Harbinger Of Glory

"Now that most of the goalkeepers are away," Spalletti said, pulling the group’s attention back toward him, "let’s get our show on the way."

After he said that, he turned and found Donnarumma at the edge of the group and put a hand on the goalkeeper’s back.

"You," he said, "are going to be the subject of all the end product today."

Donnarumma smiled at that as Spalletti patted him twice on the back and then pointed toward the far goal.

"Go stand between the posts and look intimidating."

At that, the players, including Donnarumma, broke out into a fit of laughter as the Paris Saint-Germain man began jogging forward.

After that, Spalletti reorganised quickly, mixing the red- and green-bibbed players into two sets, with midfielders and defenders split across them.

After that, he turned to Marco, who was standing idly on the side.

"Let’s find you a job for today," Spalletti said before gesturing towards the sidelines on the far side.

"Marco," Spalletti continued after Marco had looked at where Spalletti had gestured. "You’re keeping offside."

Marco, hearing that, shook his head but accepted it nonetheless as he turned and walked towards the other side of the pitch, grabbing a blue neutral bib for his flag instead.

After that, Spalletti turned his attention to the midfielders first.

"For this session, your job is simple," he said.

"Move the ball quickly and don’t fall in love with it. One touch if you can, two if you have to, then find the striker’s run, but that’s just it.

No longer than that because the longer it stays at your feet, the easier you make life for the defenders and me, as I will take you out after a third touch, and that’s your session for today."

The midfielders gave him a round of nods as his gaze shifted toward the forwards.

"For you, timing is everything. Stay onside for as long as you can. Don’t give the defender a free advantage by wandering off early. Wait for the pass, then attack the space."

Finally, he looked across at the defenders.

"And before any of you complain," he said, already seeing a couple of smiles forming, "yes, there are more of them than there are of you, but that is good for you.

It means you’ll have to communicate, cover for each other and make decisions quickly. If you can deal with being overloaded here, you’ll deal with it in our game that is to come soon.

After making sure that all sides understood their roles, he stepped away from the group, raised the whistle to his lips and glanced once across the pitch.

"Right then. First set. Let’s see it."

While Spalletti went on about his job, Leo found a patch of grass along the touchline and sat down.

If he was going to be on the sidelines for that long, then he might as well make good use of it in studying his teammates even if just a little bit.

Beside him, the other white-bib players, the few remaining reds as well as the second set settled in to watch as the first set got underway.

The green-bib midfielders settled into possession, though the one-touch/ two-touch rule robbed them of the little pauses players instinctively lean on.

Every pass had to leave almost as soon as it arrived, forcing the tempo higher than anyone would’ve naturally chosen, but that caused the players to think more in search of the exact thing Spalletti wanted: the line-breaking passes.

Because, in his words, "it wasn’t something you thought about. You just found it."

As the sequence progressed, Jorginho took the first pass on the half-turn, though he didn’t really touch the ball.

After picking his head up for a pass, his eyes met those of Retegui’s and the connection was instant.

The former Champions League winner stepped into the ball and immediately slipped it toward Retegui’s run between the centre-backs.

But one person who sought to break that connection was Giorgio Scalvini, who, after seeing what was being planned, read it early, stepped across the lane and cushioned the ball away with his chest before Retegui could get there.

In the next second, Spalletti’s whistle cut across the pitch.

He scratched thoughtfully at the side of his head before looking back at the group.

"I was hoping something was going to come from that," he said, and then looked over his shoulder at the second set waiting behind him.

"Switch."

The first set came off, slightly confused, and Spalletti explained the rule he had forgotten to mention, which was that losing the ball meant you came off and waited until the other set in your position did the same.

"Should have said that at the start," he added, without particular apology.

Leo pulled his knees up and watched the second set take over.

That set had Barella, Verratti and Tonali in the midfield, and it was immediately different.

Their movements felt a step sharper, and that was the same with their decisions.

It was the kind of gameplay that the one-touch rule provoked.

It looked simple, like any other person could pick the ball up and just start doing that, but all who stood around knew that it was the players making it look so easy.

While the session went on, Verratti made a diagonal ball and, with one glance, sent the ball into the thick of the second set’s defensive structure.

There, Moise Keane popped out, looking to make himself available while dragging a couple of players with him.

With his ever-changing form, it looked like he might just touch the ball back, and so one of the defenders got in front early, trying to get the ball he expected to come, but that only gave Keane the licence to jump over the ball.

That sudden action caught the defenders in arrears as the ball went past him and then onto the run of Bologna’s Orsolini, who fired the ball looking to get it past Donnarumma, but the keeper, who had somehow rushed out in the split second, got a hand to it, the save producing a round of applause from the watching players.

Spalletti stopped it and switched again, changing the attackers to those of the first set.

This went on for the better part of an hour, the sets cycling through, the play getting sharper with each rotation as the players understood what was being asked of them and started asking it of themselves.

By the end of it, the passing was crisper, and the runs were better timed.

The defensive gains were also massive as the defenders began working considerably harder for their clearances than they had been at the start.

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