Chapter 88 - Chapter 89 Preserve strength

People in the Walthamsto area are excited for Leiden Oriental to defeat his arch-rival West Ham United two goals at home. Leiden Oriental's good results this season have already made Leiden Oriental fans ecstatic, and this game has defeated opponents that have not been defeated in decades. In fact, Leiden Oriental has only encountered West Ham United five times in thirty years. On the day of the game, Leiden Oriental fans held a grand celebration near Brisbane Road Stadium, just like when they won the Qualification Cup and the English C championship last season.

At this time, Leiden East did not celebrate. After the players all went back to rest, Xiao Ming called all the coaches to the club's conference room.

The projection screen in the conference room was playing today's game scene. Xiao Ming didn't say anything at first, but just asked the coaches to watch today's game video. When the last shot disappeared from the screen, Xiao Ming began to speak.

"What do you think is the difference between the first and second half of today's game?"

After a while of silence, McDonald took the lead in speaking: "We performed better in the second half, much better than in the first half."

The coaches nodded one after another. Although Leiden East scored two goals in the first and second half respectively, in the first half, except for that goal, Leiden East was controlled by the opponent, and in the second half, Leiden East was the one who controlled the situation most of the time.

"We won this game today." Xiao Ming nodded and said: "Although West Ham United is a Premier League team, in their starting lineup today, except for two strikers and goalkeepers, the rest are substitutes and young players. Although we are only English League Two teams, everyone here often watches Premier League games. Most of our main lineup's personal abilities have the ability to gain a foothold in the Premier League, and although they are not particularly tacit understanding, it is enough for a team. According to my estimate, even if Leiden Oriental is now allowed to play in the Premier League, at least it will not be a problem to relegate in the Premier League - do you agree or not to agree with my judgment?"

All the professional coaches present are professional coaches. Although they are only playing in the League Two now, as a coach, they still have the most basic vision. They know what teams there are in the Premier League and what kind of outstanding players these teams are. So although Xiao Ming sounds a bit arrogant, in their opinion, Xiao Ming's judgment is still quite correct.

"Boss, you're very reasonable." Colin Reitz said after thinking about it: "We did not perform well enough in the first half. Although West Ham United is a mid-range Premier League team, the lineup they sent today is not as strong as the Premier League. Logically speaking, we shouldn't play so embarrassed in the first half... I think the second half is the embodiment of our true strength."

"Yes." Another assistant coach laughed: "If the boss hadn't inspired the morale of the players during the halftime and motivated them to win a ticket to the European arena, we wouldn't have won so easily, right?"

"But this move can only be used once." Xiao Ming sighed: "Now we are too strong in the League Two. We won all seven league games, and seven opponents were basically defeated by us without any resistance. This year we have introduced four new players. The level of these four players is close to the level of the Premier League. But if we still don't feel too much pressure in the league next time, who can guarantee that we can show our true strength in the cup? After all, people are lazy, and we cannot demand that the players do their best when the victory is decided. That is unrealistic. Moreover, our players are quite professional. They also know how to save their physical strength. They always do their best before taking the lead, and they start to slow down the pace after taking the lead... If it were in a top league like the Premier League, I would be very happy to see this scene, but in the League Two, this is not a good phenomenon."

McDonald frowned and began to carefully recall some of the situations in the previous league. This season, Leiden Oriental did perform very well. Almost every game was determined early, and then maintained the advantage until the end of the game with strong midfield control. This is the characteristic of a mature and powerful team. However, for Leiden Oriental, they have to play forty-six league games, but there are less than twenty cup games. When the body gets used to the average rhythm, it is indeed difficult to get nervous quickly. In this game, Xiao Ming stimulated the players by setting new goals, but what about the next game? What about the game after the League Cup continues to move forward? Even the FA Cup that only started in the second half of the season?

MacDonald began to understand what Xiao Ming meant, and at the same time he was also surprised by Xiao Ming's progress. Being able to deal with problems in this way is not something that ordinary coaches can do. Most coaches can only see the game one by one, and it would be good if they could continue to play one by one. The best coaches can adjust the players' states well and let their best form explode in the most important game.

McDonald looked at the boss and head coach who was more than 10 years younger than him in admiration. It seemed that his original choice was right. From the position of head coach and changing to an assistant coach, even if he could not become an excellent head coach, it would be a good thing to be able to assist an excellent head coach.

Of course, McDonald had not forgotten his responsibilities yet, so he asked in time: "So how to solve this problem? After all, this cannot be controlled by humans."

Xiao Ming felt that the assistant coach was so considerate. He gave McDonald an admiring look: "Our players are still very young. They are not those superstars who have become famous. They don't need too much training. They just need to be able to adjust their state in most games... What our players need is training, tension and crisis. Only when they are eager to improve for a long time can they gradually realize their potential... The difficulty of the League Two is too low. There are no strong teams in the League Two this season. Plymouth's performance among the teams relegated last season was very bad. They have only won two games so far. They will not be our opponents. The only thing that can really pose a threat to us is Svendon City... So we have to find a way to increase the difficulty of the League Two."

The difficulty is increased? The coaches looked at each other. Where are the strengths of other League Two teams? With Leiden Oriental's ability, as long as it doesn't have any problems with them, basically those teams can rarely cause any trouble for Leiden Oriental.

Xiao Ming smiled. The brains of these coaches are still a little rigid. The strength of other teams cannot be improved. Could it be that Leiden East cannot reduce its strength a little?

The scene when Hakeby got drunk yesterday also made Xiao Ming feel that he had always ignored the feelings of the substitutes, gave them more opportunities to play, and would not make them feel depressed when they always had no games to play.

