At the hotel where Aston Villa stayed, their head coach Martin O'Neal gathered all the players and coaches to hold the last tactical meeting. At this meeting, it is necessary to clarify the tactics used by the team tomorrow and the countermeasures that the opponent may use.

This is a meeting that is directly related to the results of the next day's match. Everyone must take it seriously.

"Manchester City focuses on wing offense, which is their tradition. This is their regular offensive routine." Martin O'Neal explained to everyone here in front of the tactical board.

In Manchester City, Wright Phillips and Petrov are both good at attacking on the wing. They can take turns to attack Aston Villa's sides.

"Wright Phillips is in good shape recently. Mark Hughes will definitely pay attention to the wing in the game tomorrow." Martin O'Neal said, but judging from Manchester City's last two warm-up games, Zhang Yang and other Manchester City players are not tacit enough. Most of the time, he is alone in the frontcourt. Therefore, although Manchester City has a great threat to the wing, their tacit understanding is insufficient. This is our opportunity. If Zhang Yang cuts off the connection between other Manchester City, he will have nothing to be afraid of."

Martin O'Neal is cheering up his players. After all, against Manchester City, Zhang Yang is a name they have to mention.

"Our defense focuses on the wings. As long as the two Manchester City teams fight together, their offense will be no threat. Zhang Yang-" Martin O'Neal pointed Zhang Yang's name again, "Isolate him and isolate him from other Manchester City players, and his threat is much less."

"Garrez." Martin O'Neal pointed out the team's midfielder and also the team's deputy captain Garez Barry's name, "Tomorrow you will focus on taking care of Zhang Yang."

Gareth Barry nodded vigorously, obviously very satisfied with Martin O'Neal's arrangement. Leaving Zhang Yang to him for dealing with this is the head coach's trust in him. He knew that Zhang Yang was at its peak now, and many media even said that this young man was the most powerful shooter now. However, Gareth Barry did not think so. In his opinion, Zhang Yang might be really powerful, but it was not as exaggerated as the media said. He believed that Zhang Yang's strength was more likely to be hyped up by the media. He knew the virtues of the media very well.

Gareth Barry has played against Van Nisstrui and Henry in the Premier League. He has had experience in playing against top stars. Although he has never played against Zhang Yang, he is not afraid of Zhang Yang.

Gareth Barry became famous at a young age and has always been favored by many football celebrities. However, his current situation is lukewarm. Although he is also an excellent midfielder, he has been far from people's expectations for him. In the England national team, the existence of Lampard and Gerrard also makes Gareth Barry seem to have no chance to make a comeback.

This time the game with Manchester City attracted a lot of attention. Gareth Barry also took a little thought. If he could defend against the lofty Zhang Yang, he would definitely become the front page headline of major media after the game. It would definitely attract the attention of England coach Capello. Gareth Barry had already learned in advance that in this game, Capello, the head coach of the Three Lions, would go to Villa Park players to watch the game. This is a good opportunity for him to increase his position in Capello's heart.

Gareth Barry's battle was very strong and he wanted to kill Zhang Yang alone.

However, his head coach Martin O'Neal obviously saw more thoroughly, knowing that this is an extremely difficult task. After arranging Gareth Barry's task, Martin O'Neal said to Sidwell, who had just transferred from Chelsea to Aston Villa, "Steve, your task is also very difficult in this game. Pay attention to the defense of the two wings. At the same time, you must assist in defending Gareth depending on the situation."

Sidwell clicked on him and said he knew.

Obviously, Martin O'Neal is more aware of Zhang Yang's strength than his players. He adopted the tactic of double midfielders to limit Manchester City's attack line, especially Zhang Yang.

Seeing the head coach arranged for Sidwell to help him, Gareth Barry was a little dissatisfied, but he didn't say anything. He was already twenty-seven, and he was quite mature at the golden age of a midfielder. Naturally, he wouldn't say it at this time, "No need for others to help, I'll do it alone." It would be better to hold it in and perform well on the court if you have such anger.

"First stabilize the defense. Then wait for an opportunity to counterattack. Manchester City is a team that is used to counterattack against others, but they are not good at dealing with other people's defensive counterattacks. At the beginning, Manchester City will habitually sleepwalking. This means that we have to make efforts at the beginning, which is a good opportunity for us to score goals. Try to seize the opportunity and strive for a quick goal." Martin O'Neal said, "Manchester City is not a team that is good at fighting tough battles. As long as we score first and continue to put pressure on, then we will win the game."

After explaining the tactics, Martin O'Neal announced the starting list for tomorrow's game.

The goalkeeper is Friedel, the national goalkeeper; the line is lined up on the back line, Luke Young, Kudis Davis, Raulson, and Shorey; in the midfield, Stiley Young, Petrov, Sidwell, Gareth Barry, and Ashley Young; the forward line is the partner of Abonraho and Karu.

