Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 110

110. Europa, Europa

Amidst Hyungmin’s sigh, the ball arced across the field to Martin Minchev, a Bulgarian national team player starting as a right-wing attacker for Sparta Prague.

A subtle, yet decisive feint stole a beat from Burnley’s defense. They had initially focused on Adam Hložek on the left flank after the goalkeeper’s shout, but Minchev’s move caught them off guard.

The moment Burnley’s defensive midfielder, Nico Gonzalez, realized his mistake and turned towards Martin Minchev, Sparta Prague’s defensive midfielder, Michal Sáček, who had sprinted forward, collided with him.

“Ugh!”

Had he fallen, he could have appealed for a foul, but Sáček’s body check was cleverly executed, just enough to throw him off balance without sending him to the ground.

If it had been Nicolas Seiwald, nicknamed the ‘Destroyer of Burnley,’ he would have countered the challenge with brute force, but the young midfielder from Barcelona’s youth team wasn’t as adept at physical battles.

Nico Gonzalez regained his footing after being pushed back a few steps.

But it was too late.

“Watch the flank!” Anel Ahmedhodžić, seeing Nico Gonzalez blocked, sprinted towards the edge of the penalty area to contain Sparta Prague’s winger, Martin Minchev. He barked instructions at Burnley’s central defenders, Miika Marmol and Nathan Collins, who were holding the defensive line.

Burnley’s defensive line, which had been a solid wall, suddenly shifted into an isosceles triangle.

The young Bulgarian winger, as if anticipating this, threaded a low, fast diagonal pass between Burnley’s two central defenders.

“Nathan!!” Burnley’s goalkeeper, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, watching the play unfold, shouted urgently. Adam Hložek, Sparta Prague’s young ace, had sprinted into the penalty box from the opposite side of Martin Minchev, and was now surging between Burnley’s young defender and the goalkeeper, maintaining his speed.

From the goalkeeper’s shout to Martin Minchev receiving the ball, to his quick dribble and pass, it all happened in a matter of seconds.

Nathan Collins and Miika Marmol spun around at the desperate shout, but they were too late.

Bailey Peacock-Farrell, abandoning any hope of support, instinctively and through sheer training, spread his arms and legs wide, attempting to narrow Adam Hložek’s shooting angle in the sudden one-on-one situation.

With the tall goalkeeper sprawling to cover as much of the goal as possible, Adam Hložek glanced at the ball rolling smoothly in front of him, then quickly checked the goal’s position.

The shooting lanes to the front and sides were already blocked by Burnley’s goalkeeper.

Silently acknowledging the opponent’s quick reaction, the young ace of Sparta Prague, already seasoned beyond his years, gently nudged the ball with the inside of his right foot, sending a soft shot under the goalkeeper’s body.

“Ah!” Adam Hložek watched the ball slip through the legs of the opposing goalkeeper, who could only watch helplessly.

“Uwaaaaa!!!” As Sparta Prague’s home fans, sensing victory, erupted in a frenzy, the young Czech ace sprinted to the corner flag, pounding his fist on the badge emblazoned on his chest, roaring in unison with the crowd.

***

In the end, Burnley lost 2-1 in the 6th match of the Europa League Group E qualifiers.

With the standings flipped at the last moment, Burnley, with 4 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss, finished 2nd in Group E with 13 points. Sparta Prague, with 5 wins and 1 loss, finished 1st with 15 points.

This meant Burnley would face a team eliminated from the Champions League group stage in the Europa League’s preliminary round of 16, which would resume in January after the Qatar World Cup.

But the bad news didn’t stop there.

“The test results are in… Max has a hamstring injury due to accumulated fatigue. He’ll be out for about 3 weeks… practically, he’ll be back after the World Cup.”

Team doctor Simon Morris’s report was grim.

Injuries were mounting from the relentless, fierce matches, and the problem was their concentration in the attack.

In Hyungmin’s tactics, the flanks were inevitably overloaded, leading to problems in the continuous games since September.

“Ugh! This damn World Cup! Who the hell decided to hold the World Cup in winter!” Hyungmin, after reviewing the list of injured players, exploded in anger.

His coaching staff, now accustomed to such outbursts, ignored him and continued the conversation.

“Um… then we should assume that both Max and Dwight will practically be unavailable before the World Cup.”

Team doctor Simon Morris nodded at Carolina’s point.

Burnley’s young ace, Dwight McNeil, wasn’t even included in the away squad to ensure he got rest for the Sparta Prague game, but he was injured in the last team training session at Burnley’s Barnfield Training Centre before heading to Prague.

Dwight McNeil suffered an ankle injury due to accumulated fatigue.

This one was a 4-week injury.

“Then the left-wing attacker position will be heavily burdened… We’d have to pull someone from the right to use a natural attacker, but we can’t move Karim [Adeyemi, Burnley’s right-wing attacker], so the only alternative is Joe [Gelhardt, Burnley’s striker].”

