Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 96

96. The Wall and Choices Ahead

[…We lost twice to Burnley last season. What is your resolve for tomorrow’s game?”]

[…Burnley achieved a truly respectable feat last season.]

Pep Guardiola, his thinning hair closely cropped, answered the reporter’s question calmly yet firmly in the press conference, his eyes gleaming.

[…Therefore, only respect for Burnley and Manager Kim. Again, I can only use the word respect. So, we plan to approach tomorrow’s game with the utmost focus, without any carelessness, and I have repeatedly urged the team to concentrate on the game with a thorough determination to win.]

The day before the match against Manchester City.

Hyeongmin, watching the opposing team manager’s pre-match interview on TV, clutched his head and screamed.

“No! Don’t respect us! We don’t need your utmost focus! Be careless, even a little!”

Paulo Morais, one of Burnley’s coaching staff, watched their frustrated manager with a pitiful expression, while Carolina looked on with a disapproving one, as they watched the interview together in the first team meeting room.

“Don’t be thoroughly determined!”

The young manager, who truly hated to lose, lamented as he looked at his head coach. Carolina responded to her friend by showing both palms and shrugging slightly.

Let’s see, if I interpret that gesture in the Italian version, it means…

Sorry, what can I do? Accept it.

***

[Ah, another goal for Manchester City! This time, it’s Manchester City’s ace, Kevin De Bruyne! He scores the team’s fourth goal, thwarting Burnley’s pursuit.]

[There are still about 25 minutes left in the second half. Considering the current flow of the game, it seems difficult for Burnley to close the three-goal gap.]

As the commentators lamented, the Manchester City players who scored the fourth goal gathered in front of the away fans at Turf Moor, who were cheering enthusiastically, to celebrate.

“No one likes us! (No one likes us!)”

“We don’t care! (We don’t care!)”

“We are Burnley! (We are Burnley!)”

“Super Burnley! (Super Burnley!)”

“We are Burnley! (We are Burnley!)”

“Super Burnley! (Super Burnley!)”

As if not wanting to lose hope, Burnley’s home fans were desperately chanting their support, but both the players and fans could feel their energy waning.

Considering the individual players.

And considering the entire team.

The gap between Burnley and Manchester City is too large.

Moreover, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola was exacting revenge on Burnley, who had shattered their hopes for a treble [winning three major trophies in a single season] by inflicting two losses at crucial moments last season, with tactical changes that caught Hyeongmin off guard.

Since the arrival of Norwegian monster striker Erling Haaland, Manchester City’s attack patterns, which mostly concluded with him, introduced another new pattern today.

Erling Haaland, who started as the central striker for Manchester City today, did not try to penetrate directly into the penalty box to finish passes or crosses as before. Instead, he competed with Burnley’s central defender duo, James Tarkowski and Abdou Diallo, dragging them down.

Then, Phil Foden, Manchester City’s winger, especially the left winger with tremendous speed and skill befitting his small stature, exploited the space created in the penalty box, outpacing Guga, who started as the right defender, and finishing the play.

Unfortunately, the young Brazilian defender who joined Burnley this summer transfer window has not yet fully adapted to the speed and skill of the Premier League.

Thanks to this, Guga was thoroughly exploited by the Premier League’s top-tier English national team winger in today’s game.

What if one of the central defenders doesn’t leave the penalty box to stop Phil Foden with right-back Guga?

Erling Haaland outmaneuvers one of Burnley’s central defenders who chases him with monstrous power and speed, and then penetrates back into the penalty box to receive Phil Foden’s pass and shoot.

What if two central defenders stick to Erling Haaland to stop him?

Then Phil Foden is free again.

What if Burnley calls in their midfield destroyer, Nicolas Seiwald, even deeper?

However, Sebasitan Szymański and Tommaso Pobega, who started in Burnley’s midfield today, cannot handle Manchester City’s world-class midfield trio of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, and Rodri with just two players.

Tommaso Pobega was started because he is more proficient in combative defense than Nico Gonzalez, but it is unreasonable to expect any player to handle Manchester City’s midfield in a numerically inferior situation.

