Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 10

10. Interim Manager

The Carabao Cup, originally known as the League Cup, was considered less prestigious than England’s FA Cup, the oldest cup competition in the world.

Nevertheless, it was a major tournament involving 92 clubs from the Premier League, England’s top division, down to League Two, the fourth division.

Due to the tournament’s structure, upsets often occurred, with weaker teams achieving thrilling victories against stronger ones. Stronger teams often rotated their squads, giving opportunities to reserve players.

As a result, it was also the only tournament where mid-table Premier League teams could realistically aim for a title.

Of course, this was irrelevant to Burnley, a team barely surviving match by match with a squad as thin as paper and considered a prime candidate for relegation.

“This Carabao Cup second round is against Everton. Well, I assume you aren’t expecting much from it?”

It was Tuesday morning, the week after the away win against Brentford.

With no new manager appointed yet, Hyungmin, as the interim manager, had been asked to attend the regular board meeting.

Mike Garlic and John Banaszkiewicz gave wry smiles and shook their heads at Hyungmin’s words.

“We don’t want to put that much pressure on you.”

“Yes, so for this game, I plan to give opportunities to players who haven’t had much playing time. Well, even saying that, the available squad is so thin that it doesn’t mean much…”

Hyungmin sighed deeply and continued, shaking his head.

“Still, we need to give rest when we can to somehow get through the regular season.”

The board members all wore dark expressions at the interim manager’s painful observation.

“But we beat Everton in the first round, and they have a new manager, so shouldn’t we have a chance?”

Helena tried to highlight the positive aspects, but Hyungmin looked at her with an incredulous expression.

“Everton is a traditional powerhouse that has never been relegated from the Premier League! Last season alone, under Carlo Ancelotti, they finished 10th. We, who barely survived by finishing 17th, can’t be compared to them. Moreover, this game is at Goodison Park.”

Mike Garlic and John Banaszkiewicz flinched at Hyungmin’s blunt remarks, and Helena also smiled sheepishly and quietly backed down.

Watching the directors, Hyungmin hoped that Arthur wasn’t pushing the first-team players too hard in his absence.

***

As he’d said, Hyungmin rotated as many players as possible, replacing all but four players from the previous two games: right-back Matt Lowton, midfielders Jack Cork, Ashley Westwood, and Josh Brownhill, for whom there were no replacements.

Especially in the defense, left-back Erik Pieters was an aging veteran whose physical condition was declining, center-back Kevin Long was a perennial substitute, and the other center-back, Nathan Collins, was only a 20-year-old prospect.

Nevertheless, Burnley held their own against Frank Lampard’s Everton, repeatedly pressing high, intercepting, and launching quick counter-attacks.

Of course, at a club like Burnley, the difference in skill between the starting players and the reserves was clear.

Therefore, it was inevitable that the quality and quantity of opportunities created by the reserves—Johann Berg Gudmundsson, Ashley Barnes, and Maxwel Cornet—were relatively lacking compared to the chances created by the starters: Dwight McNeil, Chris Wood, and Jay Rodriguez in the final attack.

“Should we switch Gudmundsson and Cornet’s positions?”

Hyungmin asked Arthur, who approached him as he watched Burnley’s starting lineup waste another attacking opportunity with a futile cross.

“I don’t think it’ll change much. Look at them floundering.”

“Sigh…”

Hyungmin sighed and looked at the bench.

The seven substitutes allowed in the Carabao Cup were sitting on the bench, all of whom had played almost 180 minutes in the previous two games and would have to play as starters in future matches.

The Premier League has 38 regular games. Including cup games, they had to be prepared to play 40 to 45 games.

Considering not only the physical strain but also the potential injuries, it was right for Burnley, with their thin squad, to give up what they could afford to give up.

And as interim manager, he couldn’t hand over the squad to the new manager with the players overburdened.

“For now… let’s go with this for the first half.”

“For now?”

“If we’re clearly losing, we’ll keep going like this in the second half too. Otherwise… still, not trying too hard is a bit much, right?”

“Hehehe. I agree. Of course, we have to do our best in every game!”

It wasn’t helpful in terms of managing the squad’s fitness, but the still-youthful manager (interim) and the old head coach (interim), who was past his retirement age, exchanged meaningful glances.

In the 60th minute, when the game was so tight it was starting to get dull, Hyungmin made a decisive move.

He took off the tired veteran attacker Johann Gudmundsson and moved Maxwel Cornet, who had been playing as a right-winger, to the left to take advantage of his left foot.

And he brought in veteran attacker Jay Rodriguez to fill the vacant right-wing position.

It was a substitution that hoped to shift the balance of the tight game in their favor with the veteran who had been in the best form for Burnley, recording 1 goal and 1 assist in the previous 2 games.

In contrast to Burnley’s proactive move, Everton’s Frank Lampard didn’t show any particular reaction, as if he hadn’t fully grasped the squad yet.

But as the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes.

In an ordinary attacking sequence, the ball went out to the right sideline due to an Everton touch.

While the Everton players were positioning themselves defensively, Burnley’s right-back Matt Lowton connected the throw-in to center-back Nathan Collins.

Collins then dribbled the ball to the halfway line and passed it to central striker Ashley Barnes, who had come down to the midfield to act as bait and draw out Everton’s defenders.

Thanks to the Everton players not pressing aggressively, Ashley Barnes was able to receive the ball without much interference.

Ashley Barnes, after leisurely looking around, spotted Josh Brownhill closing the distance and sent a short pass to the midfielder in charge of Burnley’s attack.

Brownhill, following the planned play, sent a long pass to Maxwel Cornet, who was rapidly surging towards the Everton goal on the left flank.

It was the same scene as countless Burnley counterattacks and Everton interceptions that had occurred in this game, except that Maxwel Cornet’s weak shot was blocked by Everton’s goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, resulting in a corner kick.

However, Burnley caused an upset on the 13th corner kick overall, Burnley’s 7th.

Ashley Barnes, who was making his first start of the season, shook off the Everton defenders marking him and connected with a header from Josh Brownhill’s corner kick.

“Uwaaaaaa!”

As Ashley Barnes ran to the corner flag and shouted in victory, and the Burnley players ran to him and embraced each other, Hyungmin scratched the back of his head.

“Huh?”

Why was he embarrassed even though they were winning?

Hyungmin stood in the technical area and wondered to himself as he watched the Burnley players’ goal celebration.

Looking to the side, the head coach, who had agreed to unnecessarily put the team’s best attacker into the cup game for 30 minutes, was wiping his face as if he was disgusted with himself.

“Shouldn’t I have put him in earlier?”

“Well… good things are good, right?”

Hyungmin tried to highlight the positive aspects in response to Arthur’s sighing words.

“Actually, winning in the big picture makes the next game more burdensome… sigh. Anyway, I’ll tell Dwight and the others to come back in.”

“Yes, that would be better. Unless someone gets injured.”

Arthur, as if telling him not to tempt fate, frowned and trudged off to instruct the Burnley substitutes who were warming up on the sidelines to sit back on the bench.

Whatever the case, it was another day that Burnley’s manager (interim) and head coach (interim) had somehow gotten through.