Romantic on the Field

97.

[‘I got it this time’ Stoke City, 2-0 win against Liverpool. ]

ㄴ [Stoke City proves to be a favorite for the title one more time. ]

[‘Vincent Herrero fullback, Jamie Lee central midfielder’. Manager Milo Conrad’s unconventional tactics that led to victory]

ㄴ [ Milo Conrad “Thanks to the good players.” ]

[ Liverpool Match Official Man of Match ‘Jamie Lee’ selection]

[Jamie Lee full-time, 1 goal, 1 help, great success]

ㄴ [Jamie Lee continues to be active even when the league changes. “He is already a legend” praised by Stoke City fans]

[Stoke City reclaiming 1st place in the league with Jamie’s performance]

[‘Manchester City also won’, accelerating championship competition]

[ Ryan Young’s multi-goal, Manchester City’s winning streak continues. ]

The win over Liverpool suggested two things.

The Premier League winners this season are either Stoke City or Manchester City.

Whichever team finishes, it will be remembered as the most unlucky runner-up in history.

“Ned Keating?”

“yes.”

But right after the Liverpool match, Jamie’s nerves were on something else.

“Ugh. Ned Keating was also included in ‘The Members’ last time, right?”

“yes.”

When I said ‘that member’, I meant ‘a player whose stats have decreased compared to last season’ that I got to know during the conversation with Hannah last time.

After Stoke City promoted to the Premier League, the personal stats of players including Brian and Robin dropped significantly, including Keating.

“When I checked again, the biggest change was in kitting.”

Jamie showed Hannah the screen of her phone.

“Yeah. Why?”

Hanna tilted her head as she hugged Kai.

In the last conversation, they came up with two causes.

The first is a simple league level difference.

The championship is also a professional league with astronomical amounts of money, but it was true that the level was much lower than the Premier League, which is considered to be the most competitive among the ‘five leagues’.

The second was the continued transformation of Stoke City.

Stoke City is a team that not only recruits new members whenever the transfer market opens, but also attempts tactical changes from time to time during the league.

Therefore, Jamie’s analysis was that both newly recruited and existing players needed to adapt to new members and tactics, and in the process, performance and stats could inevitably deteriorate.

“The range of change is too large… I think the explanation I just gave you is not enough.”

As Hannah said, Keating was originally a player with a class to say that it was a difference in league level, and there was something inexplicable to say that it was simply a matter of adapting to tactics.

“Isn’t there a play style issue?”

“Ned Keating? Or Stoke City?”

“both. Well······.”

Jamie chose his words for a moment. In the meantime, Hannah broke the bread into small pieces and fed it to Kai.

“thanks.”

“yes. Thank you to my mother for eating well.”

While the mother and child had a friendly conversation, Jamie organized her thoughts.

“Anyway, Keating’s original position is fullback.”

“right.”

“Even though Keating’s focus is the best in the league, it’s hard to see that as a priority for a full-back. To put it a little extreme…”

A fullback who is very quick on his feet but has poor other abilities. Also, his main focus is mediocre, but he is a fullback who has all other abilities, such as crossing and defense. If given a choice between the two, nine out of ten coaches would choose the latter.

Jamie explained the summary of the paragraph above in an easy-to-understand way for Hannah to understand.

“Of course, Keating is not a single player. Other abilities aren’t bad either. That’s not what’s important, anyway, overlapping has to come out to take advantage of such kitting.”

“right.”

“But the situation is different from last year when we overwhelmingly defeated the championship teams. If you ignorantly overlap against a Premier League team like last year, there is a high risk of being robbed of the back space, and the team has not yet stabilized.”

Continuing the story, Jamie frowned.

“Well, after I said it, it’s the same reason I said before.”

“Yeah. hahahaha.”

In fact, Jamie and Hannah were not in a situation where they would have a serious conversation like this.

It’s just that he doesn’t show explosive scoring power as much as last season, but Keating was continuing his compliant performance.

The absence against Liverpool was also the result of a choice for customized tactics, not because Keating was pushed out of the selection.

“Well, let’s see how it goes in the next game.”

“Is it the FA Cup? Is it the round of 16?”

“yes. Charlton Athletic.”

“Is that Liam Druckman? Isn’t that the team with the player who was sent off for playing dirty to Honey?”

“right. hahahaha. He just retired.”

“It’s winding good and bad.”

In the FA Cup Round of 16, against Charlton Athletic, this advantage was evident.

[Ned Keating, overlapping. Fast, fast! ]

[ Can’t catch up! ]

[ Jamie Lee, do you see Keating? ]

[Robbing through pass from a long distance·······. ]

[I’m in! Nice goal by Ned Keating after a nice overlap! ]

It showed hot overlapping and goals against the championship team.

[ Ned Keating, running again. ]

[It’s pierced! This time, it is a kitting that pierces through the dribble. ]

[ Ned Keating breaks down Charlton Athletic’s side today! ]

[Shoot·······! ]

[Gool! goal! Ned Keating scores multiple goals! ]

He didn’t stop with one goal. Last time before Liverpool, he scored multiple goals after breaking alone.

[Ned Keating, who made Charlton Athletic’s side ‘scorched earth’, was selected as Man of Match with two goals. ]

[ Ned Keating, who was excluded from the selection before Liverpool, made an outstanding performance against Charlton Athletic in the Championship ]

[Now the championship cannot be stopped. Stoke City showing ‘class difference’]

However, Charlton was in the 3rd division and only promoted to the 2nd division last season.

The fact that he had been active against such a team for a long time was the same as proving that he could not play as well as last season at the Premier League level.

“lee.”

