Chapter 254: Encountered a crisis before facing Paris Saint-Germain?
After the whole team gathered, they flew to Mourinho's old home, Portugal, to start a flight training camp.
After two days of adaptation, on July 13, Roma welcomed the first warm-up match of summer preparations.
The opponent is English Championship team Sunderland.
This century-old team has won the English top league championship six times, but after being relegated from the Premier League in the 2016-17 season and the Championship the following year, it has been struggling in the English First Division for a long time. Last season, it finally ranked fifth in the English First Division and won the promotion play-offs for the four teams ranked 3-6, and finally "returned" to the English Championship...
As the opponent was weak and it was the first warm-up match of the season, no tickets were sold to the public, but the match was broadcast live online by local Portuguese sports media.
The one and a half month "ball shortage" has already made the fans hungry for football, especially the fans of the Red Country. After experiencing Chen Xiaoliang's "mysterious return" incident, they are eager to see him return to the European arena.
And this game will be held at 18:00 on July 13th, the time in the capital of the Red Country. For the fans of the Red Country, there is simply no better "welcome gift" for the new season.
From returning to Trigoria on June 26th to today, except for the day he flew to Portugal, Chen Xiaoliang has not missed a single day. The "3+1 training mode" of 3 hours of training and 1 hour of extra training for 16 days has allowed him to accumulate 64 training points.
Training value 38→102
He first spent 25 points to increase his shots from 5 to 10, and then spent 60 points to increase his shots from 10 to 13.
Shots 5 → 13
Training value 102 → 17
Although 13's shot is much better than before, it is still far from excellent.
But Chen Xiaoliang was not in a hurry, because Mourinho really fulfilled his "promise". In this warm-up match against Sunderland, the old main players in the team, especially those who started most of the season, basically did not play.
The goalkeeper is newcomer Svilar;
defenders Bigna, youngsters Kramisis, Smalling and Spinazzola;
defensive midfielders Volpato and Enzo;
Wijnaldum, central midfielder;
Zalewski is the left winger, and Zaniolo is the right winger;
Center Abraham.
But even with a lineup of "rotation plus newcomers plus young players", it is enough to defeat the newly promoted team in the Championship and make them lose all their weapons and weapons.
It was 3-0 in the first half alone.
Smalling opened the scoring with a header from a corner kick, then Zarafsky assisted Zaniolo to score a reverse triangle shot, and then Wijnaldum broke into the penalty area and shot to score another goal.
In the second half, Mourinho replaced almost the entire team. In addition to the main players such as Matic, Mancini and Malacia, the third goalkeeper Poll, El Shaarawy who hardly played last season, and several young players from the youth team who went to Portugal for training with the team also took the field.
Even Cesco got a 20-minute "hot foot" opportunity.
Only Chen Xiaoliang and Kvaratskhelia didn't get even a minute.
This inevitably disappointed the fans who were looking forward to Chen Xiaoliang's appearance.
In the end, Abraham scored two more goals with his head and Volpato scored with his foot, and Roma ended the first warm-up match with a 5-0 victory.
Not only did he not play in the friendly match, Mourinho also deliberately reduced Chen Xiaoliang's playing time in the team's confrontations, and even asked him to act as a guest referee in the team's training matches several times...
The reason why he did this was very simple. The report given by the physical trainer and sports science team said that Chen Xiaoliang's muscle fatigue and physical reserves were at the optimal level.
Others start the season to gradually regain their form and reserve physical strength for the first half of the league, so they have to warm up. But Chen Xiaoliang is already ready for the official game, so why would he risk getting injured in a friendly match?
Four days later, the team had its second warm-up match in Portugal against Portuguese Super League team Portimonense.
The game was still held at the training ground, but the time was changed to the afternoon local time, which was 2 a.m. Hong Kong time. In addition, the club released the starting list in advance, so Chen Xiaoliang simply did not appear on the list, which caused the number of viewers to plummet.
Most of the starting lineups in this game were rotated from the previous game, but the formation was still 4-2-3-1.
The goalkeeper is number three goalkeeper Boll;
Defenders Celik, Mancini, Ibanez, Malasia.
defensive midfielders Cristante and Wijnaldum;
Enzo played midfield;
El Shaarawy is the left winger, Pellegrini is the right winger, and Abraham continues to be the center forward.
