Football: The Journey of a Coach
52. Reading FC
At 7pm on 31 January, some of the twenty-second round matches of the English Championship began. Crystal Palace delivered Reading, who are deep in the relegation circle, at home.
Crsytal Palace now have 50 points, and they are just 2 points clear of third-placed Cardiff City. If Palace want to go up, a team like Reading will have to step on it.
After today's game, if Crsytal Palace can beat Reading. Their position will rise to third place, due to being detained added Cardiff City by Nottingham Forest.
In this match Daniel was forced to make a massive rotation in the team. Eight players were replaced on the field. Alan Lee, Deco, Shawcross, Nathan Clyne and others sat on the bench. The young players took the lead, and Derry as captain was very worried about the young players, who had already entered the rotation plan, volunteered and continued to stay on the pitch.
The only thing that convinced him was that Reading's opponents had played many matches similar to their schedule, which was not necessarily better than his own team.
The first-half result surprised Daniel, and he was very relieved, as the Crystal Palace youngsters played a warm counter-attack, 3:0, it was a score that was enough to make Crystal Palace fans splash.
Who would have thought this group of young people were really newborn calves who were not afraid of tigers, and the backlash made Reading almost helpless.
It is not surprising that unreasonable Reading has such an embarrassing situation.
Just half a year ago, in the summer of 2009, young head coach Brendan Rodgers took over a chaotic Reading after Koppel left.
At the age of 35, Rodgers became the youngest head coach in the English Championship, before that record was broken by Daniel who coached at the age of 31. But half a year later he led Reading into a deep relegation loop, and he was also dismissed by the club. Today, their acting head coach Bruce is fighting Daniel.
Rodgers was heavily influenced by the thinking of Spanish football and Dutch football, and he preferred to control the ball.What kind of team is Reading?.
Back then, English League Championship side Reading relied on his body, and his style was tough and tenacious. The previous coaching staff always had this style before retiring.
After Rodgers took over, it felt like the team went through a big transformation, of course Daniel knows that Rodgers is a very good coach in the future. But right now he was still too inexperienced, wanting the team to overhaul their style was not as easy as saying it.
He led a group of "big bosses" Reading to play a more technical style, of course it would not work. Brendan Rodgers is experiencing a rebellion from his own players.
As we all know, Brendan Rodgers was sacked after half a season in charge of Reading. Although the result was not bad-bad very at the time he was fired, Reading entrenched at the fifteenth level.
The results were pretty good for the team that made the transition, but the club management decided to side with the player.
Substitute coach Bruce McDermott today has reversed Rogers' tactical thinking and returned to the old ways. Reading has been going through a period of chaos, but recently it has exploded with a lot of energy. He has won three consecutive victories in the English Championship.
It is unfortunate that McDermott thinks too much of himself and wants to bully physically weak Crystal Palace with the prestige of three straight wins, in the end he ignored his head and fell to the ground before he defeated the Crystal Palace subconsciously.
Zaha scored his first career goal, a player of his name, Wilfred Bony scored two, and the first half was unimaginably smooth.
In the second half, Wen Sheng sat casually on the coach bench for the first time.
In the 60th minute, Reading capitalised on a mistake in Crystal Palace's defence and scored, and the score was 3:1.
Fortunately, they basically stabilized their position and kept the score 3-1 until the end of the game.
When the referee's whistle sounded, Daniel shook hands with McDermott after the game.
" Reading is a tough opponent, Mr. McDermott!. " Daniel uttered the usual pleasantries.
"No, I made a mistake! You are doing better!" McDermott admitted generously, and the two said goodbye. They agreed to drink together after the game.
In a post-match interview, McDermott said that his team underestimated the opponent and paid a heavy price. Reading will again reflect on their defeat and study again.
As for Daniel, he just praised his players for doing their best. And the results do not disappoint them, in the future Crsytal Palace will be more concentrated and not faltering when the team is nearing the end of the competition.
With today's win, Crsytal Palace moved up to third in the Championship standings, overtaking Cardiff City's previous draw against Nottingham Forest.
With only a five-point difference to Newcastle United, Daniel was interviewed whether Crsytal Palace would be eyeing the first warning.
" All that there is a time, as we continue to do our best and never give up. We believe Palace will get results in line with our expectations. " Daniel seamlessly replied, he didn't want the players to fumble and lose concentration in the crucial moments of the competition.
***
After the end of the day, the end of January is over. And tomorrow will be a new month, February.
This also marks the end of the January Transfer Exchange, Daniel feels he has done well in the transfer market this time.
With the arrival of four new players, from Wilfred Bony, Deco, Sol Bamba and Michel Salgado. These players feel they have been able to help Crsytal Palace for promotion next season.
And there are also players who left Crsytal Palace, from Nick Corle and Dunns, Davis and Hills.
With four out and four in, it's already a good result.
Then there was the situation of the new owner of Crsytal Palace, Simon Jordan finally agreed to sell it to a local conglomerate. With a price of 110 million pounds, it is in accordance with the market price of the Palace.
Daniel hopes the new owner will not intervene in the near future, he does not believe the new owner will not adjust the team according to his taste.
Why buy a team, spend big money just for fun. Daniel knew only one such owner, Roman Abramovich.
And for the new owner of Crsytal Palace, Daniel still does not know what his motives are. Is looking to make money from the club, like the American owner. Or want to look for a name like AC Milan owner Berlusconi.
But for now Daniel doesn't want to think too much about it, he will concentrate fully on Crsytal Palace.
