Zachary almost couldn't believe his ears when he heard the news. Two days ago, Pogba had excused himself from Juventus' training sessions by claiming that he had received a knock on his thigh muscle. But Zachary was now hearing that he was leaving the club. It was a shocking piece of news.
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He arrived a few minutes later and realized that most of his teammates had already taken their seats. A few of them were even huddled together, holding hashed conversations as they waited for the coaches to start the meeting.
Zachary tried his best to calm his racing heart and settled on a seat at the back of the room. Of course, he was a bit nervous since he was about to attend the tactical meeting to kick-start the new Serie A season with Juventus. He was also tense since he couldn't be sure that he would make Coach Allegri starting eleven.
"Posso avere la tua attenzione, per favore?" Coach Allegri said when he took center stage a minute later. He started delivering his speech and spent the next thirty minutes explaining tactics in Italian to his players. He was intense as he paced the entire room while spewing out words that sounded alien to Zachary's ears.
The coach was obviously doing his best to explain the game strategy to his players. However, Zachary couldn't understand what he was saying since he had yet to learn the Italian language. Zachary would have to wait for Coach Trombetta to translate the content for him at the end of the session.
The minutes seemed to pass slowly as the coach delivered his pre-match briefing. Zachary was almost dozing off on several occasions since he found the entire session boring. He only prevented his mind from descending into slumberland by focusing all his willpower.
More minutes that seemed like weeks to Zachary passed, and finally, the coach ended his speech and got to the exciting part of the pre-match briefing. It was finally time for the coach to announce the squad for the following day's game against Chievo Verona. As a result, a numbing silence descended upon the entire room as the players waited for the next part of the coach's presentation with bated breaths.
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Coach Allegri took a few seconds to observe all the players in the tactics room. He could tell that some of his new signings, like Zachary Bemba, Patrice Evra, Álvaro Morata, and Kingsley Coman, couldn't understand what he was saying due to their zero knowledge of Italian. But even then, he wasn't about to prolong the tactical meeting by having someone else translate his words for them during the session. He would only instruct Coach Trombetta to translate for them after the meeting had ended. That way, he would remain efficient and avoid wasting the precious time of his other players.
"Let's begin with the starting eleven," he said as the big screen behind him lit up and displayed the names of the players who had made his squad. "Gianluigi Buffon will be in goal. Then, we'll use three defenders, namely: Martín Cáceres, Leonardo Bonucci, and Angelo Ogbonna, to complete our back-three defense."
"Further up the pitch, Claudio Marchisio, Andre Pirlo, and Arturo Vidal will play as our central midfielders. Then, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Kwadwo Asamoah will play on the flanks to complete our midfield of five. And finally, Carlos Tévez and Kingsley Coman will be the men to lead our attack on the striking line of our 3-5-2 formation. That's it for the starting eleven. Any questions?" The coach glanced around.
In response, all the players around the room remained silent.
"Okay, okay," Coach Allegri said after a few seconds. "Let's move on. On the bench, we have Rubinho, Marco Storari, Luca Marrone, Patrice Evra, Federico Mattiello, Rômulo, Simone Padoin, Roberto Pereyra, Zachary Bemba, Simone Pepe, Sebastian Giovinco, and Fernando Llorente. And that's all concerning our match squad. Any questions?"
Once again, the players remained silent. They obviously had no questions for the coach.
Coach Allegri smiled and nodded. "Since there are no questions, let's conclude the tactical meeting here. The match against Chievo is at 6:00 PM tomorrow, and we'll be playing at an away ground. You all need to head back to your homes and have some ample rest tonight. That way, you will be sharp and at the top of your game during the match tomorrow. Am I making myself clear?"
"Yes, coach," the players replied.
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