Chapter 494 - 100 — Back Down to Earth II

Friday, November 3rd, Carrington’s entire focus shifted to Fulham.

The analysts had the projector running before the players had even finished their coffee, Fulham’s expected 4-2-3-1 already up on the screen — João Palhinha protecting the middle of the pitch, Antonee Robinson providing athletic width from left-back, the rest of the shape filled in around them.

The staff spent the most time on Palhinha, by some distance.

"League’s most aggressive ball-winner in central midfield," the analyst said, running the clip package. "Watch how he chooses his moments."

Demien watched closely, chin resting on one hand.

Palhinha didn’t chase every midfielder around the pitch the way a less intelligent presser might. He waited — for a poor receiving angle, a heavy first touch, a pass played into a body still half-turned toward its own goal — and only then did he attack, hard and total, no hesitation once he committed.

Clip after clip showed the same pattern: patience, then violence.

That changed the whole problem in Demien’s head.

Trying to beat him repeatedly through strength alone would be stupid — Palhinha wanted exactly that fight, and he’d win most of them.

He needed to make Palhinha move before the ball ever reached him.

"Don’t sit still next to him waiting for the pass," Ten Hag told him once they moved onto the grass, setting up a small rondo with a defender playing Palhinha’s role. "Start higher than you want to. Drop away from him at the right moment — not too early, not too late. If he follows you, the space he leaves behind is Bruno’s, or Rasmus’s. If he holds his position instead, you’ve got the room to turn."

"And if he reads the movement?" Demien asked.

"Then you’ve still pulled his attention for two seconds," Ten Hag said. "Two seconds is enough for someone else."

Then came Robinson — if Fulham won the ball back, Robinson could burst into the space United’s right side left behind almost immediately. If Demien was the midfielder responsible for protecting that channel, he couldn’t sprint into the box on every United attack the way his instincts wanted.

Straight back to Thursday’s conversation, from a different angle.

「TACTICAL TRAINING MISSION ACTIVATED」 「Opponent Focus: Fulham」 「Escape Central Pressure: 5」 「Line-Breaking Passes: 4」 「Second-Ball Recoveries: 4」 「Central Turnovers Allowed: Maximum 1」 「Reward: +15 TP」 「Bonus Objective: Win 3 Direct Midfield Duels」 「Bonus Reward: +15 MP」

The exercise used a compact simulated midfield rather than pretending anyone at Carrington could reproduce Palhinha exactly, one defender drilled specifically to mimic his patience and his timing.

Demien’s first few repetitions went well.

Too well, as it turned out — he got comfortable, checked toward the ball, received it almost square to goal, and tried to roll away only after the pass had already arrived at his feet.

The presser read it perfectly, got into his back before he could turn, and knocked the ball free.

「Central Turnovers: 1/1」

No margin left now, and he knew it.

Ten Hag stopped the drill and walked over rather than shouting from the sideline.

"The mistake didn’t happen on the touch," he said. "It happened before that. You moved too late — he arrived at the same time you did. That’s not a technical problem, that’s a timing problem."

"So earlier," Demien said.

"Earlier," Ten Hag agreed. "Pull him with the first movement. Lose him with the second. Don’t wait for the ball to tell you when to move — you tell the ball when you’re ready."

Demien reset and tried again.

This time he checked toward the ball early, well before it was even played, pulling the marker a full stride out of position. Then he spun away again before the pass arrived, and the defender — following the first movement out of habit — lost him completely on the second.

Demien received facing forward, clean, nobody within three yards of him.

He didn’t waste it. One touch to settle, then a pass that split the line and found Bruno in space behind it.

"Better," Ten Hag said, already moving to the next repetition.

Later in the session, with the pattern well established, Demien deliberately refused an attacking run he’d have taken without thinking a week ago — United’s simulated right-back was high up the pitch, and going forward himself would have left the exact space Ten Hag had warned him about completely open.

He stayed behind the play instead, read the counter as it began to develop, and stepped in to collect the second ball before it could turn into anything dangerous.

Nobody had to tell him that was the right decision. He felt it the moment he made it.

