The Young Lion

After winning the league’s start, Aldridge did not mention Peter Dawson after the game. In his heart, even if he was a proud and complacent guy, he was not interested in using Peter Dawson as a stepping stone.

In the first round of battle, Millwall unexpectedly occupied the top position in the league, followed closely by Sheffield United, Oldham, Middlesbrough and other strong teams with super strength.

Aldridge took a day off for the players. He returned home and worked late into the night. The next day he came to the hotel where the club trained to discuss the plans for the growth of young players with the entire coaching staff.

They first listed the schedule of the three echelons in the conference room.

Jenson pointed to the projection on the big screen and said: “Before the arrival of FIFA match day in mid-September, we have seven games in the Ligue 1 against Sunderland, Derbyshire, Bolton, Reading, West Brown, Burnley, and Tranmere, two of which are in the middle of the week, require players to play a double match in a week, and there will be the first round of the League Cup in the next week. If it passes smoothly, then in In the middle of the last week of August, we have to face the second round of the League Cup.”

Aldridge looked at the first team’s schedule on the big screen projection and fell into contemplation.

Visiting Sunderland at the weekend will not be too difficult, because today’s black cat Sunderland does not have the ability to rush, last season in the League One is only ranked middle, and the same grade team as Xiu’an United, this summer , Sunderland also did not force the signing, the team’s strength is not high or low, just watch the live play.

But the next series of games is a test against Millwall.

Last season in the upgrade play-offs 5:1 hit Derbyshire Millwall.

Summer introduced many experienced veteran Bolton who tried to surpass.

Redding and West Brom, who had been promoted to the first division last season, although the strength does not seem to be strong, but in the past season, they are familiar with the winning team. Xiao Xiao.

In the period before the FIFA match day, Aldridge must ensure that the team is stable from the mentality. It is difficult to win or not be defeated and discouraged. Such training is not only relying on the coach’s mouth. Say.

He thought about it and said: “The League Cup is handed over to the bench. The starting lineup of the first team will only deal with the league this season, unless we can reach the final in the cup, but I think this possibility is very low. The season is very long, try to keep it as long as possible The main lineup is one game a week, they are still young, and the game volume should be moderate. For the next seven games, our goal is still the same: not to lose, and to reduce as many goals as possible. Even if it is a seven draw, I Also willing to accept.”

Hearing Aldridge’s goal of “no ambition”, the other members of the coaching staff looked at each other, and Jenson frowned: “As long as seven games are undefeated? This is a bit low? Last time we won 4:0, according to In my opinion, of the seven opponents, we can win at least two victories. Opponents like Tranmere and Burnley are only tied. It doesn’t make much sense. Moreover, seven draws are only seven league points. If we If you can win three games, you have at least nine points.”

Jenson’s opinion was accepted by everyone, but Aldridge shook his head and said: “The second place point that was promoted last season was Nottingham Forest, 83 points, the first place Crystal Palace was 90 points, the league has 46 games, we are in There is room for losing points in the early stage. I don’t want to put too much pressure on the team. At the same time, we must realize that yesterday’s win at home against Allianz is essentially a tactical error of the opponent, not the overall team gap. Jenson you It’s very practical to say that we won 3 games and lost 4 games, and the points were more than seven points in seven draws, but I don’t think so.”

The members of the coaching staff frowned at Aldridge and wanted to hear his thoughts.

“The average age of our starting 11 players yesterday was around 21 years old. If we exclude the 25-year-old goalkeeper Keller, the average age of the other 10 people may be only 20 years old. They cannot afford to fail, and we cannot afford to fail. What is questioning, distrust, disappointment, loss of motivation, and the concentration of the player’s brain will be dispersed. Losing is the biggest taboo at this critical stage of building confidence and mutual trust! A tie is a draw, as our young team does not Will be discouraged, even be considered a victory, lose one ball, players will regret or be unwilling, lose two goals, self-consolation can be said to be normal, lose three goals, is to hit, lose four goals, then it will give The players left a big shadow in their hearts, and they spread to each other, spreading across the entire team, and eventually failed.

Aldridge’s calm voice shocked the entire coaching staff.

In fact, these coaches are also very young, and the most intuitive performance of being responsible for the team is the league standings. Taking more points is almost the first work goal.

