---
The next morning, Alexis freshened up and dressed himself for school. As usual, his mom had already left him some breakfast in the fridge. She had already left for work. Alexis microwaved his breakfast and then ate it. When he was finished, he left his house.
Coincidentally, Trey was also passing by his house. The two of them exchanged a brief greeting and began walking to school together.
"Alright lads, we're playing our first match in the Proprietor's Cup next week Friday," Xavier addressed the squad. They were all seated in the locker room. It was the early morning tactical discussion session. "There are three preliminary rounds before the main thing starts, but because we were finalists last year, we only have to play in two."
"We've had three preseason games to get us ready for the tournament, and even though you all hadn't played together before three odd weeks ago, I think you should have suitable chemistry."
Xavier continued to address the team. After he was done, he went on to discuss tactics with the team, which at this point was just a revision of everything he had told them previously. The first preliminary round was going to be completed the next day, so they had no clue as to who their opponents were. As a result, Xavier couldn't really give them specific tactics.
The rest of the school day was relatively boring. Nothing unusual happened, and before long, Alexis found himself wearing his training gear while standing in front of Xavier and three other coaches with the rest of the players on the squad. They were currently in the middle of the field after completing a few warm-up training drills.
Alexis recognized the three coaches behind Xavier as the ones who had helped with the tryouts. He had been wondering what happened to them. It turned out that they were Xavier's paid assistants and weren't hired by the school.
"Today, we're going to do separate training drills for the different positions," Xavier said. "Forwards train with Kieran." The biggest of the three assistants raised his hand. "Defenders train with Emmanuel." The shortest of the three raised his hand. "Midfielders train with Emery." Emery was a tall, lean person. "And the midfielders come with me."
Everyone did as they were told. Alexis, David, Archie, and three other players walked away with Xavier. When they got to a corner of the field, Xavier stopped walking.
"Today, we're really going to focus on getting everyone to play together," Xavier said. "I like using a 4-2-3-1, but I might have to divert to a 4-4-2 if you guys haven't really gelled together. Even in the preliminary rounds, one loss and you're out."
The midfielders nodded solemnly. When Xavier mentioned the 4-4-2 formation, the majority of them translated it as the same thing. It meant that David and Archie were going to start. The other three didn't really take it as a threat; after all, they were always on the bench in the first place. It was Alexis who was starting to get anxious. This was his ticket to impress scouts, and he couldn't exactly impress scouts if they didn't see him play. Everything was riding on this training session. He had to give it his all.
Xavier made them do a few team exercises. After that, they did some passing and shooting drills, which were followed by some dribbling drills. After that, they played a few one-on-one matches. Xavier said he was focused on developing complete midfielders. He didn't like it when any of his players had weaknesses.
Alexis, who was an attacking midfielder, for example, had terrible defensive capabilities. Xavier believed that even the most advanced players should be able to perform the most basic defensive actions. Your position didn't stop you from being a complete player.
"Alright everyone, we're going to play a match," Xavier said. He called everyone after they had completed their respective training drills and was addressing them. "It's going to be a starters versus reserves kind of match. This is where we get the true starters and the true squad players."
"I'll call the names of the people who currently have the best chances of starting. Don't get cocky or discouraged based on where your name appears. This training session and the next ones will determine where you truly fall. A starter who plays poorly and a reserve who plays excellent football are naturally switching places. There's no guaranteed spot in the starting eleven; you have to earn it week after week."
Alexis nodded his head when he heard Xavier's words. He believed in his philosophy. He was ensuring that the starters and reserves trained to the best of their abilities. The starters wouldn't have differing performances and would offer some sort of consistency since they knew they would easily be replaced. The bench players would also be very motivated and do their best to start since there was a clear pathway for them. He was getting the best out of his team with just one sentence.
Naturally, since Alexis had managed to decipher Xavier's true intention, some of the players had managed to do so too. They didn't mind, however; everyone wanted to play. Even if they thought they were being 'manipulated,' they didn't mind, as long as they got to play. Everyone did everything they did in training just so they could play.
Xavier gave everyone permission to check their phones so that they could see the starting eleven as well as the formation that they were going to use. He was feeling 'too lazy' to call them out according to him.
**Team 1 (starters): 4-2-3-1 Formation**
- Goalkeeper: Andy Callohven
- Right Back: James O'Riley
- Centre Back: Jack Mitchell
- Centre Back: Luke Harrison
- Left Back: Ethan Brooks
- Right Central Midfield: Archie Black
- Left Central Midfield: David Archer
- Central Attacking Midfield: Alexis Butcher
- Left Midfield: Trey Hamilton
- Right Midfield: Liam Walker
- Striker: Michael Uche
**Team 2 (reserves): 4-3-1-2 Formation**
- Goalkeeper: Sam Butler
- Right Back: Ben Lawson
- Centre Back: Charlie Bennett
- Centre Back: Oliver Gretoen
- Left Back: Harry Morgan
- Central Midfield: Lance Edward
- Central Midfield: Alex Thomson
- Central Midfield: Henry Cole
- Attacking Midfield: Jonathan Dennis
- Striker: Ryan Carter
- Striker: Adam Foster
Alexis smiled a bit when he saw that he was part of the starters' eleven. Although he was the only one who played his position, there were a number of formations that didn't require there to be an attacking midfielder.
Now that he was being considered a starter, he had to work hard to keep his spot.
---