Chapter 51: Super Newcastle in full force, crazy ten Hag

Chapter 51: Super Newcastle in full force, crazy ten Hag

Chapter 51: Super Newcastle in full force, crazy ten Hag

(The pre-season training time was wrong in the previous article. The training start time should be July 7th. It has been corrected. This explanation paragraph is not included in the paid word count)
In the summer, the Newcastle training base is carrying out a busy pre-season training.

Originally, Li Chen planned to go to Spain to rent a professional training base to conduct the team's insane physical training.

Because Newcastle’s existing training base is too old.

But as soon as the club's top management heard Li Chen's suggestion, they immediately pushed forward the matter of renting a training base, while directly starting the preliminary renovation of the original training base.

In more than 20 days, the main training ground of Newcastle's old training base was renovated and paved with turf that better met Li Chen's requirements.

All new training equipment was purchased according to the list provided by the coaching team.

Except for some infrastructure and houses within the base that still look old, the interior has undergone a major change.

Li Chen is not such a pretentious person. After re-evaluating with other members of the coaching team, he decided to conduct training in the old training base which had been preliminarily renovated.

The team's CEO Darren Eales also promised Li Chen that the club would spend a year to reselect a site and build a large modern training base.

This kind of efficiency and professionalism is really impeccable. Li Chen also feels that the communication with Ilse is very smooth and comfortable.

If Sanders had been half as professional as Iles last year, he would have been more patient and considered staying at Manchester United for another season or two. Unfortunately...

The continuous advancement of the devilish physical training has allowed Li Chen to have a deep understanding of the physical condition of the current Newcastle first-team players.

Overall, the three players with the best physical fitness in the team are Joelinton, Havertz and Guimarães.

Among the several veterans introduced in the summer window, Ronaldo and Pepe are in the best physical condition, and they also pay more attention to taking care of their bodies during the offseason.

Ramos has just recovered from injury and is not currently undergoing rigorous physical training with the team. He is still actively undergoing physical therapy and adaptive training.

Only Marcelo gained more than ten pounds after a month of rest, and his physical reserves are currently the worst.

Fortunately, after gritting his teeth and keeping up with the training rhythm, Marcelo successfully lost weight in just a few days, and his training condition is now gradually improving.

This made Li Chen and other Newcastle coaches feel relieved temporarily.

Now other positions in Newcastle are easy to deal with. Even if the preset main players have some problems, the corresponding substitute players can take over in time, and their abilities can satisfy Li Chen.

But at the left-back position, the only players Li Chen can use now are Marcelo and Dan Burn.

Gvardiol and Van der Ven can indeed play as left back, but the most suitable position for them is center back.

It would take too much time to train these two young defenders to be able to play as wingers or center backs and to meet Li Chen's tactical requirements.

Dan Burn can play well in Eddie Howe's tactical system, but this performance is only limited to the Premier League.

No matter how agile he is, he is still a full-back who is over two meters tall.

Regardless of whether he will be needed to play in the Champions League next year, Li Chen can already predict that in the new season, all Premier League teams will formulate various offensive routines behind Dan Burns based on his good performance last season.

This situation is absolutely unavoidable, unless Li Chen plays a three-center-back system in the new season, further liberating Dan Burn's threat from behind on the offensive end, while also allowing the left center-back to clean up his defense.

But it was unnecessary for Li Chen to develop a completely new tactical framework just for the offensive threat of Dan Burn.

To put it bluntly, Marcelo, who has now lost his starting position in Real Madrid, is far more threatening on the offensive end than Denbern.

Therefore, Dan Burns will definitely not be Newcastle's main left-back in the new season.

This tall defender will be a favorable tactical supplement to Newcastle's defense, and Li Chen also prefers to start him as left center back when playing with three center backs occasionally.

As for Marcelo.

Li Chen believes that Marcelo is still capable of playing in top-level competitions, but he certainly can't play more than 40 games in a single season like he did when he was young.

In order to ensure his performance, Li Chen only plans to give him no more than 25 appearances in the new season.

This includes the subsequent important matches of the Premier League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup.

