"Hu has scored nineteen consecutive league rounds..."

On the TV screen, the goal scored by Hu Lai's turned man is being played.

Among the crowd staring at the TV screen, someone couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

"And according to his state, he may continue to score goals in the league."

"Go on, go on and see how far we can push that record. But as long as he doesn't score against us in the Champions League."

There was a low laugh in the meeting room.

Amidst the laughter, head coach Scott Brooks asked Harry Bernard with a smile: "What do you think, Harry?"

Harry Bernard said sternly: "Hu's recent form is indeed very good. But the game between Samir Sports and the Madrid Pirates also gave us some inspiration. As long as our midfield can contain the Pirates' midfield, I think that at home It is not difficult to beat them. Maxi Carey is their key figure. This game against Samir Sports fully shows the difference between the performance of the Pirates with Carey and without Carey. If we can be in the middle If the court maintains enough hardness and aggression, it will certainly be able to stop Kyrie from playing."

Brooks nodded in satisfaction after listening to Bernard's answer: "That's right, Kyrie is the key to the Madrid Pirates' offense."

This season, Maxi Carey has scored five goals and assisted eight times in the league, and scored one goal and assisted twice in the Champions League.

Judging from the data alone, this number is the first in the assist list of the Madrid Pirates, but it is not very exaggerated-at least it is not as exaggerated as the number of goals scored by Hu Lai.

It's just that there are some things that simple data can't reflect.

For example, the imagination space that Carey brought to the offense of the Madrid Pirates cannot be shown by data such as simple assists and key passes.

With Kyrie on the court, the Madrid Pirates' offense will indeed be more relaxed.

Because of his skills, he can bring more possibilities to the team's offense.

And these may change the trend of the game.

"But we can't just focus on Kyrie or Hu..." Brooks added. "Madrid Pirates are a unit, and we want to defend them as a unit. This is at our home ground, we need to use more aggressive running to cause them trouble, on every ball and every piece of the pitch. Go face to face with them on the turf! Fight more ferociously, advance faster...The accumulation of these 'faster' and 'harder' is our weapon to defeat the pirates!"

※※※

After the tactical meeting of the coaching staff, the coaches left the meeting room one after another.

Harry Burgard was kept in the house by head coach Brooks, as was assistant coach Stephen Brown.

"Harry, are you really not thinking about playing in this game?" Brooks asked Burgard.

"Now I can't bring any improvement to the team after playing, so why take up a position?" Harry Burgard refused with a smile and shook his head.

"You also said that what the team needs in this game is aggressiveness. And you can bring aggressiveness to the team."

"Then I might be replaced for half the game." Burgard half-jokingly said.

"Dixon alone can't support our hardness in the midfield." Brooks expressed his concerns.

"Scott, I still think you should give Jimmy more credit. It's better to fix him in the middle than to let him comeo in various positions. He is really well-rounded, but he has one that suits him best, and he himself is the best. The position I like is the central midfielder. Of course he is not like me, but he can endure loneliness, which shows that he is also a very tough player, and this kind of toughness will help him endure troubles and difficulties in the game. Live under more pressure."

The "Jimmy" in Burgard's mouth is the team's current midfielder Jimmy Stokes. In the 2026-2027 season, he transferred from the Premier League newly promoted Thorpton at the time. Stan Park Rangers spent 20 million pounds to get him. From this transfer fee alone, it can be seen that the Stan Park Rangers Club is very interested in this young man. Players still have high hopes.

In the season he was signed, the team loaned him to the Championship team.

He performed well in the Championship season, played 36 times, scored six goals, assisted four times, and was the team's thigh.

So after the end of the loan, he returned to the Stan Park Rangers in the 2027-2028 season and registered as a first-team player.

However, in the Stan Park Rangers first team, Stokes' performance was far less impressive than he was in the British Championship. Most of the time he is used as a panacea, as a patch for the team. Wherever you need him to go.

He can play as a defensive midfielder, central midfielder, and wide midfielder.

Even when the full-back was injured, he went on top.

For a while, Stan Park Rangers fans teased that Stokes could play in any position except goalkeeper.

Such an all-around quality allowed him to play a lot of games, but his performance was not very good.

Others began to question whether it was worth spending £20m on a jack-of-all-trades.

Stokes' fate has not changed this season.

