Chapter 118 Jiang and I criticized the entire team
Just as Jiang Yuan was about to walk into the player tunnel, Boateng suddenly ran over. The German's 1-meter height almost scared Jiang Yuan.

"Your name is Jiang? Can you speak English? Is my pronunciation correct?"

Jiang Yuan nodded: "Yes, Jerome, is there anything I can help you with?"

Jiang Yuan has not yet gotten over the sadness of losing the game and just wants to return to the locker room as soon as possible. He doesn't know what Boateng wants to do by suddenly stopping him.

Boateng took off his jersey, revealing the white lining inside: "Jiang, can I exchange jerseys with you?"

"Exchange jerseys? With me?"

Jiang Yuan pointed at his head, with an indescribable surprise on his face.

Boateng frowned: "Why? Can't I?"

Jiang Yuan took off his jersey neatly: "No, no, of course!"

Holding Boateng's No. 17 Champions League jersey, Jiang Yuan was a little dazed. After all, this was the first time a player asked him for a jersey, and it was always a wonderful feeling to be recognized by others.

After taking Jiang Yuan's jersey, Boateng folded it up and hung it on his arm: "Jiang, your dribbling is great. I look forward to playing against you next time."

Boateng patted Jiang Yuan on the shoulder and ran away. His teammates were still waiting for him at the far end to celebrate the victory together.

"Jiang, I told you, you are special"

Quaresma looked at Jiang Yuan with a proud look on his face. As soon as he finished praising Jiang Yuan, Boateng immediately asked for Jiang Yuan's jersey.

"Ricardo, thank you... You know, my dream is to catch up with you one day, but now it seems that I still have a long way to go to realize my dream."

Jiang Yuan had a serious expression, as if he was telling his own thoughts.

……

"I won't say anything more. Let's not talk about the outcome of this game. I feel like you guys weren't playing seriously throughout the game!"

In the locker room, Lopetegui was on fire, pointing at the players sitting on the chairs and cursing. Lopetegui used the word "you" instead of specifically referring to any one player. The meaning was clear: everyone played like shit.

Discussing which player played the worst at this time is like trying to find the smelliest piece of shit in a pile of shit. It is not only a waste of effort, but it may even make you feel disgusted.

At this time, Maicon raised his hand and said: "Sir, I don't think this is an attitude problem. The suspension of Alex and Danilo has a huge impact on us."

"Too big an impact? Remember this: the absence of key players can be an excuse for losing, but it can never be an excuse for you to play passively!"

Lopetegui took a deep breath and continued:
"You, do you think this is fair to the fans who came to watch the game?"

Lopetegui's expression suddenly darkened, and his tone changed from fierce to serious: "Fans paid for air tickets, hotels, and tickets just to watch us play a game. What's the result? You all just walked around the field! I must take a look at the statistics when they come out, because I now suspect that some people have not run as far as the referee."

"Walking, if you like walking, why do you still play professional football? Hurry up and buy a plane ticket and go home!"

As Lopetegui was speaking, he felt that something he said was wrong, so he added: "What I said does not include Jiang."

Unexpectedly, Jiang Yuan would be the first one to be named. When Lopetegui mentioned his name, Jiang Yuan did not react at all. He was still angry!
At this time, Lopetegui, who was originally standing in the middle, suddenly walked up to Indi and said, "What were you and Jiang arguing about in the second half? Tell me!"

Indi turned his head away and said hesitantly: "He thinks I should appear at the left baseline..."

"Yes, you played as a left back in this game. If you didn't defend Thomas, Jiang would have to do the backup. Do you know that if Jiang Yuan hadn't tackled the ball, Thomas would have been able to go straight into our penalty area?"

Lopetegui was deeply impressed by Jiang Yuan's tackle, as it was one of the rare successful defenses by Porto in the entire game.

"..."

Indi remained silent. The cooling-off period after his anger had come. Now thinking back, it was indeed his own fault. There was nothing wrong with Jiang Yuan's scolding, except that his words were indeed a bit harsh.

Thinking of this, before Lopetegui could speak, Indi stood up and walked to Jiang Yuan: "Jiang, I apologize to you"

Jiang Yuan just glanced at Indi and said, "I think you shouldn't apologize to me. You should apologize to the whole team, or... to the fans. It's not me who has to pay the price for your negative attitude, but the whole team and the fans who support us. There is no doubt that our performance today disappointed them."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the locker room turned their eyes to Jiang Yuan. It was hard to imagine that such a speech with a strong sense of collective honor came from a teenager who was not even 18 years old.

