"If our starters won't listen, maybe the kids would". Alex replied to Marco with a small smile on his face.
Marco blinked a couple of times before answering Alex. It seemed like the new manager had guts. That was important. Very important.
"Alright, the under eighteens aren't playing any matches today but they're going up against Sampdoria's under eighteens next week. If you want to watch, you could". Marco said. "As for the reserves, I think they have a match but it's the same day as our match against Cagliari".
"Before or after the match?" Alex asked.
"After the match"
"Alright then, I should be able to go and watch". Alex said, stepping out of the office. He went to his apartment soon after.
He spent a lot of time analyzing Cagliari's style of play, and with help from the system, he managed to formulate a game plan. Unfortunately for him, the game plan he developed involved making quite a few adjustments to the model the system asked him to implement but that wasn't going to be a problem.
***
In the blink of an eye, a week passed and it was already time for Alex to have his first official training session. Although he had already oversaw some training, and made some suggestions, he hadn't actually done a lot of coaching.
He wore Lecce's training outfit and stood in the middle of the training ground with a whistle in his mouth while he kept observing the players as they completed various training drills. He paid special attention to Patrick Dorgu, a wingback who could just about play any position on the wings. He was one of the standout players so far. Unfortunately the elite in Europe thought so too. He heard that Manchester United were highly rumored to acquire his services in the January transfer window.
Alex heaved a small sigh.
So this is what managers feel like when they lose their good players... fuck!
"Alright everyone, gather round!" Alex screamed as he blew his whistle, causing the players to gather around him.
"Now, we're going to play against Cagliari, and even though I've basically been screaming high transition 3-4-3 since the past week, we're going to need to change some things". Alex said, recalling all what the system showed him.
"Firstly, we're going to play with a 3-4-1-2 instead of a 3-4-3. Now the aim, is to stretch the game as much as possible so the wingbacks are going to do a lot of work. We're going to need fast, pacey wingbacks wo can recover quickly and cope with a lot of overlaps and diagonal switches".
"Off the ball, as usual we're going to drop into a five back defensive block and crowd the center. Like I said, they've been clueless out wide to the goal is to push them there, and be very clinical with our counter attacks".
"We're also going to..."
Like that, Alex spent the next thirty minutes explaining the tactics that they were going to use against Cagliari. After that, he divided the squad into two teams and had them play against each other using the game-plan that he-ahem... the system devised.
After watching them train for the past week or so, he had a good idea of who would start and who would be on the bench under him so the two teams were sort of starters versus reserves.
---
The week passed very quickly for Alex. In the blink of an eye it was already Friday, the day before his first match in topflight football.
He arranged a short training session for the team and didn't have them do any strenuous work. They just did a little bit of positioning and crossing drills. After that, he called everyone together and gave them a very long pep talk.
One of the things that he was trying to do was to change the mentality of the players. They currently believed that they were supposed to fight relegation and were to be scrapping for points. He wanted to change that mindset. If they wanted to win games, then they had to believe that they could. Mentality is a very important aspect of a match.
After the training session, he left to the press room for the pre match press conference. He was told that he could bring a player along and he decided to being Patrick Dorgu along. In the week that he officially started coaching, Dorgu was already his favorite. He was only twenty and he was already the model player.
It would really be a shame if Manchester United come and take him away
Alex and Dorgu arrived at the pressroom right on time. Various reporters sat at various sections, some of them reading questions from their notepads. The room was actually quite full, after all, it wasn't everyday that a legendary midfielder decided to become a manager.
"Why are there so many journalists?" Alex muttered, loud enough for Dorgu to hear. "I thought this was supposed to be a small club".
"They're here for you coach". Dorgu chuckled. He didn't realize that his coach was so clueless in regards to things like that. "You're a very big name. Best midfielder of all time... After Zidane that is"
Alex's next words however, made him realize that he was wrong... very wrong.
"I know they're here for me...I just wanted to get glazed a bit before those hungry jackals come for me. Alex said with a chuckle. "And saying Zidane is better than me... It seems like your ass is hungry for the cold surface of the bench".
Dorgu laughed a bit when he heard Alex's first sentence but his face became a bit serious when he heard Alex's second.
Alex... couldn't be that petty... could he?
"Relax, I'm kidding". Alex laughed when he saw the worried expression on Dorgu's face.
Man, I'm really going to miss this kid if he ends up leaving.
Dorgu heaved a sigh of relief after hearing Alex's reassurance and the pair turned their attention back to the journalists. Immediately, the cameras in the press room started rolling and one of the journalists stood up.
Alex was getting a little bit nervous. This was his first pre game press conference... at least to everyone else.