Chapter 24 The Strongest Support System
Chapter 24 The Strongest Support System
Li Chen's experience of rebirth is actually very metaphysical, but it is not without clues.
His life could not be considered miserable. At least when he was 35 years old in his previous life, he started from scratch, had a car, a house, savings, and no bad habits. He was the pride of his parents.
He had not encountered any major events that shattered his worldview, and his spirit had not been seriously stimulated.
Logically speaking, people like him shouldn't be reborn at all.
But who could blame him for being influenced by his uncle since he was a child, not only becoming a football fan early on, but also a passionate fan of the Chinese national football team?
In the previous life, in a World Cup qualifier in early September 2024, the Chinese national football team lost 9-0 to Japan away from home.
Li Chen not only witnessed this record-breaking World Cup qualifier from beginning to end, but what was even more unbearable was that he was financially well-off and was also present at the scene...
At the moment when the game was completely over, Li Chen did feel shocked, but his mental state was actually fine.
After all, unlike many domestic spectators who were just watching the fun, before the game started, Li Chen, as a veteran fan, was already prepared for the Chinese national team to lose more than three goals at Neon's home stadium.
The reason why he still found it difficult to accept the result of the game was that he did not get to see the Chinese national football team fight hard on the field as he had hoped.
The Chinese national football team will definitely not be able to beat Japan, with the results being the same at home and away. But you can't give up the momentum of resistance and counterattack just because you are not as strong as them, right?
Li Chen was very dissatisfied with the mental outlook of this group of national team players, but he still did not vent his emotions on the Internet by scolding the national team.
He did not scold the new head coach of the national team, and was too lazy to do so, because he knew that the root of the problem still lay with the Football Association.
But Li Chen does not have the energy to push for a thorough reform of the Football Association from top to bottom. He can only continue to do what he can do.
That is to pass the exam as soon as possible and become a professional youth training coach in China.
Just when he calmed himself down and prepared to take a flight back home early the next day, he would go to his hometown to learn from the low-level professional club where acquaintances were involved in the management.
When he woke up, he found himself reborn, and was reborn as a high school student!
The first thing Li Chen did after his rebirth was to rush to the hospital for a comprehensive examination.
The results showed that his physical condition was better than that of his peers except that he had been exercising for many years, but there was no additional change.
His football talent is the same as before his rebirth. It cannot be said that he does not have it, but it is only a little bit.
His path to becoming a professional footballer was blocked because he did not have the talent. However, Li Chen, who had been reborn, did not want to give up the opportunity to enter the professional arena.
So after patiently making preparations in the country, he begged his uncle, who was running a second-hand market business in Europe, to go to Portugal.
The conventional career path is not suitable for him. Whether he wants to become a director or head coach of a mainstream league club, it will take a long time to develop along the conventional path.
Even if you already have the ability, you are too young and others will not take you seriously at all, let alone give you the opportunity to make mistakes.
So Li Chen decisively chose to become the second Boas and followed the path that Boas had taken.
He first attracted Villas-Boas' interest with a tactical analysis report as a junior, and then waited patiently long enough to get the opportunity to follow Villas-Boas into Mourinho's team for an "internship".
The story after that is that he actively learned along the way and followed Mourinho's experience as an assistant to challenge the three major mainstream leagues and European competitions.
Without any help from external plug-ins, Li Chen relied on enough courage and careful planning to secure for himself the opportunity to take the "shortcut to coaching".
It’s not difficult to say, but Li Chen has been walking this path for more than ten years.
Mourinho and Mendes' joint recommendation was a stepping stone for him to become Manchester United coach.
But before that, he also qualified for the interview for Manchester United's coaching selection through his record of leading Burnley to relegation.
Therefore, Li Chen has long been accustomed to planning ahead and relying on his own abilities to strive for upward development.
Whether or not he has external plug-ins like systems is no longer important to him now. Without the system, he is slowly moving towards success.
