For the next period of time, the Dortmund team wholeheartedly focused their efforts in conquering the Dfb Pokal. Coaching staff surgically cut open the game of the next opponent, analysing every possible leverage they can gain on the pitch.
Then they created appropriate tactics and combination plays, forcing every player to strive to adapt. For most of the players, this was the most difficult hurdle they had to overcome, in the following period.
But Marco was different. Due to his deep tactical understanding and learning ability, he adapted to any new routine the coaching staff introduced.
And he was wholeheartedly focusing on something else. To achieve his first perfect skill move. Due to his relentless efforts and training opportunities his cut-in move has already progressed to 9.9/10 for some time. But the last step was like an insurmountable wall, giving a sense of unscalability.
Even after weeks of training the proficiency failed to cross the final threshold. But he was not yet desperate, because he had the best trainer in the world assisting him—silently watching over him from his head—the system.
With the system's advice, he decided to revisit the basics of the move, trying to rebuild from scratch and find deficiencies and fill it along the way. And the venture proved worthwhile.
Even though it was not getting reflected on his panel, he could feel himself getting more and more familiar with the skill. He focused on the grind, focusing on eliminating every tell, every imperfection, every predictable element in his move.
The first task was to eliminate the telegraphing of movement. Hiding the tell signs of his next move till the very last nano second. The focus was primarily on his shoulders, keeping it square as long as possible, without affecting his acceleration burst. This demanded a very high degree of body control—which puts very high demand on natural talent.
Marco wasn't monstrously talented in this field. In fact, his talent could only be said to be good. But as a system user, talent didn't matter much in his eyes. As long as he puts in the effort, the wall of talent is not enough to stop his progress.
After perfecting the shoulder control, next came another crucial aspect—body feint timing.
The feint before the cut needs convincing. Sell it completely, make the defender commit their weight wrong. But this is only the first step. The most crucial thing is to utilise this window of time effectively, dribbling past the player and creating enough space between them.
Too early or too late, both will kill the effectiveness.
But it was clearly impossible to practice this alone. He needed a training partner.
The time now was early morning. The only available player currently was...
"Hey, Matsy, up for a challenge?"
Matt Hummels, who was one of his main companions, had just finished his long pass training when he received the call.
After hearing the details he agreed immediately. Even though both are playing at different positions, one attack and the other at defence, they always competed and considered each other a rival for some reason. And he was not going to miss the chance for a direct duel.
The essence of dribbling is unpredictability. If the opponent could read your next move even before you execute it, the dribbling effectively failed even before it began. If the defender reads you, the only option is force the way with physical attributes.
He didn't have an overwhelming advantage over Hummels. So to keep the suspense Marco either had to go for a cut-in, or down the line for a cross. And Hummels proved to be worthy of being his rival with his ability. Because it was extremely difficult to dribble past him.
He is already elite in reading the flow and anticipating the move. And this is exactly the training environment he wanted. He had to rely on the timing of the fient, so that even if his move got anticipated, it would not be intercepted.
This is extremely difficult. He had to catch on to the small window of time between the defender moving his center of gravity, and then corrected it.
As the training session progressed Marco's timing got better and better, and with the feedback from both Hummels and system, he corrected his movements and eliminated tell signs.
The days passed, and by the end of the week Hummels was struggling to defend against him. It's not that Hummels did not improve, but was outpaced in learning speed by Marco. Even though his 1-on-1 defence got way better than a week ago. So it was a productive endeavour for him also.
The next focus on acceleration angles. The burst speed after the feint needed to be Explosive. It needed to create the crucial half-second window for his next move.
The focus was on acceleration mechanics—optimal foot positioning,weight transfer, explosive first step. This step also gave heavy emphasis on physical training.
Infact Marco had already gone through these basics at the time he started training on the move. And after mastering these he went on to make the move more advanced.
At his current level, the cut-in move ceased to be just the single purpose move used to cut in from the wing and find space in the center to shoot. He could now apply the skill in various situations with great versatility and adaptability.
He didn't follow the path of Arjen Robben, aiming to rule the flank with just one unstoppable move. It was not as potent. But he followed the path of versatility, allowing him to flexibly use it in various situations.
He could now effectively shift his center of gravity and change direction quickly, not allowing the defenders to guess his next move. He could consecutively change the direction of the dribble, that too while maintaining the perfect control on the ball.
He could cut in or out with both feets, from either wings, or even from the midfield.
This was like an entirely different skill. The cut-in move is now becoming the foundation for his personal dribbling style. It just needed the addition of more skill moves and can provide more versatility and more thorough mastery.
A personal dribbling style is closely related to the identity of the player. Consider the most famous dribblers in football—Messi, Neymar, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Hazard, etc.
Even though their dribbling is very high level, each one has a different style. For example, Messi's dribbling style is more efficient and simple. He doesn't use many fancy moves, which is very different from the styles of Ronaldinho or Neymar. Each one has a dribbling style that overflows with their personality and style.
And Marco's dribbling style was just beginning to take shape. It is a wonder what the final outcome will look like after it reaches maturity.