The news that Zhang Kuang had moved out of the villa and moved into the hotel spread quickly within the Manchester United club.
It's not because he is deliberately publicizing, but the matter itself is outrageous. A Manchester United star is not living in a villa or an apartment, but instead he is staying in a hotel?
It is also a four-star business hotel.
What's even more outrageous is that in front of reporters, he clearly listed the benefits of staying in a hotel: 55,000 pounds a year, including breakfast, cleaning, gym, swimming pool, and security. If you are not satisfied, you can complain.
"This kid can calculate accounts more clearly than my financial director. He shouldn't be a player, he should be managing the club's finances." Ferguson was sitting in the office, watching Zhang Kuang's interview report on TV, with a complicated expression on his face.
Mike·Phelan stood nearby and couldn't help laughing.
"Sir, do you think he is deliberately saving money?"
"Save money?" Ferguson put down the newspaper and took off his reading glasses, "He earns 150,000 a week, so he saves 55,000? He is not saving money, he is saving trouble, and he is lazy."
Phelan thought about it and thought it made sense.
Staying in a hotel is really hassle-free - you don't have to pay water and electricity bills, you don't have to clean yourself, and you don't have to worry about security issues. For an eighteen-year-old like Zhang Kuang, staying in a hotel is much more comfortable than living in a villa.
"But, Sir," Phelan hesitated, "He lives in a hotel. If he goes out at night..."
Ferguson raised his hand and interrupted him.
"Mike, where do you think he lived when he was at Auxerre?"
"He lives in the apartment rented by Paris."
"Yes, he is a Auxerre player who lives in Paris and travels back and forth for several hours every day." Ferguson said, "But he has scored more than thirty goals in half a season. Zhang Kuang is a player who cannot be judged by common sense."
Phelan was stunned.
"Also," Ferguson continued, "Do you think he stayed in the apartment every night when he was at Auxerre?"
Phelan said nothing.
"I know what kind of virtue he has." Ferguson stood up, walked to the window, and looked at Carrington Training Ground's training ground, "But he is a forward, not a goalkeeper. His job is to score goals, not to be a saint.
As long as he can score goals on the court, I don't care where he lives, who he lives with, or what time he sleeps. Phelan, I'm old, and now I just want to win another triple crown, and I have no intention of being a player's nanny anymore."
Phelan nodded and said nothing more.
Ferguson is right. The football coach is not the head teacher of a middle school and cannot control the players' private lives. What he can control is the training field and the competition field. Besides, he is really old.
The rest is the player's own business.
"By the way," Ferguson turned around, "After today's training, I asked Zhang Kuang to come to my office."
"Is something wrong?"
"It's nothing serious, I just want to chat with him."
After the training, Zhang Kuang changed his clothes and knocked on the door of Ferguson's office.
"Come in."
Ferguson is sitting behind the desk, with a cup of tea and an open tactics book in front of him.
"Sit."
Zhang Kuang sat down on the chair with a calm expression.
Ferguson looked at him for a few seconds and then spoke.
"Zhang, I read in the news that you quit the villa and moved to a hotel?"
"Yes, BOSS." Zhang Kuang nodded, "DoubleTree by Hilton, Swinton's."
"I know that place." Ferguson picked up the teacup and took a sip, "Are you still used to it?"
"It's very good. The service is attentive and the facilities are complete. The gym is open 24 hours a day and the swimming pool is also at a constant temperature. The key is that the front desk can help me with many things, such as receiving express delivery, so I don't have to wait at home."
Ferguson almost choked on the tea.
"You moved to the hotel just to make it easier to receive express delivery?"
"Not entirely," Zhang Kuang thought for a moment, "It's mainly about peace of mind. You don't have to pay water and electricity bills, property fees, buy furniture, or hire cleaning staff. The hotel has everything. You can just check in and leave."
Ferguson put down the tea cup, leaned on the back of the chair, and looked at Zhang Kuang.
"Zhang, tell me the truth. Did you move to the hotel to save worry, or for something else?"
Zhang Kuang blinked. "Others? BOSS, what are you referring to?"
Ferguson stared at him for three seconds, then shook his head.
"Forget it, I won't ask." He waved his hand, "I didn't call you here to check your household registration. I just want to tell you that the new season has begun, and my request for you is very simple: score goals.
No matter where you live or what you do at night, as long as you score goals on the court, I don't care about anything else. But..."
