Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 156

Sunderland's schedule at the beginning of November is a veritable "devil's schedule".Sunderland fans saw such a schedule, and most of them shouted in horror: "Why is it coming again?"

The first game at the beginning of the month is the group stage of the Europa League.Sunderland will sit at home on the 4th and play against La Liga powerhouse Getafe to test whether the "chain defense" they have spent a lot of effort training is effective.

Immediately afterwards, Sunderland had a home game against Stoke City on the 7th. On the 10th, they went to North London to play Tottenham Hotspur. On the 14th, they played against Chelsea at the Blue Bridge in London. It is regarded as the "Tianwangshan" battle in the first half of the Premier League schedule this season. After all, the teams ranked first and second are now facing each other, plus the defending champion's gimmick against the newly promoted.

The end of the month is a little better, and they will return to a single game of the week at that time, with "Toffee" Everton at home on the 22nd and an away game at Wolves on the 27th.

In the Premier League, Sunderland is not alone.After two rounds of "staggered climbing" with Sunderland, Chelsea stabilized their winning streak again, but Sunderland also won those two games.Chelsea is still behind Sunderland by 1 point.

Since Manchester United was "drawn" by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light that time, they have also continued their winning streak, and they are close to third in the standings.

Arsenal fourth.Tottenham fifth.Manchester City sixth.

The most tragic fate among BIG6 is naturally Liverpool.The team miraculously completed the transfer of ownership before the sixth round of the Premier League and was acquired by Starway Group.In that round, Liverpool drew 2-2 with Sunderland.The team was ranked 15th at the time.

Subsequently, in the seventh and eighth rounds, Liverpool lost two games in a row and fell directly into the relegation zone.Especially in the eighth round of the Merseyside Derby, Liverpool played against Everton at home. As a result, they lost 0 to 2 and fell directly to the 19th place in the league standings, second to last in the Premier League.

No. 19, this may be a ranking that Liverpool people have never thought of.

The calls for Mrs. Huo to dismiss get out of class one wave after another, but Hodgson deserved his life. In the ninth and tenth rounds, Liverpool bullied two weak teams one after another and won two "thrilling" victories. Climbed out of the relegation zone and now sits in 12th place.

They are the same as Sunderland, and they still have the Europa League group stage to play-in the European competition, the experienced Liverpool has better results than Sunderland: after three rounds, Liverpool has one win and two draws, with a total of 5 point.Although Steaua Bucharest, Utrecht and Naples in the same group could not compete with Liverpool on paper, Liverpool still scored 5 points, 1 point more than Sunderland.

After returning from Newcastle, Sunderland began to prepare for the home game against Getafe.And Anton made it very clear at the beginning of the preparations that the team's main goalkeeper will be Gordon.

Gordon was terrified.

He is actually a scumbag.

It’s not that he doesn’t work hard. When the team specially conducted "chain defense" training, Gordon worked very, very hard, but his understanding seems to be a little worse than others. There are many principles that Pickford can understand immediately. It would take Gordon a long time to understand.

Anton smiled and comforted Gordon: "Don't worry, using the 'chain defense' tactic, our purpose is to make the team a whole when defending, and not put all the defensive burden on your shoulders alone."

Gordon felt better immediately and continued to study tirelessly.He thought that even if he puts in ten times the effort of others, he can always understand the point of 01:30, right?

But the whole team knew that Anton was angry with Pickford, and the consequences were serious-according to Anton's words at St. James' Park, he no longer regarded the little goalkeeper as a Sunderland player, although I don't know if it is temporary or permanent, but the attitude shown by the head coach is like this.

Contrary to the coach's attitude, the Sunderland club has not yet terminated Pickford's contract, and has not even sent him to the reserve team.

The reason is that the club's CEO Martin, who is in charge of legal affairs and contracts, happened to be on a business trip.The youth training coach Paul Simpson, who is responsible for the training of the youth team and the reserve team, said that he did not have the energy to bring another player.

But everyone in Sunderland knew that Pickford went to Simpson for a long time, and then Simpson went to Anton to complain, saying that he really couldn't bring more players.In short, Pickford must have put a lot of effort into Simpson-this young man has just been promoted to the first team from the youth training, and Simpson still has a lot of love with him.

Immediately after being captured by Pickford were several first-team coaches: assistant coach Russell, goalkeeper coach Nick Abraham, and fitness coach Charlie Adams.Surprisingly, none of these coaches objected to Pickford's participation in daily training.

As soon as the first team trained, Pickford watched from the sidelines.

But as long as Pickford doesn't interfere with the first-team training, Anton doesn't care-take him as air.

"Air" didn't seem to mind at all.

He even squatted on the sidelines during the training of the first team, took out a small notebook in his hand, and wrote and drew in the notebook while reading, remembering something.

Sunderland team: ...Look, who is learning this?

"Air" imitated Anton's posture, resting his cheeks in thought.

