Chapter 425: Chapter 31: To Munich II
The staff broke the rondo and shaped the squad into the main tactical drill, one unit set up to simulate Bayern’s high press while the other tried to play out from the back.
The striker on the pressing side cut the return lane, the wide player jumped at the fullback, and the midfield stepped forward together to trap the pivot, exactly the connected wall the clips had shown.
The first run exposed United the way Brighton had.
A center-back received under pressure, the pass into midfield came a beat too late, the ball was forced wide, and the simulated Bayern side won it near the box.
Ten Hag stopped the drill and walked the structure through without raising his voice, the correction practical rather than angry — the first pass had to arrive before the trap closed, the receiving midfielder couldn’t stand flat and square, and the far-side switch needed to be prepared before the pressure ever landed.
Then he put Demien into the same pattern.
Demien dropped into the first-phase outlet, showing for the ball as the center-back lifted his head, and took it with a presser already closing.
「TECHNIQUE ACTIVATED」 「First-Touch Set — RARE」
His touch opened him away from the pressure and set the next action before the second man could steal the half-second.
「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Press Resistant」
The shoulder that came into his back didn’t move him off the ball, his core holding the contact while his head stayed up.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Toni Kroos — Metronome」
Instead of forcing the obvious pass into the trap, he played the third-man option, the ball threaded to a teammate who’d peeled clear of the pressing shape, and United came out the other side of the press clean.
The drill reset, and on the next sequence the pressure built the same way, but this time the far flank was open the way it had been in the clip on the plane.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Luka Modrić — Outside-of-Boot Laser」
「STATS ACTIVE」 「Long Passing: 99 | Vision: 99」
He shaped his body as though he’d play it safe and short, then drove the pass with the outside of his foot across the whole width of the pitch, the ball bending away from the press and dropping into the weak-side fullback before the cover could shift over.
On the touchline an assistant coach stopped his pen above the clipboard, held it there while the ball travelled, and wrote something down once it reached the far side.
Demien didn’t repeat it. One switch had told them what they needed to know, and forcing a second would only have made it a trick.
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The staff added a transition drill, because Bayern wouldn’t only press — they’d punish second balls and loose clearances the moment United survived the first wave.
The simulated Bayern side won possession and drove at the edge of the box, and Demien tracked back through midfield while one opponent tried to block his recovery run with his body and another curled into the channel behind.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Marcel Desailly — The Rock」
「STATS ACTIVE」 「Strength: 99 | Balance: 99」
The block came shoulder to shoulder, and Demien didn’t get knocked off his line, absorbing the contact and staying upright while he forced the runner wider than the man wanted to go, steering him toward the touchline and away from the centre.
The ball was worked across for a cross toward the far post, and the attacker began his run late.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Fabio Cannavaro — Wall」
He read the flight before the crosser had fully swung his leg, moving into the zone while the rest of the box was still reacting to the ball, and he met it first — not because he climbed highest, since his jumping wasn’t built for that, but because he arrived early and cleared it before the attacker got there at all.
The staff registered it without saying much, one of the coaches glancing at another and giving a short nod, the reaction professional rather than impressed, because impressed wasn’t the point.
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The session wound down into a cooldown, and while the players stretched, Ten Hag and the coaches gathered near the touchline with the notes from the drill, heads close, one of them tapping the clipboard while another pointed back toward the centre circle where the press drill had run.
He couldn’t hear them from the grass, but he didn’t need the words to know the shape of it — experience off the bench against a midfielder who’d just spent a session receiving, turning, and releasing under exactly the pressure Bayern would bring.
The mission updated quietly.
「MISSION UPDATE」 「Preparation Activities: Complete」 「Bayern Pressing Triggers Identified: 4」 「Final Tactical Session: No positional correction」 「Coaching Staff Notation: Pending」
The word Pending stayed in front of him a moment before it faded, and he understood that the final proof would come in the meeting rather than on the training pitch.
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Back at the hotel the squad moved through recovery and dinner, the mood serious without tipping into fear, the players carrying the understanding that Bayern away would expose anyone who switched off for a single phase.
Demien ate, did his recovery work, and went up to his room with the tactical card the staff had handed out, and he kept coming back to the same danger points written across it — Sané inside, Kane dropping, Musiala between the lines, Gnabry on the far side, second balls, and the pressure Bayern brought the instant they lost the ball.
He checked his phone once and didn’t scroll, and there was a new message from Sophia waiting under the earlier thread.
Sophia: Big night tomorrow. Get some sleep. I’ll be watching every minute.
He answered it with one line — Will do. Talk after — then turned the phone face-down on the nightstand and went back to the card.
He slept later than he’d planned, not because anything frightened him, but because the match kept playing out behind his eyes, and the last thing he saw before he went under was the Bayern press closing around a United center-back, then the weak-side lane opening for half a second the way it had on the plane.
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Team Hotel — Meeting Room
The squad gathered in the hotel meeting room for the final tactical session, the space set up the way these always were — staff laptops open along the front, bottled water on the chairs, the players in travel gear, a stack of tactical cards near the screen.
Ten Hag and the analysts went through the last clips, and the message held steady: United couldn’t simply clear the ball and survive the night, because Bayern would recycle the pressure until a mistake appeared, so United had to play through the first press in the moment the lane opened rather than waiting for the danger to pass.
The staff summarised the structure without dwelling on any single piece — Onana’s options when the press came, the angles the center-backs needed to offer, the distances between the midfielders, Bruno’s pressing triggers, the lane Casemiro had to hold, the wide players’ responsibilities, and the exact moment the first forward pass should be played.
Ten Hag’s tone stayed calm and clipped throughout, Bruno listened with his elbows on his knees and his focus sharp, and Casemiro sat quiet with his arms folded, taking it in without needing to add to it. Demien mostly listened.
Then the staff handed out the individual cards, one to each player, and that landed cleaner than a board on the wall ever would.
Bruno turned his over first and read it. Casemiro folded his after a single glance. Demien took his last and waited a second before he turned it.
His name sat in the starting midfield unit.
「Central midfield unit:」 「Casemiro — Demien Walter — Bruno Fernandes」
The mission completed in the corner of his vision.
「CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREPARATION MISSION COMPLETE」 「Preparation Activities: Complete」 「Bayern Pressing Triggers Identified: 4」 「Final Tactical Session: No positional correction」 「Coaching Staff Notation: Achieved」
「REWARD GRANTED: +15 TP」 「BONUS REWARD: +20 MP」
「UPDATED BALANCE」 「74 TP | 3 SP | 48 MP」
He didn’t celebrate it.
He slid the card into his folder and looked back at the screen, where Bayern’s press sat frozen mid-sequence, his thumb pressing once against the edge of the card before his eyes went to the clip instead of his own name.
Allianz Arena — Approach
The squad left the hotel for the Allianz Arena as the evening came down, security leading them through the lobby while the staff carried the equipment cases and the coach idled outside with its engine running.
German police lined the route, cameras caught the players as they stepped out into air that felt colder than it should have, and the group boarded without breaking stride.
Demien took his seat and watched Munich move past the window, the streets clean and the traffic lights flashing red across the glass, the tactical card folded in his bag between his boots.
The coach turned onto the stadium access road, and the Allianz Arena rose ahead of them, lit against the evening sky.
He looked at it through the window as the coach slowed at the security gate.
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