Chapter 23 The So-Called "FIFA Virus" (102/134)

The two national team match days have caused many teams to suffer from the "FA virus", and Lazio is no exception.

Icardi is not the only Lazio player who was injured during the national team match day. Alessio Campoli, the main central defender of the Italian national team, also strained his thigh muscle during the game and needs to be diagnosed for six to eight weeks, which means that no one can see him playing for Lazio for up to two months...

Verratti, who is also an Italian international, was also injured in the game. Fortunately, he was only slightly injured and only needed to rest for a week.

But despite this, the number of Lazio's first-team players with fighting power has been sharply reduced.

In the third round of the league, Lazio played against Chievo at home, which should not be a difficult game for Lazio.

But in the end, Lazio lost to Chievo 1:2 at home and lost the first game of the season.

Cavani replaced the injured Icardi in the starting lineup in this game. His performance was not bad, but not good either, just average.

The key is not how Cavani performed.

But the performance of the entire Lazio team in this game was not very good.

The so-called "FA virus" does not only refer to players getting injured in national team matches.

Even if the players are not injured, it is very tiring to travel long distances to participate in national team matches and then fly back to participate in club matches close at hand.

Players will feel tired physically and mentally in such a dense schedule.

So it is inevitable that there will be fluctuations in state.

Mainly in terms of physical fitness.

Many players who participated in national team matches are often very tired in the following leagues. They can't run on the court at all, and their legs are like lead.

This is the case with Lazio's players in this game.

This is why many club coaches hate their players to participate in national team matches.

It's easier to say in European matches, but it's annoying to think about players in South America, Africa and Asia. Because they need to fly back and forth for tens of thousands of kilometers to participate in a national team match, which consumes a lot of physical energy and fluctuates in state. For the club, it seems useless.

Chinese overseas players have suffered such hardships.

Why does Magath hate Chinese players so much? Because every time Yang Chen was in better condition in the club, the national team would call him up to participate in the game, no matter if it was an important game or not, it was a national team game anyway. Yang Chen had to go back. After all this, his condition was gone, and he was at risk of injury in the national team.

After so many times, no one could bear it. So Magath later got very annoyed with Chinese players.

Yang Chen was no longer ranked in Magath's eyes.

The same is true for other Chinese overseas players.

There are even players who are working hard abroad who receive a notice from their provincial football association to return to China to participate in the National Games...

For a provincial sports department. The National Games is of course very important, but for Chinese players who are working hard abroad, the National Games is really not a game worth flying back for... But they can't miss it, because their roots are in their hometowns and their organizational relationship is in the provincial football association. The Football Association is their direct management department, and they must obey the call of the Football Association, otherwise they will not be able to get along well in Chinese football in the future.

To be fair, even if he is always victorious, if his main players always do this, he will be put in the cold palace.

As the head coach of the club, he naturally leaves the field to favor the interests of the club.

A player who can never guarantee to play in the club games continuously, and runs to win glory for the country when the club needs him, will never be treated preferentially in the club.

After all, it is not the national team that pays you. It is the club.

I spend money to let you recover in my team, and then go to the national team to contribute all your strength?

Then I will definitely not do it.

Many clubs do not like to buy African players. Especially if the African Cup of Nations is held in the second year, it is even more so. For example, Premier League teams.

Because the African Cup of Nations is held in January, this is the time when the official schedule is the most intensive and the competition intensity is the highest for Premier League teams. The important players in the team have to go back to participate in the African Cup of Nations because they are African internationals, and they will miss at least half a month of games. Who can bear this?

For this half-month game, the team is still temporarily introducing a player during the winter break to replace the player who left the team.

Why bother?

※ ※ ※

Lazio lost to Chievo 1:2 at home, which surprised the media.

Even if the "FA virus" is taken into account, Lazio should be able to beat Chievo at home.

Who would have thought that the whole team was not in good shape and eventually lost the game.

Originally, after Lazio won Juventus 5-0 away, there were many articles and voices in the media praising Lazio, which were as disgusting as they could be.

Many people even believed that the game against Juventus might be a new starting point for Lazio this season, indicating that Lazio will rise again.

