Chapter 400 Pat Nevin's Paper Talk
Navas' lax defensive attitude annoyed Guardiola a little. The Spanish coach of Manchester City turned on the locker room projection and showed the content on his mobile phone to all the players in the room.

Round 14, 13:30, Dec 3rd.

MCI2:3CHE
"If I don't remind you, you seem to have forgotten this score. In December, we lost to Chelsea at the Etihad. Do you know why we lost then?"

boom!
Guardiola punched the tactical board hard: "Because of the hat trick, because of the damn hat trick!"

Under the suppression of Guardiola's powerful aura, no player in the room dared to speak out, not even Sergio Aguero, the absolute core of the Blue Moon.

Guardiola walked straight to Navas and said, "Believe me, can you please believe me?"

"What do you believe in?" Navas, who was sitting on the chair, raised his head and looked straight at Guardiola. The latter looked at Navas, took a deep breath and said, "Chelsea is only strong on the surface, Chelsea is not as good as us, Chelsea is not our opponent."

After finishing his statement, Guardiola turned and walked towards the middle of the locker room, leaving Navas with an elusive back: "That's all I have to say"

Manchester City's locker room was a bit serious, while Chelsea's locker room could be described as "hot". The resentment accumulated by Terry and Pogba erupted during halftime. If Jiang Yuan and Hazard hadn't reacted quickly and pulled the two men back respectively, the two guys might have really started quarreling.

Now Guardiola really wants to replace Pogba from the starting position so that Fabregas, who has recovered his form, doesn't have to continue playing as a right winger.

However, boss Abramovich has already emphasized it. If Mourinho wants to put the Frenchman on the bench again, it will undoubtedly further strain his relationship with Abramovich, which is something Mourinho does not want to see.

Speaking of Pogba, this guy really gives Mourinho a headache. Ever since Abramovich confirmed his absolute starting position, the Frenchman has become more and more unscrupulous in the team.

Take training for example, Pogba is late for almost 3 times a week, second only to Hazard. But there is one difference between him and Hazard. Hazard is late for at most 5 minutes each time, while Pogba sometimes waits for his teammates to finish warming up before he shows up on the court.

As early as the month before last, Mourinho reported this problem to Abramovich, but the boss's response was: Eden has privileges, so Paul should also have corresponding privileges. If you are willing to give Jiang privileges, I certainly won't object.

Now that Abdul-Jabbar has said this, what else can Mourinho do?
……

At the start of the second half, neither team made any substitutions. Both Guardiola and Mourinho hoped to win the game with their team's strongest lineup.

"Win the game, win the game!"

There were several fans in the stands behind the home team's bench who kept shouting at Mourinho. Chelsea is now in the lead and the Blues fans are very optimistic about the game.

The fans have only one request for Mourinho today, and that is to complete a double kill against Manchester City this season!

Snapped!
Just as the second half began, Manchester City took advantage of the kick-off to launch a quick break. Stones' long pass from the backcourt accurately hit Aguero, who took advantage of the gap when the ball stopped to complete a stop and pass to Kante, and then went directly to the baseline.

"Aguero is already near the baseline, De Bruyne and Sane are both heading towards the middle"

"Aguero, one-on-one with Ake on the left. Although he played in the middle, Aguero's ability to dribble past opponents is really not weak."

"Ake, Ake is pushing back, Aguero pushes the ball, trying to get through the crotch!"

"Ake reacted quickly, twisting his body to block Aguero's through ball, but because he was a little anxious, Ake failed to clear the ball, and the ball was still in Manchester City's control!"

It is not known whether it was intentional or unintentional, but after all these operations by Aguero, not only did he fail to lose the ball, but Ake's center of gravity was also shaken.

Now Ake's left foot is less than 10cm away from his right foot. The human body is very unstable in this situation, so Aguero was very decisive. After finding that Ake had lost his balance, he walked directly to the baseline and made a cross to the back point.

Because of De Bruyne's cut inside, there is no one on the right side of Manchester City...

