Grass roots glory

Chapter 146 The biggest enemy is only yourself
European football has generally not had any big waves during this winter transfer period, and the Bundesliga has been even more calm.

It's not just Schalke's small fights, the other three teams in the championship group mainly send players. Dortmund's loan of Ghanaian star Kevin Boateng from Tottenham is already the top of the list. Even Bayern, the Bundesliga's top benefactor, did not concentrate on this winter window.Only the free agent Croatian striker Olic was signed, and American captain Donovan was loaned from the North American professional league Los Angeles Galaxy. The cost of the entire transfer market was only 250 million euros.

Even though the performance in the first half was a mess, Bayern general manager Hoeness still firmly believes that the team's current configuration does not need major repairs, and it can return to the championship group in the second half.As for the coaching change remarks that the media has been speculating for half a season, Hoeness once again unequivocally supported Klinsmann.

In terms of player transfers, Bayern terminated the contract of Sagnol, who was constantly injured, and loaned Toni Kroos to Leverkusen for one and a half years to train players with mid-range teams.

No one could have imagined that until the winter window closed at the end of January, the Bundesliga bidder was only 320 million euros. Stuttgart's introduction of Geberhardt from the Bundesliga Munich 1860 reached this amount.Everyone in Europe knows that since Dortmund’s financial crisis at the beginning of the century, the German Football Association has started to advocate healthy finances in order to prevent repeating the same mistakes. A bit shabby.

In contrast, Schalke's transfer efforts are not too much. It can only be said that the tree is big and the media has relatively high expectations for the league leader.

Schalke did not go abroad for winter training during this period. After all, there is not much time, and the club is arranged in the northern city of Hamburg.This year's winter training is actually relatively easy, and the coaching staff focuses on one task: to get all players back to the game state quickly.

Of course, the newly introduced player Priel is also the focus of the coaching staff, but what makes the coaching staff happy is that this player integrates quickly. In a few days, Slomka found that although this player is only 1.8 meters Wu's height, but his ability to fight and grab points is extremely strong, and he cooperates especially well with Zhou Tiancheng - as long as he can accurately send the ball to his head, Prior is very sure to grab the point before the defensive player, The long pass is one of Zhou Tiancheng's housekeeping skills.

Seeing the eye-catching performance of the new players, Slomka was so happy from ear to ear, he quietly said to his assistant Biskens: "Mike, it seems that we don't have to worry about Kevin's replacement."

One of the biggest problems that has troubled Slomka in the past half season is that the team has only Kuranyi as a fulcrum forward, so in many games, even if he knows that Kuranyi's state is in danger, he dare not replace him. end.Slomka originally wanted the club to introduce Ibisevic, but it was actually strengthening in this regard.As a result, poaching Ibisevic failed. He had already prepared for the worst. Who knew that this young man who had no hope in the first place gave such a big surprise.

Thinking about Zhou Tiancheng and Rakitic again, Slomka secretly rejoiced: Is it really God's will this year, and Schalke will finally turn around?

Biskens, on the other hand, thinks this doesn't explain the problem: "Now Zhou is passing the ball to him, and this player seems to only be able to head the ball, and his skills..."

"Mike, as a coach, we don't need to build players into all-round talents, we just need to use their strengths to serve the team. Otherwise, how can players like Makelele and Inzaghi become legends?"

It has to be said that being able to lead the team to the third year in a place like Schalke where the head coach is a "high-risk occupation", the words just now are enough to see Slomka's coaching level.

As a coach, knowing people and making good use of them is the core quality.

……

Half a month of short-term winter training is over, and most of the players have returned to a physical condition suitable for the game. Although there is still some gap with the peak state before the intermission period, Slomka is still confident that every team will face the same situation. The problem is that the opponent's state may not be as good as his own.

The closure of the winter window transfer means that the two-month league break is over. In the No. 18 round of the league, Schalke played away against Hannover.

Schalke had an absolute advantage in the game, with twice as many shots as their opponents, and [-]% possession of the ball. In the past winter window, Hannover loaned the team's important wide player Justi to the Russian Super League giants Zenit. It can't be compared with Schalke in terms of performance.

However, Schalke's offensives happened to run into the brave German No. 19 goalkeeper Enke. Not only did they fail, but in the end, because of negligence in corner kick defense, former German international Hanke scored the winning goal.Hank didn't celebrate after scoring a goal, he was still nostalgic.After all, he also had an unforgettable time in Schalke U[-].

0:1, a big upset in the first round after the winter break, regardless of the German Cup upset, Schalke 04's two losses at the league level so far are all lost to the bottom half of the standings The team's loss to Cologne in the first half was more or less excusable because Zhou Tiancheng was suspended for a red card and could not play.

After the game, Hannover head coach Heiking attended the press conference full of joy. Even he felt that defeating Schalke 04 was an unexpected result: "It's hard to believe that we beat the favorite team that played the best in the Bundesliga this season. The players played An unforgettable game, but again, this victory has God's blessing, Schalke has a lot more chances than us, the crossbar and the post hit three times, so this victory is thanks to my players and even more thanks to God. "

Black gold is still very elegant, but in the eyes of the media, there are only winners.

Then it was Slomka's turn to attend the press conference, and many media looked at the jokes. Schalke's 04 winter window was almost only in and out of behavior. Some reporters believed that they were very confident in the current lineup, so now these people He was looking at Slomka with the mentality of sitting and watching.

Slomka sat down and glanced around the reporters below. He saw everyone's expressions in his eyes, and went straight to the point: "Everyone here, this result is in line with the wishes of some of you, right?"

The reporters were taken aback by the question, and then whispered to each other. They had never seen Slomka in such an aggressive tone.

Slomka waited for the audience to quiet down, and then said: "Many people waited to see us overturned, and then started bombarding our signings, or exaggerating the decline of the Bundesliga leaders. It's up to you, as the head coach of the team, as long as The club does not fire me. These have nothing to do with me, but in order not to let your scribbles affect the mentality of the players, I must explain here that those who gloat may be happy sooner. After the intermission, any team will be happy. There is a recovery period, this loss is only because everyone is not in the best state, but even so we still have an absolute advantage in the scene, you can refer to our performance in the first half, now our biggest enemy is only ourselves, and soon the team It’s going to get back to winning rhythm.”

(End of this chapter)