Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 13

< 012. Will You Prove It? >

Rondo was just a warm-up.

The real training started with pattern drills.

Patterns, commonly referred to as partial tactics.

Partial tactics range from simple ones created by two players to complex patterns involving three, four, or more players.

There are also defensive and offensive patterns, and even within the same situation, there can be three or four different patterns.

Players in a game must, of course, be familiar with all these patterns.

That’s the basics.

However,

it’s not an easy task even though it is basic.

Memorizing all those patterns is difficult enough, but internalizing them so they come out naturally in a real game is challenging even for veterans.

Especially for Johan, who had just joined the team training and lacked experience, it would be even more so.

‘Shouldn’t they at least explain it?’

Johan scratched his head while waiting his turn with the other players in his group.

He had felt it since arriving at the training ground, but the first-team training felt quite unwelcoming.

In the academy, they at least gave some explanation before training.

Move like this, kick like that.

At least they explained the purpose of the training before proceeding.

But,

here, no one was giving any explanations at all.

The coaches were just holding whistles in their mouths, and the players were already familiar with the patterns, executing them without a word.

The only time the coaches took the whistle from their mouths was to yell at players who made mistakes.

No one was explaining to Johan what his role was or how he should move.

And that wasn’t all.

“Okay, next!”

Johan tried to perform the partial tactics with a few other players as his turn came.

Since he hadn’t received any explanation, he decided to move instinctively.

An attacking situation from the right corner flag.

The winger, who had broken through the flank with a one-two pass, passed the ball to Johan, who was standing near the box. Johan received the pass, turned naturally, and shot with his left foot, hitting the corner of the net.

‘I guess this is it.’

Having scored quite impressively, Johan turned around, expecting to receive praise.

But,

“You can’t move like that! Wrong! Do it right next time! Next!”

“···?”

The coach’s reaction was the opposite of what he had expected.

The coach just yelled and sent Johan back.

From Johan’s perspective, it was absurd.

First of all, he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t move like that.

He had scored a goal, hadn’t he?

In a real game, a shot like that would definitely be a goal. He was sure of it.

So what was wrong?

But even if he conceded that it was a wrong move, shouldn’t they tell him why it was wrong?

Without any explanation, just telling him to do it right next time.

Johan couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger, and on his next turn, he scored even more spectacularly.

However,

“Wrong! Do it properly next time!”

The coach’s reaction remained the same.

Repeatedly.

“···”

Feeling wronged, Johan looked at Coach Schmidt.

However, Coach Schmidt didn’t make eye contact.

Coach Maxwell had clearly said that this coach wanted to see him.

But now that he had called him up, he wasn’t even looking at him.

‘I wasn’t expecting a welcome, but.’

Johan felt somewhat upset.

It was completely different from what he had imagined.

His dad and his brother, all those who had been happy about his first-team call-up had told him that he would do well.

They had said that everyone would be surprised and that the coaches and manager would quickly fall for him.

But instead of falling for him, the coach was yelling at him, and the manager wasn’t even paying attention.

If that was the case, why had they called him here?

It’s not like he wanted to come. They were the ones who called him.

This is so unfair.

“···”

Johan, who had been sulking with such thoughts, scratched his head.

‘Why am I feeling wronged?’

In fact,

when he thought about it, it should have been a welcome situation for Johan.

No one giving instructions, no one paying attention.

Even being scolded should have been a welcome situation.

If he wasn’t good enough for the first team, he would be sent back to the U-18 team, and then he wouldn’t have to train so hard.

From Johan’s perspective, it was a good thing.

But he didn’t feel good right now.

Why?

Until now, the only criticism Johan had received was that he wasn’t working hard enough.

And those nagging comments were just annoying, not infuriating.

But,

now he was being told he was ‘wrong.’

It was the difference between ‘why aren’t you doing it’ and ‘why can’t you do it.’

‘This is annoying.’

Johan suddenly felt annoyed.

He was annoyed at himself for being angry.

It was a feeling he was experiencing for the first time.

The feeling of wanting to prove to those who said he was wrong that there was nothing wrong.

Johan knew very well that changing other people’s minds was a very troublesome thing.

But,

he was annoyed that he felt like doing that troublesome thing.

“Not this time either! Again! Next!”

“Tch!”

Because it was a feeling he was experiencing for the first time, Johan didn’t even know what to call that feeling.

“Stubbornness?”

“Yes. Stubbornness. Another word for genius is, inflexible.”

After the morning training session.

The training ground was deserted as the players had left for lunch.

Coach Schmidt and Assistant Coach Jamie were sitting on the stands, talking.

They were talking about Johan, whom they had watched during the morning training.

“Why are all geniuses so stubborn?”

“Hmm. I wonder?”

