Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 252



Only Krnovel

Episode 252 If you endure it, it’s a club, if you can’t endure it, it’s a club

‘Fuck.’

Arteta frowned as he replayed the scene from earlier.

It was ‘that scene’ that soccer experts praised.

In the midst of a crisis of conceding a goal, instantly change the game to an attack and turn it into a score.

It’s not like it’s a mirror that reflects back an attack, it’s just mind-boggling.

‘Yeah. That scene against Bournemouth wasn’t a coincidence, was it?’

Of course, Arteta also knew what Kim Min-woo did against Bournemouth. It was a famous move that everyone knew about.

It showed up occasionally after that, but it came out again today of all days.

The score is 0 to 1.

We’ve only been playing aggressively for a short while and already we’ve conceded a goal.

For a moment, Arteta wondered if the match was already over.

No matter what we do, we won’t score anyway, and Man U’s Giovanni knows that, and if we keep doing that, the game will just…

“no.”

He shook his head.

If the manager becomes defeatist because a goal was conceded only a few minutes into the game, what will the players think?

And it hasn’t worked yet, so there’s no way it won’t work in the future. Kim is a rookie who has only been in the industry for three years.

‘If I feel this way, then most managers of other teams who face Manchester United must feel the same way.’

Arteta is determined to break this defeatism, even when losing a match, by scoring a goal.

It doesn’t matter if Manchester United trample on Arsenal’s goal in the process.

If we can just break free from that ingrained defeatism, if other teams can watch our games and feel like they can do it too… .

“Albert?”

Arteta called his assistant coach. The assistant coach approached him, timidly.

“Yes, sir.”

“Let’s play the game today.”

“…yes?”

And Arteta explained his plan: to attack, attack, attack until the end of the game today, even if we concede a few goals.

Let’s attack until everyone’s stamina runs out, down to the last person, and score Kim’s first goal.

Head coach Albert bit his lip after hearing Arteta’s words.

“Coach. If you throw this game in a situation where competition for the top spots is fierce… … .”

“Albert. Isn’t it a Manchester United victory anyway? They lost at the Emirates. They also lost to Manchester City, and they played against the world-class Liverpool once and came up with a draw strategy. And after Liverpool, other teams followed Liverpool’s strategy. Do you know what this means?”

Albert looks into the manager’s eyes as if he is listening. Arteta has expressed his thoughts.

“Teams in the world’s best leagues are scared of Manchester United. They don’t even try to score because they can’t break through no matter what they do.”

“So, are you saying that you will somehow make Kim lose his first goal and break his shackles?”

“That’s right. To be honest, even if we take it seriously, we can’t beat Manchester United. Since we’ve declared that we’ll play attacking football, we have to attack until the end of the game, whether the score is 7-0 or 8-0. That’s how we do it.”

Arteta gestured passionately onto the field. The broadcast cameras captured the scene, while the commentators, clueless, babbled: “It looks like Arteta is discussing tactics with his assistant coach.”

… Well, that’s not wrong.

If insisting that we’ll just attack throughout the game is a tactical discussion, then it’s a tactical discussion. Right.

*Ambuddha (without asking or investigating anything)

“Let’s make Kim score his first goal. We have to show the world that Kim is not invincible. Even if this season is already over, we have to do that to plan for next season, or the season after that. If we leave Manchester United like this—”

“Are you worried that the Bundesliga will end up like this?”

Arteta nodded, calming down at his assistant coach’s words.

“It’s not something a manager should worry about, but I’m afraid that there will be a trend of not even wanting to get points against Manchester United, just like so many teams did against Hannover.”

“But, Director, don’t we need to make that sacrifice?”

“Anyway, we’ve already scored a goal. If the result doesn’t change no matter what we do, I’d like to try and lose. Even if we lose badly… … Definitely.”

The head coach eventually nodded in agreement. If the score had been 0-0, the head coach would have tried to persuade him somehow, but as Arteta said, the goal had already been scored.

In this situation, you have to do your best to score a goal somehow.

‘Kim. I didn’t make any promises, but my heart hasn’t changed since I first met you.’

Arteta looked towards the goal where Kim was standing with eagle eyes.

Today’s game is all about attack.

It doesn’t matter how many goals are scored in the process.

