As Chen Ran expected, Crystal Palace failed to win the away game against Reading three days later.

Not only did they fail to win, but their unbeaten record was almost broken by Reading.

Due to physical fatigue from continuous battles, Southgate was a step slower when defending.

The foot that was originally intended to tackle the ball directly hit the Reading forward's leg. As a result, the referee on duty gave him a red dot package.

Being one player behind and one goal behind immediately left Chen Ran scratching his head.

He could feel that the current physical condition of the Crystal Palace players was worse than after the last game against Aston Villa.

Moreover, Reading immediately recovered after scoring the penalty kick and set up the bus firmly.

Seeing this situation, Chen Ran had no choice but to replace Yaya Toure with Crouch with one less player, and continued to strengthen the attack using the twin tower tactics.

The Reading team really worked hard this time, united as one, and withstood one wave after another of Crystal Palace's attacks.

Until the last moment of the game, Crystal Palace got a corner kick.

Chen Ran shouted to goalkeeper Cech from the sidelines and asked him to go to Reading's penalty area to fight for a header.

Because throughout the game, Reading's defenders were very good at marking Tony, Crouch and even Ronaldo.

When guarding against set kicks, Crystal Palace's tall defenders were guarding each other one by one.

At this time, Chen Ran thought that he had to add a variable, so that Reading's defensive players would not know who to send to mark this variable for a moment, so that they might be able to win by surprise.

As expected by Chen Ran, in the crowded Reading penalty area, Cech, the only one without a dedicated defender, grabbed this opportunity.

Leap high and score the first goal of his career with his head.

"Goal..."

The Crystal Palace players were ecstatic, hugging Cech and kissing his head crazily.

In this way, Crystal Palace escaped death in stoppage time and relied on goalkeeper Cech's goal to draw 1:1 with Reading.

In response, reporters who thought Crystal Palace was finally going to lose were beating their chests.

Why do such weird things always happen around that Chinese guy?

Did the goalkeeper who scored the header play as a center forward?

After once again surviving two games in three days, Crystal Palace can finally breathe a little easier.

Five days later, in the 25th round of the English Championship on December 26, Crystal Palace defeated visiting Millwall 1:0 at home.

However, just one day later, on December 28, Crystal Palace will go to an away game to challenge Ipswich Town for the twenty-sixth round of the English Championship.

Chen Ran is now completely speechless about the FA's schedule. He now deeply understands how difficult it is to rely on a main lineup to play in the English league.

From the recent training and competition, Chen Ran can intuitively feel that the intensive schedule has exhausted the physical energy the players had reserved before the start of the season.

Due to limited funds, the lineup constructed by Chen Ran at the beginning of the season was basically a carrot and a pitfall in other areas except for the central defender position.

But who dares to rotate the central defender position casually?

In this way, Crystal Palace basically has a main lineup until now.

And just after the twenty-sixth round of the English Championship, the FA Cup will begin again.

I don’t know whether it’s because someone took care of me or because I’m really unlucky. Crystal Palace’s luck was really bad, and they were once again drawn to a Premier League team.

This time, the opponent Crystal Palace will face is Tottenham Hotspur, away from home.

When the results of the lottery came out, Chen Ran hesitated.

English Championship, League Cup, FA Cup.

If you want to complete all three events with one main lineup, it is very likely that you will end up with nothing.

If any key position player without a substitute is injured, Crystal Palace's lineup will immediately have a fatal flaw.

You must know that reduced physical fitness and physical fatigue are one of the most common situations in which injuries occur.

Maybe, it's time to make a choice.

The English Championship is related to whether he can be promoted to the Premier League next season, and the system also gives the most winning bonuses. It is Chen Ran's main source of income now, and he must not let it go.

After finally reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup, the championship was not far away, and it was also related to whether Crystal Palace could participate in the UEFA Cup next season. Chen Ran was reluctant to give up at this time.

After much deliberation, it seemed that in the end we had no choice but to give up on the FA Cup.

Anyway, there is no difference between winning the League Cup and the FA Cup for him. They both qualify for the UEFA Cup next season.

One is enough, the other will come later, there are plenty of opportunities.

Therefore, in the twenty-sixth round of the competition, Chen Ran still sent all the main players to fight.

Moreover, Chen Ran changed his habit of playing defensive counterattack in away games and sent out the twin towers to attack at the beginning, catching Ipswich by surprise.

Tony scored the goal just five minutes into the game, and then took advantage of Ipswich's mentality of trying to get back and continued to expand the result.

In the end, Crystal Palace relied on three goals from Tony, Crouch and Vidic to defeat Ipswich 3:1 away from home.

While achieving two consecutive league victories, it also brought another 2 million euros to Chen Ran.

Five days later, the FA Cup started.

Crystal Palace visited Tottenham Hotspur. When reporters saw Crystal Palace's starting lineup, they immediately went crazy.

"What's going on? Are Crystal Palace giving up on the FA Cup?"

"Yeah, who are the people in this starting lineup? They are all substitutes."

"Tsk tsk, that Chinese guy is really thorough in his rotation. He even changed the goalkeeper."

"In this starting lineup, there are still old people left over from Crystal Palace from last season. It's really not easy. I thought the Chinese guy had completely given up on these guys."

"To me, this is a smart approach. With the Crystal Palace lineup, it is incredible to achieve this result. Giving up some games appropriately can give the players time to rest."

"That's right. Everyone knows how intensive our games in England are. With Crystal Palace's lineup, if you want to play them all to the end, you will only be dragged down. I have to say that the Chinese guy has a very clear mind."

...

There were no surprises in the game. Even though Chen Ran started to set up the game from the first minute, the strength of the substitute players was too different from that of his opponent Tottenham Hotspur.

In the end, Crystal Palace lost to Tottenham Hotspur 0:3 away from home and was eliminated from the FA Cup.

After the game, although the reporters believed that Crystal Palace was wise to give up the FA Cup, they did not show this at all when writing the article.

"Crystal Palace lost to Tottenham Hotspur and were eliminated from the FA Cup."

"The day has finally arrived and Crystal Palace suffered its first defeat of the season."

"Refuse to be upset, Tottenham easily won Crystal Palace 3:0."

"Crystal Palace did not continue their upset trip and were completely defeated by the Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur in the away game."

"The Chinese man's unbeaten record in his coaching career was broken by Tottenham Hotspur."

"The genius coach shows his ordinary nature. Has the Chinese man's downfall begun?"
Chapter completed!