Keating must have been conscious of this fact, and he talked to Jamie before starting individual training.

“Can I ask you something?”

Even at the ‘Stoke Personal Training Meeting’, he, who was silently devoted to self-training, came to talk. This fact surprised Jamie a little.

‘Come to think of it, this is the first time.’

Keating was a person who could be called the ‘original Jamie fan’ before KK and Beng.

However, apart from occasional casual glances, he rarely approached.

“What should I do to improve my kicking power?”

“Kick power? It’s still not bad.”

“What should I say? It’s ambiguous to say it’s simply kicking power, should I call it passing? should I say sight? I want to play like Lee.”

Yes, he is good at self-objectification. At Keating’s words that followed, Jamie smiled inwardly.

Simply passing and shooting when necessary was possible even with kitting now. No, it was quite compliant beyond what was possible.

But like Jamie, he couldn’t coordinate the entire game or make a game-changing pass. A position is also a position, and it must be because he still lacks experience.

‘Was it a useless concern?’

I thought so too.

Keating is a player who develops to a world-class level.

It could only be the stagnation period that a promising young player-even though Jamie is of a similar age at this point-goes through once in a while.

‘It’s probably because he’s a player with a high level of professionalism.’

“It doesn’t happen overnight, you have to work hard.”

After thinking, Jamie gave a standard and close-to-correct answer.

“Ah, thank you. Then, would it be helpful to continue watching the video of the ri match?”

“Certainly that helps. Even if it’s not my video, I like to watch a lot of videos of other soccer players or matches. Well······.”

Instead, as is usually the case with such answers, I was worried for a while because I felt like I was talking too much.

“As Lee may have noticed, my performance these days isn’t the same as before. To be exact, unlike last year, I’m worried that I can’t really help the team.”

“How about this?”

“yes?”

Jamie decided to add one more non-obvious piece of advice.

“You try to use your strengths more actively during the game. For example······.”

It was a piece of advice that I was concerned about, but with faith that the other team members and the coaching staff would take care of it.

**

Our next opponent was Everton FC.

Everton was actually a team with nothing special.

Occasionally, in a season with bursts of potential, they may also aim for intercontinental competitions, but usually the team moves between the mid- and low-levels of the Premier League. A team with several national team players but no clear ace. That was it.

However, it was a pretty tough opponent for Stoke City. To be precise, he was an opponent he cared about. It was because it was a team that gave me a few ‘loses’ this season.

Before Boxing Day, in a tight schedule, he played a match without Jamie and was hit with an unexpected blow.

For this reason, there were not a few Stoke City fans who were eagerly waiting for the match against Everton.

“This is the game the fans have been waiting for. I’ll be honest. My teeth still grind when I think of Everton. If it hadn’t been for the defeat then, the difference between Manchester City and Manchester City would have been three more points.”

Director Milo also mentioned this fact.

“Last time, before the game against Liverpool. I’m going to say something today that I said I wouldn’t do because it could put pressure on me. Be sure to win and come back. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“like. Here is the starting list for today.”

Today, Keating is back in the starting lineup following the match against Charlton.

‘Should I say it’s fortunate.’

Jamie, who gave him advice, was a little complicated. I gave some rather risky advice without backtracking, but I was worried before the game. But at the same time, I also thought that it was fortunate that the opponent was Everton, not Manchester City or Liverpool.

‘I don’t know. Mutombo will cover it well.’

Before the match, Jamie kept unknowingly glancing at Keating and Mutombo.

“Stop watching. Mutombo wears out.”

“···yes.”

Then I finally heard something from Mutombo.

“Go up!”

After a while, the match started, and the match flowed to the point where Jamie’s advice could be effective.

The victory in the last game must have been completely erased from my head, because Everton played a completely shrunken play after extremely lowering the defensive line.

‘not.’

In the 20th minute of the first half, Jamie realized that Everton’s play was not 100% intended.

Precisely, seeing as there are two defensive midfielders, it seems that it was correct to have some defensive play in mind, but it did not seem to be a plan to implement such an extreme defensive tactic.

“Why do you keep going inside the penalty box!”

“Philip! what are you doing. You don’t care about the offside line?”

It was because he kept pushing the players on the Everton bench.

Stoke City’s recent run, along with Jamie’s start and threatening breakthrough, seemed to unknowingly force Everton’s players to play lower than they were instructed to do.

‘What are you doing without overlapping?’

However, it wasn’t just Everton who shrank.

“You try to use your strengths more actively during the game. For example, I do overlapping whenever I have a chance. The fact that you are on the left can put pressure on the opposing team.”

This was the advice Jamie gave to Keating the other day, before individual training.

“Actually, you don’t have to overlap all the time. The speed is so fast, so if you think there is an opportunity, you can go upstairs and help. However, it is difficult to predict the timing with certainty, so it may be better to just try overlapping often.”

To put it simply, it means to just do overlapping without even trying.

If Everton had prepared a strategy – perhaps – to defend firmly and aim for a counterattack, it might have been difficult for Keating to actively try to overlap.

But now, it was a counterattack, it was nabal, and it was blindly closed. It is a perfect situation for Keating to overlap without worrying about counterattacks.

Hue the great ducks army admiral is coming for u all

Nevertheless, Keating did not try to overlap properly, only exchanging passes with Brian near the half line.

‘Is it because I’m still young?’

It could be that I was more worried than I thought, or it could be that I didn’t want to put cold water on the team’s competition for the championship by conceding points after overwrapping.

‘I’ll have to solve it first.’

Keating is kitting, and it was time to squeeze Everton, who had shrunk.

In the 21st minute of the first half, Jamie, who received Brian’s pass, crossed the half line.