Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 174

The dialogue between Anton and Guardiola did not develop in a supernatural direction.

Gua Shuai originally thought that Messi could only get better support in a team like Barcelona to maximize his ability, but he did not expect Messi to play very well in Sunderland.

The Sunderland in front of us is obviously not as good as Barcelona's current first team in terms of individual strength alone.But Messi didn't feel any discomfort in the team, and he also got the support of his teammates.He maintained his excellent scoring ability in Barcelona in Sunderland, although the two teams of Sunderland and Barcelona have completely different styles and styles of play.

Anton can understand Guardiola's original idea.If you really want to compare the players in the Sunderland team with the current Barcelona first-team players, there is no way to compare:

Most of Sunderland's players are still on the rise, while the Barcelona team is fully mature. In addition to the superstar Messi, Iniesta, Harvey, Villa, Mascherano...these are all in the One of the best players in every position.

The capabilities of the current Barcelona team are too strong, so Guardiola can pursue the ultimate pass control, the ultimate oppression, the smooth attack, the ubiquitous defense without hesitation...

But what Guardiola pursues, Anton does not insist: at least at this stage, he does not have the ability to make Sunderland play like Barcelona.

So he settled for the next best thing, and only pursued two points: effective control of space and mastery of rhythm.

He does not pursue absolute control of the space, but only requires players to seize the opportunity to complete goals after gaining control; he requires players to control the rhythm of the field to adjust the players' physical fitness and emotions; at the technical level, he tries to subtract players , without making demands beyond their abilities—

As a result, his team played very well.

To paraphrase Bielsa's words: Since you are "a human", you must use a "human" way of playing.

Guardiola only saw the difference between the opponent and himself only from Anton's use of Messi, but at the same time he was also interested: even without Barcelona's innate conditions, the team can still play beautiful and efficient football.

"I thought I was going to 'grow old' at Barcelona," Guardiola joked to Anton, "but now seeing your team play like this, I think I will be interested in going to other countries' leagues in the future. , try other clubs."

Anton suddenly had a bitter face: "Then you said 'foreign league', will the coaches there blame me for it?"

Guardiola laughed immediately, feeling that Anton was as easy to get along with as the rumors said.So he reached out and patted Anton's shoulder: "Little brother, I'm sorry, although I like you very much, I still want to take Messi away."

"I know you want to find another person to replace Messi. This person...well, he will come to you on his own initiative." Guardiola couldn't help "revealing" a little bit.

"What? What did you say?" Anton was overjoyed.

Gua Shuai is implying that after Messi leaves, there will be another player who will come and join his team on his own initiative?this……

"However, whether you can subdue him or not depends on yourself." Guardiola kept a secret and left a sentence.

Anton: ...Is it still a thorn?

"They're almost done, I'll take them back now." Guardiola looked at his watch, then at Pique who came back from the box alone with a smirk, and turned to say goodbye to Anton.

After Guardiola left a few steps away, Anton remembered an important matter, and rushed to ask: "Guardiola, I would like to ask you something. Did you watch all the game videos that Player M watched?"

Guardiola suddenly heard him ask this, he was taken aback, and shook his head: "No! Most of them are read by the teacher."

——As expected, it was Bielsa.

Anton quickly asked: "May I ask if there is any way to contact Mr. Bielsa?"

Guardiola rubbed his forehead: "He is now in Argentina and is concentrating on research. It is said that he does not have much contact with the outside world."

Anton: "I have a very important matter, and I want to try to contact this person..."

Anton's tone and demeanor were very sincere, so Guardiola nodded: "I will give you the phone number of one of his close friends, but it may be luck to get in touch with him."

After the game on the 20th, the Sunderland team continued to train for two more days. On the evening of the 22nd, the players said goodbye to each other, went back to their respective homes, and went to their respective mothers.After all, the holiday is short, only two days. They will all return to the team for training on the morning of the 25th, and they will be a guest at Old Trafford on the 26th against Manchester United.

During the two days of training, Russell was full of joy and in a great mood.When everyone was guessing Russell's "where does the joy come from", Russell waved his hand: "Don't guess, it's just that my mother's fan met the idol, and the idol even ate the cake she made by herself."

It turned out that on the 20th, Mrs. Black received a call from her husband, found the Stadium of Light, and met little Chloe under the arrangement of Russell and Anton. Her long-cherished wish was fulfilled, and she was naturally in a good mood.Even Russell, who was "meritorious", walked with the wind and drifted for several days.

After the No. 22 players were on vacation, Anton stayed in Guangming Academy for another half a day to deal with some chores in the club—most of which were in cooperation with the public relations department. For example, he recorded a short video. In the video, he has to play and sing Christmas carols, and congratulate audiences around the world on Christmas and New Year in every language he can speak, and so on--the public relations work that the whole team should participate in has now been handed over to It is enough for the head coach to handle it alone.

