Chapter 515: The Piglet on the Wind
Schweinsteiger is full of a sense of crisis!
Once upon a time, he was the rising star that Bayern and even the whole of Germany had high hopes for. He was the favored child of destiny that everyone was looking forward to.
But gradually, I don’t know when it started, his development encountered a bottleneck.
He was originally a winger, but lacked speed. The mainstream trend in European football in recent years has been to speed up the overall transition between offense and defense.
A winger without speed is unqualified!
With Saul getting old and Ballack leaving the team, a vacuum has appeared in Bayern's central midfield.
Schweinsteiger felt that this was a godsend opportunity for him. He felt that he was no longer suitable for the wing and needed to switch to the middle, so he told the media that he could play like Zidane.
Yes, he has excellent physical fitness, he is hardworking, he has an excellent passing skill and excellent dribbling ability.
Magath gave him a chance and arranged him in the attacking midfielder position, but unfortunately, Schweinsteiger's performance in the attacking midfielder position was not ideal, far from his own and the outside world's expectations of him.
Bayern's performance has plummeted, and they can only rank fourth in the Bundesliga. This is unacceptable for the dominant team Bayern.
Therefore, during the winter break, the management carried out a drastic reorganization, completely overturned all previous systems, spent a lot of money to introduce Su Dong, replaced Magath with Heynckes, and began to build a tactical system around Su Dong that was in line with Bayern's characteristics and could adapt to the current development trends of European football.
Players such as Marcelo, Modric, Mascherano and others have joined the team one after another, and stars such as Ribery, Robben and Pepe are on Bayern's transfer list. These all show the ambitions of Bayern's management.
But for Schweinsteiger, he is more confused.
He was completely disoriented.
Heynckes put him back to the wing, but his performance was not ideal, even worse than the newly joined Marcelo.
But in the league, Heynckes changed him back to the middle to partner with Modric.
Schweinsteiger was completely at a loss, especially when working with Modric, as the Croatian central defender completely overturned his traditional impression of a midfielder.
The straight-line Germans just couldn't understand why after the ball stopped, there was a pause and then the passing line appeared?
Why does Modric seem to be controlling something every time he gets the ball? He has a feeling that if Bayern is like a wild horse, the reins are firmly in Modric's hands.
Schweinsteiger fell into deep confusion again, because he didn't know what he could do next to Modric. He seemed to be unable to do anything.
But since Heynckes took over as coach of Bayern, the performance of every player on the team has been improving.
Even Salihamidzic, who signed with Juventus early on, has found his feeling again on the right side and performed very well in the last game, but Schweinsteiger has never found that feeling.
Having played football for quite some time, Schweinsteiger has heard too many precedents of promising stars getting completely lost in the transition.
He was very scared, afraid that he would become the next lost case in the eyes of others.
This negative emotion kept piling up in his heart, making him more and more depressed.
The team's performance was getting better and better, and it had returned to the top of the Bundesliga standings. It also defeated Real Madrid in the Champions League knockout round and advanced to the quarterfinals. However, he seemed to be still sinking into the bottomless abyss.
He has talked to Heynckes, but Heynckes is now also feeling his way forward. He has never had a mature tactical framework that is truly his own. What he is best at is to adapt to different situations.
Schweinsteiger also asked Saul and Löw of the national team, but neither of them could give him an answer. The best they could do was to give him as much encouragement and patience as possible.
Heynckes told him not to worry and believed that he would find the direction soon.
Maybe there's no rush?
…
Two days after the match against Real Madrid, the training session ended in the evening and Schweinsteiger deliberately stayed until the end.
He was waiting for Su Dong.
After Su Dong finally finished his extra training, took a shower, packed his things, and walked out the door, he saw a red Audi R8 parked across the street from Sebena Street.
Just as Su Dong was about to run over, Schweinsteiger honked the horn and rolled down the window.
"Su, is it convenient?" Schweinsteiger asked.
Su Dong was a little surprised. He walked over and leaned over the car window. "What's the matter?"
Schweinsteiger nodded and said, "I'll treat you to a meal, and we can talk while we eat."
Su Dong looked hesitantly at Wang Chuqing, who had also rolled down her car window, curious as to why he hadn't left yet. She had been picking him up and dropping him off every day recently, and they both enjoyed the time they were trapped in the car on the road.
But Schweinsteiger is the number one local player in Bayern's locker room. Many people even think that after Kahn retires, Lahm and Schweinsteiger will be the backbone of the local faction in Bayern's locker room.
