Chapter 183: Can a madman also be weak sometimes?
With one man less, playing away from home, and changing to three central defenders, Roma was completely besieged.
AC Milan has no intention of holding back. As the main rival of the teams currently at the top of the standings, they are now trying to take advantage of the situation. Not only do they want to make good use of the win-loss record and goal difference, but they also want to beat Roma so hard that they cannot recover and preferably fall out of the top four.
To this end, Pioli made three substitutions, replacing Florenzi with young player Conte, Krunic with Bakayoko, and Diaz with Paolo Maldini's son Daniel Maldini.
So they began to bombard the penalty area, repeatedly using crosses to test Roma's defensive will.
In the 83rd minute, Theo and Tonali made a wall pass. Theo received the ball on the left side of the penalty area and passed it directly to Leo who was on the left bottom. Leo received the ball and broke into the penalty area but was blocked by Celik. He passed the ball back to Theo, who kicked the ball directly to the middle. Bakayoko headed the ball and Patricio saved the ball with one hand and it went out of the baseline!
AC Milan corner kick.
Tonali took a corner kick from the left side, and Ibrahimovic jumped up and headed the ball just in front of the penalty spot. Chen Xiaoliang deliberately stayed beside him, but when Ibrahimovic jumped, an obvious downward movement of his hand pressed Chen Xiaoliang firmly to the ground, and the referee turned a blind eye.
Fortunately, the ball was slightly higher than the crossbar and did not pose a threat to the goal.
Patricio quickly reached out to the ball boy for the ball, but this is Milan, this is San Siro, how could the home team's ball boy actively cooperate with the visiting team's quick counterattack?
The caddy threw the ball slowly, intentionally using less force, and the ball fell to the ground halfway between him and Patricio.
Patricio quickly ran over and picked up the ball, but when he turned around to pass the ball, AC Milan's players had already redeployed their formation and left no room for Roma to counterattack.
Patricio was helpless. Facing the high pressure from AC Milan's forward line, he had to kick the ball towards the midfield.
Pellegrini lost to Bakayoko in the header due to his obvious disadvantage, and the French midfielder passed the ball to Theo, which meant that AC Milan was about to launch another offensive.
While listening to Mourinho's urging, Karsdorp stayed close to Theo. He had just come on the field and had a clear advantage in physical strength.
But Theo was not stupid enough to actively run and compete with Karsdorp. He kept moving towards the middle through short passes, and then repeatedly left and entered Karsdorp's defense zone with and without the ball to disrupt his normal defensive rhythm.
It is impossible for a right wingback to follow the opponent's left back all the way to the middle of the field, nor is it possible for him to ignore the player coming from the middle because he is marking other people.
Obviously, Pioli has studied Karsdorp's characteristics very clearly, that he is prone to lose sight of one thing while defending, but is not weak in speed and physique.
Bakayoko received the ball from Theo and passed it to Messias on the right. Messias was facing Binya who had just come on the field. The Brazilian shook a few times and found that the Uruguayan in front of him had no messy steps, so he simply kicked the ball into the penalty area.
Ibrahimovic moved towards the ball again, with Kumbulla following closely behind him, and Chen Xiaoliang waiting for his opportunity.
Just as the ball was about to fall, Ibrahimovic was about to jump, but Kumbulla secretly pulled him and prevented him from jumping up immediately.
Chen Xiaoliang sprinted behind him and jumped high in advance to meet the ball, and the jumping Ibrahimovic just hit Chen Xiaoliang.
Before losing his balance, Chen Xiaoliang headed the ball back to Binya on the left. Binya kicked the ball forward to find Cesco, but Kalulu positioned himself in advance and Gabia knocked the ball out of the sideline. This pass was not successful.
[Superstar Mission: Win 5 aerial duels with Zlatan Ibrahimovic]
[Task progress: 2/5]
Ibrahimovic suffered a loss and when he saw Chen Xiaoliang fall to the ground, he took out his anger on Kumbulla and turned around and pushed him away.
Kumbulla was an honest man. He grinned a few words but did not fight back against Ibrahimovic. Instead, Ibanez and Matic beside him surrounded him.
However, the former came to get back his face, while the latter, who had been a teammate of Ibrahimovic for a short time at Manchester United, came to mediate.
The Serbian veteran was much calmer than these young men. He knew that what Roma lacked most at the moment was time, and what they feared most was being short of people. If they caused a conflict now, they would only put themselves in a more disadvantageous position.
