Millwall's record in the past two years has been outstanding, and this season has been soaring. This has kept the enthusiasm of the fans unabated. Even for the FA Youth Cup game, the small Lion's Den stadium had an attendance rate of more than 70%. Tickets
It's not expensive either, only £5.
Melanie was dressed up carefully today, with her long dark brown hair tied up in a bun. She was wearing a red slim-fitting dress, obviously with the color of the Red Army.
She held Aldrich's hand and sat next to him, with a smile on her face. She tilted her head and said in Aldrich's ear: "Make a bet?"
Aldridge, a spectator in a suit and tie, raised his eyebrows and said with a slight smile: "Millwall wins the championship, I win, Liverpool wins the championship, you win. What's the bet?"
"Same as usual, but I have to cook in person."
"Can you cook?"
"Studying."
"Then I still suffer."
“Gentlemanly!”
"make a deal."
As soon as Aldrich finished speaking, Andrew, who was sitting in the row below, turned back and smiled: "Can I get some food?"
He also brought his new model girlfriend here to watch football today. The slender girl with exquisite facial features was said to be a French supermodel. She was obviously sitting beside Andrew absent-mindedly and not interested in these children playing football.
Aldrich smiled and said: "Gentlemanly."
Andrew smiled ambiguously, nodded and said, "Well, okay, I won't disturb your world."
As an agent, Andrew must also pay attention to the performance of the players.
Millwall's starting lineup for the FA Youth Cup today includes Glenchard, who was under 18 before the league started last year, Lampard, Ferdinand, Capdevila, Pirlo and Richard Lai.
special.
From the goalkeeper to the midfielder, there are promising stars on all fronts, but the front line is a bit weak. Grenchar plays as a winger.
Players from both sides took the field, and the head coaches on both sides were Nagy and Macaulay.
Shankly, the godfather of Liverpool, once said: Merseyside has two best teams, the first is Liverpool and the second is the Liverpool reserve team.
At first glance, I think this person is extremely crazy, and probably 99% of people think he is bragging.
In fact, this is not the case. Current Liverpool coach Roy Evans was the head coach of Liverpool's reserve team at that time. In that era, the reserve team was no different from the youth team. Its main task was to train players. The Liverpool reserve team that Evans coached at the time was
He has won a series of achievements that are beyond the reach of those who come after him.
Although it is a reserve team match record, it should not be underestimated. At the same time, the players of that generation who later became famous in the Liverpool reserve team and entered the first team were also members of Shankly's successor Paisley who won three European titles. From this point of view,
Shankly's rhetoric was not without purpose.
The current head coach of Liverpool's youth team, Macaulay, has a good background. He was a player introduced by Shankly, but his strength was not good. So he focused on studying training and tactics, and after retiring, he studied hard for a few years.
He returned to Liverpool and was appointed as the coach of the youth academy by Dalglish, continuing to train young talents for Liverpool.
The 1996 generation of Liverpool that debuted today was carefully trained by Macaulay.
Aldridge had also extended an invitation to him before, when he was poaching Liverpool's top three players last year, but he was rejected by the other party.
Aldridge admired Macaulay. The opponent's idea of training players was completely different from the mainstream in England. He did not overemphasize confrontation and focused on cultivating players' skills. He also attached great importance to the moral character of players. Once he determined that there was a problem with the player's character,
, no matter how talented he is, he will not sign this player.
Taking a glance at Liverpool's lineup, Aldridge had doubts.
Among this group of talented players, he saw Carragher and David Thompson. Other players did not become famous later, just like not everyone in the 92 class finally became famous, but only a few top players emerged. These are all
It can no longer be copied.
Aldridge bent down next to Andrew's head and asked doubtfully: "Why don't you see Gerrard and Irving in Liverpool's starting lineup?"
Andrew doesn't usually have fun all day long. He is different from Aldridge. Aldridge trains the team and studies opponents. His job is to observe and discover good prospects, and then establish a good relationship in advance, and sign him if he can.
, it’s not bad to be good friends with everyone, it will help to build a larger network of relationships.
Therefore, for Andrew, who sends people around the youth teams all day long, Aldridge's question was really the right person to ask.
Andrew pointed to the visiting team's bench and said: "Look, Thompson occupies the starting spot, and Gerrard can only be a substitute. That kid Irving, you said how talented he is, I believed it before, but I think you have lost it."
Look, David Larmour, one of Liverpool's starting forwards, is many times more famous than Owen, and Owen is playing as a substitute for him."
Aldridge was a little dizzy and frowned: "Thompson, I know that Gerrard is on the bench because his characteristics are not obvious. In other words, Gerrard is too comprehensive and is not particularly outstanding in offense and defense. This kind of player will not be able to stand out in the future."
Only then will he shine. Tell me about David Larmore."
Andrew spoke in great detail, and it seemed that he was also paying close attention to this talented young man.
David Larmour was the prodigy that Macaulay spent a lot of effort to sign. If it were too late, Larmour would have been taken away by the Scottish giants Glasgow Rangers.
In terms of speed, Irving is a little faster than Larmour. However, Larmour's ability to read the game and his football intelligence are obviously better than Irving. Therefore, Irving was put on the bench.
Aldridge stared at the Northern Ireland prodigy. After carefully recalling it for a long time, he could not recall that there would be a star forward named Larmour in European football in the future. He could not find such a person at all.
He shook his head and stopped thinking.
