Chapter 21: The helplessness of the reserves
As the day's training began, the head coach summoned the entire coaching staff to the office on the edge of the training pitch for a meeting.
Li Mudi threw the newspaper on the table and said to Solari angrily: "Are these newspapers crazy? Touted with such fanfare! Mbappe is really in good shape now, but you must know that he is facing opponents in the third division, and if he goes to La Liga, those old fritters will teach him how to behave in minutes. What peerless prodigy can excel at this age at the top level of competition more than an adult? Is this encouragement and praise? It's a killing! It's ulterior motives! Not to mention other tabloids, Marca and Ace should not be unclear! ”
Solari also agrees with this, "It's really a bit too much, this kid is still young, and doing so is likely to affect his mentality, just now he seems to be a little impetuous." ”
As soon as he heard this, Li Mudi hurriedly told everyone to pay more attention and be sure to cut off those bad signs in advance.
After everyone agreed, Aurelana, a physical trainer who has worked for several La Liga teams and has a deep understanding of Spanish football, brought up a new topic: "16 years old! has just come to a new environment, and he has performed so well, no wonder it has caused such a big stir, and it didn't seem to be so sensational when Messi was just starting out! ”
Attacking coach Pozzo also actively participated, waving his hand and saying: "Messi was famous when he was in the reserves, but there was no such performance, he only broke out slowly after he was promoted to the first team, and he should have been almost 20 years old at that time." ”
Olelana turned his head to the boss and smiled: "It seems that Li is still powerful, and there is no one with this vision." ”
Facing this red. Bare. The naked sycophant, Li Mudi's heart is beautiful, but he is still very modest. "Where, where? Luck luck! ”
Just when the atmosphere gradually turned to Happy River Crab, Solari suddenly said: "You say, will Rafa transfer Mbappe to the first team?" ”
……
There will always be such a cold guy in a team, and when everyone is in high spirits, pour a basin of cold water.
However, this problem did cause a headache for the entire coaching staff. Benzema is the only serious striker in the first team and is unlikely to play the entire season. Although Cristiano Ronaldo and Hesse can also be up front, they are not as threatening as when there is space to sprint on the wings. From time to time, Benitez will put Mariano on the bench to prevent special situations from happening, but he does not like to use him because of his tactical play, so he has not played for the first team this season. According to the rules of the Spanish Football Federation, if a player signs up for a match in the first team, he will not be able to participate in that round of the reserve team competition, and the same is true for transfers. In other words, Mariano will not be able to play in Castilla's La B division as long as he is called up by the first team in the same round, which has led to his lack of playing time in the new season.
Now that Mbappe is on fire and his technical characteristics are very much in line with the requirements of the first team, will Benitez let him replace Mariano on the bench? Although in reality, the French teenager broke out a year later, but it was in Monaco, and Li Mudi was not confident that he would come to Real Madrid a year ahead of schedule, and he would not play. After all, the pressure on players at the Bernabeu is too much, especially for young players, it can be called a nightmare place. Sergio C****es, Royston Ricky Drenthe and Francisco Pavón are all here, losing themselves. With so many people in the reserve squad now, if he is in the spotlight of the first team, who knows if Mbappe will only think about life like Mario Balotelli did!
Aside from the false reputation of wanting to earn and train players, as a football coach, Li Mudi certainly hopes that his disciples can grow steadily and step by step into world superstars, and Mbappe is the successor he is very optimistic about in the future. But as the head coach of a reserve team, he has no way or right to interfere with the decisions of the first team manager, which is really frustrating.
After hastily ending the team meeting, when everyone walked out of the office and rushed to the training ground, Li Mudi thought for a while, but still took out his mobile phone and called Zizou to ask if the first team had any intention of drawing Mbappe in the near future. But Zizou is only Benitez's special adviser after all, not even a coach, and he can't talk at all about tactical arrangements and player selection, and Bei Shuai will not talk to him about the transfer of reserve players, so ...... I can't help it.
In the subsequent team training, Li Mudi has been a little absent-minded on the sidelines, and his mind is always thinking: If this thing comes true, how many opportunities can Mbappe get in the first team? Mariano was replaced by someone 5 years younger than him, will he be resentful? And it also means that he will completely lose his chance to establish himself in the first team, what does his future hold? Could this be the case with current players like Odegaard and Enzo......