The players themselves can also see that this is a test of the degree of tacit understanding and coordination between different frontcourt combinations, as well as a focus on examining the role and performance of Wijnaldum and Enzo in the front and back positions of the midfield.
Although Chen Xiaoliang was sitting in the stands without even a jersey on, Mourinho gave him a task.
Let him observe carefully the habits and styles of the two new midfielders and the next partners on the field.
Although the Portuguese Super League team Portimonense has been wandering at the bottom of the league standings for many years, they played this warm-up match with 120 points of fighting spirit and attitude against one of the greatest football coaches in Portugal and the defending champions of Serie A.
Although the quality of Roma's in-team training is also very high, after all, these players have been together day and night, and are very familiar with each other's playing styles and personal habits. Because of this, the psychological pressure and resilience in the confrontation are different from when facing unfamiliar opponents.
Therefore, it is not enough for Chen Xiaoliang to just work with the two new midfielders in training, he must get to know them in actual combat.
Portimonese created considerable difficulties for Roma and even took the initiative on the field with a 55% ball possession rate.
But as Mourinho said, although Wijnaldum and Enzo, who switched positions in this game, still performed very hard, it seemed that compared with the previous game where Wijnaldum was in front and Enzo was in the back, the performance of the two after the switch in this game had declined to varying degrees.
Especially Wijnaldum, although he runs a long distance and is very active in defense, one-on-one defense is not his strong point.
When he is in front, Enzo is the main defender, and he comes over to assist in defense by running and using his body, and can quickly double-team the person with the ball.
When he is at the back, Enzo still needs to come back to defend, and because his ability to steal the ball one-on-one is not very strong, Enzo has to retreat very deep.
In addition, during the transition from offense to defense, Wijnaldum's weakness of being good at advancing but not good at long-distance passing was also exposed because he played as a lagging defensive midfielder.
This is not a problem for Enzo, who likes to pass the ball through, and he can often launch a counterattack with a long-distance pass as soon as he gets the ball, just like Matic.
However, in the attack, Enzo is relatively weaker than Wijnaldum in the central midfielder position.
His ball control, dribbling and physical confrontation abilities when facing defense in the opponent's half are not as good as those of the Dutch midfielder.
So just as Mourinho said, Chen Xiaoliang, who sat in the stands for the entire game, actually gained a lot.
There are no mission rewards for the warm-up matches anyway… the missed playing time can be made up by extra training.
Finally, thanks to Ibanez's quick shot in the penalty area and Pellegrini's offside shot after receiving Enzo's through ball, Roma won two consecutive warm-up matches 2-0.
After two warm-up matches, the successful Wijnaldum did not receive much evaluation from the fans. After all, fans who care about football on weekdays have heard of this Dutch midfielder.
But the two newcomers, Enzo and Kvaratskhelia, received completely different evaluations.
Enzo's comprehensive abilities and tough playing style demonstrated in the two games were well received by the fans.
Many people also specifically @AC Milan Club on the Internet, leaving messages saying that AC Milan will regret it later if they let Kessie go and did not buy Enzo but instead reused Poberga.
But Kwak, who has never had a chance to play, is not treated so well.
Comments such as "parallel imports", "lottery tickets", "too weak to play in Serie A", and "Mourinho found out he's been cheated" came one after another in an endless stream.
Although the young Kva has a stronger heart than his peers, the influence and attention of the Russian Premier League and the Georgian Super League are not at the same level as Serie A, and the number of fan comments and media opinions is also not on the same level.
In addition, because there are no games during the offseason, in order to maintain traffic, the sports media not only track the transfer progress of major teams on a large scale, but also even make up a lot of "news" based on hearsay or even out of thin air.
So, in addition to following Juventus and Torino's preparations in great detail, Turin Sports Daily also gave Roma a treatment that no other Serie A newspaper had - an entire page of "informant" news every day.
The reason why it is called informant news is that except for the results of the warm-up matches, the first sentence of other news is "Our reporter revealed according to sources", or "According to Mourinho's old friend", "Chen Xiaoliang's close friend", or "A former staff member of the Roma club".
