Chapter 261 Translation Translation, what is the pattern? The first home game of the new season continues with a hot trend!
After the game, Chen Xiaoliang received 5 hours of training value and 2 physical recovery cards.
Training value 9→14
Stamina recovery card 5→7
The start of the league also means that everything has returned to a new cycle, but the team has also added new chemical reactions with new teammates.
Both the coaching staff and the players felt the troubles of happiness that they had never experienced before.
Although the first-team currently has a total of 24 players, the quality of the front-line attacking group has been significantly improved compared to last season.
The addition of Wijnaldum, Enzo and Dybala has not only enriched the options in the midfield and frontcourt, but also made the competition for playing time more intense.
What's more, there is a secret weapon, Kvaratskhelia, who is temporarily hidden by Mourinho. If he is included, the entire midfield and frontcourt will be a mess.
In Mourinho's plan, he has a prepared solution, but he just needs to wait for someone to join the team.
But the actual development was beyond his expectations.
Firstly, after losing Dybala, Juventus, who was determined to revive its dominance in Serie A, contacted Zaniolo through a third-party scout, hoping that the Italian striker would transfer to the team. The transfer fee is expected to be around 30 million euros.
Mourinho's old rival Conte also got involved and formally submitted an application .
The loan fee is 2 million euros, plus a buyout clause of 20 million euros. There is also a restriction that the buyout clause will only be triggered after Tottenham Hotspur qualifies for the Champions League at the end of the season.
Mourinho asked Pinto not to give a direct reply, but Pinto told him that even if he wanted to sell, both prices were lower than the transfer team's expectations.
The funniest thing is that it’s not just Pinto who thinks the price is low.
After learning the news, Inter Milan took the initiative to contact Roma, because Zaniolo was a player bought by Roma from Inter Milan for 4.5 million euros in the summer window of 2018. The transfer agreement at the time came with a clause that Inter Milan would receive 15% of the next transfer amount. Therefore, they, who were in debt crisis, also hoped that Roma could sell it at a higher price so that they could get more.
But Zaniolo has a huge hidden danger, that is, he has suffered serious injuries such as cruciate ligament rupture in both legs. He was injured twice in the past few years and was almost absent for an entire season. At the same time, without super explosive performance, it is difficult for outside teams to be willing to pay a higher transfer fee for him.
Mourinho is inclined to sell. After all, he still has a transfer budget of around 30 million, and there are enough players in the midfield and frontcourt. If Zaniolo is sold, he can save 4 million euros in annual salary and increase the transfer budget by around 30 million. Even if he is not used in the summer window, it is a good idea to make up for the loss in the winter window or even save up to buy a star next season.
But Zaniolo's recent mood still affected the people around him and even alarmed the media.
Every day when the players drive to the Trigoria base for training, there are fans waiting there in advance just to get the opportunity to take photos and get autographs from the players.
Although this is not the players' obligation, everyone knows that these fanatical fans are the breadwinners of a football team, not only because they provide ticket and merchandise sales revenue, but also because the huge traffic brought about by sponsorship, advertising and valuation growth is an important means for the club to achieve profitability and value-added .
Therefore, clubs will ask players to treat fans as well as possible, and players leaving a good personal image will also be beneficial to their personal commercial value.
But Zaniolo was recently photographed by fans. When he met an enthusiastic fan standing by his car outside the base and waving and asking for his autograph, he stepped on the accelerator and shook off the fan.
Although no one was injured, the behavior clearly looked dangerous to the public in the video.
Zaniolo's request is also very simple, either sell himself or increase his salary to 6 million euros a year.
He has good reasons as last season, with limited playing time, he basically played as a winger in three competitions and scored 12 goals and provided 3 assists. However, his annual salary is lower than the 5.5 million euros of center forward Abraham, who scored 17 goals and 5 assists, and even lower than the 5 million euros of El Shaarawy, who has been on the bench for a long time.
But Pinto has rejected Zaniolo's agent on behalf of Mourinho. On the one hand, El Shaarawy's contract was given by the previous team and has nothing to do with Mourinho and Pinto. On the other hand, former captain Pellegrini, who has scored 11 goals and 10 assists, only has an annual salary of 4 million. If Zaniolo's requirements are met, it will inevitably break the salary balance in the locker room and cause other players to follow suit.
Furthermore, since joining the team in 2018, Zaniolo has suffered two serious injuries and one minor injury due to injuries from January 13, 2020 to May 31, 2021. He has rested for a total of 441 days without playing. The club is almost supporting him in vain and has to pay a lot of medical rehabilitation expenses.
