Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 43

< 042. There is Compatibility >

That was the title of a column that made me laugh out loud.

I almost thought someone had written it just to provoke a reaction.

But the writer wasn’t simply trying to grab attention.

It was ID VannyBoy.

Jamie Coach and even Coach Schmidt recognized the ID, so he was clearly a columnist with more expertise on West Ham than anyone else on Hammers.com [West Ham’s official website and fan forum].

Jamie Coach, who had been reading the column, nodded and muttered, “Yeah… it’s worth a try. Why was I so worried?”

“What did you say?”

“No, it’s true. Where else could we find an opponent as well-suited to us as Man City?”

“What are you reading that’s making you say all this?”

“Here. Coach, you should read it too.”

Jamie Coach handed over his phone.

Coach Schmidt started reading the column as well.

Then,

“Hmm…”

Even Coach Schmidt nodded.

It was certainly plausible.

After reading it carefully, it became clear that the title, claiming Man City was easier than Leicester, wasn’t just clickbait.

There was a definite basis for the argument.

In short, West Ham had a compatibility advantage over Man City.

The column cited Man City’s pattern of conceding goals as strong evidence.

Man City had scored 103 goals and conceded 37 in 38 games last season.

The goal difference was a significant 66 points.

But,

Looking at the absolute number of goals conceded, it wasn’t overwhelmingly low.

Chelsea, in second place, had conceded only 30 goals, fewer than Man City.

However, most of the goals Man City conceded shared a common characteristic.

They were goals conceded from counterattacks.

According to the column’s figures, 18 of the 37 goals conceded came from counterattacks, slightly less than half.

A counterattack accounting for nearly half of all goals conceded seemed like a good reason to consider Man City weak against counterattacks.

The reason for this was obvious.

Man City played with a high defensive line.

A team that maintains such a high line naturally exposes the space behind them to counterattacks.

However, the column didn’t just state the obvious; it also pointed out another key factor.

The number of corners Man City earned.

Man City was among the teams with the most corners per game.

The reason for this was also clear.

Man City recorded the highest possession rate and spent the most time attacking.

The frequency of attacks was bound to be proportional to the number of corners earned.

Moreover,

Man City frequently attacked using left and right wingers, inevitably leading to more corners than other strong teams.

But here’s the crucial point.

A corner kick is a good set-piece opportunity for the attacking team to score.

But it’s also a good situation for the defending side to launch a counterattack.

It’s obvious when you think about it.

The corner kick situation is when the opposing players are positioned deepest in your own half.

In other words, it’s when the space behind them is the widest, creating the best opportunity for a counterattack.

Even Man City’s defenders push into the box for corners, despite not having particularly tall strikers.

So,

Man City, the team that gets the most corners,

Could also be seen as the team most vulnerable to counterattacks.

The column emphasized that West Ham’s players were unusually tall, even compared to the rest of the league.

The center-back duo were both close to 190cm [approximately 6’3″], and the midfielders were all physically strong.

In fact, this season,

West Ham was conceding about 5 corners per game but hadn’t conceded a single goal from a corner kick.

Therefore,

This corner kick situation was the one area where West Ham could gain an advantage over Man City.

West Ham would inevitably have many opportunities.

The opponent’s corner kicks were bound to happen frequently.

If they capitalized on their height advantage in those situations,

They would find themselves in an ideal environment for counterattacking,

Especially with Johan, who could outrun any of Man City’s players.

So,

If they focused on training to quickly launch counterattacks from corner kick situations,

Man City would be a team with a higher chance of losing than Leicester,

The column concluded.

“Hmm…”

Coach Schmidt, having finished the column, admired it honestly.

At the same time, he was also dumbfounded.

“What was our power analyst doing?”

“I don’t know. He must have been dozing off again while watching the game.”

“How many years has that tenured guy been in that position?”

“I think it’s been about 10 years.”

“Damn it.”

The team’s power analyst was worse than an amateur.

The funny thing was, that guy was the owner’s cousin.

In other words, he was in that position because of nepotism.

That’s why Coach Schmidt had recommended a power analyst he knew, but I remembered it hadn’t been accepted.

If the team wanted to break free from the past 10 years and make a new leap forward, they had to get rid of those old ways.

What was the point of the youngest member shouting for victory alone?

The higher-ups didn’t care.

“Come to think of it, you.”

“Yes?”

“Didn’t I tell you to find out who this person was?”

“Oh, did you? I don’t remember because you asked me to do so many things…”

“Power analyst or whatever, I have to get rid of this guy first!”

Coach Schmidt sighed at Jamie Coach, who was scratching his head with a smile.

“Call the kids together right away. We have to do corner kick training.”

“Yes! I understand!”

Hey, tsk.

Jamie Coach wasn’t someone I couldn’t trust.

But when I had time, I should ask around myself.

This Vannyboy guy.

I wanted to recommend him as the team’s power analyst right away if possible.

‘Vannyboy… hmm?’

What.

Wait a minute.

Vanny…?

ㆍㆍㆍ

October 9, 2027.

London Stadium.

League 3rd place West Ham invited League 1st place, Manchester City, who were on a 7-game winning streak, to their home.

The home fans who filled the London Stadium welcomed Manchester City with wonderful cheering songs and shouts.

You could see how important today’s game was just by looking at the nearly full stadium.

West Ham had lost their first league game last week.

So if they lost again today, it would be two losses in a row.

One loss was okay, but two losses in a row could easily derail the good momentum they’d built at the beginning of the season.

So no matter how strong Man City was, West Ham had to get at least 1 point today.

Of course, they had something to believe in.

Johan’s return.

