Leo Lin's photos were posted online, with reports claiming he forgot his textbooks on the first day of school.
Liverpool have been in excellent form lately, racking up three straight wins. Can fans expect even more?
Who can stop Liverpool's attacking football—or rather, who can stop that young man who suddenly burst onto the scene?
Liverpool's hot form has drawn widespread attention, and Leo Lin, with his especially eye-catching performances, has become a major focus of discussion.
Liverpool are about to face Crystal Palace in the third round of the Premier League.
Since the start of the season, Crystal Palace have struggled badly, suffering defeats in their first two league matches and currently sitting 18th in the table.
"Both games ended 0–1. Honestly, they were a bit unlucky," Gerrard said while introducing Crystal Palace.
"And I think they've deliberately put physical confrontation above everything else. The Premier League does encourage physicality, but what they really need are goals."
Crystal Palace—a truly peculiar team.
So peculiar that the moment fans hear the name, they immediately think of their style of play and their transfer philosophy.
Crystal Palace have a particular fondness for strong, physical players. Those are their favorites.
Their match style is just as distinctive: a classic, traditional English approach.
It's the kind of game where you watch for a while without quite knowing what they're trying to do, and then, out of nowhere, it turns into long balls and constant high crosses.
After that, it's all about chance—slinging in crosses and hoping one of them somehow leads to a goal.
The most unintentionally hilarious moment came during a league match when the broadcast cameras caught a Crystal Palace fan fast asleep in the stands.
That match happened to be a Palace home game, and it ended in a goalless draw.
Ever since then, fans have joked that watching Crystal Palace requires bringing a pillow in advance.
Of course, that's just a joke among local English supporters.
With Palace in poor form, Klopp opted for a full rotation. With a huge fourth-round clash against Arsenal coming up, he wanted to give the main starters some rest in the third round.
Sturridge, Milner, and several others were given starting opportunities, while Salah, Firmino, and Leo Lin waited on the bench.
When he saw the lineup, Jim Beglin couldn't help laughing.
"Leo Lin's status at Liverpool is clearly rising—he's sitting on the bench alongside the core starters."
The match quickly got underway at Crystal Palace's home ground.
Palace launched frequent physical challenges, trying to tear through Liverpool's defense.
But it didn't take long for them to realize that the collisions weren't producing results—if anything, they were just draining their own stamina.
Liverpool showed no urgency to attack. They set their shape, allowed Palace to charge at them, and focused on keeping them out of the most dangerous areas.
By the 30th minute, Palace's midfield intensity had clearly begun to drop.
Liverpool immediately switched from defense to attack, pushing up and looking for chances through high pressing and central pressure.
35th minute!
"From the central pressure alone, you can tell Palace are really struggling,"
"Wijnaldum presses Loftus-Cheek—he's won it back!"
"Milner carries it forward to launch the counter, Solanke on the flank!"
"Long ball—Solanke controls it. He doesn't have Salah's dribbling, but his long-range distribution is excellent."
As Jon Champion spoke, Solanke took a step inside and whipped a long, arcing pass toward the left.
"Just like that, a big diagonal!"
"Liverpool are very good at using these switches to stretch the defense."
"Mané collects it, cuts inside, keeps driving toward the middle."
"Past Tomkins—still no shot, he keeps going!"
"Still going!"
"He lifts his foot—shoots!"
"Too hesitant! Mané could have pulled the trigger two steps earlier, but it looks like he wanted to beat everyone first!"
Just five minutes later, Liverpool had another chance.
Milner drove forward again on the counter and slipped a surgical through ball straight through the defense, finding Sturridge making a run.
"Beautiful!"
"Sturridge is clean through!" Jon Champion shouted excitedly.
"He beats one man, the keeper comes out!"
"It's an open goal—and he still wants to go around him!"
"Sturridge shoots!"
"Oh no! That didn't go in!" Jon Champion's excitement instantly turned into frustration.
"You, Sturridge!"
"Just tap it into the empty net!"
"Why insist on beating everyone before shooting? What's wrong with Liverpool's forwards today?"
"Do you need the ball fed straight into your stomach before you'll score?"
At halftime, Klopp stormed back into the dressing room, clearly furious.
"Shoot when you get the chance! Stop carrying it! Stop trying to beat everyone!"
"This is football, a real match! I don't need flashy dribbling—I need the final shot!"
"I only need goals. We need goals!"
But Klopp's anger changed nothing. As substitutes, Sturridge and Solanke simply lacked the necessary edge.
After the second half began, Liverpool dominated possession but couldn't turn it into goals—plenty of thunder, no rain.
Meanwhile, Palace gradually recovered from their fatigue. Anyone with eyes could see that if this continued, the momentum would soon swing in Palace's favor.
"We should be scoring first, not messing around with fancy moves. It's useless," Gerrard said, watching the match with growing concern.
"There's an old saying in football: teams that waste chances don't get candy."
The implication was obvious.
"What worries me is that Liverpool still haven't scored. Even counting stoppage time, there are only about thirty minutes left."
"Look at the smiles on the Palace fans' faces—they'd be perfectly happy forcing a draw and taking at least one point this season."
In the live chat, Palace supporters were indeed pleased.
"At least judging by the flow of the game, we haven't been dominated by Liverpool. That's enough."
"If we can take one point off Liverpool, that's acceptable. They're clearly much stronger than us."
"Klopp, I know you're great. You can beat us with this lineup, you really can—just don't make any substitutions."
As they were saying this, Klopp made a decisive gesture on the touchline.
"Here come the changes," Jon Champion said, a note of long-suppressed anticipation finally breaking through his voice.
"Liverpool are making substitutions—Leo Lin and the other starters are coming on!"
"Crystal Palace fans, can you still smile now?"
"Crystal Palace players, get ready to face Liverpool's full firepower!"
...
(60 Chapters Ahead)
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