The club's performance has finally improved, and Pinto hopes that Zaniolo can fulfill his existing contract for another year to repay the club, and then sit down to discuss contract renewal or transfer when there is only one year left in the contract next summer.
Zaniolo refused, which led to the scene of him treating the fans roughly.
Mourinho did not want to confront the players directly first. He hoped to see if the problem could be solved through the locker room, so he told Chen Xiaoliang about this matter. He also hoped that Chen Xiaoliang would use his control over the locker room to prevent Zaniolo's negative emotions from affecting or even causing adverse reactions in other players.
This is a piece of cake for Chen Xiaoliang. His "right-hand men" in the locker room, Patricio and Matic, are both experienced veterans. Contracts and even attention are what they have taken seriously for a long time.
As for newcomers like Enzo and Dybala, their contracts have just begun to be fulfilled, so naturally they will not be involved in such disputes.
The remaining players all knew their own strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, Chen Xiaoliang had just arrived in his first year and only played for a whole season on a contract worth around 4 million before renewing it without any fuss or quarrel.
As long as you play well, any club will be eager to renew your contract, otherwise checks from other clubs will come immediately to poach you.
Chen Xiaoliang found Zaniolo and took the initiative to take him to sit alone in a corner seat while having lunch in the restaurant.
Zaniolo is a smart man. Although he is arrogant, he is quite obedient when he sees Chen Xiaoliang. He doesn't lose his temper or act sarcastic. He says directly:
"Chen, I'm 23 years old now. The competition in the team is too fierce. Money is part of it, but I want to go to a team where I can play more games."
Chen Xiaoliang nodded, but as a teacher at a 985 university before the time travel, he would not simply follow the other party's thoughts to answer: "You are right, but the competition in Juventus and Tottenham is actually no worse than ours. And to be frank, Juventus may have a better chance, and Tottenham may not be able to win any honors."
Zaniolo did not want to back down: "I don't want to be a substitute, and I don't like the defensive counterattack tactics."
Chen Xiaoliang nodded. He knew that Zaniolo could say such words calmly, which proved that he had made up his mind. "I will communicate with the coach and Pinto. Everyone's reasonable ideas should be respected. Your idea is that the fans who love you are even more so, right?"
Zaniolo nodded.
"Take me as an example. It's not that the club can't sell you, but it needs a negotiation process. I don't know about the past, but at least when you were injured, they still had high hopes for you."
"Besides, I passed you two balls in the last game and Dybala passed you one. If you had scored both goals, then maybe Juventus and Tottenham would have offered a higher price and the deal would have been done."
"Without performance on the court and professionalism off the court, there would be no high offer."
Chen Xiaoliang said a few words with a combination of firmness and softness. No young people like to be lectured, so they just stopped at the right point.
Zaniolo, who has always had a high opinion of himself, has indeed refreshed his three views since meeting Chen Xiaoliang.
I originally thought that I had extraordinary talent, but compared with Chen Xiaoliang's progress, it was nothing at all.
I thought I had excellent physical fitness, but when Chen Xiaoliang just joined the team at the age of 17, he was faster, taller and stronger than me.
I originally thought that my football skills were the best in the team, but after a year, I was still not as good as this young man in terms of goals and assists.
It would be fine if he was just a genius, but he was also extremely hardworking and diligent.
It really proves the saying: I'm not afraid of someone who is better than you, I'm just afraid that someone who is better than you is more hardworking than you.
But what Zaniolo cares about most is the locker room behind Chen Xiaoliang.
If the Italian local faction was somewhat reluctant to accept the new captain after he was chosen as captain by Mourinho in the middle of last season because of his strong strength, his key superb performance against the two Milan giants this season and his final feat of leading the team to win the championship have made everyone completely convinced of the new captain.
Zaniolo knew that if he offended Mourinho, he would at most be benched. He would then give in, and if the game required it, he would be able to get over it.
But if you offend Chen Xiaoliang, it would be equivalent to making an enemy of the entire locker room. You will be isolated by others and no one will pass the ball to you on the field. Even Mourinho may not be able to save you.
Besides, everything Chen Xiaoliang said made sense, and I really had no right to argue.
So this time, he completely gave in.
That afternoon, he showed a good training attitude. When he returned home in the evening, he patiently signed autographs for the fans and even forced a smile for photos.
But why force a smile?
It was not because he was dissatisfied, but because an incident occurred in the afternoon training that caused a great loss of morale for the entire team.
