Coaching career started as a college team coach

DePaul will never forget that afternoon.

The Wolves' training sessions are usually arranged with a 90-minute net time in the morning and a 90-minute net time in the afternoon.

During the tactical training, DePaul noticed that Wei Le always looked at him very seriously when he was standing on the sidelines. It might be a coincidence once or twice, but every time DePaul and Wei Le met eyes, he saw Wei Le's serious and almost cold eyes.

And he noticed that Wei Le was staring at him for most of the training session. This made DePaul feel more and more uneasy.

It's bad, did I do something wrong?

DePaul, who is good at thinking about problems, began to recall what he might have done to provoke Wei Le, but he didn't know why.

The more he thought about it, the more wrong it was. It couldn't be that he played games the night before and robbed the boss of the pentakill, right? It shouldn't be. Although the boss is not very good at playing games, his mentality has always been very good.

Could it be that his performance on the court has been too bad recently?

Speaking of performance on the court, DePaul is indeed not very happy recently. He is not actually an organizer in the traditional sense. On the court, although he can see his teammates at the far end, he doesn't know when the right attacking opportunity will appear.

He can see it and pass it, but he doesn't know when to pass it.

Sometimes, even Rodri, who has always had a good temper, is dissatisfied with his passing on the court.

In this area, Van der Beek, who is good at making the last pass, is much better than him, and compared to Van der Beek, De Paul seems to be better at playing a role that doesn't require so much thinking.

The pace of modern football is getting faster and faster, and the time left for players to handle the ball is getting shorter and shorter. This is why superstars like Zidane no longer appear, and are replaced by midfielders like Rodri who look more comprehensive.

Zidane needs to think when playing football, but now there is no time for players to think.

Although De Paul's performance is acceptable, he always feels a little awkward to play like this.

Now it's the transfer window again, and De Paul suddenly thought of something.

"Hey, ball!" Bowen passed the ball over, but De Paul seemed absent-minded and directly missed the ball.

Beep——

Serrars whistled and stopped the training.

"What are you doing? Pay attention!" Serrars criticized loudly, "Every minute of the training session is precious. If you want to rest, you have to wait until the training is over!"

De Paul quickly raised his hand to indicate that he understood.

But the thought just now never left his mind.

Players are different from each other. Some players don't even have public social media accounts. Even if they do, they ask their agents to help operate them and basically don't pay attention to public opinion; but some players will care about public opinion and even comment on news related to themselves.

De Paul is neither the former nor the latter, but somewhere in between. He still cares about public opinion about himself.

Recently, there have been some rumors in the media, linking himself to other teams. Although he is the person involved and knows that no team has contacted him, he must be a little uneasy.

Especially considering that he hasn't been playing well recently, Wei Le's eyes today really made the Argentine guy panic.

Are you really going to sell me?

Just like that, after the last stage of the training session, De Paul saw Wei Le coming up.

"Come on, Rodrigo." Wei Le waved with a smile, "Let me talk to you."

Oh no!

De Paul's heart skipped a beat.

He didn't even remember how he walked into the familiar head coach's office. Sitting on the sofa, De Paul's first words were -

"Boss, tell me what I did wrong, I'll change, but don't sell me!"

This time it was Wei Le's turn to be surprised.

"Why do you think I want to sell you?"

After the exchange, it was realized that this was a big mistake. De Paul told Wei Le his guess with tears, complaints and envy, and Wei Le was also amused.

"Why do you really believe those rumors on the Internet? The media will be held responsible if there is any problem!" Wei Le said with a smile, "Don't worry, I will definitely not sell you, but there is indeed a serious matter to discuss with you."

"What is it? What can I do?" De Paul said hurriedly. He was still a little uneasy. No matter what Wei Le said, he wanted to agree immediately.

So Wei Le said the words that impressed De Paul-

"Xiao De, do you want to play as a defensive midfielder?"

Do you want to play as a defensive midfielder?

De Paul was stunned. He really didn't expect it to be this matter. It turned out that he thought that some clause in his contract needed to be changed., or he made a mistake accidentally, or he offended someone who wanted him to apologize.

Unexpectedly, they wanted him to play as a defensive midfielder instead.

De Paul did not reply in time, so Wei Le continued, "I recently found that you are not very comfortable in your current position."

"It's my fault. You were originally a right winger and winger. You were asked to play as a front midfielder. It's normal that you can't adapt to different jobs. I think too much."

"You dribbled very well in the front midfielder position, and your passing rate is also at the top level in the Premier League, but you must have discovered your problem yourself, that is, you can't grasp the timing of passing the ball."

"And now the team has encountered a problem."

Wei Le told De Paul about his current "high backcourt" problem with the team, and the more De Paul listened, the more he felt that the coaching staff's idea was correct. There is indeed such a hidden danger.

"Then what should we do?" De Paul asked.

"There are two ways to do it," Wei Le explained. "The worst way is to rotate more and let Kounde return to the defender position, playing the traditional four-back style, and temporarily make up for the height problem."

"But this is not a long-term solution. Now it seems that the midfield is lacking a role that can intercept and sweep, as the first line of defense on the defensive end. This role can be said to be the team's 'ball-grabbing machine'."

"This role needs to be good at defense, of course; similarly, it also needs to be good at passing the ball to teammates in the frontcourt, but it does not need to pass the last pass, just pass the ball to the real organizer."

At this point, Wei Le stopped and looked into De Paul's eyes.

De Paul already understood the meaning of Wei Le calling him over.

"The transition must be difficult. It doesn't take much effort to switch from a winger to a front midfielder, but it's different if you switch to a defensive midfielder. Physically, you need to gain muscle and weight to be able to fight."

"Psychologically, you have to be prepared to do dirty work. Goals may be farther and farther away from you because you are farther and farther away from the opponent's penalty area."

"This is hard to accept." Wei Le said frankly, "That's why I have been watching you hesitate today, because I don't know how to tell you this."

"Of course, you can also not accept it. In that case, we will also think of a way to help you solve the problem of your discomfort in the front midfielder position. It doesn't matter, but..."

"This may make it difficult for the team?" De Paul added the second half of the sentence.

Wei Le did not answer, but De Paul understood what Wei Le meant. If he does not transform into a defensive midfielder, the team will have to find a new defensive midfielder to play this position. I am afraid that there will be no hope in the winter transfer window, and no one can say what will happen before the summer.

De Paul took a deep breath, and he felt that he seemed to have encountered another turning point in his career.

The last time, when he was spotted by Wolves, he came to England without hesitation. Practice has proved that his choice was correct, and this time, when De Paul faced a fork in the road again.

And he almost didn't hesitate at all.

"Okay, when do we start?"