Wait, it’s not completely empty!

Under the gazes of tens of millions of people in the live broadcast room, Navas, who came in from the back, naturally stopped the ball, observed it, and decisively sent a triangle pass. The ball came to David Silva's feet, who stepped on the ball, adjusted one step, and then sent a straight pass into the penalty area.

Just as Courtois rushed out to clear the ball, Aguero ran out from his right side, swung his leg and shot the ball directly into the net.

"GOOOOOO-AAAAAA-LLLLLLLL!!!"

“Sergio Agüeroooooo—!!!!!”

"The ball went in, from Manchester City's No. 10 Aguero's goal, Manchester City equalized the score again. This is the second time Manchester City has equalized the score in this game. Wow, from the tense game situation, it can be seen that the hard power of the two teams is relatively similar."

Aguero scored his second goal with a powerful shot, and the score was tied at 2:2.

Because it was a through pass, after seeing the ball enter the net, the 18 Chelsea players on and off the field immediately looked towards the edge of the field.

The linesman didn’t raise the flag…

Terry gritted his teeth and tried his best to suppress his emotions. In the end, the old England captain failed and kicked a small piece of grass away: "Damn it!"

"call……"

Jiang Yuan took a long breath and clenched the muscles on his waist with both hands. Hazard did the same thing as him, and both of them looked somewhat helpless.

During the half-time break we agreed to defend the score until the end, but Manchester City equalized the score right at the beginning.

What's this?

"Blue is the colour, football is the..."

Chelsea's team anthem "Blue is the colour" was heard in the home team's stands. Fans passed the song from one to ten, from ten to a hundred, and although it was not very uniform, the sound was indeed very loud.

Seeing their home team suddenly equalized, the diehard fans at the scene must have felt bad. The fans hoped that their favorite team and players would cheer up after hearing the cheers.

Chelsea players did so, but competitive games are not fairy tales after all. Chelsea's increasingly fierce attacks in the second half failed to break through the players defending Caballero.

The same thing happened at Manchester City. Guardiola thought Aguero's two goals were just the beginning, but he didn't expect it to be the end.

Except for the lightning strike at the beginning of the game, neither team scored any goals in the second half!
“Let’s go!”

"Well, the game is over. In the end, neither side was able to score a new goal, and the score of this game is fixed at 2:2."

"Coach Liu, what do you think of this score?"

"First of all, I think Manchester City played the better side overall in this game. Manchester City is different from Chelsea. It's not that any one player played particularly well. All Manchester City players performed very well, from Aguero to De Bruyne to Sane, including Navas who you said had a bad performance in the first half. He immediately got back to form in the second half."

"I think this is the difference between Guardiola and Pellegrini. Guardiola knows how to adjust the players' condition and ensure that every player on the field is in top condition as much as possible."

"Then there's Chelsea. After the 17th and 18th rounds, I felt that Chelsea had a problem, but I couldn't tell what it was. Coach He, do you know that feeling? We are strong in offense and defense, but we can't win every time we play..."

"Hey, that's what I wanted to say!"

He Wei shouted: "The main thing is that I don't know how to solve the problem Chelsea is facing now, but if I were Mourinho, I would replace Pogba at the beginning of the second half and let Fabregas play as the defensive midfielder."

"Pogba is strong, but Mourinho must find a way to solve this attitude problem instead of doing nothing. If Pogba's problem is not solved, Chelsea's performance in the last 7 games of this season will not be much better."

The two CCTV commentators respectively expressed their views on Chelsea's match lineup and tactics, each with his own unique indirection.

However, the fact is that commentators are commentators and the head coach is the head coach, and He Wei has no way of knowing Mourinho's current situation.

After the game, the atmosphere in Chelsea's locker room was a bit awkward.

You should be happy when you win and sad when you lose, but a draw is a little difficult to deal with.

Just like today's draw, Jiang Yuan didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

Jiang Yuan himself felt a little uncomfortable, but Hazard and Pogba were chatting happily, as happy as if they had won the game today.

