I AM the Football Star

Chapter 371 - 109: The Drunken AC Milan and the Awakening Miracle

"Okay, the fans have given a warm round of applause to Rui Andres as he comes on as a substitute, replacing the Serie A star Izalelt. Today, in the first half, Izalelt scored twice early on, with two shots and a traditional cured game..."

The second half has just begun on the field.

But Andres doesn’t care about the applause from the fans because he knows it’s not for him; it’s for Izalelt.

In terms of playstyle, he has resigned himself to playing as a workhorse player.

But essentially, Andres has never let go of his inner pride.

He truly enjoys playing as the core in the front midfield.

The coaching staff also feels that Andres has a lot of talent yet to be developed, so he has often been given the chance to lead the substitute team recently.

Believe it or not, Andres has performed really well under the substitute lineup.

This year, in the Italian Cup matches with AC Milan, it was basically Andres playing in the attacking midfield position leading the team, and he hasn’t betrayed the team’s trust.

Even in the face of tough opponents like Inter Milan, when players like Izalelt were not on the field, Andres still played the core role perfectly, defeating strong enemies.

Unfortunately, the spotlight of that match was all taken away by the verbal and physical altercations between Gutierrez and the Inter coach, causing Andres, the chief contributor, to be overlooked.

Andres stands on the field like a nobody, he tearfully vows that everyone must see me.

In the rest of today’s match, he will take over, and he’s going to create the biggest massacre ever seen in an Italian Cup final!

Only in this way will people notice that Andres, too, can lead the team so strongly!

He needs this kind of recognition.

But soon, Andres finds that the situation in the second half isn’t quite as he imagined.

Even though San Remo was kicked by AC Milan like a lost dog in the first half, they started high-intensity pressing in the second half.

And they frequently and forcefully knocked down AC Milan’s players.

Andres was knocked down three times within five minutes.

"Are these people crazy?" Andres is very unhappy with Saint Remo’s attitude, constantly complaining to the referee.

But to be fair, the referee doesn’t think the fouls from the Saint Remo players were to the extent of deserving a card.

Moreover... you guys are three to zero, if you just kept a low profile, it wouldn’t have pushed them to "desperate measures".

You came in all with an attitude of "Guys, let’s score three more on them," who can withstand that?

You still have a Champions League final to play, wake up, bro!

Unfortunately, Andres couldn’t understand the referee’s gaze.

By the standards of a top team, AC Milan’s midfield is somewhat mediocre, lacking creativity. Andres’s appearance on the field complemented this deficiency, but when San Remo pressed crazily, this flaw emerged once more.

Andres’s style of play leans towards the classic number ten, requiring a lot of ball possession.

He and Izalelt both prefer breaking through to create opportunities themselves.

The difference is, Andres has the dignity of a classic number ten; his passes are all about pursuing extreme through balls, not passing unless it’s a throat-sealing one!

Whereas Izalelt doesn’t necessarily pursue threatening passes or success rates of the final pass.

Thus, under pressure, the environment for Andres’s ball holding became worse, and outlet passing became increasingly difficult.

AC Milan’s workhorse midfielders were not actively or intelligently supporting.

Therefore, AC Milan’s offense became obscure for a while.

"This is the difference between Andres and Izalelt," Sotu converses with Lu on the side, as a legendary player for AC Milan, he’s undoubtedly very concerned about the team’s situation, "In a weak team, Andres will undoubtedly become the offensive core. He has the ability to tear through any defense."

"But if the opponent’s defensive level isn’t low, his efficiency will decrease."

"For weak teams, it doesn’t matter; they inherently lack offensive efficiency, inherently can’t create opportunities."

"But strong teams’ tactics and the players’ strength determine that they can produce a basic offensive efficiency against anyone. If the individual performance of a core player leads to less efficiency than when there’s no core, the team will abandon that seemingly talented core player."

"He’s too fixated on the word ’core’; he’s burdened by data. If he’d be willing to ignore those so-called threatening passes, passing success rates, and the like, he’d become stronger, just like Izalelt."

Lu nods, saying, "It’s a pity his status within the team is unstable; he needs those stats to comfort his shaky heart."

"It’s a paradox. He needs those stats to support his confidence. Without playing for stats, he’d feel like he’s really become a workhorse. However, playing this way, he will never be truly regarded as a core by the team."

This is somewhat similar to Becher’s from some time ago.

Only by truly letting go of those empty titles and integrating as a role player will you in turn receive treatment no inferior to that of a core.

Now, when facing opponents, doesn’t Becher’s create offensive core-level threats?!

Bang!

Latu Yidi completes a beautiful interception, Andres loses the ball.

Latu Yidi quickly passes to Morici.

Morici directly passes to the left side.

On the right side, Becher’s side was tightly guarded. It’s well known that San Remo’s strong side is the right, weak side is the left, so most teams put less restriction on San Remo’s left flank.