Football: The Journey of a Coach

19. The League Begins

  

  The first opponent of the new season is the Plymouth team. It is also a team that is always having financial difficulties. There are many financially difficult teams in the English Championship division. After all, the income of each team was huge. Especially if you want to excel and get into the English premier league. The normal operation of a team requires more investment, and it is difficult not to go into debt.

In general, if you look at the rules, you will know that the odds of being promoted from the English Championship are owned by two types of teams.

One of them is relegation from the Premier League. Teams have quality above other teams of the lower division, others are teams that suddenly meet with good owners who are willing to spend money to invest, the strength of the team has increased, and the strength of the team has increased, and a reliable coach was added.

Except for these two teams, others were relatively rarely promoted, but many of them were relegated. Teams in the Championship are considered old, and Crystal Palace are one of them for now.

For the first game, Daniel Ward was a little excited. It was also his first appearance in a professional league. This is the first time he has watched a certain level of league in England so closely.

But when he caught a glimpse of Kante in the dressing room shaking a little bit, he was shaking his own head, Daniel wasn't playing on the pitch, so what made him nervous or excited.

"Don't be nervous, just kick it like you do at the training ground!. Be careful, stay focused". Daniel Ward secretly handed the phone to Kante.

Kante looked at her and nodded.

Surprisingly, N'golo Kante got the starting position. Daniel was initially very surprised after learning of Warnock's previous set-up. Kante has only been in the team for more than 1 month, not used to adapting to the new environment. Coach Warnock's decision to make it his starting line-up, left him baffled.

Kante faces a completely foreign league, and the intensity of the team's matches cannot be compared to previous leagues. Daniel Ward initially thought that Kante should play as a substitute first, just like Jamie Vardy. But he was used in the first game.

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Crystal Palace played out a 4-2-3-1 formation, with the following.

Goalkeeper: Julian Speroni.

Back Player : D. Bradfield, P. McCarthy, Ryan Shawcross, N. Clyne

Stroker: R. Smith, S. Derry (c), N'golo Kante, D. Ambrose, N. Dunns

Front: Alan Lee

The lineup is almost all the same as last season, and only two new arrivals were replaced, N'golo Kante and Ryan Shawcross, two new additions to play in the starting line-up.

Crsytal Palace striker Alan Lee is now 30 years old. He played for this team from a few years ago. He played a total of 35 games including substitutes in all competitions. By scoring 13 goals in the league last season, for Palace who did not have the funds to bring in a good striker. This is all good

Warnock doesn't dispute this. He feels Alan is a veteran player. He has been in the English Championship for many years and also played in the Premier League. Without any extra money, Alan is a great choice.

There is no shortage of future players in the current Crystal Palace ranks, N'golo Kante, Jamie Vardy, Victor Moses and others are all in the team, but right now they still need a lot more practice.

For the first game of the new season, Selhurst Park Stadium is full of fans from all over. Every weekend is a carnival day for them at the beginning of the new season. Many family weekends for men, women, and children to support Crystal Palace's unwavering Choices.

Hearing the loud cheers behind him, Daniel Ward's body trembled slightly.

Assistant coach Mick Jones next to him teased, "This is the first time you've watched a live game."

"Haha, get used to it. Maybe you'll enjoy it all." Mick Jones patted Daniel on the shoulder.

Plymouth can be considered as old friends with Crystal Palace, both sides have played against each other during league formation and each team has already experienced a win or loss.

The match between the two sides officially started, Crystal Palace took the lead and launched a fierce attack on Plymouth, Warnock wanted to deal a blow to the opponent, but Plymouth were unwilling to lose.

Crystal Palace had a clearer lead here, creating a few chances, but unfortunately, the problem of not scoring again haunted Palace. In just the first half alone, the team's attackers missed two golden chances of scoring. Neil Warnock frowned a lot on the sidelines.

After halftime, both sides ended 0:0.

While doing analysis and preparation before the game, Daniel said that the strength of Plymouth is actually very decreased compared to last season. The first half also confirmed the analysis he did. Both the attack and the opponent's defense had dropped drastically in the first half.

    

“In the second half we have to increase our attack, this game must be won!” warnock told several members of the assistant coaching staff on the way back to the dressing room.

Daniel was a little worried. He felt Warnock wanted to take advantage of the home game too much. The Crystal Palace players have not done much training together, adapting to new tactics also takes a lot of time.

The impact of the change of tactics coach, Warnock wants his team to play attacking. The momentum is relatively strong, and the defense is arguably stable, of course Kante also meritorious over it.

N'golo Kante was very good defensively in the first half and his stealing ability was also very impressive. Daniel's concerns before the game, that Kante will have trouble adapting to the team. It doesn't seem to be happening, he is performing very well.

Seeing the difficulty of attacking the Palace. As the new assistant coach, Daniel subtly expressed his concern to senior assistant coach Mick Jones.

Mick Jones said. "Daniel, sometimes we have to be able to control our emotions. The game changes quickly, and it is impossible to change tactics at will".

What Mick Jones said was not unreasonable, sudden change was not a good thing. During the break, Warnock arranged for the team to strengthen their attack, and he casually gave the task to everyone.  

After the break, Crystal Palace put more pressure on Plymouth. Plymouth was in a hurry for a while. After missing many chances, Will Lee finally scored for Crystal Palace in the 65th minute. The coach and the others shouted in joy.

If they don't score any more, Crystal Palace may be exhausted and unable to score, the quick pace consuming a lot of physical energy on both sides.     

After all, the goal was scored, and the Crystal Palace fans cheered. Who does not want to make a good start in the first game of the game.

After scoring, Crystal Palace's momentum grew stronger, although the rhythm slowed down a bit, they kept pressing Plymouth, and it was very difficult for the opponent to create good chances. 

Daniel takes notice and notes who is performing well and who is performing poorly. He writes a lot of things in his notebook. He also wrote down any areas that needed to be fixed in a running position and passing the route. He also wrote on the weaknesses of each player, as well as which areas need to be improved again.

After falling behind, the Plymouth coach's response was to send the centre-forward high and keep passing wide crosses until the end.

This trick is still too difficult. Crystal Palace's two centre-backs worked well together. Shawcross and McCarthy both play strong defense, although Shawcroos only joined this season, he could immediately compact with McCarthy.

But as far as this game is concerned, the defense of new player Ryan Shawcross Crystal Palace is very good. The centre-back from Stoke City has contributed a lot to Palace's defence, even if Plymouth make some adjustments, Shawcross with his duet partner McCarthy still gives opponents a hard wall that is hard to break.