Chapter 5: Pre-season

The absence of Pete Williams due to injury is a headache for the Leeds City coaching staff.
The good news is that although Hu Lai played in the World Cup, he maintained good physical fitness and form.
Can not see the feeling of exhaustion after playing the World Cup.
You must know that even Jay Adams, who was only on the bench, can feel his fatigue after playing the World Cup and returning to the team after his vacation.
Not only physically, but also mentally.
It was as if he had drained all his energy after playing a World Cup.
In this regard, the coaches in Leeds fully understand.
After all, it was the World Cup.
The England team's World Cup journey has always been given a lot of meaning by the enthusiastic British media and fans.
This puts a lot of pressure on every English player participating in the World Cup.
You know, the England internationals, even if they show half of their faces on the window of the hotel room, will be photographed by English reporters as big news, and then they will attract countless good deeds to give pointers.
This will naturally cause a lot of pressure on the players.
And China has a huge population. It is the first time to participate in the World Cup and bears the hopes and expectations of the people of the whole country. The pressure on them is not small.
It's normal to be exhausted physically and mentally after playing for a World Cup like this.
But Hu Lai is not only not exhausted, but also very excited, as if he did not withdraw from the excitement of the World Cup.
In the pre-season warm-up match, he scored two goals in three warm-up matches, maintaining consistent efficiency.
In this pre-season warm-up match, Leeds, which has already won the Premier League championship, finally does not have to find a low-level team as its opponent as before.
As Premier League champions, they were invited to participate in the International Champions Cup held in Singapore.
This is a mature pre-season warm-up event. Every year, famous European teams are invited to compete in different regions.
Most of the time, the teams that can appear in this tournament list are either giants or veteran players. Anyway, they are influential teams in the top five European leagues.
Leeds, like Leeds, was previously unknown in English football, and the "nobody" who is unknown in Europe is naturally impossible to have the opportunity to participate in the International Champions Cup.
But now it is very different, because they are the new Premier League champions.
So at the end of last season, they received an invitation from the organizers of the International Champions Cup.
A total of four teams play single round-robin matches in Singapore. Each team plays three games and wins one game and accumulates three points. If you lose, there is no points. Unlike the league system, there is no tie in the International Champions Cup. If the two teams are tied, no extra time will be played and the penalty shoot-out will be taken directly to determine the winner. The team that relied on the penalty kick to win the final scored two points.
In the end, whoever has the highest points wins the championship.
In the competition in the Singapore Division, Leeds City played against the giants Ruhr Rhein from Germany, the Seville Navigator from La Liga, and the Lions of Lyon from Ligue 1.
Hu Lai scored two goals in three games and performed well and steadily.
But Leeds' performance is not considered outstanding.
They lost to Ruhr Rhein 1:3 in their first game, and Hu Lai scored a face-saving goal for the team.
In the second game they lost 0:1 to the Serbian Navigator.
In the third game, Leeds City seemed to finally find the feeling of playing against the continental European team. Their performance was obviously better than the first two games. They tied with the Lyon Lions 2:2, Hulay and the team's central defender. Teddy Bradford scored a goal each.
But in the penalty shoot-out, they were unlucky and lost.
So after three warm-up matches, Leeds scored zero points and ranked bottom.
The championship bonus was not earned, only a fixed bonus for participating in the competition.
It can be seen from the three games that the Leeds team has not yet been formed into a shape.
After all, when the International Champions Cup was held, it was from late July to early August. During this time, Leeds’ signings continued and the lineup was uneven.
For example, the transfer of the team's midfielder Sedou hadn't been finalized yet.
Of course, in front of the traditional European teams, Leeds is indeed still too tender.
But for head coach Tony Clark, he doesn't care about the final result.
Participating in this International Champions Cup, I originally hoped that the team could play against teams from the European continent first, and see where the gap between themselves and the strong European teams lies.
Get used to the Champions League in the new season in advance.
During the game, he saw the problems of his team and also saw the bright spots.
There are many problems, but the highlights are also very dazzling.
The highlight is the team's offense.
Without Pete Williams, the team's offensive organization was severely affected. But under such circumstances, Leeds City still scored three goals in three games, especially in the third game, scoring two goals and tying the French giants Lyon Lions within 90 minutes.
Hu Lai even scored two goals in three games.
Especially the first game against the Bundesliga giant Ruhr Rhein.
In this game, Leeds City was basically completely suppressed by Ruhr Rhein. It can be said that there was no offensive opportunity in the whole game.
