During the game against Arsenal, Liang Qiqi was once again on the bench.
Actually, this wasn't surprising anymore. From the moment Hao Dong announced that Zhou Yi would be the team's organizing core, Liang Qiqi should have understood that he had become a substitute.
He didn't have as many people around him in the team as before, which made him very disappointed.
And very unwilling.
He couldn't accept this reality at all, but now he could only wait, waiting for his chance, just like Zhou Yi had waited for his chance in the beginning.
Liang Qiqi knew that Zhou Yi's physical fitness was not good, so this kid definitely wouldn't be able to withstand continuous high-intensity matches.
And excellent performance on the field requires physical fitness to support it. He didn't believe that Zhou Yi could put on any decent performance when he couldn't even run.
When Zhou Yi's physical fitness is poor or his performance is bad, that will be his chance!
This time, he would take back everything he had lost!
The starting position and the importance others placed on him!
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Arsenal's Under-17 youth team is also very strong. In English football, Arsenal's youth training has always been famous, and they have also cultivated many stars who are now playing in professional football.
Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, is also known for his emphasis on youth training and his willingness to give young players opportunities.
Arsenal's first team has many young players who have been promoted from the youth academy.
Some of these young players have already become starters in the first team, while others usually train with the first team, and they will get starting or substitute opportunities in the League Cup or less important league matches. Most of the time, they participate in matches with the youth team.
So it is no longer appropriate to say that these people are purely youth team players. In fact, they are already youth team players with first-team capabilities.
And today, these players also appeared in the match against the Chinese teenagers.
For example, attacking midfielder Jack Wilshere, defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin, and forward Gilles Sunu.
These three are all players who have signed professional contracts, but because the first team is overcrowded, they cannot guarantee stable playing time in the first team, so they mostly play with the youth team.
Coquelin got his first professional league appearance in his career in Arsenal's home league match against Sheffield United some time ago. He came on as a substitute and helped the team win 6-0.
And Wilshere started in that match and scored a goal.
Jack Wilshere is already considered a key figure who can lead the England team in the future, and his talent has excited the entire English media and fans.
Some people compare him to Fabregas. Fabregas, who is now the captain of Arsenal, plays as a midfielder. He was sixteen years old when he first played for the first team, and Wilshere is also sixteen years old.
Arsenal fans think the picture is too beautiful when they think that Arsenal's midfield will be composed of Fabregas and Wilshere in the future...
Logically speaking, the Arsenal youth team with such a strong lineup should have completely controlled the rhythm from the beginning of the match, and then quickly ended the battle, turning the remaining time into garbage time.
Standing on the sidelines of the youth team training ground, Tim Kistner, wearing a baseball cap, thought so.
This was the first time he watched a match of these Chinese teenagers. He believed that judging from the results of the past few matches, the strength of this Chinese team should not be very strong. It was very normal for them to lose to Arsenal, and the only suspense was how many goals they would lose by.
As for the match against the Borussia Dortmund youth team... Kistner chose to forget it.
But when the match started, Kistner found that the situation was not quite what he had imagined.
The Arsenal youth army led by Wilshere did not gain an absolute advantage when facing the Chinese teenagers.
On the contrary, in the midfield, the situation was somewhat deadlocked...
Kistner didn't have to deliberately look for which Chinese teenager on the field was Zhou Yi. The football would help him draw his attention over—when the Chinese team had possession of the ball, the other Chinese players would basically pass the ball to the same person.
The player wearing the number sixteen shirt of the Chinese team was his observation target, Zhou Yi.
At first glance, Zhou Yi's passing was very plain and simple. There were no dazzling fancy passes, such as using the outside of his foot to create an arc, bypassing three defenders, and accurately sending the ball to his teammate's feet, or passing a ground ball forty meters away, accurately piercing through two tackling defenders like a scalpel and sending it to the striker's feet...
Kistner didn't see any of these kinds of passes in the fifteen minutes after the match started.
He just ran, received the ball, passed the ball, ran again, received the ball again, and passed the ball again.
Many of the passes were short-distance passes of about five to ten meters, which were not difficult and had almost no technical content.
But Kistner, a scout who had seen countless people, would certainly not think that Zhou Yi was a dud because of this.
He quickly saw the deeper meaning in these unremarkable passes.
