Chapter 526 132 — The Cost of Rotation II

The session outside was controlled rather than punishing. Most of the likely starters had played on Wednesday, and the match was less than thirty hours away. The staff broke it into three parts: a positional exercise, a pressing drill built on Bournemouth's trap, and a short full-team phase to finish.

Demien rotated through the midfield with the others.

「CLUB TRAINING MISSION ACTIVATED」 「Bournemouth Tactical Preparation」 「Complete the prescribed tactical session」 「Complete 5 successful pressure escapes」 「Complete 4 switches after drawing pressure」 「Record 4 second-ball recoveries」 「Create 3 attacking opportunities after breaking the press」 「Reward: +12 TP」 「Bonus Objective: Complete the session without a central turnover」 「Bonus Reward: +10 MP」

The first drill recreated the touchline trap exactly.

Mainoo went first. He received from a center-back, and the reserve midfielder playing Cook immediately closed off the return pass while another player shuffled toward the fullback. Mainoo shielded it well, turned his body and found McTominay.

McTominay's next option was gone. The winger had drifted inside too early, right into the lane McTominay needed to use.

The reserves forced it all the way back to the goalkeeper.

"Stop," Ten Hag called. "Winger. You hold your width until we've broken the first press. Not before. Scott — you're standing right next to Kobbie. Get further forward. Give him a different height."

They reset. The winger stayed wide. McTominay took three steps higher.

Demien came in for the next repetition.

He received with the simulated Bournemouth midfielders closing. Before the ball arrived, he'd already checked over his shoulder: winger wide, fullback free on the far side. He didn't turn straight away. He waited, letting the nearest reserve player commit to the tackle.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Press Resistant」

The moment the player lunged, Demien rolled off him and was gone.

He didn't keep dribbling just because he could. He released the ball straight into the free fullback, and because the winger had stayed wide this time, United had somewhere to go before the reserves could close again.

「MATCH PREPARATION PROGRESS」 「Pressure Escapes: 1/5」 「Switches After Drawing Pressure: 1/4」

The fullback found Bruno. Bruno slid Højlund into the channel, and Højlund hit a shot that the reserve keeper pushed away.

「Attacking Opportunities Created: 1/3」

"Better," Ten Hag said. "Again. Different player."

The repetitions kept changing. On one, the reserve playing the first presser wouldn't step forward at all. He just stood off Demien, blocking the lane into Bruno.

So Demien carried the ball toward him. Five yards, then ten. Eventually the player had no choice but to come and meet him, and the instant he did, Demien slid McTominay through the gap he'd left.

On the next, two reserves collapsed on Demien in the middle at the same time. He didn't try to escape both. He played it back to Mainoo, drifted three yards into a new lane, took the return and switched it all the way to the other flank before the two players had even turned around.

"That's the one," the assistant coach shouted from the side. "That's exactly the one."

The second drill started with United already attacking around the reserve penalty area.

The staff let the reserves clear the ball toward where Solanke would be standing, and United's midfielders had to fight for what came next before a counter could start.

On the first rep, McTominay challenged the initial clearance in the air. Demien stayed a few yards behind him, reading where it would fall.

The ball broke off McTominay's head toward a reserve midfielder.

Demien got there first.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Ball Winner」

He took it before the player could turn.

「MATCH PREPARATION PROGRESS」 「Second-Ball Recoveries: 1/4」

He fed Bruno instantly, and United were attacking again before the reserve defense could step out.

The next repetition went differently. The ball dropped too close to the touchline for Demien to reach first. He didn't chase it. He protected the pass back into the middle instead, and let the fullback deal with the wide battle. United won it back in the end, but the fullback had done the winning.

The system didn't count it. Demien didn't expect it to.

Then the reserves escaped once, cleanly.

A United fullback pushed on before the midfield cover had set. The reserve winger received in the space behind him and played it toward the runner making Solanke's near-post movement. Demien closed the central lane, but the move had already gone down the far side. Maguire had to throw himself in front of the shot.

Ten Hag blew the whistle.

"Fullback — you went too early," he said. "Wait until the midfield's set behind you. Kobbie, you need to be three yards further across when he goes."

