After witnessing Adrian's marvellous free kick, the team went back to complete the dribbling drill and the other drills Noelle was keen on making sure they completed that day.
It took a while, but she was able to make sure that everyone fully participated in the training although it wasn't that long.
As soon as the training session was completed, the pitch was soon filled with students from various classes some of them running aimlessly, others playing around with the balls on the pitch.
Most of the players who participated in the training session were tired after everything so they retired back to the hostel.
Meanwhile, Noelle made her way to her favourite tree, the tree beside the pitch.
That seemed to be her favourite walking place as she was currently sitting under the tree, noting down her findings from the just concluded training session on her tablet.
She was busy doing that when she suddenly felt the presence of someone standing in front of her, his silhouette overlapping with that of the tree, which was already covering her.
She slowly looked up to find Adrian Nero standing there holding a red umbrella.
"What do you want?" She asked before her gaze shifted to the umbrella he was holding. "That umbrella…."
"Nothing." He interjected before sitting down beside her. "I just wanted to see what you're doing. You seem to be glued to that tablet most of the time."
"Just noting my observations from the training session." She responded, her gaze returning to the tablet.
"Observations?"
"Yes, I have to have a clear understanding of how they play to know which positions they can and cannot play." She elaborated.
"Oh." Adrian nodded before reaching for her tablet. "Can I have a look?"
"Sure." She said, handing him the tablet.
Taking the tablet, Adrian could see that the profile she currently had open was Leo's.
Leo Metes
Age: 16
Strong foot: Left but can use right just as well.
Suitable positions: Right back, left back, central midfield.
Strength: Great pace, decent long passes.
"Pretty good." He commented after going through everything. "However…."
"However, what?" Noelle asked.
"When you're recording their information do you only record their strengths and forget their weaknesses?" He asked, leaning closer to her.
"I know their weaknesses, I just don't note them down." She uttered, moving back a little.
"Is there any reason for that?"
"No." She shook her head.
'Then why?!' He screamed inwardly.
He took a deep breath afterwards before turning to the tablet.
"You say you know their weaknesses, right?"
"Yes." She nodded.
"All right, then let me write what I think are Leo's weaknesses and see if they align with yours."
He didn't even wait for her to say anything before he began typing with the tablet.
Watching him type, Noelle couldn't help but smile even though it was her usual subtle smile.
'It's the first time I've seen someone show this much interest in this.'
After just about two minutes, Adrian was done typing and quickly turned to her.
"Let's hear it." She said,
Responding with a nod, he shifted his gaze back to the tablet.
"Surprisingly, he has more weaknesses than strengths. Firstly, Leo is what I would call a pace merchant." He began.
"Pace merchant?"
"Yeah, that's a term for someone who has the speed but doesn't really know how to apply it in playing football. Alongside his brother, he is arguably the fastest player in the team, but that's just a quick burst of speed with very little stamina. Haven't you noticed that he tends to crash down on the floor after running a short distance? It happened a lot during the training session."
"Ooh," Noelle muttered as she nodded.
She seemed to be quite beguiled listening to everything Adrian just said.
"Secondly, there's his ball-handling ability. His first touch and ball control, especially when he's under the tiniest of pressure, is terrible. I thought it was just an occasional mistake when I passed the ball to him, but even after exchanging a series of passes with him, there was no improvement."
Listening to all that, Noelle soon found herself staring deeply at him, her mouth slightly agape.
"Thirdly, there's his defensive work rate. He doesn't know how to properly execute a tackle, fouling the opponent most of the time and his low physicality makes it difficult to win duels as it's easy for him to get pushed off.
"The final point is something you mentioned as part of his strength."
"Huh?" Noelle responded, calling herself back from the daze in which she was stuck in for a while.
"You said he could execute decent long passes but that's really not the case. He can only do that when he has more than enough space with no sort of pressure whatsoever, otherwise, he ends up messing up the pass."
That was everything he had observed from Leo and he wrote everything down with the same extensive explanation he offered orally.
Noelle was left stunned and quite deeply impressed, as could be seen from her eyes, which had a little bit of spark in them now.
"You observed all of that from just one training session?" She asked, her gaze fixated on him.
"Yeah. Wasn't that the purpose of the team of six practice match?" He retorted.
'He might actually be better at this than I am.' Noelle thought. 'Too bad he's also a good player so he can't coach the team. No, wait, him being a good player is also a good thing.'
Everything Adrian just pointed out, except the last point, were things Noelle had already noticed,d, but she had never thought of them as extensively and deeply as Adrian did.
"To be honest, I don't think the twins are good picks for fullbacks, it won't take any good winger anything to easily exploit their weaknesses because everything that applies to Leo just about applies to Nino." Adrian articulated.
"Yes, but it's not like we have a choice if we replace them with someone in another position, like someone in midfield, the midfield will only end up weakened." Noelle retorted.
That response left him not knowing what to say for a while. However, he still did come up with something.
"Well, despite their weaknesses, they still have the potential to become good players, you just need to focus their training in the direction of making those weaknesses as little as possible. There's also that other first year."
"You Mean Mendes?"
"Yes." He nodded. "His ball control is good, his passing is quick, fast and always executed properly, and he knows how to get away from two or three players without relying on speed. I can understand why you have midfield as his suitable position, but he can also work well as a more defensive fullback."
"Hmmm. I suppose that might work, I'll give it some thought." She uttered.
Adrian's response to that was a smile before his gaze shifted back to the tablet.
"Now, where's my profile?" He said just before swiping left on the tablet.
He had to swipe a couple of times before finding his profile.
Adrian Nero.
Age:?
Just after glancing through that part, Adrian slowly turned to her.
"Just like most of you, I'm sixteen. Will be seventeen by February next year."
"Oh." She muttered.
Strong foot: left foot.
Suitable positions: Central Attacking Midfield, Central Midfield, Right Wing, Center forward.
"Wow, you have me signed up for so many different positions at once."
"That's my assessment after watching you play. I believe you'll be able to fare decently in all of the positions listed."
"You have good eyes." Adrian smiled before turning back to the tablet to see the last bit of his information.
Strengths: Impressive ball control, wonderful shot precision and power, fast with the ball, high-level dribbling ability, great stamina.
"That's a lot of strengths." He smiled with his gaze fixated on the screen.
"However, you do have one very noticeable weakness." Noelle disclosed.
Getting that response, Adrian quickly turned to her.
"I'm listening."
*****
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