Two days passed.
On November 8, England U17 played their opening match of the Four Nations Tournament at Chesterfield’s home ground, Proact Stadium.
For Zayn, both the stadium and the long name Chesterfield were completely unfamiliar.
Even the memories of his original body had barely any impression of the club.
In reality, Chesterfield had been founded eight years earlier than Aston Villa.
Established in 1866, they were the fourth oldest surviving football club in England.
They had simply never played in the English top flight and had spent most of their history in the lower divisions, so they were naturally not especially famous.
But on this drizzly day, Proact Stadium was surprisingly lively.
The ground held around fifteen thousand people, and there were a full five thousand spectators in the stands.
Considering this was only a youth match, that was already an impressive turnout.
Many of them were scouts who had made the trip specifically for the game.
The attention given to England’s Young Lions naturally far exceeded that of an ordinary youth team.
Of course, there was another reason that could not be ignored.
Tickets for this Four Nations Tournament were extremely cheap.
Three pounds for adults, and only one pound fifty for students and seniors.
A proper bargain.
…
Because he had only trained with the squad for two days, Zayn began the match on the bench.
Before the game, Cooper had spoken with him and said that he had already seen Zayn’s talent in training.
However, Zayn had not fully absorbed the tactical content yet, so he would start as a substitute today.
Over the past two days of training, Zayn had scored freely in the small-sided matches.
Even a blind man could see his talent up front.
But his performance in the tactical drills had indeed been average.
Cooper’s possession and pressing system placed very detailed demands on the center forward.
When to drop deep to receive the ball, when to hold off the center back and act as a focal point, when to pull wide and create space for teammates.
Every movement came with clear instructions.
Zayn was not yet familiar enough with it.
Every time he received the ball, his first instinct was to attack the goal.
So Zayn accepted being on the bench.
After all, he still had [Trait: Super Sub].
Coming on as a substitute would only make his impact even more eye-catching.
…
On the pitch, England U17 lined up in a standard 4-2-3-1.
The former was descended from Manchester City legends, while the latter covered a huge amount of ground and tackled fiercely.
The attacking midfielder was the lively Curtis Jones.
On either side of him were Mason Greenwood, who had been deployed on the wing today, and another pacey winger from Chelsea.
Leading the line as the lone striker was Bobby Duncan, Gerrard’s cousin and a product of Manchester City’s academy.
On paper, this lineup was luxurious, almost a collection of top academy products from England’s biggest clubs.
But football was never decided on paper.
Not long after the match began, an obvious problem emerged.
Steve Cooper’s high-pressing, possession-based approach was modern and advanced, but expecting a group of talented boys from different systems to become a finely tuned machine after only a few days of training was clearly too idealistic.
The England boys played with great energy.
They were almost ferocious.
Their possession remained high, and the ball spent most of the time rolling around in Portugal’s half.
To carry out Cooper’s instruction to surround the ball within five seconds of losing it, England’s midfielders and forwards pressed extremely high.
That was where the problem lay.
Cooper had won the U17 World Cup with this very approach, so Portugal were naturally prepared for it.
Once England’s press failed, a simple long clearance from a Portuguese defender could send the ball over the entire midfield and straight toward the attackers waiting up front.
Portugal’s midfield and back line did not try to get dragged into a midfield battle with England at all.
Once they won possession, they immediately launched the ball into the space behind England’s defense.
In the 14th minute, an England attack broke down.
Portugal’s defensive midfielder won the ball and, before he could be surrounded, struck a ruthless long pass behind the English back line.
Portugal’s left winger sprinted all the way through and reached the ball before the goalkeeper could get there, then lifted it neatly into the net.
0-1.
Young teams were always prone to losing their heads.
After conceding, the England youngsters did not tighten their shape.
Instead, the goal only fueled their attacking desire.
They pressed even higher and challenged even harder.
That was exactly what Portugal wanted.
In the 38th minute of the first half, almost the same scenario unfolded again.
Greenwood cut in from the right and forced a shot, but it was blocked, and possession changed hands.
The Portuguese defensive midfielder received the ball and did not even look up before launching another long pass toward the front line.
This time, the deepest England center back made a mistake.
He misjudged the flight of the ball.
It sailed over his head and dropped into open space.
Another Portuguese attacker arrived at full speed, took the ball, adjusted, and shot in one smooth sequence.
0-2.
When the halftime whistle sounded, the atmosphere at Proact Stadium was subdued. This story is hosted at g.com.
Among the five thousand spectators, apart from professional scouts from various clubs, most had come to watch England’s Young Lions overwhelm their opponents.
Instead, they had watched their own youngsters get stunned by two heavy blows.
Cooper’s brows were tightly furrowed.
He was not unaware of the problem his team was facing.
The training camp had been too short.
The coordination between pressing high up the pitch and retreating at the back had not yet been developed.
But his coaching philosophy would not allow him to abandon his tactical beliefs and drop deep to play on the counter just for the sake of one win.
That did not mean he would simply accept defeat.
He would adjust and try to win the game without straying from his principles.
Cooper turned and swept his gaze over the bench.
“Zayn, warm up.”
He decided to replace Bobby Duncan with Zayn in the second half.
Gerrard’s cousin had worked hard throughout the first half, trying to act as a focal point, stretch the defense, drop deep, and link play.
But under pressure from Portugal’s two center backs, the results had been poor.
Zayn’s performance in most parts of the tactical drills had indeed been average.
But there was one thing he did extremely well.
Pressing.
The boy was genuinely fast.
He was not stingy with his stamina either.
When he pressed, he chased like a madman.
More than once on the training pitch, Cooper had seen Zayn catch up to a ball carrier from behind and forcefully poke the ball away.
At this age level, his explosiveness was practically a dimension above everyone else.
Why had Portugal scored twice in the first half?
Others might think England U17 had pushed their defensive line too high for the sake of the high press, leaving too much space in behind.
But Cooper, who firmly believed in his own footballing principles, thought the problem was that the press up front had not been fast enough.
If the front line pressed more quickly, there was no way Portugal could play such accurate long balls under pressure.
So Cooper’s adjustment was simple.
Increase the pressure.
To that end, he made a second change.
He took off the Chelsea winger and brought on Liverpool forward Luis Longstaff.
Liverpool boys were always very “rock and roll.”
With those two substitutions, Cooper sent a clear message to his players.
They would not retreat just because they were two goals down.
They would play their own way, and they would play it even more aggressively, even more wildly.