Chapter 219 – Show and Prove (1)

219

Newcastle manager Lauren Botman was a 38-year-old youngster this year.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the term ‘young man’ is awkward for those in their late 30s who are not in their 20s but now looking at their 40s, but in the field of football coaching, people in their late 30s are young.

These days, when the period of maintaining physical ability has been extended due to the development of science and technology, a player older than Lauren Botman is playing active duty, so you can see how fresh young Lauren Botman is in the football coaching world.

However, the career of young director Lauren Boatman is by no means short.
In his mid-twenties, at the age of 23, Lauren Botman, who quit his playing career early and entered the path of a leader, started his leadership career as a youth coach at the age of 26, and was appointed as the manager of Newcastle’s youth team eight years ago at the age of 30.

For Newcastle, which started the youth-centered rebuilding policy, aka the Future Project, ‘youth’ is the most important core part.

Being singled out as a manager in such a place means that, unlike Lauren Boatman’s pathetic days as a player, he has shown enough talent as a manager.

After leading the club’s youth team and proving its outstanding nurturing ability, Lauren Botman was promoted to second-team manager, and finally succeeded in entering the first team three years ago.

Even if it is a temporary coach who was put in as an emergency firefighter after the previous manager was sacked due to poor performance, the first team is the first team.

That season, when Lauren Bortman took over as first-team manager, Newcastle narrowly escaped relegation and managed to stay on. It was nothing special. Because the relegation race has been a war that Newcastle go through every year after being promoted to the first division.

After barely remaining like that, the directors shouted in unison, regardless of who they were.

“Recruit!! Recruitment of good players!!”

However, Newcastle was passive in signing players, and always closed the transfer market with minimal signings.
And the repetition of wandering around the relegation zone again.

But Lauren Boatman was different.

The first year and last season when he was appointed as the official first-team manager from the temporary manager, an emergency firefighter.
Lauren Bortman changed the squad by calling up a large number of young students he had raised since his youth coaching days, while releasing players with lesser skills than recruiting.

It was a rapid rebuild that worried not only supporters but also experts.
Even the club’s leadership, which was planning a youth-centered rebuild, made a radical change to the point of questioning whether it was too radical, and returned to the successful result of 13th in the league.

13th in the league.
Ranking less than 50% in the Premier League, where 20 teams compete.

It was a ranking that would be recorded as a devastating failure for a prestigious club, but it was an indescribable success for Newcastle, who had always been competing for relegation.

How impressive must it have been, since the success was due to the club’s youth policy, which put the club’s future on the line, not even outside recruiting.

Coach Lauren Botman, who showed his ability as a result, actively requested the club to sign only one player while preparing for the next season, and that was Hong Min-jun, the main character of Frankfurt, who won the second division of the Bundesliga at the time.

According to Lauren Botman’s will, who strongly insisted on the recruitment of this young player who had been on loan to Frankfurt after suffering a terrible failure in Barcelona, ​​the club also actively recruited, but the player himself decided to transfer to Frankfurt and the recruitment was unsuccessful. .

And that season, Newcastle achieved 4th place in the league.

“Minjoon. I have been watching you for a long time.”

Fans, experts, and club executives were all unexpectedly great, but… Lauren Bortman thought.

“From the moment you played at the Olympics until the full bloom of your talents in Frankfurt.”

If you could have signed Hong Min-Jun last season, if you had—

“So I am sure. Last season, if we had succeeded in recruiting you, we would not be in 4th place, but competing for the title… Maybe we really did win the league.”

From the moment I achieved 4th place in the league until now, I have been thinking about myself.
Only Lauren Boatt, who confided it to others for the first time, to an imaginary main character, was relieved… No, my body trembled at the pleasure of dissolving all the emotional residue.

And Hong Min-joon, who was watching them all—

* * *

‘… What is this pervert? What is a stalker?’

It’s okay to unravel the story of your life with a vague look in your eyes while talking about positions. The director is 38 years old, isn’t he a man?

Any father-in-law has ‘Latte ~’ as a default, so as a Korean Confucian man, I can only listen to it.
But… There is, but now this look is a bit…

Is this the look in the eyes of a soldier on his first vacation when he meets his girlfriend after a long time?
In awe of that creepy disrespectful gaze, I let out a roaring rage.

“We can win this time!”
“Also!! As expected, he is the player I chose!!”
“…….”

What the hell
Somehow, the director, whose eyes have gone sour, passionately swipes his finger over the tactical board.