He paused and his tone became serious.
"There is a bottom line: it cannot affect training or games. If your personal life declines, I will not hesitate to put you on the bench, no matter how many goals you score. Do you understand?"
"Understood, BOSS."
"Get out."
Zhang Kuang stood up and when he walked to the door, Ferguson stopped him again.
"By the way, Zhang."
"Huh?"
"Your way of settling accounts... is indeed quite smart." Ferguson raised the corner of his mouth slightly, "Fifty thousand and fifty thousand a year is much cheaper than my house in Cheshire."
Zhang Kuang smiled, "BOSS, if you are interested, I can help you get a group purchase price."
"Get lost."
When Zhang Kuang came out of Ferguson's office, he was still smiling.
It's not because Ferguson didn't hold him accountable for staying in the hotel, but because he heard a meaning from Ferguson's words: this old man no longer cares about his private life.
As long as he can score goals.
This may appear to be a form of connivance to others, but to Zhang Kuang, it is Ferguson's recognition of his ability. A head coach is willing to turn a blind eye to certain things, provided that the player is worthy of him.
Zhang Kuang feels that he is worthy.
In the next few days, Zhang Kuang and Carrington Training Ground lived a very regular life.
Training in the morning, tactics in the afternoon, tactics class mainly involves going to the tactics room to watch videos.
On the training ground, his tacit understanding with his teammates is improving rapidly.
Especially with Rooney.
After those two "special arrangements", Rooney's attitude towards Zhang Kuang changed from "appreciation" to "death-hearted". During training, he took the initiative to cooperate with Zhang Kuang more and more frequently, and the tacit understanding between the two people became better and better.
"Brother, today's kick was straight. How did you know that I would hit it from that position?" After the training, Rooney put his arm around Zhang Kuang's shoulders with a look of disbelief on his face.
"Because you go in that direction every time you move, and I'm not blind." Zhang Kuang said casually.
"Fuck, are you praising me or hurting me?"
"Congratulations to you. Your movement awareness is world-class, but the first touch of the ball is sometimes like stopping a grenade."
Rooney thought about it and felt that I wasn't praising him.
Pogba has also gotten a lot closer to Zhang Kuang during this period.
After being "educated" by Zhang Kuang that time, Pogba was a little unconvinced at first. But in the next few days of training, he found that Zhang Kuang could handle the ball well every time he passed the ball to Zhang Kuang - whether it was picking up the ball with his back, kicking the ball, or breaking through and shooting, Zhang Kuang's ability to handle the ball far exceeded other forwards in the team.
This gave Pogba a feeling of "this person is worthy of me passing the ball".
For a midfielder, this feeling is very important.
When you feel that the forward is not worthy of your pass, you will subconsciously choose a safer passing route instead of risking a through ball. But if you know that the forward can handle the ball well, you will be willing to take the risk.
This is called a "chemical reaction".
"Paul!" During training, Zhang Kuang dropped back to catch the ball, held Ferdinand, kicked the ball to Pogba, and then turned around and rushed into the penalty area.
Pogba didn't hesitate after receiving the ball, and kicked the ball over the top. The ball passed over Vidić's head and landed accurately on Zhang Kuang's running route.
Zhang Kuang shot the ball furiously, and the ball hit the crossbar and bounced out.
"Fuck!" Zhang Kuang cursed, then turned to give a thumbs up to Pogba, "Good shot! Pass this kind of pass next time!"
Pogba smiled.
It was a recognized, heartfelt smile.
After the training, Zhang Kuang drove back to the hotel.
DoubleTree by Hilton Swinton.
He walked through the lobby, said hello to the front desk, swiped his card and entered the elevator.
When he reached the floor, he first knocked on the secret door next door: three short and one long, the secret code.
The door opened, and it was Liam Al-Hussein who opened the door.
"Back?" Liam turned sideways to let him in.
Zhang Kuang entered the room and saw Lama and Arya sitting on the sofa, with several books and a laptop spread out on the coffee table in front of them.
"Doing homework?" Zhang Kuang leaned over and took a look.
"Thesis." Lama didn't even raise his head, "The economics of Manchester University (University of Manchester) is very demanding. Do you think football players like you can just run on the field for ninety minutes?"
"We are very tired after playing football, okay." Zhang Kuang sat down on the sofa, "I ran more than 12 kilometers today, and I am more tired than you are when you go shopping."
