Open Play: Ladies, Goals, The Everything System in-between

Chapter 66: [66] "Different type of Possession"

Monday morning. The video room at SC Valois... was the same as always

The smell of stale coffee from a machine that the management (aka Valérie... and if you must, Coach Henri) had refused to replace because it still technically worked, a carpet that had absorbed years of boot torture, and the low sound of the projector warming up.

The squad filtered in through the double doors in twos and threes, still carrying the confidence of the Lyon B cup win in their legs.

Luc was already seated when the rest of the team arrived. Front row, at the left side. His tablet face-down on his knee.

Henri connected the laptop to the projector. The wall-mounted screen flickered on. AS Montclair’s crest appeared.

"Saturday," Henri said, uncapping his marker. "Their away record this season is six wins and two draws from eight matches. They haven’t lost away since April, if you extend to last season."

Cillian raised a hand from the back row. "Is that meant to terrify us or motivate us."

"To inform you," Henri said.

He clicked to the first clip.

AS Montclair in a 4-3-3, possession-based, building from the back through their goalkeeper. First clip, their keeper received, played short to the right center-back, who played it sideways to the left center-back without a single forward pass in the first eight touches.

"They pass to breathe," Henri said. "Not to progress... atleast majority of the time. Every pass backward or sideways is a reset. They’re waiting for the opposition to lose patience."

Luc watched the clip run. He had seen this in the Lyon B game, but that had been its amateur cousin. What was on screen now was a more evolved, more deliberate head of family.

Montclair’s two central midfielders operated in constant triangles with the holding midfielder, always giving each of them two options within four yards. No dead ends. No invitations to press.

Henri continued, advancing the clip. "Their holding midfielder, Brémont, twenty-eight years old. Six years at the club. He’s the lighthouse. Every attack goes through him and every possession resets through him."

Hugo put a hand up from his seat. "What does he do when pressed?"

"He plays it backward to the center-backs and they recycle." Henri advanced the clip again. "Every time. Without fail. He has never been turned over under a press this season in twenty-three competitive matches."

"Has anyone pressed him properly," Luc asked.

Henri looked at him. "Define properly."

"Pressing him isn’t the issue. Pressing the passing lane before the ball gets to him is. If the center-back who wants to play to Brémont knows the pass is going to be intercepted, he plays wide instead. That’s should be the key. Not pressing Brémont. Pressing the intent of a pass to Brémont."

The room was quiet for a second.

Hugo nodded slowly while looking at his printout.

"Continue." Henri said.

---

The second clip ran for four minutes.

Montclair in their final third, the attacking movement that followed their possession. Their left winger, a 24-year-old Moroccan named Karim, was the outlet. Every time the recycling in midfield had dragged opponents one step too far towards the right, Karim would receive the ball behind the pressing line on the left.

His first touch was always inside. Never outside. He didn’t beat his man on the outside, he cut across the defending right-back’s wrong side and arrived at the edge of the box on his stronger foot.

"He’s scored eight goals from outside the box this season," Henri said. "Six of them off that exact cut. The defending right-back or right center-back almost always loses out."

Aubert, who was sitting two rows behind Luc, said nothing.

Luc turned around.

Aubert was chewing the inside of his cheek, doing his own math.

"You’ll have help," Luc said. "Every time Karim receives and cuts inside, Mateo is going to be dropping in to help cover the edge of the area. I’ll track back too, to help intercept."

"I don’t need you tracking back for me."

"It’s not for you. It’s for the team."

---

Third clip. Montclair’s set pieces.

Their corner routines were practiced to a degree that most Ligue Alpha sides didn’t bother with. Three different key areas of positioning. Zonal marking at the near post, runner over the top towards the far post, and a third man waiting on the penalty spot for the deflection.

"Last season they scored eleven set piece goals," Henri said. "Second highest in the league. They treat dead balls like Open Play. Different shapes, different runners, different intended outcomes."

Ekberg leaned forward. "We’ve been quite solid on set pieces so far this season."

"We’ve not been the best, but yes we’ve been solid enough against teams that don’t practice them at a high level," Henri replied, which was honest enough to produce a brief silence yet again.