Mourinho asked Gian, who did not participate in the training camp, to train with the first team, even though Mourinho was quite dissatisfied with the young player's professional attitude after becoming famous, and the club was also processing his transfer application recently. The newly promoted team and the opponent of the next round of the league, Cremona, offered 6 million euros to buy him.
But Belotti's inability to join made Mourinho want to observe Gian again.
And this investigation happened to reveal something wrong.
During the team's confrontational training, Gian, who played as a center forward for the substitute team, made a reckless rush and knocked down Wijnaldum, who played as a defensive midfielder for the main team, causing the latter to fall to the ground in pain and call for the team doctor.
Team training is not a formal game, and no one would act out on the ground. The coaching staff knew something bad was going to happen immediately when they saw this scene.
Chief team doctor Manara immediately came on the field to check and the initial assessment was a fracture. He then carefully sent him to the hospital for an X-ray.
The diagnosis was indeed a fracture of the right tibia, which would take at least four months to recover.
This is also a huge blow to Wijnaldum.
Not only does it mean that he will not be able to represent Roma in the entire first half of the season, but he will also definitely miss the Qatar World Cup at the end of the year.
For him, who is about to turn 32, this means he will miss his last chance to represent the Netherlands in the World Cup.
As for the culprit Gian, Mourinho did not blame or lecture him. He just told Pinto that he decided not to keep the young African player in the team. He asked Pinto to confirm the text agreement first, and then sell Gian to the newly promoted team after the next round of the league against Cremona.
Cremona offered Gian 6 million euros, which is a very good offer for a young player who has just started out and has played less than 10 times in total.
The final rental fee for Wijnaldum was half of his salary plus part of the rental fee, which was almost 6 million euros, with a buyout clause of 10 million euros.
Not being able to play for half a season is equivalent to paying 3 million euros in vain.
Gian's unprofessional attitude in his private life and his lack of commitment in training made Mourinho decide to give up on him completely.
At the same time, another tough player in the team, Karsdorp, also received a loan plus buyout clause from Southampton.
Mourinho hopes to loan him out immediately to save the team's expenses and prevent him from affecting the atmosphere of the reserve team.
These 7 days of training gave Chen Xiaoliang another 28 training points.
Training value 14 → 42
He spent 20 points on technique (14→15), and 5 points on penalty kick (9→10).
Training value 42 → 17
The reason for adding a penalty kick is that we also encountered a penalty shootout in the cup competition last season. As the captain and leader, it would not be okay for me to hide behind and not take the penalty at the critical moment, but it would be even worse for me to give up and miss the penalty.
Let's put the throw-in and free kick on hold.
At 18:00 on the afternoon of August 22, Chen Xiaoliang led the team into the Rome Olympic Stadium.
Dozens of red and yellow team flags were flying in the stands, and the local fans of Rome finally welcomed the first home game of the new season.
Slogans such as "Defend the title", "Dominate Serie A", "Mourinho leads us to win the treble!", "Real Madrid, here we come!" and so on were everywhere on the lower stands close to the stadium.
Last season's good performance gave the fans great expectations, and it was obvious that there were many more media coming to report on Roma's games and scouts observing on the spot than last season.
In this game, Mourinho made some adjustments to the starting lineup, allowing some players who did not start in the first round of the league to appear at home, and also relied on the game to get into the game.
The goalkeeper is still Patricio;
The back four from right to left are Viña, Mancini, Smalling, Malacia;
But defensive midfielder Cristante;
The two central midfielders are Chen Xiaoliang and Pellegrini;
Left winger Zaniolo, center forward Abraham, right winger Dybala.
Enzo, Cesco and others are temporarily sitting on the bench.
Although Wijnaldum was in the hospital ward at the time, having just undergone surgery and watching the game on TV, Mourinho was still full of confidence.
He has too many good cards in his hand.
Facing a newly promoted team whose entire club's combined value is only 69.85 million, Director Cristante's single defensive midfielder, whose coverage is only mediocre, plus Chen Xiaoliang's running protection, are enough to cope with the defense in the middle.
Before the game, Roma also held a small ceremony to formally introduce to the fans several new players who had joined the team this season, and let them appear on the sidelines close to the player tunnel.
But what’s interesting is that when Dybala was waving to the fans, there were still some boos amid the overwhelming applause.
There is no way, because Rome is the capital of Italy, and in early June, Dybala just helped Argentina defeat Italy in the European and American Cup.
Moreover, Juventus, where Dybala previously played, is also one of Roma's main rivals besides Lazio, its city rival and number one enemy.
After the game started, the situation fully verified Mourinho's confidence.
The control Roma displayed on the field can no longer be described as overwhelming, it is simply a crushing victory.