“At least in their field, they’ve never been wrong, that’s why. Throughout their lives, their thoughts, words, and actions have all been right. So how can they not be stubborn?”

“That’s true.”

“These guys never believe what others say. They only believe in themselves. Because they’ve never been wrong. So geniuses can’t help but be stubborn. Ah, of course.”

“?”

“Geniuses are usually stubborn, but that doesn’t mean all stubborn guys are geniuses.”

“Haha···”

During the partial tactics training that lasted for over an hour,

Coach Schmidt deliberately didn’t give Johan, who was having his first training session today, any explanations or instructions.

How to move, what to think while moving, nothing at all.

It wasn’t because this was first-team training.

Just because a player is playing in the first-team professional league doesn’t mean they can play perfectly without explanation.

If that were the case, there would be no reason for a manager to exist.

Coach Schmidt was a manager famous for his very detailed partial tactics, and he was a manager who thoroughly demanded players to play according to the tactics instead of giving them autonomy.

Therefore, even for training that was repeated every day, he always repeated the same explanations to the players.

You have to move like this, you have to move like that.

However, the reason he didn’t do that for Johan, who was having his first training session today, was because he had to say that he was unconditionally wrong.

Johan was a guy who had the ability to follow exactly once he was told the answer.

He could tell just by watching him do Rondo for 10 minutes.

He was a guy who had never been caught as the tagger among the first-team players.

He was definitely a talented guy.

If that was the case, he would definitely be able to do it in one go, even if it was a tactic he was experiencing for the first time.

But today, he had to tell him that he was ‘wrong,’ and that was why he didn’t tell him the answer in advance.

“Honestly, you held back a lot, didn’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You wanted to say, ‘That’s right, good job!’ I saw your lips twitching.”

Coach Schmidt snorted at Coach Jamie’s words, but the words were true.

Coach Schmidt had held back a lot.

Praise, that is.

There are actually many players who do it right away when you tell them one thing.

There are so many players like that that you can find them all over the 2nd and 3rd leagues.

But,

there aren’t many players who figure out how to do it on their own without being told.

Johan was like that.

Even though he wasn’t given any explanations, Johan showed great plays in every situation and slammed the ball into the goal.

That’s why there were more than a few times when Coach Schmidt almost shouted ‘Nice’ without realizing it.

Even though Coach Schmidt knew that he should never praise him today.

“Definitely, after seeing it today, I think your method will work, Coach. He was training hard.”

“What? Did you think I’d be wrong?”

“Hey, that’s not what I meant. I was a little doubtful. If you just keep telling a guy with no will that he’s wrong, wrong. I actually thought it would break even the will he had.”

“That’s proof that you’re still a kid.”

The reason why he had to say that Johan was wrong, even though the talent he showed was undeniable, was simple.

“Usually, when you tell ordinary guys that they’re wrong, they think, ‘Ah, I was wrong,’ and try to fix it. But geniuses don’t fix it. Instead, they think about proving it. Stubbornly.”

Coach Schmidt knew how to handle geniuses.

He was almost a master in this field.

Coach Schmidt knew that lazy geniuses wouldn’t change no matter how much you yelled at them to work harder.

Instead, all you had to do was scratch their pride.

That you’re wrong.

Then, without having to yell at them, they try to prove that they’re not wrong.

Because geniuses were beings who never broke their stubbornness.

In fact,

the training attitude Johan showed during the morning training was one that no one could call lazy.

Every time he shouted, ‘That’s not it! Wrong!’ he became more serious about training.

He must have been angry.

Because he wasn’t wrong, but they were saying he was.

If he had been told he was wrong one more time, he might have snapped.

Knowing exactly that line and ending the training was also Coach Schmidt’s control ability.

“There was a reason why you’re so stubborn, Coach.”

“Uh-huh. Are you just realizing it now?”

“Ah, you also said earlier that just because you’re stubborn doesn’t mean you’re a genius, right? I guess. If you were a genius, Coach, our team would be in 5th place by now···”

“What? This guy. Is that my fault? It’s not my fault! If I were the Manchester City manager, we would be undefeated right now!”

“Then you would have gone to Manchester City··· Ack!”

“You’re always asking for it. Always asking for it. A head coach should be thinking about how to earn points!”

Coach Schmidt sighed.

Coach Jamie rubbed his pinched sideburns.

“Anyway, is it that simple? If we just keep doing this, will he keep working hard?”

“Of course not.”

Coach Schmidt shook his head at Coach Jamie’s question.

It was clear that he had felt the emotion of wanting to prove himself, but this was just the first step.

The road was long, and now he had to move on to the second step.

“What’s the second step?”

“Since he wants to prove himself, we have to give him a chance to prove it.”