The conflict was quickly calmed down. Karsdorp threw the ball from the sideline. Chen Xiaoliang came to the right to receive the ball and passed it directly to Sesco. Sesco was double-teamed by Gabia, Kalulu and Theo, but he passed the ball back to Pellegrini behind him.
Pellegrini took advantage of the fact that Tonali and Bakayoko were not close to him and took a long volley shot. The ball flew high into the stands and did not pose any threat to the goal guarded by Maignan.
After missing a fleeting shooting opportunity, Roma was suppressed in the half again.
In the 86th minute, Leao received the ball and broke into the penalty area and passed it in front of the goal. Maldini and Ibrahimovic were just a hair's breadth away from the ball. Messias on the right received the ball and passed it again. Bakayoko's header was blocked by Patricio. Ibrahimovic got up from the ground and wanted to go for the second penalty. Chen Xiaoliang once again predicted in advance, jumped early, and headed the ball out of the baseline before Ibrahimovic!
[Superstar Mission: Win 5 aerial duels with Zlatan Ibrahimovic]
[Task progress: 3/5]
Ibrahimovic was wondering, what's wrong with this kid? Is he targeting me today?
This was a solution Chen Xiaoliang came up with when he had no other options.
If it is a purely one-on-one header duel, with his height of 183cm, weight of 73kg, plus a jump of 15 and a strength of 15, he can only have a 30% chance of winning against Ibrahimovic, who is 195cm tall, 95kg, and has a good level of jumping and strength.
But he is young, and his instantaneous explosive power and flexibility are far superior to Ibrahimovic, who is already 40 years old. Since he cannot win in a head-on fight, he can only take advantage of his opponent's lack of flexibility, create time difference, gain advantage in advance, and strike first.
Time passed by minute by minute. After seeing that Ibrahimovic was being specifically targeted by Chen Xiaoliang, Milan's crosses were no longer focused on him, but they frequently chose inverted triangles and crosses in front of the goal.
For a moment, there was panic in front of Roma's goal, and everyone seemed to be an enemy.
Although he was able to launch a quick counterattack every time he got the ball, after a whole game, Cesco had consumed too much energy in the close combat with Gabia and Kalulu and no longer had the energy to sprint at high speed.
In the end, Mourinho watched helplessly and dissatisfiedly as his team lost 3-2 to the home team AC Milan at San Siro.
In an interview in the player tunnel, Mourinho praised the team's performance and said that the defeat in this game was because "some people forcibly interfered with the progress of the game and did not want Roma to win." The implication was obvious, he pointed all the blame at the referee.
He said both penalties were ridiculous, especially Abraham's handball foul. The rules said it was a handball, but hand hair touching the ball was obviously not within the scope of the foul.
The red card given to Mancini was completely false.
If the progress of the game had not been interfered with, his team would have "dominated the game" long ago.
Finally, he made a harsh statement, saying that he would not attend the post-match press conference and would accept the resulting fine imposed on him by the Serie A Organizing Committee.
When he returned to the locker room, Joao had disappeared. Looking at Mancini's evasive eyes, Mourinho said nothing. He did not say anything until he flew back to Rome the next day.
But this silent silence made the team members feel more depressed and nervous.
Either die in silence or explode in silence.
Obviously Mourinho is not the kind of person who would choose to perish.
But they don’t know that a big part of the reason why Mourinho didn’t speak was that he really felt unprecedented fatigue and powerlessness.
But he couldn't show it, he couldn't accept others seeing his weak side.
The reason for this is very simple - Joao formally submitted his resignation to the club.
The reason is simple. Paris Saint-Germain had already invited him, hoping that he could join the coaching staff of Paris Saint-Germain. This plan includes serving as the team's assistant coach in the event of "possible changes in the head coach" next season.
And the salary offered by Paris Saint-Germain is significantly higher than that of Roma.
But the reason why Joao had refused before was very simple. His contract in Roma has not expired yet. He hopes to be able to "start a business" successfully in Roma with Mourinho and return to the highest platform in European football - the European Champions League.
But since coming to Rome, the Portuguese madman seems to be eager to prove that he is still one of the best coaches in Europe, becoming more and more arbitrary and moody.
This included several times being sent to the stands for his fits and public outbursts, as well as being involved in an endless war of words with Conte.
