Grass roots glory

Chapter 59 Youth Ruhr Derby

Hewedes was transferred to the first team, which is a huge loss for Schalke's U19 defense system.Elgort can only use the team's backup central defender. Relatively speaking, the youngest "post-90s" Matip has to bear greater responsibilities.

To make this decision, Elgort experienced a lot of entanglement. He once thought about putting Zhou Tiancheng back in the central defender position. He and Matip partnered. Both of them are not weak, at least they can guarantee the stability of the defense. .But after thinking about it again and again, he still feels that the midfielder is more important.There is an obvious trend in today's football development trend: whoever wins the midfielder wins the world.It improves the control of the midfield, and it is also a way to fundamentally relieve the pressure on the defense.

Zhou Tiancheng tried to play midfield for the first time in the first two games, and his performance is developing in the direction Elgort expected.In particular, Zhou Tiancheng's offensive performance in the last game fully demonstrated his ability to organize in the midfield.So with the defense weakened, Elgort gave Zhou Tiancheng more freedom in the midfield.His position has changed from a late position in the three midfielders to a forward position.Elgort hopes to transform the team's formation into a 4-2-1-3 direction. Zhou Tiancheng is the "1" who is equivalent to the role of the front midfielder, but he is actually closer to a free midfielder. Elgert authorized He can move freely in any area of ​​the field.Zhou Tiancheng can make his own decision according to the situation on the court whether to attack forward or retreat to supplement defense.

Generally speaking, few youth team coaches will give players such a large degree of freedom.But Zhou Tiancheng is different.Elgort knows that a mature B2B midfielder like him can only stimulate his characteristics to the greatest extent if he absolutely trusts him.

Facts once again proved Elgort's foresight.

With the deepening of the two-line combat schedule, Schalke U19 began to encounter the same injury cycle as the first team.Jiang Hao was discharged after a week of observation in the hospital, and half a month later he ushered in his first appearance in the Youth League.And the reason why he can play has something to do with the striker's continuous loss of soldiers and generals.The three forwards who were originally ranked ahead of him in the starting lineup have hung up their exemption cards one after another. Elgort can only let Jiang Hao, who has just started to resume the team's joint training, go into battle.

After his performance in the Youth German Cup, Elgort's understanding of Jiang Hao has improved, but now that he is playing, it feels a bit like rushing a duck to the shelves.Elgort just wants to achieve a smooth transition and survive this difficult period.

But he didn't expect it, and the results were astonishing.For four consecutive league rounds, Jiang Hao started four games and played all games, and his report card was - four goals in four games!
And behind this, Zhou Tiancheng sent out four assists in a row and averaged [-] meters of running distance per game.

Not to mention the youth league, even in the first team's Bundesliga, Zhou Tiancheng's running distance is at the middle level.

Elgort certainly knows what this means. Not only is Zhou Tiancheng showing absolute dominance on both ends of the offense and defense, but it also shows that there is indeed a tacit understanding between Zhou Tiancheng and Jiang Hao that cannot be achieved with other teammates.

The team was able to remain unbeaten in the first seven rounds of the league with six wins and one draw, ranking first in the Western Conference, and easily defeated Hamburg and Munich 1860 in the German Cup. Zhou Tiancheng and Jiang Hao cannot be said to be absolute thighs, but they guaranteed the team More than half of the offensive firepower output.

Obviously, this kind of tacit understanding between the two over the years is currently unattainable with other teammates.Such an efficient offensive efficiency also forces Elgort to consider re-creating an offensive system centered on two people, and to continue this tacit efficiency as much as possible.

……

The first seven rounds of Schalke U19 were overwhelming, but in the eighth round they began to face a real strong enemy, and it was their biggest enemy in the west and even in Germany, Dortmund!
Schalke U19 and Borussia Dortmund U19, youth derby in the Ruhr area, the regular focus program of the German Youth League every year, the most important focus battle!

When these two youth teams play against each other, even the mainstream TV stations will send a strong reporting lineup to broadcast the whole process. The appeal of Dortmund and Schalke 04 even surpasses the youth league finals.

Everyone is very interested, and through this game, pay attention to how many hopeful stars the two teams have.

Although the attention is not as high as the Ruhr Derby of the first team after all, the contest between the U19 echelon is a direct confrontation between the future reserve forces of the two clubs.Whether it is for Dortmund or Schalke 04, the meaning is naturally somewhat different.If one of the parties is suppressed for a long time in one or two seasons, it means not only losing one or two duels, but also losing the future!Neither party can accept such a result.

And Schalke 04's youth training background is stronger than Dortmund, so the situation of the two clubs in the first team and youth arena is very different.In the youth arena, Schalke 04 has long had an advantage over Dortmund, which is an inherent advantage of their youth training.As for the first team level, the two clubs have played against each other 04 times in the past ten years. Schalke [-] has a total of [-] wins, [-] draws and [-] losses.

The emergence of this difference is actually related to the gap at the club level between the two sides.Strictly speaking, neither of the two clubs can keep their core, and they have to rely on selling stars to maintain healthy operation.However, Dortmund's operations in the first-team transfer market are much better than Schalke 04, and Schalke can only watch the stars they cultivated disappear, becoming the most "selfless" club in the Bundesliga that makes wedding dresses for others.

However, for the current youth Ruhr Derby at the U19 level, there is no need for Elgort to mobilize. All players who can play will show their best state in this game.

For players who have entered the Schalke echelon since childhood, they will regard Dortmund as a life and death enemy who can only win but not lose, but Zhou Tiancheng is not so nervous.Some teammates asked him after training, and Zhou Tiancheng's answers were all unified: "It's not a good thing to pay too much attention to them. Since we have accumulated advantages over them over the years, we should relax and maintain a normal mind. We have a great advantage." Chance."

And Jiang Hao's answer reflects his unconditional trust in Zhou Tiancheng: "I'm not nervous at all. As long as Brother Cheng is in normal condition, I don't worry about scoring goals at all."

But it is very difficult to be as normal as the two of them, because the pressure is passed on layer by layer, and the coaching staff is busier than usual.

In the past week, the training of Schalke U19 was very targeted and designed to restrain the opponent, and Elgort shared the intelligence of the opponent's core players with everyone early on.

"I know that you all look down on Dortmund's swarm of locusts, but you must be absolutely vigilant against their dangerous characters. In the Dortmund U19 team in front of us, there is a player that must be taken care of."

Elgort typed the information on a slide, and the player's name was in front of everyone.

Mario Gotze.

(End of this chapter)