{"id":4283,"date":"2016-11-08T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T13:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=4283"},"modified":"2017-02-08T12:29:46","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T12:29:46","slug":"second-half-5-building-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2016\/11\/second-half-5-building-back\/","title":{"rendered":"[Second Half] 5. Building the back"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>From the moment Jac landed at Stansted airport yesterday\u00a0morning, he had immediately been\u00a0whisked to the stadium\u2019s briefing room for a meeting with the bosses followed by a press conference &#8211; the one\u00a0attended by a single reporter. He had headed straight back to his hotel\u00a0room to digest the briefing notes with only a sandwich for lunch before diving in to\u00a0his managerial debut against Poole. After that drawn game, it was straight back to the room where he slept his way through all the meals in the next 15 hours.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sipping on his coffee\u00a0this morning, he recounted the chain of events and the\u00a0intense focus that he felt during the match. He haven\u2019t felt that way since a long time. All his worries had\u00a0momentarily disappeared and all that mattered was the football game unfolding in front of him.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But now, he felt a slight pang of home sickness, which is odd because he wasn\u2019t really missing anyone or anything in particular, but simply\u00a0the idea of home. If home is where the heart is, then Singapore had most definitely ripped his heart out and now it was homeless. This feeling must be one of confusion then.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In Starbucks, he was able to momentarily experience a familiar presence. It didn\u2019t matter that he was at 24 hour Birchanger Green Service Area and not at the branch in Pasir Ris, Singapore. The music, furnishings, and personality behind the counter gave some comfort to ease his unanchored soul. This is all there is and it had to be\u00a0enough for now.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cTake 10 everyone!\u201d bellowed Roy to the squad as they completed their warm-up routine. Then, together with the only other coach at the club,\u00a0Glyn, they walked over to the centre circle where their new boss, Jac, was\u00a0trying to juggle a ball with limited success.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>When his coaches were within an earshot, Jac said, \u201cAlright guys,\u00a0I\u2019ve been observing what we have in the squad and reading up on Roy\u2019s reports &#8211; thanks for that man-\u00a0and I want to share with you a bit of what I\u2019m thinking.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The curiosity in the minds of both Bishop\u2019s Stortford\u00a0coaches showed clearly on their faces.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI think we\u2019ve got some decent players out there. Average, but good men.\u00a0It seems to me that many\u00a0are comfortable playing on the right side and we\u2019ve got some decent central defenders over there. It\u2019s also obvious that we\u2019re short of depth and quality on the left side and in the attacking department. As for\u00a0our midfielders, seem pretty alright, but nothing that gets me excited.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Jac sounded like he knew what he was saying though the truth is, he only had a 5% confidence in his thoughts about the squad.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cBoss, we do actually have a list of players that we think you might want to consider,\u201d said Roy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIt\u2019s weird to hear them call me Boss,\u201d thought Jac to himself. \u201cBut I\u2019ll take that as\u00a0a semblance of authority that I better not erode.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cGood to hear. Let\u2019s scout these players and send me a report on them,\u201d Jac instructed aloud.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cErm, about that..\u201d, Glyn muttered. &#8220;We don\u2019t really have a scout in the club. These are names that we thought would be nice to have from watching TV and other games when we have the time.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Jac wasn\u2019t sure how to respond to that. He had simply assumed that these clubs would have a structure for this. He had imagined that the scout was nowhere to be seen because he was busy&#8230; scouting.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cOk\u2026 what else do we not have?\u201d asked Jac in an attempt to soak in all the surprises at once.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe don\u2019t really have a medical person taking care of the players,\u201d replied Glyn.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Roy was looking at his feet, slightly embarrassed\u00a0about what was unfolding and trying to distance himself from the directness that Glyn is showing to his new boss. Glyn continued anyway, \u201cwell\u2026 we do have someone but he&#8217;s not that great and I\u2019m really not sure how he got his contract.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Jac took a deep breath and told himself that this was something he needs to take a look at later. For now, he had a football team to work on.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cOK, I\u2019ll look into that. Thanks for letting me know. Meanwhile, we still got to work with whatever we have I suppose.\u00a0We\u2019ve still got quite a few games left and here\u2019s my plan: We play a back three system to make use of the good central defenders that we have.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There was a silence within the center circle. Jac continued, &#8220;Johnny is solid at left wing-back and we do have a few players who can play on right wing-back. That should give us a decent backline to work with. I just hope Johnny doesn\u2019t get injured cos then we\u2019ll be in trouble.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He had little\u00a0idea on\u00a0what its like to play with a 3-man defence. His television footballing education has been limited to a lot of 4-defender systems, as played by \u00a0his favourite team,\u00a0Man Utd, many English clubs, and the bulk of Singaporean teams. However, this was a tactic that he felt would be the best\u00a0with the players at his disposal.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The 2 other coaches looked concerned but not worried. Both of them do have National C coaching\u00a0licenses and Jac figured that must be worthy of something. He then continued to reveal his tactical plan.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We will tweak it as we go along. Looking at our\u00a0young central defenders, I think \u00a0they can handle the ball well and smart enough\u00a0to learn something new. Then, we get\u00a02 or 3 central midfielders to screen them while the wing backs push up and support the attack. \u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Jac had learnt some of\u00a0that\u00a0from watching Antonio Conte\u2019s Juventus. Unfortunately, the Blues\u00a0haven\u2019t really got a\u00a0striking department that can lead from the front and\u00a0\u00a0the midfielders are an unknown quantity at this stage but he had to make do for now.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cCan?\u201d asked Jac.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Roy and Glyn shrugged their shoulders, looked at each other, and nodded.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cGreat, let\u2019s spend the next few days getting these boys familiar with a back-3 system,\u201d and with that Jac\u00a0walked off to the goal area.\u00a0As he left the two coaches to sort out the training details,\u00a0Jac was also busy sorting out something else: muttering a quiet prayer that this plan of his would work.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Second Half\u00a0is a story about Jac Grey who lost everything in his life and tries to rebuild it all by travelling halfway across the world to take up a job that he was unqualified for \u00a0\u2013 as a football manager.\u00a0For the full story, visit Jac\u2019s at shadowcatjac.wordpress.com. You can also get me\u00a0on Twitter @www.thehighertempopress.comshadowcatjac.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the moment Jac landed at Stansted airport yesterday\u00a0morning, he had immediately been\u00a0whisked to the stadium\u2019s briefing room for a meeting with the bosses followed by a press conference &#8211; the one\u00a0attended by a single reporter. He had headed straight back to his hotel\u00a0room to digest the briefing notes with only a sandwich for lunch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103,90],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>[Second Half] 5. 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