In other words, Li Chen will most likely only give Marcelo 15-20 appearances in the new Premier League season, and the number of starts is unlikely to exceed 15.

As for the remaining tasks of the game, Li Chen must introduce another left-back who also fits his tactical system.

Li Chen initially made a tentative offer to Manchester United for Luke Shaw to see if he could recruit the left-back who he had used well last season.

But Luke Shaw, who has performed well under Li Chen and seems to have no serious injury problems, is obviously Ten Hag's main left-winger in the new season.

So Li Chen hit a wall as expected.

His subsequent target of recruitment became Cucurella, who performed well for Brighton last season.

This Spanish left-back, who is in his prime, has excellent skills and outstanding organizational awareness. What is more commendable is that his defensive ability is also good.

In addition to the healthy Luke Shaw and Chilwell, Li Chen believes that Cucurella is now the best left-back in the Premier League.

Unfortunately, Chelsea and Manchester United are also interested in Cucurella like Newcastle.

In terms of financial strength, Newcastle is now not inferior to Chelsea and Manchester United.

As long as Li Chen really wants Cucurella to join and Cucurella himself is interested, then it will be no problem for Newcastle to offer 70 or 80 million euros to stun Brighton.

But Newcastle ultimately lost because they failed to qualify for the Champions League next season.

Of course, Li Chen doesn’t think that Cucurella is worth only 70 or 80 million now.

If there is no competition from Chelsea and Manchester United, 4500-5000 million euros would be a normal price to bring in Cucurella.

Spending 6000 million is a serious overprice, let alone spending more than 7000 million.

If Li Chen doesn't care about the club's financial problems at all, why doesn't he spend 7000 million euros directly on Theo of Milan?

So Li Chen quickly stopped the negotiations between the transfer department and Brighton, withdrew from the battle for Cucurella, and let Chelsea and Manchester United fight to their heart's content.

Up to now, Li Chen is not very satisfied with the several left-backs provided by Newcastle's uniform team who performed well in mid-table Premier League teams last season.

This matter has also become one of Li Chen's most troublesome problems in recent times.

"How about we really give Milan a try? If we can't impress Milan and Theo, we can still dig out Dimarco and Di Lorenzo who are also performing well in Serie A."

After another day of training, Carrick made suggestions for signings at an internal meeting of the coaching staff.

Li Chen thought for a moment after hearing the names of the two Serie A defenders.

In terms of ability, these two players also meet his requirements, but one mainly plays as a wingback, and the other is a little older...

However, he had no better candidates at this stage, so he conveyed the names of the two players to the transfer department that night.

The next morning, when Li Chen received a work email from the transfer department, he thought it was to determine which player would be the main target of recruitment.

However, he did not expect that the management team would provide him with a list of left-backs outside the four major leagues.

After seeing the name of the player ranked first on the list, Li Chen slapped his forehead in surprise.

"Damn...why didn't I think of this guy before? I should have remembered that he was still playing in the Portuguese Super League!"

In an instant, the left-back recruitment problem that had troubled Li Chen for many days was immediately solved!
The efficient Newcastle uniform team once again embarked on the journey of negotiating with other clubs.

《2000 million euros, Newcastle has another new player! 》

Just two days later, Newcastle reached a consensus with Portuguese Super League's Benfica on the transfer of left-back Grimaldo.

This winger, who has been a regular starter for Benfica for six seasons and has scored 6 goals and 6 assists in six seasons for Benfica, has officially joined Newcastle!

Newcastle got a bargain in this transfer deal, after all, Grimaldo's current market value is about 3000 million euros.

Just because he had previously rejected Benfica's contract extension, he will become a free agent next summer.

Therefore, most of the teams that were interested in him before are waiting for the opportunity to sign him for free.

Benfica certainly doesn't want to lose both players and money next summer.

So as soon as Benfica received Newcastle's relatively generous offer of 2000 million euros, it immediately gave the green light for Newcastle to contact Grimaldo for negotiations.

The reason why Grimaldo refused to renew his contract with Benfica is very simple.

The Spanish full-back believes that his performance deserves an annual salary of 350 million euros, but Benfica obviously does not want to pay so much money.

But for Newcastle, Grimaldo's request is not a problem at all.

