[Football] Bad Boy Batty

After a short break, Manchester City returned to training to prepare for the second leg against Bayern at the weekend.

This is how the Champions League knockout rounds work. The time between two games gets shorter as time goes on. Many teams have to play in their domestic leagues or other important games in between. Manchester City is lucky, as the FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal is ranked after the Champions League against Bayern.

In the afternoon, the players came out from indoors one after another. Guardiola arranged group confrontations for them and monitored the data in real time during the process. There was still some time before the start, and they had to wait for the analysts to finish their preparations. During this process, the players could move freely and warm up.

"Did you go back and call Messi, Kun?" Batistuta fiddled with a ball under his feet, then pulled the windproof mask over his nose and nudged Aguero next to him with his elbow. "Monaco won the game at home. The atmosphere in their team is not very good, right?"

"It's definitely not good. Losing at home will make the atmosphere in any dressing room bad." Aguero replied while putting on gloves. "I called him, but we spent most of the time chatting and didn't talk much about the game."

"You're not going to comfort him?"

"Leo doesn't need my comfort, really. He's just like that. When he's unhappy, he won't talk to anyone and locks himself in the room. He'll calm down in a few days, and then nothing will happen again." Aguero complained in the sweet tone of an old married couple, then asked the assistant coach for another ball, bounced it twice, and then hugged it with his hands. "Don't think he's a good guy on the court now. When he first debuted, he was really hard to get along with. Only I have a good personality and can tolerate him."

That's true. It is generally acknowledged that Aguero has a good personality. Not only did he win over the difficult Messi in his youth, he also made the thorny little king of Manchester City become his close friend in the early stage of the transfer. Of course, this refers to his daily life. It's different on the court.

Batistuta didn't care about Messi in the past. "Did you talk about anything else, Mbappe?"

"He said that he thinks Mbappe will go higher, but the ceiling... you know." Aguero left the words half-finished, then winked at Batistuta, "You care about him a little, Batistuta."

"Yeah." Batistuta admitted generously, "They all played on the right side. I watched them a few more times."

"So what do you think of him?" Aguero asked.

"Not so good." There was no one else at Manchester City's training ground, so Batistuta spoke without restraint (it didn't matter if there were others around), "I watched the game between Monaco and Barcelona, ​​and also found some highlights from Ligue 1. Mbappe is indeed fast, but he only has speed but no technique. His dribbling is not good. Most of his breakthroughs and goals were scored by rushing in."

Aguero was a little surprised. He didn't expect Batistuta to have such a low opinion of Mbappe. "You can't say that. He must have skills. Otherwise, he can only rely on speed..."

"I didn't say he didn't have it at all, he did, but only a little bit," Batistuta said with natural arrogance. "He is the same type of player as Bale of Real Madrid. The difference is that Bale has been baptized by Spanish football and his footwork is much better than before, but Mbappe is not like that."

This is extremely pertinent (Bati thinks). As a Brazilian, and a winger at that, he doesn't like the way these European wingers play football from the bottom of his heart. There is simply no aesthetic appeal. They are not playing football seriously at all, but playing football in a simple and rough way. To be honest, it is not very practical sometimes.

Aguero did not comment on Batistuta's evaluation. He does not know Mbappe, but he knows Batistuta.

He had talked to many people about Batistuta before, something he had never told Batistuta before, including the head coach, national team teammates, physiotherapists, and of course Messi. They all thought Batistuta would be the target of the next generation of players, just like all players have been chasing Messi and Ronaldo in the past decade.

Aguero was also surprised by Messi's evaluation of Batistuta.

'He's a rare talent.'

So, regarding the two points Batistuta just mentioned, speed and technique, from his perspective, he does have the capital to evaluate Mbappe in this way.

His excellent technique often makes people forget his equally excellent speed.

Then speed + technology basically equals no solution.

Why is it basic?
Because Batty has several obvious shortcomings, such as physical confrontation, and a bad temper (easily tricked into giving him a yellow card or something).

"There's nothing to be afraid of. There's still the second round. Barcelona only needs to win two games against them to advance to the semifinals," Batistuta said. "If they lose -- well, come on, whether it's the semifinals or the finals, I... we'll teach them what a real game is."

Aguero licked his lips. "Forget about that. We haven't even made it to the semi-finals yet. There's still a lot of things to do in the league, and the FA Cup is coming up soon." He paused, then suddenly remembered something and patted Batistuta's arm. "I heard from Leo that you and Neymar are going on vacation after the season ends, to Santorini."

"Oh, that's true, but we changed the destination. We are going to South Korea instead of Greece."

"South Korea?"

"Well, this year's World Youth Championship is in South Korea." Batistuta said as if he was going to the supermarket at the weekend. "My previous head coach called me and I agreed. Neymar will go with us. When the competition is over, we will travel around the neighboring countries."

Are they going to a competition? Or are they going on a public-funded trip?

Aguero gave Batistuta an incredible look, and Batistuta returned the look.

Well, since he is Batistuta, all the incredible things become commonplace for him.

"Akun! Batti!"

One of the assistant coaches came towards them, bringing with him three young men. It seemed that these were the remaining players in their group for the subsequent group competition.

"What the hell, are you asking us to bring in new players?" Batty crossed his arms and muttered, "It's almost the end of the season, what's the point of bringing in a few youth training kids?"

