Chapter 24: Frustration on the Pitch

Another thing that binds the two teams together is the name of Fuenlabrada's home stadium, the Estadio Fernando Torres, named after the iconic figure of C. Atlético MadridSAD, Real Madrid's arch-rival, which makes the Castilian players who come here to play feel a little weird and awkward.

Naturally, this small "Madrid derby" will be broadcast live by Madrid TV, and at the pre-match press conference, the two managers can be said to have no face at all, and they praise each other without any bottom line. You say that I am the only peerless genius who blends the East and the West; I say you're a great model for a Spanish star-turned-coach, another world coach of this type after Bosque, Pep Guardiola and Enrique. Even the reporter's question of "the current league ranking situation and the prediction of the final promotion" can turn to the deep friendship between the two people, and the people below are dumbfounded, thinking that they are not in the same dimension as them.

In the locker room, Li Mudi changed the smile on his face at the press conference, and asked the players very seriously to concentrate all their attention, because the opponent is too familiar with his side, and some specific offensive routines may be completely ineffective, and the players on the field need to make timely responses and not stick to the rules. Then he publicly gave Odegaard, who mentioned the forward position in this game, the right to use his imagination at will, and let several front-court players increase their running appropriately to see if they could use the genius to break the opponent's targeted defense.

Castilla's starting line-up for this game: goalkeeper Yáñez, right wing-back Forlan, central defenders Linhardt and Leon, left-back Abner, central midfielders Fambas and Toro, forward Odegaard, right winger Alvaro, left winger is pulling left, center forward Mariano.

Limmudi, who was given the home team's squad, understood what Morientes had told him about the little surprise before, and the two players who were exposed to a minor injury before the game and could miss the game: left winger Jean Carlos and central midfielder Borja both appeared. It was at the beginning of the pre-game press conference when the two shook hands, Morientes leaned his head over and whispered to him, now it seems that this kid also had a smoke bomb with him, thinking that he could catch Xiao Li off guard, what a rookie! What is the situation of Li Mudi, who has the FM system in hand, not knowing? It's really TooYoung, TooSimple!

The home team played all the main players, and in terms of strength, it was on par with Castile, who lacked the main central defender, commander and ace scorer; The width of the pitch is only the minimum in FIFA's professional field regulations: 65 meters, which is very useful for the visiting team's wide breakthrough cross tactics; Coupled with the non-stop cheering of 2,500 fanatical home fans, it can be said that it has taken advantage of the time, place, and people, so it has the upper hand in momentum.

After the opening, Fuenlavrada actually gained some advantage in the midfield scramble, and then used the passing and control tactics born from Castilla to kick the "master" to the head.

Without Enzo and Mbappe, the visitors are obviously not fluent on the ground, Mariano's role as a fulcrum and disrupting the opposition formation is the best in the team, but he is not skilled enough to do continuous passing and cutting with his teammates, and there is no advantage in speed and does not have the ability to make individual attacks. However, the limitation of the width of the field and the opponent's key guards, it is difficult to receive good results for the side to break through the cross routine, and it is rare that after two successful scrambles, the second point falls to the feet of Odegaard, who is not good at shooting, and the quality of the long-range shot also makes people want to rush him with a gun. On the contrary, the home team took advantage of the shortcomings of Castile's weak defensive strength and played a few wonderful attacking combinations, almost breaking the deadlock.

After seeing that the situation was not optimistic, Li Mudi took the lead in making adjustments, allowing the team to reduce the pace of the game, reduce mistakes, and control the football more under his feet. As for the attack, it is all handed over to Odegaard, and whoever gets the ball is the first point of choice for the ball, that is, Odegaard is completely in control of the movement of the ball. Just like Argentina with Maradona back then, how a team should play is all up to one person, pulling the opponent's formation in the process of constantly passing and cutting the position, waiting for the opportunity to find a gap that can appear again, as for the specific handling of it completely depends on Odegaard's judgment at the time.

At this point, Odegaard retreated to the vicinity of the midfield circle, with Mariano coming back in front of him, flanked by two wingers and inserted full-backs, followed by two central midfielders, Febas and Toro, who formed him in an almost circular circle, and he was the veritable "core". This style of play allowed Castilla to keep possession of the ball, and even when the home team's midfielders were aggressively scrambling, it was rare for them to be able to intercept the ball other than a few fouls. In the 45 minutes of the first half, the visitors' possession increased rapidly in the latter stages, eventually reaching 66 per cent, which prevented the home team Fuenlavrada from completing a few decent attacks, but the corresponding Castilla did not even enter the penalty area, and all the shots on goal ended in long-range shots.

There are various factors unfavorable to Castile in this game, Li Mudi has been thinking about how to break the game, but in the first half he failed to think of a good solution, he could only come up with a strategy of injuring the enemy by 1,000 and losing 800, at the expense of his own offense, to curb the opponent's offensive threat, a boring first half made everyone dissatisfied.

