Chapter 58: Securing Decision-Making Power

"Great! We are a goal ahead!"

"Well done! Let's take the victory all at once!"

At the end of the first half, the Green Lion Cubs maintained a one-goal lead, and the morale of the entire team was extremely high.

Facing the seeded team of the group, they had actually scored the first goal and were faintly suppressing their opponents.

This could be considered a major upset!

And because of this, many more spectators gathered around to watch the match, with a lot of people rushing over because of the news that "Torino U15 is behind"!

"Hey! Eastern boy, can we have a quick chat?"

"Eastern lad, care to chat for a moment?"

"You played really well! Can we talk?"

During the halftime break, a group of scouts stood behind the isolation barrier, continuously handing their business cards onto the pitch and stepping forward to strike up conversations.

He Chaoyue, Yang Fan, Chen Shaojie, Xiang Ming, Yu Jiahe, and others were all approached by interested parties.

Some scouts even handed out their business cards one by one, as if trying to catch everyone in one sweep.

Facing this situation, He Chaoyue and Yang Fan simply brushed them off with a few perfunctory words.

However, Chen Shaojie, Yu Jiahe, and the others engaged in serious conversations across the barrier.

After all, for them, these part-time scouts or independent hunters might have limited influence, but there was still a chance they could bring them to Europe, so they actively communicated.

Wei Lai also received no less than ten business cards here. These people were eager to talk to him, but Wei Lai declined on the grounds of the ongoing match.

"Hey!"

Wei Lai turned his head and saw the bald middle-aged man from earlier. One of his hands was braced against the isolation barrier while the other passed a business card through the gap with a smile:

"You don't seem very confident in your passing?"

Wei Lai was slightly stunned.

He saw the other man smile and say, "My name is George, and I think you can play a bit more boldly."

With that, he pointed at the Torino U15 players on the opposite side and said, "They are not your opponents; you are not on the same level as them. Let go and play your game, Eastern boy! I believe in you!"

Wei Lai nodded, expressed his thanks, and then reached out to take the business card.

However, he found he couldn't pull it away; the man was gripping it tightly.

"Sir? Is there anything else?"

Wei Lai looked up and asked.

George smiled. "How about I buy you a drink after the match?"

Wei Lai replied, "I'm still too young to drink alcohol!"

"Of course not alcohol, how about coffee or milk?"

"I don't like drinking coffee..." Wei Lai rolled his eyes and smiled, "If it's seafood fried rice, I might consider it!"

"Deal!" George nodded with a smile, waved at Wei Lai, and said, "Keep it up! Just like I said, play with freedom—you can tear them apart!"

***

Human beings are creatures with an extremely high capacity for adaptation, constantly making different choices as their environment changes.

Initially, Wei Lai could only continuously amplify his singular strengths in order to secure a spot as a puzzle piece in the team.

Yet, just as Coach Casemiro had stated, when your overall ability is insufficient, you are merely a puzzle piece.

Put another way, however, if your capability is sufficient, why not strive for more responsibility?

For the current Wei Lai, pure defense was indeed no longer enough to satisfy him.

He wanted more opportunities to touch the ball!

He wanted more opportunities to showcase his abilities!

Wei Lai no longer wanted to be just a defensive midfielder.

Furthermore, through the training sessions during this period, Wei Lai believed his overall ability had improved sufficiently.

Wei Lai carefully contemplated his current skill set.

Match reading, vision, anticipation, and so on... his awareness-related abilities were quite prominent.

His fundamental skills were slightly weaker, but that depended on who he was compared to.

At the very least, he still possessed decent proficiency in short passing and escaping pressure.

In the past, he lacked the courage to attempt moves or proactively demand the ball, plagued by fears of losing possession.

Now, however, Wei Lai was growing increasingly confident and wanted to take on more vital responsibilities.

He had also pondered deeply over a single question: leaving aside the pure defensive midfielder role, what position suited him best?

Ultimately, Wei Lai thought of a specific position!

The number six role!

The traditional number six is precisely a defensive midfielder!

And specifically, a single pivot!

In a 4-3-3 midfield inverted triangle formation, the midfield consists of the number ten, the number eight, and the number six.

The traditional number ten is the offensive core, positioned just behind the forward line, with responsibilities lying primarily in attacking distribution, the final pass, or shooting.

