I split them into a shape and let them play.
The block first. Always the block. It is the floor everything else stands on, and it was the one thing they already had, so I did not teach it, I sharpened it. El Ahmadi sat in front of the back four exactly where he was meant to, the hinge, the bolt I had told myself in a hotel room not to touch.
KARIM EL AHMADI · Defensive midfield · Age 33Current Ability 140Positioning 16 · Anticipation 16 · Teamwork 17 · Concentration 16
You do not notice El Ahmadi until you take him off the pitch and the whole thing falls into the hole where he was. He did nothing spectacular for forty minutes and he was the most important man on the grass, screening, shuffling the line two yards left, two yards right, a conductor who never plays a note.
And while I drilled the block, the thing behind my eyes did what it does, and the players started to notice.
