62 Training Continues

Training throughout the week was done smoothly as the Coaches continued to give the players different scenarios to play around in teams and groups.

Everyone knew that they needed was to win the next match which was against Stoke City to write away the loss against United so they trained efficiently and the joking around were only at a minimum as the players concentrated on improving themselves.

Tony had emersed himself throughout the week in training with his teammates as he focused on improving his team work and game play by doing all the new drills and the old drills.

Football was a team game and it was a different thing to have the talent to play and to also be in a team that allowed you to play your game properly.

They were mainly just giving and distributing passes to teammates as everyone had been trained efficiently in give and go passes or wall passes and how they were to be used against a difficult team before finally opportunities to get to the goalkeeper.

Tony could give a pass and then immediately begin to run into the box to attract the attention of the defenders and giving other players chances to break free and to get into the box.

And if the defense failed to properly mark him or pay attention to him, his teammate could give him a return pass that he would use to continue the attack by either moving closer to goal and shooting or passing to assist an other teammate.

All the forward players and midfielders had been trained quite well in this new attacking style they had been training and all that was left was for the team to try it out in a match.

The forwards and attacking players were also given special attacking drills which had to do with dodging obstacles before then putting the ball into the net.

The ball was also crossed to them for them to practice clinically put the ball into the net against a goalkeeper as they sharpened the players finishing, while the other defensive players were focused on other drills.

All this were done during trainings everyday during the week including the players who had just come back from playing for England on International duty and a few other players who played for other countries.

After trainings from Monday to Thursday Tony and John would quickly go off to the Arcade Centre and try to put some things in other. He had seen the fliers and posters around in some places when he was driving around the city and had payed the graphic designer his complete pay for a good job.

He had also gone to a radio station and bargained for a cheap ad and skit that was occasionally played on air for the listeners advertising about the arcade centre and the official opening day of the centre.

Promotional tools like radio adverts always helped but he only went to a station since he knew this kind of establishments could easily be promoted by word of mouth from others that had visited the place as they would tell there friends about the place.

Immediately after the players were done training on Friday, the staffs called the players together as Assistant manager Coach Luca began to read the names of the starting 11 and the substitutes.

Tony's name was unsuprisingly included in the starting lineup. John heard his name and immediately began to smile from ear to ear.

He had been trying his best in training to prove to the coaches to give him an opportunity to get on the starting 11. Now that he had gotten his opportunity, the main work was now here and that was ensuring a gave a good account of himself by doing all what he had been taught properly and if he was lucky by getting a goal or an assist in the match.

Depending on a team's style or game plans, It was usually the main duty or essential responsibility of the strikers to get the goals in a team but the other forward players and midfielders would also prove themselves more when they got involved in the goals or chipped in goals.

So John was now presently pumped at starting the match against Stoke City as Coach Luca finished calling the names before he allowed the players to go for there breaks.

John went to meet Tony with all smiles as they began to chat about the match as they went back to the locker rooms to shower and change before they went to the canteen.

John continued to be in a happy mood as they ate there food and rested and gisted at the canteen for the remaining minutes before they went down to the seminar room for the match analysis.

There was nothing specific about the formation that they were going to employ and the formation the coaching team expected the Stoke City team to use. So only the usual arrangements were made in the formations for the match.

After they were done and began to go out of the seminar room John moved closer to Tony and asked "Hey do you mind if we go do some extra training. I really want to improve my attack."

Tony didn't have anything specific he needed to do as he agreed and both boys went back to the locker room to change back into complete kits and went back to the training pitch.

They began passing the ball to each other as they both took turns in shooting on goal from different distance and angles. Some players came over and even joined them in training as they took turns doing different scenarios.

Most of the players doing extra training were mostly some of the players that were not in the match squad against Stoke as they tried to improve themselves.

They all trained together and loudly joked around as they all took turns in doing the shooting and attacking drills. They jokingly laughed at players who failed to perform a skill or showoff.

Tony was definitely very skillful and didn't fail to match the other players in showing a little skill. He made sure not to overdo it and be tagged a showoff.

In football people liked players who were skillful and most importantly efficient as they played the beautiful sport. That was only performing skills when they were necessary to the game and not just for the sake of it.

The mood was even more jovial than usual due to the absence of any staff, the players all felt free and freely performed the training exercises they were doing.

Tony and John knew they were not to over do it in training or personal exercises, especially when it was close to a match. After about an hour they both waved the other players good bye and went back to the locker rooms to change back to there kits before they got into the car and drove off.

Tony went to drop John straight home and went back home to spend the rest of the day resting and preparing for the next days match against Stoke City.