There is a mixed county league (CCL) game on January 7 with Wimbledon Athletic hosting Walton Cadros (walton_casuals). This was the first game since Eames officially established Chu Zhongtian as the core of the team, and although they only trained for a week, this game can also test how effective the training after the adjustment is.

Before the game, Eames repeatedly told the whole team to cooperate with Chu Zhongtian's rhythm, he was fast, he was slow-"We don't force victory in this game, the main thing is to test the results of ordinary training, as well as to practice tactical coordination." ”

They're already unbeatable in the mixed county league anyway, so it's not a big deal to give up even one game. Undefeated upgrade? Eames didn't think about such a question, just upgrade, what's the point of not being defeated? The most significant thing now is not the unbeaten run, but the fourth round of the FA Cup on January 25. For the sake of this game, all other games can be sacrificed.

Wimbledon Athletic are now 13 points ahead of second-placed Wallingford Athletic (afc_wallingford) and even a loss or two won't hurt the overall situation.

After explaining to the team, Eames grabbed Chu Zhongtian and talked to him alone.

"The first time you go to the core, how does it feel, Chu?" Eames laughed.

As a Wimbledon player, it is rare to see Eames smiling. But he often laughed at Chu Zhongtian, maybe he was really partial...... "I feel responsible." Chu Zhongtian replied.

"That's right, responsibility. Ha! But don't let the responsibility weigh you down. It's not just about defending, you're going to have to do a little bit of defensive work, but that's mostly Sidwell's job. But you can't rush to the front and not come back. I need you to constantly move between the back line and the forward line. If our defender gets the ball, you come back and pick it up, move laterally......" Eames said as he gestured, while Chu Zhongtian nodded as he listened attentively.

"Try to make the passing route as triangular as possible. If the opponent is following you closely, pass it back, but if you are confident in your footwork, then turn and pass him! Eames thumped his fist. You can also use gestures and shouts to get your teammates to pass you the ball behind you, and then you just turn and walk forward. Your task is to get the ball from our 30-meter zone to the opponent's 30-meter zone. ”

"Either way, boss?"

"Of course. But in this game I ask you not to use long passes. I know you've been practicing that stuff, but there are pros and cons to long passing. Today we are going to train your short and medium pass playmaking skills. I ask you to try to use the pass from medium range and short distance. ”

"What if the goal is too far, boss?" Chu Zhongtian asked.

"Go up with the ball! Or play a short pass with a team-mate, Sidwell will support you, you can ask others to cooperate with you depending on the situation on the field, such as asking Blogger and Sarri to move a little closer to the middle so that our full-backs can plug in from behind, or ask Joe. Schilling drops back to answer your pass. In short, don't let the distance between the three lines be too far, too far and the connection will be lost, and the team with the three disconnected lines will not win the game. ”

It seems that Eames has made up his mind to hone Chu Zhongtian in this game. Not to mention this game, he plans to do this for all the next games, and strive to make the tactics with Chu Zhongtian as the core look like a little before January 24.

Counting this game, there are four more games.

Now Eames regretted it a little - if he had made up his mind to cultivate Chu Zhongtian as a new core earlier, he wouldn't have had to do this kind of thing of sharpening his spear in battle. It's just that...... If it weren't for Chu Zhongtian's performance in the match against Wimbledon, how could he make such a determination?

"Anyway, you're the commander of this team now. I'll give you this team and lead them forward, Chu! ”

Chu Zhongtian nodded vigorously: "I will do my best." ”

There is an idiom in China called "A man dies for his confidant, and a woman is a person who pleases himself". Chu Zhongtian now feels that since Boss Eames trusts him so much, he can't let him down no matter what, this is the first time in more than ten years that he has played football, someone patted his shoulder and said to himself: "I handed over the team to you and lead them forward." ”

In the past, the coaches would just say, "Defend for me, don't go up without my permission!" ”

Leading a team forward?

