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The next day, everyone arrived in school for early morning training. They all gathered inside the locker room where, for the first time, Xavier arrived before everyone on the school team. The whiteboard in front of the room was filled with scribblings as well as magnets placed on it.
"Now that everyone is here… let's start," Xavier said. "So I've taught you all to play possession-based football. To be overly reliant on the quality of your midfielders and the two central defenders to hold the ball and attract pressure from the other side so that everyone else can move into space and exploit it."
Everyone mumbled a few words. What he said was the basic summary of his tactics: attract the opposition to an area of the field and then exploit the space that they leave behind.
"But what happens when you meet a team with players that have half a head?" Xavier continued talking. "Any team that has a good coach would know not to overcommit. As most of you will see when you watch professional matches, most teams keep a compact defensive shape and only track the ball to a particular area. For some teams, it may be the opposition half; for other teams, it may be the final third. The important thing is that they do not leave space for the opposition to run in behind."
"Random question. James, what do you do if you don't have any space to run in behind? Anyone who has done any form of background research on you will know that you thrive on crosses. What do you do when you don't have any space to make a cross?"
"I'll play a one-two with my winger and get a cross in on the overlap," James answered calmly.
"Hmm… good answer," Xavier said. "But what if the defender doesn't fall for your overlapping trick?"
"Then I'll pass backward," James said.
"Exactly. That's not just what you would do, but what all of you would do… pass backward," Xavier said. "And while there's nothing wrong with that, I simply don't like it."
"You all have watched Liverpool Red play, yes?" Xavier asked. Everyone nodded their heads. Liverpool Red was one of the biggest clubs in the English Premier League. Everyone had definitely watched them play. "What do you take away from the way they play?"
Everyone was silent for about thirty seconds. They were trying to remember all the Liverpool Red games they had watched and pick out a style of play from them.
"Butcher, tell us what you think of Liverpool Red," Xavier said suddenly.
"Uh… I think they play a very energetic type of football," Alexis said. "They confuse the opponents with their movements. They mostly use player movements to drag players out of position so another player can exploit the space. They're also quite active on the counter. All in all, I'd say that they never stop moving."
"Exactly. They never stop moving. That's what we're going to do today."
"I recognize that it's too late to undo what I've already coached you lot into doing, but that doesn't matter. This isn't going to be our primary tactic. This is what we're going to use in case of a more disciplined opponent. We can't go into every game assuming that the opposition are shit," Xavier said. "So after school, we're going to work on it. I've sent a file to the group chat. I want each and every one of you to read through it during your free time. You don't have to, but for your sake, I recommend it."
"If nobody has any questions, then that's all for now. See you all in the afternoon," Xavier said. Without another word, he walked out of the locker room.
The rest of the day passed quite slowly for the boys on the school team. Xavier basically told them that they would be trying new tactics, so they were excited. Furthermore, the pop quiz on Liverpool Red's style of play made it quite obvious that it would be similar to how Liverpool Red played as of late, and everyone who had watched a Liverpool Red game knew that they played what Xavier would describe as 'sexy football.'
Naturally, Alexis was excited as well. He had watched his fair share of Liverpool Red games and knew that what awaited him at training would be very exciting.
During his lunch break, he abandoned his meal and studied the tactics that Xavier sent to everyone. After reading a few lines, he began to curse Xavier in his head.
'That fucking prick said that reading it wasn't compulsory.'
Just a few lines into the document that Xavier sent, and Alexis knew that whoever didn't take their time to read it would be completely lost at training.
'Well... To be fair, he didn't exactly say it wasn't important, he just said that reading it wasn't compulsory.'
Alexis took his time to properly understand the tactics, even skipping his next class to do so. It was maths, and he absolutely hated it, but that didn't matter. What was important was that he took the training so seriously that he was willing to miss class for it.
Eventually, school finished, and everyone rushed over to the field. Normally, there would be some time between the arrivals of everyone, but today, everyone got to training just in time. Just like in the morning, Xavier was there waiting for them.
"Today we're not doing any of the shitty, fancy drills," Xavier said. "It's all about the football. Like what Butcher said, we're going to be focusing on one thing today... Constant fucking movement!"
"I don't want to see anyone panting or walking leisurely on the pitch. I want everyone moving all the fucking time. Do you cunts understand?"
"Yes!" "Yes sir!"
Everyone chorused at once. At that moment, their blood was boiling, and they were feeling very agitated. They wanted to start the training as soon as possible.
Thirty minutes later, Alexis was panting. He would have collapsed on the floor, but Xavier declared that anyone who fell would automatically fall on the bench. He didn't know if Xavier was bluffing, but he wasn't willing to find out.
As he pushed himself forward, he had one thought burning at the back of his mind.
'I fucking hate Scousers.'
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