Chapter 34: Fulham

The injury that Hugo suffered made him have to be in the hospital for approximately 1 month. To cover the shortage of players, Ryan from the reserve team. The reason why George prefers Ryan over Rustan is that Ryan has maintained the quality of his performances in every game. Rustan, who is recovering from an injury, still has to adapt to the intensity of the Premier League 2 competition.

Kazuki welcomed Ryan's arrival to the first team. The basic reason is that his friendship status with Ryan is different from his comrades in the first team. Almost all of Kazuki's teammates in the first team were his seniors, no matter how close Kazuki was friends there would always be a barrier between them, except for Wright-Phillips of course. Just like Wright-Phillips, Kazuki's friendship with Ryan was 1 level higher than Kazuki's friendship with Hugo.

Meanwhile, Kazuki's appearance in each sparring practice was getting more and more conspicuous. The reason is that in sparring practice defenders rarely use dangerous fouls or physical confrontation. Under such conditions, Kazuki could display his best condition by scoring at least 2 goals in every mini-game.

Kazuki's slick appearance in daily practice made George and James agreed to return using Kazuki as a starter in the next match. One of the factors is that Southampton's next opponent is Fulham, who is now in 20th place in the English Premier League. On paper, Southampton's strength is far superior to Fulham. Against a weaker team, Southampton will not use a counter-attack strategy.

The day before the match, the pre-match press conference began. At the press conference, the reporters asked if Kazuki or Osmund would start the next match. George stated that Kazuki would be the starter. Regarding Hugo's injury, George assured Southampton will minimize the impact of losing Hugo.

***

The next day the match between Southampton and Fulham officially started.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 26th round of the 2011/2012 English Premier League. In this match, Southampton will play Fulham at their proud homecourt St Marrys stadium.

In the previous round, Southampton managed to beat West Bromwich Albion with a score of 3-2. With this victory, Southampton was able to equalize points with 17th place in the English Premier League Wigan Athletic. Last night, Wigan suffered a defeat at Old Trafford, if Southampton wins this match they will displace Wigan from 17th position. This is a good opportunity for The Saints to get out of the relegation zone.

Meanwhile, Fulham as the guest has suffered 7 consecutive defeats. They must immediately get rid of this negative trend if they are want to stay in the English Premier League.

Let's take a look at Southampton's formation, coach George made changes to this game. Southampton uses a 4-3-3 formation.

Goalkeeper: Dean Smith

Defenders: Freddy, Hilton, Okhalo, Benson;

Midfielders: Rudolf, Simone, Wright-Phillips

Front: Crage, Kazuki, Denilson

Meanwhile, Fulham also used a 4-3-3 formation.

Goalkeeper: Schwarzer

Defenders: Hughes, Senderos, Hangeland, JA Riise

Midfielders: Dempsey, Murphy, Dembele

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Forwards: Ruiz, Pogrebnyak, Duff

Southampton has a few changes from the previous game. First, they are strengthening the midfield, they use 3 midfielders in the midfield. I believe this was done so they could minimize the impact of losing Hugo.

Second, Kounde didn't start as a starter, he was replaced by Wright-Phillips. I think it's because Kounde performed poorly in the previous few matches. Third, Freddy returned as a starter to replace Vicente. Freddy is better at helping the attack than Vicente, this shows that George wants to play aggressively in this match.

While Fulham is still using the same formation and players, I wonder if Martin Sol thinks he can win this match with the same strategy as before.

Well without waiting too long, let's watch the first half of the game between Southampton and Fulham."

George has explained the strategy he will use in this match yesterday. The players have understood their respective duties. In the offensive strategy, the front-line players must be able to score the first goal as quickly as possible because by scoring the first goal, Fulham must play actively if they do not want to lose.

The burden of scoring this first goal, fell on Kazuki as well as Denilson. Crage's job is more on the traditional winger whose job is to send crosses rather than the modern wing's task of scoring goals. Precisely because of that George included Freddy. Freddy can overlap to help Crage attack on the right flank.

At the start of the game, Southampton had dominated. Fulham was forced to gather in their penalty area while Southampton dominated 2/3 of the pitch. Short passes between the midfield and the front line continued to lure the Fulham players out of the penalty box.

In the 7th minute, Wright-Phillips gave Denilson a straight pass. Denilson received the pass and brought the ball close to the baseline. Fulham right-back Hughes covered space in front of Denilson. However, Denilson managed to trick Hughes with his skills and entered the penalty box. The rest of Fulham's players closed space in front of Denilson so Denilson could only pass the ball to Wright-Phillips.

Wright-Phillips who is in front of the left of the penalty box provides a crossing into the area near the far post. Kazuki ran to escape the offside trap then made a first touch shot. The ball hit the Fulham net without being blocked by goalkeeper Schwarzer.

Kazuki ran to the sidelines and made a knee slide on the grass while folding his arms.

"Amazing! Kazuki managed to score a goal in the 7th minute after receiving a cross from Wright-Phillips. Southampton managed to make the first goal," said James Kaglin enthusiastically.

"Goal! Goal! Southampton Goal!"

"Good job Kazuki!"

"Keep up the good work you all! We support you!"

Southampton fans cheered for Kazuki's goal. Many of them have recognized the Japanese player. They are happy after Gareth Neill they finally have another great young player. This is the Southampton they were like. Even if there were a lot of players leaving, there would always be great players showing up.

Fulham started kick-off after conceding the first goal. Southampton aggressively started the high press quickly after Fulham kick-off. Kazuki also without hesitation rushed forward to put pressure on Fulham's defensive line.

Fulham tried to build an attack but their attack was blocked by Freddy. The Southampton right-back dribbled the ball quickly. Dembele tries to cut Freddy's ball away, but Freddy changes the direction of the ball and passed Dembele. Freddy gave the ball to Crage, then sprinted through the Fulham backline. Crage provides a through ball to Freddy. Apart from the offside trap, Freddy immediately gave a horizontal pass into the middle of the penalty box.

Senderos and Hangeland tried to cover Kazuki's shooting space, but Kazuki tricked them both by pretending to kick the ball, even though he let the ball roll to the left of the penalty box. Down the left, Denilson receives the ball and hits it hard.. Unfortunately, the Fulham goalkeeper made a saves, the ball bouncing over the goal so that the ball was thrown off the field.

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