These may seem very "Mourinho" to the fans, but for an assistant who has followed him for exactly two years, it was obviously surprising to find that these were not tricks that Mourinho deliberately displayed to the outside world, but were truly part of his character.
Before leaving Lille to join Mourinho's team, the careful and serious Joao also learned in detail about the character and personality of this character coach.
Frank, true to his nature, arrogant, proud, loyal, and doing things his own way, these labels have become polarized evaluations of Mourinho in the media.
Obviously Joao chose the former. As many media have written, what he did at Chelsea and Real Madrid were "deliberate". Through these explosive remarks and contradictions, he diverted all the attention to himself, thereby relieving the pressure on the players and keeping them away from the harassment of the spotlight and the unscrupulous media's speculations.
But obviously, after Mourinho got angry at Joao without any scruples in public during this game, Joao no longer had any doubts in his heart.
When an assistant's advice is no longer needed by the head coach, it is naturally time for him to leave.
Since Paris Saint-Germain is willing to directly pay the penalty in Joao's contract, which is so low that it is "negligible" for them, the Roma club has no way to forcibly retain this hardworking assistant coach.
Mourinho did not explain anything to this assistant with whom he had worked for more than two years. He just wished him all the best in the future when he packed his luggage and left the Trigoria base for the last time.
Then the young coach Salvadore Forti, who had just joined the club's coaching staff, was appointed as assistant coach.
The news was also briefly published in the corners of Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport.
Neither of the two parties made any response to what happened and why.
News without content naturally would not attract media attention, so the matter quickly disappeared.
Forti is 33 years old. He was also a striker before retiring. He has played for Sampdoria, Lecce and Venice. He retired due to injury at the age of 27 and then engaged in coaching work.
His previous job was as assistant coach to Torino head coach Giampaolo. After Giampaolo was fired by Torino in January 2021, he also left. Since then, he has been unemployed at home until he was recruited by Mourinho to Roma in October.
Unexpectedly, just two months later, he became the assistant coach of this famous coach.
Obviously Forti is a smart man. Although they have only been together for more than two months, he has figured out Mourinho's temper.
He has also been watching what is happening between Mourinho and Joao.
So as a newly appointed assistant coach, he conscientiously completed all the tasks assigned by Mourinho, carefully prepared every game report, analysis report of the next opponent, and tactical planning, but when he was not supposed to speak or make suggestions, he always kept silent and never said too much.
Even if what Mourinho said was completely contrary to what he thought in his heart, he would carry it out without hesitation.
Just after the team returned to Rome, Pinto and Riise also brought "good" news to Mourinho. Batumi Dynamo striker Kvaratskhelia agreed to join the team. He was very willing to play under Mourinho and come to the top stage of Serie A to show himself.
Dynamo Batumi is also willing to release the player for 10 million euros.
But the player himself put forward a condition. He hoped to have a personal phone call with Mourinho to clearly understand the future head coach's positioning and arrangements for him.
If it were two days ago, Mourinho would not have thought twice and would have rejected the request immediately, and told Pinto to let the Georgian, whose name was so long that he always mispronounced it, wait for three months until he had figured out whether he wanted him and then decided whether to talk to him.
However, Joao's silent departure and the team's defeat due to his failure to follow advice revealed the weakest part of his heart.
Under the strong advice of Pinto and Riise, he carefully watched the technical video and detailed report of Kvaratskhelia edited by the club's transfer team, and finally made a phone call to the other party, promising that he would play as the main offensive position of the left winger in the team and at least get a starting rotation position.
Of course, in addition to the advice of Pinto and Riise, as well as the recommendation of Chen Xiaoliang behind Riise, what prompted him to change was another point, that is, he learned that Napoli was also in close contact with the Georgian striker in secret, hoping to buy him.
This aroused Mourinho's desire to win, especially after he experienced a defeat in an important game and the departure of his confidants, he urgently needed a victory to boost his morale.
No matter what kind of victory it is, even if it is snatching a player from the direct competitor's head coach Spalletti, it is a victory and will make him feel extremely refreshed.
Chen Xiaoliang was also very happy.
He naturally knows better than anyone how much energy Kvaratskhelia can burst out after coming to Serie A half a year later, and how much he can improve Roma's offensive combination tactically.
But what he didn't expect was that his interception not only ruined the business of the Napoli club, but also ruined the people behind the scenes who helped the club run this business.
Those who live in the shadows and rarely show up in the spotlight.