Feeling the locker room atmosphere solidify, Quaresma stood up and said: "I think Jiang is right. Our performance today was very bad, so we should apologize, apologize to our fans, apologize to the fans who support us." Quaresma took out his mobile phone and posted a Twitter in front of everyone. The content was: Today's performance was very bad. I admit that I was terrible. I apologize to everyone here and hope to be forgiven by the fans...

Seeing this, Indi also took out his mobile phone from his backpack, and the messages he sent were slightly different from those of Quaresma.

[I'm sorry that we lost to Bayern with a bad score today. I also apologize to everyone for the quarrel between me and my teammates on the court. This is my mistake. I need to adjust my attitude as soon as possible and face the next game. Smile.jpg]

"I'm coming too!"

The first person to speak was Casemiro, followed by Neves, then captain Martinez, Maicon, Herrera... who all apologized to the fans on their respective social media platforms.

Jiang Yuan doesn't have a Twitter account yet, but he just registered one using his Portuguese mobile phone number.

I don’t have any fans, so I’ll just post this symbolically.

"call--"

Lopetegui breathed a sigh of relief, and he was very satisfied with the players' performance of admitting their mistakes.

"I'm going to go outside for an interview, you guys... just do whatever you need to do!"

……

Lopetegui straightened his clothes. The reporters outside had been waiting for a long time.

"Hello, Huren, I'm Bild reporter Backhaus. It's a pity that you lost to Bayern today and stopped in the quarterfinals of this season's Champions League. Do you have anything to say about this?"

Lopetegui turned his head slightly away, he did not look directly at the camera: "Hello, Backhaus, there is no doubt that this is a big defeat. This game is a shame for Porto. We won the first leg with difficulty, but were knocked to the ground by our opponents in the second leg."

Backhouse nodded and continued: "Did the suspension of the team's defenders Danilo and Alex have any impact on the result of the game?"

"I don't want others to think that I blame the failure on the suspension of the main players, but this is the truth. Danilo and Sandro are very important to the team. You can see that our defense was almost penetrated by the opponent throughout the game!"

Lopetegui became more and more excited as he spoke.

"I watched the game and the Porto players started to lack confidence after conceding two goals in the first half..."

Lopetegui interrupted Backhaus directly: "There is no need to talk about lack of confidence. The players' attitude towards the game has a big problem. You can see that all our players are sleepwalking."

"Except Jiang, of course."

Speaking of Jiang Yuan, Backhouse immediately had a new topic: "Coach Hullen, Jiang and Reuben, who came on as substitutes in the second half, were actually in the top three in this game. Do you have anything to say about this? Have you ever thought that your lineup is not suitable? Should Reuben and Jiang start this game?"

What Backhouse said makes sense. Neves' score in this game was 6 points, which exceeded the 5.5 points of Torres who started the game.

Not to mention the left winger position, Jiang Yuan, who came on as a substitute, and captain Martinez, who scored a goal, tied for first place with 6.5 points, while Bilasimi, who started the game, only got 5 points.

In this case, Lopetegui should indeed start Neves and Jiang Yuan.

But as a professional coach, Lopetegui knew this was wrong: "Backhaus, you can't just rely on the ratings to decide who is the starter and who is the substitute. Neves and Jiang are both very good players, but they are too young. If I let them start, they may not even perform as substitutes..."

"Jiang scored a 35-meter long-range goal in the first leg against Bayern. He is in very good form. In this case, didn't you consider putting him in the starting lineup?"

Lopetegui shook his head: "Jiang has been in good shape, so I let him play in the 70th minute today. You have to know that he is only 17 years old and this is the Champions League knockout stage!"

"In addition, I think the reason for our failure is not the players' ability, but our attitude. Our attitude towards the game is too negative."

Lopetegui had a hard time controlling his emotions and found a topic for himself. It was obvious that he was visibly dissatisfied with the players' passive running today.

Backhaus followed up Lopetegui's question and asked: "We all know that the players' attitude in the game is very important. Would you consider reprimanding the players in the locker room?"

Lopetegui shrugged: "Of course, the players should pay the price for their negative attitude. Jiang and I criticized the whole team after the game, and they are reflecting in the locker room."

"Of course, as the head coach I must take responsibility for the team's defeat"

……

(End of this chapter)