Chapter 418: Preparation for the Asian Qualifiers, Mourinho is troubled

"China Football News" Special Edition - Because his contract with Chelsea will not be fully completed until June 6, Mourinho may not be able to make his debut in the friendly match against the Philippines.

Chinese Football Association Announcement 1: Ticket purchase instructions: Chinese national football team captain Jiang Yuan and head coach Mourinho will not appear in the friendly match against the Philippines on June 6.

Chinese Football Association Announcement 2: New coach Mourinho will make his debut in the Asian qualifiers away to Syria on June 6th Beijing time.

Football Emperor - Is he crazy or is there a deep affection between a master and a disciple? Mbappe joined the Portuguese League team Lexon Ish for free, partnering with Wei Shihao. It is reported that the deal was handled by Jiang Yuan's agent. Mbappe's weekly salary in Lexon Ish is more than 18 euros, and the Frenchman will directly receive a signing fee of up to 1400 million euros from the club.

Leixoes SC: The club's new signing Mbappe will join Paris Saint-Germain on loan on July 7. The two clubs will each bear 25% and 80% of the player's salary, which does not include a compulsory buyout clause.

"O JOGO" Regular Edition - When negotiating with Mbappe, Lexon Ish hoped that the club could package and rent ShiHao Wei, but was rejected by Paris Saint-Germain.

The front-page headline of "Portuguese Match" - because of spending a high signing bonus to complete Mbappe's transfer, the club's shareholder Jiang was complained by the Lexon Ish Fans Association.

As the Portuguese newspaper Match said, Jiang Yuan was complained by fans because of the Mbappe deal. Although the deal was carried out by Jiang Yuan on behalf of John Biko, after all, it was Jiang Yuan who initiated the intention, so it is not wrong to say that it was Jiang Yuan who did it.

Buying players and renting them out to collect rent is not a new thing in the professional football league. The problem is that Jiang Yuan's operation has made some fans dissatisfied.

In order to get Mbappe to join a Portuguese team, the club paid a signing fee of 1400 million euros, and even if the player was loaned to Paris Saint-Germain, Lexion would still have to bear 80% of his salary.

It was a completely loss-making deal. If Jiang Yuan had not held 70% of the club's shares, he might have been denounced by the shareholders' meeting.

A simple calculation shows that if Lexonich wants to guarantee the principal, Mbappe must be sold for at least 3000 million euros or even 4000 million euros. Suddenly, the 1400 million euro signing fee is really wasted.

……

"Damn it, run, Wu Lei, what are you doing? You can't even score a one-on-one shot?"

In Langfang, Hebei, the Chinese national team's training base, Portuguese translator Xu Geng shouted in the tone of Mourinho.

It is not easy to imitate Mourinho's shouting, especially in this kind of field training situation.

Mourinho himself is not the kind of Portuguese who enunciates very clearly, and with the wind blowing outside, sometimes Xu Geng may not be able to understand what Mourinho is saying.

You also have to adapt to Mourinho's way of speaking!

"what!"

Wu Lei, who missed a one-on-one chance, hugged his hands. Goalkeeper Wang Dalei came out to comfort him. Wu Lei raised his hands to apologize to Jiang Yuan: "My, my"

It’s actually not a big deal that he missed a one-on-one opportunity in the training match, the main thing is that this was a perfect one-on-one opportunity that Jiang Yuan gave him.

Wu Lei was embarrassed that he didn't score!
"it's okay no problem"

Jiang Yuan walked over and patted Wu Lei on the shoulder. As a striker, Jiang Yuan knew that handling a one-on-one shot was not as simple as he imagined. However, Wu Lei's success rate in one-on-one shots was really exaggerated.

As a striker, every one-on-one shot hits the goalkeeper, which is a very serious problem. If Wu Lei was not playing for the Chinese men's football team but for other national teams, he might lose his starting qualification directly for this reason.

But the good thing is that Wu Lei is a player of the Chinese men's football team, so it is not a problem for him to be a stable starter.

"Beep!"

"Lei, come here!"

Mourinho stopped the ongoing training match and called Wu Lei to his side: "What are you doing? This is not a one-on-one shot. This is not how you shoot a one-on-one shot!"

Mourinho kept gesturing to Wu Lei: "Relax, did you see Wang coming out? The goalkeeper's attack means that the defender defending you can no longer keep up. You must not be nervous at this time, Lei, why are you nervous?"

When they first met, Mourinho called Wu Lei "Wu", but later he found that he kept confusing "Wu" and "wow", and every time he called Wu Lei's name, it sounded like he was screaming in surprise, so he changed Wu Lei's name to "Lei".

