Chapter 265 Matchday Five: Tactics And Formation

"I'm home," Dave said before he pushed the door open and turned on the light in the area.

Emma wasn't in the living room or anywhere else in the area which meant that she was upstairs.

"Hey, babe!" He called before he slowly closed the door and began to make his way toward the staircase.

"Oh, you're back already."

He slowly looked up to see her looking down at him from the top of the staircase and before he could say anything, she quickly made her way downstairs to greet him.

"Welcome." She said after getting close enough to him.

"How are you?" Dave said before slowly placing his hand on her forehead.

"Today was quite hectic but I'm fine now." She replied. "It's a good thing that I got a day off today."

"Yeah."

"So, how was the training session today?" She asked before helping him take off his backpack.

"It was nice, I expected it to be a bit long but it was okay." He replied.

"Well, that's funny." She said before she began to move up the staircase with his backpack.

"What do you mean?" Dave asked as he followed her from behind.

"You used to whine about how long the normal two hours training session was but look at you now, you're complaining about how short a training session of about an hour is." She expressed.

"People change, Emma." He said.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying, you've changed a lot in the way you look at your career and it has been reflecting on the pitch since then, I'm glad you're starting to find the best version of yourself on the pitch." She said before turning to him with a warm smile on her face.

The two made their way upstairs and to their room as Emma quickly made her way to the bed and dropped the bag before she opened it and began to bring out all the stuff inside.

"What did you even do with these socks?" She asked before dropping the pair of orange socks which were a bit muddy and wet.

"What did you expect? It only stopped raining a few minutes ago." The goalkeeper said before moving closer to her.

"Yeah, I guess it's not exactly your fault." She said before letting out a sigh. "You're going to need them for tomorrow's match, right?"

"Yeah, but don't worry I have another pair." He said.

"I know but that doesn't mean these ones aren't going to get cleaned." She said before she began to pull out the other things in the bag.

Dave watched from behind for a few seconds before he quickly stepped closer to her and wrapped his hands around her waist.

"Hey." She said as she suddenly stopped what she was doing.

He didn't wait for her to say anything else before he began to nibble down on her neck to constantly send that feeling of pleasure from that point to all her nerves.

She slowly closed her eyes and allowed him to nibble down on his neck for a little while before she quickly turned to face him.

She tried to say something but was quickly silenced as he pressed his lips against her's sucking those words right out of her mouth.

She responded passionately to the kiss as she slowly fell to the bed.

She was about to fall deep into the stream of pleasure when she caught hold of herself and slowly pushed him back so that she could sit up on the bed.

"Um...." She said before swallowing hard and taking a deep breath. "I have dinner to make and some cleaning to do."

"Yeah, you can't do that later or we can just order something to eat tonight," Dave said before leaning closer to her again but she slowly pushed him back.

"No, I have to take care of this now." She leaned closer and kissed him before she got up from the bed, picked the socks up from the floor, and threw them into the laundry basket before she began to make her way toward the exit. "I'll be downstairs if you need me." She said before exiting the room.

The goalkeeper kept his gaze on the door for a while before he let out a deep sigh and crashed on the bed.

<Sorry>

'Don't tell me that, Catherine.'

<Okay, I won't> She said.

_______ _______

Matchday five was finally here and now all the Unique FC players were in the locker room waiting for Norman to start filling them in on the formation, tactics, and the players who were going to be starting.

"For this match, we're going to be using the four-four-two formation, this match is going to depend a lot on our midfield canceling out their midfield and limiting their chance-creating capabilities." Norman expressed. "I analyzed their match against Tereville United and discovered that their main source of strength in that match was their midfield, they don't build up slowly like we do with our passes, they go directly from midfield to attack and how do they do that?"

"Long balls," Merino said.

"Exactly that's why I need an extra midfielder in this match, a free-roaming midfield, who can trap back, and leave his position to stop an incoming attack while the person in the middle moves into his position temporarily to cover for him."

"A free-roaming midfielder, huh," Minino said.

"That's going to be your job in this match, Minino," Norman said.

"Me?"

"Yeah, I would love to give you guys all the details now but first I'm going to pick the starting eleven for this match." The coach said. "Dave will be in between the sticks as always, in defense we will have Luis Roberto on the right, Pirlo and Adolf as center backs and Jonas will be starting on the left."

'He's starting Jonas.'

<It's fair given that your opponents aren't that strong of a team>

'Yeah, but anything could happen.'

"In midfield, I am going to have three attacking midfielders to back up the forwards and subdue their midfield, those attacking midfield positions will be occupied by Frankie, Ferran, and Minino, and in defensive midfield, we will have Martinez."

"Finally, I am starting in a match," Frankie muttered with an elated voice.

"Our attack will be led by Mateo and Merino."

"You're going to start two wingers in striking positions?" Fred said.

"Mateo played as a striker a couple of times back at the academy and in Unique FC B, he's also shown that he has what it takes to start in that position whenever I use a formation that doesn't require wing forwards," Norman explained.

"I know, coach but you should have at least started a striker alongside, you have three strikers in your squad and you're just going to start two wingers in that position," Fred said, he was already annoyed but he was doing well to keep his cool.

"Don't worry, Fred, I know what I am doing," Norman said but the striker just pouted silently before turning away from him, this was the second match of the season and he wasn't part of the starting eleven.

Norman didn't even look at him a second time before turning back to the rest of the team.

"Now, the tactics we're going to use in the match."

****

Mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.

Mass release for goals met last month will still be rewarded on the due dates.