Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 38 He closed his eyes again.

A week later, the team's coaching staff added tactical training content.

As a newcomer to the Roma team, Shan Yongzhuo is unfamiliar with his teammates and doesn't know much about the tactics. Everything is new to him, and he needs time to adapt.

During their time in the Austrian Bundesliga, Kafnburg was a team with virtually no complex tactics. Even later on, Pflug's tactics were very simple: just find a way to pass the ball to Shan Yongzhuo.

However, Italy is different. Serie A is a league that places great emphasis on tactics and technique, and Spalletti is a coach with decent tactical ability. Under his tactical philosophy, the team's tactics are quite complex.

This really bothered Shan Yongzhuo; he found it very difficult to adapt.

He had only played one season in the Austrian Bundesliga and couldn't possibly understand complex tactical concepts.

At Kafampong, he was practically a free-roaming forward, able to run wherever he wanted, but that wasn't possible at Roma.

Roma's tactical system assigns players fixed tactical zones, and each player's movement must be based on the team's formation.

This made things very difficult for Shan Yongzhuo. If he wanted to score, he needed to find opportunities, and sometimes he would even drop back to the midfield area to receive the ball, instead of staying in one specific area.

Spalletti had anticipated Shan Yongzhuo's struggles. He had studied Shan Yongzhuo thoroughly and knew that Shan's positioning in the attacking third was very unpredictable, or rather chaotic, and that he wouldn't constantly attack the opponent's defense, possibly disappearing from sight for the entire match.

However, he still hopes that Shan Yongzhuo can adapt as soon as possible, after all, the team's tactics are the foundation, which is the guarantee for the team's performance in the game.

Regarding the issue of Shan Yongzhuo, Spalletti is prepared to once again employ his 4-2-3-1 formation.

In fact, Spalletti used this formation in the 06-07 season, but at that time the team still did not have a proper center forward, so he had to put Totti at the front. That season, Totti performed well and eventually won the Serie A Golden Boot and the European Golden Boot.

However, Totti is ultimately not a traditional center forward; he prefers to play as an attacking midfielder, and Roma has never had a good center forward who can play in that position in recent years.

Totti is too old to be suitable, and Vucinic can fill in, but his performance is not satisfactory. He seems to be more of a threat on the left wing.

Now, Spalletti is thinking that Shan Yongzhuo might be the player at the very front of the team, with no fixed position, allowing him to move freely in the large area around the penalty area, and even switch positions with Totti from time to time.

After the positional switch, Totti can move forward to stretch the defense, and Shan Yongzhuo can then utilize his excellent footwork.

Perhaps even switching positions with Vucinic would be an option?

In short, Shan Yongzhuo is highly regarded.

It's hard to imagine that Roma would place such high hopes on a young star who has only played in the Austrian Bundesliga for a year.

But this is the reality for Roma; the team is simply too poor.

This situation is somewhat similar to the later situation where AC Milan put Keisuke Honda on the number 10 jersey.

Rome today is like a fallen nobleman struggling to maintain his dignity and self-respect.

Shan Yongzhuo was a little frustrated.

He was treated like a struggling student in a class, receiving special attention. Head coach Spalletti personally provided him with detailed one-on-one coaching, clearly explaining what he should do and how to cooperate with his teammates.

Well, Spalletti's level is still pretty good.

Although Shan Yongzhuo was unhappy, he still studied hard, but his mind kept drifting back to that afternoon when he saw Spalletti and that streetwalker who was supposed to be a transgender person.

"Could this guy be...could he be attracted to my stunning good looks...?"

However, Shan Yongzhuo also knows that tactics are indeed very important if he wants to cooperate well with his teammates and perform better in the game, and he can only learn them patiently.

……

In early August, Roma's preparations were in full swing, with the whole team focusing on physical and tactical training, as well as preparing for the two upcoming warm-up matches.

