Is the competition good or not?

It is difficult for Xiao Yu to say clearly, the competition between the good surname and the competition of the evil surname is often only a thin line, so it is difficult for him to define whether Ismael and Curtis are good or bad, but the only thing that is certain is that Curtis's rise to fame has brought a lot of pressure and motivation to Ismail.

Remember the match between Windsor College and Cambridge College?

At that time, Curtis kept fouling Ismael, and after annoying him, he said that you would score a free kick directly!

It was because of this sentence that Ismael still remembered, and he really started to practice free kicks.

Is this a good thing? Or is it a bad thing?

Xiao Yu didn't know, but he knew that if he stopped Ismail at this time, then he would be useless!

But Xiao Yu definitely can't let Ismail continue like this, because he is worried that Ismael's relationship with Curtis will completely deteriorate, and if it really gets to the point of incompatibility, it is definitely not what he wants to see.

"I think, Ismail, it's good to practice free-kicks, I'll let Ribeiro help you, but do you want to hear my opinion?" Xiao Yu tried to speak in a relaxed tone as much as possible.

This was the first time Xiao Yu had spoken to Ismail in such a separate situation, and Ismail stopped and looked at Xiao Yu, who had a kind smile on his face, as bright as if the sun was about to set in the distance and returned overhead.

Ismail nodded, and Xiao Yu led him to a place not far away to sit down.

"What's your favourite position to play in?" Xiao Yu looked at the training ground in the distance and asked.

"Striker!" Ismail replied without thinking.

Xiao Yu nodded, no matter what he knew, this was because Curtis played as a central defender, and playing as a striker could do face-to-face with the central defender, which was very in line with Ismail's impression of Xiao Yu.

"So do you know what the most important thing about a striker is?" Xiao Yu asked again.

Ismail thought for a moment, "Score! ”

Xiao Yu nodded, "Not all right, but it makes sense, you are a Manchester native, you should know that in the past few years, although Andy Cole has scored a lot of goals, Manchester United fans still hate him very much, why?" ”

In Manchester, even a ten-year-old knows how to play Kanball, let alone Ismael, who is almost 14 years old.

'He's always squandering chances, even if it's the golden ones that have to score!' Ismael said timidly that he knew he had squandered a lot of chances despite scoring a lot of goals.

"Yes, you're smart, Ismael, but do you know what the Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy is best at?"

"Goal, boss!" Ismail's tone softened a lot, and he spoke more.

"Yes, but he has scored about the same number of goals as Andy Cole, so why would Ferguson of Manchester United want to bring him in to replace Andy Cole?" Xiao Yu asked with a smile.

Ismael shook his head, but he seemed like a fan listening intently.

This attitude made Xiao Yu feel very satisfied, at least it proved that Ismail had accepted Xiao Yu and was willing to chat with him.

"Efficiency, Ismail, you know what? In the future, the development trend of football will become more and more utilitarian, that is, every team will pay more attention to defense than ever, so the opportunities that can be left for the opposing striker are very few, maybe there are only three or two chances in the whole game, you have also watched our last few games, do you think we give the opposing striker more opportunities? ”

Ismael recalled those games, he had always only focused on Curtis, but after Xiao Yu said this, in retrospect, it seemed that the other party had not gotten any decent opportunities.

'Very little, boss, opposing striker doesn't even face our goal very much.

"It has to do with the strength of our defense, Ismail, I know you don't want to hear that, but I have to say that Curtis has improved a lot, he has even established himself in the first team, maybe in order to protect him, Mourinho will not let him continue to be the main team, but he will be the main substitute this season, the future selected defender, and even the captain!"

Ismail was stunned when he heard this, his face was full of shock, he also knew that Curtis had made great progress, but he didn't expect it to be so big.

'Curtis's improvement has been due to his familiarity with the team, his familiarity with his team-mates, his familiarity with the tactical system, so he settled into the first team very quickly, established himself and looked at how well he worked with Terry's partner on the pitch, did you notice the communication between them? One person grabs, the other person retreats, this requires communication, needs to be familiar, this point, you are not as good as Curtis. ”

Ismail didn't dare to refute Xiao Yu's words, he just listened quietly, and he was not stupid, he knew that he did have such a flaw, he didn't even know what the full name of that Nirilia teammate who had been here for so long was.