Aldridge knocked on the table and said softly: “Okay, from now on, we have to forget yesterday’s victory, and don’t look at the standings. We rank in the top. Our focus is to build the current team. It is more fighting, not only the growth of individual players, but also the shaping of the team’s temperament and spirit. This is what we should focus on. When we do these jobs well, I think that victory will come naturally.”

call……

The coaches of the coaching staff exhaled and smiled at each other. They suddenly felt that Aldridge was not like an 18-year-old head coach. Even though they had the idea of ​​quick success, Aldridge was surprisingly calm at this time.

No one knows that Aldrich actually has more than 40 years of experience in his heart.

Babu suddenly said anxiously: “Patrick made a mistake in yesterday’s game. Although he has calmed down, I worry that it will put him under pressure. I suggest letting him start with familiarity with English football and let him go It’s okay to play in the youth team game or the reserve team game. In short, don’t let him go directly to the league stage.”

Aldridge nodded deeply, saying: “This is the focus of my meeting today to discuss. There are many young players in our team who have no previous professional league experience, and some only played at the level of the youth team. So, I want to study with you the schedule of the reserve team and the youth team, so that these young players can get exercise gradually.”

In the past, Millwall did not participate in the reserve league. Only one youth team in the echelon needed to play, but it only trained young players. In recent years, it has had little effect. After Aldridge took over the team, the first team could not sell or The younger players who feel that they are promising are all delegated to the reserve team. The number is enough to make up a team, and they signed up for the reserve league this season.

Jenson came up with two schedules, which are the league schedule of the reserve team and the youth team.

Aldrich said: “Call the coaches of the reserve team and the youth team to let them bring the team player information. We not only want to let the players participate in the reserve team and the youth team competition, but also design and frontline The team’s consistent tactics and let other players serve these players’ growth.”

To put it bluntly, it is to let other players who have no hope in Aldrich’s eyes accompany the prince.

This kind of thing is unspoken in the English club, even Manchester United are doing it, and the outstanding star of hope surrounds some unknown young players to practice for him, and even has a lawsuit, but in the end it is gone. .

Now Millwall is pushing down and rebuilding, the youth team and the reserve team are more like a decoration, so it is understandable that Aldridge’s plan to directly participate in these two teams.

For two days, Aldridge and the entire coaching staff studied the technical characteristics of the players in the team, designed tactics for young players to get more exercise, and instilled in the coaches of the youth team and the reserve team.

On Wednesday, Aldridge began to study the intelligence of opponent Black Cat Sunderland on the weekend. The entire coaching staff had almost no day off. He usually supervised the players to train. When the players rested, they gathered together to prepare for the weekend.

Although he got up early every day, Aldridge didn’t feel exhausted at all, but felt that his life was very fulfilling. He returned early and returned home. Besides going to bed, he had no time to deal with other things.

At the preparatory meeting before Friday, Aldridge found that the first team players were more serious than at this time last week, with a meticulous expression. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Aldridge, and his ears were ready to listen to him to arrange tactics.

Seeing this scene, Aldridge knew what was happening. The last four goals won the Allianz League. He and the players have established a foundation of mutual trust.

That’s good, listen to me, and be sure!

Jenson began to write and paint on the tactical board, and Aldridge calmly said to the players: “Our opponent in the next league is Sunderland. This team was a midfielder in the league last season. Their characteristics and Not obvious. It is the team with the fewest goals among the top twelve teams. The number of goals conceded is also ranked in the middle. From the last round of Bristol City where their away draw was weak, they still put this season. More energy is devoted to defense, but after all, they are at home, so we have to be careful about accidents that cause a ship to overturn.”

Aldridge patiently analyzed the opponent’s offensive routines for the team. What the team needs to pay attention to in the defense, and then combined with the formation pattern on the tactical board said: “Most of the opponent’s back line is shrinking near the restricted area, will not Too much space is given to us, so during the offense, our two forwards need to constantly run to pull out the pass. Robert and Bernd, your pass line is to cooperate with the corresponding side forward and run on the forward. When the ball is inserted diagonally into the ribs, the ball will be directed to that side. After receiving the ball, the forwards can cross the penalty area or knock back outside the penalty area. There are Bernd and Robert coming over to meet. Pavel can properly come forward and tandem the offensive attack , To ensure that the ball is constantly in motion, not to stay too much on one side or under the feet of a player. Remember?”

The players who listened carefully listened in unison: “Remember, boss!”

Aldridge clapped his hands and said, “Very well, the meeting is over, and we will play a beautiful game tomorrow, but we must remember not to treat our opponents as Allianz, and treat each game as your most important game. .”