Football: The Journey of a Coach

36. The Differentiator

The second half against Aston Villa began with a long whistle of the referee, the home team began to break through the Crsytal Palace defence from the start of the match.

Sean Derry and N'golo Kante, who were installed as Joe Allen's aides in midfield, are now forced to play more into defense.

Aston Villa began by locking the players Crsytal Palace, in the early 49th minute, the central midfielder Villa utilize the ball possession by sending the ball through the side of the field, the, with both Winger Villa crossing to the penalty area. But unfortunately their central striker, Emile Heskey missed the opportunity by heading the ball away from the goal area.

In the 53rd minute, Aston Villa again won the midfield battle with midfielder Crsytal Palace. Pressing from the right side, sending a measured pass to Agbonlahor, it was close to breaking Julian Speroni's goal if he did not jealously block the effort of the Aston Villa striker.

The Villa midfielders are pressing two young Palace players, capitalising on a lack of experience as well as a body age that has yet to reach its peak, although Joe Allen and N'golo Kante have great talent, it's too early for both of them to prop up Palace's midfield. And Sean Derry, alone, really can't do much.

Aston Villa pressed in the area guarded by Nathan Clyne, Martin O'Neill seems to have known the weakness of the Crsytal Palace defense.

Although Aston Villa pressed Crsytal Palace from the beginning of the match, the home team still could not break the goal controlled by Julian Speroni. It looks like Aston Villa also have their own problems, such as the dullness of their attacking line. Many times the attack from the top ball failed at conversion into a goal by Emile Heskey, the Central Striker from Villa.

Daniel saw his side in all-out press by Aston Villa glancing at the line-up of substitutes he brought to Villa Park, there were seven players sitting on the bench Crsytal Palace.

Start with D. Flahavan, a 30-year-old goalkeeper, was brought in by Neil Warnock for free from Birmingham City. Flahavan has only played 7 times during this half of the season, as a result of Speroni staying consistent.

In defense, Daniel brought C. Davis was a 30-year-old defender, then a left-back from Warnock's promotion at the start of the 19-year-old Lee Hills season. Due to the match ban card after being exposed to red card C. Hill was not brought in, and Lawrance, who is also a centre-back, is still busy directing the players on the pitch. Looking at the strength of Crsytal Palace's defensive line this season, made one of his left eyes throb Pain.

Then the position of the midfielder, there are three players brought Daniel this time. A 19-year-old defensive midfielder N'diaye was plotted by Daniel as a replacement for Kante, following Morgan Schneiderlin's departure to Hull City, only N'diaye was in the defensive midfield position. Seeing the strength of the Palace midfielder now, Daniel began to feel regret agreeing to Warnock's request to borrow Schneiderlin.

Next up is 22-year-old Rockin Smith, substitute wing midfielder Ambrose. Take Daniel as a precaution if there is a problem in the Palace midfield.

The last player to be sold on January transfer was Nick Corle. The Australian playmaker failed to impress Daniel, and because he is still 27 years old, Corle's market price is still at 1-2 million pounds. Enough to add funds Daniel overhauled the squad on this transfer.

Daniel's attacker only brought in promotional players under Warnock, 19-year-old young striker Fried Sears. Judging from the early statistics of the season, under Warnock Sears is already playing as a replacement for Alan Lee. Equally top type striker, Sears' strength in keeping the ball is still far from Alan Lee, as well as his speed Vardy twice as fast as him.

So Daniel did not hesitate to put him on the bench to give Vardy more playing time, and with two goals in two games that Vardy scored, Sears could only obediently sit on the bench.

Hmm, it looks like I can get some more funding from Sears, if it sells him in this January transfer.I thought Daniel while rubbing a small beard that started to grow on his chin.

Fried Sears, who was previously tipped to replace Alan Lee by Crsytal Palace fans, and has scored 3 goals as a substitute, seems to have a selling value of around 2-3 million pounds.