There are many talents who cannot be played. This is normal. The success rate of professional football is astonishingly low. Moreover, talented players also need appropriate soil to grow. The external environment and internal potential are both important conditions that affect ultimate success.
Some players gave up, some were ruined by injuries, some were wasted by coaches, and some were buried in teams that completely conflicted with their own characteristics...
There are only a few steps at the critical moment, and your own efforts alone are far from enough. Once you have taken it, your future will be bright, but if you fail to take this step, your genius will perish.
After the game started, the two teams played vigorously. Both teams are teams that pay attention to technical and tactical characteristics and run counter to the mainstream of English football. Therefore, the confrontation is not particularly fierce, but there are many highlights in teamwork and individual technical performance.
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Millwall's double midfielder is Lampard and Pirlo. Lampard is more defensive and Pirlo is the midfield organizer. The former has a wide running range. He can attack and defend. Pirlo is assisted by Lampard in defense and offense.
There are also attacking midfielders and Lampard running to cover and firmly controlling the ball.
However, Millwall does not have a reliable forward. Apart from Glenchard, who has speed and skills, the other two forwards and attacking midfielder have average talents. They are more of a team player and do not show too much personal skills.
This allowed Millwall's offense to gain momentum without scoring.
Liverpool also played well here, and their rapid progress in the counterattack was quite lethal. Thompson was good at attacking and defending and had a wide range of running. His performance was eye-catching.
Aldridge not only paid attention to Thompson, but also paid attention to the performance of Larmore on the striker.
He wanted to see what the prodigy was capable of, who could put Irving on the bench.
Soon, Larmour gave Aldrich what he wanted.
His movement without the ball is very active and he will never let defenders mark him.
During a wide attack, Larmour first pressed into the penalty area, then suddenly withdrew to receive the ball as expected. He knocked the ball with his feet very skillfully, and the ball passed between Ferdinand's legs.
At the same time, Larmore passed by him and then hit the ball with a blast. The ball was blasted into the gate guarded by Wright.
Liverpool leads 1:0 away from home.
This ball left Aldridge stunned.
This is not only due to his skills, but also his previous awareness of running without the ball, combined with the rhythm of the center of gravity movement when the defender retreats and then attacks, to complete this personal performance.
"Haha, I told you, he is a genius. That kid Irving just runs a little faster than him."
Andrew turned around and laughed.
Melanie smiled like a flower and laughed in Aldrich's ear: "I will definitely win!"
Aldrich shrugged and said, "There's a lot of game time."
Millwall conceded a goal and Liverpool scored, but neither manager was celebrating or frustrated.
As youth team coaches, Macaulay and Nagy understand better than anyone else that this kind of inconsequential game means nothing at all.
Training players is more important than championships and victories.
Most of the youth training concepts in European football are like this, so many national teams of all ages often score big scores when participating in international competitions. People who don’t understand will say that these kids are unreliable in playing football and score a lot of goals.
But he also conceded a lot of goals and was uninteresting.
In fact, the philosophy of youth training is completely different from that of the adult team. The adult team needs results, but the youth team doesn’t need to!
Because the youth team is to cultivate talents, not to win championships.
The head coach's requirements for young players are not too demanding. The important thing is to allow them to display their talents, creativity and randomness that are higher than those of professional players. Therefore, it is not surprising that they often score big scores.
Winning or losing in the youth echelon competition is not that important. It is the same as getting first in the primary school exam, first in the middle school, or first in the college entrance examination. The real test is after entering the society.
Millwall quickly equalized the score. Glenchard's progress in the past few months has been obvious, especially his skills after taking the ball. Coupled with his strong explosive power, although his shot after cutting inside with the ball
The angle was not tricky, but the Liverpool goalkeeper panicked and let the ball slip under his arm.
In the second half, Lampard used a long shot to help the team take the lead. Before the end, Pirlo dribbled the ball forward and used a wonderful pass to tear apart Liverpool's defense. Glenchard diagonally entered the penalty area and passed the goalkeeper and hit the goalkeeper empty to seal the score.
On 3:1.
Millwall won this season's FA Youth Cup.
At the end of the game, Aldridge, like the rest of the audience, stood up and applauded the performance of these young players.
He leaned forward and said to Andrew: "Do you know what the status of Larmore's contract is?"
"I know, he still has a one-year contract with Liverpool, but Liverpool are considering signing a new contract with him. How could they let such a prodigy go?"
"Looking at his contract, if there is a chance, I would like to bring him to Millwall. This kind of player is wasted in Liverpool."
"Well, I will follow you."
In this game, in addition to scoring goals, Larmore also created many opportunities for his teammates. He is a player in the Liverpool team who performed equally well as Thompson, but his teammates seemed unable to keep up with his thinking and cooperation.
Always one step slower.
But this kind of player is Aldrich's favorite forward player. He has excellent ability to read the game, has the awareness of the ball, has good explosive power and speed, can pass and shoot, and it is not an exaggeration to call him a prodigy.
After the game, Aldrich walked out of the Lion's Den Stadium and said to Melanie with a smile: "Are you learning cooking? I hope you don't give me diarrhea."
Melanie also looked at him with a smile and said in surprise: "What does it have to do with me? You won."
"Yes, I won, you should treat me to dinner."
"No, no, no, whoever wins gets invited, Chef Aldrich, you are going to show off your skills again tonight."
Aldrich's face was full of astonishment, then he shook his head with a wry smile and got into his old BMW.
