On the sidelines of Manchester City's Carrington training ground, Borrell and Robben stood in front of a laptop, reviewing individual training footage over and over again. Their focus was on analyzing and breaking down Robben's right-wing dribbling motion frame by frame.
Felipe Luis and Wayne Bridge were the ones tasked with sparring against him.
This was a specialized training session that Gao Shen had arranged specifically for Robben, designed to help him perfect his ability to cut inside.
Yes, you read that correctly—Robben had not yet fully mastered the art of cutting inside.
Surprising?
Not at all!
This is the norm in football.
Many media outlets and fans love to label players, branding them as "the next so-and-so" or "the successor to so-and-so." While this helps the public quickly familiarize themselves with a player, it often oversimplifies things. For example, when Pastore played under Gao Shen at Napoli, he was dubbed "Kaka II."
But was he really Kaka?
Of course not.
Football, like the real world, is constantly evolving.
Just as no two leaves in the world are exactly the same, no two players are identical on the pitch.
Earlier, during a chat with Robben, Gao Shen had suggested that he should be positioned permanently on the right wing. Unexpectedly, Robben had his own reservations.
Yes, he had doubts about it.
He had always been a traditional Dutch left winger, from Groningen to PSV Eindhoven, then to Chelsea, and later Real Madrid.
Schuster had attempted to move him centrally at Real Madrid and had even played him on the right at times, but never provided a structured system to support the transition.
Robben admitted to Gao Shen that whenever he played on the right, he had an inexplicable feeling that he could do something special—but he just couldn't grasp it. That uncertainty left him uncomfortable.
To put it bluntly, Robben didn't enjoy playing on the right wing.
But Gao Shen was crystal clear and told him firmly, "This is just the darkness before dawn. The right flank is your future!"
Robben countered by mentioning that Johan Cruyff had personally criticized his move to the right, saying he was straying from the Dutch football tradition.
"My left foot is my greatest weapon, but my right foot..."
Robben's concerns were understandable—after all, the concept of inverted wingers had yet to be systematically developed.
At Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo played on the left, right, and through the center. At Barcelona, Messi played on the right and centrally, with many pundits claiming he was at his best as a central attacker.
More importantly, Robben had spent his entire career as a traditional left winger. Cutting inside and shooting wasn't his natural game.
In other words, if he were to play as a right winger full-time, he wouldn't just need to practice cutting inside—he would also have to refine his left-footed shooting ability.
On one side, there was Cruyff's legendary status, the Dutch tradition of wingers, and Robben's years of experience playing on the left.
On the other, there was Gao Shen's persistence, his unwavering belief in Robben's potential and his repeated explanations of the advantages of playing as an inverted winger.
One thing Gao Shen told him was:
"You have to be brave enough to step out of your comfort zone!"
And what exactly was Robben's comfort zone?
From childhood to adulthood, from the Eredivisie to the Premier League and La Liga, he had always relied on his speed and dribbling to dominate the left flank in the way he was most familiar with. That was his go-to approach.
But on the right, that approach no longer worked.
He needed to adjust—his speed, his change of direction, his step frequency, even his ball touches. His entire playing style had to evolve. This was a massive challenge for someone like Robben, who had spent years operating at the highest level in a specific way.
But Gao Shen continued to support and encourage him.
"As you said, if you feel like you can do something, it means your subconscious is telling you this is the right path—it's just not fully clear yet. You need to work hard to figure it out."
Chief team doctor Sala, along with fitness coaches Buenaventura and Pintus, also pointed out that Robben had suffered a broken leg and muscle injuries at Chelsea, and had been plagued by injuries ever since. This was a sign that he needed to adjust his playing style, moving away from relentless high-speed dribbling and instead incorporating more sudden changes of speed and direction, adapting his step frequency and ball control.
This new approach was similar to how Ryan Giggs and Luís Figo played.
Eventually, Robben was convinced by Gao Shen.
Over the past month, with Borrell's assistance, he had been working tirelessly on improving his dribbling and cutting inside from the right wing.
One minute of brilliance on the pitch requires ten years of hard work behind the scenes.
Every cut inside, every moment of magic on the field—it all stemmed from countless hours of sweat, effort, and relentless training behind the scenes.
From the timing of the initial movement, to adjusting stride frequency, stride length, the timing and force of ball touches, the precise moment to cut inside, and the deceptive moves to throw off defenders—every detail mattered.
It all seemed incredibly simple, taking no more than two or three seconds in a game. But to turn this into a true weapon on the pitch, countless factors had to be considered.
More importantly, this entire process couldn't be taught or drilled into someone, it had to be understood and internalized.
Every opponent on the field was different. Even against the same team in the same match, every moment was unique. There was no set formula to copy; everything relied on instinct and experience in real-time situations.
