Chapter 113: Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of different species?
The camera captured that after Callejon, who was replaced by the substitute goalkeeper, left the field, he ran to the Roma bench and greeted Mourinho.
The two had a good past in Real Madrid.
With a one-goal lead and one more man, Roma's attacking attempts became more frequent.
Break through, pass the ball, and return to defense immediately if you can't make the move.
Like a roaming boxer, he is purely trying to win points and does not force to knock down his opponent with one punch.
As for Fiorentina, their defensive resilience did not weaken because of this red card.
They tightened their formation and controlled the ball more patiently. If you had just turned on the live broadcast and didn't know what had happened before, you might even think they were the ones who had the upper hand on the field.
Callejon's departure resulted in Fiorentina losing an attacker and a passing point in front of the defense.
But it also gave Vlahovic more space to run.
I don’t know if it was because head coach Italiano yelled at him just now, but he began to go deeper into the penalty area more frequently, no longer retreating to get the ball and fight with Chen Xiaoliang, but directly challenging the three central defenders.
His partner Gonzalez acted as his wingman, roaming around him to provide assistance.
In the 33rd minute, Fiorentina captain Biraghi advanced to the middle and suddenly accelerated with the ball!
Karsdorp was caught off guard and was completely defeated!
This scene happened right in front of Mourinho, who was standing on the sidelines. He shook his head and shouted to Karsdorp: "Focus! Focus!"
Because it is a three-center-back formation, once the wing-back is lost, the wing will be handed over to others.
Cristante, who was in charge of the right midfield, was also out of reach as he also had to guard the opponent's midfield.
Biraghi ran all the way to the outside of the penalty area, and seeing Mancini was about to leave the penalty area to block him, he kicked the ball directly!
The ball is neither high nor fast!
Pass it past Mancini to Gonzalez!
Smalling is staring at him!
The pass was not good, Gonzalez was facing away from the goal and Smalling did not come forward to put pressure!
However, the Argentine striker was not the terminator of the attack. He faithfully fulfilled the mission of a wingman and headed the ball back, and the ball landed lightly at Vlahovic's feet!
Vlahovic got the ball with his back to the goal! Ibanez was staring at him half a meter behind him!
Midfielders Bonaventura and Pulgar approached the penalty area, and Chen Xiaoliang had to take them into consideration to prevent Vlahovic from passing the ball back to them for long shots.
In just one or two seconds, Vlahovic touched the ball once, which motivated everyone in the half to run!
He just stuck to Ibanez, touched the ball with his left foot, turned half way and shot directly!
The shot was extremely smooth and so fast that Ibanez didn't have time to kick it to intercept!
The ball rolled towards the goal!
Fortunately, Ibanez's body blocked most of the shooting angles, and Patricio stood in position in advance and fell to the ground steadily to save the ball!
[It is rare to see a center forward who can stand in the penalty area and take the ball like this]
[Lukaku sneezed and then gave a thumbs up to the upstairs]
[Vlahovic is really wasting his talent in Florence, he deserves to play for a top club]
[Roma doesn't feel like they have one more player]
[Mourinho plays 11 against 10 and still uses the bus? What a mysterious operation...]
…
Ibanez breathed a sigh of relief. Chen Xiaoliang walked up to him and patted him on the butt. Ibanez was actually a little touched!
When Karsdorp returned to his position, Mourinho reminded him again to always pay attention to the position behind him!
No matter what others speculate, the current situation is not what Mourinho wants!
But it seems that except for the three new players Abraham, Chen Xiaoliang and Patricio, everyone else on the field is in a tense state!
It’s like a young player playing in a professional league for the first time!
It has been a long time since Rome has received such high attention.
The last time they attracted worldwide attention was when Totti retired in July 2017!
After that, Roma gradually became a team without stars and news, and began to get further and further away from the Serie A championship, so far away that there was no possibility of winning the championship at all.
The players on the team have gradually accepted this reality, and some of them have already accepted that they are just an ordinary member of a mediocre team.
The arrival of Mourinho has brought back the topic and attention again! Even more than ever before!
A player like Ibanez never thought that the video of him scoring a header while being pinned down by an opponent in the last game would have comments in various languages. His name would be remembered by fans all over the world - but in a way that made him look ridiculous.
Such attention and public opinion have invisibly put a lot of pressure on the Roma players who are used to ranking fifth or sixth in the league.
Normally, if we lose a game, the local fans would just curse for a day or two and it would be over.
And now, they never imagined that the team would be questioned and ridiculed by the media just because they lost a few pre-season friendly matches.
