81 Game Plan

'And it's all over here at Norwich, Teesside have grabbed all three points. Teesside were dominant throughout the game, but they didn't manage to get a goal. A beautiful counterattack carried out by academy graduates David Arkenberg and Omari Hutchingson turned out to be the difference'

'That's right. David sending that perfectly timed pass into the path of Omari Hutchingson. Hutchingosn dribbles to the other end and unselfishly passes the ball and at the end Teesside get the match winning goal'

'After a sloppy performance form the attacking players, Omari Hutchingson turned out to be the difference at the end of the day. Was really the spark that ignited the flames that ended up burning Norfolk at home. Top, top talent. I could see him having a good career in topflight football.'

'Me too. From the way he plays, the intelligence he shows when he's in attack, it makes him comparable to some top championship players'

'He does have a lot to improve upon but for now, we can all agree that we see him as a real talent from Teesside'

'Speaking of talents, Teesside have been brimming with a lot of them recently. Omari Hutchingson and Dave Arkenberg just to mention two of the few that have made their debuts recently, and they have really been superb for their ages'

'I'd think that the manager would like to praise the recruitment team for spotting all these talents'

Omari and the other Teesside players smiled when they heard what the commentators said. The fans at the away end also let their feelings known about the match.

After the match Michael summoned his players and addressed them about their performance in the match. While he was happy about how much they controlled the midfield, especially in a match against a top side like Norfolk, he was angry at the poor finishing abilities from the forwards and the other attacking players.

On one hand, they were very solid in defense and absolutely controlled the midfield of the game, and on the other hand, all those wouldn't mean anything unless they translated to goals. Everything had to be balanced out, he didn't see the advantage of having a good defense if the attack was very weak, and vice versa,

After shouting at everyone for a while, he told the forwards that they would have to do extra training drills for until the next match.

The veteran forwards all groaned when they heard what Michael said, in fact, almost everyone groaned. Except for Omari if course.

He had always been looking for excuses to do extra training sessions, and the opportunity just presented itself right in front of him. 

The other players looked at him as if he was a monster. At that moment, all of them had the same thought in their minds.

It's because he's still young lad. When he grows older, he'll understand

Omari meanwhile, was oblivious to the things the faces that everyone were making while looking at him. He had an unrestrained smile on his face. 

Finally, I can do my extra training and those coaches can't stop me

After Michael finished talking to everyone, he dismissed everyone. They all went to the team hotel and stayed the night after which they travelled back to Middlesbrough in the morning.

When they got back, Michael didn't allow them to leave to their homes as they expected him to. Instead, he took all of them to a cinema room where they collectively watched the previous matches of their next opponent… Beaston Fc

While watching their games, Michael highlighted the flaws in their build up play, their defense, their pattern of movement on and off the ball, after that he said what they were going to do.

"Alright lads, listen up! As I've said before, they use a 3-5-2 formation, meaning for this game, the fullbacks are may be ineffective. That means that the wingers will be clinical if we want to exploit them from the width. From what I've seen, they've followed the same attacking patterns for all their games so far, they start out wide, and then they play towards the center. Because of this, the wingbacks are usually higher up the pitch than usual so we're going to focus mainly on counterattack"

"Why?" Someone couldn't help but ask. As soon as he asked the question, everyone's head turned to his direction causing his cheeks to heat up a little. "I was just curious" he muttered in self defense.

Michael didn't seem to be angered by his question however, instead he explained. "See, if the wingbacks are playing quite high, that leaves a lot of space for our wingers to roam. One perfectly timed pass from the back has the potential to make the difference"

"What about the center backs?" Omari asked. Since Michael didn't seem to have a problem with being interrupted for questions, Omari shot a question of his own.

"Well you see… with no one back to help them, they're going to be forced to stretch wide. That's when we hit them with our numbers. When we're making the counter, I need whoever's playing as the number ten and number eight to run forward as well so that we can overwhelm them with our numbers"

The players thought for a while then realized what Michael said made a lot of sense. If they were clinical enough, they could get enough goals from it. They only flaw that they realized in this plan was that they couldn't rely on it for the entirety of the match. After two or three tries, then the opposition should be able to catch on to what they were doing.

As if they all noticed this flaw, they all turned to Michael, majority of them raised their hands, while some of them had already opened their mouths to speak.

Michael smiled when he saw them. "Alright, here's the real tactics"