He didn't say anything to Demien. There was nothing to say. Demien couldn't have been in two places at once, and everyone on the pitch knew it.

The final phase stitched everything together.

Demien received under pressure and escaped the first man. He drew a second player toward him, then switched it into the space Bournemouth's shape had left open on the far side. United attacked. The first cross was headed clear. Demien was waiting outside the box, took the second ball and found Bruno, who hit a low shot that flew narrowly wide.

The last few repetitions closed out the remaining numbers. Nobody stopped when the system was satisfied. Ten Hag let the full phase run until he'd seen what he needed, then stopped play one last time to move Mainoo and McTominay a couple of yards apart.

"That's the distance," he said. "Remember it tomorrow."

The players jogged into their cooldown.

「CLUB TRAINING MISSION COMPLETE」 「Pressure Escapes: 5/5」 「Switches After Drawing Pressure: 4/4」 「Second-Ball Recoveries: 4/4」 「Attacking Opportunities Created: 3/3」 「Central Turnovers: 0」 「Reward: +12 TP」 「Bonus Reward: +10 MP」

The matchday squad went up after training.

Demien's name was in it, under the substitutes. Mainoo and McTominay were listed to start in midfield, with Bruno ahead of them.

Ten Hag spoke to the whole group before they left. "We rotate because we need to. But rotation only works if the players who start do their jobs. Everyone in this room knows how Bournemouth press. No surprises tomorrow."

Demien didn't question it. He'd done the work with everyone else. If he came on, he'd know exactly what was waiting.

They finished with set-piece instructions and a short recovery block, and that was the day.

Friday evening at home was quiet in the best possible way.

He cooked for once instead of relying on the club's meal plan — pasta, nothing complicated — and ate it standing at the counter while he scrolled through the matchday instructions on his phone. Arrival time, pre-match meal, meeting. The same list as always.

Sophia called around eight.

"Are you busy?" she asked.

"I'm eating pasta standing up. So no."

"Very glamorous."

"Very," he said. "How was your day?"

She'd had a presentation that morning that she'd been dreading for a week, and she walked him through it. One of the people in the meeting had kept interrupting her, and she'd finally stopped halfway through and said, politely, that she'd take questions at the end.

"Did it work?" he asked.

"He went bright red and didn't say another word," she said. "My manager messaged me afterward just to say 'well handled.' That's the most she's ever written to me."

"That's a big deal."

"It is a big deal," Sophia said. "Thank you for understanding that it's a big deal."

They talked about Christmas after that. It was only a couple of weeks away, and neither of them had worked out when they'd actually be in the same place for more than an evening. His schedule was a wall of matches. Hers had its own year-end chaos.

"We'll figure something out," she said.

"We will."

She didn't ask about Saturday, and he didn't bring it up. It wasn't that kind of call.

Marco sent one message before bed: Everything's on hold till January. Adidas using what they have. Go to sleep.

He did.

Saturday, December 9th, Old Trafford.

"United come into this off the back of a big win over Chelsea," the commentator said as the teams walked out, "and with Bayern Munich here on Tuesday, Erik ten Hag's rotated. Demien Walter starts on the bench."

"Makes sense with the schedule," his co-commentator said. "But Bournemouth have been in excellent form. This is not a team you can switch off against."

The cameras stayed on the starters. Demien took his seat among the substitutes, zipped his jacket up to his chin, and watched.

Bournemouth pressed exactly as the analysts had said they would.

They let United's center-back play it wide, then closed the touchline and jumped on the pass back inside. Mainoo got caught once in the first two minutes and had to go all the way back to Onana. McTominay got caught on the next.

In the fifth minute, United gave it away in their own half.

Lewis Cook won it and was moving forward before anyone in red had turned around. He drove a low ball toward the near post, and Solanke slipped across his defender and flicked it past Onana.

MANCHESTER UNITED 0 — 1 BOURNEMOUTH Dominic Solanke, 5'

Old Trafford went quiet in a way that was almost physical, a whole stadium caught off guard.

On the bench, Demien didn't move. He'd seen the pattern before it happened. Cook, forward pass, Solanke at the near post. Exactly as it had been on the screen on Friday morning.

Bournemouth didn't retreat after scoring. They kept pressing.