Newcastle's uniform team offered Grimaldo a weekly salary of £10 after tax, and will give Grimaldo a signing fee of £500 million in one lump sum.

By the way, this after-tax weekly salary of 10 is not denominated in Euros, but in British Pounds.

Faced with Newcastle's generous "pursuit method", Grimaldo had no worries and signed his name on the contract without hesitation.

Both Benfica and Newcastle are happy.

Grimaldo finally got the annual salary he wanted.

Moreover, he joined the powerful Newcastle team which has already announced to the outside world that it will make a big effort in the new season, so he does not have to worry about having nowhere to display his talents.

All three parties are very satisfied with the transfer deal.

After welcoming Grimaldo's joining, Newcastle quickly completed the transfer negotiations with Borussia Mönchengladbach the next day.

In the end, Newcastle brought in Swiss national goalkeeper Sommer from Borussia Mönchengladbach with the team's main goalkeeper last season Dubravka plus a transfer fee of 600 million euros.

The deal represents Newcastle's recognition of Sommer's current market value of 1000 million euros.

But considering that Sommer will turn 34 in the second half of this year, many fans still think that Newcastle has been ripped off by Borussia Mönchengladbach.

However, Li Chen was very satisfied with the negotiation efficiency of the uniform team.

At Li Chen's suggestion, Newcastle officials also announced the completion of all transfer work this summer.

So far, Newcastle has efficiently completed the cleansing and reconstruction in this summer window.

There are now 27 permanent members in the Newcastle first team. Li Chen will also promote some of the team's youth training to be selected. After adjusting the new numbers, the permanent member list is as follows:

Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo No. 7, Havertz No. 11, Wilson No. 9, Jacob Murphy No. 23, Chris Wood No. 20, Elanga No. 17.

Midfielders: Joelinton 10, Guimaraes 8, Ward-Prowse 14, Palinha 6, Maddison 18, Sean Longstaff 36, Joe Willock 28, Elliot Anderson 32.

Defenders: Trippier 2, Pepe 3, Ramos 4, Gvardiol 5, Marcelo 12, Denburn 33, Ashby 30, Van der Ven 13, Javier Manquillo 19, Grimaldo 22.

Goalkeepers: Sommer 1, Gillespie 29, Rudy 26.

At first glance, Newcastle's first-team squad is already "overloaded".

For teams like Liverpool and Manchester City, the first team members for the new season are basically 22 or 23.

If the focus is mainly on the Premier League and the Champions League, then it would be a waste to have a huge first-team.

However, Newcastle’s goal for the new season is not just to fight on a single front.

Li Chen set a very challenging goal, which is to make Newcastle the first strong team in England to win the "Domestic Triple Crown"!

Therefore, Newcastle, who are determined to compete for the championship on three fronts, do need to strengthen their bench foundation.

Li Chen has always held the principle that "the more the better" when employing people.

The inability to arrange rotations is either a habit of the head coach or a lack of ability.

Li Chen doesn't have this problem, and he is fed up with having to selectively give up league results due to lack of people at critical stages of the season.

Not only does he have to use these players, but he also has to use them well and use them to the best of his ability...

According to multiple media reports, Newcastle's net investment in the summer window has exceeded 200 million euros!
However, considering that Li Chen has basically rebuilt a new team, the team's strength on paper is quite good.

So the 200 million euros spent is still relatively reasonable. It is much more cost-effective than some teams spending 100 million or 200 million euros to buy only two or three players, right?
With all the new players in place, Newcastle's pre-season training is almost coming to an end.

Newcastle fans are in a pretty peaceful mood right now, and they enjoy looking at the official Twitter account’s promotional photos of the team’s superstars training every day.

But when the time came for the team to play a friendly match to test the new lineup's running-in, they couldn't help but feel nervous.

The club cleared out too many old players this summer.

Although these newly purchased players seem to be quite strong.

There are superstars from the older generation, talented players, and the new generation of talented young people.

But many Newcastle fans still believe that the club's team building ideas are a bit too radical.

They were also worried about whether Li Chen could bring this group of unfamiliar players together into a team in a short period of time.