When it came to actually playing football, even if Gao Shen and his entire coaching staff combined their knowledge, they still wouldn't match Robben's talent.
All they could do was provide him with theoretical insights, point him in the right direction, and help him identify problems. But when it came to execution—how to refine his technique, improve his movements, and sharpen his instincts—it was all up to Robben.
That was the true challenge of football.
A simple cross may look identical, but countless players have spent their entire careers practicing and still couldn't replicate Beckham's legendary deliveries.
Ronaldinho could produce moments of brilliance that even the most dedicated professionals wouldn't be able to achieve in ten lifetimes.
The same applied to Robben's cut-ins from the right flank.
And yet, this was the beauty of football.
Because every player was unique.
…
Beyond Robben, another player was undergoing an important transformation—Giroud.
In his previous life, many had questioned why Giroud's goal-scoring efficiency wasn't higher. Why couldn't he become a world-class center forward?
The answer wasn't complicated.
One of the biggest reasons was that, by top-league standards, his shooting speed simply wasn't quick enough.
Football moved fast. Goal-scoring chances came and went in an instant. If a striker's shot execution wasn't quick enough, even a delay of a few tenths of a second could significantly reduce the chances of scoring.
Why was Henry, despite being tall and not having an especially fast shooting motion, able to score so many goals?
Because he had elite acceleration and explosiveness.
Giroud, on the other hand, lacked that explosive power.
Without that burst of speed, he couldn't turn sharply with the ball or drive at defenders head-on—something that strikers like Drogba and Henry could do with ease.
At the same time, he also didn't possess the technical finesse of Ibrahimović.
Without the ability to turn quickly or take on defenders in one-on-one situations, Giroud would never develop into a traditional top-tier center forward.
That meant his strengths and weaknesses were clear. Gao Shen and his coaching staff couldn't expect him to play like Drogba, it simply wasn't in his skill set.
Instead, their focus was on maximizing what he was good at: aerial ability, link-up play, positional awareness, and passing vision.
A good coach never forces players into roles that don't suit them.
That was why Gao Shen's biggest responsibility as a manager wasn't to transform players into someone they weren't, but rather to help them refine a playing style that suited their abilities while benefiting the team.
Any manager who stubbornly insisted on molding players into someone else would only set them up for failure.
Take the Community Shield, for example. Ferguson had asked Valencia to attack space in the same way Ronaldo did, using pure speed to exploit gaps created by his teammates.
In theory, Valencia had the right attributes—he was quick, strong, and athletic.
But in reality, he struggled.
Because he didn't have Ronaldo's awareness.
That kind of instinct couldn't be taught or forced. It had to be naturally understood and developed.
Many people, including Gao Shen himself had criticized Ronaldo for wasting too many chances.
But the truth was, Ronaldo could afford to miss that many chances because he was the only one creating them in the first place.
If any other player tried to do what he did, they wouldn't even make it to that level.
That was the difference.
…
After watching the Community Shield, Gao Shen had a clear realization—Manchester United still hadn't solved their ball progression issue. Their build-up play remained heavily reliant on the center forward dropping deep to connect the midfield and attack.
Interestingly, Ancelotti's Chelsea faced a similar problem.
Many had wondered why Chelsea hadn't looked as dominant in recent years compared to the Mourinho era.
A key factor was that after losing players like Robben and Duff, Chelsea struggled with ball progression.
Expecting players like Lampard, Essien, and Mikel to drive the ball forward was simply unrealistic.
Without natural ball carriers in midfield, the only viable option left was Joe Cole.
Ancelotti's solution was to use a diamond midfield for greater central control, but this still required the center forward—Drogba—to drop back and facilitate attacks. As a result, Drogba's importance in the team had grown significantly.
Manchester City, however, had a more well-rounded approach.
Robinho and Hazard weren't particularly fast, but both were excellent at receiving the ball in advanced areas. Suarez and Robben had outstanding dribbling ability.
In midfield, David Silva wasn't quick, but he excelled at carrying the ball short distances and linking play.
And then there was Rakitic, who added another layer of ball progression.
If all else failed, Giroud could be deployed in the same role as Manchester United and Chelsea's strikers—dropping deep to bring midfielders into play.
Overall, ball progression wasn't an issue for Manchester City.
The real challenge was team chemistry and how well the players could integrate into the system.
Their first league match was against Blackburn Rovers.
Their manager, Sam Allardyce, was a well-respected Premier League coach, one of the pioneers of data-driven football in England, even ahead of Ferguson in some aspects.
Gao Shen had already done extensive preparation for the game. His goal was to make a strong statement in the season opener, setting the tone for what was to come.
However, before that, he had one more crucial task to take care of, one that could influence Manchester City's entire season.
(To be continued.)