Isn’t it a bit simple to win a game in the League Two? Then reduce the strength that players can play on the court, of course, not to let the players not work hard on the court, but to adopt a rotation system, try to let the substitute players and main players appear together, so that the overall strength of the lineup will be lowered. Then will the difficulty of the game increase? At the same time, it can also allow substitute players to get enough opportunities to play. In the League Two, there are two games to play almost every week, so that players can rest more and pay more during the game. Isn’t it a good thing?

After Xiao Ming expressed his thoughts, the coaches were almost all stupid - even the strong teams in the top league would not dare to play like this in the league. Even if they have a substitute lineup that is not much inferior to the main lineup, they will never undergo a large rotation in the league. The reason is very simple. Teams need continuity and players also need continuity. At the same time, the stability of a lineup is closely related to how good they can perform. If the lineup in each game is unstable, how can they perform well? If the strongest lineup is played, no matter how strong the lineup is, it will be played to death by himself.

After coming back to his senses, the coaches opposed it. At least the team's advantage in the league is quite huge. Even if they cannot enter the European arena next season, it will not be a loss. After all, the difficulty of the League Cup is not much smaller than that of the Champions League. With Leiden Oriental's strength, it may only be a soy sauce even if they go to the League Cup. However, if they continue to play like this and get rid of the opportunity to advance, it will be really not worth the loss.

Looking at the passionate coaches, Xiao Ming was quite depressed. Wasn’t he just playing rotation? In professional football in later generations, there was no longer a world where one lineup could conquer the world. The head coach of a wealthy family often used rotation to maintain the team’s physical fitness. Besides, when playing football managers, don’t you always let the best players take turns to play to maintain the team’s combat effectiveness? The effect is also pretty good.

Xiao Ming ignored one thing: No matter how good the head coaches played in the rotation in later generations, there were always a few people who didn’t rotate, and they were all the people at the core of the position. Besides, there were not always a few physical madmen in later generations. With such players, rotation could continue to play. Even so, Benitez, who is famous for rotation, has been criticized for his brains, and believes that Liverpool failed to win the championship in the league because he often rotated.

Seeing the coaches' opposition, Xiao Ming could only compromise, but he still put forward a compromise requirement, that is, to test for a month. Anyway, Leiden Oriental has a great advantage in the league now, and even if there is any problem with the rotation, it will not affect the final result. As for the League Cup game, Xiao Ming will naturally send all the main players.

The coaches looked at each other for a while, then slowly nodded one by one. After all, Xiao Ming is the boss and the head coach, so it would be very considerate to pull them over to have a meeting together. Besides, with Leiden Oriental's current results, even if there is a little mistake in the league, it will not have much impact.

So, when the eighth round of the league began, when the fans of Leiden East went to the home court to watch Leiden East face Vicombe, they suddenly found that four main players, Brin, Holland, Poboski and Solskjaer, were on the bench. Daniel, who performed well in the last game, did not even make the roster, replaced by four original substitutes, Otno, Wilkinson, Huckby and McGrady.

The fans in the stands couldn't help but start to speculate whether these four main players were injured or what? Their performance was excellent in the last game against West Ham United. There was no reason why they were placed on the bench because of their poor performance. But seeing them chatting and laughing on the bench, they didn't seem to be injured.

However, Leiden Oriental's performance did not get worse because the four main players sat on the bench. They still defeated their opponents at home with two goals from McGrady and Kim Krazer, and continued to rank first in the standings with a record of complete victory.

The eight-game winning streak made fans forget their doubts about Leiden Oriental's rotation lineup, so in the next round of away challenge to Bury, Xiao Ming became more aggressive and replaced five original main players. Although the four main players who played as substitutes in the last round appeared, Stam, Haji, Jinklaze, Barack and Yankol were on the bench again, and they were replaced by Brin, Daniel, Morrison, Channing and McGrady. The four substitutes who started in the last round were all the main players of last season, and they played a lot this season. However, among the five people in this rotation, Morrison and Channing were both absolute substitutes after Xiao Ming took over, and there were only a few opportunities to play last season - what is Xiao Ming trying to do?

Nearly half of the main players did not play, Leiden Oriental finally began to show a downturn. They failed to continue their winning streak away games and were tied by their opponents one-to-one. Fortunately, this was on the away game, otherwise other fans would be fine, and Sawyn's group of people would definitely make noise.

MacDonald and others thought Xiao Ming must reconsider whether to do this, but Xiao Ming did not seem to be affected by being forced to draw in the last game. In the tenth round of the league, he continued to use large rotations, and three other players who rarely appear usually were put into the main lineup by him. Leiden East, who was obviously a little uncomfortable, encountered a draw again at home.

After two consecutive draws, Leiden Oriental's advantage in the league has shrunk slightly, but in the away game in the second round of the second round of the League Cup, Xiao Ming no longer played any tricks. The starting lineup like the first round appeared at Upton Park Stadium, which made many Leiden Oriental fans who were worried about whether Xiao Ming had a problem recently breathed a sigh of relief.

This main lineup immediately showed a different look from the previous rounds of the league. Although West Ham United, who wanted to save face, was also elite in this game, Leiden East played comparable to this mid-range Premier League team. After being scored by West Ham United in the first half, Jin Krazer equalized the score through an amazing personal breakthrough in the second half. In the subsequent games, Leiden East played against West Ham United without a difference, and even took advantage of the opponent's anxiousness to gain the upper hand. Finally, when the final whistle sounded, the West Ham United fans at the scene couldn't speak.
Chapter completed!