But if you think about it carefully, it is indeed true. Although the score is 2:2, Jiang Yuan, as a player on the field, can clearly feel the gap between Chelsea and Manchester City.

It is no exaggeration to say that the score of 2:2 actually has a certain element of luck in it!
"Why are you still laughing?"

Ibrahimovic spread his hands towards Hazard and Pogba. Jiang Yuan was right next to Hazard and he could clearly see the frustrated look on the Swede's face: "We should have been the winner, but in the end it was a draw. We can't laugh at this time. We shouldn't have laughed in the first place!"

"Hey Zlatan, what's wrong with you?"

Pogba thought Ibrahimovic was joking, but after a few jokes, Ibrahimovic's expression did not ease, but became even more uncomfortable. Pogba then realized that Ibrahimovic was indeed not feeling well today.

If you think about the situation of the game carefully, under Manchester City's extremely smooth pressing, Chelsea's midfield and backcourt pressure was extremely high, which indirectly led to Ibrahimovic's almost no screen today. Or to put it more simply, Ibrahimovic didn't touch the ball much today.

Running here and there, without even having the last touch of the ball, this feeling only the center forward can feel.

"This is 2:2, not 3:2, nor 4:2, so we shouldn't smile, isn't that the truth?"

Ibrahimovic stood up from his chair. It could be seen that he was a little agitated, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Since joining Chelsea in the winter window of last season, Ibrahimovic has had fewer and fewer opportunities at Chelsea. Originally he had few chances to shoot, and now he doesn't even have a chance to touch the ball. As soon as Hazard got the ball, he reflexively looked for Jiang Yuan. Ibrahimovic and Falcao were both standing at the edge of the penalty area.

“I think what you said makes sense.”

Pogba didn't want to argue with Ibrahimovic, so after saying a few words, he sat back in his seat.

The Frenchman's current target is Mourinho. Ibrahimovic himself is in the neutral camp, so there is no need for Pogba to move Ibrahimovic to the opposite side.

"It's over, the game is over!"

Terry stepped forward in time and gave Ibrahimovic a look. The latter stood there staring at Terry for a full 7 or 8 seconds before leaving.

Mourinho was still giving an interview outside, and Brown in the locker room was overwhelmed by the situation.

Although quarrels in the locker room are common, Chelsea was indeed a bit cruel.

Brown had a feeling that these Chelsea players were not quarreling because of conflicts, but quarreling for the sake of quarreling.

Pogba is not convinced by Mourinho, and Ibrahimovic is not convinced by Terry. This is the problem within the Chelsea team.

Unfortunately, neither of these problems are easy to solve.

After the game, Kanter, as the MVP of the game, walked to the reporters with a smile on his face.

"N'Golo, you had a very good performance today"

"Fuck you!"

Kanter replied with a smile, this guy can't distinguish between "f" and "t". It's not that he can't distinguish them, but Kanter's "f" and "t" are pronounced very similar, which makes him sound the same as "fuck you" every time he says "thank you".

Kante's accent can easily be misunderstood, but fortunately most Premier League reporters and players know that Kante has this characteristic, so when people hear "fuck you", they will automatically translate it into "thank you" in their minds.

Kante is so cute, how could he possibly curse?

"N'Golo, the Premier League official gave you a score of 7.6 for this game, even higher than Aguero who scored 2 goals. From the score, we can see that the fans and newspapers are quite satisfied with your performance in today's game."

The reporter smiled and said: "Not only today's game, but also after joining Chelsea, your value has risen to 5000 million euros. Many Chelsea fans said that you will become the team's fourth billionaire. Do you think this is possible?"

"well..."

Kant licked his thick lips with his tongue, his expression a little anxious.

Kante really wanted to say "yes", but he knew in his heart that his current strength could not support him to say such a thing.

So, Kante gave a more pertinent reply: "I think I still need to improve little by little. Paul has given me a lot of experience. I will learn as much as possible from Paul. The fans said that I will be Chelsea's next billionaire. This is the greatest support for me."

