Chapter 21 Guardiola and his friends
When the referee Mendes blew the whistle to end the game, Jose Mourinho in the visiting team's coaching booth looked at the field in disbelief. Looking at the shocking score, he wondered if he was dreaming.
4 to 1!
According to international practice, the home team is in front and the visiting team is behind.
Atletico Madrid, which was deep in the relegation zone, actually defeated Barcelona, which was ranked second in the league, 4-1 at their home stadium. Who would have believed this before the game?
But the Sheet Army did it.
Accompanied by the crisp whistle, the entire Calderon Stadium was filled with the cheers of Atletico Madrid fans.
They were enjoying this big victory that they had been looking forward to for a long time.
When was the last time Atletico Madrid won such a resounding victory?
I'm afraid everyone has forgotten it.
Mourinho also forgot when was the last time Barcelona lost so badly?
Van Gaal still has a stern face. He is not old and does not have many wrinkles, but he always gives people a very cold feeling, making it difficult for people to get close to him.
But only Mourinho, who is familiar with him, knows that Van Gaal is actually a good person.
But now, he is carrying too much pressure.
Especially after tonight's game.
"It's okay, we still have the second round." Mourinho advised with a wry smile.
Van Gaal took a long time to come back to his senses, smiled bitterly and shook his head, "No more."
"there is nothing?"
"There's no second round."
Mourinho really wants to say, is this too pessimistic?
"We can't give up so soon, haven't we? Miracles always happen on the football field. Maybe we can go back and prepare well, and get revenge in the second round at Camp Nou..."
"If we could score a goal in the last 30 minutes, then everything you said would be true, but we couldn't do it."
Van Gaal interrupted Mourinho. He now felt that the assistant coach had no pressure, so many of his ideas and thoughts were different from his own.
Of course, this is normal, he doesn't have to take responsibility.
Perhaps, when he has the opportunity to coach alone in the future, his ideas will be different.
"Jose, there may be many miracles on the football field, but some miracles are destined not to happen. Do you believe that a team can come back from a three-goal deficit in the Champions League final? Do you think there is a player who can score 60 or 70 goals in a season?"
Mourinho was speechless.
Everything Van Gaal said is impossible to achieve.
That's not something a human can do.
But it is not that difficult for Barcelona to reverse Atletico Madrid at home.
This is not the Champions League final, this is the Copa del Rey semi-final.
But he couldn't really argue with that because Van Gaal was the manager.
The Dutchman's frustration came from the fact that the team's morale was broken.
This is what makes him most desperate.
Especially in the final stage of the game, it was obvious that Barcelona players had lost their fighting spirit. Some players on the court were just hoping that the game would end quickly instead of trying to create goals.
Next up are the league and the Champions League...
Being eliminated from the King's Cup may not be a bad thing for Barcelona.
The bad thing is that we were eliminated with such a score and in such a way.
"Remember this kid, Jose, he is definitely not simple!" Van Gaal pointed at Yang Hao in front of the home team's coaching bench and said in a deep voice.
…
The moment the whistle sounded, Yang Hao was excited on the sidelines.
Several players sitting on the bench were also eager to try. As soon as the whistle blew, they all rushed into the field and celebrated this rare victory with the players on the field.
For Atletico Madrid, this victory is like a blessing after a long drought.
They had been feeling frustrated for several months, and finally got such a victory, which allowed them to vent their emotions thoroughly and also greatly relieved the pressure the team was currently under.
Of course, the league's relegation situation is still very serious and there is no room for slackness.
The 48,000 fans in the stadium also gave the team the warmest applause and cheers for its performance tonight.
At Mendiodor's reminder, Yang Hao first walked to the visiting team's coaching bench and shook hands with Van Gaal.
It was obvious that the Dutchman was not in a good mood and didn't say anything to Yang Hao.
Afterwards, he made a point of shaking hands with Mourinho and found that the Portuguese was not much affected.
This is not surprising. He is just an assistant coach. It was Van Gaal who lost the game. What does it have to do with Mourinho?
As he walked back, he hugged his players one by one and welcomed them off the court.
Aguilera then took the players around the stadium to thank all the fans who came to the scene.
This is also a routine of the competition.
The fans coming to the scene create a home advantage for the team, which will make the players on the field more motivated and more motivated.
"You guys did a great job tonight."
Just as Yang Hao was watching the players pass by, a strange voice came from behind him.
He quickly turned around and saw the sweaty Guardiola standing behind him. This sudden attack caught him by surprise and he blurted out: "Guadiola!!"
Fortunately, he spoke Chinese.
Guardiola was also stunned for a moment and didn't understand what Yang Hao was talking about.
"Sorry, my Spanish is not very standard. I mean, Pep." Yang Hao quickly explained.
He's not bald yet. If you call him bald, you'll probably get beaten.