The only thing missing is the gay friend of the second nephew of the old man next door who is Totti’s uncle’s aunt.
The main contents of recent reports are:
"Parallel import! Mourinho has abandoned Kvaratskhelia indefinitely!"
"Roma board is furious! Mourinho may be fired for spending money to buy a useless player"
"Why not Chen Xiaoliang? It turns out that Enzo is not a substitute, but the club is preparing to sell Chen Xiaoliang"
"Is the violation of the Financial Fair Play Act a foregone conclusion? Mourinho was forced to sell Chen Xiaoliang, and Roma's prospects for the new season are bleak"
And so on and so forth.
As for the following few articles about finance and Chen Xiaoliang, the proportion of people who believed them was not very high, but the report about Kova was a fake, even many Roma fans liked it.
[Why are they delaying the signing of Dybala and instead buying a winger that even the Russian Premier League doesn't want? ]
[What's the point of winning the best new player award in the Russian Premier League? Can the level of the Russian Premier League be compared with the top five leagues? ]
[The two major problems last season were that no one broke through the frontcourt and the central defenders always made mistakes, but they are still buying midfielders]
[Mourinho is too arrogant, thinking that this lineup is enough to challenge the Champions League]
[Haha, if they meet Real Madrid, Bayern, Manchester City, and Paris Saint-Germain, they will definitely get kicked to pieces]
…
Such negative comments reached a peak after the third warm-up match.
As the last of Portugal's three consecutive games, the team also faced a very strong opponent, Sporting CP, which was the runner-up of the Portuguese Super League last season and also qualified for the Champions League in the new season.
However, I don’t know whether Mourinho didn’t read the negative news or didn’t care after reading it. In any case, after he said at the pre-match press conference that he would send out the “strongest lineup”, he still kept Chen Xiaoliang and Kva on the bench.
goalkeeper Patricio;
The back line: Spinazzola, Smalling, Ibanez, Malacia;
Double defensive midfielders Matic and Cristante;
Left winger Abraham, center midfielder Pellegrini, right winger Zaniolo;
Center Cesco.
To be honest, except for Chen Xiaoliang who did not play, this lineup was indeed composed of key players last season.
But the state displayed by the team, just like the progress of the game, surprised the outside world.
At the Alvalade Stadium, the home stadium of Sporting CP, which can accommodate 50,080 people, and in the presence of more than 30,000 fans, Sporting CP almost achieved a half-court siege of Roma in the first 45 minutes, with shots 10 to 3, shots on target 4 to 0, and ball possession rate 61% to 39%. Roma did not even get a corner kick.
From the data, it can be seen that Roma was not only suppressed, but also failed to make use of its best scoring method, quick counterattack.
The half-time score of 2-0 also confirmed this.
The first goal was conceded when the opponent's forward Marcus dribbled into the penalty area. Smalling was dribbled past and had to reach out to pull him back. As a result, Marcus fell down as if he had been electrocuted. The referee awarded a penalty kick and Sporting CP scored it.
The second goal was due to a missed corner kick defense, which was headed into the goal by the opponent's center back Inacio.
However, Mourinho did not show any emotion in the midfield. He just calmly asked the players to increase their concentration and let the remaining players warm up.
In the second half, Mourinho replaced Abraham with Mancini and changed to a three-center-back formation, letting Zaniolo move up to play as a double center forward with Cesco.
But Mancini's appearance did not improve Roma's inability to effectively pass the ball forward from the center, making it meaningless for Zaniolo to pass the ball to the center.
A striker who can't get the ball can't score a goal.
In the 56th minute, Sporting CP scored another goal. Binia, who replaced Spinazzola, was intercepted by the opponent's forward when passing the ball back to the penalty area, and then the ball was passed back to his teammate who scored into the empty goal.
3 to 0.
The players on the field began to become impatient in the subsequent games, and their movements gradually became larger, while the faces of the players who were substituted and sitting on the bench began to be filled with frowns, shaking heads and sighs.
Seeing this, even Fudi couldn't sit still:
"Jose, if this continues, the team's morale will be broken."
Mourinho said expressionlessly: "So what do you say?"
Forti: "Replace Chen, Enzo and the others."
Mourinho: "What game is today?"
Forti was stunned: "A friendly match with Sporting CP."