"Football is an 11-man sport, Ismail, you need to fit in and get accepted so that you can play well, have you ever seen one person beat a team? Maradona could have been so great without the support of his teammates? ”

Xiao Yu's words obviously persuaded Ismail, who nodded solemnly, it could be seen that he would correct it, but he would not admit his mistake, he was such a stubborn guy.

But stubbornness is good, stubbornness represents stubbornness, persistence, and a tenacious quality.

"I don't think it's about improving your free-kick skills, of course, it's useful for a player, but only if you do your job first!"

After Xiao Yu paused, he continued: "It is precisely because of the increasing emphasis on defense that there are fewer and fewer opportunities left for forwards, and at this time, the requirements for strikers are getting higher and higher, not only to score goals, but also to be efficient, and to play a role other than goals. ”

"Efficiency? What is the role of the goal other than the goal? Ismail didn't quite understand.

"To put it simply, you have to grasp every opportunity, your current flaw is in your goal, you always deliberately pursue fancy, that is unreasonable, because it is likely that the goals will be knocked away by you, the requirements of modern football for strikers are to seize every opportunity, with the most reasonable and simple action, send the ball to the goal, help the team score, as for that, you have to be fancy? Yes, but that's outside of my job. ”

Ismael lowered his head when Xiao Yu said it, and Cassel also reminded him many times, but he didn't improve it, but I don't know why, after Xiao Yu's call, he was very deeply aware that if he wanted to go further, he had to get rid of this problem.

"Maybe I can help you, Ismail!" Xiao Yu said with a smile.

Ismail looked at Xiao Yu a little strangely.

"You know, I've collected videos of a lot of stars, for example, I've collected videos of central defenders like Cannavaro, Nesta and Stam for Curtis and Terry, I've collected videos of powerful wingers for Messi, I've collected videos of a couple of strikers with great skills in front of goal for you, look at their game videos, and you'll find that scoring goals is so simple!"

Xiao Yu's last sentence was a pun, and after Ismail heard it, he thought for a while.

"Thank you, boss!" Ismail nodded heavily.

"If Ruud van Nistelrooy does move to Manchester United next season, I'll give you a free season ticket to Old Trafford, where you can go and watch the king of the box shoot, he will be the hottest striker in the world for years to come, you should not only learn his shooting skills, you should make yourself more complete and better than him!"

After hearing this, Ismael was moved, he was only a 13-year-old child, but Xiao Yu took such good care of him, which made him very grateful, and at the same time, he also secretly swore in his heart that he must work hard to improve his strength.

After Xiao Yu left, Ismail returned to the free kick training with great enthusiasm, this time with more power and speed.

But the crosshair is still terrible!

…………

…………

On the second day, after training, Xiao Yu found the team's vice-captain Juninho Jr. and told him about the youth team Ismael.

Since then, in the academy of the new Manchester United, in addition to games and rests, Ismael and Juninho Jr. can be seen almost every day in the practice of free-kicks, and later Messi and Michael Johnson were also interested in this and took the initiative to join the ranks of this additional training.

Xiao Yu passed by the training ground every day, looking at the appearance of these young players on the field when practicing free kicks, he couldn't help but laugh secretly, if all the 10 people in the new Manchester United starters in the future are good free kick players, I don't know if their opponents will be bitter about it?

The more I thought about it, the more fun I felt.

When he used to play FM Football Manager, he used to have some strange ideas, such as collecting 10 butcher-type players to destroy the opponent's core; Or collect 10 physically strong players and go on the field to crush the opponent, just like a tank rushing into the city, it's cool to watch.

Now he is thinking, if 10 free kick experts practiced on the same stage, each shot once, what a spectacular scene it would be!

But in fact, everyone knows that this is absolutely impossible to happen, every team will have a fixed set piece or two, and once selected, they will not make random adjustments, but arrange set-piece tactics around these players.

Therefore, even if 10 people on the field are set-piece experts of Beckham's level, only two or three people must have the right to take the penalty, and the rest can only sigh that they are willing to be green leaves at the wrong time.

But no matter what, Xiao Yu is still happy with the players' enthusiasm for learning, at least it proves that they are still very self-motivated.

While the atmosphere in the Academy was getting stronger, the new United suffered another defeat, this time in the second round of the FA Cup, where they were knocked out by teams from League Two, and failed to make it to the third round of the FA Cup for the third year in a row.

However, this is not important, because the core task of the new Manchester United this year is the league, after all, their current third place in the league is not enough insurance, so Mourinho decisively gave up the League Cup, the Pioneer Cup and the FA Cup, and concentrated on the league.

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