Soccer: I became Bruno Fernandes.

Chapter 253: Bruno Dependency Syndrome

The Marco Antonio Bentegodi Stadium, located in Verona, Veneto, Italy, can accommodate 42,160 people. The stadium was completed on December 15, 1963, and rebuilt in 1990. Owned by the Verona City Government, it is now the home ground for Hellas Verona and Chievo Verona Football Clubs. The Bentegodi Stadium was one of the venues for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Since being promoted to Serie A in the 2013-2014 season, Verona once became the dark horse of the league. Despite losing momentum and finishing the season in 10th place, Verona left a deep impression on fans. However, in the 2014-2015 season, Verona's performance was average, finishing in 13th place.

So far this season, Verona has played seven rounds of the league, with four draws and three losses, still searching for their first win, ranking 18th in Serie A. Their performance in the first round was eye-catching when they drew 1-1 with Roma at home, but subsequent performances were disappointing.

In the second round, they lost 0-2 away to Genoa. In the third round, they drew 2-2 at home with Torino. The fourth round saw a 1-1 draw away to Atalanta. In the fifth round, they lost 0-1 at the San Siro to Inter Milan, followed by a 1-2 home defeat to Lazio in the sixth round. Their latest match was a 1-1 draw in the Verona derby against Chievo.

Verona's poor situation is understandable considering their opponents were strong, except for Genoa. The other six teams are in the upper half of the standings.

...

From the first seven rounds of the season, Verona's strength is evident. They managed to draw with strong teams like Roma, Torino, and Lazio.

Before the team arrived in Verona, Guidolin and the coaching staff had a comprehensive understanding of Verona's overall tactical approach and repeatedly reminded the players to be cautious, especially to avoid mistakes under Verona's fierce pressing. However, Verona's pressing was indeed very aggressive.

Against Udinese, Verona pressed even harder and more fiercely than other teams.

Overall, Udinese's defensive formation had no issues. The key factor for conceding was player mistakes during the match, something no coach or tactic can avoid because everyone makes mistakes.

Udinese conceded in the 19th minute when Verona's right-side cross was initially cleared by Edenílson, but the ball remained in the box. Verona's Sala crossed again, and this time Felipe made a defensive error, failing to clear the ball, allowing Verona to capitalize and score.

Felipe's mistake had personal factors, but it was also due to the pressure from Verona's full-court press, making Udinese uncomfortable.

...

Returning to the locker room, Udinese's players looked dejected.

This season, Udinese had fallen behind in matches before. Against AC Milan, they were trailing 1-3 at halftime but managed to come back. However, AC Milan is a top team with considerable strength.

Today's opponent was Verona, a relegation-threatened team, yet Udinese was trailing and couldn't equalize for almost half an hour.

Moreover, Bruno hadn't played in today's match, making many players uneasy, even slightly fearful.

Many players looked around the locker room and sighed inwardly: Bruno isn't here!

...

No one knew exactly when it started, but Bruno's role in Udinese became increasingly significant, and everyone's dependence on him grew. Whenever the team couldn't break through or faced adversity, they would think of him.

The locker room was silent before this match. The team had been playing well, and many players might not have said anything but secretly thought the coaching staff and locker room gave Bruno too much power. For example, his freedom to shoot or his lack of pressure to press the opponents.

As teammates, who wouldn't want such privileges? But why only Bruno?

Now, they realized how crucial Bruno had been to the team's recent success.

For this match, Udinese still played a 4-2-3-1 formation: Karnezis as the goalkeeper; Cancelo, Danilo, Hertaux, and Felipe in defense; Iturra and Edenílson as double pivots; Marquinho, D'Alessandro, and Adnan in the midfield; and Di Natale as the lone striker.

But without Bruno, Udinese felt like a giant ship without an engine, struggling to move.

...

As the locker room remained silent, the door opened, and the players looked up to see Coach Guidolin and assistant coach Portolucchi enter.

The door opened and closed, but the players kept glancing at it.

Finally, it didn't open again.

Bruno still didn't come!

This meant the situation was clear: the team wouldn't make substitutions at the start of the second half.

But it also meant they would continue facing the match without Bruno for a longer period.

Guidolin and Verstraeten summarized the team's performance in the first half. They were satisfied with the overall defense and understood the player's mistakes, urging everyone to stay focused and keep pushing in the second half.

The team's second-half tactics focused on two main points: attacking from the wings.

Guidolin believed the team's wing attacks in the first half lacked character, especially on the traditionally strong left side.

"Verona's pressure on our full-backs does indeed bring more pressure to our left-side attacks, but I believe we should play more actively and aggressively."

Guidolin also mentioned Verona's stamina, noting their intense pressing in the first half would likely lead to fatigue in the second half, creating opportunities for Udinese.

"We should play more aggressively and offensively. Verona's stamina will surely be an issue, and this is our chance to attack, both on the left and right wings, and even through the center."

...

The coaching staff reassigned tasks to each player.

Once done, it was almost time to return to the pitch.

Amidst the cheers of over 40,000 fans, Bruno still sat on the substitute bench, quietly watching the match.

As the second half began, Udinese indeed played more proactively and posed more threats, but Verona was prepared for this scenario and handled it well.

Verona's defense was still solid, but Bruno believed that with their stamina waning, they would eventually falter.

After the start, Udinese tried several attacks from the left, hoping Adnan could create threats, but Verona completely neutralized the Iraqi player, giving him no good opportunities. Even his speed, his greatest asset, had no effect.

After several attempts without success, Iturra decisively shifted focus to the right side for attacks.

...

Bruno sat on the bench, closely observing the game's dynamics, and clearly saw the issues Adnan was facing.

Adnan is a highly promising player. His emergence from Iraq is not just because of his speed—many players are fast, but that's not enough to be competitive.

Besides his speed, Adnan has solid basic skills, powerful shots, and as a left-footed player, his dribbling down the left flank and crossing are excellent. He also has a good free-kick technique.

These are his strengths.

Playing in Iraq, Adnan mostly created threats from the left, and being originally a left-back, he was used to receiving the ball and driving down the line to use his speed advantage.

This is a normal approach, as players need to utilize their strengths.

But it's also not quite right, as opponents will also know your strengths and work to limit them.

Like in this match, Verona's coach clearly targeted Adnan's strength, freezing him completely. As the game progressed, Adnan became more and more anxious, and the more anxious he got, the worse he played.

...

Bruno understood Adnan's current predicament well.

Wingers generally have two ways to create threats: either going down the line or cutting inside.

For a left-footed player like Adnan, cutting inside from the left isn't his strength and doesn't feel natural. But constantly going down the line makes it easy for opponents to limit him.

That's the issue he's facing now.

Once Adnan's characteristics are understood, defending him becomes straightforward.

If Adnan wants to avoid such situations, he needs to change his style. Either become more versatile like Bruno, particularly mastering his right foot for inside cuts, or develop a technique like Robben.

Robben's speed is phenomenal, but his rhythm is also excellent. This allows him to remain effective even when opponents know his moves because his rhythm is impeccable.

However, Adnan clearly hasn't reached Robben's level. He keeps dribbling and charging forward, hoping to leverage his speed, but repeatedly hits a wall.

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