Fighting Society

Heard you'd be around kiddo

The arrival day at England camp had been brilliant, for both Jessica and Leah. They finished the day with all of the girls heading to the common room, whilst Jess just sat in the quiet room, spending her evening watching the lights. It had been lovely for both of the girls.

~

Jessica was sat the next day, on the benches by the side of the training pitches, watching as the squad were doing some shooting practices, and assisting practices. She had brought her book out with her, but the girls training held her attention instead, as she watched in awe at all of them playing. It had a different dynamic to the Arsenal practice; it was higher pressure but seemed to have more fun withheld in it. Jessica had already watched as Lucy took a throw-in against LJ's back, and Mary had accidentally kicked a ball into Khiara's face, all of the girls smiling their way through it. The young girl had yet to speak to any of the players, except for the Arsenal girls, of course, but had quickly come to realise that each individual was so incredible. Spending most of her time observing, she had noted different facts about each player, learning different things that made them all stand out, especially watching them train today.

"What are you looking at Jessica?"

She quickly threw her head to the side, to note the England manager sat next to her, clearly intrigued to what the girl was so focused in on. Sarina knew Jessica wouldn't verbally reply, but carried on speaking to her, holding a conversation.

"I can't help but notice a lot of your attention was focused in on the forward lines practicing. I'm currently deciding on whether or not the line up for the friendly should be two strikers up front, or 2 wingers and a sole striker."

Growing up in a football mad family meant that the information Sarina was spewing out connected instantly within her brain, understanding the clear debate that she was facing. Jessica couldn't help but note such intricate details for the forward line, each of them distinguishing one player from the next. She tilted her head towards Sarina, almost asking a silent question that somehow, the manager had picked up immediately.

"We're playing Austria, who hold quite a vertical-based possession game, they're a progressive team that build up from the back, they play the ball through each of the thirds."

"Maybe play the wingers and a striker then. But with a high pressing number 10. Surely if you place the pressure on the build up from the back it would mean if they won the ball high up you could quickly press on the counter attack. You could only do that with more numbers up front."

Sarina would be lying if she said she was expecting for the young girl to speak to her so quickly, but even more so if she had said she had expected her to also hold such expansive footballing knowledge. Not wanting her to shut down again, the manager continued pushing on the details.

"They sit in a 4-1-4-1 shape that pushes into 4-5-1 when out of possession. How would you counter that?"

"Would it work if you push the midfield up further? Then have the backline step up, maybe turning the back 4 into a back 3 if you had a CB push into a CDM and the wingers come into play centre back roles?"

"That's incredible, Jessica, absolutely incredible. I'll have to put that past Arjan but, it would be brilliant against Austria, well done young lady."

Jessica could only smile in response, a warm feeling of pride building up in herself as she turned to continue watching the girls train, as Sarina went over to lead another training session, which was quickly caught off task as Millie Bright and Rachel Daly had decided to start singing. It had made her giggle, she knew the two of them held quite an amusing role in camp but they were definitely a double act that was known across the team. She watched as they all began to move off into their separate directions for the variety of different activities, as Meado came racing over to her place on the bench.