Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 111

111. Rose Derby Has Nothing to Do With Us!

“Haa… This is annoying.”

Hyungmin, slumped deep in the chair in the conference room, lamented.

The actual opponent is Burnley, but the media and critics are eager to seize the last hot topic in the Premier League before the World Cup. They’re busy talking about the proxy war of the Rose Derby [a historic rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire, here referring to the match between Manchester United and Leeds United], which is happening for the second consecutive season.

Manchester United and Leeds United played their game early in the season, making it difficult for it to remain a hot topic until the second half. This happened because there were no other big matches or rivalries between the top teams.

“It’s not like we’re a consulting firm that measures skills…”

“I wish it were an exhibition match with prize money from a media company.”

Paulo Morao, who collapsed into the chair next to Hyungmin, lamented.

The grueling schedule of playing 23 games from the opening game on August 6 to November 9, a little over 3 months, is coming to an end.

However, even with the first half over, the fitness coach and team doctor are most anxious about the condition of the players called up for the World Cup, as they have to get them back to peak condition.

Currently, there are a total of 5 players who have been announced or are expected to be called up for the World Cup.

Goalkeeper Nick Pope, who will likely join the England national team as the third goalkeeper.

Abdou Diallo, the main center back for the Senegal national team.

Wout Weghorst, the backup center forward for the Netherlands national team.

Sebastian Szymanski, the main central midfielder for the Poland national team.

And Karim Adeyemi, a striker who received a slightly unexpected call-up to the German national team.

Among them, Nick Pope, Wout Weghorst, and Karim Adeyemi aren’t expected to play many games, but they inevitably accumulate more fatigue than other players simply from maintaining their game sense while continuing to train instead of taking a break.

In addition, Sebastian Szymanski and Abdou Diallo, who are key members of the Polish and Senegalese national teams, respectively, are likely to play all three group stage matches, and there’s no telling how many more games they’ll play if they advance further in the tournament.

It’s common for injuries to occur mainly among players who were called up to the national team in the season after a major tournament like the World Cup is held during the summer break.

It wasn’t unreasonable for fitness coach Paulo Morao to be stressed out ahead of the World Cup.

“Well… I think it’s best to focus on caring for Sebastian and Abdou. Since James or Anel are there for Abdou, I think we can give him a little more rest before and after the World Cup, but Sebastian…”

Hyungmin, who was consulting with Paulo Morao, trailed off.

It’s a good thing that the young midfielder from the Poland national team is showing his peak performance after a short adaptation period following his recruitment from Dynamo Moscow, performing well with 8 goal contributions in 14 Premier League games with 3 goals and 5 assists.

However, the problem is that Czesław Michniewicz, the coach of the Polish national team, has been paying attention to his peak performance and has recently been playing him for almost 90 minutes in all national team matches, designating him as the core axis to support Robert Lewandowski, Poland’s world-class central striker.

“Haa… There’s nothing we can do. We have to assume that Sebastian will play all 3 games in Qatar. Group C, which Poland is in, also includes Argentina, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia, so we can’t take any game lightly.”

Paulo Morao sighed and muttered gloomily.

“I think it is highly likely that Sebastian’s game time will have to be limited in January.”

“Haa…”

This time it was Hyungmin’s turn to sigh.

“Why are you all so depressed?”

Carolina, who entered the conference room, looked down at the two men who were sighing deeply and asked.

“Just because of the World Cup…”

“World Cup? It’s nothing.”

Hyungmin and Paulo Morau simultaneously made incredulous expressions at the words of the former German women’s national team star midfielder who has two World Cup winning medals at home.

“Honestly, no matter how much organization a national team has, stamina is halved after passing the group stage, and mentality is more than halved from the semi-finals. The side that runs one step further is more likely to win.”

“We’re worried about that stamina being completely drained.”

“Oh, that? Well… you just have to think of them as injured during January and prepare.”

Hyungmin was about to get angry at Carolina, who was speaking casually as if it were someone else’s problem, but Carolina turned on the large screen on one side of the conference room without paying attention.

“Okay, let’s worry about other people’s business later. What’s important to us now is Leeds.”

What Carolina put on the screen were the main match scenes of Leeds United, edited by a video analyst.

“Jesse is mainly using the 4-4-2 formation this season, right?”

Carolina nodded at Hyungmin’s question.

“Well, there are a lot of familiar faces here too.”

In Leeds United’s main 4-4-2 formation, the reliable goalkeeper is France’s young prospect, Illan Meslier.

The right back is Rasmus Kristensen from RB Salzburg, who was recruited in the summer transfer market and took the starting position, pushing out vice-captain Luke Ayling.

The center backs are Diego Llorente and Pascal Struijk.

