Football: The strongest post-2000s Chapter 110

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The moment Li Qing took over the Premier League Player of the Month trophy, he clearly heard a familiar system prompt in his mind.

“Ding! Congratulations to the host for winning the ‘English Premier League Player of the Month’ title for the first time, rewarding 10 attribute points.”

Li Qing’s smile facing the camera grew wider, exceptionally bright, paired with his handsome face, the staff responsible for the filming couldn’t help but give Li Qing a thumbs up: “OK! Truly a born superstar.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Li Qing said with a calm smile.

Subsequently, Klopp stared intently at the official Premier League reporter, like a protective father, fearing that the reporter would lead Li Qing into a trap and make him a target of public criticism.

Assistant coach Buvac looked at Klopp with a knowing smile and said, “Jürgen, why are you staring at others?”

“Am I?”

Klopp turned around, his hands behind his back, and said faintly, “I was just thinking about the league match against Arsenal at Anfield the day after tomorrow.”

But his ears perked up, as if he wished they could stretch to the official Premier League reporter’s mouth.

“Really?”

Buvac’s smile was somewhat meaningful.

Besides presenting Li Qing with the trophy symbolizing the Player of the Month, the official Premier League staff also interviewed him with some simple questions, such as “How does it feel to be a sixteen-year-old winning the Premier League Player of the Month,” “You are Liverpool’s first player to win the Player of the Month title in the past three years, do you have any special feelings,” and “What are your future aspirations” etc.

Klopp listened to these questions and answers, and his tense nerves gradually relaxed.

Krawietz chuckled beside him, “It seems Jürgen is quite unhappy that the official Premier League didn’t award him the Manager of the Month.”

Buvac obviously understood Klopp better. He knew his friend wasn’t staring at the official Premier League staff for that reason. He walked straight over, calling the players to restart their rondo drill.

The official Premier League staff left Melwood after a few simple questions, and the Liverpool first-team players resumed training.

No one was surprised that the Premier League Player of the Month for February was awarded to Li Qing; on the contrary, not giving it to him would have made people suspect foul play from the Premier League officials.

Liverpool had four Premier League matches in February: home against Chelsea, away against Hull City, home against Tottenham, and away against Leicester City.

Li Qing performed excellently in three of those matches, even when coming on as a substitute, except for the away match against Hull City, where he was suspended due to a red card.

His seven goals and three assists brought Liverpool three consecutive wins and were the biggest contribution to Liverpool staying close to Chelsea in the standings.

Interestingly, Li Qing was the first player to win the Premier League Player of the Month award as a substitute since its inception.

INS, Twitter, Facebook, Weibo, Qiudi, and other social media platforms quickly released news of the official Player of the Month, and the winner, Li Qing, instantly became a hot topic among fans worldwide.

Domestic fans felt immense pride and honor.

Media and fans in South Korea and Japan scoffed. South Korean media and fans didn’t need to compete with domestic media and fans in this regard because Son Heung-min had already won the Premier League Player of the Month in September last year, becoming the first Asian player to achieve this honor.

The February Manager of the Month award went to Guardiola, his first since taking charge of Manchester City. Conte, Mourinho, and Klopp were also nominated alongside him.

Based on performance, Klopp’s team had the best results.

There was a reason why the Manager of the Month award was not given to Klopp. Liverpool’s four league wins in February were not due to his brilliant tactical arrangements, but rather entirely dependent on Li Qing’s significant goal contributions.

This was the fundamental reason why Li Qing received the Player of the Month award, while Klopp did not receive the Manager of the Month award.

Of course, local Liverpool media, the “Echo” and the “Mail,” questioned the Premier League’s selection. Professional football has always been about results. Was Klopp’s four consecutive wins not enough to beat Guardiola’s three consecutive wins?

Klopp himself wasn’t dwelling on the Premier League’s selection. What he was currently concerned about was the team’s upcoming opponent, Arsenal.

The first leg of the season was played at the Emirates Stadium, where the two teams played a thrilling match, with Liverpool ultimately winning 4- 3.

This match, moved to Anfield, was destined to be full of highlights.

In addition, mainstream European media also brought up another highly anticipated match between the two teams as a reference.

That was a Premier League match in the 2008- 2009 season, where visiting Arsenal, thanks to Russian international Arshavin’s four goals, drew 4- 4 with Liverpool at Anfield.

As these two classic matches were brought up by the media and fans as references, more and more fans became interested in Liverpool’s home match against Arsenal in the Premier League.

Perhaps due to different favorite teams, different favorite players, or even disagreements over certain goal-scoring methods, more and more fans joined in the war of words.

However, the players and coaches of Liverpool and Arsenal remained unaffected; they were all highly focused and tacitly concentrating on the upcoming match.

Two days passed in a flash, and Anfield, capable of holding fifty-four thousand fans, was completely packed more than an hour before the match.

Since Arsenal’s home kit is also red, the highly anticipated match at Anfield was entirely transformed into a sea of red.

Li Qing, who was highly anticipated by countless fans, still did not appear in the starting lineup. However, Liverpool fans and Li Qing’s fans were not worried about Li Qing not getting playing time, because… in their opinion, Li Qing coming off the bench was the most powerful Li Qing.

Unexpectedly, the Liverpool players who started this match had a refreshed mental outlook and performed excellently overall.

They took the lead in the tenth minute of the game, with Mané using his speed to get past Monreal’s defense and deliver a quick low cross. Coutinho cleverly dummied the ball after attracting defenders, and Firmino, unmarked at the far post, tapped it in.

In the fortieth minute, Liverpool extended their lead. Left-back Milner, Wijnaldum, and Firmino made continuous horizontal passes, and finally, Mané, who received the ball on the right side of the box, fired a powerful shot into the net.

With a two-goal lead, Liverpool manager Klopp was in high spirits. In his opinion, such a performance was worthy of the Liverpool shirt.

If it weren’t for Li Qing in late January and February, they wouldn’t know how many points they would be behind Chelsea by now.

Such a performance, worthy of the Liverpool shirt?

Clearly not!

Liverpool went into the changing room with a two-goal lead, and Li Qing felt somewhat depressed. The team’s excellent situation basically meant less time for him to come on as a substitute.

As expected!

With the team leading by two goals, Klopp didn’t even feel like looking at the bench…_

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