"Jose, go to bed early tonight, and you will start tomorrow night's game." That day, after Jose's training, Paul Lambert suddenly told Jose.

Hearing what the head coach said, Jose was stunned for a moment. Tomorrow is Wednesday, and it's not the weekend game time yet.

But Jose quickly realized that although there was no Premier League match the next day, there was the second knockout round of the English League Cup.

According to the draw results, Villa will face Tranmere from the League Two team at home.

At first glance, this was a match without any suspense. The Championship and League One were separated between League Two and the Premier League, so Paul Lambert decided to start Jose without much thought.

However, there are rumors that there are many upsets in the League Cup, and Premier League teams are eliminated by lower-level teams every year.

This is because the reward for the League Cup champion is small, only a mere 100,000 pounds, which is far less than the 2 million reward for the FA Cup champion. Therefore, every club treats it as a training ground.

In view of this, Paul Lambert and the other players believe that winning is an easy task.

Compared to the optimism of the head coach and teammates, Jose maintained a cautious attitude. He did not believe that he could defeat his opponent by just dealing with it casually.

Defeating the strong with the weak happens from time to time, and of course this does not include Chinese football.

In addition, there is another reason why Jose does not dare to reveal it, that is, through the last two Premier League games, Jose feels that the strength of these Villa first-team players is only a little better than Grealish.

It's not that Grealish is weak, but because Grealish is as young as Jose. It is almost certain that in a few years, Grealish will definitely surpass all Villa players and become a top player.

Jose's thoughts were not revealed at all. He nodded excitedly to Paul Lambert: "Don't worry, coach, I will guard the goal."

On the evening of August 29, local time, the second round of the English League Cup officially started. 50 teams from the four major leagues in England appeared one after another. Except for the teams participating in the European competition, all Premier League teams were absent.

In terms of Villa's starting lineup, in addition to the youngest Jose, there are also 21-year-old Weiman and 22-year-old Stevens who also got the chance to start.

Since there is no need to take care of Asian fans, the EFL Cup games are all scheduled to be played in the evening. This is a very considerate thing for the players.

When Jose walked out of the locker room and stood in the players' tunnel, the system finally gave a prompt.

[Congratulations to the host for getting the opportunity to start the first team, and get double the reward points for this game. 】

[EFL Cup champion: In the knockout round of the League Cup, if you defeat the opponent with your teammates, you will be rewarded with 2,000 points and a silver treasure chest*2; if there is a tie within 90 minutes of the official match, you will be rewarded with 1,000 points and a silver treasure chest*1; if you lose, there will be no reward.]

[Zero seal mission: Within 90 minutes of official competition, save all opponent's shots, reward points 2000, silver treasure chest*2; no reward for conceding a goal. 】

The system rewards are as generous as ever, Jose just needs to work hard.

At the beginning of the game, Tranraer returned to defense and made it clear that he would play defensive counterattack tactics.

When Paul Lambert saw this, he immediately waved his hand and ordered Villa's offensive players to attack.

Just like that, only Jose was left in Villa's backcourt, standing alone at the top of the gourd.

Tranraer's defense is very tenacious. As long as Villa players bring the ball close to the penalty area, they will inevitably press two or three players.

Facing Tranraer's intensive defense, Villa's players felt like they had no way of making a move.

In the 8th minute, Darren Bent tried a long shot from outside the penalty area, but he couldn't get past the opponent's defender.

Are English League Two teams so good?

Seeing that his teammates' efforts were still making no progress, Jose couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

In fact, although English League Two is the lowest level of professional league, most of their players were once players of major Premier League teams, but they just went to play for English League Two teams for various reasons.

Judging from the age of the players, most of Tranmere are young players under the age of 23, and there are a few old players over 30 years old. The only current players between the ages of 25 and 29 are No. 14 defender Bakayogo and No. 26 forward.

Akpa-Akpro.

Of course, the youngest person in the room is Jose.

At the age of 17, few coaches besides Wenger have the courage to start in the first team of the Premier League. Jose really has to thank Chelsea for the loan contract.

Villa could not attack Tranmere for a long time, but the opponent seized the opportunity to counterattack.

In the 13th minute, defender No. 14 of Tranraer successfully intercepted the ball in the backcourt and passed it to teammate No. 8 with his big foot.

Tranraer midfielder James Wallace, No. 8, stopped the ball poorly, but he still controlled the ball before the Villa players got closer.

At this time, all Villa players, except for Stevens and Lehigh, crossed the midfield and pressed into the opponent's half.

Wallace did not break through with the ball, but immediately passed the ball behind him.

When Wallace passed the ball, Tranmere No. 9 young forward Cassidy started at the same time. At only 19 years old, he was extremely fast and easily got rid of Stevens and Lehigh, forming a one-on-one confrontation.

The power of blocking.

Faced with the opponent's No. 9 forward's single attack, Jose did not advance but retreated because he knew that with his own foot skills, it was absolutely impossible to cut off the ball controlled by the opponent. He could only use his hands and feet in the penalty area.

Only then can you be sure to stop the opponent.

"Good goal, Cassidy, the youth training player loaned to Tranmere from Wolves, got a valuable one-on-one opportunity. Villa are in trouble." the on-site commentator shouted.

In just a few breaths, Cassidy dribbled the ball into the Villa penalty area. Facing Jose alone, he did not choose to pass Jose. Instead, he feinted with his left foot and then shot with his right foot. The ball went from Jose.

Go towards the goal on the right side.

Jose had already felt about Cassidy's choice.

I saw Jose taking half a step across, his body like a hungry tiger pouncing on food, and pounced in the direction of the ball.

"Alas." A sigh came from the Tranraer goal stands.

On the contrary, there was a burst of warm cheers from the Villa fans' stands.

Live chat room.

"Isn't No. 9 too useless? He doesn't even dare to pass by the goalkeeper?"

"It must be the Villa goalkeeper's luck, right? From such a close distance, any striker can shoot in."

"Haha, if you say that Villa's goalkeeper relies on luck, you can tell that fans don't pay attention to the Premier League. Last season, Jose single-handedly led the Villa youth team to defeat Chelsea and win the English Youth Cup."

"It's just an FA Youth Cup, nothing special about it."

"If you knew that he moved to Chelsea for 32 million pounds last month, would you still think so?"

"Abu people are stupid and have a lot of money."

"You said Abramovich is stupid and has a lot of money, but Real Madrid and Manchester City are also competing with Chelsea. Could it be that they are also stupid and have a lot of money?"

…

During the heated discussion among netizens, Jose had already taken the goal kick.
Chapter completed!