The main reason why there were so many home fans at the London Stadium today was because Johan, who had taken a break last week to recover from the fatigue of international duty, had returned.

Johan was already incredibly popular, but his popularity had soared even higher after playing for his national team.

The fans’ trust in Johan was absolute.

So there was also a funny incident.

A third-rate daily newspaper, a so-called ‘Tabloid’ [a newspaper focusing on sensational stories], published an article about Johan.

The article claimed that Johan was slacking off in training ahead of the Man City game.

The reporter claimed to have attended the training session himself and said that Johan’s attitude was very insincere.

The reporter speculated at the end of the article that Johan’s reason for slacking off was that he wanted to join Man City.

No West Ham fans believed it.

First of all, now wasn’t the time to slack off.

Above all, the fans already knew very well.

That the moment Johan showed up to work, whatever he did at the training ground could never be considered a strike [referring to a player refusing to train or play].

Just showing up to work was a great thing for Johan.

West Ham fans cheered when they heard that Johan had attended all 5 days of training without missing a single one.

It meant that Johan was burning with enthusiasm ahead of the Man City game, not slacking off.

So,

West Ham fans were even more looking forward to today’s game.

But,

It wasn’t just West Ham fans who were looking forward to today’s game.

“···”

A man sat on the bench of the stadium, watching the players warming up on the field.

Manchester City’s coach, Jose Ernesto.

Ernesto was the coach who had built the current Man City team, an undisputed master who had won 3 league titles in his 5 years in charge.

But Coach Ernesto wasn’t looking at the Man City players; he was watching West Ham.

Specifically, a player who was warming up in a half-hearted, slow manner.

Johan Ban.

Coach Ernesto couldn’t take his eyes off Johan.

Coach Ernesto had first seen Johan last season, in the game between West Ham and Liverpool.

It was the game where Johan had scored a hat trick.

Coach Ernesto, seeing Johan for the first time that day,

Had completely fallen in love.

He couldn’t help it.

The player he had been looking for was a player like Johan.

Man City dominated every game and dominated the league.

However, Coach Ernesto didn’t think the current team was perfect.

If it were perfect,

They would have won the Champions League, which was his long-cherished dream.

However, Man City, despite winning the league 3 times in 5 years, had not yet reached the top of Europe.

Just one thing.

It was the position considered the only weakness in an otherwise perfect team.

Striker.

Man City was a team without a typical number 9, a traditional striker.

In terms of formation, they used 4-3-3, but the player who played in the center forward position actually played like an attacking midfielder.

Still, they had no problem scoring goals. Man City’s second-line players were excellent at scoring.

But sometimes it was true that it was difficult because of that.

On days when the game didn’t go well, they sometimes played frustrating games because they dominated possession but couldn’t score.

So,

Even Ernesto, who was at the peak of his tactical prowess, wanted a striker.

In fact, he wanted one even more.

He thought that the only thing that could complete his tactics was a perfect striker.

However,

Coach Ernesto was a perfectionist.

A very serious perfectionist.

So what he wanted wasn’t an average striker, but a perfect striker.

A perfect striker who could be 100 percent integrated into his tactics.

Coach Ernesto had been searching for such a talent for several years.

But,

There was no way he could easily find such a talent.

But,

In the game between West Ham and Liverpool, he had discovered a player with the potential to become the striker he had always wanted.

He couldn’t help but be obsessed.

Just imagining that player playing in his tactics excited him.

So,

Coach Ernesto was looking forward to today’s game more than anyone else.

He wasn’t really interested in winning or losing.

Anyway, the result would likely be a victory for them.

What Ernesto was interested in was,

Just Johan.

How well would that player perform against his players?

That was all.

So, Coach Ernesto’s expression as he waited for the game to start looked more excited than ever.

*

“Beep-!”

The game started.

West Ham kicked off in the first half.

However, in less than a few tens of seconds, the ball went to Man City.

Man City was definitely as good at pressing as they were at attacking.

The problem was, once they had the ball, it was hard to get it back; it felt like time was slowing down.

“Surround him!”

“Behind! Block him!”

We tried to press hard, but the opponent slipped away slyly.

We definitely couldn’t keep up with their foot skills.

If West Ham players only ate and did physical training, and Man City players only ate and practiced their footwork, it was no surprise we couldn’t keep up.

Paang-

Paang-!

Man City started to dictate the game at their own tempo, slowly passing the ball around.

As if to mock the West Ham players who were running and pressing with all their might, the Man City players passed the ball around slowly and leisurely.

But even if they passed the ball around slowly like that, we couldn’t let our guard down.

Even then, like now.

Bbeoeoeoeoeong-!

Man City had plenty of players who could immediately pass the ball forward when a gap opened.

Shuuuuuuuuung-

As the players generally leaned to the left side, Jack Price, who caught the ball, floated an open pass to the opposite side without delay.

The kick was low, fast, and accurate as always.

Paang-!

The right winger, Javier Araujo, gently caught the pass.

Araujo was a dribbler who was good at 1-on-1 situations.

Soon, he started shaking his upper body and charging in diagonally.

Many fullbacks had been fooled by Araujo’s feints.

But,

Paang-!

This time, West Ham’s left back, Martin Petrovic, read Araujo’s intentions perfectly.

He intercepted Araujo’s ball as he tried to charge towards the goal line and kicked it out of play.

“Beep-! Corner!”

Like that,

Man City got their first corner kick in the 4th minute of the first half.

And.

“···”

“···”

The West Ham players looked at each other, nodded,

And started to scatter to their respective positions.

It was time to show the results of the hard training they had done for the past week.