On the afternoon of February 27, Hoffenheim defeated Hertha Berlin 3:0 away. Chu Zhongtian scored a goal in the game and also had an assist, which was the biggest contributor to Hoffenheim's victory in this game.

She suffered a failure in the Champions League but found it back in the league. Hertha Berlin helped Hoffenheim players to restore confidence, while Hoffenheim gave Hertha Berlin eleven consecutive home games. The victory in this game also raised the team's ranking in the league, from fifth in the league to fourth in the league.

On Monday, before the team regrouped for training, the coaching staff had a routine meeting to summarize the problems that the team had in training last week and at the same time formulated a training plan for the week. This meeting is usually arranged in the head coach's office, and not many people participated. Apart from Rangnick himself, there were two assistant coaches, two goalkeeper coaches, a fitness coach and a team doctor.

Just before the meeting, Rangnick brought Chu Zhongtian into his office and introduced him to all the attendees.

"Actually, I don't need to introduce it more. Everyone of Chu must be familiar with him. From today on, he is included in our coaching staff."

Goalkeeper coach Cesar Thiel looked at Chu Zhongtian in surprise. Of course, he knew Chu Zhongtian and knew that he had a good personal relationship with Rangnick. He also saw Chu Zhongtian's performance in training and games. This player is indeed very talented and capable, but he never thought that this kind of talent and ability would help Chu Zhongtian enter the coaching team.

"Hey, Ralph, has the club given Chu another part-time contract?" Assistant coach Tomislav Marichi joked.

"No, his identity is still a player." Rangnick said to everyone.

"Hello, gentlemen." Chu Zhongtian greeted everyone generously. He was so familiar with these people that he could not be familiar with them anymore. He had worked together in training countless times, but at that time he was a player and as coaches, he followed the coach's arrangements. Now he had to be on an equal footing with the coaches, participate in the discussion of tactics, and even let them accept their ideas, which was a little different.

"Hello, Chu." Assistant coach Caidler nodded to him.

"Welcome, Chu." Fitness coach Reiner Schree smiled at him.

"I haven't seen players and coaches before, but it's the first time I've seen them as young as you, Chu. Don't let me down." Another assistant coach, Marichi, blinked at Chu Zhongtian. His last time was in Hoffenheim, and at that time he was basically working as a player and coach.

After introducing Chu Zhongtian to everyone, Rangnick continued: "From now on, Chu will discuss tactics and training arrangements with us. I think as the captain, he must know more about what the team needs at the moment. First, let's start with the Champions League last week..."

Next, everyone started a discussion of that game, and the focus of the discussion was mainly on how to attack. Inter Milan's defense brought Hoffenheim a lot of trouble. If the opponent's defense was not broken, Hoffenheim would not have hope of winning the second leg.

The current score is 1:3, Hoffenheim is two goals behind, and they have to win Inter Milan at least 2:0 at home to advance. It is not easy to score two goals against a team like Inter Milan.

Then Chu Zhongtian told the team his thoughts, and he hoped that the coaching staff would give him more freedom. The team must take him as the core and listen to him because he will have a lot of improvisation in the game. Just like the last fifteen minutes of playing Inter Milan, his sudden long shot, his "passing" of the ball without touching, and his heel knocking, etc.

But his teammates couldn't imagine it. So he wanted to summarize his improvisational performance in normal times, and then arrange the team to train, form a set of formal offensive styles, and play it out in the game. These are all new tactics. For opponents, it is just like Chu Zhongtian's improvisational performance in the game, making them unable to defend. The reason why Inter Milan can successfully defend Hoffenheim is because they have a thorough understanding of Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim has any secrets that Hoffenheim can't hide from the opponent. Since that's the case, we will temporarily develop new things, which makes Inter Milan completely unexpected.

"I have some ideas and some new things. But even if I use them in the game, my teammates will be unable to cooperate with me because they are not familiar with each other. It will be too late to do it in the game. I want to form a set of playing styles in my daily training." Chu Zhongtian said at the end.

His words made everyone think.

Rangnick had already shown them the last fifteen minutes of the game against Inter Milan, and they all realized that Chu Zhongtian's wild behavior made Inter Milan embarrassed.

"The team must be used to my playing style and keep up with my thoughts and rhythms, so that we have the hope of defeating Inter Milan."

"I think I can try it." Caidler nodded. "Let Chu speak out his ideas and we will formulate it into a tactic that can be implemented."

"In addition, we can also let them play freely on this basis," said Marichi.

"You are right, you can play freely in some areas. We don't require Chu to run or use any method. These are not limited. Similarly, other offensive players do not require anything on this basis, and Chu will lead them..." Caidler added on the basis of Marichi.

