Chapter 62 Winger? Attacking midfielder?
On September 22, the fourth round of the Bundesliga started.
In this round of competition, Werder Bremen faced the challenge of Stuttgart at home.
Thanks to the team's outstanding record, the number of fans who came to watch the game reached 48,000, and the huge Weser Stadium was almost full.
The fans of the Parrot Legion sang the team anthem loudly, waved green flags, and couldn't wait to appreciate the performance of the team's twin stars on the field.
Werder Bremen has not seen such a hot football market for a long time since its decline.
This surprised everyone at the club, and team president Fisher even had the idea of keeping these two young people in the team.
But this is just a thought. The current value of these two people is not cheap, and it will only become more expensive in the future. It is difficult for Werder Bremen to buy them with their financial resources.
Besides, the more capable players are, the more they pursue a bigger and better stage, and Werder Bremen is obviously not such a big stage.
So even if they raise enough money, the players themselves may not be willing to stay.
In this game, in addition to ordinary fans, there were also several scouts in the audience.
"This seems to be a scout from Atletico Madrid. Although that guy is wearing sunglasses, I recognize him. He is a scout from Everton!"
In the audience, George had already spotted several of his peers.
These were only the ones he knew. Those he didn't know had no idea how many there were.
Some of these scouts are here to observe De Bruyne, and some are here to observe Lin Quan.
The young winger who had met him once before seemed to be getting more and more attention from major clubs.
George felt a little unhappy. In fact, he was the first to discover the other party.
But the information he submitted to Chelsea was shelved and not taken seriously.
Come to think of it, Chelsea owner Abramovich doesn't like to buy underage young monsters. He prefers already-famous superstars, like nuclear warhead Shevchenko and Infanta Torres.
Neither Werder Bremen nor Stuttgart are traditional strong teams, but neither side's style of play is conservative.
In this game, the two teams worked together to contribute a goal battle for the fans at the scene.
In just 13 minutes, De Bruyne opened the scoring with a free kick.
In the 24th minute, Stuttgart's Haneke equalized the score and the two sides returned to the same starting line.
In the 34th minute, Lin Quan suddenly broke through with the ball on the right. After breaking into the frontcourt, he and his teammates continued to hit the wall. Finally, he received De Bruyne's pass in the penalty area and changed the score with one kick!
Werder Bremen took the lead again.
This goal made many scouts' eyes light up, and they all took up pens to record it in their observation notebooks:
The player's dribbling and breakthrough are very sharp, and he has strong individual combat capabilities.
But he is also good at cooperating with his teammates and will not act recklessly alone.
His passing vision is very broad and his footwork is delicate, which is in line with his status as a debutant of La Masia's youth academy.
…
Although he had watched Lin Quan’s several games live, George Evans still had to sigh after seeing Lin Quan’s goal:
This guy plays really smart, and his head feels more flexible than those old players who have been playing for more than ten years.
He clearly remembered that since the first round against Dortmund, when Bundesliga teams faced Lin Quan, they liked to use close marking and even foul tactics to restrict him.
This made Lin Quan face a big challenge on the court. I thought that this kid would get into trouble and his performance would decline.
Unexpectedly, he found a solution so quickly!
If the opponent strengthens his defense, create opportunities for his teammates and seek cooperation with them.
There are the same number of people on both sides on the court. If you send two people to double-team one person on the other side, then there must be someone on the other team who is open.
As long as the ball is passed to a teammate in an open position, the problem will be solved.
Being able to think of this shows that his mind is very flexible, and being able to actually do this on the court proves that he is not only mentally flexible, but also has extraordinary skills at his feet.
This guy, those few passes just now were impressive, he felt more like a midfielder than a forward.
Not only George felt this way, but the Stuttgart coach also widened his eyes after seeing this goal:
Isn't this guy a winger?
Why do you feel like you play as an offensive midfielder?
He observed carefully and found that Lin Quan's position on the court was not fixed.
Although he is a right winger, his active position covers the entire midfield and is not limited to the right wing. He often crosses with Werder Bremen's central midfielder and runs to the center.