「TACTICAL TRAINING MISSION COMPLETE」 「Pressure Escapes: 6/5」 「Line-Breaking Passes: 5/4」 「Second-Ball Recoveries: 4/4」 「Central Turnovers: 1/1」 「Direct Midfield Duels: 3/3」 「Reward: +15 TP」 「Bonus Reward: +15 MP」

The real payoff wasn’t the numbers on the panel.

When the tactical groups sorted into the shape most likely to start at Craven Cottage, Demien stayed inside it, nobody needing to move him or correct his position.

No announcement came.

He didn’t need one — he understood exactly what it meant from where Ten Hag had quietly placed him on the board.

He was starting at Fulham.

Ten Hag’s press conference that afternoon stayed brief, the questions arriving heavier than usual after back-to-back 3-0 defeats and Casemiro’s injury now public knowledge.

"Two heavy defeats in a week — how do the players respond to that?"

"You respond by training well and playing better on Saturday," Ten Hag said. "There’s no other answer that matters."

"How significant is losing Casemiro for several weeks?"

"Significant. He’s important to us. But we have players capable of adapting to that responsibility."

"Are the players still believing in the process?"

"Yes," Ten Hag said, flatly enough that nobody pushed further on it.

Then, inevitably, someone brought up Demien — the Ballon d’Or, the Kopa result, whether the week’s attention had been a distraction.

"It’s good for him. Good for the club, that a player of ours is recognized at that level," Ten Hag said. "But Saturday requires another performance from everyone, not one player’s medal. The team comes first — that doesn’t change because of Paris."

He didn’t feed the story any further than that, and the room moved on to something else within a question or two.

Friday afternoon, training finished, the squad ate together at Carrington and boarded the bus south toward London ahead of Saturday’s early kickoff.

The journey ran the way it always did.

Maguire had headphones in before the bus had even cleared the training ground gates.

A card game started up two rows behind Demien within twenty minutes, McTominay’s voice rising every time he lost a hand.

Onana slept properly, head against the window, mouth slightly open, and nobody woke him.

Demien wasn’t staring dramatically out at the passing motorway the whole way down. He joined the card game for one round when Højlund waved him over, lost badly, handed the cards back and let someone else take his seat.

He checked his phone twice — once for a message from Sophia, once out of habit rather than need — and left it alone after that.

At the London hotel, the squad had dinner together, mostly quiet, mostly focused, followed by one short evening briefing that covered timings rather than repeating Friday’s full tactical session.

Wake-up time.

Breakfast.

Pre-match meal.

Departure for Craven Cottage.

A quick reminder on set-piece assignments, nothing that hadn’t already been drilled twice that week.

Back in his room afterward, Demien laid out what he needed for the morning — kit, boots, shin pads, everything in the order he always used, a small ritual that hadn’t changed since long before any of this season happened.

His phone still carried that same strange mixture from earlier in the week — late Ballon d’Or congratulations still drifting in from different time zones, United criticism still circulating after Newcastle, one more short message from Sophia wishing him luck, Fulham previews already asking whether United could respond to consecutive heavy losses.

He didn’t scroll long.

「MATCH MISSION ACTIVATED」 「FULHAM vs MANCHESTER UNITED」 「Premier League — Matchweek 11」 「PRIMARY OBJECTIVES」 「Maintain 88%+ Pass Accuracy」 「Escape Fulham’s Central Pressure: 5」 「Progress Possession Beyond Midfield: 6」 「Defensive Recoveries: 4」 「Create 2 Clear Chances」 「BONUS OBJECTIVE」 「Manchester United Win」

No requirement to score.

No requirement to assist.

Nothing on the panel demanding another spectacular performance so soon after Paris.

Just help United control a difficult away match, the way Ten Hag had asked him to, the way the week had been quietly building toward.

He looked once at the objectives, then at the printed Fulham tactical sheet still lying on the desk beside his phone.

Palhinha’s name sat right in the middle of it, circled twice in the analyst’s handwriting.

Tomorrow, he’d find out whether being one of the best young midfielders in the world meant anything at all at 12:30 on a Saturday afternoon at Craven Cottage.