Every mistake will be magnified, and every goal lost will be replayed repeatedly online.
What's worse, they will be compared with players in the same position that Mourinho has coached before.
What Abraham can never reach Drogba's level, Pellegrini is a far cry from Lampard, and Cristante can at most exchange for one of Essien's legs.
Those fans and media were just short of saying Mourinho’s famous quote:
"Mourinho has reason to say, what team did I coach? I coached Real Madrid! Who are you guys? You asked me to coach them. What is the current level of Roma football? There are only a few players. Ibanez and others are playing as central defenders! Can he play? No, he doesn't have the ability, you know?"
Faced with the situation on the field, João was also a little anxious.
However, it's only been more than 30 minutes, so it's too early to make substitutions.
Mourinho frowned and walked back and forth in the coaching area following the movement of the ball.
He was waiting, waiting for the catfishes he put into the pile of sardines to start stirring them. If that didn't work, he would have to reach in and stir them himself in the second half!
Patricio kicked off and passed the ball to Cristante.
The Italian midfielder dribbled the ball forward and observed, and the opponent's forward Gonzalez came over to press!
To be on the safe side, he could only pass the ball back to Mancini behind him.
Vlahovic moved towards Mancini again!
Under pressure, the Roma vice-captain had to kick the ball forward, but the ball didn't go far and was caught by Fiorentina midfielder Joseph Mahler!
Mahler passes the ball directly to Vlahovic in front!
Vlahovic leaned on Mancini, took the ball off his chest, and with a flick of his right foot, he was ready to turn around and shoot!
Chen Xiaoliang rushed into Cristante's defense area and directly shoveled the ball out of the penalty area!
The fans at the scene exclaimed! After a pause, they breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the referee pointing to the corner spot.
Vlahovic, who was tackled, was a little annoyed. He got up and cursed at Chen Xiaoliang, asking him to be more careful!
Chen Xiaoliang didn't say a word, he just stood up and put his face against Vlahovic's face! He glared at him!
Mancini and Gonzalez quickly stepped forward to pull the two men apart!
Cristante was completely stunned watching from the side!
Previously, the media has been comparing Chen Xiaoliang with those defensive midfielders in the past, especially with Gattuso, who also spent a year at Glasgow Rangers.
Cristante scoffed at this, and the players in his small circle in the locker room were also dismissive, thinking that the boy was just running around and jumping up and down relying on a burst of energy.
However, at this moment, seeing him dare to make a fierce steal in the penalty area, and then when faced with provocation, like a butcher who can kill at any time, too lazy to say a word and go up to eat the opponent alive, he really suspected that what he saw was Gattuso.
The Gattuso who was promoted to the first team in Milan and played together for three years, the one who made you feel shocked when he looked at you with an expressionless face!
After vice-captain Mancini pulled Chen Xiaoliang away, he was also swept by his sharp gaze.
Damn! Why is this red countryman so arrogant! He is obviously a small player transferred from a low-level league like the Scottish Premier League!
Soon, he will understand why, just like Ibanez !
The referee whistles! Biraghi takes a corner kick!
A short flat ball is thrown back!
Fiorentina's 195cm tall main central defender Milenkovic jumped high, headed the ball to a height that ordinary people could not reach, and passed it to the middle!
Vlahovic moves at the front point! He attracts the attention of three defenders!
Bonaventura, who was standing at the penalty spot in the middle, had been waiting for a long time, and he immediately volleyed the ball into the air!
Cristante put his hands behind his back and turned his body to block the ball!
The ball bounced back, and Bonaventura wanted to control the ball and shoot again, but Chen Xiaoliang flashed over from the side! He kicked the ball directly to the front court with a powerful clearance as if he wanted to kill someone!
Bonaventura was so scared that he subconsciously withdrew his hands and feet!
Abraham, who was cruising in the frontcourt, got entangled with the opponent's right back Venuti! He used his physical advantage to press Venuti and caught the ball! Then he knocked his heel and turned around to get rid of Venuti's defense and sprinted forward!
In the penalty area, Chen Xiaoliang did not stop after clearing the ball. He rushed forward immediately after landing! At this time, there were eight defensive players gathered near the penalty area, and only Abraham and Pellegrini, who was slightly behind, were near the midfield line.
By the time others reacted, Chen Xiaoliang had already run into the center circle!
Soon, a three-on-three situation formed in the frontcourt!
Biraghi chased back while keeping his eyes on Pellegrini!
Venuti ran as fast as he could, trying to catch up with Abraham's long legs!
Behind him was Chen Xiaoliang, and behind him was Pulga who reacted the fastest and chased back!
