"January 21, 2004, sunny."

"Today is not a special day, but Li told me that in his country, today is the end of the old year. According to the custom in his hometown, the family should make dumplings and eat them together today."

"I don't understand why their country uses such a strange day as the New Year?"

"But no matter what, it's a good thing to have dumplings anyway."

"On the first day I came here, I ate dumplings made by Li. They were much better than those I had eaten in Chinese restaurants before. Why can Li always make the same food better than others?"

In the apartment room, Emma was writing her diary one stroke at a time, showing a somewhat puzzled expression from time to time.

And her question will obviously not be answered.

※※※※※※

As Emma wrote, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, Li Wei is planning to contact Gu Xiaohan, Zhang Wei, and Yan Ruo, fellow villagers in Leeds, to spend the Spring Festival in a foreign land together.

Originally, he planned to call Andy Gray, Lennon, Carson and others, but after thinking about it, he decided against it.

After all, the British don’t celebrate the Spring Festival.

However, it has been almost a week since Andy last told him about contacting Mainz, and he has not been seen yet. This makes him somewhat worried.

Fortunately, Levi is not a person who is easily suspicious. He can still fully trust the friends he recognizes. To use an inappropriate saying, perhaps it is "don't be suspicious of people you employ, and don't use people you doubt".
p>

Therefore, Levi did not take the initiative to contact Andy.

But what he didn't expect was that on the morning of New Year's Eve, the first person to visit the apartment was Andy.

…

That day, Li Wei got up early and had to prepare dumplings for four or five people. It was not an easy task, especially when other people basically couldn't help except for making dumplings.

I have been busy for most of the morning, kneading noodles, chopping stuffing, etc., and I am almost done. At this time, there was a knock on the door.

"It's a bit early."

Levi muttered secretly.

However, when he opened the door, it was Andy Gray standing outside.

"Andy, why are you here?" Levi was a little surprised.

"Of course something good is coming to you," Andy smiled, then turned sideways, "This is..."

Only then did Levi realize that there was a stranger standing behind Andy.

The other person is about 1.9 meters tall, with a well-proportioned figure, and smooth, straight golden hair, styled in the middle-parted style that was most popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Just seeing him reminds Li Wei of Liu.

Hua or Aaron Kwok.

His skin is very white, he has no beard, his eye sockets are slightly sunken, his face is vertical, and he has a somewhat Germanic appearance. He also wears a pair of silver-rimmed glasses on the straight bridge of his nose.

But in Levi's eyes, this obviously bookish outfit seemed to have a somewhat unruly and wild temperament, which made him feel familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.

…

Before Andy finished his introduction, the other party took a step forward, reached out and patted Andy on the shoulder, stopping his introduction.

"No, Andy, I'm used to speaking by myself," his English had a slight accent, but luckily it didn't affect communication. As he spoke, he stretched out his hand to Levi, "Hello, Li. My name is Yule.

Root, Jurgen Klopp, current head coach of Mainz."

Levi was stunned.

Although he has experienced a lot of similar things, and now whenever he sees a familiar face, he will be mentally prepared for who the other person will be later, but now he is still unprepared, because at this time he meets

Klopp, what it means is simply not too obvious!

The other party must be here to communicate with him about the transfer!

This was one of the top coaches in the world before he traveled across time, and now he actually came to visit him in person!

After coming back to his senses, Levi quickly reached out his hand while his brain started working rapidly.

Jurgen Klopp, later the head coach of Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, led Liverpool to win the Champions League. Before Levi crossed over, he was already one of the top coaches in the world, and the starting point of his coaching career seemed to be exactly

Mainz.

No, it’s not just his coaching career. When Klopp was still a player, he already played for Mainz. He dedicated almost his entire playing career to Mainz, even though Mainz could only play in the Bundesliga 2 at that time.

Mix in.

Unexpectedly, I happened to catch up with him when he was coaching in Mainz.

But, was that uncle with unshaven beard and rock punk look so handsome when he was young?

…

Levi quickly asked Klopp to come in and sit down, then poured two glasses of water and handed them to Andy and Klopp.

At this time, he had calmed down, but he was still a little unbelievable about Klopp's arrival.

Does Mainz, a German second division team, have enough money to allow the head coach to fly to England in person to contact a youth team player?

Andy saw Levi's doubts and took the initiative to explain:

"Mr. Klopp was originally on vacation in Edinburgh and was preparing to return to Mainz today. He made an impromptu decision to come to Leeds to see you because he had to rush to Heathrow Airport at two o'clock in the afternoon, so we didn't have much time."<

/p>

"That's right," Klopp seemed to be more accustomed to leading the conversation himself and took the initiative to take over what Andy said. "The winter break is almost over and I need to rush back as soon as possible. But Thomas asked me to stop by and see him.

You."

"Of course, I'm also curious about what it would be like for a player who is valued so highly by Thomas."

"Mr. Thomas is the head coach of the Mainz youth team," Andy whispered in Levi's ear.

…

"So you've seen it now," Levi regained his composure, "What do you think?"

"You are more mature than I thought," Klopp's tone was much more generous than he seemed. "Thomas showed me your video. To be honest, your ability is indeed outstanding in the youth team.

, but it’s not worth a trip myself.”

"But you're still here." Li Wei interjected, "Does that mean there's something about me that you're interested in?"

Klopp was stunned for a moment, then laughed:

"That's right. You are very direct, but I like it. This way we won't waste our time."

"You have the qualities that I like, and I think you will fit perfectly with Mainz's tactical system," Klopp continued. "I believe Thomas thinks so too. After all, the youth team's tactics are from the same team as the first team."

Pulse."

"Can you tell me more specifically?" Levi asked aloud.

He also noticed that the name of the youth team coach appeared in his mouth quite frequently. They seemed to sound more like partners rather than superiors and subordinates. In this case, perhaps the youth team players would be more likely to be valued by Klopp.

?

…

But this time, Klopp did not answer directly as he said before, but instead asked Levi:

"Li, what do you think the future development direction of modern football will be?"

"Huh?"

Levi frowned. Speaking of which, no one should know this issue better than him now, because he really came from more than ten years later, but he was not sure whether this was in line with Klopp's expectations.

"This proposition is too big," Andy interrupted at the right time, trying to save Levi, "Can you ask more specifically?"

"I'm afraid it's harder to predict the specific direction," Klopp said. "It doesn't matter. Li will say whatever he thinks of."

"This is not an interview."

As he spoke, Klopp threw a smile at Levi, showing his white teeth.

"Okay, then I'll say it," Levi cleared his throat and continued, "I think modern football has two crucial concepts. Its development always revolves around these two concepts, in constant conflict.

Zigzag forward."

"The first concept is space."

"Oh?" Klopp's eyes lit up, "Tell me in detail."

"From the beginning of modern football with nine forwards and one defender, to the emergence of the revolutionary 235 inverted pyramid formation, and then to the popularity of the WM formation, one characteristic can be clearly seen in the entire context-the players involved in defense are constantly changing

Increase."

"Many people will think that this is to strengthen defense, but the root cause is not here," Levi paused and then said, "To give you the simplest example, if a road can only allow one person to pass, you now want to attack this

Would you pile nine people on a road? No, because it is a pure waste."

"Similarly, a football field is only so big. When you fill the offensive area with people, it means you lose space."

"On the contrary, if you take a step back, you will gain space. Therefore, an important concept in modern football is to compress the opponent's offensive space while expanding your own offensive space."

"This is why many coaches who focus on defensive counterattacks call themselves representatives of offensive football, because their understanding of offense is primarily about gaining space."
To be continued...