Sometimes, playing football is very close to working in the workplace.
Joining a wealthy family is just like joining a famous company. You receive a high salary that everyone envies. On the surface, you look more glamorous than others, but pressure also comes with it. The fierce internal competition is enough to crush countless people.
If you are not crushed, congratulations, with the help of the platform of a famous company, your career development is about to take off.
However, not everyone can adapt to the competitive pressure and work intensity of famous companies.
In the same way, not all players can adapt to the competitive pressure and intensity of game training of wealthy clubs.
Woodgate belongs to this kind of player.
From a technical perspective, Woodgate has almost no obvious weaknesses. It is precisely because of this that Real Madrid is willing to pay a transfer fee of nearly 17 million euros for him, which is already considered high among central defenders.
The price is up.
From a psychological perspective, Woodgate has no obvious problems.
What really prevented him from gaining a foothold in Real Madrid was his fragile body.
In a team like Real Madrid, competition is unprecedentedly fierce, and many times, training is even more brutal than actual combat.
Gao Shen still remembers that after retiring, Woodgate once gave an interview to Marca and mentioned his bleak experience in Real Madrid. He said that language and injuries were the key factors in his failure to play valuable football in Real Madrid, which led to his frequent injuries.
In addition to his own physical factors, the reason is also the fierce competition within the Real Madrid team.
"When you go to such a big club, you can't even lose training, losing a game is more like losing a world war!"
Unfortunately, Woodgate's start at Real Madrid can be described as disastrous.
After experiencing a long-term injury, he scored an own goal for the Bernabeu fans on his debut.
If a good start is half the success, then Woodgate's poor start doomed him to a tragic fate.
…
Gao Shen called out to Woodgate who had just finished the examination outside the medical room.
The face of today's England central defender no longer shows any trace of the ruffianism of the 'bad boy' in the Premier League back then. Years of injuries and huge pressure from public opinion have worn away the spirit of Woodgate.
Those with high emotional intelligence call this maturity, while those with low emotional intelligence call it lying down after being repeatedly beaten by reality.
But what surprised Woodgate was that Gao Shen actually talked to him directly in English.
From the day he joined Real Madrid, from Camacho to Ramon to Luxenberger to Carlo, no head coach could understand his English, which caused a huge language barrier between him and the coaching staff.
.
It can be said that this is also an important reason for his frequent injuries.
There was no communication, he didn't understand what the head coach meant, and the head coach didn't understand his thoughts.
After meeting and chatting for a few words, Gao Shen took out an old photo.
The man in the photo looked a little green. He was wearing an England national team jersey. Woodgate recognized it at a glance. It was taken in Bulgaria on June 8, 1999, during the European Cup qualifiers. He represented England for the first time.
Go to war.
In that game, his partners were Southgate and Campbell.
It was also in that game that Rio Ferdinand, who later created the world's most expensive central defender, sat on the bench.
That year, he was nineteen years old.
It was also that year that Chelsea's captain John Terry was unable to play in the first team.
Woodgate stared at the photo in a daze for a while, then turned his head and looked at Gao Shen warily.
"what do you mean?"
This is not surprising.
This rookie head coach, who has been criticized verbally by the bosses in the locker room, the fans and the media, showed such a photo as soon as they met. What is he trying to do? Does he want to say that he is my fan and use it to get closer?
If he were a few years younger, Woodgate might have done this, but now...hehe.
Gao Shen smiled faintly, "You know, I am studying physical education at Loughborough University. I have a classmate from Leeds. He is a fan of Leeds United and also a fan of yours. This is one of the photos of you that he treasures, even if
To this day, he still thinks that you are the best central defender in England and even the world."
Woodgate didn't react at all, because he didn't know where Gao Shen's photos came from and whether the story was true.
But Gao Shen's next words made his face completely change, showing an incredible look.
"He is always paying attention to you and waiting for you."
I don't know why, but when Woodgate heard this, he couldn't help but believe it.
Attention and expectation, this is what he longs for but lacks.
As a star who once attracted much attention, he once enjoyed countless attention and expectations, and even he once dismissed them. Especially when he joined Real Madrid, he ambitiously wanted to reach his own level in this team.
A new peak in his career, becoming one of the superstars paying attention to the world.
But all of this has now left him.
In the past year and a half, he has completely lost his ambition to join Real Madrid and even all his ambitions for playing football for so many years. He knows that this is the end of his career.
Ferdinand and Terry, two peers who were once left behind by him, have now surpassed him, and he will never be able to catch up in his life.