"We're going shopping instead of running." Arya raised his head and glanced at him, "How was your training today?"
"It's okay, Ferguson came to talk to me."
"What to talk about?"
"What's important to talk about? What's important is that we can start exercising now? Time is running out..."
University of Manchester's economics major ranks among the top fifty in the world, and the people who can get into it have very high IQs. And the three girls in front of me not only got in, they also received full scholarships - this shows that not only do they have good family backgrounds, but they also have high IQs. Of course, they may have gotten in through donations, but that's okay.
Lama·Al Kabi, with "Kabi" in his surname, in the area of United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi, it is self-evident what this surname means.
Arya Bint Faisal, "Bint" means "someone's daughter", and "Faisal" is a common name for the descendants of the founding monarch of Saudi Arabia. This girl is most likely a side branch of the Saudi Arabia royal family.
Liam·Al-Hussein, "Al-Hussein" is the surname of the Jordan royal family, a descendant of the Hashemite Family.
Three girls, three Middle East powerful families.
Zhang Kuang was shocked when he first learned the meaning of their last names. But he soon felt relieved. No matter how awesome these girls were, they were still submissive in front of him.
August 16th.
Old Trafford Stadium.
In the first round of the Premier League league, Manchester United faced off against Newcastle United at home.
Before the game, Ferguson announced the starting lineup in the locker room.
433.
Goalkeeper: Van der Sar.
Defenders: O'Shea, Ferdinand, Vidić, Evra.
Midfielder: Carrick, Scholes, Giggs.
Forwards: Rooney, Berbatov, Zhang Kuang.
It is exactly the same as the first two warm-up games and Community Shield's first start.
The 433 formation is finally used again. In the past two years, he usually used the 4231 formation. The 4231 formation seems to be a more balanced offensive and defensive formation, but it is actually a formation with insufficient offensive firepower. It is precisely because of the lack of offensive firepower that more defense is needed.
I remember when he used 433 to kill everyone in the 2004-05 season, Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Van Nistelrooy. It was such a glorious time, killing everyone.
Later, Van Nistelrooy left, Tevez was in place, and 4231 was played for a while, but 433 was still the main player. Later, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tevez both left, and Manchester United began to use 4231 as the main player.
Why is this happening? It's not because the three arrows in 433 are never suitable, so we can only use the single forward of 4231.
Facts have proved that if you want to win the championship, a front three is essential.
For example, Barcelona, which has been killing everyone in recent years, is the three forwards of 433, Messi, Ibrahimović, Henry. Real Madrid, which is recovering, also uses three forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Higuaín, Benzema.
Inter Milan, who just won UEFA Champions League, and Mourinho are also using a variant of 433. His so-called 4312 just changed the three forwards into two forwards and an attacking midfielder. Sneijder, this midfielder, is not as good as a real forward?
433 is not a panacea. It does not mean that you can win the championship by using 433, but the secret of winning the championship is actually not difficult to crack. The three offensive players in the frontcourt do have stronger offensive firepower and are easier to win. What is really difficult to crack is whether there are suitable candidates.
The current Manchester United has Rooney, Zhang Kuang, and Berbatov, so it can play a super offensive formation with three forwards.
Ferguson did not make any adjustments to the previously determined formation, which is reasonable and there is no suspense.
"In today's game, what I want is not to win." Ferguson stood in front of the tactical board and looked at his players, "Winning Newcastle is the basic requirement in this stadium.
What I want is smoothness. I want to see the cooperation between you, see the movement of the ball, and see the layering of the offense."
His eyes swept over Zhang Kuang, Rooney, and Berbatov.
"The three of you form a trident. Today I want to see the chemical reaction between the three of you. Zhang, you are on the left, don't rush into the penalty area every time.
Sometimes he retreats to respond, sometimes he cuts in and shoots, sometimes he crosses the ball. The more changes there are, the harder it is for the opponent to defend."
Zhang Kuang nodded.
"Rooney, you are on the right, lean towards the middle and form a triangle position with Zhang and Berbatov. Don't hug the wing, your threat is in the penalty area."
Rooney said "hmm".
"Berbatov, you are in the middle, not a center forward. You drop back to get the ball, bring out the central defender, and create space for Zhang and Rooney. Your technical advantage must be used."
Berbatov nodded gracefully, his movements as slow as if he was typing Tai Chi.
"Okay," Ferguson clapped his hands, "Go out and let Newcastle see what Manchester United is in the new season."