On the afternoon of the 23rd, he left Sunderland for London.

The 24th was Christmas Eve. Throughout the whole day, Anton seemed to have evaporated from the world, and no one could find him.

That night Chloe sent a tweet, which was in text, without pictures, to the effect that the whole family got together, and this feeling was so warm and wonderful.Anton immediately forwarded it without any words, and only used a few facial expressions of "support" and "encouragement".

No need to ask, it must be that Anton's family has gathered together for Christmas Eve.

But no one expected that at 25 o'clock in the morning on the 5th, Anton had already boarded the train from London to Sunderland.

All players returned to the team on the 25th, and big names such as Messi are no exception.As the head coach, Anton naturally has to lead by example.

When it was 7 o'clock, the phone in his pocket vibrated, and the corners of Anton's mouth couldn't help but rise—Chloe really still had this habit, and got up at 7 o'clock to unwrap Christmas presents.

"Brother—I like it so much, how did you get Adele's signature?" Chloe's joy can be read from just one line of text.

"It's a record store in Tottenham. I'll send you the address. I'll go there while you're in London. Maybe there will be a 'chance encounter'." With a smile on his lips, Anton quickly typed back One sentence.

"Thank you, brother!" Chloe replied, and after a while, the little girl sent it back carefully, "Mom and Dad found out that I was secretly unwrapping presents..."

Anton: ...

"Father sends you hello and wishes you success in coaching..."

Looking at this sentence, Anton felt warm in his heart.Now he finally felt that he was not carrying the burden alone.From now on, the love of his family will bring him infinite strength.

"I also asked when you plan to coach Nottingham Forest."

— Nottingham Forest?

Anton's glasses almost didn't fall off, but it seems that there is no problem in calculating the time: when Dad Lin was young and passionate, wasn't it the time when Nottingham Forest won the Champions League twice in a row?It turned out that my father was a fan of Nottingham Forest, and he never asked his father's preferences in person.

Anton felt a little guilty, and thought that after Bernard's matter was resolved, the whole family must stay with his parents for a while and take a vacation.

However, judging from Papa Lin's attitude, his parents have fully approved of the "career path" he chose.

Looking at the dark night outside the car window, Anton felt that he was getting closer to the "brightness".

Within an hour, he arrived at Guangming Academy.

The sky was still dark, but Guangming Academy was brightly lit.As soon as Anton walked into the hall, he saw a huge Christmas tree at the entrance of the college.The Christmas tree was filled with presents - some given to each other by the players, and others put together by club staff.

The two German guys, Royce and Hummels, both brought their families to the UK to celebrate Christmas this year, so they were the first to arrive, and they were sitting under the Christmas tree looking for their own gifts at this time.

Royce found a copy, saw his name written on it, and happily opened it: "It's hairspray again!"

This is already the 7th hairspray Christmas gift he has received, does that mean he won't have to buy hairspray again next year?

But Royce immediately became happy when he saw the card attached to the gift: "Look, this is what Joe's mother gave me."

Mother Joe even gave Royce hairspray? ——Does this mean that you no longer dislike him for having a neat hairstyle?

Hummels tried his best to hold back his laughter, and lowered his head to open his gift, but he saw that it was a book like a brick: "Northeast Dialect and Slang Collection" - don't think about it, it must have been given to him by that kid Pickford of.

Seeing that the two of them were having fun unpacking, Anton couldn't help but stepped forward and glanced roughly, but there was no gift box with his name on it.So he asked the two: "Matz, Marco, do you see my gift?"

Without even thinking about it, Royce and Hummels pointed at each other in unison: "Here—"

I saw a huge packing box under the Christmas tree, but Anton's name was nowhere to be seen.

"Boss, we pooled our money together to buy it, and the big guys packed it together. Just take it apart." Royce told Anton.

A gift that all the players pooled together to buy him?

Anton was both surprised and delighted, and couldn't guess what these boys had prepared for him for a while, so he went straight to unwrap the presents.

"Guitar?"

He took a well-made acoustic guitar out of the gift box, looked around, and couldn't put it down.

Hummels smiled and said, "Didn't you smash the violin last time? I was afraid that you would have no use for the violin, so everyone hurriedly bought one with the money."

Anton thought to himself: This one will not be smashed even if it is killed.

So he took out the shrapnel, held down the strings and plucked it. The guitar sounded clear, and it was a good piano.So he hugged the piano in his arms, put on a shelf and sat down, as if he was about to play the piano.

Royce asked, "Boss, are you going to play another Christmas carol?"

Unexpectedly, Anton smiled slyly and shook his head: "No, it's the song for starting work!"