glanced at Vidal again, and seeing that he really didn't speak, he turned his head back, ignored him, and walked around on the court by himself, and then casually received and passed the ball.

As the core of the team, Zhou Yi played like this, and Dortmund couldn't speed up even if they wanted to, and followed the slow pace.

Anyway, there was not much time left in the first half, and they were still one goal ahead, so slowing down the pace was nothing.

So the whole team followed Zhou Yi and slowed down the pace, focusing on controlling the ball.

Time passed in a slightly boring game, and came to the end of the first half.

The referee blew the whistle, and the first half of the game ended.

The players from both sides quickly ran to the sidelines, unwilling to continue to get wet in the rain. Zhou Yi was also among them, even running faster, and rushed into the tunnel in a puff of smoke.

Vidal saw Zhou Yi so agile from behind, and Zhou Yi's dialogue with him flashed in his mind. This bastard... is really a bastard!

He is now very sure that he was being played.

But it doesn't matter, he won't give him any chance to pass a fatal ball in the second half!