Chu Zhongtian only felt that something in his chest was burning.

*※※Walton-Cadros is not a strong team, they were slaughtered by Wimbledon last season, and the hero of that game was Andy. Sullivan.

The performance of Wimbledon in this game did not reflect this difference in quality. Their performance was incomprehensible to the fans outside the stadium - the team was jerky and not at all like a team that had been together for a season and a half. However, you must know that Wimbledon Athletic can be invincible in the mixed county league, and it is inseparable from their tacit cooperation.

After looking at it for a while, Colin. John saw it. Everyone was handing the ball to Chu, and then Chu was passing it out.

In just fifteen minutes, he made a rough count, Chu Zhongtian received the ball thirty times and passed twenty-five times, making him the player with the most balls in the team.

In previous games, Chu Zhongtian definitely didn't get the ball as many times as today.

"Strange...... Why is that? ”

Chu Zhongtian is just a defensive midfielder, but today I didn't see him fall to the ground and defend with men in the game, and he even rushed to the front court many times, regardless of the space behind him.

※※※The people in the stands couldn't understand that Chu Zhongtian was actually a little awkward.

Although the team has organized some intra-team games in training, it has allowed him to adapt to his new role. But when it comes to the real game, it's a different story.

Training is always targeted, even if it's a simulated game with a clear purpose. But there is no such thing in the real game, it is more varied and confusing.

In the first fifteen minutes, Chu Zhongtian felt as if he had fallen into a colorful and complex world of flowers, looking at it, it was all dazzling and dizzying colors, but he didn't know what these colors meant, and if he couldn't interpret the meaning of these colors well, he couldn't see through the situation of the game, and naturally he couldn't organize an attack.

So in the past fifteen minutes, Chu Zhongtian has done the most back passes and horizontal passes, and the forward passes are also decent, and there are no bright spots. The core of the team behaved like this, and the whole team's offense was naturally dumb - in this game, Eames gave the team a death order, even if he lost, he must seek cooperation with Chu, and let him get familiar with this new identity as soon as possible, which is the purpose of this game. Therefore, other self-assertive actions are not allowed.

So even if the team's offense was not smooth, the players still passed the football to Chu Zhongtian again and again, asking him to lead the whole team and organize the attack.

※※※ "Are you too anxious to do this?" With less than a month to go until the fourth round of the FA Cup, isn't it too risky to think about a change of tactics, Terry? "Assistant Coach Nicky. Ingrich looked at Chu Zhongtian's performance in this game and asked with a frown.

'I don't think we can beat a strong opponent like Chelsea if we continue to use the old tactics, and I think Chelsea will study us no matter how stupid they are, after all, we are their opponents, of course there is pride, but that comes more from the players, the Chelsea coaching staff will look at our game footage a little bit, I don't believe that Ranieri the Italian can't think of a way to deal with us, as long as he wants to deal with us. So we've got to give them something different. Eames explained.

"And......" he also looked at Chu Zhongtian on the field, "not only for this game, but for all the next games, even next season, I have to do this." Chu has the potential to become the core, I want to dig them out little by little! ”

"But he's going to leave the team after graduating from college, and you're going to find a core when the time comes?"

"Who knows what will happen a year from now? If we have such a character in front of our eyes right now, why not make good use of it? Isn't the flow of talent in a football team normal? When he's gone, we'll find a replacement, just like we would find him after Russell was gone. Ferguson sold Beckham to Real Madrid, didn't he bring another No.7 from Portugal? ”

Ingrid couldn't argue with this, he thought about it and had to choose to accept the reality, but he didn't forget to mutter: "I hope he can behave better as soon as possible." Just looking at his performance for 15 minutes, it's not going to help us against Chelsea......

Eames shrugged and didn't answer.