But even with few opportunities, Hu Lai seized one of them.
flash.
Then he scored.
This is one of the qualities that Hulay makes Clark most valued-as a pie forward, in fact, sometimes he can score goals without relying on the support of his teammates.
For example, the ball against Ruhr Rhein actually came from a mistake made by the Ruhr Rhein defender in the lateral transfer. The passing force was too light and was intercepted by Hulet. Then one-on-one with Ruhr Rhine's goalkeeper Simon Koenigs, easily scored the football.
The whole scoring process is very simple and easy.
It seems that there is no technical content.
But why did Hu Lai appear in that place?
This is very technical.
He will always constantly hit the opponent's defense line in the game, on the one hand, in order to give his teammates open space and create opportunities for passing the ball. On the other hand, it is actually constantly putting pressure on the opponent's defender, waiting for the opponent to make a mistake.
This time, Ruhr Rhein's defender made a mistake, and Hu Lai, who has been waiting for the opportunity, will naturally not let it go.
So some people say that Hu Lai is a pie forward who is highly dependent on his teammates, and Clark doesn't bother arguing with each other.
He wished that Leeds' opponents thought so... Then they would greatly reduce their vigilance towards Hu Lai, and reduce the importance of Hu Lai under certain circumstances.
As long as Leeds is the winner, Clark doesn't care what others say.
Hulay's performance was fair, but the talented Polish striker Dominic Laski, who was introduced during the World Cup, was not so good. He obviously hasn't really integrated into the team. Although he occasionally showed his talent in the three warm-up games, he did not play at the level overall, and he was not in line with the team as a whole.
This takes time, and there is no rush.
After all, not everyone can be like Hu Lai, who can score goals when he represents the team for the first time, and scored five goals in three consecutive games... Such a wonderful start is really hard to come by.
Clark can only hope that Laski can find the rhythm to play with the Premier League team as soon as possible, and at the same time always give Laski confidence and encouragement in the interview, I believe he will be successful in the Premier League.
In many cases, the support and encouragement from the coach is very important to the players.
※※※
After playing the International Champions Cup in Singapore, the Leeds City team returned to England.
Immediately thereafter is the last important game before the start of the Premier League, which can also be said to be the last "warm-up match":
Community shield.
As an important event before the start of each season, the Community Shield is similar to the "Super Cup" of other countries in that the league champions of last season are played against the cup champions.
However, English football is a bit special. There are two domestic cups, one is the FA Cup with a long history, and the other is the League Cup with much lower gold content and influence.
So this Community Shield team has nothing to do with League Cup champions.
It is a clash between the league champion and the FA Cup champion.
But in fact, at the beginning, the nature of this game had nothing to do with the "Super Bowl", it was a contest between professional and amateur teams.
Later it changed to what it is now.
In the 2026 Community Shield game, the two sides are the Premier League champion Leeds City last season and the FA Cup champion Manchester Athletic last season.
After ninety minutes of fierce battle, Leeds City lost 1:3 to Manchester Athletic. They were defeated and failed to win the Community Shield championship.
Hulay was closely guarded by Manchester Athletic in this game, with only three shots and no goals in the game. It's the top of all players on the two teams in violation of the data-up to seven times.
Manchester Athletic is also relying on its success to freeze Hulai's defense, which also freezes Leeds City's offense.
Finally won the Community Shield of this season.
Hu Lai also failed to play the full court in this game. He was replaced in the 63rd minute. At that time, Leeds was actually only behind 1:2 in the score~EbookFREE.me~ not. There is no hope of a comeback.
However, Manchester Athletic’s
special care
for Hulay made Clark not dare to keep Hulay on the court. He has already lost Pete Williams in the World Cup. If he loses Hulay again, Leeds in the new season will be Completely finished.
Out of consideration to protect Hu Lai, he replaced Hu Lai early, which basically means that Leeds City has no intention of competing with Manchester Athletic for this "Super Cup" championship.
Clark doesn't value the Community Shield very much, at least he doesn't pay much attention to Hu Lai's health.
Hu Lai, who was replaced, was sitting on the bench with a slightly depressed expression.
Upon seeing this, Matthew Cox comforted from the air: "Don't be depressed, young man. You are already too crazy this summer-Premier League champions, Premier League golden boots and World Cup golden boots, hat-trick against Brazil...no one You can guarantee that your status is always online, and no one can guarantee to win everything you want to win. Now let your gun cool down and rest. When the new season of the Premier League kicks off, you are welcome to come back!"
(End of this chapter)