Inside the locker room, Xavier was standing in the middle of the football team. They were all wearing their already dirty training wear. As a result of the sweat that has been contained inside their stuffy bags for so long, the room smelt worse than a pig's armpit.
Nobody seemed to notice the stench however, and if they did, then nobody said anything about it. Most of them were used to smelling this kind of stench, it wasn't their first time playing football after all.
Behind Xavier, there was a white board with a bunch of magnetic pieces stuck onto it. There were also some scribblings done in a red marker, representing a football pitch and all its significant spots such as the eighteen yard box, the penalty touch and so on.
"Alright everyone. After today, we're going to be doing things in a systematic order". Xavier said. "First of all, I want to say sorry for taking so much time and causing you to miss your first classes".
When Xavier finished talking, the entire room went dead silent, everyone was staring at him in shock. Especially those that were with the team the previous year. Xavier had actually apologized. That was so out of character.
They would've carried on being shocked if they didn't hear Xavier's next words.
"I actually don't give a shit, you can miss all your classes this semester for all I care. But unfortunately, our sponsors have kids here and they weren't happy with what happened so I am required to give an apology or else I'll be duely terminated". Xavier scoffed after he finished talking. "This might be a shitty job but it puts food on the table so a half assed apology is nothing".
"Figures". Alexis muttered under his breath.
"Alright, from now on we're going to gather here two hours before school football discuss tactics then after school, we're going to have training drills. We should've done it today but I got a bit impatient to see your skills". Xavier said. "But after further reconsideration and a sack threat from our generous sponsors, I now see that I was wrong". His voice was laced with sarcasm when he said his last few words.
Everyone in the room started laughing when he said the last part of his sentence. What he said wasn't particularly funny, it was just that from his tone and facial expression, it was quite obvious that what he said was meant to be joke, and it wasn't good to leave your coach hanging. Especially if he seemed like someone that was petty enough to bench you for such a small reason.
"Alright, so my preferred formation is a 4-2-3-1 formation. I like to make use of a double pivot so the defensive midfielders in the team have a bit of an advantage". Xavier would've continued talking but the saw a confused expression sitting on the faces of majority of the boys surrounding him. "You lot don't know what a double pivot is, do you?"
Majority of the boys in the room shook their head. Xavier let out long groan.
"Alright. So you know that in a 4-2-3-1 formation, we have two central midfielders playing behind a sole attacking midfielders, same as with a 4-4-2 formation, there are two central midfielders playing at the back of the two strikers". Xavier said. Everyone in the room nodded their head. What he said was common knowledge. "A double pivot is when those two midfielder stay deeper than usual and sit in front of the defense. This is done for a number of reasons. Defensively, the two deep sitting midfielders protect the back line by breaking opposition press and intercepting long balls. They can also help to cover for fullbacks who have overcommitted into the opposition half. It also helps in ball distribution, they can serve as a deep lying playmaker and move the ball from the back to other advanced player. They can also help with positional syanility. Sometimes when one moves forward, the other can stay back to maintain the general formation shape and…"
And like that, Xavier gave a thirty minute speech on the importance of a double pivot. As he explained each importance, he made sure to use a situation where it would be useful to his tactics.
"Now that we understand what a double pivot is, let's move on to other tactics". Xavier said. "When we're out of possession, I expect us to have the shape of a 4-4-2 formation. The attacking midfielder commits forward and assists the striker in the early press". Xavier moved a few pieces in the board to reflect the shape he was talking about.
"When we're on the attack…". Xavier kept talking about the game tactics. Sometimes, he'd say something so advanced he'd have to start explaining it from the beginning.
That one discussion made Alexis start to rate him very highly. He was even better than his coach back at the Real Star academy. It got to a part where Alexis actually had to start listening to his explanations. It wasn't that he didn't have an understanding of what Xavier was talking about, it was just that compared to what Xavier explained, everything he knew suddenly seemed so shallow.
"I'll send you a PDF containing the details of everything. It's getting late now and I don't any more phonecalls from our sponsors". Xavier said. He dismissed everyone.
Alexis had changed back to his school uniform and was standing at the entrance of the school thinking about what Xavier had told them. He wanted to be able to understand the tactic that Xavier had talked about. As a player, one of the most important things was to be able to play hiw your coach wanted.
"Oh, are you waiting for me?" Trey suddenly popped up beside Alexis.
Alexis jolted out of his reverie as was about to curse his luck when he heard Trey speak again.
"Don't worry, you can be on your way". Trey said. "I have some things to do today so I'm not going home right away"
"Oh… okay. I'll be on my way then". It took everything that Alexis has in him not to jump and cheer. He spoke with a calm expression and walked slowly. He wanted to savor every moment of this Trey-less walk.
'Thank the gods! It's a miracle! I'm going to church on Sunday. This is a fucking testimony!'