Chapter 519 125 — No Time to Breathe I

The second exercise worked transition defense after United lost the ball in advanced positions — fullbacks and midfield committed forward, the moment of turnover immediately punished by the simulated Chelsea looking for Palmer centrally or Mudryk on the outside.

On the first rep, United lost it near the box and the simulated Palmer tried to receive on the turn.

Demien had already dropped into position behind the attack.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Ball Winner」

He stepped across the pass before Palmer could turn with it.

「Transition Recoveries: 1/5」

United attacked again immediately without resetting through the goalkeeper.

On another repetition, the reserves escaped toward the flank before he could reach the ball carrier. He didn't chase blindly. He dropped through the middle instead, cut off the pass back to Palmer, and gave the recovering fullback time to get across.

Then, deliberately, the drill let Chelsea beat them once. A fullback got caught too high, United lost the ball, and the first pass released the simulated Mudryk before Demien could close the route. The move reached the box and ended in a shot.

Ten Hag reset the group without singling him out. "Distances," he said, correcting the fullback and winger's starting positions. "He can't cover the whole pitch by himself. Nobody can."

The third exercise worked the other direction — hurting Chelsea once their double pivot stepped forward to press.

Demien started deep. Bruno came to meet the ball. McTominay held higher, waiting for the gap to open.

The simulated Caicedo stepped toward Demien.

Rather than fight through the challenge, he used the movement instead, laying it into Bruno. Bruno returned it first time, the one-two changing Demien's angle and leaving Chelsea's midfield turned the wrong way.

「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Andrea Pirlo — Deep-Lying Playmaker」

He found McTominay beyond the line.

「Final-Third Entries After Breaking Pressure: 3/4」

McTominay reached the box and cut it back for Højlund, whose shot was saved. Not every pattern ended in a goal, and this one didn't either.

On the next rep, the reserve pivot refused to step toward Demien at all, still cautious after the previous sequence. He simply carried into the space they'd left him instead, forcing the midfielder to eventually confront him out of necessity.

The moment he did, Demien released Bruno.

Fourth final-third entry. Objective complete.

Rather than end the session there, Ten Hag moved the group into a full eleven-versus-eleven phase, the reserves reproducing Chelsea's whole expected shape — Palmer's freedom, Jackson's channel runs, Mudryk's transitions, everything stitched together at once.

Every lesson from the last two days had to hold up simultaneously now. When Mainoo stepped, Demien covered. When Demien stepped toward the simulated Palmer, Mainoo held his ground. Bruno pressed higher rather than dropping so deep that all three midfielders occupied the same horizontal line. The fullbacks only pushed forward once United's rest-defense shape was actually in place behind them.

The simulated Palmer drifted toward the right again, testing exactly the same read from Monday.

Demien followed briefly, handed the runner off to the nearest teammate, and turned straight back toward the central lane.

The pass came anyway.

He intercepted it clean.

No repeated correction. Ten Hag didn't need to say anything this time.

Later in the session, two players closed him near halfway. He protected the ball under both challenges and found the opposite fullback with his sixth pressure-release pass of the day.

「Pressure-Release Passes: 6/6 — COMPLETE」

Another Chelsea-style transition developed in the closing minutes. He held the central lane long enough to let the counter come to him, stepped in at the right instant, and completed his fifth recovery.

「Transition Recoveries: 5/5 — COMPLETE」

The eleven-a-side kept running well past that point — Ten Hag wasn't interested in stopping just because the system had what it needed. The session ended on his whistle, not the mission's.

「CLUB TRAINING MISSION COMPLETE」 「Full Tactical Session: COMPLETE」 「Pressure-Release Passes: 6」 「Transition Recoveries: 5」 「Final-Third Entries: 5」 「Central Turnovers: 0」 「Repeated Tactical Corrections: 0」 「Reward: +12 TP」 「Bonus Reward: +10 MP」

No rating change came with it. Just the numbers, banked.

Ten Hag kept the final briefing short once the group gathered for the preparation board.

Training groups had already started narrowing toward a likely eleven the way they usually did this late in the week, and Demien's name sat repeatedly among the probable starters without anyone confirming it outright.

Ten Hag pulled him aside before he left for the day. "Chelsea will give you room to play if we move the ball cleanly through their first pressure," he said. "That's also the trap. One careless turnover with both fullbacks forward, and Palmer, Mudryk and Jackson are running at an open back four in seconds. Attack when it's there. Don't force the game into chaos just because they're comfortable playing that way."

"Understood," Demien said.

Tuesday evening stayed quiet at home, the way the night before a match usually did by now.

Marco's update was practical rather than exciting. Istanbul was still generating requests, but most of it had been pushed past December — nobody expected him free for anything beyond what Adidas could pull from material they already had. No new shoot. No new obligation squeezed into a week that didn't have room for one.

He ate, spent part of the evening on nothing more important than a couple of hours of television, and packed his matchday bag without needing to think much about the order of it anymore. A short call with Sophia covered her week more than his — Chelsea barely came up beyond her asking if he was tired, and him telling her honestly that he wasn't, not in any way that mattered.

He opened the club's analysis app once more before bed, running back through a few of Chelsea's clips without turning it into a study session. Two days of repetition had already put the shapes where he needed them.

His phone lit up with Wednesday's matchday schedule not long after.

ARRIVAL. PRE-MATCH MEAL. TEAM MEETING. ACTIVATION. WARM-UP. KICKOFF.

He set the phone down and let the day end there.

Wednesday, December 6th, Old Trafford.

The final tactical board went up inside the dressing room hours before kickoff, Chelsea's expected shape laid out clearly — Caicedo and Enzo screening, Palmer just ahead of them in Gallagher's absence, Sterling, Mudryk and Jackson forming the front line.

Demien's name sat inside United's starting section, exactly where two days of preparation had pointed.

Warm-up ran the way it always did, nothing dramatic about it — the midfield working through their usual rondo while Chelsea warmed at the opposite end, Old Trafford filling in steadily around both of them.

Back inside, Ten Hag's final words repeated nothing new. "Palmer can't pull both of you away at once. Mudryk gets no free grass in transition. When their pivot steps, we attack behind it. When the transition isn't there, we keep the ball. That's it. Nothing complicated."

「PREMIER LEAGUE MATCH MISSION ACTIVATED」 「Manchester United vs Chelsea」 「Create 3 Clear Chances」 「Complete 7 Progressive Actions」 「Record 4 Midfield Recoveries」 「Maintain 90%+ Pass Accuracy」 「TEAM OBJECTIVE: Win」 「Reward: +70 MP」

No goal requirement attached to it. Control and creation, against a midfield built to give him exactly the room to provide both.

Demien stood in the tunnel as Chelsea lined up directly opposite, close enough now to see the faces that belonged to two days of freeze-frames and simulated reps.

Caicedo.

Enzo.

Palmer.

The mission panel faded from his vision.

The tunnel doors opened.