"So do you have anything you want to say to the fans?"

"Of course, I want to say 'fuck you' to the fans who support Chelsea and me."

"Pfft, cough cough..."

Journalism is a profession that requires very high technical skills. Take the reporter brother who is interviewing Kante now for example...it is really difficult for him to hold back his laughter!
……

Chelsea legend: The Blues need to strengthen their defence.

Youtube football blogger: According to relevant information, according to the league's financial fair play rules, Chelsea's transfer budget in this summer window is likely to not exceed 4000 million euros, while the London Blues spent nearly 2 million euros in last season's summer window.

Chelsea's team reporter Nizaar Kinsella: The Blues are interested in Real Madrid striker Morata. Real Madrid's asking price for Morata is no less than 7000 million euros. This deal may not be able to go forward because the amount is too high.

Premier League Table:

1. The Spur, 65 points

2. Liverpool, 61 points 3. Man City, 57 points

4. Chelsea, 56 points

5. Aresenal, 50 points

6. Man United, 48 points

After the 31st round, there is basically no change in the ecology of the Premier League standings. Tottenham, which was originally in first place, defeated Swansea 3:1 and is still in first place. Manchester City and Chelsea, which were originally in third and fourth place, tied. The third place is still in third, and the fourth place is still in fourth.

The most embarrassing team in this ranking is undoubtedly Chelsea. Before the start of the season, they set a goal of winning the league title three times in a row, and even occupied the second and third place in the first half of the league. As a result, with only seven rounds left in the league, the score gap between Chelsea and the first place Tottenham has gradually widened to 7 points.

Pochettino is starting to take action!
After the 31st round, the tension of the entire Chelsea team, from the fans to the players, to the head coach, and finally to the management, reached a climax.

It’s not that being fourth in the Premier League is shameful, it’s mainly because Chelsea and fifth-placed Arsenal are getting closer and closer in the rankings.

If Chelsea is defeated by Arsenal and Manchester United in the end, how can they participate in the Champions League next season?
With this in mind, the Chelsea Fans' Group conducted a poll on Twitter.

5万2千名切尔西球迷参加投票，其中有将近4万人希望球队直接放弃接下来的欧冠1/4决赛，全身心地投入到联赛当中去。

According to the fans' theory, since they are definitely not going to win the Champions League this season, they might as well just give up and focus on the league, and first secure qualification for next season's Champions League.

Mourinho actually wants to do something, but on the one hand, the team needs the Champions League bonus and broadcasting revenue dividends, but on the other hand, Mourinho is still a head coach who values ​​his own face.

The Portuguese cannot accept the decision to simply give up the Champions League.

At the Chelsea management meeting, Mourinho's original words were: Give up this season's Champions League just to qualify for next season's Champions League. Since there is no intention of winning the Champions League, why bother to qualify for the Champions League?
"..."

All 27 management staff in the conference room were silent.

If you think about it carefully, what Mourinho said makes sense. Isn't the purpose of qualifying for the Champions League to get a better ranking in the Champions League and increase the team's influence?

"I can't give up the world's highest level of competition!"

Mourinho, standing next to the table, looked directly into the eyes of his boss Abramovich, who opened his mouth slightly as if he wanted to say something, but at this time the team manager Kotas opposite Mourinho spoke first.

"Jose, you have to know that our next opponent is Real Madrid, they were the champions last year!"

Kotas was right. Just when Jiang Yuan returned to China to prepare for the Asian qualifiers, the draw results for the Champions League quarter-finals were announced. Liverpool legend Ian Rush drew "Real Madrid (SPA)" for Chelsea. This draw result became the last straw that broke Chelsea's hopes.

Real Madrid from La Liga, last season's Champions League champion!
In fact, it is not just because of the signing position. The bonuses of Chelsea players and coaches are determined by the league and Champions League rankings. But the management is different. The bonus of Chelsea management is determined by whether the team enters the Champions League.

