Chapter 159 Fine-Tuning

After Zhou Yi adjusted his special training methods, he felt the effects were much more obvious.

In the virtual world, he asked Sahin to play as he usually would, without paying too much attention to himself. If there was anything to note, it was to reduce the number of forward runs, leaving more space in the front for Zhou Yi.

This was not difficult for Sahin to do.

Originally, Sahin played as a defensive midfielder for Borussia Dortmund, staying back most of the time. It was just that before Zhou Yi arrived, he had to go forward to assist in attacks.

Now that they had Zhou Yi, he didn't have to always run forward and could also take care of some defense in the backfield.

And how did Zhou Yi play?

He referred to his own performance as a substitute in the match against Hoffenheim.

He felt that the so-called double-core should be like that time.

Sahin controlled the ball and the rhythm more in the backfield, while he himself roamed beside him, waiting to receive the ball at any time.

Then, he would pass the ball forward.

If Sahin could deliver the ball forward himself, Zhou Yi wouldn't join in the fun but would wait for opportunities in the front.

If Sahin was marked by the opponent, preventing him from delivering the ball forward, he would immediately step up to receive it.

This required him to run back and forth between the front and backfields, requiring a certain amount of stamina.

However, Zhou Yi felt that he had trained his physical fitness for so long now that he could handle such running. After all, if there was no Sahin, his range of movement would have to be even greater. Now, because of Sahin, he didn't have to drop back too deep, and he would actually run less distance than before, and the energy consumption would also be less.

Zhou Yi practiced like this in the virtual space for a few days and felt that he had gained a lot, because he knew exactly how he should play.

No matter how good a tactic is, if it cannot be executed, it is just empty talk.

Before this, it could be said that Klopp's tactics regarding the double-core were just assumptions. Only when Zhou Yi and Sahin really played out his assumptions in the game could it be considered a tactic.

※※※

While Zhou Yi had already begun to use the double-core tactics to play in the virtual world, in reality, Borussia Dortmund's double-core tactics were still groping forward.

Sahin still couldn't find the feeling of the double-core. He had always been playing as a single-core before. Now that there was suddenly another core, no matter how clear the division of labor was, he always had to think more after getting the ball.

But in attack, sometimes thinking too much can cause you to miss the best opportunity.

Training is actually about turning thinking into the body's instinct.

Sahin had previously only received single-core training. He was the core of the midfield, and everyone else had to revolve around him. He was very familiar with this.

But when another core appeared in the team and wanted to share some of his work, he was not very adaptable.

Although he worked hard in training, Klopp's double-core tactics still seemed to be progressing slowly.

In this way, Borussia Dortmund welcomed their next opponent in the league—Hannover 96.

※※※

When Zhou Yi opened his eyes and saw the ceiling of the hotel room, he knew that match day had arrived.

Last night in his sleep, he had faced Hannover 96 eight times.

Borussia Dortmund, using the double-core tactics, were basically able to defeat Hannover 96, and even easily defeated them in several games.

After all, there was a huge difference in strength between the two sides. After twenty-two rounds of the league, although Borussia Dortmund's league start was not good, now, with a series of powerful performances, Borussia Dortmund had accumulated forty points and ranked fourth in the league.

This was already a place that could participate in the Europa League next season.

And what about Hannover 96?

Four wins, five draws, and thirteen losses, ranking third from the bottom.

The difference in the league standings between the two teams was the difference in their strength.

With such a big difference, and Borussia Dortmund was playing at home, defeating Hannover 96 was not a problem.

But there was one thing that might need attention.

That was that in the virtual game, Borussia Dortmund's double-core tactics ran smoothly and could easily defeat Hannover 96, and the normal performance of Zhou Yi and Sahin was also essential.

But in reality, Borussia Dortmund's double-core tactics were not running as smoothly as in the virtual world.

This was a very important difference, and perhaps this difference would ultimately lead to different results in the game in the virtual and real worlds.

Sahin must have had a hunch about this.

Although he would not have any virtual game experience, he also knew very well that if he, as one of the cores, performed poorly and eventually caused the team to lose the game, he would bear a heavy burden of pressure.

The double-core tactic was actually Klopp's idea because when he was injured, Zhou Yi played well. After his recovery, his performance was also good, so Klopp wanted him and Zhou Yi to coexist.

But if the result of coexistence was not as good as when the two were separated, wouldn't a choice have to be made?

Looking at Zhou Yi's performance in the team, Sahin admitted that he, who had just recovered from his injury, did not have much chance of winning in the competition with Zhou Yi.

If Klopp had to make a choice, then he would most likely continue the previous lineup, let Zhou Yi start, and then he would be a substitute, slowly finding his form.

