Football: I can see player entries.

Chapter 338 1 A mess

The next few days were pure torture for Li Yanqing.

He used to supervise training regularly, but since Neville came along, he's been slacking off.

They focused all their energy on tactics.

Now that I'm starting over, I realize that Neville has updated the training version many times.

Fortunately, Li Yanqing learned quickly, since these were all things he and Nawei had devised together, so there hadn't been any problems in the past few days.

January 10th, FA Cup third round.

Burton will play Crystal Palace away from home.

As planned, Li Yanqing arranged for Deulofeu to play in the match.

Also appearing on the field were new signing Captum and a number of substitutes, including Karius.

Before the match began, Li Yanqing instructed Quinn to focus their attacks on the right flank, where Deulofeu was located.

Firstly, to see his condition, and secondly, to test whether the short passing tactic along the central axis can be integrated into the team.

After all, these are two completely contradictory tactics, and it seems that no one has tried this before.

The result was exactly as Li Yanqing had predicted.

It's a mess.

This applies to both Deulofeu's performance and the tactical experiments.

Let's talk about Deulofeu's performance first.

Ibrahimovic is indeed infectious, but that doesn't directly improve his condition.

It simply changed from "extremely poor" to "poor".

The biggest problem is that his fear of making movements hasn't changed.

In the seventeenth minute of the match, there was a very good one-on-one opportunity.

Deulofeu sprinted forward, dribbling the ball all the way to the vicinity of the penalty area, preparing to shoot directly.

So far, there haven't been any problems. It's understandable that he didn't try to get past goalkeeper Li Yanqing, since he hasn't done so before.

But just then, an opposing defender rushed over to tackle him, but Deulofeu simply pulled his foot back!

Seeing this scene made Li Yanqing want to curse.

Even if you're afraid of getting hurt, you can still perform a diving show while standing on the ball!

What's the point of simply handing the ball to the opponent?

Then, around the 30-minute mark, Deulofeu, while defending, failed to position himself properly and allowed the opponent to pass.

He was at least three body lengths ahead of his opponent!

And given that he's also good at speed, why did he just let the person pass?

Li Yanqing could no longer understand how afraid he was of getting injured during the competition.

This is the Premier League, we can't just avoid physical contact altogether, can we?

"Coach, it won't be easy to help him get back into form."

"As far as I know, he already had very few opportunities to play when he was at Watford."

Bale stood next to Li Yanqing. Since he wasn't playing, he was bored sitting there, so he simply pretended to be a half-coach.

"The situation is indeed more serious than I imagined."

"But in any case, I have made some progress compared to when I first joined the club."

"Back then, Bradford could defend against him."

"At least we can still get a one-on-one chance now."

Li Yanqing offered a forced explanation, as he didn't want Bell to lack confidence in himself either.

Only Bradford, standing on the other side of the field, looked at his manager with a puzzled expression.

Then there's the team's performance.

It's actually quite normal, considering that most of them are substitute players.

However, the problem was that Deulofeu's attack was almost completely paralyzed, preventing Burton from scoring a single goal.

As for the back line, Araujo and Kaptum both performed reasonably well, but their passing between them clearly disrupted the team's attacking rhythm.

They always pass the ball when they shouldn't, and then suddenly launch a long ball when they should.

This resulted in them failing to mount any threatening attacks throughout the entire match.

Despite the other players' active defense, it still didn't make much of an impact.

With hardly any threatening attacks, conceding a goal was only a matter of time.

In the second half, they conceded two goals to their opponents, ending their FA Cup journey.

The defending champions fell in the third round...

Li Yanqing had anticipated that he might not win this match, but he didn't expect to lose so badly.

But he didn't blame the players.

He's the head coach; if he uses these tactics and they lose, it's his responsibility.

Besides, the FA Cup was something they were going to give up anyway.

But the problem is, now that we're not playing in the FA Cup, will Deulofeu be overused if we let him play more league matches?

They're still trailing Manchester City by several points...

"Boss, it's my problem."

"I'm still in really bad shape."

Deulofeu is not at all shy about admitting his mistakes, showing none of the airs of a genius player.

Also, he started calling Li Yanqing "boss".

"It's okay, we lost, we lost." Li Yanqing shook his head. Winning or losing this match didn't matter, but the problems it exposed were quite serious.

"It's my fault; I should have made adjustments in time."

"I am the core when we are on offense."

Quinn suddenly stood in front of Deulofeu.

Firstly, as the team leader, he has a responsibility to take care of his teammates.

Secondly, he did have some understanding of Li Yanqing.

Usually, when this head coach truly realizes the problem, he's the one who pretends to be calm.

"Okay, you have a point."

"As punishment, you two will have to practice extra every night for the next three days."

"I will accompany you personally."

Li Yanqing suddenly nodded and looked at Quinn.

This kid's teamwork with him is getting better and better, and he even knows to step up and take the blame for him.

It was as if this extra training session wasn't his decision.

Quinn wanted to take the punishment himself...

Deulofeu, on the other hand, was momentarily stunned. What happened? He suddenly found himself getting extra training?

So you don't always politely refuse!

In the evening, after the team disbanded.

Li Yanqing stayed on the training field with Quinn and Deulofeu.

Ibrahimovic also stayed behind. To be honest, he didn't like Deulofeu, thinking the kid was too cowardly.

But he still needs to be present for the evening training.

"DeLo, you need to understand that the reason we're all working overtime here right now is because of you."

“Me, Quinn, Zlatan.”

Previously, when there were many people, Li Yanqing still considered Deulofeu's face.

After all, people who lack self-confidence are prone to breakdowns.

But now there are hardly any people around, and he doesn't hold back when he speaks.

“Yes, I understand.” Deulofeu nodded.

"Now we're going to do a special training exercise, and you'll be the one to go past the two of them."

"Keep trying to get past them. If they can't, I'll have them knock you down once."

"Huh?" The training method was fine, but the punishment left Deulofeu somewhat bewildered.

Why did you knock him down?

"Aren't you afraid of getting hurt?"

"What we need to do now is help you rediscover that feeling."

"The feeling of pain."

"So the choice is yours: either they knock you down, or you get past them..."