Chapter 29 - 27 - Dealing With Him

Chapter 29: Chapter 27 - Dealing With Him

"This is what they want. If we chase individually, they keep moving us until somebody has two decisions to make."

Another PSG attack showed the same fullback advancing as soon as possession entered midfield. The opposing winger followed him deep enough that when possession changed, he had too much ground to recover before his team could counter.

"Yanis."

Yanis looked up.

"If their left-back goes, you go with him until somebody else can take him."

Yanis nodded.

Rafael understood the consequence. Against Lens, Yanis had often been close enough to receive immediately when Rafael dropped toward midfield. On Sunday, he could be twenty metres farther back.

The footage switched to PSG defending.

A number four stood near the opposing striker.

"This is Mathis Delorme. Seventeen, and he’s already played with PSG’s Espoirs."

The striker started between the centre-backs before dropping toward midfield.

A teammate played forward.

Delorme moved before the pass reached its target.

Instead of remaining behind the striker, he stepped around his shoulder and intercepted before the forward could bring the ball under control.

PSG immediately attacked in the opposite direction.

The coach paused the screen.

"This should look familiar."

Rafael leaned forward slightly.

The striker had attempted almost the same movement Rafael used during Metz’s equaliser against Lens. He had dropped away from the defensive line to receive with his back to goal, intending to return the ball to a supporting midfielder before attacking the space behind him.

Against Lens, Rafael had received first.

Delorme had prevented that completely.

Hold-Up Play could make Rafael more reliable once he received under pressure, but it could do nothing if the defender reached the ball first.

The coach replayed the interception from a wider angle.

This time, Rafael looked beyond Delorme.

PSG’s defensive midfielder had already started dropping into the space the centre-back was leaving, while the second defender moved across and several metres deeper.

"He knows someone is covering him," Rafael said.

The coach looked toward him.

Rafael indicated the midfielder. "He starts moving before Delorme wins it."

"Exactly. Delorme can step because the movement behind him is organised. Their midfielder protects the first space, and the other centre-back covers the depth."

On the next example, Delorme followed a striker much farther from the defensive line.

The striker returned the pass immediately, and this time PSG’s defensive midfielder arrived late enough for the supporting player to release a runner into the empty channel.

The second centre-back moved across and stopped the attack near the penalty area.

"He trusts the cover, and most of the time he should," the coach said.

Rafael watched the space behind Delorme.

"If the striker waits on the ball, it’s gone."

"Yes. The return has to be quick. One extra touch gives them enough time to recover."

Someone near the front spoke.

"So we keep dragging him out?"

"No. If you decide beforehand that this is how you’re attacking them, they’ll know what you want before halftime."

The coach returned to the wider angle.

"Sometimes he follows, and sometimes he stays. Read which one he gives you."

His attention moved toward Rafael.

"Don’t come short every time because it worked against Lens. Sometimes stay on the line, sometimes arrive later, and if he does follow you, release the ball before their cover settles."

Rafael nodded.

Another sequence began near PSG’s penalty area.

The opposing striker moved toward the near post before checking away, but Delorme adjusted almost immediately and reached the new space before the cross.

Rafael watched the movement again.

The timing was familiar.

In the next clip, Delorme stepped into midfield, won possession and carried the ball forward before releasing a teammate.

Rafael finally placed him.

He had seen an older Mathis Delorme regularly for Paris Saint-Germain and later in France squads. The defender Rafael remembered had been broader, stronger and far more experienced, but the anticipation had been the same.

They had never played against each other.

By the time Delorme became established at that level, Rafael’s own career had already been moving in the opposite direction.

There had been a time when Rafael expected to spend his twenties playing against defenders like him in major league matches and European competitions. Instead, he had watched those games while his own career descended through clubs and divisions he had never imagined reaching.

Now they were both seventeen.

The player on the screen was still unfinished. He followed strikers farther than necessary at times and occasionally trusted cover that arrived too late, but Rafael already knew what those instincts would eventually become.

Knowing Delorme’s future did not tell him what the defender would do on Sunday.

One final sequence showed why.

The opposing striker dropped again, but Delorme stayed with the defensive line instead of following. The midfielder attempted the pass anyway, allowing PSG’s defensive midfielder to step into the lane and take possession.

The coach stopped the footage.

"Don’t become so interested in moving Delorme that we force a pass which isn’t there. If he stays and the route is closed, keep the ball and make them defend something else."

Several players nodded.

The coach returned to the earlier interception and paused the image as Delorme stepped ahead of the striker.

"Expect him to start against you, Morales."

Rafael glanced around the room.

One teammate was writing in the notebook resting on his knee, while Yanis remained focused on the screen. Nobody else had reacted to Delorme’s name the way Rafael had.

Rafael looked back at the frozen image.

For the first time since his regression, he was about to face someone whose eventual career he clearly remembered, and Mathis Delorme had reached the level Rafael himself had once been expected to reach.

On Sunday, Rafael would face the seventeen-year-old version of that player.

The movement that helped Metz eliminate Lens would not work unchanged against Mathis Delorme.