With the ball possession rate of 49% compared to 51%, which was 2 percentage points behind the visiting team, the number of shots basically increased in a 5 to 1 manner, and 60% of Roma's shots were completed in the penalty area, while Cremona's were almost all long-range shots.
However, Abraham's old problem has not improved much, as if he was infected by Zaniolo, and they both mentioned happy football.
In the 8th minute, Chen Xiaoliang immediately passed the ball to Dybala who was unguarded on the left. The little magic fairy took the ball to the left side of the penalty area line and sent a wonderful pass to the back post. Abraham rushed over and faced the huge goal. He kicked the ball towards the goalkeeper without kicking it up, down, left or right...
Italian fans have given strikers like Abraham a new name: blunt striker.
It was like a blunt-edged kitchen knife, which made a sharp and cold sound when it cut into the opponent, but it didn't even leave a blood mark.
And he was not alone. In the 18th minute, with the support of Dybala on the left and Chen Xiaoliang on the right, Zaniolo continued to dribble the ball along the middle and was surrounded by four players on the opposite side. The scene was spectacular.
But when the Italian broke into the penalty area line, he neither thought of passing the ball to Dybala who could receive the ball on the left and then cross the ball, nor was he willing to pass the ball to Chen Xiaoliang who could receive the ball on the right and then shoot directly at the goal. He chose to shoot himself.
I don't know what happened, but Zaniolo particularly likes to shoot from the far corner this season. In the last game, both of his shots missed the post. This time he simply chose to shoot from the top corner. As a result, the ball flew over the crossbar and successfully presented a new Serie A football to the fans behind the goal.
Dybala was very unhappy, but he controlled his temper and made a pass gesture to Zaniolo.
During his years at Juventus, he had also seen people who played like this, but that man had five Ballon d'Or trophies and five World Footballer of the Year awards, so the head coach had to arrange tactics according to his habits.
At that time, Dybala often sat on the bench, and he just endured it. After all, it was more or less understandable for him to give way to one of the two greatest players, Cristiano Ronaldo.
What does it mean for Zaniolo to play like this?
Zaniolo was about to make a gesture to fight back when he saw Chen Xiaoliang waving at both of them, signaling them to quickly return to their defensive positions. He then waved his hand and ignored Dybala.
Mourinho on the sidelines was very dissatisfied, but he couldn't lose his temper now. After all, he was in the public eye, and no one wanted the media to discover that the team had internal conflicts at the beginning of the season.
In the 25th minute, Chen Xiaoliang retreated to defend an old rival - Feyenoord's striker Desers, who played in last season's UEFA Europa League final. At that time, he joined Feyenoord on loan from Genk in Belgium for a season, and this season he was bought by Cremona for 6.5 million euros to play in Serie A.
The Nigerian striker, whose skin was not too dark due to his obviously mixed-race, did not back down in the face of Chen Xiaoliang. He was very dissatisfied with the defeat in the Europa Cup final.
With a height of 185 cm and a weight of 77 kg, he accelerated with the ball towards the right front in the middle about 10 meters outside the penalty area, and raised his arms as if he wanted to crush Chen Xiaoliang with his body.
Chen Xiaoliang turned sideways and rushed towards Dessels with his back. While running at high speed, his right shoulder directly hit the opponent's left shoulder. After the collision, Dessels swayed to the right and almost fell.
Obviously, he had never expected that the Red Countryman next to him had such strength, otherwise he might have fallen down and used diving to cheat a foul.
After adjusting his balance, Dessels was ready to regain control of the ball that was rolling forward rapidly, but before his left foot could reach out to touch the ball, Chen Xiaoliang's right foot had already poked out and destroyed the ball.
Poor Dessels, he didn't touch the ball, but his left foot was tripped by Chen Xiaoliang's outstretched leg. He was completely unprepared while running at high speed, and although he subconsciously supported the grass with his hands, he still fell face down.
However, Malaysia caught up with the ball on the wing and Roma had already launched a counterattack. The referee took a look at Desels, who was lying on the ground, speechless and a little dazed, and confirmed that he was okay, then immediately turned and looked at the front court.
Malaysia advanced some distance along the wing, and seeing the opponent's right wingback Gilioni approaching him, he immediately passed the ball to Pellegrini in the middle.
Pellegrini didn't stop the ball, but pushed it directly to the right side of the penalty area, and Abraham received the ball with his back.
Facing a double team, Abra had no chance to turn around and get rid of it, and he passed the ball back to Zaniolo who was running up.