We play with the mindset of definitely scoring just one goal.

And then, a significant tactical change began at Arsenal… … .

* * *

You can see at a glance that the game pattern is changing.

It looks like Arteta is asking his players to do something to change the current situation.

‘Klopp surprised me, will Arteta show something too?’

And what unfolded was Arsenal’s attack. They had been aggressive before they conceded a goal, but now they had become even more aggressive.

It was as if the boss monster’s pattern had changed.

“hmm.”

Is it too late to switch to defense now?

Anticipating that the attack would be fierce, I shouted at the defenders to concentrate as it seemed dangerous.

And my prediction quickly became reality.

The side was pierced for some unknown reason.

Bukayo Saka ran along the right flank, with Maguire and Luke Shaw running a few paces behind to keep him in check.

‘It’s not good.’

The pass trajectory caught my eye.

It was a ground ball pass between Maguire and Shaw.

It looks like Havertz, who is positionally a central striker, will receive it. I shouted at Varane until my throat was hoarse.

“I wish! I wish! I wish!”

I didn’t even say anything like, “Stop it when the pass comes.” The situation would have unfolded before I could finish my sentence.

But Varane must have realized something was wrong when he heard my voice, and he doggedly followed Havertz. And then the pass came.

Varane attempted to block the pass with a sliding tackle, but the ball narrowly missed Varane’s toes and ended up in the hands of Havertz.

‘Fuck.’

Baran’s sliding tackle fails.

That means Havertz will come out and fight one-on-one without any resistance.

Havertz also realized that Varane had been shaken off and calmly closed the gap.

I lowered my body and focused on two trajectories. And… … .

‘here!’

Havertz’s shot aimed towards the near post. As a kid who has only kicked the ball his whole life, the speed was so fast that I couldn’t help but curse as I blocked it.

The trajectory is obvious, but the speed is frighteningly fast.

“Ah.”

I hugged the ball tightly. Even if you know the trajectory, the sincere shots of professional soccer players are sometimes really scary.

Havertz seemed disappointed, got down on his knees and pounded the grass.

“Everyone, focus! It was dangerous!”

And as always, the dangerous moments continued as Arsenal regained control despite conceding a goal.

Just as the crisis was overcome, this time the attack unfolds with a no-look pass from the opposing attacker, Jorginho.

Havertz, who received a no-look pass, charged up, and this time was surrounded by three defenders on the sides and behind, so the composition looked good.

Even if the trajectory isn’t created suddenly.

Havertz lifted his left foot as if he was going to kick, then turned it. Varane, who was fooled by the fake motion, opened up the space on the right, and Havertz twisted his body and attempted a right-foot curl shot into the open space.

‘Oh my!’

The speed slowed down because of the winding, and if it weren’t for the fact that the trajectory was visible in advance, it would have been dangerous.

“Wait! Watch till the end! Until the end!”

When I got up from my seat and jumped up, Baran made an apologetic gesture.

My suffering didn’t end there.

Although there were clearly three defenders blocking the ball, Arsenal’s attackers somehow created space.

Fortunately, the angle of the shot was narrowed so it was not difficult to block it, but Arsenal’s attacks continued to increase.

Of course, since it wasn’t a tactical training where only one side defended and only the other side attacked, Manchester United didn’t just take it easy.

We also counterattacked in our own way.

The problem is that all those attacks were narrowly missed.

The ping-pong football between Arsenal and Manchester United continued for a while.

Arsenal continue to take the reins of attack.

And in the meantime, Manchester United are looking for a gap.

‘come!’

It was Rashford’s pass.

A short, accurate pass that took advantage of the gap in Arsenal’s defense.

Kim Jun-young also saw the space well.

He lurched from behind and quickly made his way between the defenders, and Rashford didn’t miss it and struck at the perfect time.

Kim Jun-young runs between the defenders, and the Arsenal defenders clench their teeth and chase after him, raising exclamation marks above their heads, but they cannot stop Kim Jun-young’s shot.

…and David Raya is not me.

Kim Jun-young took a few steps ahead of the defender and fired a shot into the goal, which bounced off the goalkeeper.

It was the type where the shot was so strong that it went in even though I blocked it.

Even though I scored a goal, I was nervous because I could have been eaten like that at any time if I let my guard down.