Mourinho: "According to what you said, you also know that without Chen, Enzo and Wijnaldum, their performance today was very bad?"
"Then let me ask you, in the second half of the season, when we have to participate in the Champions League knockout rounds, the league and the domestic cup in one week, can we play Chen, Cesco and Wijnaldum in every game ?"
"Pinto told me there was not enough money to sign Belotti. That's why I'm using El Shaarawy. When things get tough, he and Zaniolo have to go into the box and play as center forward."
"What else? Let Cesco start 40 games a year?"
"So why are you panicking now? The purpose of the warm-up match is trial and error."
At this point, Mourinho changed the subject: "Let Enzo and Wijnaldum play, but Chen and Kwa must not play."
Forti knew that he could not win the argument with his boss, so he had to do as he was told.
Along with the boos from many fans in the stadium who came specially to see Roma , the coach of Sporting CP also showed great worldly wisdom.
He replaced 5 players at a time, and then 3 players after a while. He almost replaced the entire team, and all the players he replaced were young players.
This also reversed the situation of the game.
In the 77th minute, Roma was under siege. Wijnaldum used his body to hold the opponent's midfielder and forced the ball into the penalty area and passed it to Cesco over a short distance.
Cesco shot from a small angle, and the opponent's defender stretched his legs to block it, but accidentally hit the ball into his own goal.
3-1, Roma pulled one goal back, but after the goal, Cesco was replaced by El Shaarawy.
In the 86th minute, Zaniolo made a cross pass to the front of the penalty area in a counterattack. Pellegrini was a little slow in advancing and his shot after receiving the ball was blocked by the opponent's goalkeeper. Enzo, who followed up, received the ball and made a lob shot, and the ball flew into the empty goal.
3 to 2.
Although Roma launched a frantic counterattack against a group of 20-year-old Portuguese players in the final minutes, they still failed to equalize the score.
After the game, the players returned to the locker room in a depressed mood, and the atmosphere in the room was very solemn.
Since no one is talking, I can only organize things while checking my phone.
Post-match comments:
[It’s okay, the Goose will reverse the score in the post-match press conference]
[Sporting CP coach: To avoid making things look too ugly, I have asked my players to give away two of them. Please forgive me at the press conference.]
[That's it? Still playing in the Champions League? I said before that Roma won the championship last season mainly because Inter Milan and Juventus were in a period of adjustment]
[It feels like the same thing happened at Manchester United is about to happen again in Rome]
[The opponents are all young players. They use Shalawi instead of the Georgian Messi. It seems that there is no need to guess what level this player is.]
[Without Xiaoliang, we can’t even qualify for the European Championship]
[What happened to Xiao Liang? Why was he only given so little time? Did he have a conflict with Psy? ]
…
Seeing these comments, the already depressed players became even more unhappy.
At this time, the outspoken Enzo yelled: "I came here because after seeing the team's performance last season, I thought that everyone is full of fighting spirit and will never admit defeat! But our performance today was really bad! I hope that even if it is a warm-up match, we can take it seriously!"
The players in the team immediately looked at him in surprise, but Pellegrini replied:
"You mean we have no fighting spirit, we perform poorly, and you are the only one who takes it seriously?"
Enzo stood up and said, "I'm talking about us! Of course that includes me! Isn't our performance today bad?"
Seeing Enzo stand up, Pellegrini also stood up and walked towards him: "You want me to tell you? You've only been here for a few days, and you're already lecturing in the locker room?"
Seeing the two men approaching and about to butt heads, he placed two hands on their shoulders.
The two turned around and saw that it was Chen Xiaoliang, and his expression was extremely serious, so serious that it seemed as if he was giving an order.
Pellegrini didn't even look at Enzo, turned around and sat back. Although Enzo was very disdainful of Pellegrini's reaction, he felt the force of Chen Xiaoliang's arm pressing him down, and turned back to his locker.
Forti, who had wanted to come up and persuade them to reconcile, saw Chen Xiaoliang standing next to Enzo, so he walked to Pellegrini.
Chen Xiaoliang looked around at everyone in the locker room and saw that they were also looking at him, and said:
"The coach is in the press conference. Now I will hold an impromptu player meeting for you all."