Coach Brooks still uses him as a patch, and rarely fixes him in Stokes' favorite and best midfielder.

The reason is because Brooks doesn't trust Stokes very much in his heart.

Perhaps because he has worked with Harry Burgard for many years, in Brooks' mind, a player like "tough guy Harry" can sit in the middle of the midfield of the Stan Park Rangers.

Stokes, on the other hand, is taciturn and has a docile personality. He really doesn't seem to have any heroism, and people can't help but doubt his level of spiritual will and ability to withstand pressure.

So the more important the game, the less Brooks dared to entrust Stokes with heavy responsibility.

Stokes did not express any dissatisfaction with the distrust of the head coach, but accepted it submissively. This made Brooks feel that Stokes is a "soft guy with no seeds" and has no ambition to make progress, so he further lowered his impression score.

When the club bought Jimmy Stokes at the beginning, it valued his overall quality and hoped that he could become the successor of the aging Harry Burgard.

But such a "docile" Stokes, it is really hard to make people think that he can succeed the "tough guy" Harry Burgard.

"Okay, Harry. I'll think about it seriously." Seeing that Burgard had made up his mind, Brooks no longer tried to persuade him, but nodded in agreement.

Burgard then bid farewell and left.

As soon as he left, the assistant coach Stephen Brown, who watched the whole process in silence, said with emotion: "I'm really a little embarrassed. The 'tough guy Harry' who would rather walk off the field after being injured than be carried off by a stretcher." , there will be a day when I admit that I can't do it..."

"No one can beat time." Brooks said as he lowered his head and tidied up the documents on his desk. "If it was before, if I dared to put him out of the squad for this game, he would have the guts to knock on my door in the middle of the night and ask me to revise the squad."

Brown was amused by Brooks' figurative statement: "It's really something he can do."

Then he asked again: "Would you really consider starting Stokes?"

"I haven't figured it out yet," Brooks said honestly.

In Brooks' arrangement, although he has been persuading Burgard to play, he has long been prepared for Burgard not to play, that is, to let Matthews Schneider and Jonathan Dixon form the midfielder partner.

This is a more conventional combination, which has been the arrangement of the Stan Park Rangers midfield duo for most of this season.

But Brooks always felt that with this central combination, it might be difficult to compete with the Pirates' midfield trio of Maxi Carey, Vukovic and Juan Ramirez.

"Harry is really caring for Stokes. He has helped Stokes speak more than once. It is said that he has said to others in private that he is contrary to the outside world. He is really optimistic about Stokes' acceptance. His class..." Brown said.

"He's the captain after all."

The implication of Brooks' words is that Harry Burgard, as the leader of the team, always wants to unite his teammates, so no matter what others think of Jimmy Stokes, Burgard, as an excellent locker room leader, Both must always be by Stokes' side.

Brown also understood, so he was even more emotional: "It's a pity that such an excellent leader is about to retire. He is only 36 years old. If there is no serious injury, he can play until the age of 40."

Having said this, Brown paused for a moment, and then said: "I suddenly remembered that his injury was in the fight with Hu... This feeling is really bad, and it always makes people feel a sense of fate."

he muttered.

In that matchup that year, Hou Lai scored a hat-trick at the Stan Park Stadium, helping Leeds City, which is not strong, beat the Stan Park Rangers in an away game, ending the Stan Park Rangers' 90 games in all competitions at home. Great record of defeat.

And Hu Lai's winning goal was scored by passing Harry Burgard.

In order to stop the ball, Burgard desperately returned to the defense to make a clearance, but his knee hit the goalpost, causing serious injuries.

Later, in order to catch up with the World Cup, Burgard had a meniscectomy.

It was also this operation that made Burgard's state worse than before after recovering from the injury.

But despite this, he continued to lead the team forward with his super strong mental will.

And led the team all the way to the Champions League final last season~lightnovelpub.net~ and finally lost to the King of Madrid.

After the end of that season, Burgard has decided to retire after the new season, and now he has also changed his identity in advance-he began to participate more in the team's training work as a coach. Brooks' coaching staff followed suit.

As a player this season, he has played less and less. So many people thought that Burgard had retired...

Stan Park Rangers coaches are well aware that Harry Burgard is already preparing to be a head coach.

In the future, he will definitely become the "captain" of this team (Note 1).

※※※

Note 1: captain, captain, is also used to refer to the captain in the football team.

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