※※※Although Chu Zhongtian's performance made the fans incomprehensible and the assistant coach in the coach's seat dissatisfied, the teammates on the field still trusted him and still passed the football to him and handed it over to him to organize. Even Borjie, after running away several times, did not express his dissatisfaction with Chu Zhongtian. After seeing Chu Zhongtian practicing passing alone in the school grove, he abandoned his last sense of superiority and was convinced of Chu Zhongtian - a person who works so hard should succeed, should be given high hopes by Alai, and should be the core of the team!

It was this kind of valuable trust and tolerance that made Chu Zhongtian slowly settle down on the field. He realized that he had made a mistake and no one would scold him, no one would complain and be dissatisfied, but patiently help him and wait for him. In that case, what is there to be afraid of?

Be indulgent, be bold, and play!

After Chu Zhongtian took the ball, he didn't pass back this time, but passed it to Sidwell next to him, and then when he made a pass in front of him, he turned around and forced the opposing player to run forward. Sidwell cooperated well to get the ball in front of him, two-one!

Chu Zhongtian, who received the ball and shook off the opposing player, looked up again to observe the situation, those colorful and complex colors had gradually become clear in his eyes, and he slowly found the law between them, the world was no longer a mess, he seemed to have found the thread, as long as he pulled the ...... Chu Zhongtian thought of his practice alone in school, facing the rows of small trees, thinking of those tree trunks as the opposing team's players and his teammates, they crisscrossed and crossed in front of him, it was really not easy to find a passing route from the middle, and it was not easy to pass the football to the feet of the target. But he slowly worked on it to the point where he was able to get the ball through the rows of trees and to the finish line.

Why can't we imagine everyone on the field now as that grove?

Isn't it just a decimal number for the opposing player to stand in front of him?

Find the gap in the middle and pass it through.

Chu Zhongtian swept left and right. There was a feeling in his heart that told him that it was not okay to pass directly, because the other party had already put Joe. Schilling and Kevin. Cooper saw that he was dead, and the pass to them had a good chance of sending the ball directly to the opponent's feet. At the same time, his intuition also told him that there was room for the two wings. But the boss wouldn't let him pass the long way...... What to do?

I looked at the players who were standing. He thought that trees are dead, but people are alive. Once a tree is rooted, it cannot move at will, but people can run back and forth...... A flash of inspiration flashed through his mind.

Chu Zhongtian suddenly turned around and waved to Sidwell: "Come up, buddy!" ”

Sidwell didn't ask why he was allowed to go up, he ran up, and when his position overtook Chu Zhongtian, he also received a pass from Chu Zhongtian.

After passing the ball, Chu Zhongtian was under light pressure and ran forward by himself, and the person who was originally defending him ran to defend Sidwell. So Chu Zhongtian made a gesture to pass the ball to Sidwell again, and Sidwell passed the football to him, and he heard Chu Zhongtian's voice: "Keep going, Li!" ”

After the two of them made a succession of two and one, they were only a few steps away from each other's forbidden area, staring at Joe. Schilling and Kevin. Cooper's opposition defenders had to split up to defend against Wimbledon's two midfielders, so what if they came to shoot from distance?

Chu Zhongtian held the ball, and Sidwell ran up from him. And the opposing central defender finally dropped Joe. Shirin ran up. There was a hole in the originally tight line of defense, and this was the time he was waiting for!

With a flick of his ankle, like a putter in a golf game, he pointed the ball and pushed it forward, just in time to pass the centre-back who was running towards Sidwell!

"Beautiful!" Eames, who had been watching the attack from the dugout the entire time, stood up with his fists clenched.

"Pretty!!" Colin in the stands. John and his companions raised their arms and cheered.

"It's pretty!" Old Bent and Old John shouted at the same time.

The centre-back's first instinct was to look at the linesman to see if the goal was offside. But the linesman didn't raise the flag, because Kevin. Cooper was up front, and the centre-backs defending him were naturally at the back...... Chu Zhongtian made a one-two in the middle of Sidwell from the beginning, not really wanting Sidville or himself to make a long shot in the middle, but to pull the two central defenders out. All of this is a game set up to achieve this purpose...... The other party was really fooled, and he was not welcome. One kick pushed the ball to Joe, who was temporarily unmarked. Schilling.