The opponents in the two warm-up matches are Serie B team Piacenza and Serie C team Benevento.

In addition, there is a Europa League playoff match to play against Slovakian team Košice. Top-league teams often choose lower-league opponents for their warm-up matches; a larger gap in strength allows them to better demonstrate the effectiveness and weaknesses of their tactics, and can also lead to victories, boosting the team's confidence.

Roma is a highly watched team in Italy, and many media outlets came to watch and interview them during their warm-up matches in order to assess the team's preparations.

In two warm-up matches, Roma won both games, scoring six goals.

However, they also conceded 3 goals...

In the away game against Košice, Roma fielded a reserve lineup, but still won 3-1, though they conceded a goal.

This is also related to Roma's style. In the Italian league, which emphasizes defense, the two teams in Rome have always been quite different. Roma and Lazio are both attacking teams that pay special attention to offense.

However, conceding four goals in three games still displeased head coach Spalletti, especially Mexes, who was somewhat out of form in defense, and Spalletti gave him a good scolding.

Brazilian center-back Juan Santos performed quite well; the 30-year-old veteran played very steadily, while Mexes seemed a bit rash.

In the two warm-up matches, the team's best performer was Vucinic on the left wing. He frequently broke through on the wing, causing considerable trouble for the opponents, and scored one goal and provided three assists.

Secondly, there's De Rossi, the defensive midfielder.

De Rossi's performance was well-rounded and consistent. He was not only the team's first line of defense, but also a dangerous long passer and a frequent long-range shot. He also scored a goal in two games.

As for Shan Yongzhuo...

Spalletti was a little confused.

Shan Yongzhuo's performance was not bad either. He scored 3 goals in 2 games, all of which were shots from the edge of the penalty area, directly into the top corner, demonstrating his excellent shooting skills.

However, for most of the match, Shan Yongzhuo was caught in the opponent's tight defense and fell down almost at the slightest touch.

What's even stranger is that in both games, this guy would close his eyes and remain motionless on the court for about a minute.
Although Spalletti knew that Shan Yongzhuo had this habit, he still couldn't understand why.

However, this behavior is seen as a different kind of message by some people.

“Look, Francisco, he’s closed his eyes again,” Mexes excitedly told Totti.

Totti naturally saw it too, and then he became even more certain that Shan Yongzhuo must possess some kind of magic.

"But why does he deny it?"

Totti thought for a moment, and then it dawned on him that Chinese novels were very secretive about this kind of magic and would never easily pass it on to outsiders.

"Shan, he must be a successor of some kind of Chinese sect, just like the alchemists in the Chinese novels I read. They are a kind of inheritance."

"So, what you mean is?" Mexes looked at the excited Totti, not quite understanding what Totti was saying.

Totti said meaningfully to Mexes, "We should first become friends with Dan, then gain his trust, so that we might be able to join Dan's sect. Of course, this is not a betrayal of God and faith; we are just trying to learn magic. Then, Roma will become an invincible team!"

Totti became more and more excited as he thought about it, and he gave himself a thousand thumbs up for his Sherlock Holmes-like reasoning ability.

Mexes didn't quite understand, but he did get one piece of information: Shan Yongzhuo must possess some kind of magic for scoring goals.

That's right, that closed-eye ritual is a spell-like incantation used to cast magic, just like how Harry Potter would recite a spell and make a certain gesture before casting a spell. It must be like that.

Otherwise, how do you explain that he scored a goal shortly after opening his eyes?
One match could be considered a coincidence, but if two matches are like this, then it's no longer a coincidence.

Mexes, who was hailed by the French media as the "new Blanc," was a defender with a fiery attacking spirit.

Thinking of this, Mexes' heart couldn't help but burn with excitement.

"Francisco is right, we must learn this magic. When that happens, I, Philippe Mexes, will become the highest-scoring center-back in history! As for Roma? Whether they are invincible or not is none of my business!"

(End of this chapter)