Chapter 124 Ambition and Determination

As Zhou Yi was calmly sharing his ambitions with his teammates in the locker room, Borussia Dortmund's head coach, Klopp, was discussing his own thoughts with his colleagues.

"I think I may have been making a mistake all along…" Klopp's opening remark surprised everyone. They exchanged glances, then turned questioning eyes to Klopp.

Klopp, with his head lowered, seemed to be pondering something. He didn't continue immediately, remaining silent with his head down.

After several seconds of silence, he suddenly looked up and continued, "I've always believed that this season was over for us. At least in the league, that is. We can't pose a threat to Bayern Munich. They're too strong, too consistent…"

Klopp's words startled the Dortmund coaches present. Was the Dortmund head coach admitting defeat in advance? If this got out to the media, who knew what kind of storm it would stir up?

They exchanged glances, wondering who among them would leak these words to the media later.

"But yesterday's game showed me something I'd been overlooking… I always thought that after winning three consecutive league titles, our team had lost its desire for championships and victories. But in yesterday's game, I saw that the players are still full of desire for victory. So I think I was wrong… Our players haven't given up, and I can't give up either…"

At this point, Klopp said, "I'm going to tell them my thoughts now. I want to reaffirm our goal for this season, which is still to compete for the championship. Of course, to achieve this goal, we must also do more work, especially the medical team."

He looked at Dr. Braun, "We need to add another person from the medical team to the coaching staff."

Dr. Braun immediately offered a suggestion without hesitation, "That would definitely be Kotana. With her on the bench, I think Zhou Yi's performance level could increase by another five to ten percent."

Everyone laughed after he said this.

Zhou Yi and Kotana's relationship was no secret, and the team would occasionally joke about it.

Klopp laughed as well, "Alright, it's decided then."

※※※

When the players arrived at the training ground, ready to train, they were surprised to see that head coach Klopp and the entire coaching staff were already there. They exchanged puzzled glances—they weren't late…

"Warm up first," Klopp waved his hand.

Everyone focused on warming up, but the confusion in their hearts grew stronger, because they could feel that the atmosphere was indeed different than usual…

After warming up, the players stood in a circle, facing head coach Klopp.

They knew Klopp must have something to say.

"First of all, congratulations, guys. Your game against Werder Bremen was excellent. The eye-pleasing offense and control of the situation, the score is the best reward for everyone. Secondly, I want to apologize to you."

Klopp's words surprised everyone.

The first half, congratulating them on winning, was understandable. But what was with the sudden apology?

The confusion in many people's hearts grew even stronger.

"I want to apologize to you. Before this, I wasn't very confident in you… Yes, our results this season have been unstable, we have serious injuries… we are now at a disadvantage in the league competition… There have been too many unfavorable news, and I once wanted to give up on the league. But after watching your game against Werder Bremen, I realized my mistake—my team hasn't given up, the one who wanted to give up was me. So I need to apologize to you."

The players were still shocked after hearing Klopp's words, not knowing what to say, they just silently looked at Klopp.

"So now I want to reiterate our goal for this season—the league championship! We will never admit defeat!"

Some of the players gradually came back to their senses, and then laughed out loud.

In such a serious moment, someone suddenly laughing couldn't help but attract attention.

Assistant coach Buvac looked up and asked, "Do you have any thoughts, Kevin?"

Grosskreutz quickly waved his hand, "No, no, no… I just think it's a coincidence…"

"What's a coincidence?" Buvac pressed.

"Just now in the locker room, Zhou Yi said almost the same thing…" Grosskreutz successfully kicked the ball to Zhou Yi.

Now, the eyes of the coaching staff were all focused on Zhou Yi.

Under the public gaze, Zhou Yi had no choice but to stand up and explain to the coaches, "I just said that I don't want to give up on the league championship this season…"

Klopp laughed. Zhou Yi had said these words to him before. But at that time, he was still hesitant, and Zhou Yi's words were only included in his consideration, but he didn't really intend to do so.

He didn't expect that while he was hesitant, Zhou Yi was very firmly moving towards this goal.

Thinking about Zhou Yi's performance after the winter break.

He worked harder and harder in each game.

Although he didn't have any grand words, he was proving that his words counted with practical actions.

"Very good, since our goals are the same, then things will be easier." Klopp clapped his hands. "I think you all know how difficult it will be for us to win the championship this season. Although we are only four points behind Bayern Munich, we have serious injuries this season. In terms of rotation, we can't maintain the same level as last season, and players in some positions will have to endure more games and more pressure. But since our goals are the same, then let's move towards this goal. Now, let's start training!"

※※※

Since the goal was determined to be the league championship, then the upcoming German Cup would definitely have to be given up.

At this time, Zhou Yi had no objection to giving up the German Cup.

So on February 11th, in the German Cup quarter-finals, Dortmund lost 1:2 to Eintracht Frankfurt away, and once again stopped in the quarter-finals of the German Cup.

They had just won a 5:1 against Werder Bremen in the league, but in the German Cup, facing Eintracht Frankfurt, whose strength was not as good as theirs, they lost the game.

This meant that the media was still full of criticism of Dortmund.

In the eyes of these experts and reporters, Dortmund's league title this season was hopeless. Even if they had just won against Werder Bremen, even if they were only four points behind Bayern Munich. With Bayern Munich's stable performance, it was extremely difficult for Dortmund to make a comeback.

And the German Cup was Dortmund's only choice to avoid ending the season empty-handed. Performing well in the German Cup and winning a German Cup title would at least be a consolation for Dortmund's terrible season…

But now, Dortmund had personally buried this hope—they sent out a large number of young players and substitutes in the game against Eintracht Frankfurt. Klopp's thoughts could be clearly seen from this personnel arrangement, he had given up on the German Cup.

"Simply unwise!" A reporter criticized on social media.

"Perhaps Klopp was blinded by Dortmund's 5:1 victory over Werder Bremen. It should be known that that game was atypical and has no reference value. Dortmund hasn't played many good games this season. Their performance fluctuates greatly, and the league is a long process that requires the team to perform steadily throughout the process… The foundation for stable performance does not exist in today's Dortmund!"

No one knew that within Dortmund, after the goal was determined, the machine had already started running.

Klopp adjusted the content of training, increasing the proportion of physical strength and conditioning training to ensure that the players would not lose their chains due to physical fitness during the sprint stage of the league, and also reduce the chance of injury.

At the same time, the content of footbonaut training was also appropriately increased. This is a training method that allows players to pass and receive the ball quickly. It is very in line with Dortmund's tactics.

Dortmund's excellent performance in the past two seasons is also closely related to this high-tech training equipment.

Yan Min likes this "little black room" very much. He had never experienced such training content in China before. In his opinion, it is like playing a game, challenging and upgradable.

From the beginning of one person passing and receiving the ball in the cage, to adding defensive players to interfere with you, from one defensive player to two defensive players, up to three defensive players, the difficulty increases geometrically.

Yan Min used to benefit from his boredom, practicing dribbling alone on the training ground, and as a result, he developed good dribbling skills. But in comparison, his passing and receiving the ball, like other Chinese players, doesn't seem to be a big problem in training. Once he joins the confrontation, the accuracy of his passing and receiving the ball is somewhat lacking.

Since coming to Dortmund, he has been very interested in this training content, because he knows that this can improve his passing and receiving ability.

This is also true. The outside world is surprised by Yan Min's progress in joining Dortmund, and the help of footbonaut is indispensable.