He narrowed his eyes and carefully observed Zhou Yi's every run, pass, and reception. He found that all of Zhou Yi's actions on the field were not as "understated" as he showed, and were certainly not accidental.
Every run of his seemed to be carefully calculated, and he was always able to run into space to receive the ball, so that he was basically undisturbed when receiving the ball.
He just ran, received the ball, and passed the ball, and he was able to let the Chinese team tie with the Arsenal youth team in the midfield. Fifteen minutes had passed since the start of the match, and the Arsenal youth team had not been able to score a goal! From the midfield, the two sides were evenly matched!
Kistner understood somewhat why Klopp was interested in this kid.
This is a Xavi-esque player!
At Barcelona, Xavi has always been an inconspicuous but very important figure. In the eyes of many people, he may not be as popular as the Brazilian Ronaldinho, nor as dazzling as the Argentine genius Messi, but those who truly understand what Barcelona football means will understand Xavi's role and value in that team.
In the early days of Rijkaard's coaching of Barcelona, Xavi's starting position was not stable, and his role in the team was not as important as Deco and Ronaldinho.
But in the later period of Rijkaard's coaching, Xavi's role became more and more obvious.
Now that Guardiola, who also came from the La Masia system, is coaching the Barcelona first team, Xavi's importance is immediately highlighted.
With the cooperation of Iniesta and Busquets and Messi, Xavi has organized Barcelona's midfield in an orderly manner.
This discovery surprised Kistner somewhat.
With his understanding of the level of Chinese football, he really didn't expect that there would be such an alternative player among Chinese players.
Which club does he play for in China?
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It wasn't just Borussia Dortmund scout Tim Kistner who was surprised, but also Liam Brady, the head of Arsenal's youth training, who was watching the match from the sidelines.
He had originally been accompanying and watching the match from the sidelines out of courtesy to the Chinese guests.
But after watching for only ten minutes, he became focused and serious.
Of course, he wasn't watching Wilshere. He already knew the current Arsenal youth team very well. He knew what position each child was good at and what their technical characteristics were.
His eyes were locked on the number sixteen of the Chinese team.
Although Zhou Yi had not made any passes that could threaten Arsenal's goal in the ten minutes of the match.
But as a coach who has been engaged in youth football training for more than ten years, this is purely a kind of football instinct.
He saw some clues from Zhou Yi's every run.
He originally thought it was just a formality match, but he didn't expect to make a new discovery now. But Brady didn't come to any conclusions immediately.
He needed more observation. In his career, he had seen countless talented children. Some people's talents were even like a blazing sun, making them impossible to look at directly. But in the end, these people all fell, and they didn't even wait for the chance to shine.
A child has talent, but that doesn't mean he has the ability to make a name for himself in professional football.
Brady continued to observe Zhou Yi without showing any emotion.
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In addition to the Borussia Dortmund scout and the Arsenal youth training director, perhaps the most surprised person was Jack Wilshere on the field.
He hadn't paid much attention to participating in this match.
For him, this was just a remedy to maintain his match fitness after he was not selected for the first team's match roster.
Since participating in a series of warm-up matches with the first team this summer and having a good performance, Wilshere has set his goal to gain a firm foothold in the first team and become a real "Gunner."
After starting in the league match against Sheffield United and scoring a goal, his mind was basically not on the youth team anymore. He believed that in the current youth team level matches, his strength was outstanding and he couldn't find any opponents.
The youth team matches were no longer meaningful for him to improve himself. He still had to go to a bigger stage to challenge stronger opponents.
At first, he was a little disappointed when he knew that he was not selected for the first team's match roster for this match, and his mood was not very high, so naturally it was impossible for him to concentrate on this youth team match.
But after fifteen minutes, he found that this youth team match was a little different from the past.
Before the match, he heard that this was a youth team from China, and it was a recording session for a TV reality show program. All the Arsenal youth team players, including him, thought that this match would be very easy to play and would be solved casually. Maybe after the match, their jerseys wouldn't even be wet.
But now the goal that they thought would come easily was delayed, and they didn't know when it would come.
Wilshere had already felt the pressure.
At first, he didn't take his opponents seriously, but now when he started to pay attention to his opponents, he found that in his territory—the midfield area—he seemed to have met his opponent...