Football: The Journey of a Coach

37. New Problem

" Prit, pritttt, prittttttt "Sounds of the whistle of the referee being blown, signifying the end of the match.

Crsytal Palace surprisingly won the game against Aston Villa in the league cup, and was entitled to advance to the quarter-finals to fight the already qualified Blackburn Rovers.

With two goals scored by Jamie Vardy, who could only get one goal from the home side, Crsytal Palace won the game 1-2.

With the disappointment of the Aston Villa fans, Crsytal Palace players walked out of the Villa Park stadium with a smile after going through this difficult match.

After looking at how the Palace players against Villa earlier, on the way back to the city of Croydon. Daniel and the coaching staff, Joey Collins and Matthew Lawrence gathered together in the back corner of the team bus. The three of them are busy preparing for the championship game against the leaders of the standings, Newcastle United.

After returning to Croydon, the team began training as usual the next day. A sense of relief and pleasure became the theme at Palace after the team qualified for the quarter-finals of the league cup.

However, amidst the excitement there was one person in the crowd who looked slightly out of place, clearly visible from an annoyed face and furrowed brows.

Needless to say, of course it was Wilfried Zaha. It had been 20 days since he had come to the team, and there had never been a day when he had not been scolded by head coach Wen Sheng, so the arrogant young man was like a bird buried now, pretending to be a grandson on the surface, but scolding the eighteen generations of Wen Sheng's ancestor in his heart.

After Zaha came into the team, Crsytal Palace had already played two games in all competitions, and unlike Joe Allen, he did not get a minute's playing time on the pitch.

He was so envious of Joe Allen who had already made his debut in the team, they both joined the first team together.

As a graduate of Crsytal Palace's youth academy, Zaha should have earned the distinction of being the Joe Allen of another academy.

During this period of time, Daniel actually observed Wilfred Zaha, within weeks Zaha had actually made a decent progress. From being unable to keep up with the rhythm of the team's training, he gradually adapted. Zaha also worked extra hard to complete each training session.

There was nothing to say about his training. However, there were some things that Zaha still had not changed much. During group games or tactical drills, Zaha still carries too much of the ball under his feet.

After being reprimanded several times, Zaha still consciously or unconsciously played by himself. After much deliberation, Daniel could only hold Zaha back for a while and let him adjust slowly.

***

After returning from the game against Aston Villa, Daniel did not go home immediately yesterday. He decided to meet Wayne Collins, interim manager of Crsytal Palace.

They discussed the January transfer issue, Daniel also gave the names of the players to be sold. Like Nick Corle, then young striker Fried Sears, and two seasoned defenders Hills and Davis.

Then Daniel also said the names of the players Crsytal Palace will bring to replace those on the list, and there is one interesting name among the players Daniel wants, Daniel said, chelsea midfielder Deco.

Wayne Collins is no stranger to the name of Deco, a midfielder who has won two Champions Leagues at two clubs, Porto and Barcelona. It is a very famous name among football fans all over the world.

And Daniel knows that after this season is over, Deco will sadly leave Chelsea to play for the Turkish club. So he felt there was no harm in trying to bring Deco to play at Selhurst Park.

Crsytal Palace could borrow Deco half a season from Chelsea, Daniel proposes to his uncle to cover fifty percent of Deco's salary at Chelsea.

His uncle just nodded and said he would try as hard as possible to bring Deco to Crsytal Palace, Wayne would also start negotiating with other Daniel players.

After a late-night discussion with his uncle, a relieved Daniel went home for a break, his body and mind were tired of feeling the pressure against Aston Villa.

The next day, Lawrance who was assigned by Daniel slowly started the morning exercise, while Daniel himself, in his office drank coffee casually, while putting his hands in his pockets to keep warm. Joey Collins has prepared video material to evaluate Newcastle's performance in recent matches.

" Daniel, there's a player whose leg is sprained. " Lawrence who said frantically cut through Daniel's quiet time.

“ Who?. " Daniel stood up from the chair and immediately asked. It was truly terrifying, the current Crystal Palace was completely unable to afford to lack a single player.

" N'golo Kante's ".

" Damn it! ". Daniel could not hold his curse, Kante was a vital part of Crsytal Palace's defence. He can't imagine a team playing against Newcastle without him.

“ What happened? ”. Daniel sees the Palace doctors treating Kante from his office window, some players gathered to watch, but Derry yelled at them to keep training.

Lawrance recounts the events as the two of them walk towards the treated Kante, Kante suddenly falls in pain without anyone touching him. And said the doctor's own team, Kante too forced his young body during this time. Her 19-year-old body could not withstand the heavy workload.

Finally Daniel remembered that N'golo had played since the beginning of the season his arrival to Crsytal Palace, because his good performance during the match Daniel forgot that the player who lived in this house was not even 20 years old.

Kante has played at Palace twenty more games in all competitions, the absolute mainstay of the defensive midfielder's coach, from Neil Warnock to Daniel now.

But fortunately after Daniel had a discussion with the team of doctors, Kante suffered only a slight sprained leg, and was able to compete again after a full week of rest.

After confirming Kante's situation and instructing the team of doctors to take good care of him, Daniel Now thinks how the team can play without a mainstay defensive midfielder.

Putting aside the injury from N'golo Kante, the team currently has 23 players, including young players recruited from the training academy, Joe Allen and Wilfred Zaha.

“ Daniel, what should we do now?”. Lawrence asked Daniel.