Of course, when Mourinho is not familiar with a player, he likes to call the player "hey" and then ask the translator to call the guy over according to the direction of Mourinho's finger.

Just like now, Mourinho hooked his finger at Wang Dalei: "Hey, here, come over now"

"Wang Dalei, come here!"

Xu Geng gave the translation, and Wang Dalei, who was washing his face with water, hurried over: "Coach"

"Come on, stand still"

Mourinho went straight to work, pulled Wang Dalei's arms apart, and made him stand with his feet apart.

This is a common action used by goalkeepers when defending a one-on-one shot, used to maximize their defensive area: "Keep this posture and don't move, ok, yes, that's it"

After dealing with Wang Dalei, Mourinho pushed Wu Lei's back and walked back. When the distance was right, he asked Wu Lei to stop and pointed at Wang Dalei in the distance: "OK, now this is a one-on-one shot. You and Wang are less than 10 meters apart. At this time, the latter is blocking your left hand. What should you do? The distance of 10 meters is very suitable. At this time, you have to start looking for opportunities to shoot. Otherwise, you will have completely lost the chance when you are 3 or 4 meters away. Don't hesitate or be nervous when you are one-on-one. Do you understand what I mean?"

"..."

Mourinho pulled Wu Lei aside for a private chat, while the other players resumed the game under Brown's instructions.

"There is no goalkeeper on the other side!"

Wei Shihao reminded that he was speaking Portuguese.

"It's okay. We have to learn to deal with situations where the defense is out of position, even if it's the goalkeeper! We can still play with one less goalkeeper, OK?"

Since Brown said so, Wei Shihao had no choice but to pass the ball back to Zhang Linpeng from the center circle.

The first thing Mourinho did when he took office was to emphasize to the Chinese national team players the importance of pressing in the frontcourt. Of course, the players also implemented this concept in the training match. After seeing that the slow Zhang Linpeng got the ball, Gao Lin and Zhang Xizhe ran forward almost at the same time.

With two people trying to steal the ball at the same time, Zhang Linpeng was under great pressure. He originally thought of just kicking the ball forward, but then he thought better of it and passed the ball back to goalkeeper Zeng Cheng, who then sent the ball forward.

"juese..."

Brown sighed, then quickly wrote a few English words on his notebook, which translate into Chinese as "pressing" and "handling the ball".

Obviously, Brown was not very satisfied with the decisions made by Zhang Linpeng and Zeng Cheng in handling the ball just now.

Although the team was a little confused due to the pressing of Team A, Wei Shihao in the frontcourt successfully grabbed the ball in the confrontation with Huang Bowen, which directly brought new opportunities to Team B.

As one of the few players in the team who is still studying abroad, Wei Shihao is quite confident in his ability to compete when playing football.

Noticing that Wei Shihao successfully caught the ball, Jiang Yuan, who was waiting for an opportunity on the left, began to move towards the middle.

"Follow him, follow him!"

The back and defenders of Team A were very nervous, so they sent Hao Junmin and Deng Hanwen to defend Jiang Yuan. If it was a game, Jiang Yuan would definitely not be polite to Team A and would rush out directly, but now it was a training session, so Jiang Yuan's kicking style was still a little conservative. He stepped forward with his right foot, stopped suddenly to complete the deception, and then recovered his speed.

!

Hao Junmin thought Jiang Yuan was going to eat him alive with his speed, so he quickly recovered his speed to catch up. Unexpectedly, Jiang Yuan suddenly twisted his ankle at this time and directly pierced Hao Junmin's crotch!
What the hell!

With his lower and upper bodies tangled, Hao Junmin fell to the ground gloriously. Feng Xiaoting, who was standing beside him, saw that the situation was not good and reached out to pull him up.

Originally, Feng Xiaoting was going to pull Jiang Yuan, but for some reason, he was pulled over by Jiang Yuan and also fell to the ground.

Because Wang Dalei is not there, Team A does not have a goalkeeper. Jiang Zhipeng is pushed directly from the back line to the goal line and pretends to be the goalkeeper.

Jiang Yuan found that Team A's defense line was compressed very severely, so he gave up the idea of ​​continuing to rush forward and raised his right leg to kick directly.

duang!

The ball hit the crossbar, bounced twice on the grass and touched the net before scoring a goal.

"My day..."

Wei Shihao stood at the far end, ready to head Jiang Yuan's cross, but he didn't expect that Jiang Yuan was not polite at all and scored directly when he found a chance to score.

"Beep!"

Brown blew the whistle, indicating the end of the training phase.