Both Karim Adeyemi and Joe Gelhardt are left-footed, but unlike Karim Adeyemi, who has been a fixture on the right since his youth, Joe Gelhardt is also comfortable playing on the left wing.

Moreover, sacrificing the explosive attacking power that Karim Adeyemi creates with Guga [Burnley’s right-back] on the right was out of the question.

Paulo Morais pointed out the issue, and Carolina glanced at the manager muttering next to her with his head in his hands, then ignored him and continued the conversation.

“I think we should bring Charlie [Taylor, Burnley’s left-back] or Jamal [Lewis, Burnley’s left-back] up to the left-wing attacker position until the World Cup.”

“Um… then both flanks will be overloaded.”

“Haa…”

Jamal Lewis, who was recruited as the starting left-back.

Charlie Taylor, who was the starting left-back last season, but has been showing solid performance this season, moving between the right and left flanks, and showed his attacking skills by scoring a great goal in the last game.

Alternatives existed, and the grueling schedule of the first half of the season that was predicted before the season started was coming to an end, but the squad was starting to show the strain.

Of course, this was a common problem not only for Burnley but also for almost all European clubs, and it was also a factor that made the managers of each national team participating in the World Cup finals anxious.

“Instead, we have plenty of central defenders, so if necessary, we can shift Nathan [Collins, Burnley’s center-back] or Abdu [Diallo, Burnley’s center-back] to the right or left to reinforce the defense.”

Nathan Collins, a right-footed player who has experience playing as a right-back, and Abdu Diallo, a left-footed player who also has experience playing as a left-back.

They had to fill the vacant spots by rotating the players they could use somehow.

Paulo Morais expressed concern about Carolina’s idea.

“It’s okay because the left side has been focusing on defense from the beginning, but if we put Nathan as a right-back, we won’t be able to spread the width by going up like Guga or Charlie, will we?”

In the case of a team like Burnley with a thin squad, if a long-term vacancy occurs in one position, it can affect other positions.

“Well… there are only two games left now. It’ll work out somehow.”

“…Those two games are the proxy war for the Roses Derby, though?”

“…”

***

Looking at a season’s schedule, sometimes a being, whether it’s the goddess of fate or the schedule-generating computer, seems to play tricks.

Due to the unpredictable nature of cup competitions, a two-game series might be scheduled with local rivals who would normally meet only once in the first and second halves of the season.

Or, a cup competition game might be inserted between league games that have already been rearranged, leading to a three-game series with local rivals in a single week.

In the case of top-tier teams that regularly compete in European competitions, if teams from the same league face each other in the tournament stages, they might meet the same opponent as many as four times in one season.

However, the last two games of 2022 assigned to Burnley ahead of the start of the 2022 Qatar World Cup were a schedule that could only be described as truly bizarre.

In December of the 2021/22 season, Burnley faced Manchester United and Leeds United, the participants in the Roses Derby [a historic rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire], in quick succession, and ended up playing a proxy war for the Roses Derby due to media hype.

They had the unpleasant experience of ruining the end of the first half of the 2021/22 season by losing both games.

But in the 2022/23 season, the proxy war for the Roses Derby was revived again.

On November 6th, they would play an away game at Elland Road, Leeds’ home stadium, as the 14th round of the Premier League.

And just three days later, on November 9th, they would face Manchester United at Turf Moor, Burnley’s home stadium, as the 15th round of the Premier League.

Both are formidable opponents, and both teams were determined to achieve good results ahead of the unusual winter break to prepare for the tight schedule in the second half.

Leeds, who they faced first, were solidifying their 12th place in the Premier League with 2 wins and 2 losses in the last 4 games after going through an adaptation period with coach Jesse Marsch, who took over from Marcelo Bielsa at the start of the season.

Mysteriously, they had either won 2-1 or lost 2-1 in all 4 games, recording a total of 6 goals scored and 6 goals conceded.

They showed the fans a thrilling game that featured 3 goal scenes in every game.

On the other hand, Manchester United, where Erik ten Hag was appointed as manager, had finally shown signs of settling down with the new manager’s tactics, winning as many as 5 games in the last 6 games, except for a loss against Aston Villa, who had been on a tremendous rise under the guidance of coach Steven Gerrard.

They had only conceded 5 goals while scoring 16 goals in the last 6 games, and in particular, the combination of Marcus Rashford, a young attacker from the England national team who had fully blossomed after overcoming last season’s slump, and Bruno Fernandes, a creative midfielder from the Portuguese national team who was in sync with him, was proving devastating.

Thus, Burnley, who had no inherent rivalry with Manchester United or Leeds United except for being geographically close, were forcibly dragged back into the historically deep rivalry between the two teams.