Abraham brought it to the penalty area!
Biraghi had no choice but to give up Pellegrini and rush towards Abraham! Otherwise Abraham would face the goalkeeper alone!
When he was running, he tried his best to take a route that would block the passing opportunity between Abraham and Pellegrini!
Abraham looked up and saw that the angle was too small for shooting! If he passed the ball, it might be intercepted! While he was hesitating whether to pass or shoot, he heard a familiar voice behind him shouting his name!
"Tammy! Tammy!"
This voice is from one of his own! He turned around and sent it back!
Chen Xiaoliang received the ball and immediately pushed it to Pellegrini to the left! Now Biraghi's route blocking was completely meaningless!
The Roma captain received the ball and adjusted his steps! Shoot!
Hit the near corner!
Fiorentina substitute goalkeeper Terraciano tried his best to run from the left post to the right post to save the ball, but it was still too late!
The ball goes in! 2-0!
Chen Xiaoliang and Abraham ran up excitedly and hugged Pellegrini to celebrate!
Pellegrini didn't expect that the one who assisted him was the new player in front of him who seemed to be only able to steal the ball!
Ibanez ran up to celebrate the goal, saying "Fuck!" several times in his mind.
He never thought that Chen Xiaoliang could run so fast at full speed! His awareness of receiving and selecting positions was so good! Compared with him, he didn't even look like a Brazilian player!
Mourinho on the sidelines also clenched his fists and raised his arms to celebrate!
The Olympic Stadium turned into a sea of passion! The fans were shouting the captain Pellegrini's name!
Huang Jianxiang: "At least 80% of the credit for this goal should be attributed to Chen Xiaoliang."
Zhang Lu: "That's right. The defense just now, the corner kick clearance, the run from our own penalty area to the opponent's penalty area, and then the assist, in less than 20 seconds, Chen Xiaoliang went from defense to offense in one go. Of course, Abraham is also very important. Without his turn, breakthrough and dribbling forward, this goal would not have been scored."
Huang Jianxiang: "This goal had a bit of the feeling of Inter Milan's game against Barcelona. The cooperation of these three players was really good. None of them could have been missing from this goal."
Zhang Lu: "Hey, he's not fighting alone."
They both: “Hahahaha!”
In the next ten minutes, Fiorentina, two goals behind and stunned by a quick counterattack, never pressed forward again. Although they had about 55% of the ball possession, they did not create any chances and maintained this score until the end of the first half.
Unexpectedly, Mourinho did not show any joy in the locker room, but instead criticized all the problems shown by the team in the first half one by one.
Chen Xiaoliang thought that if it were Gerrard, he would also emphasize tactics at this time, but he would definitely use a tone of encouragement and praise.
But what Mourinho said is true.
The team ran too little. Not counting the goalkeeper, the average running distance in the first half was only 4,800 meters. At this pace, few players on the team could run more than 10,000 meters throughout the game, which means that the team basically played while standing.
Without running, how can there be defensive pressure?
Without running, where would the offensive opportunities come from?
Not only that, Mourinho pointed to Chen Xiaoliang and Abraham, the top two runners on the data sheet, one at 5,500 meters and the other at 5,200 meters, and still believed that they could run more actively.
Chen Xiaoliang indeed felt that the physical exertion today was not as good as in the second half of the league at Rangers.
Finally, Mourinho warned the players that even if Fiorentina was one man down, they would not give up in the second half. As long as they made mistakes, they would seize them, because sitting in the opponent's coaching bench was a head coach who wanted to win more than anyone else!
He was right. At this moment in the Florence locker room, head coach Italiano was adjusting the tactics for the second half, asking the players to press forward more and encouraging them to find ways to win even in adversity.
The new head coach of Fiorentina led Spezia to Serie A in the 19-20 season and successfully avoided relegation last season.
Because of his performance as a coach, he officially became the head coach of Fiorentina on July 1 this year.
However, like Mourinho, he also faced many doubts when taking office, and the experience of leading the team to relegation was not enough to convince the fans of the Purple Lilies.
He also urgently needs to use good results in the new season to prove that he is the right choice for the team.
This is what football coaching is like, it is a job that is always accompanied by huge pressure.
Mourinho wants to use his determination and tactics to make Roma's players slowly understand that they are no worse than Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan's players, and there is no rule that the championship must be produced between these three clubs! Roma is also qualified to compete for the championship!
And Italiano also wants to use his determination and tactics to let the club and fans understand that even facing a meritorious championship coach, he still has the opportunity to lead the team to victory!