This is how it works in a competitive match. If a dead ball occurs, the coach can stop the game and emphasize the problems of both sides.

When Brown was at Chelsea, he blew the whistle basically every three goals. Now that he has joined the Chinese national team, he blows the whistle every 3 goals.

"Come, everyone!"

Brown raised his head, and all the players on the field gathered towards him. The English translator had already prepared on the side.

"Hurry up, ok"

Brown urged, and then began to briefly explain what was recorded in his notebook: "First of all, it's the problem of pressing. After Wei kicked the ball out, the two forwards of Team A, Gao and Xiao, ran forward at the first time. This is very good. I think you did a great job. But the question is, why do you have two pressing and the remaining forward?"

He looked at Zhao Xuri and said, "Can you remind me your name?"

"Zhao Xuri..."

"Ok, Zhao, I saw you were at the front right just now, right? Why don't you run forward when you are standing here?"

"The pressing we are talking about is a three-way pressing, which covers all the defensive players in the backcourt. Because you didn't press, there were two empty midfield positions on Team B at that time."

Speaking of the two empty spaces, Brown turned around and faced Zhang Linpeng: "There are two empty spaces on the left, so I think you should pass the ball over there. It's better to let the midfielder handle the ball than the goalkeeper. Do you think I'm right?"

After the translator finished speaking, Zhang Linpeng nodded somewhat embarrassedly. He thought the topic was over, but he did not expect Brown to have discovered a deeper problem.

"You should have completed the observation before receiving the ball, but Zhang, you didn't seem to do that. This is a very fatal mistake. I think this kind of mistake should not happen to the national first-team players."

"That's about it, you guys take a break, and we can disband when Jose comes over and says a few more words."

Snapped!
Brown closed his notebook, which contained many, many questions about the Chinese national football team. Brown wanted to talk about all these things, but he also knew that the players needed a buffer time to digest them, otherwise it would be useless to talk so much. "Fuck, I'm so tired..."

After Brown walked away, Zhang Xizhe sat down directly on the grass, and other players also sat down.

"Brother Yuan, would you like some water?"

Zhang Yuning came over with two bottles of mineral water and was about to hand one of them to Jiang Yuan, but Wei Shihao, who was sitting next to Jiang Yuan, also stretched out his hand. Zhang Yuning had no choice but to get another bottle for himself.

"Brother Yuan, does Brown always speak in a gentle manner, like he did just now?"

Wei Shihao drank while looking at Brown's gradually receding back.

"Pretty much, he's always been like that."

Jiang Yuan thought about it. In the past two years, he had never heard Brown swear at anyone. Even Terry Hazard and the others had never mentioned it. He guessed that this guy really didn't swear much.

"This kind of coach is rare. The coach I had in Lexon Ish was really fierce, and he also had a bunch of stupid teammates."

Wei Shihao drank half a bottle of water, unscrewed the lid and threw the bottle away: "Damn it, I scored a goal and that stupid Portuguese guy came to pull my hair. I don't know what's going on in his head."

"..."

"Um, so how did you handle it?"

Jiang Yuan touched his nose. He always felt an indescribable sense of humor when listening to Wei Shihao scolding people, especially when he was scolding foreigners.

"I just pushed him down with my backhand"

Wei Shihao gritted his teeth: "Then I sat on the bench for a month in a row"

“Is it racial discrimination?”

"I'm not sure, but I feel that there is a little bit. There are a few people who always give me trouble, and I don't know them well."

Wei Shihao said angrily, and Jiang Yuan was listening very carefully beside him.

Jiang Yuan remembered that during the Rio Olympics, he heard Wei Shihao talk about his life in Lexon Ish. It can only be said that studying abroad is not as easy as imagined.

Young Asians like Wei Shihao are particularly vulnerable to discrimination when playing in European leagues, especially in Spain or Portugal.

This kind of thing is difficult to deal with. Either you grow up and become a veteran player in that team, or you use your talent to scare your teammates.

Jiang Yuan wanted to talk to Wei Shihao about how to get along well with the captain, but thinking of Wei Shihao's personality, he didn't say anything.

"I'll talk to them and see if they can handle it. Um...Brother Hao, can you still hold on in Lexon Ish?"

Jiang Yuan turned his head and looked at Wei Shihao. Being stared at by Jiang Yuan, Wei Shihao's body shook involuntarily: "Well, there is no big problem. In fact, it has been much better in the past few months. The teammates are also pretty good. I have beaten half of them."

"...Okay, okay, Brother Hao, that's awesome."

Jiang Yuan gave Wei Shihao a thumbs up.