The traditional number eight balances both attack and defense, with a relatively blurred definition, but precisely because of this, roles like playmaker and tempo-setter fall more heavily upon this position.

Finally comes the traditional number six, a position leaning much more toward defense.

Positioned right in front of the backline, sometimes even dropping back to form part of the defensive line.

Of course, the tactical concepts of modern football have undergone significant changes; defenders attacking and forwards defending are common sights, and box-to-box players in the traditional number six role are not unheard of.

Yet, strictly following traditional positional concepts, the number six is a role centered on defense, choosing the direction of the attack after receiving passes from the backline.

Such a player does not directly participate heavily in the offense, but rather relies on their reading of the game and tactical sense to dictate the attacking outlet.

This demands that the player possess an exceptionally strong macro-perspective and positional sense, while also excelling in escaping pressure, short passing, tackling, and intercepting.

Wei Lai considered himself to have sound abilities in these exact areas.

Within the Green Lion Cubs, this role was primarily held by Chen Shaojie, but during the course of these matches, Wei Lai had noticed one issue: Chen Shaojie was not particularly prominent when it came to determining the direction of the attack.

Whether due to hesitation or pressure, he would invariably resort to dragging or checking the ball, resulting in choices delayed by a beat.

In the ever-changing world of a football match, a single delayed beat meant the attacking opportunity vanished and the space was instantly filled.

Chen Shaojie possessed great ability in maintaining ball possession, but he was not a qualified decision-maker!

However, Wei Lai could not simply blurt this out, as it might damage his relationship with Chen Shaojie, prompting him to search for the right phrasing in his mind.

During this process, Wei Lai frequently glanced over at Chen Shaojie, and the latter naturally noticed this behavior.

"Wait a second!"

Chen Shaojie, who had been chatting with Yu Jiahe, noticed Wei Lai's repeated sideways glances, marked by several instances of hesitation before speaking, and directly stood up and walked over.

"Wei Lai, is something wrong?" Chen Shaojie asked directly.

"Huh?" Wei Lai looked up, momentarily startled.

Chen Shaojie tilted his head. "You keep glancing at me, so you must have something you want to tell me. Any thoughts for the second half?"

Wei Lai scratched his head. "I do have some thoughts!"

Wei Lai, Xiang Ming, Chen Shaojie, Yang Fan, and He Chaoyue gathered together.

Standing just behind them were Tong Xianfeng and Liang Xu.

After listening to Wei Lai's explanation, everyone turned to look at Chen Shaojie.

Wei Lai had phrased it very tactfully, but the core message was essentially: "Hand the decision-making authority over to me."

No one spoke; they all simply watched Chen Shaojie.

Noticing the subdued atmosphere, Wei Lai immediately spoke up, "It's just an idea, we can talk about it later! Let's finish the match first!"

"No!" Chen Shaojie suddenly looked up at Wei Lai. "You're right! My decision-making ability is indeed a bit sluggish!"

"In our previous two warm-up matches, most of our counterattacks stemmed from Wei Lai's passes after tackles or interceptions. Even when I made the pass, the opportunity was usually created by Wei Lai."

"The goal in the first half was also your decision; you chose to pass to Santos, which brought us that goal."

"And earlier in the first half, He Chaoyue made several overlapping runs down the flank, but I didn't pass to him. I wasn't sure if it was a genuine opportunity, so to guarantee possession, I didn't pass. To put it nicely, it's called being prudent; to put it bluntly, it's called being cowardly!"

Chen Shaojie pressed his lips together and said, "To be honest, during our joint training camp in Shuicheng, I vaguely sensed this. Wei Lai is better at making decisions than I am, and he is much more decisive. Of course, that decisiveness probably stems from his unique understanding of the game."

Chen Shaojie looked at Wei Lai. "I'll yield the decision-making authority, but I'm not giving up ball control!"

Wei Lai stared blankly at Chen Shaojie, not expecting the guy to actually concede the role.

Yang Fan smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Old Chen, you're a true man!"

Chen Shaojie turned his head and cursed with a smile, "Already calling me Old Chen?"

Wei Lai raised his thumb. "A real man!"

Xiang Ming and He Chaoyue also raised their thumbs in approval!