"So what do you think? Is he cleared to play?" Conte asked Nick Stubbings who had co to his office with Jason’s file.
"His physicals check out, 96% leg strength similarity with the uninjured leg, there weren’t any issues with his sprinting or changing directions, he’s recovered well,"
"As for load response, there’s no issue there either, his body’s responding well and there’s seemingly no issue with his achilles tendon,"
"No issues in movent and his MRI says he’s clear," Nick told Conte.
"What about psychologically, psychology issues, erm ntally. ntally, is there any issues?" Conte asked.
"... That part is a bit strange," Nick said, scratching his head.
"Strange how?" Conte asked curious and a bit worried.
"Comparing the current him to before, he’s not running as much at his opponents,"
"It’s not like he’s hesitating to run either. It’s more like he’s choosing to slowdown and then take his opponents on. Like that’s the normal thing but he’s much slower than before,"
"Before he dribbled in a way similar to a young Cristiano. Like ferocious and sharp movents, but now he’s slowed down and dribbles like Neymar instead, like no rush behind his movents,"
"We’re not sure if he’s doing it consciously or not but it’s almost like he developed a whole new dribbling style while injured... Well either that or he could always do that and just chose to begin doing it now,"
"Eh?" Conte was confused, but now that he thought about it, it was true.
The Jason he had faced when he was coaching Inter Milan was always running at people like he was trying to breeze past them and he often did.
His dribble moves were silky but sowhat ferocious so while it had a lot of flair, it made so people say he lacked finesse.
However the Jason he had seen during training sessions was using the sa flair filled movents but they were a bit slower than before.
"Surprisingly enough, it doesn’t seem to have affected his effectiveness. He’s still able to pass his opponents just as easily as before, just that this ti, they can see him better while he does it, yet they still can’t stop it," Nick continued.
"In fact it seems like he’s even harder to defend than before, and he seems to have gotten even more daring, but we can’t tell whether that’s because of the injury or not,"
"I want to say he’s completely ready, but I don’t know whether his attitude would prove to be self destructive or not," he added and went silent.
Initially Conte had wanted to reply with, " it’s only self destructive if they can touch him," but Conte knew that wasn’t true.
Players who dribbled too much usually had an issue of injuries and it wasn’t because they weren’t good enough.
It was usually because they were too good and that always incited their opponents to play dirty, after all who wanted to be embarrassed by their opponents.
Neymar was enough of a clear story, Hazard, Tarabt, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho... The list was endless.
However there was nothing their managers could do about them and Conte found himself in the sa predicant.
"Have you told him about this?" Conte asked but he felt like he knew the answer to his question.
"We did, and he replied positively, but then went back to doing what he was doing. I don’t think we can really stop him from doing what he wants actually and if you even force him to, it would only reduce his effectiveness on the pitch," Nick replied and Conte could almost hear a voice in his head say, "told ya".
"On the bright side, he’s got a good physical quality and shouldn’t get injured too easily from basic tackles,"
"Though he’s a smart kid and when he gets back on the pitch, he may realize that too much dribbling is not worth getting tackled so much,"Nick added.
"Well, there’s nothing more we can do. Clear him. We’ll try to build minutes in the coming gas," Conte sighed and replied.
"... I know it’s not my place as I don’t make your decisions for you, but he’s going to need more than a few minutes. The kid really wants to play and if you don’t give him more minutes on the pitch then only one of two things can happen,"
"He’s either going to keep playing riskier football to try to prove that he deserves more playing ti, or his confidence might collapse and his form would drop massively,"
"Young talents like him need to feel the support of everyone at the club when coming back from injuries like these and that everyone includes the manager," Nick said and stood up to leave the room.
Watching Nick leave his office, Conte sighed as he understood what the guy ant. He had coached a few young players and their ntal states were a lot more fragile than older players, especially after injuries.
If there was a clear space on the team for Jason to fit into, then Jason would instantly be inserted in there, but the current front three were quality players in their own right and were currently at the peak of their form.
Son and Kane were at the peak of their scoring forms in years and while Kane hadn’t really been able to translate that into the team, he had been doing very well at a national level so it was clear that he was still the best fit for the team’s center forward.
Lucas who had seed a bit behind the two had also been putting on very good performances right from the beginning of the season and he had been able to beco a good connection between the midfield and the forwards.
The squad needed depth.
That didn’t need saying, however, none of these four player would readily accept being the "depth" for the others.
Kane was currently on of the best strikers in the world.
Son was the best Asian forward in the world... Scratch that, he was the best Asian player in the world.
Moura didn’t have any of those great titles, but he was solid and had been a servant of the club, proving himself ti and again for the Tottenham side and even though he didn’t score a lot, he wouldn’t easily accept being benched.
Jason on the other hand had just won the Champions League which was the peak of continental football and he had done so actively participating.
He was also one of the hottest youths in the football world right now and had more than enough options if he wanted to leave the club.
Hell, it was even a wonder that he was at Tottenham in the first place.
Right now it was between Jason and Moura.
He as the manager would have to make a decision and he would have to do it quick.
User Comments
0 comments from readers