However, now that they have scored two goals, I just hope that they will be less aggressive in their attacks than they are now.

“Junyoung, you little punk. You scored multiple goals against Arsenal?”

I smiled happily and nodded.

Kim Jun-young’s goal once again brings excitement to the stadium.

And Kim Jun-young, who does a cool ceremony while sweeping the grass.

Looking at that sight, I felt a strange sense of envy.

‘I’m also fighting like crazy, so why isn’t there any cheering?’

Well, I’m a goalkeeper.

Besides, now the fans are starting to take my defense for granted. I could feel it.

There is only one way to make the obvious no longer obvious: to disappear. If I lie down for three games with an injury, the fans will be waiting with bated breath for me to recover.

But I’m not that thirsty for attention, so I wouldn’t do something childish like intentionally getting injured or something.

‘I guess I should just think of it as fate…’

Maybe that’s why I’m researching delicious ways to block it these days.

Next time I get called up to the national team, I should ask Cho Han-woo about it too.

That guy blocked it so well that I thought it was delicious.

… and the game resumes again.

Now, it was expected that Arsenal’s attack would also falter, but it was not.

Rather, it became more intense.

They keep raising the line and coming out aggressively as if there are 5 minutes left until the end of the game.

‘… What is it? Why is it like this?’

Arsenal’s attack development.

The defense is breached again, and Bukayo Saka receives a pass and runs into the box.

Saka fools Maguire with a few moves and creates space.

I wanted to pass to Havertz, but judging by the trajectory, it wasn’t. This time, it was a slight curve kick.

I jumped up and blocked it.

The ball bounced off my hand and went out of bounds.

“… I get the general feeling.”

For Arsenal, winning or losing the game wasn’t important. They were just trying to score a goal somehow.

I don’t mind losing this game, but I’ll break my clean sheet record instead?

Ughhhh.

If you use such extreme attack tactics from the first half, it won’t end well.

Well, it doesn’t matter. It was actually good.

Arsenal will be an example to PL teams of what happens when they use extreme attacking tactics against Man Utd.

I have continued to block Arsenal’s many attacking opportunities since then.

They actively utilized the defensive line, and most of Arsenal’s attacking opportunities were organized by the line of Maguire and Varane.

The hasty, time-critical attacks in the first half are poisonous and never lead to a good outcome.

As the defense continued to block the opponent’s attacks, the offense also began to show its strength.

44 minutes into the first half. Manchester United’s corner kick. The captain kicks it, and Kim Jun-young heads the ball. It was a hat trick.

Kim Jun-young, who scored three goals in the first half alone, was so happy that he ran to the captain and hugged him.

‘young….’

I told him to do it as usual, and he did it well.

Great job.

Looking at Arteta, he was crossing his arms like a great manager.

“Hoo.”

I wonder if he can maintain that composure if he scores more goals here?

The first half is over, and it’s halftime.

Giovanni praised us with a pleasant smile in the locker room, and we prepared for the second half without any major changes.

Arsenal’s tactics were not much different from the first half. All-out attack.

I blocked Arsenal’s attacks in the second half as I did in the first half.

It wasn’t that difficult.

‘There’s a saying that goes, ‘The more urgent it is, the more you should turn back… Tsk tsk.’

It’s so urgent.

“Tchcha.”

“Fuck!”

Block it.

“Tchcha.”

“Shit!”

Block it again.

“Tchcha.”

“Damn!”

Blocked again.

While the defence held off Arsenal’s attacks with ease, the attackers also worked hard.

Crash!

Put it in.

Crash!

And add more.

Crash!

Keep adding.

As the score widened to 7-0, Arteta, who had been maintaining his composure, also began to hold his forehead.

Meanwhile, Manchester United is not blocking it precariously, but is blocking it too leisurely, so it will be even more mentally draining.

In addition, because they kept attacking from the beginning, the opposing players all looked tired.

It no longer looks threatening.

“It’s collapsing on its own.”

The strong will to score a goal ended up strangling Arsenal. If they had been a little more calm and composed, they wouldn’t have been so overwhelmingly defeated.

‘If you endure it, you become Klopp, if you can’t endure it, you become Arteta.’

PL managers must have a hard time too.

Tsk tsk.