Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 282

If Steven Gerrard knew in advance that he might slip one step away from his dream... what would the world be like?

Liverpool captain Gerrard had some misgivings before new manager Anton took over - he had never worked with a manager younger than himself.

But he couldn't come up with any reason to question it.The former head coach Dalglish who just resigned praised the successor; Torres, who moved to Chelsea at the beginning of the season, but still maintained a good relationship with his former teammates, heard the news of Anton's succession and immediately gave Gera De sent a congratulatory message; even Gerald's old captain Hypia praised Anton, saying that he couldn't find a single fault.

It was Anton's resume that made Gerrard immediately put aside all doubts and accept the new coach.

——Under the age of 30, he has already led the team to win a Premier League championship trophy as a coach.

Anfield has been away from England's top league title for 22 years.Even after the establishment of the Premier League, Liverpool have still made some European gains from time to time, but they have not been able to touch that position.During Gerrard's career, he has not yet had the opportunity to hold that trophy with his own hands.

It was the summer of 2012, 13 years after Gerrard made his Anfield debut.

他是利物浦本地人，8岁就加入了利物浦青训,以帮助利物浦夺冠和压过死敌曼联为己任。18岁那年他成功在英超首秀,19岁坐稳利物浦主力,21岁随队斩获史无前例的“五冠王”伟业……23岁时,海皮亚亲手把队长袖标戴在杰拉德手臂上。

But Gerrard has never been able to realize his dream. Liverpool has repeatedly performed miracles in the cup, but it is always weak in the league.

Lacking the supreme top league trophy, many people have gradually left. Irving, who was also from Liverpool's youth training, is gone, Fuller is gone, many people are gone... Alonso, who was once youthful and talented , Mascherano, Torres... They came and then they all left.

It's not that Gerrard has no chance to leave: "Madman" Mourinho once paid a record transfer price to invite him to join, and the "mortal enemy" coach Ferguson also put aside all grievances and prejudices and offered Gerrard Olive branch.Even Gerrard himself once imagined: he is partnering with Keane, with Beckham Giggs as the left and right protectors, and Ruud van Nistelrooy as the center forward... This picture should not be too beautiful.

But all this is just a thought.

He had to stay because so many people had left.

For so many years, the only one who has been with Gerrard behind him is Carragher, who is a native of Liverpool like him, who is nostalgic for his homeland and believes in loyalty.

In the turmoil caused by the "dog blood and bears" in 2010, the Liverpool club almost filed for bankruptcy protection-someone told Gerrard at the time that if Liverpool really went bankrupt, all the players would be listed for sale.

"Even if I am put up for sale, I will not leave Liverpool. Even if Liverpool are relegated to the British Championship, League One, and sink in the lower leagues, I will stay at Anfield." Gerrard still remembers his oath at that time .

Fortunately, none of this happened.

In the early summer of 2012, Anfield ushered in the youngest Premier League champion coach-Antonio Lin.

All players who have played in Liverpool understand what the "Merseyside Derby" means to their club. At the end of the 2012 season, Anton led Liverpool. In this Merseyside derby without a "head-to-head confrontation", relying on the last 3 rounds of winning streak, they overtook the city rival Everton by 1 point and beat the opponent. The fans were annoyed.

Gerrard felt very comforted: his choice was not wrong.

And he quickly discovered another incredible thing about Anton-Anton was in Anfield for the first time, but he knew these players very well, and he knew very well about Liverpool's football culture, as if he had coached a lot. In the past year, I know everything from the bottom to the bottom, and I am so familiar with it that I can't be more familiar with it.There is almost no running-in period between the players and the young coach, and everything transitions smoothly and naturally.

Anton is the same with Gerrard. He is familiar with all of Gerrard's technical characteristics and abilities, and he also knows his current physical condition like the back of his hand.

"How did you do it?" Gerald couldn't restrain his curiosity, and asked the question in his heart.

Anton smiled: "Actually, I have coached Liverpool for many seasons."

Gerald: ...are you kidding me?

It wasn't until Anton gave Gerald the account of Player S in the Collector's Edition of "Life in the Greenery" that he realized what Anton said was true.

Player S: ...It seems to have opened the door to a new world.

In 2012, Liverpool finished the season with No.7.In this season, Gerrard was plagued by injuries, and the number of appearances almost plummeted compared with the previous season.

But in the 2012-13 season, Anton arranged for individual "training" and special treatment for Gerrard in an attempt to restore Gerrard to form.Fortunately, these measures have worked.Gerrard returned to the green field to sweat again, in good condition, as if he was the handsome young man who made his debut at Anfield that year.

In this season, he played a total of 46 times and scored 10 goals.

Although the team only won the third place in the league, it gradually completed the replacement of the old and the new. The newly joined players perfectly took over the baton of the previous generation and grew into a new generation of "Red Army".

Many people, including Gerrard, have confidence in Anton and believe that he will be able to lead the team to create miracles in the near future and touch the long-awaited championship.

Sure enough, in the 2013-14 season, Anton's team made a strong impact on the list.They started the season with a string of winning streaks.

The Uruguayan Suarez has now taken over the burden left by Torres and has become a scoring striker.And the Red Army is no longer giving warmth easily. Facing weak teams, Suarez has never missed a hat-trick and a big four.

The younger generation is also growing rapidly, Henderson, Sterling, Coutinho, Sturridge... Gerrard is only relieved by the rapid growth of these younger generations.

In the second half of the season, after entering 2014, Liverpool never lost again. The unbeaten state lasted until April, and they narrowly defeated their opponents 4-3 in the "Battle of Tianwangshan" with Manchester City, firmly established Occupied the first place in the league standings.

