Chapter 85
Although Hull City has adopted a partial rotation strategy, no one in the Wolves will underestimate this opponent. In any case, their heroic achievements in the promotion to the Premier League last season are still vivid in people's minds.
In the last two days before the game, the Wolves fell into a very...contradictory state.
In training, without Celars saying anything, all the players of the Wolves arrived at the training ground thirty minutes in advance. At the time originally scheduled for the gathering, the players had already completed the warm-up and were ready to go. But usually, they are still in a state of laughter.
"Young people are like this." Wei Le unscrewed the lid of the thermos cup and took a sip of hot water, and said with a smile, "They can't hide any thoughts in their hearts. You are still worried that they are too relaxed, but in fact, they are all tense."
Cellars shrugged. When he first mentioned this to Wei Le a few days ago, he was skeptical about Wei Le's statement, but now that all the members spontaneously got up early to practice, he was completely convinced of Wei Le's precise control of the psychology of these young people.
"How do you control them?" Celars asked Wei Le. When Celars led the U23 youth team, Wei Le also served as his assistant for a period of time. At that time, he found that young people were often happy to revolve around Wei Le.
"Nothing special." Wei Le shook his head, "The key is to think about the problem from their perspective, imagine yourself as one of them, and think about what they are asking for and feeling now."
"It's hard." Celars sighed.
"Yes, it's hard. But I enjoy the process." Wei Le said with a smile.
Since Wei Le took over as head coach, the team has added a "players' meeting" organization. According to Wei Le, this is "a great experience from the East." Generally speaking, the meeting is jointly held by the players in the team, and the captain serves as the host.
The coaching staff and the team management will also send one or two representatives to participate in the meeting. The coaching staff usually has Wei Le attend the meeting, which is strongly requested by the players. In other words, Wei Le is "invited" to attend the meeting. This treatment really makes many members of the coaching staff envious.
Wei Le feels that the regular meetings of the players' meeting give players and the team an opportunity to communicate and solve problems. Players can raise the problems they encounter in the team's training, life and games at the meeting, so that the management and coaching staff have the opportunity to solve them together.
For example, someone suggested that two more TVs should be added to the home team's locker room at the team's home stadium, Molineux Stadium. The board readily agreed, and the players saw the changes in the locker room on the next home game day. Someone suggested that they wanted to eat some mangoes when eating in the restaurant, so the cafeteria added a fruit area, where people who come to eat can choose a variety of seasonal fruits.
Of course, some opinions cannot be resolved, such as the players unanimously requesting that physical training not be too strict. But Wei Le said that this is the training content that has been decided after research, and physical support is necessary to win.
Although the players regret it, since Wei Le said so, they also expressed their understanding.
These problems are short-term, long-term, small, and large. Some are easy to solve, and some have not been solved. Most of the time, the atmosphere of the meeting is very harmonious, but there have been a few times when quarrels broke out in the players' meeting. Wei Le is not in a hurry, he thinks more communication will always be effective.
Of course, some small things don't need to be raised at the general meeting. Sometimes when playing online games together in the lounge, the players casually raised some small opinions with Wei Le, and Wei Le gave positive feedback.
The players also like this model. They can feel that in Wolves, they are not tools for the team to make money, nor are they robots that are only responsible for training and competition, but "people" who are truly respected and understood. This is very important, because this most basic respect is the essence of competitive sports.
Before the game against Hull City, a player meeting was held as scheduled, and Wei Le was invited to give a speech at the meeting.
Wei Le did not speak at length, he stood on the stage and just said a few words.
"Everyone wants me to say a few words to boost morale, but I don't think it's necessary. Standing here, I can see the eyes of each of you."
Wei Le glanced around, and all the players were looking into his eyes.
"I can see fire in your eyes." Wei Le smiled and pointed to the audience, "Your hearts are beating strongly in your chests, which is the proof of life. I have a message for you about life."
"This sentence is in Chinese, 'Heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman should strive for self-improvement.'" Wei Le repeated this sentence in Chinese, and thenThen he added his own explanation - "Everything in the universe is constantly moving, and you and I must move forward like the universe, never stopping!"
"Whether it is Hull City, Chelsea, Manchester City, Barcelona or Real Madrid, as long as we are alive and our hearts are beating, we must have the courage to fight them. This is the power given to us by life!"
"Good!!!!"
That night, three buses painted bright yellow arrived in Kingston upon Hull, England, and players filed out of the buses.
"I hope this is a wonderful game."
Wolves players wearing away jerseys stood on the lawn of Kingston Communications Stadium.
The referee blew the whistle, and Hull City center Mbokani knocked the ball to winger Diomande. Mbokani passed Jota and rushed in the opposite direction - the game officially started!
It is worthy of being a Premier League team. Wei Le sighed secretly.
His first feeling about the game was "accurate".
Yes, not "fast", not "urgent", but "accurate".
The expected "impact" did not happen, and Hull City did not look very aggressive. But compared to facing the Championship team, if the Wolves players want to get the ball from Hull City and turn it into an attack that they can use, it will take more time.
Wei Le felt that it seemed that Hull City was like a set of precise machines, and every pass was just right. They did not pass quickly, and in fact, they did not attack every second. They would also pass back and control the rhythm.
But every attack was a huge test for the Wolves' defense.
"Why can't I grab it?" Jota complained anxiously. He has been running since the beginning of the game, but he basically didn't touch the ball. The opponent's central defender, even the "substitute" central defender Maguire, can use timely passes to make himself run around.
Every time, Jota almost grabbed Maguire, but the second Jota kicked, Maguire always passed the ball. If it happened once, Jota would think it was a fluke and he would be able to get the ball the next time.
But each attempt did not actually pose any threat to Maguire.