I am the king of football

Chapter 81 Bruce Admits His Mistakes

Hull City's new training ideas are ongoing, but it takes time to discover the problem and solve it. With the league going on week after week, it will not be effective in a short time after a decision is made.

In the 18th round of the league, Hull City played against the challenging Burnley team at home. This team, which once played briefly in the Premier League, has not had a good time in the past two years. A large number of main players left the team and the club failed to recruit players. This season, they are now ranked 21st in the league.

Faced with such an opponent, and according to the league arrangement, the team will officially face Southampton, the team's most direct rival for the championship, in the 19th round. Bruce made a large-scale rotation in this game.

The team's forward core Qin Hu sat on the bench, Kane and Fryatt formed a double striker, and in the midfield arrangement, the team's regular substitutes Adebola and Stuart were on the left and right, and the midfield combination became a combination of Evans and Paul.

Yes, after careful consideration, Bruce decided to take advantage of this game to carefully examine whether Evans could take on the important task when Colen was restricted.

There are not many changes in the defense. The two full-backs continue to be Dudgen and Rosenior. In the central defender arrangement, the young Maguire got a chance to rest. Coulson and Hobes started the game, and the goalkeeper position was the unshakable Gulas.

According to expectations, even if such an arrangement could not defeat the opponent with overwhelming force, it could at least stabilize the situation. Unfortunately, the facts were quite different from what Bruce expected.

From the beginning of the game, Burnley, who also deployed in a 442 formation, showed their desire to win the game and snatch points from Hull City. The players took the opportunity of getting the kick-off and made a fierce rush.

Burnley's opening attack ended with their striker Rodriguez's shot going over Hull City's crossbar.

This operation made Bruce on the sidelines a little annoyed at the beginning of the game. They are the team sitting at the top of the league. Even if they have rotated, they should not give the opponent the opportunity to humiliate them like this at the beginning.

“Focus!!!”

After shouting loudly twice towards the field, the angry Bruce made the still confused players pay full attention.

The subsequent game was tense for a while. Burnley team became more and more motivated. It was not because they had an advantage in player strength, but their tactical arrangements were quite effective.

When Evans, who received the pass from his teammates, failed to handle the ball and frequently lost possession, Bruce on the sidelines finally frowned.

The core of Hull City's midfield organization is not as dominant as its forward line, and they cannot prevent Qin Hu from strangling his source of ball possession. Such news has obviously spread to all teams that are determined to get points from Hull City.

This is indeed the case. Although it was Kane instead of Qin Hu who was in the frontcourt in this game, the result was the same. Evans, who was weaker than Colen, was unable to withstand the pressure and perform his duties well, and Paul, who was responsible for protecting him, also found it difficult to take on too many organizational tasks.

In the 30th minute of the game, Hull City, which had been unable to launch any threatening attack, had its gates opened by Burnley.

The visiting team penetrated into the penalty area with a beautiful series of offensive passes. Rodriguez attracted the attention of the defense in front and made a light pass. Stanislas behind him took the opportunity to face the ball passed by his teammate and shot into the goal.

1-0, Hull City conceded the first goal at home.

Bruce on the sidelines was a little helpless. It seemed that his rotation was a bit too big. If it was Collen on the court, the team's offense might be hindered by the opponent's obstruction, but at least it would not collapse directly in the midfield like it is now.

"Shrink, shrink, stabilize the situation first."

Bruce paced anxiously on the sidelines, and had no good idea for a while. He could only ask his players to focus on defense first. But before Hull City could pass the ball a few times after the kick-off, the extremely excited Burnley team pressed forward.

Under tremendous pressure, Paul, who had the ball passed to him by Evans in an emergency, failed to protect the ball. Less than three minutes after the restart, Hull City lost control of the ball again.

This unfavorable situation continued. Finally, after 40 minutes in the first half, the more courageous Burnley team played, the more forced the defending Coulson to knock down the Burnley midfielder Bartley who was dribbling the ball at the top of the penalty area.

Hull City was severely punished with a yellow card and a free kick in a threatening area.

But no one blamed Coulson. What happened just now was a very quick counterattack by Burnley. Hobes had already been trapped. Once Coulson was also passed, the opponent would have a chance to score alone.

Unfortunately, even though Coulson stopped the opponent's attack at the cost of a yellow card, Hull City did not have good luck in the subsequent free kick.

Burnley's No. 7 Rose sent the ball directly into the Hull City goal with a clever arc shot. This was the first time that the Tigers had conceded a direct free kick from their opponents this season.

Judging from Burnley's crazy celebration, this may be the first time they have scored directly from a free kick this season.

0-2, as the first half drew to a close, Hull City were trailing by a surprising score at home.

When the game started again, the excited Burnley team played more and more vigorously, which undoubtedly made the Hull City players, whose morale was already declining, even more nervous.

Fortunately, there was not much time left in the first half, and they finally withstood the pressure and controlled the ball at their feet until the whistle for the end of the first half sounded.

Amid the cheers of the visiting fans, both the Hull City fans in the stands and the Hull City players who were now following Bruce into the player tunnel with their heads lowered were left speechless.

"is my problem."

After entering the locker room and waiting for all the players to sit down, Bruce, who arranged the starting lineup for this game, was the first to admit his mistake. His frank and direct action made the players a little uneasy.

"Coach, we..."

Gulas, the team's captain in this game, opened his mouth to say something, but Bruce interrupted him with a wave of his hand.

"There was a big problem with my tactical arrangement. We made a substitution right at the start of the second half. I hope you understand that I did this so that the team would not lose in a humiliating way at home."

Now that things have been said, how could Evans, who played like hell in the first half, not understand? While the others were still silent, he nodded.

"Understand coach!"

The first chapter is here! Thank you all for your support!!!

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(End of this chapter)