As Burnley was unable to do either, Phil Foden scored Manchester City’s first goal in the first half, Erling Haaland scored the second, and Phil Foden scored the third again.

It was like a textbook-like kindness, showing several seasons ahead of the tactical goal that Burnley wants to reach with Benjamin Šeško.

Is this what you want to do? Watch and learn today.

Hyeongmin was frustrated by the hallucination of Pep Guardiola’s kind explanation being added.

James Tarkowski, the newly appointed captain, managed to score a goal from a corner kick before the end of the first half, barely preventing a scoreless first half, but now the limitations are clearly visible.

“Ugh…”

Hyeongmin let out a long groan, as if exhaling a sigh he had been holding back. Carolina, who was standing in the home team’s technical area with her arms crossed, smirked and turned her face towards him.

“Have you decided?”

“Was I supposed to decide?”

Carolina scoffed at Hyeongmin, who questioned her as if he didn’t understand.

“I know, even if others don’t. You’ve been constantly thinking about how to break through that.”

“Haa… That’s right. I’ve only been thinking.”

“Admit there’s no answer?”

“I admit that we haven’t yet prepared a solution to solve that problem right now.”

“That’s a long excuse.”

Hyeongmin’s shoulders slumped at the friend’s remark, who had repeatedly watched this young Asian friend try to slip away like a loach with long excuses whenever he didn’t want to admit the weaknesses or loopholes pointed out by the instructor at the Hennes Weisweiler Academy [a prestigious German football coaching academy].

“Okay, I got it.”

“Then I’ll proceed with the substitutions.”

He had been keeping the best players on the field to seek opportunities for victory, but unlike the leisurely August with one game a week, a grueling schedule of two games a week begins from September to the first half of November, for two and a half months.

With the Qatar World Cup being held in winter, the Premier League schedule has been brought forward and compressed, and Burnley has to play in the Carabao Cup [English Football League Cup] and the Europa League, so the game schedule is no joke.

A schedule of playing 19 games in approximately 62 days.

Since one day a week must be given as a day of rest, and only recovery training can be done the day after the game, it is virtually difficult to conduct more than basic training for the next approximately 9 weeks.

This could be a critical blow to Burnley, whose organization is not yet fully established.

Knowing that it is better to save the stamina of the starting players when possible, as the team’s organization needs to be forged through actual games rather than training…

As Carolina headed to the bench to instruct the players being substituted to warm up, Hyeongmin, who had reluctantly swallowed his lingering desire to cling to victory until the end, crossed his arms and savored his disappointment.

***

Although they were defeated 5-2 against Manchester City, Burnley became the only team to score ‘two’ goals against Manchester City since Erling Haaland joined.

Of course, that didn’t exactly comfort Hyeongmin or Burnley’s coaching staff.

“Okay, what’s past is past. Now we have a real grind ahead of us, so we need to plan well.”

Gathered in the first team meeting room were Hyeongmin, Carolina, and fitness coach Paulo Morais, just three people.

It was still a pitifully small number to call it the coaching staff of a Premier League team, but neither Hyeongmin, Carolina, nor Paulo really cared.

If there was an advantage to managing a thin squad, it was that detailed care was possible even with a small number of coaches.

“From now on, we’ll be playing in the Europa League, and we also have the Carabao Cup games in the first half of the season. So, we need to decide what to give up and what to take.”

“Of course, the league should be the top priority, right?”

Hyeongmin nodded at Carolina’s statement.

“Then we can give up on the Carabao Cup. But we’ll be facing lower league teams in the early stages, so we should expect at least 2-3 games.”

Even if we give up, we can’t just tell them to lose the game on purpose, Paulo added.

“Then that leaves the Europa League.”

All three sighed at Carolina’s words.

It was now treated like a poor cousin compared to the UEFA Champions League, but the Europa League was also a historically rich tournament with tradition.

Starting in 1955 as the ‘Inter-Cities Fairs Cup,’ it began as a friendly match held by cities that hosted trade fairs, which became active after World War II.