The same concerns actually exist among Newcastle's management.

They tried their best to buy the players that Li Chen wanted. Although the money Li Chen spent in this summer window was not as much as the top management had initially expected, this was also one of the things they were very satisfied with Li Chen.

However, they don't want to become the new laughing stock of the football world because of the team's poor performance after a summer of hard work.

The big boss behind them doesn't want to be called a sucker by the media and fans.

They don’t care how much money they spend. Even if Li Chen spends 4 million in one summer, they can afford it!
The key is that the money must be spent effectively and in a commendable way.

Therefore, if Li Chen can achieve good results at the start of the new season, everyone will be happy, and the Newcastle executives will be able to give an explanation to the big boss.

But if he gets off to a bad start, it won’t just be one or two people in Newcastle’s management who will suffer…

On July 7, the entire Newcastle team arrived in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, by plane.

They will play two warm-up matches against Benfica and Sporting CP in the next five days.

All ticket fees generated by attracting fans and tourists to watch the game will belong to the two Portuguese Super League giants, and Newcastle will not take a penny.

On the afternoon of the 19th, the day of the match between Newcastle and Benfica, the fans who came to the Stadium of Light to watch Newcastle's big-name stars were very enthusiastic!
Seeing that the stadium was packed early in the morning, Benfica's top executives even regretted setting the ticket price too low before the game.

They still underestimated the enthusiasm of fans from all over the world, especially Real Madrid fans.

As soon as many of the American fans received the news about Newcastle's pre-season warm-up match schedule, they set off directly to Portugal.

Just to witness with my own eyes the grand occasion of several Real Madrid veterans reuniting side by side on the field!
And speaking of ticket prices, no matter how expensive Benfica sets the ticket price, it will not exceed the price of official matches.

Besides, I wonder how many people will be waiting to grab tickets for Newcastle’s home and away games after the new Premier League season starts.

At that time, it will be a question of whether you can get the tickets or not, and whether the price is expensive will be secondary.

Li Chen also took the fans' feelings into consideration. In the friendly match in the afternoon, he directly sent several big-name stars of the team onto the field.

The fans at the scene who saw this scene cheered excitedly!
Including Benfica fans, everyone was sighing with emotion at this moment. They could actually see the Real Madrid veterans who had left the team fighting side by side before retiring.

Not to mention that this group of veterans have shown quite good competitive form!

Neither Benfica nor Newcastle took strict defensive measures. To put it bluntly, this game was both a practice of offensive tactics and an exhibition match.

As a result, the attacks of both teams were very open and fierce, and the scene was very smooth and beautiful.

As for the level of excitement, in the eyes of the media, if the two teams do not defend hard and fight against each other, it can hardly be called exciting even if the score is big.

But fans just like to watch such games and see their favorite stars show their offensive talents on the court.

The players on the field seemed to be infected by the enthusiasm of the fans. They were more relaxed than each other and started to do things that they would not normally do on the court.

But what made people laugh was the active desire of the two backs to attack.

In the 14th minute of the first half, Ramos rushed into Benfica's penalty area, received Marcelo's cross and completed a standard center-forward header.

After watching the offensive process this time, Li Chen first smiled and clapped on the sidelines, then spread out his hands and pointed at his watch to signal Ramos.

The fans at the scene almost immediately understood what Li Chen meant and laughed.

The game hasn't even reached the 90th minute yet. It's not yet time for you, Ramos, to transform into a center forward. Why are you coming here to join in the fun?
After demonstrating his ability to attack from behind, Ramos also showed off his passing skills in the backcourt.

One him, one Marcelo, and Trippier on the right who is also good at organizing the ball.

Putting aside the defensive capabilities of Newcastle's back line, in terms of passing the ball and the threat of forward attacks, it can basically be said to be firmly in the top three in the Premier League.

The ball organization of the two full-backs further liberated Joelinton and Guimaraes, who were destined to play as double central midfielders in the new season in Li Chen's mind.

The two of them, together with the late interceptor Palinha, are Newcastle's main midfield trio for the new season.

Joelinton has a strong ability to break through and advance, has outstanding physical fitness, and is active in offense and defense.