As a result, in the next round of the league, Lazio gave these people a basin of cold water...

It was really surprising to lose to a weak team like Chievo at home.

This game was also considered by the media as the biggest upset of this round.

Changsheng tried to relieve the pressure on the players at the post-match press conference.

"It's normal to lose at home. The ball is round. Chievo performed very well in this game. We are not in good shape, so losing is no big deal. I want to congratulate Chievo. Their performance deserves victory, but at the same time, for Lazio, losing at home is not the end of the world. The season is long and it has just begun."

Sitting in front of many reporters, Changsheng said calmly.

It was completely different from his smiling expression after winning the last game.

The football world is like this. The winner is the king. If you win the game, you are superior, you can enjoy the praise of everyone, and you can also express your emotions.

But once you lose the game, you have to bear huge pressure, you will be blamed, you will be scolded, and it may cause problems within the team, making you anxious.

Losing to Chievo at home, Changsheng is indeed under great pressure.

Because I just said that I want to be high-profile, win the championship, and show the strength of Lazio to the outside world again.

As a result, I lost the game.

Of course, Changsheng is not the only one who is under pressure.

Because Cavani did not score in the game where he replaced Icardi, he was widely criticized by the media after the game.

This also put Cavani under great pressure.

After all, after Icardi was injured, everyone thought that Lazio's forward line was in crisis.

Although Cavani was pushed to the starting position by Changsheng, the media still doubted whether he could perform well.

As a result, Cavani performed mediocrely in this game, which gave those media who were not optimistic about Cavani sufficient reasons.

After the game, the voices criticizing Cavani in the media were overwhelming.

First of all, Cavani's performance was indeed not outstanding. In the case of different opinions, he may be blackened.

Secondly, by blackening Cavani, the media can also blacken Changsheng in disguise.

If you want to directly blacken Changsheng, you can't do it now, it will seem very unskilled. Because even a fool can see that after two national team games, Lazio's players are generally very tired and not in shape. This is an objective factor. Changsheng can do nothing even if he is a god. Lazio lost the game because of this. There is nothing to say about failure itself.

It is really too low-level to criticize Changsheng. It will not work but will attract criticism.

It is much more advanced to criticize Changsheng by criticizing players. Through packaging, their real purpose is cleverly hidden under the text. People with intentions can see it naturally, and people without intentions will say it in vain.

The media criticized Cavani for his poor condition, and then criticized Changsheng's personnel strategy between the lines.

Changsheng is so naive that he has high hopes for a veteran who is almost 35 years old.

The media believes that Changsheng should change the formation and tactics due to Icardi's injury, abandon 433, and use 442, or any other formation, anyway, there is no need for a center forward.

Even if there is no striker formation, it is fine.

But Changsheng didn't use it, and insisted on using veteran Cavani.

This problem is very serious in the context of failure.

"... maybe he trusts Cavani. But now is not ten years ago, and Cavani is not Klose. Cavani has proved with his actual performance that he does not deserve Chang's trust. Chang's feelings for Cavani are unquestionable, but perhaps it is this feeling that blinded Chang's eyes and made him fall into the whirlpool of emotions. At this time, it is obvious that Cavani should be abandoned, but he chose Cavani... This kind of emotional behavior will ruin Lazio's season! Sometimes, no matter how beautiful things are, they will eventually go bad, and the same is true for players. A former world-class center does not mean that he is still a world-class center at the age of 34. Messi against Juventus Even though Cavani performed well against Chievo, it doesn’t mean that Cavani can perform well against Chievo…Using veterans is like robbing Peter to pay Paul, which won’t last long…”

“The match against Chievo shows a problem, that is, the whole Lazio team may have a mentality of underestimating the opponent, thinking that they are playing at home and are stronger than the opponent, so it should not be a problem to win this game, even if the performance is not so good, it is enough…But in fact, Chievo’s performance gave Lazio a loud slap in the face! As the head coach, Chang did not change everyone’s arrogant and underestimating the opponent before the game, which is probably his dereliction of duty…”

See, it finally hits the point, right?