This is the strongest lineup that Martin O'Neal can come up with at present.

It can be seen how much he attaches importance to this game.

Originally, Manchester City was really not eye-catching among the twenty Premier League teams. Even after they had an Arab father, people were only concerned about the gossip news of this "nova" team.

However, after they really invested more than 70 million pounds to introduce Zhang Yang, they became a team that received the same attention as Manchester United and Chelsea.

Now that the first game of the new season is about to begin, the media are naturally paying more attention.

Can Zhang Yang adapt to the Premier League?

Can Zhang Yang score a goal in the first game and continue the momentum of this young man's must-scoring goal in his debut?

How many goals will Zhang Yang score in his first game?

Will Manchester City win? What will the result of their strategy of gamble and show off?

These issues are discussed the most by the media. Most media are optimistic about Zhang Yang. After all, Zhang Yang is absolutely qualified to make people confident in him. In the three seasons of his debut, he has twice, breaks the Ligue 1 Golden Boots in succession, breaks the Ligue 1 goal record, the two consecutive Champions League Golden Boots in succession, breaks the Champions League goal record, and the Serie A Golden Boots in Serie A. These have made Zhang Yang very popular. People are very optimistic about this young man.

"…The 22-year-old Chinese Zhang no longer needs to prove anything. Although he is just over 22 years old, this young man is already the most powerful striker in the world. What he has to do now is to contribute a goal show to the fans and listen to the applause of the fans." This is a commentary article by the local Manchester media Manchester Guardian. It is interesting to say that in the last season, when AC Milan and Manchester United were duels, this media was the pioneer in criticizing Zhang Yang. Now, Zhang Yang has come to Manchester, and the Manchester Guardian immediately became Zhang Yang's most solid supporter. No, Zhang Yang is now the darling of Manchester fans. As long as he praises Zhang Yang, Manchester fans love to listen.

The media generally support Zhang Yang, and even the always cautious Times said that Zhang Yang's future in the Premier League is bright.

There are also voices of doubt about Zhang Yang. Of course, they would not say that Zhang Yang's ability is not good. Zhang Yang's strength is obvious, and they cannot ignore it. These voices of doubt mainly focus on whether Zhang Yang can adapt to the style and rhythm of the Premier League. They also cited several examples. Many Serie A Golden Boots have been to the Premier League before. The most recent examples are Crespo and Shepchenko, who are also absolute superstars. However, looking at their performance in the Premier League, if Crespo's performance is unsatisfactory, Shepchenko, who also transferred from AC Milan to the Premier League, has become the largest spokesperson for parallel goods in Premier League history.

Therefore, these media said that we doubt Zhang Yang, not questioning his ability, but worrying about his adaptability. The nude beaches on the Apennine Peninsula and the sexy hot girls in England have different tastes. They may not adapt to the environment.

In this game, Manchester City ranked the strongest lineup that can be sent. Although Manchester City played away in this game, the pressure on Manchester City is greater than that of its opponents. Many teams are staring at this game. Manchester City's sudden growth has made them feel alert. If Manchester City performs poorly in this game, they will be a little relieved. There are only a few places in the Champions League and the League Cup in the league. If one more team is going to share the cake, someone will be hungry.

Aston Villa's home court, Villa Park Stadium was full today. The game has not yet begun, and the entire stadium is already like a boiling volcano.

Players from both sides are about to enter the court, and a list of starting players from both sides appears on the big screen of the stadium.

"Let's look at Manchester City's starting lineup today. The goalkeeper is Joe Hart, the two central defenders are Richard Dunn and Kompany, the left back is Javier Javierdo, and the right back Richards."

"In the midfield position, Modric, Martin Petrov, Elano and Sabaleta who just joined Manchester City started... The two forwards are Wright Phillips and Zhang Yang. This is the debut of Zhang Yang and Modric, as well as Sabaleta and Kompani at Manchester City..."

"For Aston Villa, the goalkeeper is Friedel, the two central defenders are Kudis Davis and the Danes Lawrson, the left back is Shaure who transferred from Porto, the right back is Luke Young, and the midfielder is Gareth Barry and Ashley Young are still in the left forward position. Sidwell and Petrov, who have just completed the transfer in the summer, appeared in the starting position, and the forward partner is Abonraho and Karu..."

"Well, two Bulgarians and two Petrovs appeared in the two teams."

"Eddie, what do you think about this game?" After introducing the starting list of both sides, Leinker asked his commentator Eddie Gray.