In the evening, in the sixth round of La Liga, Real Madrid hosted Málaga Club de Fútbol, with 70% of the possession and 31 shots on goal but failed to score a goal. With such a need for change, Benitez made only one substitution, again because Jesus was injured and couldn't keep the game going. Mariano, who was drawn to the first team and caused Castilla to struggle yesterday, sat on the bench for a full 94 minutes (including stoppage time in both halves). The 0-0 score not only made the Bernabeu sound a burst of boos against Benitez, but also made Li Mudi more helpless, and some thoughts involuntarily generated.
On October 1, the team had a full day off and no training was scheduled. Li Mudi summoned the FM system interface to use this month's scouting tools and found several good news.
Mbappe's double value at the end of September has become 137/180, his ability has increased by 3 points compared to the end of August, and his potential has also increased by 3 points compared to the value shown last time, which can be said to be the number one star in La Liga B.
In addition, the ability value of the main goalkeeper Yáñez, the central defender Leon, Odegaard and Enzo, who have performed well in many games, has increased by 2 points, and the ability of the remaining main players has also generally increased by 1 point.
However, there is also a less optimistic situation, the substitutes who have played less opportunities have not increased their ability value, and the ability of Senna and Rodriguez has dropped by 2 points without playing for a minute so far. Also, with the exception of Mbappe, no one's potential has changed.
Combined with the overall appearance of the players, the team's morale and form so far are not bad, after all, it is during the winning streak. However, Li Mudi has some problems with the use of players, the distinction between the main force and the substitute is too obvious, resulting in strong fatigue for some people, and serious lack of playing time for some people. Among them, Mariano, Ganferina and Narvaez all showed some dissatisfaction with their playing time in their personal information, which caused Li Mudi to pay close attention. Unity is the foundation of a successful group, and if someone in it makes a noise, it will be too difficult to go all the way smoothly. As the leader of the team, it is very important to do a good job of maintaining the atmosphere of everyone's river crabs. Therefore, Li Mudi decided to increase the rotation of players from the next league game, so that more players can participate in the victory and success of the scoring team.
Why not rotate for the next game, round 7? Because the next opponent is really a strong opponent, and the next round of the league meets the national team break, it is just the right time to let the substitutes play more openly.
On October 3, Castilla will take on C.D. Guadalajara SAD away. The home team is currently in 11th place in the standings with 2 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses and 7 records, although this result is very average, but you must know that they started with three consecutive defeats, and rose quickly after two core players returned from injury, and were unbeaten in the last three rounds.
Speaking of these two cores, they really have a deep connection with Castile. Right-back Jesús Moyano, 26, is a Real Madrid academy graduate who also made a number of appearances at Castilla. This player is very versatile, and if you look at his stats through the FM system, you can see that there are almost no single digits, although none of them are very high, but almost all of them are in the range of 10-12. This kind of ability is at the level of the number one right-back in Spain's third division. And he only left Castile in 11 years, and he and Li Mudi also had a year of intersection, so they can be called old acquaintances.
The other key striker, Riki, is an older former Castilla player, who is now 35 years old and played for the then Real Madrid C and development teams for three seasons before the 03-04 season. The veteran has been in good form and has just arrived on a free transfer from La Liga side Granada in the summer, with 15 dribbles and skills, 14 in shots, passes and vision, and a lot of experience, making him a very difficult old monster to deal with.
Guadalajara, like its opponent in the third round, Socueramos, is located in the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha, a short distance from the city of Madrid. Its home stadium is very distinctive, and the capacity of 5,000 people is a lot for the third tier, but it is not common for all seats to be designed with standing tickets. Usual attendance, which should be called attendance here, is less than 60 percent, but the game against the league leaders will undoubtedly be full. With 5,000 crazy fans standing and watching, it's not an easy distraction for any team that comes here to visit. What's more, the team's morale is now high, and it is really difficult for Li Mudi's team to get out of the way.
The team arrived at the hotel by bus, where they were stopped by a few crazy home fans outside the gate for a while, and were only able to enter the hotel gate under the protection of hotel security and patrol police. At this time, a sense of tension that has never been felt before has spread among the young players, most of whom have not had such an experience, and the manager is a rookie, but fortunately, assistant coach Solari and several other members of the coaching staff are well-informed, and some verbal encouragement calms them down, so that the atmosphere is not too bad.
In the evening, the adaptation of stepping on the field was stared at by more than 2,000 fans who entered the stadium in advance, which made the Castilla players feel uncomfortable, and their emotional state was a little unfavorable.