"We can also make some secret codes..." Seeing the coaches' discussions so enthusiastically, Chu Zhongtian also interrupted and made his own suggestions. "Just like we would do before corner kicks. For example..." He stretched out his thumb and little finger with his right hand and made a Chinese gesture of expressing "six", "This means that the two sides should be pulled apart and try to rush forward as much as possible."

"Good words!" Marici patted his thigh, "Each code corresponds to a tactic, so that everyone will not be confused. Have you ever seen American football? There are many tactics in American football and very responsible. In order to ensure that everyone remembers how to implement a certain tactic, the coach of American football has compiled a tactical manual, and the tactics on it correspond to a code. When the specific implementation is implemented, only the quarterback needs to tell everyone a code, and everyone knows how to play. This can also prevent the other party from knowing our tactics..."

"Good idea!"

A group of people started to discuss the discussion from here, and it became more and more lively. Obviously, Chu Zhongtian also gave them a lot of inspiration.

Rangnick watched everyone's discussions with a smile on his face. Chu injected vitality into the coaching staff... He thought Chu had the talent to be a coach for a long time, but now he is right.

The players gathered together after the warm-up, and head coach Rangnick announced the content of today's training: "We are going to do new offensive tactical training."

Everyone looked at each other, not understanding what the new offensive tactical training is. After more than a season of running-in, everyone is already familiar with it. Why are they going to add a new offensive routine suddenly?

"Now do what I say..." Assistant coach Caidler stood up and began to assign tasks. Hoffenheim's new day training began.

From then on, Chu Zhongtian began his career as a player and coach. Although he was not named, he could not be found in the coaching team column of Hoffenheim's official website, but Hoffenheim coaches all knew that he was already a member of the coaching team. He was paid by one person but did two jobs. But from this point of view, Rangnick's 30 million euros was really worth it.

※※On March 7, the last game of the 25th round of the German Football League was played between Hoffenheim and Mainz.

In this game, Hoffenheim was in a tactical adaptation period, and his training was always carried out new tactical drills, so the team's performance was not stable enough. Fortunately, he finally relied on Ibisekic's goal and defeated the opponent 1:0 at home. Since Leverkusen, the third in the league, lost 2:3 to Nuremberg, ranked seventeenth in the away game, Hoffenheim's victory narrowed the gap with the third in the league. Now the two teams are only two points away, a game gap. As long as they can enter the top three in the league, they can be qualified to participate in the Champions League next season. Even if they only start from the outside game, they have hope of entering the main game.

Next, Hoffenheim will usher in Inter Milan at his home court.

For the Champions League, Rangnick decided to give up the league temporarily. In the 26th round of the league, he decided to use a substitute to play, and all the main players were rested to avoid physical exhaustion in frequent games.

You should know that it is rare for Bremen to double-kill his team in the league. Last season's league, this season's league and the German Cup, Hoffenheim has never won the ball against Bremen. Bremen seems to be a bit like Hoffenheim's nemesis, and Hoffenheim has no choice but to face this team.

Since this is the case, it is better to give up, accumulate energy and keep it to deal with Inter Milan.

Therefore, even Chu Zhongtian did not appear in the starting lineup, and he sat on the bench.

The starting players in this game were mainly players who returned from injury and young players in the second team. Weiss replaced Azawag to start, and after undergoing surgery, he finally recovered. The young player Vukoccevic, who was born in the 1990s, replaced Salihovic to start, Zukulini and Vosa partnered with the midfielder, and the forward position was two young men, Wellington and Tracino.

It is easy to imagine what the result of such a lineup facing a nemesis like Bremen. In fact, the performance of these players was far beyond Rangnick's expectations. In the end, Hoffenheim only lost 1:0 to Bremen at his home court, which was already very impressive.

Chu Zhongtian only came on as a substitute in the last thirteen minutes of the game and found the feeling of looking for the game. Rangnick's attitude of giving up this game is self-evident.

Fans have no complaints about losing this game, because everyone knows that the team's focus has been on the Champions League recently.

Losing this game, all Hoffenheim players, including Chu Zhongtian, did not talk much, and they set their sights on the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals in the mid-week.

Before the game started, a war of verbalism between players, coaches and the media on both sides had already begun.

Mourinho took the lead in attacking and said in an interview with "Milan Sports" that he was already preparing for the quarterfinals. The implication was that the second leg match against Hoffenheim was a complete formality, and the result was destined.

This arrogant attitude certainly aroused dissatisfaction from Hoffenheim.

Before head coach Rangnick could speak, Hoffenheim club general manager Rothouse expressed his anger to the media: "We will let Mr. Mourinho and his team know that the home and away knockout match set in the Champions League make sense!"

