"Robin, you're working so hard, you still insist on training on crutches." Mattheison was joking about Van Persie, who had a cast on his foot and a crowd of people talking around him.

"Why, do you want to give each of you a pen, and then write a little blessing on my plaster?" Van Persie is not afraid of them making fun and joking with them.

Smith watched them from the sidelines and didn't come up because he was worried about something.

Yesterday Van Persie texted with him on his phone. Van Persie was recovering from injuries at home, saying he was too bored in the apartment and wanted to come to the training ground to train with them.

Smith certainly didn't believe it.

Dude, you have a broken toe, what else can you come to train, you can't run, you can't kick a ball, you can train goalkeeper skills?

Then Smith sent a message back to Van Persie, saying that if you come to training, take him to a nightclub after training, and he will treat him.

It was meant to be just a joke.

And then, and then Van Persie really came.

When Van Persie showed up at the training ground, Smith was stunned.

Van Persie did not attend training, but he was talking to several coaches on the sidelines.

As a result, Smith kept deserting during training and was penalized by Coach Haaland for a few laps.

Now, in the tactical room at Thorpe Arch, Van Persie is chatting with people and watching Smith fidgeting next to him, happy.

Van Persie came because yesterday he received a call from the team's assistant coach, Chris Casper, asking him to come to the team's tactical meeting today.

Van Persie thought about it and laughed again.

Going to a nightclub?

If you dare to go to a nightclub, you will probably be killed by the head coach in a nightclub, and then screw your head off.

While Van Persie was chatting, Glen Charles suddenly called out.

"Look." He pointed to the new equipment in the room.

Previously, because this conference room had been renovated, their tactical meeting was held in another conference room, and today it was also proposed by Chris Casper to use this conference room.

Everyone else gathered around and looked at some of the new equipment in the conference room. They all kept pointing fingers, some of which they hadn't seen before at the training ground, including their respective clubs.

"Ahem~"

Everyone took a look, and officially Chris Casper stood in the doorway.

Like elementary school students, everyone hurried back to their seats, waiting for a few coaches to come in for tactical lessons and analyze the video.

"I'm the only one today, don't look at it." When Casper said something, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

What they fear most is Brian Kidd's chatter and tirades during tactical lessons.

At this point, Kelly said to Casper.

"Chris, close the door."

"Haha~" "Hehehe~" The rest of the team laughed.

The source of this sentence comes from head coach George Lee. Because every time there is a coach's meeting, Casper will be the last one to arrive for one reason or another.

So every time Casper came in, George Lee would say, "Chris, close the door." ”

Over time, the phrase spread among the coaching staff and was printed by the well-wishing Alfinger Haaland and pasted on the doors of various conference rooms.

They were all the same age, and this kind of joke didn't matter, and after Casper closed the door of the conference room, he came to the front.

I turned on the computer, turned on the projector, turned on the laptop I brought, and stood in front of it for a while.

When he was done, he cleared his throat and began his tactical lesson.

"In today's tactical lesson, we won't watch the video, I'm going to tell you something else, which is the task given to me by head coach George Lee."

"As you know, several of our assistant coaches also have a division of labor, for example, the physical is under Colin McGee, the daily training management is Brian Kidd, and the special management is Alfinger Haaland, and I may be a video player in your eyes, right?"

"Thomas, you ask Jordi?"

"Jordi is George's henchman, responsible for slapping George's ass."

Because Jordi Cruyff is in charge of tactical analysis together with Casper, but the specific division of labor is different, Caspar is data analysis, while Cruyff Jr. is tactical analysis.

When Cruyff Jr. discovers the problem, he will report it to George Lee, who will then hand it over to other coaches in training.

"I asked Robin here today because there are some tactical points that we will use next."

"Alain, what are you sighing about?"

When Smith heard this, he quickly waved his hand and motioned for Casper to continue.

"In the early stages, George came to me and asked me to think about how I could improve the team's goalscoring efficiency.

'That was before Blackburn Rovers and Lee felt like we were halfway through the season, but we were second in the table but we were outside the top few in terms of goals.

'After the Blackburn game, George came to me again and told me to hurry up.

Because Leeds United was in the 18th round of the league, Leeds United challenged Blackburn, who are 18th in the league, and the two sides ended in a draw, leaving Leeds United in the second place in the league for a round.

The only takeaway was that Van Persie injured his toe and needed to recuperate for three months.

"Because of Robin's injury, our offensive firepower has been discounted again."

"I'm going to use my expertise today to explain to you what we need to improve in our offensive tactics next."

"First of all, look at this table."

Casper opened a table file and projected it onto the screen.

"First of all, I'm going to give you a science popularization, what is a predicted goal."

"Expected goals are a metric that evaluates the conversion of a shot into a goal-scoring opportunity. This shot with an xG value of 0.3 should have a 30% chance of scoring a goal, and this shot with an xG value of 0.4 should have a 40% chance of scoring a goal. Therefore, this data is an excellent way to judge the quality of a shot. ”

"The number of factors that need to be taken into account when calculating the xG value of a shot varies depending on the model used."