This caused Stuttgart's left back who was defending him to be at a loss. If he followed, he would lose his position.
If you don't follow, the opponent will run to the middle, which will form a partial numerical advantage.
If teammates do not have a tacit understanding of defense, it is easy for an offensive player to suddenly appear and completely disrupt the defensive formation, causing loopholes in the defense and conceding the ball.
Did he come up with this tactic on his own, or was it an arrangement by the Werder Bremen coaching staff?
Stuttgart head coach Keller looked at Werder Bremen's coaching bench with confusion, but the old coach Schaff was there and nothing could be seen from his face.
He is indeed an old fox!
Keller cursed secretly and planned to make some adjustments to the team's defensive tactics.
At the beginning of the second half, after adjustments during the halftime break, Stuttgart's defense improved, strengthening the defense between the ribs and the wings of the penalty area.
But Lin Quan changed his playing style and began to try to pass from the bottom.
This made Stuttgart a little unexpected. The full-backs alone could not prevent the opponent from attacking, and could only let the opponent keep passing the ball into the penalty area.
Fortunately, their defense in the header was good and they did not let Werder Bremen find a good opportunity.
The offensive of both sides continued unabated and the goals continued.
In the 66th minute of the game, Stuttgart forward Kakau found an opportunity in the penalty area and scored a goal to tie the score.
In the 78th minute, Werder Bremen's offense created chaos in Stuttgart's penalty area.
After Lin Quan passed the ball to his teammates, he immediately approached the penalty area, preparing to find an opportunity to cut into the penalty area.
As a result, he ran into the penalty area and saw his teammate's shot blocked by the goalkeeper, and the ball rolled to his feet.
Is there such good luck?
Lin Quan didn't even think about it, he kicked up his foot and hit the goal directly. The goalkeeper was still lying on the ground, and Stuttgart's goal was completely undefended.
When Lin Quan took a follow-up shot, he thought the ball was there, but he didn't expect the ball to hit the arm of Stuttgart winger Hanek and bounce out!
The Werder Bremen players saw the opponent's handball and immediately reached out to the referee to signal the opponent's handball.
Since the opponent made a move to open his arms outward, the referee did not hesitate and immediately gave the opponent a yellow card. In addition to the yellow card he had previously carried, the two yellow cards turned into one red, and he was ejected.
Hanik almost cried. He quickly explained that he didn't do it on purpose. He just happened to run there and saw Lin Quan subconsciously protecting himself when he hit the goal. He didn't even think about the handball.
But the referee didn't think so. He thought the opponent was deliberately handballing the ball. If he didn't block the ball, Lin Quan's shot would most likely be scored.
According to football penalty standards, he believed that a yellow card was considered merciful. He couldn't just pretend not to see it, right?
Hanike was very depressed, and so was Lin Quan.
Although the referee awarded a penalty kick, it would definitely be better to score directly than to take another penalty kick.
After all, a penalty kick is likely to be saved, and a penalty kick goal is not as valuable as a direct goal.
Fortunately, his free throws were very stable and he scored this penalty steadily.
Stuttgart was sent off and forced to fight with 10 men.
Because the one who was sent off was the core of the team's offense, which made it impossible for them to attack anymore.
In the end, Werder Bremen beat Stuttgart 3:2 at home and achieved their first three consecutive victories in the new season.
Due to this failure, Stuttgart only scored one point in four rounds and fell directly into the relegation zone.
This round of competition was another upset. Dortmund, the defending champion last season, lost again, and it was also to Hamburg, the second-last team in the standings.
This surprised everyone, not only doubting Dortmund's status.
Can they still do it?
In four rounds, Dortmund had one win, two draws and one loss, with only 5 points, 7 points behind Bayern Munich at the top of the table.
With Bayern's dominance in the Bundesliga, it can almost be declared that Dortmund has failed to defend the title.
It is worth mentioning that newly promoted Frankfurt continued their dark horse character. They defeated Nuremberg 2:1 in the away game and, like Bayern, also achieved four consecutive victories.