If a team can make it to the Champions League, each manager can receive an average bonus of 2.5 pounds, but if the team fails to make it to the Champions League, these bonuses will be lost.

As for Mourinho…

For Mourinho, who earns more than 1000 million pounds a year, bonuses are not a big deal.

What we are fighting for is that breath.

What's wrong with Real Madrid? Didn't they just win the Champions League last season? Does that mean Chelsea can't beat Real Madrid?

"Everyone be quiet for a moment"

Seeing that Abramovich was about to speak, Marina, who was sitting next to him, shouted, and the entire conference room immediately became quiet. Mourinho and Kotas, who were originally standing, also sat back in their seats.

"well..."

Abramovich put his hands on the table, looked around at the people attending the meeting, and made his decision: "We will focus on the upcoming Champions League. Of course, the same applies to the league. We must play well in both the league and the Champions League."

"Roman!"

"Mr. Roman!"

The executives in the conference room shouted out. Abramovich was not a good-tempered person. He stood up from his chair expressionlessly and walked out the door: "I will go all out in the Champions League. This is my choice. I know we have a high probability of not beating Real Madrid, but we just have to play."

For some people, dignity is more important than anything else, and Abramovich and Mourinho are both of this type, which is why they can come together many times.

Fans and reporters said that Chelsea could just surrender when facing Real Madrid, but Chelsea insisted on playing!

"Mr. Roman, I think we can calm down a little bit on this matter. We need to consider the objective interests of the team instead of..."

"you are fired"

"What? Sorry, sir, you are..."

Ketas was dumbfounded, he seemed to have heard Abu say something bad.

Abu turned around and said to Kotas: "You are fired!"

What Abramovich needs is employees who always stand by his side, but Qutas can't do that, so he should be fired.

"Sir, sir!"

Abu walked out of the conference room door. After calling out twice, Kotas saw that Abu did not stop, so he tried to chase him, but was stopped by Abu's bodyguards.

The job with an annual salary of 23 pounds was inexplicably lost.

On the other hand, Sky Sports reporters interviewed Chelsea legend Pat Nevin who was resting at home.

This interview with Sky Sports had two purposes. The first was to ask Pat Nevin to make a prediction for Chelsea's next game against Bournemouth. Pat Nevin's answer was Chelsea 2:0 Bournemouth.

“Can you explain why you made this score prediction?”

"It's simple, we are better than Bournemouth so we can keep them scoreless"

Nevin smiled in front of the camera. As a Chelsea legend, Nevin's predictions are always on Chelsea's side.

Because of this principle, Nevin's success rate in predicting matches is directly related to Chelsea's strength that season.

If Chelsea performs well, the success rate of Nevin's predictions will be high; if Chelsea performs poorly, the success rate of Nevin's predictions will be low!
Although this prediction involves a lot of subjective factors, Pat Nevin still gave many reasonable reasons.

Bournemouth likes high-altitude bombing, but Chelsea has strong air defense and so on.

"Anyway, I feel we can keep a clean sheet, but it's hard to say how many goals we can score. It could be two or three. But I hope it's four, hahahaha. You know, I had dinner with the Chelsea players after the game yesterday, and I think they are in very good shape."

In good shape?

Pat Nevin's words made the reporter frown: "I think Chelsea's recent state is relatively average, right?"

"It's average, but I think it's more than enough to deal with Bournemouth"

It can be seen that the famous Pat Nevin really trusts the current players in Chelsea, and the conversation between the reporter and Pat Nevin brought up a new topic.

That is, as a veteran player of Chelsea, what does Pat Nevin think Chelsea should do now to get out of the trough?
"I think the most critical problem lies with the frontcourt players"

Fans generally believe that the problem lies with Mourinho and the team's defenders, but Nevin puts forward a relatively novel point of view.

"Front court players...can you tell me more about them?"

The reporter sitting on the same sofa leaned his upper body over, and it was obvious that what Naven said had aroused his interest.

