Football: The Journey of a Coach

49. League Cup Final Quarter

Portsmouth are not doing well now, in the league their position is scattered in the bottom board. Then there was the scandal about the club owners being involved in money laundering.

Daniel can only hope Portsmouth will field a reserve squad to conserve their energy. To improve the position in the standings.

The Portsmouth team now has the highest priority to participate in the European war, they will be qualified to participate in the Europa League play-offs.

Critics outside of this have long analyzed that Portsmouth may be sending a substitute to play in this league Cup.

Of course, some people say that the League Cup is also an opportunity for Portsmouth, because the current strong teams like, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea have been eliminated, he said, manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

The January transfer market left only a few days, Daniel got bad news from his uncle yesterday. That Phil Neville, his target player. Refusing to play at Crsytal Palace, Daniel now needs to find another player to fill the slot rejected by Phil Neville.

Regardless of whether or not they make rotations in this game, Daniel will definitely not make any major adjustments. The defense has no injuries. Kante came back from injury and Sean Derry was there too. The Crsytal Palace captain was declared cured by a team of doctors, so the team did not lack players.

Ambrose actually wants to leave in the January transfer window. He feels his position in the team has been replaced with the arrival of Wilfred Bony. The problem is Wayne hasn't negotiated a good price yet.

Crsytal Palace could not accept a bid lower than 2 million pounds. Ambrose played well in the first half of the season, and just 25 years old, some teams deliberately lowered prices due to Crystal Palace's current situation, and the team manager refused to admit defeat.

So the player stays like this. After the transfer window left only a matter of days, Daniel spoke to the sullen Ambrose. In fact the difficulty of players looking for other clubs is related to Daniel, Daniel spoke with his uncle to postpone selling ambrose at this time.

Daniel told Ambrose that he would definitely not be able to leave now, so he had better stay and work hard for half a season. It's not too late to leave during the summer window.

Now you can win the attention of many Premier League teams if you perform well. It's definitely not right to waste time, and it's not good for you.

Daniel told the truth, he promised to let Ambrose go during the summer transfer, which made Ambrose positive. He had the chance to come off the bench in a few games one after another, Daniel still needed it to give Wilfred Bony time to adjust.

Zaha is too young and should start slowly as a substitute, Daniel will not sacrifice Zaha. So only Ambrose would be a sacrifice for Wilfred Bony.

Whether Daniel felt guilty about using Ambrose, of course he would feel guilty. But during his time as coach, Daniel realized that caring was trivial. He will do anything to make his dream come true.

***

William Carlton was rather excited to see Daniel's results. With the rise of the name Crsytal Palace, this old man would often be found watching team games.

Carlton also did not miss the opportunity to see his team play in the quarter-finals of this league cup, when interviewed local news.

“Seeing the current situation of the team, I feel my hard work is not in vain!” First of all, I have to show my appreciation.

Of course, there was something else that was enough to make him happy. Recently, Simon Jordan finally agreed with the price of the new owner. Crsytal Palace will have a new owner.

For the game against Portsmouth, he specifically invited Wayne Collins to watch the game with him. The Palace caretaker manager is doing a good job at the moment.

 Under the stands, players from both sides had lined up and the game was about to begin.

Now when the name of the Portsmouth player was announced, they were booed the most loudly by Crystal Palace fans.

The Portsmouth head coach really made some rotations in this game, the dream of a league Cup does have to be there, but it should not be overdone, as the league position is still more important.

Soon the match between the two sides started, Portsmouth played very English style. They used to use a 4-4-2 formation with a high-speed double-attacker up front.

In his analysis and tactical research before the game, Daniel found it impossible to say that the opposing team played more than he admired. When a team is strong, its strength is not so great.

But knowing the characteristics of the opponent, the full pressing strategy formulated by Crystal Palace is not necessarily effective, the key depends on the performance of the players. With the inclusion of Deco in the team, Daniel inevitably slightly changed the tactics of the team. Because of Deco's old stamina, it won't be able to run continuously for ninety minutes.

Crystal Palace's centre-back partners are still the same, with McCarthy and Shawcross set to fight against the Portsmouth forward, who is more than 30 years old, relying on his body to play and is still very strong.

The game starts, the rhythm of the opponent is very fast, they plan to attack with waves, long passes to the left and right more, and the opposing central midfielder often supports the wing.

The Crystal Palace defence struggled hard, and the attackers often struggled for the first point, but their follow-up on the second point was not very good, and they will always be one step ahead of the Crystal Palace midfielder.

After more than ten minutes in this way, Crystal Palace had almost no trouble getting a solid footing in midfield.

Daniel stood on the sidelines, knowing his side were being pressured by Portsmouth, and kept shouting to remind his players.

After that, the game entered a dead end. Crystal Palace are basically adapting to the rhythm of the opponent's attack, and there are fewer and fewer gaps in the defence.

Daniel really wanted to praise Kante and Derry. Crsytal Palace's two defensive midfielders are very diligent to help the team's defense, fortunately Daniel can keep Kante from the target of other clubs.

In just half a season, the combination of the two has been very complete. shoulder to shoulder limit Portsmouth attacks, opponents as if hit the wall when passing through midfield.

From the start of the game until now, Daniel was worried about the middle side, with Deco going to help defend a bit. But the midfield performed very well, working together to limit opponents steadily.