"They are about your age. I've seen them before. Many people say they are the three Manchester City youth academy stars." Aguero whispered, "The one on the left is Foden. He came here when he was very young. I shook hands with him when I went to the youth academy when I first came. The one in the middle is Dias, who came last season. The explosive-headed guy in the middle is Sancho, the same as Dias."

Batty curled his lips and said, "I don't care whether they have been here for a long time or not. You asked me to lead new people, aren't you afraid that I will lead them into trouble?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the assistant coach came up to them with three people.

"We have a league match before the second round of the knockout match with Bayern, against Southampton. Pep wants them to start and get some training." The assistant coach explained, "In the next group match, you will be divided into groups of five offensive players, Phil, Jaden, and Brahim. You need to learn more from Batistuta and Akun, find your feeling, and let Pep see your strength so that he can trust you more."

After that, he waved to Batistuta and Aguero and left. "You're just leaving us here and walking away?" Batistuta raised his hand to express his dissatisfaction with the decision, "I haven't lost a match yet."

"Okay, forget it. We won't lose." Aguero went up and ruffled Batistuta's hair, then naturally switched to English and nodded to the three youth trainees, "Come on, let's get ready. This time we're facing defenders. You don't want to lose, right?"

The three of them shook their heads in unison.

This is not their first time training with the (first-team) team, but it is certainly their first time dealing with key players like Aguero and Batistuta.

Batistuta picked up the ball from the ground and kicked it to Phil Foden who was closest to him.

"I have never lost a competition, nor have I been hit on the head (those who lose a competition will be punished by being hit on the head by their teammates). If any of you make a mistake and cause me to lose my first time, I will teach him a lesson."

After saying that, without waiting for anyone to reply, Battilla pulled Aguero and walked towards the center of the field.

Sancho squeezed Diaz with his arm. "He's so crazy."

"He has the capital, doesn't he?" Diaz shrugged and walked over there with Sancho, "Hurry up, Phil, let's go!"

Phil Foden looked down at the football Batistuta had thrown to him, then shook it and trotted along with it. "Here we go!"

Batista is indeed as difficult to get along with as they say, he thought, but it doesn't matter, he likes difficult challenges.

……

There are many ways to group this kind of competition. Today's grouping of forwards and defenders is more targeted and specially used to simulate confrontation in front of the goal. An assistant coach acts as the referee. The time is 15 minutes. Assists and goals from the offensive players are counted as points, while tackles and interceptions from the defensive players are counted as points.

Batistuta's opponents were the central defender combination of Stones and Otamendi. They were also paired with three young players from youth training. They seemed to have been waiting there for a while. As soon as he saw Batistuta, Stones immediately made an angry expression.

"Come on! Why is it him again!"

In a previous match, Batty took a lot of points from Stones, which directly led to Stones' team finishing last that day. As a result, he was hit on the head by the entire team, including some people from the coaching staff (some people even got in again after being hit).
"You should be happy, my dear John." Batty stood opposite Stones and patted his face. "I am helping you fill the gap. If you can block me, then congratulations, you will be able to block more than 90% of the forwards."

That's true, but -

Stones returned to his seat with a droopy mouth. His back looked quite heroic as if he was going to the battlefield. He waved his hands, "Come on! Let's make the confrontation more intense!"

[beep——]
The assistant coach blew the whistle, and a difficult 15 minutes for Stones began.

……

7 minutes, just halfway through the match, Batistuta had already scored 2 goals and assisted Aguero with 1. After shaking off Stones to get the third goal, Batistuta walked over and flicked Stones' head.

"I don't feel any opposition, Johnny," he teased. "That's all you've got, huh?"

Stones got up from the ground, stretched out his arm like a traffic policeman and pointed at Batty, then shouted to the assistant coach on the sidelines: "See, this is why I don't want to be in the same group with him! It's okay, he always stimulates me, this is double stimulation!"

The assistant coach shrugged at him. There was nothing he could do about it. Every defender grows up after being passed over hundreds or thousands of times.

"Don't waste time, it's not over yet." Batty pointed at his watch to Stones, "If you don't score more points, you'll be at the bottom of the table and get hit on the head again."

Stones wailed and quickly returned to his position, vowing to defend the goal behind him to the death.

Of course, this is of no use.

In the last minute of the match, Batistuta used a beautiful feint to deceive Stones and successfully inserted into the flank. Foden shook off the blockade of his youth training peers on the opposite side and kicked a high ball accurately to find Batistuta, who shot directly without stopping the ball.

"Gooooooooal!"

Batty deliberately ran around Stones with his arms outstretched.

"You're done, John. Get ready to get hit on the head!"

He bent down and kissed the opponent on the forehead with a joking look, then ran back to the middle and used his height advantage to rub Foden's head (because he had a buzz cut, the touch was not good)

"Well done," Batistuta praised. "Keep up this level, I'm sure I'll see you in the first team soon."

At this time, another assistant coach came over and notified several first-team players to go to the meeting. Batistuta didn't say anything more, smiled at Foden, and then walked into the room with Aguero, playing around.

Phil Foden looked at Batistuta's back and unconsciously bit the inner wall of his mouth with his teeth. The pain kept him in an excited state.

The first team.

(End of this chapter)