I became the Premier League’s youngest manager

Arthur, who had been comforting and soothing Hyungmin, who had become depressed for a long time, began preparing for the opening match while helping the young, rookie (temporary) manager regain his focus.

"The first thing we need to do is win over the locker room," Arthur said.

"That's true," Hyungmin replied.

"Since you're the interim coach, I'll start by talking to the team leaders and ask them to help for the first few games. They'll take care of managing the locker room," Arthur added.

"Who do you think is the leader of the first-team locker room right now?" Hyungmin asked.

"Hmmm… If we're talking about the first team, Ben Mee, Jack Cork, and Jay Rodriguez are probably the ones with the most influence," Arthur answered.

Hyungmin felt a wave of unease as he thought about the first team's starting defender and captain, the starting midfielder and vice-captain, and the veteran striker who had returned to Burnley from their youth ranks and was now leading the attack.

"Do you think those guys will come if I call them?" Hyungmin asked.

"I don't know about you, but if I call them, they'll come. Maybe," Arthur said with a shrug.

As expected from key members of Burnley, led by Sean Dyche's bold and direct football philosophy, all three players gathered in the manager's office were over 180 cm tall and had solid physiques.

Hyungmin carefully sat down across from Arthur, watching as the three broad-shouldered players filled the sofa in the manager's office.

Hyungmin opened his mouth with difficulty as he faced the three players, who all wore the same bewildered expression, as if to say, "I don't know why I'm here either."

"Uh, I'm Kim, the new youth team coach. Well, it doesn't really matter who I am. I'm just going to be the interim first-team coach until a permanent manager is appointed. So, I'd really appreciate your help," he said.

Fortunately, thanks to Sean Dyche's strict player selection based on professionalism, none of the three players sitting before Hyungmin laughed or burst out in disbelief. However, they all looked just as puzzled.

"You're in charge of the first team?" Ben Mee, the captain, asked with an incredulous tone.

Hyungmin tried to stand tall, despite his nerves. "Well, now that Sean has resigned and Mike, the reserve team manager, has followed him, the club has given me this job as a stopgap. I think it's because I'm the only one here with a UEFA Pro License. Maybe… maybe soon, a permanent manager will be appointed, so until then, you can accept my guidance… right?"

As Hyungmin's words trailed off, the three players' expressions began to turn sour. Arthur, who had been quietly observing, quickly intervened.

"Hey, guys! Why are you so upset that Kim will be coaching you for a few games? Do any of you have a UEFA Pro License? Or do you want to coach yourselves?" Arthur chided, his voice stern.

Having been at Burnley for over 10 years, Arthur had a long history with these players. Ben Mee had played under Arthur in the reserve team early in his career. Jack Cork had been loaned to Burnley and had also played under Arthur in the reserves. And Jay Rodriguez, who had come through Burnley's youth system, had been coached by Arthur from a young age.

The three players, now facing their old mentor, quickly regained their composure.

"I mean, uh, since the time when you couldn't even tell your arse from your elbow..." Arthur continued, teasing them.

"No, that's not it. Arthur too..." Hyungmin tried to cut in.

"Arthur? Arthur?! Am I your friend?" Arthur mockingly shouted.

"No, no, no… Coach Arthur, I mean, Director Brimlow!" Hyungmin corrected quickly.

"Yeah, Sean did everything for you guys, so you don't care about each other anymore? That's great, I'll teach you all a proper lesson today!" Arthur exclaimed, ready to get started.

As Arthur began playfully teasing the three professional players, who were easily twice his size, Hyungmin couldn't help but smile at the unexpected turn of events. It was true what they said: British old farts weren't much different from their Korean counterparts.

After listening to Arthur's speech for over 30 minutes, both the three players and Hyungmin, who had somehow become part of the mental education session, were exhausted. They finally gathered themselves and began discussing their main goal: preparing for the next match.

"The opening match is against Everton. I think it would be a good idea to approach it with a 4-3-3 formation," Hyungmin suggested.

Vice-captain Jack Cork raised an eyebrow, confused by the idea. "Is it really necessary to change the formation now? We're all used to 4-4-2 anyway… If a new manager comes in, the tactics might change again, and that could just confuse everyone more."

Hyungmin glanced at Arthur for support. When he saw Arthur remaining silent, he felt a momentary sense of relief.

Jack Cork froze when Hyungmin continued his explanation.

"Sean's 4-4-2 system has already been figured out by every Premier League team. It's time to move on from it."

"We survived in the Premier League for four seasons with that system," Ben Mee countered.

Hyungmin shook his head in response to Ben Mee's rebuttal. "That may be true, but the Premier League itself is changing. Even if we stick to the old ways, our opponents are evolving, so we can't just ignore that. Here, take a look. This is a summary of the attacking tactics of Premier League teams over the past four seasons."

Hyungmin pulled out some data and began explaining it to Arthur and the players, distributing copies to them.

