I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 84: Chapter 7: Defensive Midfielder

”We can’t lose this match.” Schuster stands in the dressing room facing the players, looking somewhat composed: ”Do you want to be third in the group?”

”What do people outside call us, the perennial round-of-16 in the Champions League?”

”Do you like this name?”

Schuster gave the players plenty of pressure as he stood in front of the whiteboard, gradually raising his voice: ”We can’t keep going like this. If any of you feel tired and can’t continue, you can let me know.”

”Guti, tell me, are you tired?”

Schuster looked at Guti, who performed very poorly in the first half, especially in the latter stages, frequently losing the ball to Lazio’s midfield.

”No.” Guti replied, his eyes full of determination: ”I will improve.”

Schuster nodded contentedly and turned his gaze to Diara asking: ”Diara, do you know why I have you on the field?”

”The only damn reason I have you on the field is to hope you can fight in the midfield and defense.”

”To give the opposite damn Lazio some pressure, what are you doing?”

”Especially when we scored a goal and were leading, what the hell were you doing?”

”Sorry.” Mouhammed Diarra looked genuinely apologetic, his dark face earnest: ”I will give it my all.”

Schuster looked somewhat surprised at Diara; this Real Madrid’s 2006 summer-window signing was heavily advocated by then-coach Capello, which to some extent increased Real Madrid’s midfield toughness.

But Schuster didn’t particularly like Diara because, apart from defense, he was unremarkable in organization and attack. Especially this season, his defensive performance in midfield was considered mediocre, leading Schuster to grow increasingly dissatisfied with Diara.

Originally, Schuster intended to reprimand him and then replace Diara with Baptista, but Diara’s statement made Schuster feel like he wanted to give him another chance.

Schuster glanced at Chen Zhong, originally wanting to mention him, but the burst of inspiration in his mind now made him temporarily set it aside.

He walked up to the whiteboard and began writing incessantly, then loudly shouted: ”Look here, all look here.”

All players turned their eyes to the whiteboard, where Schuster’s usual 442 formation had surprisingly been changed to a 4132 formation, with Van Nistelrooy and Raul serving as the team’s double center forwards, while behind them lined up were Sneijder, Guti, and Robben, forming a pentagon in the front during the attack.

Guti was at the bottom center, acting as a connector or distributor role.

Behind Guti was Diara, whom Schuster placed complete trust in, allowing him to do the work of three men, a decision that even made Francisco feel uncontrollable and want to voice a dissenting opinion.

Diara pursed his lips, a hint of resilience in his eyes, knowing the difficulty but realizing that settling a position in Real Madrid requires fighting.

”This is what we need to do in the second half.” Schuster looked at the players and said: ”We can’t lose this match, I will not accept dropping to third position, that’s not where we belong.”

After Schuster finished, he looked at Francisco, who made a gesture of checking the watch, indicating that there was little time remaining for the halftime break. Schuster nodded and once again roared at all the players: ”Go! Get back on the field, show them who they’re facing!”

”Hala Madrid!”

”Hala Madrid!!”

The players filed out, while Schuster called out to Chen Zhong; Marcelo, Cannavaro, Casillas, and other players paused slightly but soon resumed walking towards the exit as if nothing happened, with only Marcelo having time to make a funny face at Chen Zhong.

”Chen.” Schuster looked at Chen Zhong and said: ”I really admire your fighting spirit and relentless passion on the field, but in this match, I hope you can remain rational and calm on the field, and don’t rashly leave your position, maintain the team’s defensive line.”

”Okay, Coach.” Chen Zhong gritted his teeth, glanced at Schuster, and finally swallowed back what he initially wanted to say.

Seeing Chen Zhong’s back, Schuster suddenly smiled, turned to Francisco, and said: ”Hey, buddy, guess what he just wanted to say?”

”Don’t you know?” Francisco glared at the mischievous Schuster: ”He was never just a central defender at Castilla; he was more influential in midfield and attack. I guess he wants his position to move forward. If he wasn’t a central defender, then his actions wouldn’t be considered problematic.”

Although sliding tackles are now popular among center backs in the football world, with the improvement and reform of tactics, and the enhancement of player protection laws, this simplistic and brutish style of tackling has started to fade.

Here we have to mention one name: Marco van Basten.

He was unstoppable in the center forward position, facing such a player; apart from tackling him to the ground, there was no other way to limit him; as soon as he turned around, it was a breakaway shot, and whenever it was a breakaway shot, he almost always scored. After retiring at 28 due to too many injuries, tackling rules in football got reformed to prevent such situations from recurring, especially for tackles from behind, if you dared to commit one, a red card would be inevitable.