The left back was Junior Firpo, who was recruited from Barcelona, but as the season progressed, his unstable defense gradually became exposed, and they’ve increasingly been using Stuart Dallas, who recently returned from a long-term injury.

In midfield, Jack Harrison and Luis Sinisterra play on the right and left sides, respectively, and Patrick Bamford and Wales national team’s Daniel James have firmly established themselves as starters in the front line.

“As expected, the center is still unstable, right? Jesse hasn’t decided for sure, has he?”

As Hyungmin muttered while looking at the record, Carolina nodded.

“He’s using different combinations depending on the opponent… I think it’s fair to say that he hasn’t found the best combination yet. Calvin Phillips’ departure was a big blow.”

Calvin Phillips, who reached his full potential under coach Marcelo Bielsa and quickly rose to become the starting midfielder for the England national team, left his parent team with a transfer fee of 41.6 million pounds in the summer transfer market and headed to Manchester City.

In Manchester City, he was fiercely competing for the starting position with Rodri, the existing starting defensive midfielder, but his skills were so solid that there was no loss of power no matter who started.

After the departure of the youth midfielder who combined activity, defense, and excellent passing ability, Leeds United was having difficulty forming the two central midfield positions.

In addition, Brazilian striker Raphinha, who was in charge of Leeds United’s attack under coach Marcelo Bielsa, transferred to Barcelona, ​​leaving the club with a huge sum of 55 million pounds.

With the core lost in midfield and attack, Leeds United recruited a total of 3 midfielders in the summer transfer market to reinforce the midfield, which had been pointed out as a problem since last season.

Brendan Aaronson, a member of the US national team, was recruited from RB Salzburg for 27 million pounds.

Tyler Adams, a member of the US national team, was recruited from RB Leipzig for 14.3 million pounds.

Marc Roca, a Spanish national, was recruited from Bayern Munich for 10 million pounds.

It was said that Jesse Marsch’s influence, who has connections with the United States and Red Bull, from New York Red Bulls, RB Salzburg, and RB Leipzig, where he has US nationality, played a large role, but at the same time, there is no doubt that they are promising young players.

The problem is how to combine them with Mateusz Klich, a Polish midfielder who remained in the existing team.

Since there are a total of 4 midfielders, there are 6 possible pairings.

However, defensive midfielder Tyler Adams and attacking midfielder Brendan Aaronson are excellent in activity but aren’t creative midfielders.

On the other hand, Marc Roca has excellent passing ability but relatively low activity.

And Mateusz Klich was trusted by coach Marcelo Bielsa because he had both activity and creative passing ability, but he was gradually feeling physically burdened to play many games as he was over 30 years old.

Therefore, if the American duo of Tyler Adams and Brendan Aaronson are used in midfield, they block the opponent’s activity, but creative passes don’t come out when developing the attack, and the dependence on developing the attack from the side increases.

Conversely, if Tyler Adams and Marc Roca are set up together, defense and creativity are complemented, but since both have a strong defensive tendency, they tend to sit back and solidify the defense rather than pressing from the front.

In addition, if Brendan Aaronson and Marc Roca are set up together, the opponent teams will target Marc Roca’s low activity in the midst of Brendan Aaronson’s lack of defensive support.

A similar problem occurs even if Brendan Aaronson and Mateusz Klich are played together.

In the end, the most stable combination was to set up Tyler Adams and Mateusz Klich together, but then a substitution had to be made in the second half due to physical burden.

Therefore, in the last 4 games, the games that Leeds United won were the games in which they succeeded in locking down the game after taking the lead in the first half and then Marc Roca was replaced with Mateusz Klich in the second half.

On the other hand, the games they lost were the cases where the side was blocked and the game ended after Brendan Aaronson was put in instead of Mateusz Klich in the second half while being pushed back in the first half, or the attack development became ambiguous after Marc Roca was put in and sat back.

“I’m sorry to Jesse, but the shortcomings are still too obvious. Shouldn’t they reinforce the midfield with more players in the winter transfer market?”

“It will be difficult for Leeds’ finances to spend a lot of money in the winter following the summer transfer market. If they can maintain their performance in the mid-table, they will skip this winter and make additional signings next summer. They will also have to 정리 [jeongni – Korean for ‘sort out’ or ‘organize,’ implying a restructuring of the team] some of the existing players.”

Given the structure of Leeds United, which is reorganizing the team around young and promising prospects like Burnley, veteran midfielder Mateusz Klich is most likely to be released, whether they like it or not.

Of course, it wasn’t Hyungmin’s place to worry about, who contributed to releasing all veterans over the age of 30 last season.

As if reading his thoughts, Carolina shrugged.

“Well, it’s not our place to worry about, is it? Then, let’s approach the Leeds game like this.”