"Hello, nice to meet you." Guardiola looked at Yang Hao with interest and extended his hand.
It can be seen that Guardiola did not become interested in football tactics and concepts until he decided to become a head coach, but he has been thinking about it throughout his career.
This time, he is more concerned about Atletico Madrid's overall quality.
"You played very compactly from front to back, which is different from the current team. Also, your half-space attacks were very active. We could only stop them after Cocu came up. I was the only one who could not stop them."
Guardiola was very frank.
In fact, he didn't need to say much about this, it was clearly seen in the game.
Since there was still the second leg of the game, Yang Hao did not reveal too many details to Guardiola. The two just chatted for a while on the sidelines, but he was very interested in one of Guardiola's words.
"I have a friend who shares similar philosophies to yours. He's also a big fan of the 4-2-3-1 formation. In fact, a Spanish coach's magazine, [Football Training], even credits him with being the first head coach in Spain, and even in Europe, to adopt this formation."
When Yang Hao heard what Guardiola said, a name immediately popped up in his mind.
"You mean Juan Manuel Lillo?"
"Yes, you know Juanma?"
"No, but I've heard of him." Yang Hao said with a smile.
In his previous life, in order to write a novel, he carefully studied Guardiola's biography and consulted a lot of information. Guardiola had a very close relationship with Juanma Lillo. Later, before Guardiola retired, he even went to Mexico to play football for half a year, playing for Juanma Lillo's team.
His goal was to experience Juanma Lillo's tactics and learn his unique training methods.
The earliest entanglement between the two was probably in 1996. Juanma Lillo was able to coach Real Oviedo because of his good performance in leading the newly promoted Salamanca. As a result, he encountered Barcelona in the first game and was defeated 2-4 by Barcelona.
Although it was a crushing defeat, the two teams fought hard in that game. The courage shown by Real Oviedo in attack and the threat they posed to Barcelona in the game were refreshing to Guardiola.
So, after the game, Guardiola went to meet Juanma Lillo .
Many, many years later, after Guardiola became successful, the three coaches who were generally recognized as having the greatest influence on his tactics were Bielsa and Juanma Lillo, with the latter even having an influence over the former.
The last one is of course Cruyff.
But interestingly, Juanma Lillo's coaching career was quite ordinary.
"He is a very thoughtful person," Guardiola praised.
"But whether it was at Salamanca, Real Oviedo or Tenerife, his achievements were always controversial."
During Lillo's coaching career at Real Oviedo, the team was relegated from La Liga. He later came to Tenerife's rescue, helping them avoid relegation in the first season, but the team collapsed again in the second season.
How to say it?
Lillo has coaching ability and his level is quite good, but as a head coach, this alone is far from enough.
"If I were to rate him, I think from a football perspective, as a head coach, he deserves full marks, because he has been coaching since he was 16 years old and is only 34 years old now, so he already has more than a decade of coaching experience."
"But as more than just a head coach, I think he still needs to improve," Guardiola said with a wry smile.
Yang Hao understood what Guardiola meant.
The environments faced by head coaches and assistant coaches are completely different.
In terms of pressure, assistant coaches can't catch up with the head coach even if they try their best. As for the specific work content, it depends on the division of labor.
For example, Ferguson and Queiroz, the former basically delegated all power to Queiroz, even tactical arrangements and preparation plans; and Klinsmann and Löw are the same as the previous pair.
Van Gaal and Mourinho are a little different. The latter is more like a communication channel between the head coach and the players, playing the role of a mouthpiece. All specific tasks are handled by Van Gaal and his team.
"Pep, please leave me your contact information. I'll give me Juanma Lillo's phone number later." Yang Hao said on a whim.
In fact, he wanted to take the opportunity to get Guardiola's personal contact information.
"Okay." Guardiola directly gave out his private mobile phone number.
Juanma Lillo has been unemployed for nearly two years since he was sacked by Tenerife. Due to a poor start to his second season at Tenerife, he was sacked before the winter break.
As a result, no team trusted this young head coach later.
As many people have said, professional football head coaches need a lot of experience and qualifications.
After saying goodbye to Guardiola, Yang Hao felt secretly happy.
Juanma Lillo is indeed an average head coach, but as an assistant, he is truly a talent.
He also clearly remembers that Lillo coached the China League One in 2019, resigned for personal reasons in 2020, and went to Manchester City to be Guardiola's assistant. In the next two seasons, Manchester City won many championships.
Later, this guy went to the Middle East to coach. Before the crucial Champions League battle against Real Madrid, Manchester City and Guardiola specially invited him to work as a temporary worker. As a result, Manchester City really reached the final and won the championship.
It's true that Juanma Lillo can't be credited entirely to this, but at least he played a role.
"I'll ask him later if he is interested in coming to Atletico Madrid." Yang Hao thought to himself.
But now, he has a more important and urgent matter to deal with.
