Glory Of The Football Manager System

[Team hotel, Pittsburgh. Thursday 26 July 2018. 06:20.]

Marcus Reid had not been to bed.

I found him at 20 past 6 in a function room on the mezzanine with 3 laptops, 4 empty cans and the curtains still shut, and a projector throwing our shape onto a wall somebody had hired him for 400 dollars.

”Do not start with the cans.”

”I was not going to start with the cans.”

”You were looking at the cans.” He did not turn round. ”Sit down, boss. I have got 90 minutes of it and you are going to want all 90.”

Bray came in at half 6 with 2 coffees and gave me neither of them. He does set pieces at this football club and he has never once been early for anything that was not a corner. Rebecca at 7 with a tablet. Michael Steele at 5 past, who sat at the back and did not take his coat off.

There is a thing you do the morning after a friendly that you never do the morning after a real match, because after a real match you are looking at a result and after a friendly you are looking at the truth.

We had beaten Benfica 4-1.

I have never trusted a 4-1 in my life.

”Right,” Marcus said. ”Goalkeepers.”

Clk.

Nick Pope, 26. 45 minutes. 2 saves, 1 of them ordinary and 1 of them not.

Tim Krul, 30. 45 minutes and a shootout. 5 days at this football club.

”Michael.”

Steele did not get up.

”Pope is our number 1 and he is going to be England’s number 1 and I do not want to talk about Pope this morning.”

”Then talk about Krul.”

”Krul organised a back 4 he met on Monday.” He looked at the carpet. ”He shouted 41 times in 45 minutes. I counted.”

”Is that a lot?”

”Wayne does it 12 times,” Steele said.

That is Wayne Hennessey, who is 31, who has 80 caps for Wales, and who is a better goalkeeper than Tim Krul.

And Krul plays every Carabao tie this season and Steele and I both knew it before he finished the sentence.

Verdict: solved. 3 senior goalkeepers and a 19-year-old behind them. It is the only department in this football club I am not frightened of.

Clk.

”Back 4.”

And this is where it stops being a good morning.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka, 20, played 45. He was the best defender on that pitch, he is the best right back in England under 23, and somebody bid 40 million pounds for him 6 days ago.

And behind him now, at right back, is Achraf Hakimi.

19 years old, Golden Ball at a World Cup, medical clean on Monday, and not allowed to touch a football until Saturday because Rebecca said 9 days and I am not arguing with Rebecca in July.

Clk. Marcus put them side by side without being asked.

”Go on then,” I said.

”Aaron is the better defender today and it is not close. 1 v 1 he is the best I have ever put a number on.” Marcus scrolled. ”Achraf gets higher up the pitch, gets there quicker, and crosses better with both feet.

”Boss, you have got 2 right backs and they are not the same player, and I do not think you have worked out yet that is a problem and not a solution.”

”Say the rest of it.”

”You cannot play them both at right back. So either 1 of them sits, or 1 of them plays somewhere else, and you have got 16 days to decide which.”

Left back is Ben Chilwell, Joel Ward and Tyrick Mitchell, and I do not need a 4th, and Achraf Hakimi does not want to be one.

Verdict: not a hole. A decision. And it is the good kind, and I have not made it, and Manchester City are in 16 days.

Mamadou Sakho and Scott Dann played the second 45 together and gave up nothing at all, because they have played 60 games as a pair and Sakho has been at this club long enough that the Holmesdale would carry him through fire.

Sakho is 28, Dann is 31, and between them they have got maybe 2 more seasons at this level.

Ibrahima Konaté, 19, and James Tarkowski, 25, played the first 45 as a centre-half pairing having trained together 3 times. That is the future of it and that is why they started.

They were right 8 times out of 11 in the walkthrough and they were right about 30 times out of 34 in the match, and the 4 they got wrong were all the same 4.

Clk. Marcus put the clip up.

”There,” I said. ”Stop it there. That is the one.”

Jonas drops off Konaté. Konaté goes with him. Tarkowski is left with a striker and 40 yards.

They did it 4 times and got away with 3 and conceded the 4th, and that is our goal against, and Benfica have 1 man in Portugal who can punish it and he did.

Manchester City have got 6.

Verdict: 1 signing, and it is a centre-half. Dann is 31, Sakho is 28, Tomkins is 29. Konaté is 19 and made the same error 4 times on Wednesday.

I have got 63 matches, 2 old centre-halves, 1 who is learning, and a man in Manchester with 6 forwards who punish exactly what Benfica punished once.

Clk.

”Midfield.”

”Go on then, Marcus. Say it.”

”Højbjerg.”

Bray made a noise.

Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, 22, 4 weeks at this football club, made the movement 11 times in 45 minutes and was early for 9 of them.

In April, against City, Luka Milivojević made it 14 times and was early for 11, and Luka is a better version of that today than Pierre-Emile is.

But Luka is 27 and Pierre-Emile is 22, and in 6 weeks he will be early for 12, and that is the whole reason I let Dougie sell a man I loved.

”He talks more than Milivojević ever did,” Bray said.

”He talks more than anybody I have ever coached.”

”Danny, he was organising Scott Dann. Scott Dann has 400 games.”

”And Scott did what he was told.”

”Scott did what he was told,” Bray said, ”and that is the bit that has been going round my head since about 11 o’clock last night.”

Rúben Neves, 21. Ball into Rodríguez for the first goal and 94 per cent from 61 passes, and Marcus has him at 11.2 kilometres in 45 minutes. That is a stupid number for a man who never once looks like he is running.

James McArthur, 30, did the thing James McArthur does. 45 minutes nobody talks about, and the entire structure sits on it.

Mateo Kovačić watched all of it from a bench in a knee brace and did not say one word to anybody, and comes back in October into a midfield that has learned to work without him.

That is a conversation I am not looking forward to.

Verdict: solved, and it is the best department at this football club. With Kovačić back in October it is the best midfield I have ever had access to and possibly the best in this league.

Clk.

”Front 3.”

***

Thank you to Sir nameyelus and Kostas_Gounakis for the support.