Guimarães also has outstanding physical fitness, good ball handling and organizational skills, delicate techniques, is good at breaking away, and his defensive awareness is top-notch in football.

In addition, Palinha has a stable style and good frontal interception and air defense capabilities.

This midfield trio can be said to be the toughest in European football and also has the ability to organize attacks beyond the opponent's expectations.

Moreover, the two defensively active central midfielders can move to the sidelines appropriately to fill in the defensive gaps when the wingbacks launch a large-scale attack.

With their active sweeping and intercepting, the central defense line can be properly protected and will not be frequently attacked by opponents.

On the offensive line, Li Chen now prefers the partnership of Ronaldo, Havertz and Madison.

In Li Chen's tactical conception, as long as Havertz's fulcrum role is sufficient and can be used at critical moments, his active running and balancing ability are what Li Chen values ​​more.

Going forward can help Ronaldo and Madison open up offensive space, retreating can help Madison organize the ball, and can also help teammates fill the defensive position in the first time.

His abundant physical energy and durable physique can disrupt the opponent's defense, helping Ronaldo do the dirty work while attracting the opponent's defensive attention.

It sounds like a Benzema with a fulcrum role and weakened sense of smell in front of the goal.

But Li Chen believes that under his training and guidance, Havertz, who has outstanding ability to read the game, will definitely be able to evolve and grow.

He is just temporarily confused, just like those coaches who didn't know how to use him in previous seasons.

It is his luck to meet Tuchel, and now playing under Li Chen is a great opportunity for him to turn his career around.

Havertz also cherishes the trust that Li Chen gives him.

Even in a warm-up match, he gave his all on the field and behaved very disciplined, seeming a little out of tune with other teammates.

He was replaced by Li Chen when the game reached halftime.

There were no goals and no assists, and many fans who watched the game also didn't think there was anything special about his performance.

But Li Chen happily hugged and praised him.

Because he completed all the tactical tasks assigned to him by the coaching staff before the game.

Actively confront, actively defend, try to keep the ball during the counterattack and help teammates open up offensive space!

He did all this, so Li Chen was really very satisfied.

Havertz could also see that Li Chen was not comforting him, but was really praising the content of the game he played.

Havertz, who is used to being at the center of criticism, sat on the bench with a smile this time and communicated calmly and actively with his equally young teammates.

Li Chen, on the other hand, greeted the players who started today one by one with a smile on his face on the sidelines.

C Ronaldo and Guimaraes each scored a goal in the first half, and Wilson and Chris Wood, who came on as substitutes, also scored.

However, they are not the focus of today's warm-up match.

The player who performed the most amazingly in this warm-up match and received the most cheers from the fans was Madison, who didn't score a single goal.

This technical midfielder, who is more like a Spanish player than an English player, assisted and scored twice in his new position as a wide midfielder.

His delicate dribbling and threatening and deadly through passes left a very deep impression on the fans at the scene!
All I can say is that Leicester City’s platform is too small.

Maddison, who played 53 times for Leicester City last season and scored 18 goals and 12 assists, was even asked by some fans at the scene, "What is the name of this outstanding player?"

If Maddison had joined Manchester United or Chelsea after leaving the Championship, he would definitely be one of the top stars in football with his double-ten stats that season.

Fortunately, he has now come to a large enough platform.

Even though Newcastle has no European matches to play this season, the media and fans who follow Newcastle are no less than those who follow traditional giants.

Li Chen even joked with Madison as he high-fived and hugged him on the sidelines:
"Are you ready to be a celebrity now, James?"

Madison responded with a shy smile.

In the end, Newcastle and Benfica ended the game in a 4-4 draw, and the score was quite consistent.

Li Chen was very pleased with the good competitive state shown by the players, and Ramos' performance was beyond his expectations.

This also strengthened his determination to continue to let the old duo of Ramos and Pepe start in the next warm-up match.

In the warm-up match against Sporting CP, Li Chen made major adjustments to the starting lineup on the offensive end.

Jacob Murphy, Chris Wood and Elanga started.

The three midfielders were also replaced by Ward-Prowse, Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff.

