Football: The Journey of a Coach

38. Newcastle United

17 January

  Three days passed after Crsytal Palace beat Aston Villa in the league cup, now the championship game will bring the leaders of Newcastle United against Crsytal Palace.

After N'golo Kante was injured by a team of doctors, Daniel, Joey, and Lawrence held a strategy meeting to overcome Kante's loss against Newcastle.

In the storm of problems that befell Crsytal Palace, Wayne Collins brings good news about the transfer of players Daniel targets.

Chelsea have finally agreed a loan deal for their star midfielder, Deco. With the option Crsytal Palace will help pay the salary of the Portuguese player, after the two teams negotiate. Wayne agreed to the terms as Crsytal Palace paid only half of Deco's salary.

Deco, who has also decided to leave Chelsea next season, feels it never hurts to play at Crsytal Palace half-season. Wayne confirmed Deco will play at Selhurst Park after the Newcastle game.

Crsytal Palace's transfer staff have also contacted Daniel's other target player, 21-year-old Ivorian Wilfred Bony.

Daniel feels Wilfred Bony will fit the formation of his three strikers, Bony is considered to be suitable to replace Victor Moses. And Crsytal Palace has made a bid of 1.3 million pounds to bring him to Crsytal Palace.

In addition to the two players above, Crsytal Palace also approached the former Manchester United player who now plays for Everton, Phil Neville. After selling Victor Moses to Everton, Daniel hopes to bring in an experienced right-back to help Nathan Clyne on the right side of the Team's defence.

Not only the three of them, Daniel also wants to increase the thickness of the central defender by buying Sol Bamba. The 23-year-old was brought in from the Dutch second division league club, with 500,000 thousand Pounds.

Bamba is also predicted to play after against Newcastle United, because the documents and permits are not complete.

With new players who have not been able to play for this match, Daniel can only rely on existing players.

Putting all his thoughts aside, Daniel exited the Newcastle away dressing room, and headed out onto the pitch to shake hands with the home side's coach.

" Hello Daniel!, your team recently won against a team playing in the premier league, very impressive!". Chris Hughton is waiting for Daniel at the entrance.

 " Thank you, Mr. Hughton. " Daniel said with a smile, "We were just lucky, but your team now has a chance to promote. I'm sure every fan will appreciate everything you've done at Newcastle!. "

Daniel shrewdly returned praise from Newcastle United's main coach, knowing that being too complacent with praise was not good for the team and himself.

“ Haha, then let's have a drink together after this match. " Chris Hughton invites Daniel to chat and drink, something like this is very common in England. So Daniel had no reason to refuse, he could also take advantage of this situation to forge connections.

“ An honor. ” Daniel agrees with a faint smile on his mouth.

" But this game, Newcastle are not going to play easy, this is our home pitch" continued Chris Hughton, he was also curious about this young coach.

" I believe that the Palace players don't intend to give up, you should know that as leaders, many expect Newcastle to fall. We are no exception!. " Daniel always speaks politely, not least for Chris Hughton.

" Good luck then!. " Chris Hughton took his hand off.

“ I'm sure we will present an amazing game for Newcastle. ” Daniel responds casually.

Chris Hughton is now fifty years old, but as far as being a head coach, he only started coaching last season.

Crystal Palace's line-up didn't surprise many, only Kante was injured in exchange for Nick Corle.

Goalkeeper: Speroni

Defender: Nathan Clyne, Ryan Shawcross, Patrick McCarthy, Darren Butterfield.

By Sean Derry (C), A. N'diaye, Joe Allen

Attacks: Wilfred Zaha, Alan Lee, Jamie Vardy

Daniel replaced Ambrose with Wilfred Zaha, he wanted to see if Zaha had improved a lot.

 Two high central attackers ahead of Ameobi and Carroll partnered, Andy Carroll was once in Daniel's sights at the start of the season. But Daniel, who knows Crsytal Palace do not have much money, must swallow back his desire to bring Andy Carroll.