It's really hard to push away such an active invitation.
"Wait for me a moment."
After saying that, Su Dong ran over, leaned over and said a few words to Wang Chuqing, telling her to go back to the hotel by herself and drive carefully on the road.
After watching Wang Chuqing drive away reluctantly, Su Dong walked back to the passenger seat of Schweinsteiger's Audi and sat directly in.
…
"Your girlfriend is really beautiful!" Schweinsteiger praised sincerely.
This is recognized in the Bayern locker room.
Although they all come from different countries and cultural backgrounds, they all share the same view on true beauty.
Su Dong never admitted it, but it did not prevent the Bayern locker room from listing Wang Chuqing as the most beautiful girl in the Bayern wives' group.
The two didn't go far and arrived at a restaurant in a few minutes.
Schweinsteiger took Su Dong in through the side door with familiarity and went directly to a box where they would not be noticed or disturbed.
Apparently they often come here to eat on weekdays.
After ordering the dishes and seeing the waiter off, Su Dong looked at Xiaozhu with a smile.
"Tell me, what's the matter?"
Schweinsteiger smiled somewhat awkwardly. In terms of age, he is actually older than Su Dong.
"Didn't you mention to me last time that I should play in the middle?" Schweinsteiger immediately expressed his confusion.
Su Dong listened to Schweinsteiger's story patiently, and after listening, he laughed.
"What's the matter?" Schweinsteiger was a little confused. What's so funny about this? Su Dong shook his head and said, "You know what? I think you may be too serious and too persistent."
The piglet is confused, serious and persistent, isn't that good?
"I have a good friend named Deco, you should know him."
"Of course, one of the best midfielders in world football right now."
"But you may not know this, he once told me that he was very good at being lazy during games."
"Lazy?" Schweinsteiger was a little surprised. In his impression, this was not allowed.
"Deco once said that he would choose the appropriate style of play according to the characteristics of different teammates. For example, if his teammates in the frontcourt defend more actively, he would play more freely. At the same time, he would often be lazy. If his teammates in front did not defend, he would work harder and be more involved in defense."
"But he also said that no matter what tactics, it's the same for him because he is just playing to his own characteristics."
Schweinsteiger frowned, chewing over Su Dong's words.
That's exactly what Deco said.
At this moment, Deco's status in world football is at its peak.
"Modric's characteristics are just as you said. He has an unusually keen sense of the situation. His control of rhythm and reading of the game are indeed amazing. But your advantages are also obvious, such as your diligence and running, your defense and physical confrontation, your very accurate passing, and your strong ability to get rid of the opponent. Aren't these all your advantages?"
Su Dong's rhetorical question made Schweinsteiger nod continuously. After all these years of playing football, he was still somewhat confident in himself.
"Your problem now is to let go of your inner struggles and stop thinking about how to play like Zidane, Modric or anyone else. Just be yourself, because you can never be Zidane or Modric. You can only be Schweinsteiger!"
From the moment Schweinsteiger told the media that he wanted to play like Zidane, he had already lost.
Because there has never been a second Zidane in this world, there never was before, there isn't now, and there won't be in the future.
All those who aspire to become the second Zidane are doomed.
"If I were you, I would go home, take a cold shower, sober myself up, then go to the study, take two pieces of white paper, and write out two lists, one for what I can contribute to the team, and the other for what the team currently needs from the players."
"Then look for commonalities between the two lists, and that's what you should work on."
Schweinsteiger suddenly understood, breathed a sigh of relief, and nodded, "I understand."
"Do you really understand?" Su Dong was a little surprised.
Even though he said it very bluntly, how could you understand it so quickly?
"I understand!" Schweinsteiger said confidently.
…………
…………
The next evening, Bayern faced Werder Bremen at home before the focus of the game.
Su Dong had just put down his luggage in the locker room when he saw Schweinsteiger next to him coming over and shaking two pages of white paper at him. There were a lot of foreign and distorted German words written on them, which Su Dong could not understand at all.
"I listened to you and did as you said. Now I feel much more sober."
Su Dong was a little skeptical. Is he really awake?
Maybe, but anyway he was confused because he had no idea what was written on those two pages.
"Don't worry, Su, I know what I should do." Schweinsteiger's eyes were firm.
Su Dong also laughed. Regardless of whether he understood it or not, Schweinsteiger seemed to really understand it.
At this moment, Schweinsteiger is like a pig in the wind, ready to take off at any time.
As for whether it can fly, let’s verify it in the competition!
(End of this chapter)
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