“You know what? Your pace is better than Aguero or Elling Holland! Manchester City legends Sergio Aguero and Erling Haaland made a splendid debut in their EPL debut season, scoring 6 goals in their first 4 games! But you have 7 goals! It means you have more potential than them!!”

If you claim to surpass Aguero or Holland with only 4 games, you will be called crazy, but… To be honest, I don’t think I’m inferior to them.

No matter how legendary players and soccer geniuses Aguero and Holland are, there would have been no status window.

“Okay! That confidence!! Let’s see our next opponent. Our next opponent is Liverpool! That’s Liverpool! Do you know?”
“Of course I know.”
“Okay! As you know, Liverpool’s hallmark is a strong forward press! The legacy of Liverpool’s legendary manager Jurgen Klopp! Gegen Pressing!! Even last season, Liverpool were one of the most active and pressured teams! It will be the same this year, and they will put strong pressure on us as well!”

I nodded my head at the obvious story that I had nothing to refute.
Why is this man’s tension so high? I asked quietly to lower the high tension that could not be followed.

“Understand. You’re saying Liverpool are going to put systematic pressure on me too? If so, shouldn’t we rather fall to the side rather than the center where the pressure is high?”

It is simple to think about why the main scorer in modern soccer has moved from a central striker to a side striker.

The trend of the modern soccer world is to play on the side where the pressure is weaker because it is impossible to withstand the pressure in the middle.

In general, soccer tactics develop faster in defense than in attack.
That’s why it has reached a situation where it can no longer withstand the meticulous and systematic pressure with the ability of the central striker.

At my words with such a meaning, the director burst into laughter as if he had heard something funny.

“That moves it to the side to avoid the pressure. I ran away because I couldn’t handle the pressure. ‘Cause I can’t stand it any longer Do you too? Minjun, can’t you stand the pressure too?”
“Of course… “

I should say no… ‘Can I really not stand it?’ I think.

If you think about it, except for the early days of my career, I have never suffered greatly from pressure.
Rather, I did it by taking advantage of the opponent’s pressure.

My best strength, experts say, is my ability to break through the opponent’s pressure in a tight space.

Speed? That’s what started to get a lot of attention this season, which has risen sharply.
Shooting? Although it has improved a lot lately, the image of rampaging in the early days has not completely disappeared, to the extent that the derisive nickname of the king of rampaging has often emerged. Despite being the top scorer.

After getting the status window… No, looking back on my entire soccer life, my greatest strength is my technique.
Physical fighting is no longer a weakness due to the improvement in overall physical ability. His stat of 70 is close to average in the EPL, and his balance and agility are excellent, so he is not easily pushed out of the competition.

Did Messi, Hazard, and Neymar overcome competition because they were muscular?
I overcame it with excellent balance and agility.

Besides, when my reaction speed and technique are combined… Rather than zone defense, which builds up defensive blocks from a distance, I am grateful that the opponent presses me.

“… I can stand it. Enough.”
“Okay! That’s it!! You have better physical abilities than I thought! It wasn’t like this until last season, but my competitive ability has improved enough to not be pushed back in the EPL! You, Hong Min-joon, you… A player who doesn’t need to avoid pressure!”
“So you are saying to run with 1.5 lines? Like Shadow Striker?”

In fact, I knew from the beginning.
Watching the coach’s finger move from the central attacking midfielder position to the central striker position, I felt that he was telling me to play in the 1.5 line.

“That’s not bad either. Not bad. But it’s not quite what I want. All I want is for you to play as a one-top, centre-forward. A combination of 9 and 10!”

Traditionally, the number 9 is a central attacker and the number 10 is an attacking midfielder.
I.E. Goalscorer and playmaker.

Even one of them is difficult to do properly, but the imagination of what it would be like if one player could play both roles has existed for a long time.

From Matthias Sindela, who made Austria dream of winning the World Cup in the 1930s, to Michael Laudrop, Francesco Totti, Cesc Fabregas and Roberto Pirumino.

Even before the term ‘pulse nine’ was born, genius players used to show this.

“The best was made possible by the combination of two geniuses. That is Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola.”
“Messi….”
“It was a performance that was possible because he was a genius player who would definitely be in the top three of the football world. But I want more than that You have the strengths of Messi, but don’t you have weapons that Messi doesn’t have? It’s the physical thing.”

The director exclaimed passionately.

“So you have to create a new position that has never existed in football history, beyond the false nine. A new creation that breaks the common sense of modern football.”