---

Fourth clip. Montclair’s defensive shape.

A 4-3-3 that compressed into a 4-5-1 when they didn’t have the ball. Their winger, Karim, tracked back to the midfield line, narrowing the pitch by twelve yards on the left side.

The space their shape consistently left was behind the right winger, who didn’t track back with the same diligence.

Luc identified it on the first viewing.

"Their right side," he said, pointing at the screen without standing. "Their right winger, whoever that is, holds too high when they’re out of possession. Their right-back overcompensates and pushes to cover. That’s it."

Henri nodded. "Dário on the left, attacking that side, Owusu behind him."

"Or Bastien," Hugo said quietly from two seats along. But in the silence that followed Henri’s sentence, it was strikingly audible.

The whole team looked at him.

"Bastien’s runs are harder to track than Dário’s because he doesn’t announce them the same way. Dário is wide, he’s a natural wide player and everyone knows it. Bastien is a midfielder who sometimes is utilised at the wide area, I think there’s that difference. By the time their right-back reads it, it might be late."

Bastien was sitting in the back row. He heard it. He sat up straighter.

[System Notification]

[Objective: Exploit the right channel of Montclair twice. Score from it directly or create a goal from it.]

[Reward: 100% guaranteed goal x1]

[Penalty: If the channel is ignored entirely, TES will restrict you from playing the final game of the first half of the season]

"Of course. I think this system is against me sometimes." Luc thought, rubbing his eyes frustratingly.

---

Fifth clip. Montclair’s striker, Alvarez.

Argentine, twenty-six, eleven goals and four assists. He doedn’t press from the front the way most modern strikers did. He drifted. He disconnected from the game for long periods and then appeared in positions that made defending him feel like tracking smoke.

"He operates in the corridor between your center-backs. He’s not quick, but he makes runs early. He positions himself before the ball is played. By the time your defensive line identifies his run, the pass is already played, preferably in the air."

Hadj hadn’t said anything in minutes.

Hadj finally said, more to himself than to the rest of the squad. "He beats you with the timing of the run."

"Yes," Henri said.

"We don’t step to him. We let him receive with his back to goal and compete from there," Ekberg said.

"And when he receives andw turns?"

"He won’t," Luc said. "Not if someone is on him, right when he receives the ball, stopping him from turning towards the opposition defence. Alvarez’s whole game depends on space between the lines. Give him the ball and take the space at the same time and he’s just a striker holding a ball with two center-backs behind him."

Mateo cracked his knuckles. "I can help with that too."

---

Henri forwarded to the final clip. Montclair’s recent form. Four straight wins. A clean sheet in their last three. Their manager, a 51-year-old Frenchman named Colbert, had stated, "we don’t chase the football. We let football come to us."

Someone in the back row muttered something that sounded like a French insult.

Henri capped his marker. "Montclair is not Lyon B. They have quality in every line. They are organized, patient, and they have been winning games in this exact way for years under Colbert. They will not panic if you press. They will not gift you the ball. You will have to earn every single chance you get."

The projector shut off.

Sudden darkness for a second before the overhead lights came back on.

"Five days," Henri said. "Recovery tomorrow till Thursday. Training on Friday. Kick off at six on Saturday."

Hugo stayed back as his teammates stood up to leave.

Luc walked past him, saw the look on his face, and kept walking.

The kid was already solving the problem.

In the corridor outside the video room, "what do you need from me on Saturday."

It was Idriss

Luc didn’t slow down. "Same as always. Run. Make the center-back choose between you and the person with the ball in front of him."

Idriss nodded then peeled off toward the gym.

Mateo was ahead of Luc, his training jacket half-zipped, his captain’s armband rolled over his forearm.

"Montclair," Luc said loudly.

"Montclair," Mateo confirmed.

---

Luc’s Porsche pulled out of the SC Valois complex gates into the December cold.

"One matchday after this, AC Nord. But first things first... putting Montclair behind us." Luc thought to himself.

He drove with both hands on the wheel and the heater turned up against the cold that came through the windows even when sealed.

He pressed down the accelerator and the engine revved.