The players on the field are already the best cards they can play right now, and the chances of a substitution having a miraculous effect are slim; As in the past, he took the initiative to retreat and wait for an opportunity to counterattack, but it was also difficult to work because the two wings were looked dead and the single striker had no speed; I want to open up the situation with my individual ability like the first team, but except for Odegaard, no one else is far superior to the strength of the opponent, and Odegaard's current performance in the situation of being caught between two players is already in line with his status as a superstar in the league. Thinking of this, Li Mudi misses Enzo and Mbappe very much, even if there is one person. The former can form a dual core with Odegaard, which requires more manpower and energy for the opponent to defend, creating a good offensive space for the players; The latter can also rely on the advantage of speed to force the opponent not to press, thereby reducing the pressure on his own defense and allowing his teammates to have more energy to participate in the attack. Where there will be a strengthening of offensive investment as it is now, there will be holes in the back; Focusing too much on the defense, there is little way to pose a threat in the eyes of the few people on the front line. The dilemma at this time is fundamentally the result of a mistake made in the pre-match team-building, and the shortcomings of the poor ability of the back line will undoubtedly leak out when the midfield cannot achieve an overwhelming advantage. In this way, Castilla is really similar to the parent team Real Madrid, and the label of instability at the back has not been taken off, and they all rely on offensive strength to win. The difference is that the first-team players are very capable, even the substitutes have a strong dominance in the face of the average team in La Liga, but the core of Castilla cannot be replaced, once unable to play, the overall strength of the team immediately drops a level. Also, when Real Madrid can't open as a whole, there is also a chance to win by relying on the personal ability of a superstar, Ronaldo, Ronaldo can't go to Bale, Bale can't and J Ronaldo, Isco, Stupid Ma, Magic Flute, Klos...... It's really not working, and there's a nucleus. Vulamos. And Castilla's Odegaard, Enzo and Mbappe are also superstars in La Liga B, but after all, they are still young, and although they occasionally have a stroke of genius, they are not yet able to beat a team on their own. Therefore, now Li Mudi wants to change the situation on the field, but because of his congenital weakness, he can only withstand the boos of the home team's fans and the ridicule of the commentators, with stability as the primary goal to let the players "walk monkeys" in the midfield, without any enterprising spirit.

In the second half of the game, after trying a few forced crosses to no avail, the visiting team once again sacrificed the negative possession of the ball "all the time, everywhere, just not into the penalty area", and the fans booed from the sidelines, and even overshadowed the referee's whistle for a while.

Sixty minutes later, when Castile's players were in a bit of a rapid decline due to their constant running, Fuenlavrada suddenly went up with all his might to regain possession of the ball. The visitors were forced into a defensive position, and Li Mudi replaced two wingers in succession, maintaining a certain amount of aggression on both flanks and preventing the opponent from pressing all of them.

After that, the home side had a slight advantage on the pitch, creating a couple of chances on goal and scoring a goal in the 78th minute by substitute striker Antonio Matas to give the home side a 1-0 lead.

Just a minute after the score was rewritten, Odegaard unexpectedly played the ball into the gap on the right in a three-man circle, and substitute right winger Cederes accelerated past the opposition defender before a beautiful cross was headed by Mariano in the middle to beat central defender Sergio San José to equalise.

With more than 10 minutes remaining, the two sides were unable to organise a decent attack, and the away side of Castilla maintained a 1-1 draw until the end with a full defence and skillful passing.

In the last three rounds of the league, Li Mudi's team has only achieved 1 win and 2 draws, and one of the 2 goals scored is an own goal of the opponent. Many media outlets who had praised him during their previous winning streak began to criticize him, believing that the other teams in Group 2 of the La Liga B had found a way to restrain themselves after gradually adapting to Castile's tactical play, while Li Mudi had no new tricks due to his lack of talent and talent, which is likely to cause Castile to plummet in subsequent games and repeat the mistake of missing the promotion play-offs last season.

Li Mudi, who is under some pressure, is not in a good mood, although he is really concerned about the change of face of the media, but he can't completely deny their statement, because in the game with the absence of the core, the team really does not have enough dominance, and is controlled by the restrictions of the personnel structure, and the weaknesses of the current tactics have also been found by the opponents. But no one can understand the grievances of the rookie coach, and the dependence of core players is not only his own, even Barcelona can only play about six or seven percent of the normal level when the plum ball king is not in good shape, and he not only has to worry about the state of the team's core players, but also always be wary of whether he can play. For example, just four days before the 10th round of league opponents C.D. Ebro, Benitez removed Odegaard and Mbappe, who had just recovered from injury, from the first team, because this week's Champions League match, Real Madrid will rotate some players in the next round of league games against Celta, and two reserve team youngsters will be on the bench, as for whether Castilla can win the game, who cares?