Etoo also jumped out and mocked Hoffenheim for being silent. He never knew. "Where is Hoffenheim? I don't know at all."

As the captain of Hoffenheim, Chu Zhongtian needs to stand up and maintain the dignity of the team. He said that Etoo should work hard to learn geography well, but it doesn't matter if he doesn't learn it well. "We will teach him where Hoffenheim is."

Rangnick said that Mourinho's team suddenly started attacking Hoffenheim before the game, which means they did not care about this game as they said. On the contrary, they were very nervous. "Their nervousness is reasonable, because we have Chu, and we can beat them at our home court!"

I don’t know if Mourinho went back to study the video of the first match between the two sides, especially in the last fifteen minutes. Maybe he should have felt a little nervous. That is, he didn’t understand what Chu Zhongtian’s performance in the last fifteen minutes was.

Is it a fixed tactical arrangement? Or is it his personal performance? It's okay to say that personal performance depends on inspiration, and inspiration is not available in every game. There are many factors that constitute an improvisation. In addition to the strength of the players, it also depends on the timing of the game and the specific situation at that time. The improvisation is not worth worrying at all, and it is impossible to worry about it.

However, specific tactical arrangements require careful attention.

The media from both countries also re-recorded the controversial scene in the last moment of the first round of the two sides - Lucio pushed Sana down in the penalty area, was it a foul?

"100% Penalty! Misjudgment caused the current situation of the two teams to reverse!" This is the title of the German media's indignation, and their text is even more explosive: "Even the blind man can tell that it was an obvious foul!"

Milan's media are so upset about Hoffenheim whether it is a foul and finds it ridiculous and disdainful: "...A team should not always focus on those small places if they want to grow. They are entangled in whether they should get a penalty kick. You can see Hoffenheim's energy..."

"If you lose, you lose, don't afford to lose."

※※※In addition to jumping out to protect their team and having a verbal battle with the opponent, the more important thing is naturally training.

Chu Zhongtian told the coaching team some offensive ideas he had come up with. This was just a spark of inspiration and could not be called "tactics". After the coaching team systematically summarized it, it formed a "routine" that could be trained.

"Salihovic, Eduardo, you should always pay attention to Chu's position and his code!" In the training ground, Marici was loudly reminding the offensive players on the two sides. Hoffenheim's offense pays great attention to the side, so the side players are very important.

"Don't worry, he is too far away. This kind of attack relies on fast transmission and running at close range!"

"After passing the ball, you have to turn around and cut to the left and cut! Quickly! Otherwise, the opponent's defense line will be closed!" The person who spoke now was Chu Zhongtian. He pointed to the space where he passed the ball just now and said to Eduardo, with a boss style that "it's natural for me to say this."

He just kept stopping the ball and knocked the ball behind him with his heels, but Eduardo, who was responding, did not keep up and was slowed down, but the football was intercepted by Comper, the defensive player in charge of playing Inter Milan.

"The opponent's pressing will be more powerful in the game than now! If you run slowly, the opportunity will be gone!" Chu Zhongtian said to Eduardo very seriously. Faced with such a strict captain, Eduardo could only lower his head and be scolded. Now Chu Zhongtian has absolute authority in the team, and no one can question it except the head coach.

"Pass, pass the ball! Pass directly, don't stop the ball, pass to your left, not to the right, I'm here!" Chu Zhongtian stood on the left side of Obasi and spread his hands. Just now, Obasi passed the football to the right side, completely in the wrong direction.

Voices like this kept ringing on the training ground.

Rangnick and his assistants stood by and watched, then Marichi suddenly sighed: "He looks like a coach... much better than I did back then."

Rangnick laughed and joked, "This is a talent, Tommy. You don't have to be too sad."

"Then you have to be careful that he stole the head coach's mast flower, Ralph." Facing Rangnick's teasing, Marichi fought back.

Caidler, who was next to him, wrapped his hands around his chest and did not enter the bickering between the two people next to him. Instead, he watched Chu Zhongtian, who quickly entered the role on the court, suddenly said: "I suddenly had confidence in defeating Inter Milan at home."

Both Marichi and Rangnick turned their heads to look at him.

"I was a little pessimistic after the last round. Inter Milan was too strong and we had no strength to fight back at all. Chu Jin's goal was not our tactical victory, but Chu's personal ability victory. It's different now. I believe we can give Mourinho some 'surprise'... Ha!"

"Is that so good? That's great! I can't wait to see Mourinho's expression at that time."

The three of them turned their attention to the training ground again. While training, Chu Zhongtian kept waving his hands to direct his teammates' running positions, reminding them and correcting their mistakes. The real coaches were all on the court and sighing that the young people were terrified.

There are two days left before the match against Inter Milan.
Chapter completed!