The Astonishing Discovery of the Head Coach
"Come again!" De Bruyne said defiantly.
Lin felt that although his defense was a bit weak, it was still better to be moving than a static dummy, right? So he gladly accepted the challenge.
This time, it was supposed to be Lin's turn to defend, but De Bruyne broke through. However, De Bruyne was single-mindedly focused on intercepting Lin's ball, so he gave up the opportunity to actively attack, and instead continued to stand in the defensive position.
Clearly, he was not someone who easily accepted defeat! Lin once again used his old trick after receiving the ball, and once again De Bruyne was fooled by Lin's fake movement, but this time he didn't easily react.
Clearly, he had realized that Lin could disrupt his judgment through changes in his center of gravity. If he assumed that Lin was going to break through in a certain direction just because his center of gravity moved, he could be easily deceived.
However, what De Bruyne didn't expect was that he didn't move, but Lin did.
He swiftly dribbled forward, accelerating instantaneously. De Bruyne had been a little too slow to react and missed not only the chance to tackle the ball but also the moment for physical confrontation.
After a successful breakthrough, Lin stopped the ball and looked at De Bruyne strangely. "Kevin, why didn't you make a tackle when you saw my change in center of gravity?"
De Bruyne was also pondering this issue. "I was fooled by your fake action before. Just now, when I saw your change in center of gravity, I was worried it was another fake move, so I was a step slow in reacting."
Lin nodded, acknowledging his answer. This wasn't just a problem for De Bruyne; it was a common problem for all defenders facing Messi.
Messi's movements are faster than those of most players and coupled with his exceptional talent, he can easily change his center of gravity to make deceptive feints. If defenders find his change in center of gravity and block the direction he intends to break through, Messi will use his faster pace to rapidly change the breakthrough direction in a very short time, leaving defenders unable to keep up with his rhythm and only able to watch him leave.
If defenders are not tricked and don't block his breakthrough route, it becomes even easier for Messi. He only needs to proceed with the breakthrough movement and can easily get past the defending player.
After all, Messi's movement frequency is faster than that of the majority of players. If you can't keep up with his movements in the first step, it's absolutely impossible to catch up in the second step.
In short, compared to regular attacking players, Messi combines feints and breakthroughs into a single step. Regular attacking players need to make a feint to deceive the defender before using the defender's mistake to complete the breakthrough. But Messi is different; he combines these two movements, making each one look like a feint. Whatever choice you make, he can get past you.
Therefore, defending against Messi cannot rely on experience, but on anticipation. Only defenders with top-notch anticipation have a chance of stopping Messi, and in today's football, such people are rare.
"Let's go again, I don't believe that I can't find a way to defend against you!" De Bruyne witnessed Lin's prowess, and it only kindled his fighting spirit even more.
At best, the lad was 16 or 17, probably just a member of Werder Bremen's youth team. If he couldn't stop someone like this, then he might as well go and knock his head against a block of tofu.
After half an hour.
"I'm done!" De Bruyne collapsed on the ground, lying flat on his back, staring blankly at the sky, starting to question life.
Who am I, where am I, what am I doing? Why was I bypassed a full seventy times by a little kid, without managing to successfully tackle even once? Can I even play football?
Lin was also exhausted. The continuous dribbling put a lot of pressure on his knees. Even if De Bruyne hadn't called for a break, he would have called for one himself.
He couldn't help but wonder how Messi had managed to persist for so many years with such frequent accelerations, changes of direction, and dribbles. Frequent abrupt changes of direction like this would sooner or later destroy his knees.
Since the in-depth conversation with Allofs, the head coach of SV Werder Bremen, Thomas Schaaf, had relaxed a bit and was no longer putting himself under so much pressure.
However, letting go of the pressure didn't mean being lax. He felt a strong attachment to the team and didn't want the team to be relegated under his management. Therefore, even if the hand he was dealt wasn't great, he tried his best to make changes and unleash the maximum power of the team.
As for whether Werder Bremen can remain in the Bundesliga after the season ends, that's up to fate.
Because many veteran players left the team for the new season, and many new players were loaned in, the coach needed to adjust the starting lineup.
To choose the best starting lineup, he must fully understand the information of the young players in the team.
It's best to complete this work before the start of the new season training camp. This way, he can understand each player's technical characteristics when training begins.
If the players don't meet his requirements, he can strengthen the team during the summer transfer window.
So, he ended his vacation early and drove to the club, intending to start working ahead of time.
As he passed the training ground, he saw Lin and De Bruyne training.
Seeing these two training together made the coach, Schaaf, a bit curious.
These two should have been in a competitive relationship within the team. One would think they would have a hard time getting along, but it seemed they quickly got along?
Curious, he watched from the sidelines for a while.
After a half hour, both young players were exhausted on the ground, while Schaaf on the sideline was excited and somewhat unable to contain himself.
Seventy times, a full seventy successful breakthroughs, not a single successful defense from the other side.
This made him very surprised, feeling like he was watching a science fiction movie.
Even though De Bruyne had some defensive issues, the other side didn't make a single mistake, all were successful, and even used more than ten different breakthrough techniques.
Is such a powerful ability for breakthroughs normal at this age?
Isn't this a bit too extraordinary?
How can Barcelona bear to loan out such a player? Aren't they afraid of other teams snatching him away?
Did our team just pick up a breakthrough king?
A player like this is a future key winger core that any team would focus on developing.
It is a core around which a team can be built, just like Messi and Ronaldo!
But, he remembered this guy played as a midfielder in the Barcelona youth team!
Is it that Barcelona's judgment is lacking, not knowing how to use people?
Or is it that a team like Barcelona has developed a completely new tactic of placing a winger in a midfielder position?