"There are a number of specific factors that affect the expected goals model, such as the position of the ball at the time of the shot, such as the distance from the goal, the angle and the height of the ball; the part of the body that the player uses to shoot, such as heading or shooting with the foot; the form of assist, such as a through ball, cross, set-piece or other; , offensive situations, such as whether to play more or less, whether it is a rebound ball, whether the defender is in place, whether it is a shot after dribbling, etc. ”

'These are the factors that affect the expected goals.

"Don't think this is just a casual talk to you."

"It's the numbers from Opta Sports, it's all backed by science, and although Opta is based in London, they have a branch in Leeds and our club has a partnership with them."

"I can get first-hand data."

"Our actual goal value is lower than the estimated goal value given by the data."

"For example, in the game against Blackburn, the statistics give us a goal value of 1.32."

"But what about us, we didn't score a single goal."

"It's not the first time that in our previous games, more than half of the actual goal value was less than 0.5 percent of the expected goal value."

"Next, let's talk about how we can change this."

"Gary and Alain sent it for me, and they all had their names written on it. Thank you. ”

Then Kelly and Smith began to hand out the documents that Casper had given them.

Obviously, a few people in the front court will have a little thicker information in their hands than a few people in the back court.

"It's something that each of you needs to pay attention to in terms of attack, you go back and see for yourself, you don't take it seriously, you go home and watch it or not, after a few training sessions and games, you can see it right away."

"I'm going to talk about some common issues."

'We had significantly fewer shots than expected.

"Why?"

"Because you're asking too much of yourself, you have to create a clear and dangerous thing to do every time before you shoot."

"It's not to encourage you to shoot."

'Alain, you see, most of your shots are in the box.

Caspar cut to a map of Smith's shooting heatzone, which was clearly closer to the box and brighter the closer to the penalty spot.

"I know you used to play as a striker, and this season you dropped back into midfield at George's behest, but you were too far forward when you stepped forward, sometimes more forward than Robin.

"We're wasting too much space."

"You can shoot in front of the penalty area, don't be afraid, you don't have to go into the box to shoot."

Casper pulled out a photo of a previous game and projected it onto the big screen.

"But Edgar, did you notice?"

Caspar mentioned Davis, and Davis, who was still flipping through the papers he had about himself, quickly looked up.

"Alain went forward, but the spot in front of the box was not filled, and Thomas and Edgar didn't come forward."

'The two full-backs didn't move closer to the middle either.

"The four of you, if two of you can be in this area, we can create a long-range threat."

At this time, the team's main left wing-back raised his hand to signal that he had something to say.

Ian Hart asked Casper.

"Coach Chris, I can understand that I can play in the middle, even on the right, and go and shoot from a distance."

'That's right, don't stick to your position, create space to come out, create chances to play more and create fewer chances to get a dangerous shot.

"What about my defensive area, what if I go to the right, what if I don't have time to make up for it after I lose the ball?"

"You go to force and press at the first time, George's tactics are just that. The pressure in the front court is not just a few people in the midfield, if you can delay and interfere with the opponent's attack, your teammates will have enough time to retreat and make up for you. ”

Hart nodded.

Caspar and Ha again.

"Ian, did you score from set-pieces on the left?"

"Of course not."

"Then why can't you shoot from distance on the right?"

Hart nodded again.

"Including the central defenders, you can also insert shots when you have opportunities and open spaces, you insert a midfielder, a full-back gives you a fill, don't miss any opportunity to attack and shoot."

At this time, it was the turn of several central defenders to be stunned.

Mattheson was the first to ask: "Isn't this a scavenger?" ”

"No, where does modern football come from, it's just a proper part of the attack and a threat. George doesn't even like to use the front midfield, and will use a scavenger? ”

George Lee's tactics do not have a front midfield, this is known to everyone, he thinks the front waist is too slow, every attack has to let the front waist launch, the opportunity has slipped early.

"In short, on the premise of not wasting shots, create more space and opportunities to come out, and hit more goals."

"Now, let's talk about a few other offensive priorities......"

^^^

While Casper was explaining the tactics to the team, several other coaches were gathering in the office next door.

Kidd stood next to Cruyff Jr., gesturing at Cruyff Jr.'s computer screen.

"Here, here, I told you here."

Finally, at Kidd's urging, Cruyff Jr.'s screen went black.

Kidd turned and shouted to the man behind him.

"John, you can't do it, you can't change me."

Later, the youth team director who had just finished youth team training, John Sheridan, who was pulled by the first-team coaching staff to play CS, took off his headphones and asked Kidd.

"What did you say, I was wearing headphones just now, and I didn't hear clearly."

"It's nothing, praise you for playing well."

"Oh, thank you."

After saying that, Sheridan put on his headphones and continued to operate.