"Chelsea should confirm Jiang's position as the only offensive core"

Nevin kept gesturing with his hands: "Zlatan is a very good player, but I don't think his ability is suitable for Chelsea at this stage"

Naven began to analyze. Ibrahimovic's biggest problem is that he is weak against strong teams, and what Chelsea needs most now is the ability to fight against strong teams, which conflicts with Ibrahimovic's shortcomings.

"As far as I know, Ibrahimovic has very little possession of the ball now"

"I'm not saying that Zlatan should continue to reduce his touches. What I mean is that Mourinho should find a way to turn Zlatan into Jiang's wingman, and let Zlatan use his experience to assist Jiang in scoring goals."

The reporter nodded slowly. After this explanation, he roughly understood what Naven meant. He just wanted Ibrahimovic to give up being a traditional center and completely assist Jiang Yuan.

If you think about it carefully, doing so is nothing more than giving up the center and focusing on the left side. In theory, this can make Chelsea's offense stronger, but it is still difficult to implement in practice.

Given Ibrahimovic's character, he will never allow himself to be completely sacrificed by the team.

"So you think Chelsea can get back to their early season winning percentage if they deal with Zlatan?"

"Nonono! Of course not, the front court is only a part, the midfield and back court are also important"

Nevin looked at the reporter and said: "Did you notice something during yesterday's game? Pogba's attitude towards the game gradually became negative after 60 minutes. In my opinion, as a professional athlete in the Premier League, Pogba's behavior is very inappropriate."

"Even if he is a top player!"

“Actually, I can make a suggestion here.”

Nevin took a sip of the black coffee on the table: "As soon as the second half started, Pogba was replaced and Cesc (Fabregas) played as a defensive midfielder. The head coach should be bolder and do it more often. Pogba would not dare to do it in the next game."

"When I played for Chelsea, I didn't like to go back to defense. As a result, every time I was found not to go back to defense, Mr. John (Chelsea head coach from 1981 to 1985) would not let me start in the next game. Gradually, I developed the habit of going back to defense."

"Because if I don't get back on defense, I won't be able to start next weekend's game"

Nevin gave his experience as a professional player. For top league players, the reward and punishment system has always been very necessary. If Mourinho can put undisciplined players on the bench like John Neil did, then Pogba can definitely be trained.

"That's it"

Pat Nevin shook his shoulders: "Sometimes things are so simple, some simple reward and punishment systems can actually solve the problem of player management"

……

On April 4, London time, there were less than 7 hours left before Chelsea's home and away games against Bournemouth at Cobham training base.

"Here, here, just give it to me in front!"

Jiang Yuan shouted several times, and finally received a through ball from Kante near the baseline. After getting the ball, Jiang Yuan immediately made a cross, and Fabregas headed the ball at the back of the penalty area.

The angle was good, but in the end Begovic saved it.

"Joder!"

Fabregas threw a punch. Although missing a goal in training is not worth regretting, this was the third time Fabregas missed a great chance in training today.

Jiang Yuan was about to run up to comfort Fabregas, but Brown blew the whistle just at that moment, so he ran over to gather everyone.

"let me see……"

Brown frowned, and after confirming that all the first-team players had gathered, he took a step back and handed the core position in the front to Mourinho.

“Today’s training was not very good.”

Mourinho gave a summary of this afternoon's training and started off by cursing. Chelsea players are used to it, but today was a little different.

Mourinho said this in the past to suppress the players' arrogance and let them participate in the next game with a humble and cautious attitude, but today.

Today's training results were really poor.

Only 25 goals were scored in the 4-minute confrontation, which was enough to show the players' poor condition.

"I know we are going to Madrid to play against Real Madrid next week, but I want to remind you that playing Real Madrid is next week and our focus now should be on the league."

"Tomorrow we go to Bournemouth so I hope you can forget about who we are playing against next week"

"The Premier League is the Premier League, the Champions League is the Champions League, don't put the mood of the Champions League into the Premier League!"

……

(End of this chapter)