"If you look at this chart, not only is the overall number of passes per game going up, but the number of sequences of passes that don't result in a loss of possession is also rising. This means teams are becoming more comfortable with short passes without giving the ball away."

The front of the report showed a smooth curve that steadily increased to the right.

"This shift shows that our ability to win games against teams that sit deep in defense, like us, is diminishing."

"Isn't that something we can solve by defending more firmly?" Ben Mee asked.

Hyungmin shook his head again at Ben Mee's suggestion.

"Before, if you held tight, you'd try to attack recklessly, get blocked, and then we'd finish by sending long passes to our attackers Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes. But look, just last season, we were being cornered for a much longer period of time and getting beaten up."

As Hyungmin turned the page, the other four people who had been listening as if entranced also turned the page.

"If you look here, you can see that the opposing team's possession rate, absolute number of passes, sequence of passes, and number of shots are overwhelmingly different and are getting bigger. This means that the opposing team is holding the ball for longer and longer, and is leading to shots. Even if the shot is blocked, the opposing team has time to regroup, so there are fewer opportunities for counterattacks. And if the opposing team takes the ball again and shoots, it becomes a game of chance. If you get hit with shots to this extent, no matter how strong your defense is, it will be broken through. Now, if you refer to the next chart…."

The three players who had been blankly listening to Hyungmin's explanation looked at Hyungmin once, then looked again at Arthur who was also blankly listening to the explanation next to him, and finally realized.

Oh, not only that squeamish old man, but also this young fellow, once he opens his mouth, an endless hell gate opens.

After the three players, with slightly dazed expressions but seemingly convinced, ran away, promising the full support of the locker room, the Burnley Football Club first team manager (temporary) and sole staff member (temporary, soon to retire) began a tactical meeting to analyze the opponents.

"Donny van de Beek? Why is Donny van de Beek from Manchester United leaving Everton?!"

"I don't know. I think manager Solskjaer approved the loan."

"Oh, what should I do? Donnie van de Beek wasn't even on the list?!"

In the conference room where the first-team staff were having a meeting because they couldn't bear to use Sean Dyche's office (it was still Sean Dyche's office in Hyungmin's head), Hyungmin sighed after checking the list of players on Everton's first team while the two of them were discussing the opening match tactics.

"Ugh! Dominic Calvert-Lewin as a striker and Donny van de Beek as an attacking midfielder? How do you stop that?"

"How do you stop it? You just have to block it well."

As Arthur spoke sarcastically from the side, Hyungmin glared at him.

"We saw how Rafa Benitez uses his attacking midfielders at Liverpool!"

"Ah, why… Gerrard and Torres! Anyway, Calvert-Lewin will be the striker up front, and the wingers and attacking midfielders will exploit the gap he creates. If it's Van de Beek, he's good at passing, so he can either draw out the defense and distribute the ball, or he can go in and finish it himself…."

Hyungmin muttered to himself as he searched through the data on his laptop.

Soon, the large screen in the conference room turned on, and the image of Donny van de Beek, who was considered one of the best midfielders in the Netherlands, a soccer powerhouse, during his Ajax days (Hyungmin mercilessly dismissed the information from his Manchester United days as meaningless), began to appear on the screen.

"But can we execute the forward pressure of the 4-3-3 formation? They have been playing defensive football centered on long balls under Sean for the past eight years."

At Arthur's worried muttering, Hyungmin, who was slowly analyzing the video of Donny van de Beek, answered without even looking up from the data.

"You have to keep training to change it. First, train by simplifying the movements as much as possible, and then slowly increase the complexity."

"Is that possible? We only have 5 days?"

"Well... I guess I should try. Anyway, after this opening game, a new manager will come, so it's none of my business what happens after that, right?"

"That's true."

~~~

"Did you sleep?"

On the opening day, Arthur asked Hyungmin as soon as he saw his face when he arrived at work in the morning.

Hyungmin shook his head weakly.

"I must have eaten something bad. I couldn't sleep at all and threw up all night."

"You ate wrong. You had dinner with me and I was fine."

"Then what on earth did I eat wrong?"

"What the heck? I'm just nervous."

Arthur shook his head and said at Hyungmin's puzzled expression.

"You, I don't know about amateur or semi-professional teams, but at the professional level, you've never managed a reserve team, let alone a first team. At most, you've managed a few games as a caretaker coach for the youth team at Salzburg."

"Oh, that's true···"

"But it's strange that you're in your right mind when you suddenly ask adult professional players, not kids, to lead a match in the Premier League, the world's top league. Even experienced veterans can't sleep well the night before a high-pressure match, so it's only natural for a rookie like you to do so."

"Is that so?"

"That's it! So just sit back and let it go, you're going to lose anyway!"

Hyungmin got irritated at Arthur who was laughing heartily.

"Oh, I told you I won't lose!"

"I don't know. I said I don't know."

Hyungmin thought that he could have chased after that old man who was running away if he hadn't stayed up all night holding onto the toilet, and moved his wobbly legs to the conference room.

Before the players arrive for the afternoon game.

Finally, it was time to review tactics.