The entire first team feels dissatisfied with this disguised "flattering" behavior: see if you can.In the past, I was always willing to be a scumbag, so how do I know that I have "learned" from the teacher now?

But Pickford's "learning" is really learning.

He wrote down a lot of questions in his notebook, and when his teammates finished training and returned to the recovery room to relax, he pestered the class representatives and monitors to ask them non-stop.The two top students are also his daily "harassment" objects.

Gradually, Pickford had some questions that even the class representatives couldn't answer, and they needed to be discussed by the top students to reach a conclusion-even the first team had to knock on the door of Anton's office to ask for answers.

In just a few days, Sunderland seemed to have written a history of the evolution of "students".

It's the same in the cafeteria.Pickford would stand outside the kitchen and greet Jo's mother cheerfully: "Dear Ms Joyce, is there any more nutritious meals?"

Joe's mother: ...

On the same day, the chief nutritionist of Guangming College was captured.Before getting off work that afternoon, Mother Qiao came to Anton's office and seemingly casually "revealed" to Anton the "changes" of Pickford in the past two days.

"Anton, I can understand your feelings." Qiao's mother heard Russell talk about what happened in Newcastle, "but you can also consider it properly, give Pippi a chance, and don't let the young people's road all Sealed? I saw him working hard while panicking to death..."

Anton looked away from his screen full of data, and looked at Mother Qiao with a smile on his face.

"This is...the initiative to ask for two nutritious meals?"

Mother Qiao: ... You children are really more troubled than the other.

"Oh, forget it, I'm here to ask for an explanation for him, how can you let him return to the team and accept him as your disciple?" Qiao's mother has a straightforward and stubborn temper, and she smiled when she saw Anton like this. , immediately gave up any devious plans and asked directly.

"The first team are all mature players, and this maturity is not just reflected in studying hard, training hard, or eating nutritious meals." Anton waved his hands innocently at Joe's mother, "Although eating nutritious meals is very correct and What matters. I want Pickford to be a mature player who knows the word 'priority' at all times. Until he can show his maturity consistently, he's just 'air'. First team what Yes, it has nothing to do with him."

Qiao's mother said, "Pippi is still young."

Anton took off his glasses, took out a handkerchief from his suit pocket, and wiped it carefully: "It's not too small. Joyce, after all, what we need is a stable goalkeeper, not the other way around. Goalkeeper, wait for him to mature, wait for him to stabilize. This is professional football, it sounds cruel, but it's done all over the world."

Mother Qiao told "air" Benqi exactly what Anton said.

"Air" was stunned for a long time, and finally thanked Qiao's mother to leave.The next day he arrived at Guangming College on time, acting like a normal person.I still go around to listen to classes, practice, and eat nutritious meals...

On the training ground, Russell pushed Anton with his elbow: "Little bastard, this second level has passed, right?"

Anton gave a "hmm" and said, "We'll watch the third level when we play the game." Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Russell clenched his right fist, and secretly made a "yeah" gesture.Anton laughed immediately, and said in a brisk tone: "I don't know how this kid bought everyone. But these are indeed bonus points."

The goalkeeper is an unobtainable figure for the team, Anton thought, he really hopes that Pickford can become the ubiquitous "air", after all, no one can do without.

When it came time to play against Getafe, the fans were surprised to find that the starting goalkeeper was Gordon, and Pickford was not even on the bench, but joined the fans, bought tickets and sat in the fan area to watch ball.Some fans sitting nearby asked Pickford why he didn't go in goal.Pickford only smiled and said: "Gordon is in better shape than me, everyone can rest assured that he is here!"

Because Pickford was in a very good mood, the fans thought it was a normal rotation, and no one asked much.The fact that Pickford did not play did not cause any disturbance at all.

However, Getafe was the only team that caused Sunderland to lose this season. They did not send the team's main goalkeeper to play, but started the old player who returned from injury.Fans feel that the head coach has a big heart.

In the Europa League group stage, in Group H where Sunderland is located, Getafe has two wins and one tie with 7 points, ranking first in the group.Sunderland has 4 points with Young Boys, who are third because of their goal difference.Odense has two draws and one loss, and is at the bottom with 2 points, but the hope of qualifying has not been ruled out①.

The outside world is already optimistic that Getafe will qualify for the top spot in the group.Even Getafe believed it a little bit.Before the game, Getafe's coach Luis Garcia also publicly expressed his optimism for the game:

"Originally we all thought that a team with Messi was invincible. Thanks to Sunderland for giving us confidence."

Asked about the mismatch between Sunderland's results in the Premier League and the Europa League, Garcia said: "The Europa League and the English league are two very different competitions. At this point, Obviously, Getafe has more experience," he replied confidently.

However, reality teaches to be a man.

Getafe visited the Stadium of Light and was beaten 5-1 by Sunderland.