After more than ten years of accumulation and more than ten years of dormancy, he has long been accustomed to the process of self-improvement and growth.
He just found it a little absurd. When he needed the help of external plug-ins the most, this thing didn't appear. Now that he no longer needs it, this thing suddenly pops up again.
Could it be that some deity in heaven was playing a trick on him out of boredom?
With such doubts, Li Chen, who had dealt with all the necessary matters after the game, immediately returned to his personal apartment and clicked on the so-called system panel that suddenly appeared in his mind:
"Dream Coaching Assistance System? That's a good name, but how does it assist?"
Li Chen complained a few words in his mind while speeding up his exploration of the system.
There is not much introduction, and each category in the system is concise and clear.
The prerequisite for activating the system function is to lead the team to 50 points as the head coach in the mainstream leagues in each continent and various mainstream cup competitions recognized by the system.
Li Chen calculated that he coached Burnley in 20 Premier League games last season, achieving 7 wins, 5 draws and 1 FA Cup win.
So far this season, he has led Manchester United to win 6 league games and 1 Champions League group match.
The total is exactly 50 points. No wonder I received a message prompting me to activate the system function immediately after this round of league ended.
The emotion just met the conditions to activate the system...
Li Chen also noticed the key word in the prerequisite for activating the system: leading the team to gain points in the mainstream leagues and cup competitions in various continents.
This means that Li Chen did not need to hone his skills as an assistant coach in the top five leagues for such a long time.
If he could become the head coach in the five major leagues in Asia and get 50 points, the system might have been activated several years in advance.
This situation made Li Chen laugh a little, but when he thought about it, he felt relieved that what he had learned from following Mourinho for so many years had become his ability to gain a foothold in European football.
Maybe because the system has just been activated and the level is relatively low, there are not many functions available in the system at present.
But even so, the three basic functions of the system still aroused Li Chen's strong interest:
Tactical drill.
Player development.
Injury control.
The three basic functions include free and paid content.
All the points Li Chen earned while leading the team in the past two seasons have now been used to activate the system, so he can only watch helplessly as the basic functions require payment.
Fortunately, this auxiliary system is not like Tencent in China, which provides players with some useless free benefits. The basic battle simulation and tactical query functions in the tactical drill are free, and these two free functions can save Li Chen a lot of preparation time.
Currently, one status recovery cabin in the player training module can be used for free, and the points cost to open the second status recovery cabin is 50 points.
The cost of upgrading the status recovery cabin is 100 points to upgrade to two stars and 200 points to upgrade to three stars.
As for the more important talent growth function for players under the age of 20, it is currently completely unavailable.
Li Chen guessed that it was because the current system level was too low.
This is just like the function settings of many games. When the protagonist's level is too low, many functions cannot be used.
It is necessary to continuously unlock and improve through upgrades.
In order for the system to be upgraded to two stars, Li Chen must lead the team to win a championship in one of the four major leagues or ten major cup competitions in football. This is the only necessary condition for the upgrade.
For Li Chen, it is not impossible to achieve such a goal, but it is definitely difficult at this stage.
However, Li Chen was already quite satisfied to be able to use a player's status recovery cabin for free.
In the last injury control module, what surprised Li Chen the most was the free use of the cabin to accelerate the recovery of players' injuries!
Although like the player status recovery cabin, at this stage only one cabin can be used for free, and it can only play a one-star basic effect.
But it’s better to have this kind of fun thing than nothing!
During the sprint stage of the second half of the league, every additional main player can maintain his form, and every additional injured main player can recover in time.
That is a great encouragement and help for a team!
Li Chen thought for a moment, and put the two players under his coaching in the system into the player status recovery cabin and the player injury accelerated recovery cabin respectively.
They are Cristiano Ronaldo and Varane.
Cavani has now returned from injury, and Martial and Luke Shaw seem to be in good physical condition as Li Chen intentionally controls their playing time.