In the penultimate round of the league, their opponent is "old enemy" Chelsea.

Two days before the game, Gerrard routinely logged into his account in "Green Life". Since Anton gave him this account, he often uses this account to train himself in order to maintain his state.

But not long after Gerald logged in this time, he logged out directly from the simulator.

He couldn't believe what he saw—

After Gerrard logged into the simulator, he saw a game video, which included himself.

He used to stray into various game replays from time to time, some of his own, some of other players, and even some of them were real games—real games that hadn’t happened yet.

He once asked Anton for advice on this, and Anton also explained to him that the simulator has a powerful algorithm that may predict future games with a certain accuracy.

Gerrard has also compared the relationship between this "prediction" and the real game in one or two games, and concluded that the key points are not bad, and there are slight differences in small details.

He is willing to trust the results predicted by the simulator.

But this time, he saw the Liverpool-Chelsea game, saw himself, and made a fatal mistake in the first half of stoppage time.

A game-ending mistake;

A mistake enough to ruin the hope of winning the championship.

It is impossible for a professional player not to make mistakes in his career, and even the greatest players have the opportunity to stumble.

But in a game like this... Gerrard's heart shudders when he thinks about it.

Don't, don't make such a mistake at this time!

Two days later, the game was played at Anfield.

Gerrard, as the captain, started this game.

Liverpool and Chelsea players in the tunnel at Anfield before kick-off.Standing behind Gerrard is deputy Henderson.Gerrard figured out what Anton meant. If he retired, Henderson would take over the captain's armband and become Liverpool's new captain.

Gerrard turned his head and looked at Henderson with a slightly questioning look in his eyes, as if to say, "Are you nervous?"

The honest young team deputy grinned and gave Gerrard a simple and honest smile, as if answering: Don't think about anything, just play on the field.

Gerald nodded and turned around.It was almost time to play, and the little caddy next to Gerrard stretched out his hand and grabbed Gerrard's arm.

"What's your name?" Gerald asked.

"My name is Trent Alexander-Arnold." The little ball boy announced a long name, "Captain, I am now playing in Liverpool's youth academy just like you were back then!"

Gerald made a "hmm" and looked up.

Yes, back then... when he was in the youth training, he was as confident as the energetic young people around him, at least he never worried that he would make a "mistake".

At this time, it was time for the players to play. Gerrard led Alexander-Arnold out of the player channel and walked to Anfield.There was a tidal wave of applause from the stands, for this team that was rushing towards its long-cherished wish.

Gerrard took a deep breath and forced himself to forget about everything and throw himself into the game, as he had done for years.

The game went on and it was 45-0 within 0 minutes of the first half - exactly what Gerrard had seen predicted in "Life in the Green".

At this moment, the full-back Sacco passed the ball to captain Steven Gerrard.

Gerald suddenly felt nervous and his palms were sweating:

If there is also a "script" in the game, then he will stretch out his foot to stop the ball, and accidentally stop it too big; Chelsea player Demba Ba stepped forward to rob, but suddenly slipped when he countered the rob, there was no way to stop Demba Ba's quick counterattack, It caused Liverpool to concede a goal in the last minute of the first half.

After that, Chelsea can play the best and most comfortable defensive counterattack and win the game.

At the moment when the ball came, Gerrard's heart seemed to stop beating. He took a deep breath, faced the incoming ball, and stretched out his feet...

Anton's younger brother Bernard asked curiously: "Did you really show your captain the video of the game in the parallel time and space?"

Anton nodded.

Bernard is a diehard Liverpool fan, he can only hope that Liverpool will win.Hearing what Anton said, Bernard felt a little sad.He said: "Brother, haven't you heard of 'Murphy's Law'?"

"Murphy's Law": The more you worry about something happening, the more likely it will happen.

Put this "law" on Gerrard: the more you are afraid of making mistakes, the more likely you are to make mistakes?

Anton turned to look at his younger brother, saw the young man scratching his head anxiously, and couldn't help laughing out loud: "Of course I know Murphy's Law—but even then, things didn't get any worse, did they? ?”

Bernard was really anxious, but he couldn't refute his brother.

At this time, Anton suppressed his smile and said seriously: "This is Gerald's lifelong dream, and it is also a demon that he must overcome by himself."

The "spoiler" spread from parallel time and space is actually a double-edged sword.

At this most critical moment, whether to make a mistake or not to make a mistake;

The pressure is all on Gerrard.

Gerrard greeted the ball from his teammates, and observed the position of the Chelsea striker around him out of the corner of his eye.He stood firm and stretched out his feet—

The author has something to say: I have imagined countless times that such a thing did not happen in the 13-14 season, and the Jie team never slipped... I was also full of desire because of this, and wanted to write such a story, so that people in the dimensional world Gerrard's regret with Liverpool never happened...

But I really wrote here, but I stopped here... You all know what I want to write.

but……

If the regret never happened... so what?

So I chose to leave the ending of this story to the captain himself.

The great man once said: "Too much complaints can prevent heartbreak, and long-term scenery should be taken into account." The past has passed after all.

What Gerrard left to Liverpool should not only be those trophies, but also the inheritance of will, loyalty and belief-this is probably the most important thing for a club.

When I wrote about Gerrard, I suddenly remembered that someone once said that on that night in Istanbul in 2005, Gerrard spent all his luck in his life, so the miracle was completed, and he had to use eternal pain to pay off the debt.

Gerald is such a tragic hero, once thought of, it makes people feel mixed feelings.

Perhaps it is this world of imperfections that makes it feel so real.