Chapter 11 Team Building

But obviously not right now, because this is only the first time Gao Bo has seen his players.

During this time, he has already gone through the information of the players on hand several times, and now he needs to combine training and his discerning skills that can only be used once a day to select the players who are suitable for his tactics, and get the main framework of the team first.

The previous Gao Bo was also a die-hard fan, and he was extremely impressed by Leicester City, which created a myth in the 2015-2016 season.

Ranieri's team snatched the Premier League title from the mouth of the Premier League giants almost on the basis of last season's relegation, and staged a grassroots counterattack!

A team may be able to beat a strong opponent with a momentary performance, but if they want to win the title in the long league competition, it is obviously not possible without a few brushes.

He was a professional coach, and after combining the memories of that Leicester City team in his mind, he summed up a few key points: rapid transfers, creating space through movement in attack, tight positioning when defending, piling up players in the box to prevent the opponent's wings from forming shots, and constantly pressing the opposing ball-handler.

Leicester's formation is a classic 4-4-2, with Claudio Ranieri demanding a tight formation that will make it difficult for opponents to keep them under control. Jamie Vardy sits up front, with Shinji Okazaki behind him, and drops back to assist midfield if necessary.

Leicester aim to keep the distance between each other as low as possible, forcing the opposition to attack from both wings and only being able to pass the ball into the box from either side, which is why they pile up players in the box, and it is almost impossible or impossible for the opposition to score goals in this way.

Once Leicester City broke the ball, they switched from defence to attack very quickly, and the players would directly play long passes to Vardy, quickly forming a counter-attack, Vardy and Shinji Okazaki went straight into the middle of the opposition defence, attracting the opposition central defenders respectively and creating space for their teammates in the second echelon behind them.

If the counter-attack doesn't work, Leicester will move into positional battles, with the strikers cutting forward and the second-tier players behind the strikers allowing them to run vertically towards the opposition's penalty area.

Once they concede a goal, Leicester will immediately press the opponent and prevent the opponent from forming an attack, which will make it difficult for the opponent to deal with it. Jamie Gundy is the first line of defence when switching from attack to defence, pressing the opposition's ball-carriers, with N'Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater supporting him in midfield, and if such a robbery fails to break the ball, the Leicester players will revert to the defensive line.

Several of the key players who have worked wonders for Leicester City have been called up by Gao Bo, so this set of tactics can also be transplanted to the current Luton Town.

The plan is for the players to spend a week returning to the way they were when they were playing last season – many of them have gained a lot of weight after a holiday.

This was followed by a ten-day intensive training session, where fitness was the foundation of the team, no matter what tactics were performed on the field.

After the training began, Gao Bo turned on the football card system.

When a light curtain reappeared, Gao Bo always looked at the unresponsive crowd around him with some weakness.

This light curtain can only be seen by oneself.

Equip Cards!

Successfully equipped!

On the hollow click, a card that glows blue fits right on the edge of the card, and a few lines of blue lettering on the card also glow.

Increases training effectiveness by 15%!

When the cards were equipped, Gao Bo looked around and found that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

It wasn't until a week later, when the strength and conditioning coach and team doctor Haruko came to report on the players' status, that Gao Bo discovered the awesomeness of this skill.

"High, it looks like the players are quite dedicated to training, and in less than a week, almost all of the players have lost weight...," Mel Donald enthused.

Gao Bo pinched his chin, where is the high level of commitment of the players, it is clear that this training card plays a role. Looks like this card works really well.

"In that case, let's start the next phase of training as soon as possible!"

Pre-season training is the most critical preparation stage for a whole season, so time is running out.

"Uh.... It's just that there is one player whose training is not ideal.." Mel Donald said with a bitter face.

"Who is it?"

"Sam Parker..."

Mel Donald said with some distress that in Donald's view, the team can now only rely on the 27-year-old experienced striker on the front line, and the striker seems to lack a competitive mentality, and the level of dedication to training can only be described as three days of fishing and two days of drying nets.

Gao Bo has an impression of this striker, but his positioning of Sam Parker is not a main striker, but as a substitute, with strikers of the level of Vardy and Charlie Austin, a striker like Sam Parker who has never heard of it in his previous life is naturally not competitive at all.

But this Sam Parker is so lazy, it doesn't look like he's qualified to be a substitute.....

"Then it doesn't matter to him, when he gets back to his normal weight, when he joins the team to train, otherwise let him train alone all the time." Gao Bo didn't care, just a substitute striker, and it didn't matter about the overall situation.

Mel Donald was stunned: "This... Sam Parker is a very good striker in the second division...."

Gao Bo waved his hand and put his trademark confident smile on his face: "Mel, Vardy and Charlie Austin are not just second-division strikers!! ”

Mel Donald was obviously not convinced, but Gao Bo didn't explain anything, he asked with interest: "So if this Sam Parker is put in the transfer market, there are still some teams who need it?" ”

Mel Donald nodded: "In the second division, a striker of Sam Parker's level has also played in the first division, and there will be many second division teams interested." ”

"If we trade him out, I want a tall, frontal and defensive centre-back!" Gao Bo leaned forward. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that this was the case.

He has been observing a number of Luton players these days.

First of all, in the middle of the forward and midfield, there are four players: Vardy, Charlie Austin, Drinkwater, and Kante, and the main players in these four positions must be these players, and the team's captain Kevin Keane also has to occupy a position on the left or right side of the midfield, plus central defender George Parker, the central defender who has played in the Championship can also get a main position.

In this way, a starting line-up needs at least two defenders on the left and right, a full-back, a player on the flanks of midfield, and a goalkeeper with quality.

There are a lot of candidates on the left and right sides of the defender Luton side, after Gao Bo's observation in the past few days, at least at the level of the second division There are a few qualified players, and the situation in the midfield is the same, in the position of goalkeeper, there are currently two players who have the opportunity to compete for the main goalkeeper, nineteen-year-old Dean Poli, and twenty-two-year-old Claude Rondo!

On a technical level, both men have similar attributes, with the 22-year-old Claude more in mind, as the goalkeeper is much more committed and hardworking in training than Dean Polly.

And the thing that makes Gao Bo a little distressed is that there is now a lack of a central defender with sufficient air defense in the Luton team, except for George Parker, the remaining central defenders in Luton are players under the age of 20, most of them are thin and difficult to withstand the impact of those tall center forwards in the league, so in the position of central defender, there must be a player who can provide hardness in front defense!

"Let the scouting department look for it first, we can't stop training!"

Gobo has made the decision, he now has 100,000 pounds of transfer funds on hand, and if Sam Parker is added to the trade, he should be able to buy a qualified central defender.