After ignoring Pogba who no longer wanted to help, Li Chen naturally had to take care of his old acquaintance Varane.
Furthermore, a healthy Varane is also very important to Manchester United now.
In Li Chen's tactical concept, the double central defenders consisting of Varane and Maguire are Manchester United's strongest defensive duo.
Just as Ronaldo can play more comfortably when paired with a center forward who can serve as a fulcrum with his back to the basket.
Maguire also needs a partner who can make up for his slow turning speed.
Lindelof and Bailly can help him in this regard, but there is no doubt that a healthy Varane is the leader among this type of central defender.
Li Chen, who was looking forward to the free cabin effects of these two sections, rushed to the training base early the next morning.
Varane, who was the first to feel Li Chen's unusual "concern", hurriedly stated that he was really actively rehabilitating.
As for Cristiano Ronaldo, when asked by Li Chen "Do you feel in good shape today?", the Portuguese superstar directly responded to Li Chen silently with two goals in the team training in the afternoon.
Li Chen was satisfied now.
Although there was a significant psychological suggestion involved, Li Chen just couldn't help feeling in a good mood.
Because there is a full eight days of rest time before the final match of the first half, the training plan formulated by the Manchester United coaching staff this time will be much more relaxed.
What made Carrick and other Manchester United assistant coaches feel strange was that Li Chen cut a lot of time for tactical deduction and review within the coaching staff this time.
Such changes undoubtedly reduce the overall workload of the coaching staff.
Carrick was a little worried at first, thinking that Li Chen was planning to spend more time studying the opponent's tactical characteristics.
Carrick, who was afraid that Li Chen would tire himself out, specifically asked if he needed to find a professional tactical analyst.
Only after Li Chen seriously denied the answer did Carrick give up.
On the third day of preparation for the final match of Manchester United, Varane, who was confirmed to be fine after a detailed examination by the team doctor, was officially announced by the club to return from injury!
So far, except for Pogba who is still recovering from injury, the other Manchester United first-team players have participated in team training normally.
The sense of crisis in Li Chen's heart finally faded away temporarily, and he also felt for the first time that he had plenty of available players after taking office at Manchester United for nearly a month.
However, Cavani and Varane have not officially participated in high-intensity games for some time. In order to protect them, Li Chen did not immediately put them back into the starting lineup.
Martial and Lindelof are still training more with other main players on the training ground.
After Li Chen experimentally explored the tactical drill module in the system in the first two days, he became more and more adept at using this function.
The most basic tactical drill function cannot adjust the strength gap between the two teams according to the actual level of the opponent.
However, the game of relevant tactics and the adjustment and change process are simulated quite well.
The details of the tactical adjustments were not much different from Li Chen's own inferences, which made Li Chen particularly satisfied.
Because in this way, his trust in the auxiliary system can be improved accordingly, which also reduces a lot of his pressure in preparing for the battle.
On December 12, the final half of the Premier League this season kicked off with a fierce battle between Manchester City and Leicester City.
In the end, Manchester City defeated Leicester City 6-3 at home with more ferocious firepower and continued to top the league standings, leaving Liverpool no chance to overtake.
Arsenal, who played later, also won 5-0 away from home against Norwich, continuing to put pressure on Tottenham who were ahead of them.
Chelsea took to the field on the evening of the 26th and defeated their city rivals Chelsea...Aston Villa 3-1.
The next afternoon, Manchester United, which has not yet made its debut among the Premier League's big four, made its final appearance!
At the bustling St. James' Park Stadium, Li Chen, wearing a pure black Armani coat, faced the live camera with a smile on his face.
Having just celebrated Christmas, players from both teams were eager to take to the field, vowing to bring their fans the first victory after Christmas!
The winter wind blew fiercely, but Li Chen's heart was burning with passion.
He wanted to use three points to put a perfect end to his first first half of the Premier League season.
(End of this chapter)