This was definitely not the life Sahin wanted.

But he still hadn't found the feeling of the double-core tactics...

Sahin was a little anxious.

This anxiety was directly reflected in his expression.

Before the game against Hannover 96, in the home team's locker room at the Westfalenstadion, Sahin looked unhappy.

Zhou Yi saw Sahin's expression, after all, he had been paying attention to Sahin's situation recently.

Double-core, double-core, if any core has a problem, this system will not work.

Zhou Yi sat next to Sahin and said to him, "Hey, Nuri, I know what's bothering you."

Sahin looked up at Zhou Yi.

As his partner in midfield, and also a rival, this kid didn't seem anxious at all.

But Sahin was not surprised by this. Because if the double-core tactics couldn't be played, from the current point of view, the biggest beneficiary should be Zhou Yi...

So his enthusiasm for the double-core would definitely not be too high, which was very normal.

"Actually, there's nothing to worry about. Just play as you usually do, just... cut back on the forward runs a little bit." Zhou Yi smiled.

Sahin thought about it, not quite understanding what the meaning of Zhou Yi's idea was.

If he still played like he used to, then what was the point of having a double-core?

But thinking that Zhou Yi, as a rival, could still say such things to him, it was not easy, and it was also kind of him.

So Sahin nodded and smiled at Zhou Yi: "That's really a good idea, thank you, Zhou Yi."

But in fact, he didn't take Zhou Yi's words to heart at all, because he felt that it was impossible for him to do so, it was meaningless.

He still wanted to think about how to implement the coach's tactics into the game...

Zhou Yi was very happy to see that Sahin had accepted his proposal.

He could only use this method to remind Sahin. He couldn't possibly directly tell Sahin that because he had tested it countless times in the virtual world, only this method was the most likely to succeed, right?

So he could only use such a euphemistic way to save the country.

※※※

In the game against Hannover 96, Sahin and Zhou Yi continued to start at the same time, which also meant that after losing to Bayern Munich, Klopp still insisted on his double-core tactics.

After losing to Bayern Munich, criticism of Klopp's double-core tactics began to appear in the media.

The football world is very cruel, everything is result-oriented.

If you win the game, then your tactics, even if they are named "x**t", can still be recognized. But if you lose the game, even if your tactics are professional, they will be questioned.

When the team wins, everything is right, everything is correct. When the team loses, everything is wrong. Then, even if the same configuration as before when winning is used, it will become the reason for losing the game - "The coach does not know how to adapt and sticks to the rules, causing the opponent to thoroughly study the tactics."

These media that criticized Klopp seemed to have overlooked the fact that his new tactics had only been proposed and implemented for one game, which was too short for the formation of a new tactic.

In the game against Hannover 96, the critics also widened their eyes, holding magnifying glasses, ready to find fault at any time.

After the game started, Borussia Dortmund's performance did not improve. In the midfield, the team was still playing relatively chaotically, and the feeling it gave people was similar to the previous game against Bayern Munich.

Sahin frowned as he played, because he felt that he still hadn't found the right rhythm.

This was not only felt by Sahin himself, but also seen by those who watched the game.

"Compared with Zhou Yi or Sahin playing alone on the field, Borussia Dortmund's current midfield has a more luxurious lineup, but the effect seems to be worse than before..." Marcel Reif's comment was sharp. "Sometimes, it's not that two outstanding players can achieve an effect of one plus one greater than two when they play at the same time. Thinking that strong players will become stronger together is often just our wishful thinking..."

Due to the chaos in the midfield organization, Borussia Dortmund, facing Hannover 96, who were third from the bottom of the league, did not even gain any advantage on the field.

In the twenty-seventh and twenty-ninth minutes, within two minutes, Borussia Dortmund's Barrios and Subotic simply received two yellow cards in a row.

This shows how passive Borussia Dortmund, playing at home, was on the field.

Sahin seemed very impatient. He kept passing the ball with Zhou Yi according to the requirements in training, but it didn't seem to work and couldn't help the team improve the current situation.

Because many of these passes were meaningless backpasses, which had no practical effect other than increasing the ball possession rate.

Moreover, Sahin's passing made it difficult for Zhou Yi to play, because many times Zhou Yi himself had not run to the open space, and Sahin's ball was impatiently passed over. He couldn't refuse to receive it. After receiving the ball, he was caught in the opponent's pressing or encirclement. Without an advantage in physical strength, the ball would soon be lost from his feet.

The result was that Zhou Yi's performance didn't seem to be very good either...

Zhou Yi was very helpless about this. He could see that Sahin didn't seem to have taken his advice to heart.

Perhaps... he was too euphemistic?