Zaniolo changed direction at the top of the penalty area, dribbled past Cremona midfielder Pique and rushed into the penalty area. Just as he was about to shoot with his left foot, he was tackled hard by the opponent's 33-year-old Romanian central defender Kirikesh.
It was as if the ball was returned in the same way, first hitting the ball and then the leg. Kirikesh's defense was equally neat and tidy.
However, because Zaniolo was facing diagonally towards the goal after dribbling past the opponent, and was preparing to shoot sideways at an angle, unlike Dessertz who was breaking straight forward, Zaniolo lost his balance and his right shoulder hit the ground first.
He fell to the ground and rolled half a circle, covering his right shoulder with his left hand and closing his eyes in pain.
Professional players, as a profession with certain risks, like soldiers and fighters, receive "wrestling" training in youth training from an early age.
The coach will teach everything from how to fall to dissipate the impact, how to fall without getting hurt, to how to move your hands and feet when falling to achieve the most shocking "visual effect" so as to increase the opponent's chances of fouls and getting a card, and even how to "perform" after falling to the ground.
It’s just that some coaches only teach simply to prevent injuries, while some film and television schools teach in depth, and even cultivate textbook scenes like Busquets who, after falling to the ground, does not forget to turn over his hands that are covering his eyes to observe how the audience evaluates his performance.
When Zaniolo fell in a simple and boring way, both sides on the field knew that this guy was really in trouble.
Manara, who had just returned to the club after accompanying Wijnaldum after surgery, rushed into the stadium and asked Zaniolo, who was lying on the ground, not to move. He assessed the injury by stroking and asking questions, and initially estimated that it was between ligament sprain and avulsion fracture.
Although it is not as serious as Wijnaldum's, he definitely cannot play in this game.
Manara took his uninjured arm, helped him stand up, and slowly walked to the sidelines.
Despite some unpleasantness just now, Dybala, together with other players and tens of thousands of fans in the stands, gave Zaniolo blessings and encouraging applause.
Mourinho urgently replaced the Polish young player Zalewski who had no time to warm up.
After the substitution is completed, the game continues.
But to be honest, Roma's attack became smoother after Zaniolo left the field.
The 20-year-old Zalewski was named one of the 50 most anticipated new stars in Europe by the well-known British sports media "442" in the summer, but he does not have as many tricks in his mind as Zaniolo.
Whenever there is an opportunity on the wing, he will move forward, and whenever he gets the ball, he will focus on passing the ball to the three big brothers to create opportunities.
This style of play, which is willing to be a supporting role, is well suited to Chen Xiaoliang and Dybala, who already like to pass the ball and cooperate with each other.
In the 36th minute, Malaysia made a lob pass, Zalewski ran all the way to the bottom and made a triangle pass to Chen Xiaoliang on the penalty area line.
Facing the blockade of central defender Kirikesh and defensive midfielder Ascacibar, Chen Xiaoliang was ready to "shoot", but the result was a repeat of his old trick, with the fake shot actually passing the ball to Dybala who rushed into the right penalty area.
After receiving the ball, the handsome Argentine showed everyone what a textbook shot into the far corner looked like without any defense.
He kicked a beautiful arc ball with his left foot, the arc of the ball just went around the right hand of the Romanian goalkeeper Lada who flew to save the ball, then spun into the goal and hit the inside left side of the net.
Perfect shot! A golden left foot like Messi possessed!
In terms of the delicacy and smoothness of his technique, Dybala is truly the best among the players who have been teammates with Chen Xiaoliang.
In the 37th minute, Roma led 1-0 at home!
He scored in two consecutive games and kept running and connecting the balls on the field, which made the fans of Roma completely accept this Argentine who was once the core of their mortal rival Juventus!
After scoring the goal, Dybala expressed his gratitude to the fans by patting the team badge on his chest.
Then he turned around and hugged Chen Xiaoliang.
The thing a talented attacker hates most is running into an open space but being unable to pass the ball to the midfield.
In a situation where he could have forced a shot just now, he immediately passed the ball to himself who was unguarded, helping him score his second league goal. This made Dybala further realize why this 18-year-old boy was so trusted by Mourinho and the entire team.
Shooting is an exciting thing in itself, and if the ball goes in, it will make the whole audience go crazy with excitement.
It is really not an easy thing for a man to give up the opportunity to ejaculate to others at a critical moment.
Mourinho on the sidelines saw that Chen Xiaoliang and Dybala showed a hot form at the beginning of the season, and they had a great chemistry with each other. He couldn't wait to look forward to the Champions League group stage draw ceremony next week!