In 1971, UEFA [Union of European Football Associations] officially changed it to a formal competition called the ‘UEFA Cup,’ and the format of the tournament was changed to include teams that achieved a certain ranking or higher in the top leagues of each country that made up the European Football Association.

Then, in 1999, it merged with the ‘UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup,’ a competition between the winners of domestic cup competitions organized by each country’s football association, to become the current Europa League.

Therefore, in the case of England, the winner of the FA Cup [Football Association Challenge Cup], which is organized by the English Football Association, is given one spot in the Europa League, and the team that finishes 5th in the Premier League is given the other spot.

Of course, from the players’ perspective, European competitions are a place to gain honor and showcase their skills by competing against strong teams from other leagues.

The problem is that for Premier League clubs that are at the level to participate in the Europa League, it doesn’t greatly help the club’s finances other than honor.

“How much was the prize money for winning the Europa League last season?”

At Hyeongmin’s question, Carolina briefly searched on her laptop and answered.

“The prize money for the winning team is 8.6 million euros, and the runner-up gets 4.6 million euros. Once you join the group stage, you receive 3.63 million euros, and then 630,000 euros for each win, and 210,000 euros for a draw. And the prize money is added when you move on to the round of 16 in a tournament format.”

Even if you start from the group stage like Burnley, there are 6 games in the first half of the season.

If you pass the qualifiers, you will play 6 games from the round of 16 to the semi-finals in the second half, and then the final.

A maximum of 13 games is added to Burnley’s thin squad.

Of course, if they achieve the incredible feat of winning all 13 games, they would receive a considerable income of 23.41 million euros, approximately 20 million pounds.

However, the Champions League secures 20.64 million euros, approximately 17.7 million pounds, as soon as they advance to the group stage, so the prize money is on a different level.

So, the top clubs in the Premier League are desperate to finish in the top 4, which is the Champions League qualification spot, rather than achieving good results in the Europa League.

In addition, in the Premier League, 2 million pounds are added for every step up in the rankings, which can be decided by goal difference if you are lucky or unlucky.

Moreover, the better you do in the league, the more you can contribute to the club’s finances by participating in European competitions next year.

In the end, Hyeongmin, torn between the desire to achieve good results in European competitions and the fear that his thin squad would not be able to withstand it, asked Paulo.

“First of all, what is the current state of the squad?”

“Well… I want to say that it’s positive that there are no significant injuries among the starters, except for Abdou Diallo.”

Paulo, who was scanning the squad list and data, muttered as if slightly angry.

“What the hell did this bastard eat during the summer vacation that he got a rectus abdominis [abdominal muscle] injury in a place that no one else gets…”

“Then how long will Abdou be out…?”

“About 3 weeks until he can play in a game? I think we need to monitor the progress for a while.”

“Then, aside from Abdou, what about the squad as a whole?”

At the manager’s question, the Portuguese fitness coach let out a long sigh.

“Physically… the overall condition of the squad is terrible. It’s better than in the pre-season, but even analyzing the four games in August, the amount of activity, the number of sprints, and the number of pressures have all plummeted compared to last season. The problem is that there isn’t enough time to conduct proper physical training for the next two months.”

Paulo sighed again.

“Especially young players who are not familiar with this training method, such as Chris, Mika, and Jamal, will need to be carefully monitored. We need to closely monitor their training volume and game time.”

Cristian Medina, Mika Marmol, and Jamal Lewis need to carefully build up their fitness and settle in, as they are not used to this intense training method or the physically demanding pressure.

Hyeongmin covered his face at the fitness coach’s comment that he might not be able to properly utilize the left-back starter and backup he had planned for this season in the first half of the season.

“It feels like the left side is going to collapse…”

“Well, if it’s urgent, we can turn Charlie back to that side, or maybe Max… Ah, no. Max can’t defend. Abdou can also be deployed as a left-back in an emergency, but he’s currently out with an injury.”

Hyeongmin flinched at Carolina’s comment, which was either comforting or a reality check.

“Since the summer transfer market is still open for a few more days, how about additionally loaning a left-back?”

Paulo cautiously suggested to Hyeongmin, who was frustrated.