Joe. Schilling received the ball and swerved into the box before facing the goalkeeper.

Single Knife!!

The stands of the King's Ranch, which had been silent for a long time because he couldn't understand the game, suddenly erupted in cheers.

Single-handedly for Joe, who came out of Chelsea's youth team. Schilling was not difficult at all, and the opposing goalkeeper was like a shivering chick in his eyes. He feints with a powerful volley, and the opponent pounces sideways, but in fact he just gently rubs the ball up, and the ball draws a parabola and falls into the back corner of the goal.

The ball is in!!

Joe after the goal. Xi Lin turned around and ran towards Chu Zhongtian: "Well done!" Clear! You did it, haha!! ”

"Two pounds, hey!" Sidwell also rushed up. Two pounds for assists and five pounds for goals.

Then, other teammates came from all directions and surrounded them.

This is the first time that Chu Zhongtian has successfully organized and directly assisted a goal, so he has to celebrate.

※※※ "Did you see that, Nicky?" Ha ha! 'Eames seems to be happier than the players on the pitch. From the beginning of the catch to the end Joe. Shirin scored a goal, and everything was in Chu's hands! When he and Sidwell combined in the middle of the two-one, I thought he wanted to shoot from distance! I didn't expect ...... I thought about passing to the striker in front of me from the beginning...... It's a perfect offensive plan! ”

In the face of the facts, Ingrid also had nothing to say. He had the same idea as Eames, that Chu or Sidwell would push the ball to the edge of the opponent's penalty area and shoot directly from distance. I didn't expect to think of the last step so early...... "Haha! The first time I saw Chu Chong make the last pass in front of the opponent's penalty area, it was really a little uncomfortable......" Old Bent in the stands laughed. He was happy when the team was ahead, and even happier if the ball was still inextricably linked to Chu.

John slapped his face: "I said why is it strange to watch these ten minutes of competition." So that's it! They want Chu to be the character who organizes the attack! ”

As soon as these words came out, they immediately attracted the attention of others.

"What do you say, Boss John?" Someone asked.

"It's obvious that Chu is now the heart of the team. Didn't you notice that if you have the ball at your feet, you will find a way to pass it to Chu? And his current position is no longer limited to the backfield, he has run to the front several times, this time Joe. When Schilling scored, he even got to the edge of the penalty area...... What does this mean? This shows that Chu will be more involved in the attack! "Colin. John explained to them.

"Although I think defense is indispensable, if a player wants to be a big star, he has to attack. Chu is working hard little by little. I'm optimistic about him! ”

※※※Chu Zhongtian, who was surrounded by his teammates, is now very happy. The quarrel with my mother on the phone that day was thrown to the country of Java at this moment.

When he saw that the opposing defender really threw down Joe as he expected. When Shirin rushed up, the sense of accomplishment was indescribable.

For the first time, he felt like he had the game in his hands.

My opponents and teammates alike moved by my thoughts. Sidwell's pressing will cause the opposing defender to be distracted and the opposing defender's distraction will cause Joe. Schilling or Kevin. One or both of Cooper can find a moment to get the ball to their feet, and it can be a chance.

Of course, even if it is passed on, it may not necessarily end well. Maybe it's offside, maybe they'll miss it. Thankfully, he got a good result this time, which gave him a lot of confidence and more and more that it was fun to be in control of the whole team.

He doesn't feel like he's playing football, but like he's playing chess, calculating the actions of his opponents and teammates after a few moves in advance, and then using his own actions to get them to act according to the steps he calculated, and finally achieve what he wants to achieve.

I'm the commander of the team, and yes, I'm able to lead them forward!

(To be continued)