Football: The Journey of a Coach

32. Diamonds Between Mud

After finishing setting up Joe Allen, Derry walked towards Zaha to show his position.

“Will, this position will be yours from now on!”. Derry looked around while pointing at the position closest to the locker room door and said to Zaha.

"Oh!" Zaha replied in a daze.

"I'll go first. You can find Bob Clark for a practice outfit, he'll take care of it for you. When Julian comes later, he'll take you to meet people. From today, you will be with us Training, understand. " Derry patted both of them on the shoulder.

"Uh, captain. Could it be that Dan... oh, the coach didn't see me today ?." Zaha could not take it anymore, and asked.

"Daniel?. He just asked me to pick you up you guys at the door, and not say anything else." Derry said after he finished speaking, regardless of whether Zaha was satisfied or not he left.

Zaha was a little angry in his heart, what does this mean?. Shouldn't Daniel have said something to me.

Derry returned to the office and explained the situation to Daniel. Daniel just nodded.

After the captain left Joey said, "What if it really doesn't work?."

" It didn't work?. If you can't be trained, then you have to go back to where he came. What kind of trouble is that".

Joe could only sigh, it was hard to play for a professional club. However, ordinary adult teams recruit young team players to the forefront. Having been recruited, does not mean they will definitely gain a foothold in the first team, and it is normal to return.

Returning does not mean these players will be discarded, usually players will be loaned to several clubs in the lower leagues. And if the player is lucky, then bought by that team. Otherwise he could only willingly accept the state of playing in the amateur team.

Joey had heard that the captain of Croydon's team at a young age was a graduate of Arsenal's academy, but because his talent was too small he was discarded and has since played at clubs that wanted him. Until it finally found its way to Croydon FC.

In this way, Joe and Zaha's first-team careers officially began.

Because this morning's training was very sad for Zaha. First of all, as an adult team, the intensity of his training was definitely much greater than that of a junior team. It was hard for Zaha to adapt. He did some tasks poorly.

Unlike Joe Allen who did all the exercises with a serious face, without complaining a single time.

Daniel would not want to wonder, what was in this child. Aged so young but already acting like fathers who have gone through many ordeals.

***

During Zaha's tormented days, on January 9, Crystal Palace went into a league cup away game against Sheffield Wednesday.

Daniel does not care about the team's performance in the League Cup. He only cares if the team can move up to the premier league next season. Therefore, he rested a lot of his main players.

Everyone summed it up and felt that the current league schedule was not too difficult for Crystal Palace, enough to bring down the young players.

So in this match against Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace lowered the formation 4-5-1.

Goalkeeper: D. Glenbuter (GK).

Defense: Lee Hills (LB), C. Davis (CB), A. Winter (CB), N. Stavropol (RB).

Directed by: Jamie Vardy (CF).

Almost all the main players were substituted in this game, Daniel wanted to give a chance and also see the performance of the reserves. Whether they still deserve to play, or have to leave Crsytal Palace on a January transfer.

Using a new centre-back combination, seemingly working well on the training ground, Crystal Palace's defensive line is relatively deep and without Derry. His main focus is on defensive counter-attacks, Daniel feels this is no big deal.

Sheffield Wednesday are also a Championship side, and their strength is relatively weak, now they have played more than half a season in the league and they have just 19 points, the bottom of the table.

Although Sheffield Wednesday play at home, they use a defensive strategy. So at the beginning of the game both teams showed bad and less entertaining games.

The Sheffield coach did not expect that Crsytal Palace would play defensively this time around, he had already learned their game first. Since being coached by young coach Daniel Ward, Crsytal Palace in the last two games prefer to wait. And then a quick counterattack.

Unlike when coached by Neil Warnock who prioritizes possession of the ball, Daniel seems to prefer to wait for the opponent off guard and punish him hard.

But seeing Crsytal Palace now play full defensively, he feels a few days of learning their game will be in vain.

The Crystal Palace defence was solid against Sheffield Wednesday. Although the opponent was seeded, Palace continued to defend and counter-attack, and did not have the ball. His style of play seems too monotonous.

On the weaker side, Daniel knows Crystal Palace naturally lack a strong attacking type player, the usual Crsytal Palace playmaker N. Corle proved unable to keep up with the more prominent position changes.

Then Sean Derry's replacement, Dunns does not have the same quality as the captain.seen in this match, Crsytal Palace lost possession. With Palace holding only 42% inversely with Sheffield Wednesday controlling the ball 58%.

Not counting this game, the level of possession Crystal Palace in the two matches he led reached more and less 55%

Fortunately for Palace, Sheffield who have 58% possession cannot utilize well. The players of the home team like forget to attack, they pass the ball from the middle to the back and then to the middle again.

Calculated in first-half statistics, such as shots, shots on target, including threatening passes. Both teams only fired over ten shots in the first half, 6 shots from Crsytal Palace and 5 shots from Sheffield Wednesday.

In addition to the poor level of possession, Crystal Palace's stats in this match really disappointed Daniel. How not the players like do not know what to do, Vardy who is alone in front looks not to do anything. There was absolutely no bait coming in to him.

In addition to the wingers, more losing the ball than contributing to the team. Always carry the ball with longer, but Daniel has emphasized that must always play one-two with teammates.

So in the second half, there was an improvement after a lot of spit flying from Daniel's mouth.

But unfortunately the quality of the reserve team is only so-so, even with the presence of Kante and Clyne can not lift the performance of the team.

Finally after not taking it anymore, Daniel put Victor Moses in the 70th minute to replace Cadogan on the wing.

Then try a free recruit Joe Allen in the 79th minute replace N'diaye, Daniel then change the formation to 4-3-3 by making Joe Allen as a midfielder controlling the attack.

It could be said Joe Allen's first debut, actually Daniel didn't want to put in too early Joe Allen. But because during training Joe's performance was good, he wanted to try to play him in place of Derry.

And it looks like Daniel's gamble paid off, seeing Joe Allen's measured pass to Vardy finish into a goal. Makes her very happy.

Until the end of the game Crsytal Palace is one goal ahead of the home team and entitled to advance to the next round of the league cup.