Can it really be explained by the home dragon and the away bug?It may be so to some extent.The enthusiasm of the fans at the Stadium of Light made the team great. The midfield and the front court were like clouds and flowing water. Messi seemed to be back in La Liga. happiness".

However, for Getafe, Messi's terror is normal, but Sunderland's defense is not normal.

After conceding two goals, Getafe began to attack wildly, but facing Sunderland's defensive formation, they couldn't attack at all, and couldn't get in. Sometimes Getafe couldn't even enter Sunderland's half. It can only be reversed in one's own half.

In front of them is a complete and stable formation that can change at any time as the position of the ball changes.Sometimes Getafe players dispatched back and forth from the left and right sides, and Sunderland's defensive formation was also adjusted from the left to the right and then back to the left-it didn't change at all, it was still the same dense net.

This formation is a test of the tacit understanding and physical strength of the players, because the players must run non-stop on the field and adjust the formation to keep the formation from changing due to sudden changes on the field.

For Anton, Sunderland's new formation is undoubtedly a success. It was used for the first time in an official game, and it almost perfectly prevented all Getafe's short-pass penetration attacks.But he still has some regrets - such a tight defense, he was not able to get "zero seals".

Gordon's skill is still a little bit worse after all.

Anton knew where Pickford was sitting in the stands. At this moment, he involuntarily looked up to the "air", and saw Pickford sitting among a group of excited fans, keeping calm all the time.

Pickford watched Sunderland's formation throughout the game, looking down thoughtfully from time to time, writing and drawing in a notebook on his lap - what's more, this kid I don't know where I got a pair of black-rimmed glasses!I don't know who he wants to learn from, but he is not used to using this pair of glasses. When taking notes, he always let the glasses slide off the bridge of his nose. On the left cheek, he tilted his head and took notes.

Anton knew at a glance that he didn't need the glasses at all.

But the "illusion" of "study and diligence" has finally been passed on.

This game gave Getafe a head-on blow.At the end of the game, Garcia could only obediently eat back what he had spit out before: "Sunderland... reflects their level in the Premier League. We and... a team with Messi, after all, there is still a difference." The gap in strength."

He asked with a sad face: "Can the head coach of Sunderland reveal a thing or two, how he persuaded Messi to join on loan." If he can rent with Getafe, he also wants to rent.

Naturally, Anton would not reveal his "addiction to games" to anyone.He just responded very politely: "Getafe is a very good team, from them, my team learned a lot-"

Getafe was the first "experimental" team, and Sunderland naturally learned a lot.

"As for today's score... I mentioned to the players earlier that the Europa League and the league are different games. Maybe the goal difference can determine whether the group will qualify, so when my players get excited in this game, the goal will be scored. A little more."

Getafe: You... your excitement, I will...

"Here I sincerely wish Getafe good luck in the rest of the group stage." Anton sent his best wishes very politely.

After a hearty victory in the UEFA Europa League group stage, Sunderland returned to the league and faced the mid-range team Stoke City at home, but suffered a blow. The original 1-0 lead, It was equalized before the end of the game.

A draw at home is a bit frustrating for all fans and the Sunderland team: think about last season, they still felt that a home draw was acceptable in the British Championship, but this season they are used to winning wins.The home game was tied, as if the meat was delivered to their mouths but they didn't eat it.

But the good news is that helpful peers are everywhere.In this round of the game, Liverpool, which was on the verge of collapse, beat Chelsea 2-0 at Anfield in one breath.

The Red Army knocked on Sunderland's door: "My fellow, open the door... come to send warmth!"

Sunderland is grateful: This time I really felt the warmth of the Premier League family!

Chelsea: The real name objected to the high-voted answer. How can it be said that Liverpool robbed the rich and gave to the poor?Beneficiary Sunderland - isn't it rich too?

After the game, the entire coaching staff made a detailed replay and summary: finally came up with a way to deal with the Southern European teams, but you can't get used to it once you return to England, right?

At this time, Russell came to Anton and asked seriously: "Are you going to continue to use Gordon in the next game?"

Anton didn't speak, and tapped the table rhythmically with his fingers.First of all, Pickford has been too obedient recently, and he endured it again and again, and he has passed all the tests so far.Secondly, Gordon is indeed not as spiritual as Pickford on the field. Although he is stable in defense, he cannot be the initiator and fulcrum of the offense.

At this moment, someone called Anton: "It's not good..."

Anton listened, gritted his teeth and sneered, hung up the phone and said to Russell, "Let's go!"

Russell: What's going on...

"Go and see that kid Pickford." At this time, Anton really couldn't treat him as air. "Getting into a fight in a bar, and it was a Sunderland fan..."

Russell immediately blushed, and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Pippi!Even if you want to lose your life at the end of the festival, don't take advantage of this moment, okay?

The author has something to say: ①There is a clerical error in chapter 151, saying that the three teams of SYO have the same score-everyone who is proficient in mathematics knows that this is impossible-leaved by the scumbag author.