With Jamie Vardy and Alan Lee already in place, Daniel only needs to add a speed-type striker to complement the three attackers' scheme in his system.

Drowning in his mind, The match time had already run sixty minutes.

Aston Villa are still unable to penetrate the Crsytal Palace defence, Palace's players are already down in the half-court, even Alan Lee dropped away from his post to help the team's defence.

At Daniel's behest, Crsytal Palace's defence has been completely defensive, better known as the bus defence by the football world.

So does Sean Derry, the current Crsytal Palace captain so tormented against the strength of the Aston Villa central midfielder, led by young midfielder England hope James Milner, is, Derry now feels what the strength of the premier league team is.

Lost already confidence at the time of convincing Daniel not to give up in the League Cup, the sense of laughter disappeared along with the swift sweat that flowed from a man who was the same age as the coach.

But despite facing a lot of pressure, Derry never once slowed down his legs, running to and fro closed the space left by Kante who helped Clyne's defense. For this alone he has earned the respect in Daniel's heart, a player like this is what he needs now.

The crazy player who never knew the word tired, continued to run on the field as strong as his body was still possible.

Matthew Lawrence and Joey Collins, two Palace assistant coaches, stood on the sidelines shouting at the players to be focused and not to relax the defence.

In the 72nd minute, Aston Villa got a golden opportunity for the first time. After James Milner escaped the tight guard of N'golo Kante, the England midfielder showed his superiority by sending a breakthrough pass into the middle of the Palace area, the pass that tore through the visitors' defense was smoothly received by Agbonlahor who escaped the offside trap, due to butterfield who was late up with his partner.

Agbonlahor, who faced one-on-one with Speroni, shot with the inside foot to the right of Crsytal Palace's goal. But unfortunately, his shot slightly deviated because it was touched by the hands of experienced goalkeeper Julian Speroni.

The Aston Villa striker, who failed to put the ball into the net, only looked up at the blue sky above Villa Park, regretting his failure to put his side ahead of Crsytal Palace.

After one failed gold attack, Aston Villa's attacks grew sporadic. One by one the home team's chances were successfully countered by Crsytal Palace's defense, in this second half Villa really controlled the course of the game.

With 14 shots released by Aston Villa players, inversely proportional to the visitors who were only able to make 3 shots during the course of the match.

As time neared the end of the game, Villa's players began to be anxious and frustrated at not being able to score against Crsytal Palace.

Martin O'Neill has also tried various ways, including the barren Heskey Horting Emile with other players, but still the Palace's steel defense is impenetrable.

Crsytal Palace players who since the beginning of the second half were forced to defend by Aston Villa, saw there was a gap left by opposing defenders who helped attack his team. They seem to have forgotten what happened in the first half.

So in the 88th minute, Shawcross who broke the ball attack over Villa with a header, aimed the ball at Sean Derry's feet. The captain who had run out of stamina only gave a short pass to Joe Allen, who was not expected by him was the young midfielder Palace was suddenly kicking the ball into the empty area of the opponent.

As Derry was about to scold this young midfielder who wasted Crsytal Palace's chance to attack, hearing the crowd's shocked voice, he looked again at the empty area where Joe Allen threw the ball away.

Turns out he was an area that he thought was empty there was a player mersey Palace passed quickly, Derry briefly see the name on the back of his jersey that reads Jamie Vardy.

Joe Allen apparently saw Vardy running from behind towards the empty area of Aston Villa, sending a measured pass towards him. Derry really didn't know how he could see running from Vardy far behind, was this what talent meant, something he didn't have?.

The captain only saw Jamie Vardy outwit the Aston Villa goalkeeper, and put the ball into the empty net. As the entire stadium was made silent Vardy's goal, and his teammates chased the mad striker who was running around with his arms outstretched celebrating his goal, Sean Derry could only laugh to himself in the middle of the field while combing his wet hair back.

" Crazy, this is really crazy. Haha " . Laughter from the captain, heard loudly in the Villa Park stadium.