No one could understand the depression and loss in his heart, and no one even paid attention to his every move.
At first, the media would report some of Woodgate's injuries, but gradually, no one paid any attention to it.
The media is like this, the fans are like this, and even the head coach is basically like this.
Sometimes Woodgate wonders if Real Madrid's coaching staff has forgotten that there is a player like him on the team?
"In the UK, and even around the world, there are many fans like my friend. They have not forgotten you. They have been paying attention and waiting, but you don't know it."
When Gao Shen spoke, he noticed that Woodgate's hand holding the photo was shaking slightly, and he knew that he was right.
There is a Hawthorne effect in management, which means that when a person realizes that he is being noticed, he will subtly and deliberately change some behaviors.
This friend of the Leeds fan is real and the photo is real, but it is unknown whether he still pays attention to Woodgate.
Gao Shen's intention is obvious, which is to tell Woodgate one thing through this incident, that is, there are still many fans who are silently paying attention to and looking forward to him.
As for whether friend Gao Shen is still paying attention, it is no longer important and cannot be verified.
Guidance through stories is always more effective than simple and crude preaching.
Especially when Gao Shen uses Woodgate's friendly English.
"I let them down, you know, my body..." Woodgate became frustrated.
Gao Shen shook his head, "I just asked the team doctor that your physical condition is not bad, but the pressure is too much and the tension is too tight, which causes you to become overly nervous many times, which can easily lead to mistakes and injuries."
"You know, there are no cases like yours. Let's just say Ronaldo. Wasn't his injury more serious than yours? Didn't his recovery time last longer than yours? But now, he is still the best in the world.
Striker, isn't it?"
Ronaldo can do it, don’t you also have a chance?
Woodgate figured out what Gao Shen wanted him to understand.
And he was indeed a little moved.
"You know, in this weekend's derby with the same city, Ramos will accumulate yellow cards and be suspended. Our central defender has a vacant position. I hope you can replace Ramos and partner with Helguera."
"Me?" Woodgate was surprised.
"Yes, and I believe you have also seen that there is a serious shortage of central defenders now. You are the best choice for the team, but if you continue to be injured or do not perform well in the weekend games, I will reconsider other options.
.”
Gao Shen once heard a very interesting little question: There are two options, one is to take away twenty yuan directly, and the other is to guess a coin. If you win, you will have a chance to win one hundred yuan, if you lose, you will get nothing.
Most people would choose to take away twenty yuan directly.
why?
Because when given a choice, the chooser will automatically regard the twenty dollars as something they have already obtained, so they will subconsciously feel that guessing the coin may cause them to lose the twenty dollars. For this reason, they
Not even the hundred dollars.
Smart managers often use this method to motivate employees.
Gao Shen first gave Woodgate a position as the main central defender, and then told him that if he did not perform well, he would lose this position, which would make him feel a sense of disgust deep in his heart.
It's not a hatred of the depth, but a hatred of losing the starting position.
Sure enough, after hearing this, Woodgate took a deep breath and said loudly: "Don't worry, you don't have such a chance!"
After saying that, the England central defender turned around and left.
By the way, I also took away the photo of my friend Gao Shen.
…
After watching Woodgate leave, Gao Shen breathed a sigh of relief.
Personnel management in a wealthy locker room is really a very brain-burning thing.
Each player has a completely different personality, and each player's experience and demands are also completely different. It seems very simple to combine these people into a whole, but it is actually very complicated.
Especially for a rookie with no qualifications like Gao Shen, why should you make them obedient?
All I can say now is that everything is just getting on track.
This is what *** said, fighting with others is endless fun.
After returning from the medical room, Gao Shen immersed himself in the office to prepare training materials for the afternoon.
In the tactical library last night, he focused on studying Benitez's double midfielder tactics in Valencia and Liverpool, focusing on the formation and positioning, especially the construction of the defensive system, which involves too much.
What a complicated thing.
What Gao Shen can do now is to draw up a tactical framework in a short period of time, and play a competitive role in the weekend derby as soon as possible. Then there will be time to slowly enrich and improve it.
But even so, Gao Shen still has a lot of things to do. The first thing is to make the players understand his train of thought.
As Real Madrid players, tactical literacy is not a problem. As long as they understand it and are willing to implement it, then this set of tactics will definitely work, because this itself is part of the tactical literacy of professional players.
Therefore, Gao Shen's next problem is how to let the players understand his tactical requirements and adapt the team's tactical play style.
The weekend is the derby, and there really isn't much time left for him.