"Mark Hughes sent the strongest lineup he can send. Wright Phillips will appear in the winger's position in this game. His task is to use his own speed to tear open Aston Villa's defense line, pass the ball and share the pressure for Zhang Yang. Petrov must have carried the same task, while Modric and Ellano's task is to deliver shells to Zhang Yang!" Eddie Gray said, "It is obvious that Mark Hughes has already clarified the team's tactical positioning, that is, everything revolves around Zhang Yang as the core. This is Zhang Yang's debut in Manchester City and the Premier League, and this is also the biggest highlight of this game. His performance is worth paying attention to."

"However, judging from the warm-up situation before the season, there is not enough tacit understanding between Zhang Yang and his teammates, which is also the most important issue that Manchester City needs to solve now." Reinkell expressed a cautious view.

"Haha, let's wait and see." Eddie Gray said with a smile, his appearance of confidence in Zhang Yang. This made Leinker a little strange.

"Eddie, are you a fan of Zhang Yang? I have never heard you say this." Leinker asked.

"That's because Zhang Yang didn't come to the Premier League before." Eddie Grey said happily, "I have been following this young man for one or two seasons. I knew his future was in the Premier League, and it turns out."

Leinker looked at the old partner's saliva flying there, and he despised him and did not take such a thing, and he did not know the word "hindsight", but that's what it means.

Since CCTV was not willing to spend money to purchase the Premier League broadcast rights, it was not able to broadcast the game.

However, before the game, after confirming that Zhang Yang would start in this game with Aston Villa, CCTV, which has always been stingy, found ESPN, which has the exclusive broadcast rights for the Premier League this season, and discussed buying the broadcast of Manchester City vs. Aston Villa. However, ESPN rejected CCTV's offer at once, and they really didn't like that little money. Now my buddy is exclusive broadcasting, and there is no need to waste the opportunity to develop the market for such a little money.

CCTV, which was stingy and short-sighted, finally suffered a big loss. Watching fans across the country screaming and waiting to watch the Premier League game, you can imagine how vast the market behind it is. Some companies that have worked with CCTV for many years have also found CCTV and proposed that if CCTV has no money, their companies can inject capital, as long as they can broadcast Premier League games live and broadcast popular games live. However, at this time, CCTV was powerless, and the broadcasting rights of the Premier League had been sold long ago. CCTV could only swallow the bitter fruit.

It is worth mentioning that the sales of computers across the country have increased significantly. According to a media survey, fans have to suffer from bleeding and improve their equipment in order to be able to see Zhang Yang's game on the Internet through ESPN live broadcast.

Therefore, in this game, fans in mainland China can only watch it through local TV stations that purchased the broadcasting rights. However, local TV stations in their provinces and cities do not have the broadcasting rights, so fans have to watch the game through live broadcast on the Internet.

This has made some old fans suffer. They don’t know how to make things difficult for computers. Many fans don’t have computers, and in the end they really want to watch the game, so they can only go to Internet cafes... This has also led to many middle-aged uncles and even old men in Internet cafes all night.

In the player channel at Villa Park Stadium, Manchester City's starting lineup partner, Zhang Yang and Wright Phillips are talking about something.

Zhang Yang and Wright Phillips had a good relationship. On the first day Zhang Yang came to the team, the two became friends. At that time, Zhang Yang took the initiative to find Wright Phillips and said, "Wright, I am your fan."

This sentence surprised Wright Phillips, thinking to himself, there is no need for this person to flatter himself like this. If you want to say flattery, you should flatter and promote it yourself.

Zhang Yang looked at Wright Phillips' puzzled expression and explained with a smile that during the 2002 season, Zhang Yang was still a fan. He saw a documentary in China about Sun Jihai's performance in the Premier League's first season. In one game, Sun Jihai passed a high-quality pass in the backcourt of his side. Wright Phillips scored a wonderful goal here.

Zhang Yang was deeply impressed by Wright Phillips at that time, and no one expected that the two would become teammates one day.

Wright Phillips was also very happy to hear Zhang Yang talk about that game. He saw that Zhang Yang was not making a fool of himself, which made him feel very proud and had a very good impression of Zhang Yang. This person was originally a chatterbox, and Sun Jihai was not helping him, so he soon became friends.

After the camera gave Zhang Yang and Wright Phillips a chat, he gave the camera a bench for Manchester City on the sidelines. Bulgarian scorer Boninov sat there with a depressed look on his face. He thought he could start, but unexpectedly, the head coach finally chose Wright Phillips.

This made Bozinov even more pessimistic about his future at Manchester City.

In this game, Mark Hughes' tactics were very clear, that was, Zhang Yang was the only striker, and even Wright Phillips served Zhang Yang!

This is also Mark Hughes' first official game of his tactics, and it is also an important game for whether Zhang Yang can truly convince and trust Manchester City's teammates. Many people are paying attention to his performance in this game.

PS: First update.
Chapter completed!