Chapter 103: Internal Challenges (Part 1)

On July 15, Preston's pre-season training camp officially began. Although their first League One game started on August 9, Preston did not plan to go abroad to train, and the time for gathering in mid-July is better.

Compared with last season, the team's first-team lineup has not changed much, but it is not small. Previously, the main midfielder Bryson retired, and the semi-main right forward Barrek transferred. Four players in the substitute lineup were sold out and six players left. There were also six new players, including three transfers, one of the three forward midfield defenders on each line - Bermuda forward Shawne Gott, Scottish right midfielder Andy Riddle and Northern Ireland right back Grie Tagatt. These three players are well-deserved strong players. The latter two were the top stars in the League One last season, and Gott scored in the 23 league goals in the League Two.

With Andy Riddle in the introduction, Preston's midfielder has returned to the diamond position and is imperative. Moyes cannot let the biggest signing in the summer bench. However, last season's main right forward Barrel has already transferred and left. Bryson, one of the original double midfielders, also chose to retire. He will not have any impact on others when he enters the main lineup. However, the arrival of Gott and Tagat made the two young players in the team feel a great crisis...

No one is willing to be a substitute. They know that Gott and Tagat are very strong, but it doesn't mean that they are willing to give up their main position easily.

So in training, Grant and Spanore both trained very hard. When Grant was free, he often pulled Nogan to ask him for some details about shooting. Spanore often joined the confrontation training between Tiger and Barrett to hone his defensive skills.

Not only them, but the other players who do not have much threat to the main position are also driven by them. They will not forget that last season Grant and Spanore were the main players, but because their performance was not very eye-catching, the team introduced players with the same position as them in the new season to replace them. They are unwilling to be replaced by others if they are not performing well - after all, Preston is now a team in the League One, and the signings are still somewhat attractive than before...

Moyes is very happy to see this. Preston did not sign many players in the past. Even if they were introduced, they were introduced from teams that were worse than themselves. It did not threaten the local players trained. Of course, this is beneficial. That is, the locker room is basically players trained by themselves, and they are the strongest faction. It is well known that when a certain force in a circle is astonishingly powerful, it is the least likely to cause conflicts, because there is only one direction, but the disadvantages of doing so are also obvious, that is, it is easy to cause a lack of competitive atmosphere and insufficient motivation to advance. For a club, the consequences may be worse than the frequent internal strife in the locker room.

So after entering the Premier League, Moyes wanted to change all this - his goal was to become a godfather of a club like Ferguson, and the head coach who coaches in England was less pressure than in other leagues, and he had the time and ability to plan for the long term.

Introducing a competitive mechanism to break the monopoly of local players and making the entire Preston appear more energetic is not easy to do, but Moyes believes that someone always needs to do it slowly to make Preston stronger.

Modern football has long been beyond the point where it can be self-sufficient by training its own players. There are many teams in England with a long and brilliant history gradually falling after the establishment of the Premier League, because they do not balance the weight between business and local training. After all, with professional teams like England and a regulations on the birthplace of young players, relying solely on youth training cannot meet the needs of the team. Only by balancing these two aspects can the team be more energetic.

Of course this is not something that can happen overnight, but Moyes is not in a hurry, he has time.

The three newly introduced players have created a certain competitive situation within Preston. This competitive atmosphere has made everyone feel the crisis, and of course Tiger is no exception.

Of course, what Tiger felt was not the crisis of the main position. His position was unique. He was the only one organized midfielder in the entire team. In fact, in the entire English football world, this kind of pure attacking midfielder is quite rare. Manchester United's front midfielder Scholes is actually not an organized midfielder. The organizational work is basically handed over to Roy Keane behind him and Beckham and Giggs on both wings. He is often responsible for ambushing the two forwards to complete the final blow, which is also related to his background. When Scholes debuted, he played the forward.

Others like Liverpool's Redknapp, Arsenal's Paul Morson and Pratt, Manchester City's Jinklaze, Newcastle's Bealsley, can't be considered pure front midfielders. The standard front midfielders in the entire Premier League are just Chelsea's Gulit, Coventry's Macaulister, Middlesbrough's Juninho and others. Among them, Gulit and Juninho are both foreign players, and McCallister is not an English but a Scots. The only famous England midfielder Gascoin is still in Scotland...

Preston is the only team in the entire League One that has a traditional front midfielder. Most of the other teams use the tactic of parallel positioning in the double midfield. It is not that they do not want to use the front midfielder to organize attacks and directly participate in the offense, but that they do not have such front midfielder.

Similarly, within Preston, there is only Tiger in the attack midfield position. As long as Moyes uses the front midfield tactics, Tiger will definitely be the main force. Of course, if Tiger himself performs poorly, Moyes will not risk using this front midfield tactic without Tiger's substitute. It is precisely because Moyes believes that Tiger can bring enough benefits to Preston on the court that he will take such risks.

The challenges facing Tiger are not at the position, but at the tactical core.

Andy Ridell is an experienced player. Although he is only 24 years old this year, he has played in Barnsley for six seasons in the League One. From the famous young player he introduced before to a player who has played in the League One for more than 160 games in six seasons, Ridell naturally has his proud side. Although Barnsley has never been the core of the offensive midfielder, he has always been the main force. His forward attack and assist passes on the wing have always been Barnsley's most beautiful scenery. If Barnsley's club did not think that he was capable of becoming the main player of the Premier League team, he would not have paid any attention to him. Ridell is a proud player who cannot tolerate the position as a substitute in the new season, so he agreed to the request to join Preston.

Similarly, Ridell won't have any competition in the right forward position, because even if he is still in the original Barlek, his ability cannot pose too much threat to him, let alone Ridell's substitute in the new season, there is only one young player Paul McKenna who has just been promoted from the second team. However, playing as the main force is one thing, playing the core is another thing.

The diamond midfielder does not mean that the front midfielder is necessarily the core. Just as Scholes has never been the core in Manchester United, Ridell, as a player who can play in the Premier League, naturally thinks that after he comes to the Premier League, he will be the core of the frontcourt offense after he comes to the Premier League. The right forward plays the core is not something that is too incredible. It is nothing more than that the offense is concentrated on the right side, and through his organization and breakthroughs, the offense is completed more. When ordinary teams cannot fly together, they usually make the offense from one side the most effective weapon. In Ridell's view, he will of course be the well-deserved core of the wings.

Ridell naturally has something to be proud of. In the past six years, he has scored goals every year, and in the past three years, he has averaged double-digit goals in the league every year, and the record of direct assists is close to double-digits. Even in the League One, this kind of data is quite outstanding - what does the assist data in the double-tenth goal mean? It means that in the entire league, he can directly create a goal in two games!

Ridell didn't know about Preston. After hearing Moyes' introduction, he only knew that Preston won the League Two championship with outstanding performance in the second half of last season. However, the game strength of the League Two and English C is not fixed. A team is very lucky or in excellent condition, and he may also be able to reach the top in one step. Therefore, he disagreed with Tiger Lee, the "most critical factor in advancement" mentioned by Moyes.

Tiger is more than two years younger than him, and his game experience is incomparable. Compared with his experience in playing in the League One at the age of 18, Tiger, who is still in the League Two reserve team at the age of 21, is simply weak...

But Moyes also said that the main position and core position of anyone in the team are not fixed, and those who are capable rank in it.
Chapter completed!