On the defensive line, Grimaldo and Javier Manquillo replaced Marcelo and Trippier in the starting lineup, and the double central defenders were still Ramos and Pepe.

Sommer's position as goalkeeper is extremely stable, and Li Chen has no intention of playing any tricks with the starting goalkeeper position.

Therefore, during the warm-up matches, the team's second goalkeeper Gillespie should only get a chance to start in one game, and Li Chen will use the rest of the warm-up matches to allow Sommer to find his form.

With a large rotation, Newcastle's tactics have become simpler and clearer.

Both wide players, Jacob Murphy and Elanga, need to serve Chris Wood more.

Ward-Prowse's excellent set-piece penalty skills made Chris Wood and Ramos more threatening when competing for the header!
This typical British style of play cannot be said to be outdated. As long as the midfield can be controlled, it is still very advantageous against technical teams of average strength.

Sporting CP's defensive deployment was disrupted by Newcastle's aggressive style of play.

Chris Wood and Willock also scored in succession in the first half. Ramos hit the post with a header and Newcastle led 2-1 against Sporting CP at halftime.

After the start of the second half of the warm-up match, Li Chen replaced 8 players in a row and changed the offensive system back to midfield suppression and ground passing and cutting.

As a result, Sporting CP failed to respond in time and lost goals one after another, and its defense system was almost broken!

In other words, Li Chen had a trick up his sleeve, otherwise the score at the end of the game would not have been as small as 6-2.

After finishing the warm-up match with Sporting CP, the Newcastle team flew to Germany and played another warm-up match with RB Leipzig.

In this warm-up match, Li Chen tried his best to select young players in the team to start.

Gvardiol also returned to the Red Bull Arena for the first time since leaving the team.

In this game, Li Chen boldly used a three-center-back system.

Van der Ven and Ramos played as left and right central defenders, with Gvardiol in the middle.

Dan Burn and Elanga appeared at the left and right wingback positions.

The midfield trio is Ward-Prowse + Willock + Palinha.

Havertz and Madison formed a double striker.

In this warm-up match, Newcastle failed to continue to suppress their opponents and score a big score.

The two teams played in a 3-2 situation on the field, but Leipzig, who had more familiarity and tacit cooperation, eventually gained the upper hand and defeated Newcastle - at home.

The tactical highlight of Newcastle in this game was that when they got the offensive ball on the right, Dan Burn, who played as a left wingback, actively moved forward, forming three major flanking points with Havertz and Willock who came in from the back.

And Dan Burn also scored with a header that was as powerful as a mountain, showing his great advantage in attacking from the wing!
Li Chen doesn't care about the outcome of the warm-up match. What he cares more about are the problems and highlights that emerged during the process.

It turns out that Dan Burn is indeed more suitable for the mismatched attack from behind on the left.

In terms of releasing ground offensive firepower and supporting other frontcourt players, Dan Burn cannot be compared with Marcelo and Grimaldo.

However, his tactical role is quite good, and Li Chen will not be stingy in giving him opportunities to play.

Li Chen feels very good about having such a defender with excellent tactical effects. It would be even better if he could also train his right foot.

Other teams are troubled by the fact that there are not enough left-footed defenders in their teams, but Li Chen is just the opposite. There are too many left-footed defenders in his team.

It's really a "happy trouble"...

After returning to England, Newcastle played the last two warm-up matches at home before the official start of the new season.

In these two warm-up matches, Newcastle will face Crystal Palace and Manchester United, both Premier League teams.

Li Chen also used the starting lineup he had decided on for the new season in these last two warm-up matches.

No longer experimenting with formations and playing styles, Newcastle, with full firepower, destroyed the confidence of the players of Crystal Palace and Manchester United at home!
One 5-0, the other 6-1!

Especially in the warm-up match with Manchester United, Ronaldo, who scored twice, did not choose to celebrate.

But his goal stung the bald man standing not far from Li Chen!
Ten Hag, who still had a smile on his face when facing reporters after the game, had already made up his mind.

He must put pressure on Manchester United's management to get the players he wants before the summer window closes.

At any cost!

　Damn, thank you all for your tips! It's too late today, I'll update tomorrow. Thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)