Di Francesco noticed Inter Milan had made personnel adjustnts, and imdiately felt a pang of anxiety.
He quickly regained his focus and carefully observed the changes among the Inter Milan players on the field.
Di Francesco held Mancini in high regard, filled with a sense of awe.
Mancini achieved great success in both Serie A and the Premier League, which was unmatched by soone as inexperienced as him who hadn’t won any championships.
Especially in the last round of the league match between Inter Milan and Udinese, Mancini employed a revolutionary tactic with the attacking midfielder dropping deeper and the defensive midfielder pushing forward, which was a stroke of genius that turned the ga around!
Di Francesco didn’t miss a single minute of the video recording of that match, and he was utterly impressed by Mancini’s tily adjustnts!
He even told his assistant coach to archive the match footage for the club’s training courses, asking the first-team coaching staff to collectively study it and write insights of no less than 2000 words.
However, upon seeing the personnel changes, with Obi moving from the flank to forward, partnering with Icardi, Di Francesco couldn’t help but smile!
The tight string in his heart instantly relaxed.
"Haha, Mancini is just like everyone else, this is definitely a foolish move."
Why did Di Francesco think this was a foolish move?
Because he had actually conducted in-depth research on the Nigerian player Obi!
Obi ca from the Inter Milan Youth Training Camp.
This player has strong running abilities, is vigorous, doesn’t fear hardship, and is a decent midfield disruptor.
Two years ago, Sassuolo’s scouts already had tracked Obi’s developnt.
Last season, Obi was loaned by Inter Milan to Serie A’s Parma, and Sassuolo’s scouts followed him for a whole season.
However, they were disappointed that last season, Obi only appeared 8 tis for Parma, with only 2 starts, having zero goals and assists.
Sassuolo’s scouts concluded from their analysis that although Obi has good stamina and can run, his footwork is terribly rough!
Moreover, there was no significant progress with age, and he fell far behind his peers.
This also made him lacking any ability to hold the ball in midfield, let alone carry it forward.
So Sassuolo also abandoned their pursuit of Obi.
Di Francesco was fully aware of these details, which is why he believed putting Obi in the striker position was a foolish move among foolish moves!
Not to ntion whether his passing ability could connect with Icardi, just Obi’s rough footwork alone, he could see the ball three ters from the goal and directly kick it to the stands.
"Mr. Mancini, you shouldn’t struggle anymore, today I’ll show you with a narrow 1-0 victory who truly is the promising talent among Italian coaches!"
Di Francesco began to feel quite proud.
However, speaking of Inter’s formation change and Tang Long moving up from defensive midfielder to attacking midfielder, it still made Di Francesco extrely vigilant.
He imdiately substituted forward Bellardini for a defensive midfielder, aiming to strengthen constraints on Tang Long.
As for Obi.
Let him be!
Even if there’s no one marking him, he himself can lose the ball.
Nonetheless, what Di Francesco never expected was that the player he cared least about and looked down upon the most, Obi, ended up slapping him hard in the face a few minutes later.
In midfield, Obi couldn’t hold the ball, didn’t know how to position himself, stood like a wooden stake, and ran like a headless chicken.
But once he entered the penalty area, Obi beca much more active!
Accompanied by Tang Long’s left and right adjustnts in the attacking midfielder position.
The 22-year-old Obi, daring like a newborn calf, persistently interchanged positions.
So balls were clearly not for him and he couldn’t reach them, but he still adhered to his positioning strategy to the end.
In fact, for Obi, positioning inside the penalty area was much simpler than in midfield.
"Obi, just imagine yourself as a center forward, you’re about to infiltrate for a goal, just run instinctively according to your own ideas!"
Tang Long encouraged him this way.
Obi had never played center forward, but he had seen teammates play the position, so he did as Tang Long said, imagining himself as an all-powerful center forward, and began his nuisance-like run in Sassuolo’s penalty area.
Despite Obi’s height being only 1.77 ters and barely weighing over 70 kilograms.
However, coming from Nigeria, he inherited the African athletes’ capability for long-distance running.
Like a catfish, he persistently squeezed and brushed around Sassuolo’s defenders.
At one point, he frustrated and irritated both of the opposing center-backs.
The reason why Tang Long placed Obi in the center forward position was actually betting on one thing!
He was betting that the players of Sassuolo would start displaying fatigue at so stage toward the end of the match.
Although, for so unknown reason to Tang Long, the Sassuolo players maintained their high-paced linear running for almost the entire match, showing no signs of fatigue even nearing the 80th minute.
However, players are only human, even if they’ve been pumped up or energized, those boosts have their waning monts!
A 90-minute match can’t possibly maintain complete focus, and the players’ stamina will, over ti, undergo phase changes.
Attention and stamina, these two elents mutually influence and interact with each other.
Stamina decline can cause players’ attention to
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