Their midfielders are Alex Gutierrez, Chris Button, Jordan Nolan, and Alan Smith. Four of them will ensure Newcastle have the ball in the middle.

Then there is the defensive line is Steven Taylor, Bruno Enrique, Ryan Taylor, Coloccini.

The goalkeeper for Newcastle is veteran Steve Harper .

The name of Newcastle's starting lineup was broadcast on the radio, and fans cheered, but the Crystal Palace players naturally received loud boos. This was not the first time that everyone enjoyed such treatment, so it did not matter.

The referee blew the whistle and the match officially started, in the absence of Kante, Palace's midline will need a bit of time for N'diaye to adjust to the team.

It was Daniel who feared Newcastle would rush to attack once they had the ball, but luckily Chris Hughton was very careful and did not rush to attack, but slowly finished their rhythm first.

Obviously Chris Hughton is also worried about Crystal Palace's sharp counter-attack and strong midfield interception capabilities.

Newcastle, who had two tall centre-forwards, decided to play on the wing. They want to exploit the weakness of young Nathan Clyne to supply the ball into the middle.

For the routine of the opponent, Daniel is also very aware of it, and does the setting as much as possible. The focus today was to limit the pressure from the two opposing full-backs.

Newcastle were also patient, after five minutes of the game, they did not finish a single shot and played slowly.

Daniel can see from their behaviour that this is a team with a stable mentality. To be honest, he was afraid of such a team, Crystal Palace did put on a defensive posture and hoped the opponent would attack them vigorously.

But Newcastle will not follow the rhythm of Crsytal Palace, they play to their own rhythm. With many passing the ball in the central area, provoked the Palace players to come out.

" Concentrate!. Concentrate!. " Daniel kept shouting from the sidelines, directing the run and positioning of the players.

Even if the players on the pitch can't hear it, at least they can understand the general meaning of Daniel and Lawrence's movements around the bench.

In the 10th minute, Zaha failed to return to defence in time, and Taylor finally got a chance to cross. Andy Carroll headed home in the middle, and Julian Speroni saved the ball over the crossbar with all his effort.

The fans exclaimed repeatedly, and Daniel expressed his dissatisfaction with the harsh curse, this ball is to blame entirely to Zaha.

Under the current Crystal Palace system, the winger's task is very heavy, not only having to participate in attack, but also having to have a positive defensive attitude. Especially in this situation where the opponent had already pressed more than half the field. What are you doing, why don't you go back to defense?.

Newcastle's corner again threatened Crystal Palace's goal, a header initially a Crystal Palace weak spot. But with the inclusion of Shawcross, the top area of the team's defence is a little bit better.

Seemingly finding trouble on the left side of the Palace defence, Newcastle gradually focused their attack on the left side, which was under a lot of pressure.

Zaha had always been inactive in defending, and Daniel still could not guess his intentions fully. The boy let the defense guarded by Butterfield in a factory by Newcastle.

In the 15th minute, after Joe Allen managed to do a steal, he sent a long pass to the wings Crsytal Palace. However, it was a pity that the quality of the pass was not very good, and Zaha failed to catch him, wasting the chance.

Daniel waved his hand excitedly, hoping that Zaha would be closer to the middle area. So he can form a small triangular pass with Joe Allen and Derry, making it easier to work together.

“Damn it, this kid is so stubborn!. " Seeing that Zaha hasn't changed much, Daniel inevitably condemns his attitude on the sidelines.

Half an hour into the game, Newcastle's patience was running low, they only completed four shots, and their players were not expecting Crystal Palace's strength and versatility in defence.

Under Daniel's control he wants Crystal Palace's left-hand side to be assisted by Sean Derry's defence, which led to the opponent being again restricted this time around.

Chris Hughton was quick to issue an order to strengthen the long-range shot in the middle. As a result, the idea brought danger to Newcastle. In less than ten minutes, Crystal Palace had several chances to counterattack.