Football: The Journey of a Coach

55. Daniel's Difficulties

The match continues between Crsytal Palace as hosts, hosting his guests Tottenham Hotspur at Selhurst Park Stadium in the League Cup first-leg semi-final.

It had been twenty minutes more when the first half match went on, the two teams attacked each other alternately. But Daniel's own feelings are increasingly unclear, as Tottenham Hotspur let Crsytal Palace's players easily control the ball.

In the 25th minute, after a header Peter Crouch failed to put his team ahead in this first half.

Now it's their other striker, Jermaine Defoe. The England striker brought the ball after passing the bar from N'golo Kante, but Defoe's attack was thwarted by Ryan Shawcross who immediately closed the movement of the mainstay striker Tottenham Hotspur.

Daniel who from the beginning of the game always stood on the edge of the field, finally saw what had made his heart not calm.

The Crsytal Palace game has been read by 59-year-old coach Harry Redknapp. By utilizing the distance between the midfield and the attacking line Crsytal Palace, the Tottenham players managed to dampen the attacking power of Palace.

Although Deco was allowed to carry the ball, but the Palace metronome midfielder was in isolation in midfield. So every ball that comes to him, there will be some Tottenham players who will close the Deco pass position, and finally Deco can only go around in circles in midfield.

As it is today, in the 30th minute, after Deco got the ball. He was confused about who to pass on, because it was too far away from him and the striker Crsytal Palace.

" fuckin ". Daniel who sees this can only condemn, it turns out this is the intention of letting Crsytal Palace have the ball at the beginning.

For Tottenham Hotspur to know the position of the pass from Deco, then they can close the pass from him.

Finally Deco who does not have a good position in passing, carry the ball longer. A. Lennon was finally able to steal the ball under his feet, relying on the speed of motion Lennon shot towards the goal Crsytal Palace.

N'golo Kante who followed behind him easily he got rid of, Kante who had only played for a year less, not too experienced in covering the players who rely on his speed.

During this time N'golo Kante only rely on the ability to steal the ball one-on-one, and unlimited stamina he has. That alone has been able to make him a defensive midfielder who is afraid in the championship division, but that ability seems to be nothing when facing the players from Tottenham Hotspur.

With the escape of Lennon, the defense of Crsytal Palace inevitably had to go up to close the hole left by the pass N'golo Kante.

Sean Derry as a player who plays with Kante as a defensive midfielder should be the task this time to stop the opponent, after Kante was passed. But he has gone too far forward to help the isolated Deco in midfield, so this time it was the Palace centre-back who stepped up to put a damper on Tottenham Hotspur's counter-attack.

Ryan Shawcross will again show his prowess in guarding Crsytal Palace's defense, but unfortunately Lennon did not choose to play alone like Defoe when given the opportunity.

Lennon chose to work with Luca Modric who was already in the defense of Crsytal Palace, Deco was far left by him. Their stamina is far from balanced, Deco who has entered the age of 33 years. It is impossible to catch up to Luca Modric who, in his youth, was 22 years old.

So Modric who had the ball with precision sent a breakthrough pass in the gap left by Ryan Shawcross. Defoe this time with his speed, escaped the offside trap created by the defensive line Crsytal Palace.

Jermaine Defoe now faces one-on-one with Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni.

Although Julian Speroni was very good during the first half of the season, he was easily fooled by Defoe. With his right foot, the ball was kicked into the net of the home team.

The England striker managed to make his team one goal ahead of Crsytal Palace, silencing thousands of home fans.

But there's no harm in trying, who knows the Goddess of fortune sided with her.

Daniel riled back to the bench, sat down and asked Joey to give him the tactical system of Crsytal Palace.

Lawrence, who had knowledge of the Gegenpressing tactics used by Daniel, approached the two of them.

" Daniel how is this?. It looks like old man Redknapp managed to cut off the midfield and front line of the team!. " Lawrence said in a slightly panicked voice, this is the first time he has faced a situation like this.

Lawrence, who this year played as a player and assistant coach, although he played more as an assistant coach, because the duo Shawcross and McCarthy were not replaced.

Precisely because of this, Lawrence became devoted a lot of time to learning the tactics called by Daniel Gigant pressing.

He really admired how Daniel created this tactical system, from the time Neil Warnock introduced a new way of playing at the beginning of the season, it was recently discovered that Daniel was the brain behind it all.

This intrigued him greatly, and it was this factor that made him not hesitate to agree when Daniel offered to be assistant coach for him. Even his own wife was shocked to learn that he accepted being an assistant coach, the woman he had been married to for five years knowing full well that he wanted to not come into contact with football again after he retired.

Lawrence, who had no higher education, decided to enter the world of football because at that time being a footballer paid more than just working in factory workers.

Football is not the sport he is most interested in, it is just a job for him. That's why he doesn't want anything to do with the ball after retirement.

***

As Tottenham Hotspur's players celebrated their first goal, the three key men at Crsytal Palace were busy with how to improve the tactical system that Harry Redknapp had read.

" In fact if only Deco ran more open space, this problem would not be too difficult!. " Daniel spoke to both of his assistant coaches.

" What do you mean, Daniel?. " Joey Collins asked, of these two he touches the least in the tactical system.

It is undeniable that he is the least understanding of Crsytal Palace's tactical system, he only entered as an assistant coach due to a request from Daniel himself.

Daniel wants to have someone to trust while coaching Crsytal Palace, and Joey Collins is a good fit for that.

Joey Collins whose job is not as an engineering coach, especially he does not have enough knowledge in the coaching area, of course very confused.

" Well, like this Joey. " Daniel explained to his cousin, pointing to Deco's position.

" If the bait room is closed, Deco just has to move!. And the move required a lot of running, to open up space for him, or to open up space for his team-mates. " Daniel explained why with just more running, the space for Crsytal Palace would be wide open.

" It takes a lot of stamina for that, and Deco who is already 30 years old and above will have a hard time keeping up with the team's high tempo game!. " Lawrance connected with the words of Daniel, he did understand a little how the path of this Gegenpressing.