Okay, it has to be my brother Hao!
Listening to Jiang Yuan and Wei Shihao chatting, Wu Xi and Feng Xiaoting walked over here after taking out their mobile phones.

Anyone could sit on the grass, but everyone naturally regarded Jiang Yuan's position as the center point, and gradually everyone gathered here.

"Does Mourinho often curse at people? Like he just cursed at Wu Lei?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter."

Jiang Yuan shrugged: "I get scolded by Mourinho every day at the club, but I don't think it's a big deal. You just have to get used to it. He always talks like that."

As a player, Jiang Yuan certainly hopes that Mourinho can be kinder, but after all, he witnessed the entire process of the Chelsea locker room explosion two years ago, so he will not have the same attitude towards this matter as before.

Mourinho himself said the same thing. After coming to the Chinese national team from Chelsea, Mourinho, who had suffered a loss in the locker room once, would never suffer a second loss!
Take eating for example. Mourinho requires the national football players to have three meals a day in the cafeteria, which is a rule that Chelsea does not have. Even in the second season, Jiang Yuan rarely ate dinner in the cafeteria.

"Does Chelsea have to eat every meal in the cafeteria too?"

Zhang Yuning is very curious about the top five leagues, because the top five leagues are his unfulfilled dream.

Jiang Yuan touched his nose and said, "Yes, that's the rule."

……

After training today, Mourinho held an internal coaching meeting in his office. Brown and Jones walked up to the fourth floor with their notebooks.

"Fuck, why would a base have a 4th floor and there's no elevator!"

Jones was about to fall to the ground as soon as he walked into the door. Brown, who was behind him, clamped the computer with his arm and then reached out to support Jones: "Chinese people like tall and big houses. You have to learn to adapt to this."

Jones put the notebook on Mourinho's desk and slumped down on the sofa: "Leon, do you know what my deepest impression of China is? Fuck, there are so many good foods here. I will never eat in the UK again. Food in the UK is for prisoners."

As he spoke, Jones reached into his pocket, took out a handful of Weilong spicy strips and threw it into Brown's hand.

"What? What is this?"

Brown looked at the spicy strips in his hand with a surprised expression.

How come there is such a popular food!

"Spicy strip, Zhang (Zhang Linpeng) gave it to me"

"Ok ok, you all be quiet for a moment"

Mourinho patted the table, signaling Jones to stop lying on the sofa and sit on the chair.

The Portuguese took the notebook and computer from Brown, and the first thing he did was to open Brown's mysterious notebook.

Sure enough, it was densely packed.

This is the strength of Mu Niao’s right-hand man!

"We have also seen in today's training that we have some big problems now. The players' basic skills are seriously flawed. This is what makes me feel uncomfortable."

There were no players on the scene and the Chinese coaching assistants did not understand English, so Mourinho could say whatever he thought of.

"And they play football in a clumsy way. I really can't understand why Jiang can be on the same team with them."

Mourinho was also troubled. Jiang Yuan was the only Chinese player he knew, so he naturally thought that all Chinese players were supercars. However, he found out that this was not the case.

"You know, Jiang told me that he and his teammates on the national team have a lot in common. Isn't that a lie?"

Mourinho said angrily, and Brown heard the clue: "Jose, do you think it is possible that the 'same place' in Jiang Kongzhong refers to the same nationality? After all, he didn't say that this similarity has anything to do with football."

"What!?"

Mourinho suddenly realized.

Shit, so that’s how you play it!
You know what, it seems like there are indeed a lot of similarities!

"Forget it, fuck, let's not talk about this. Today's task is to figure out how to play the next game."

"I've studied it. Syria has basically no strength. When the time comes, we can just let Eden play on the left and Jiang go to the right. With both routes open, we can score at least 5 goals against them."

As Mourinho was speaking, he noticed that both Brown and Jones were staring at him.

"Oh, shit, I forgot"

Mourinho slapped his forehead, and after recalling what had happened, he turned to the previous page of his notebook, which recorded the issue he and Brown had discussed before, which was what kind of tactics China should adopt when facing its first opponent, Syria.

"I've told you before that the Chinese team's midfield is relatively weak, mainly in ball control. As long as the opponent can control the midfield, we will have a very hard time playing."

"But the good news is that our next opponent Syria is not a strong team, and I looked at the game records and we won the last round."

"..."

Mourinho began his analysis. The first month after joining a club is usually busy because the coach needs to consider the team's formation for the new season and player transfers.

The national team would be better, but unfortunately, Mourinho is now coaching the Chinese national team. For the annual salary of 2350 million euros and the opportunity to prove his ability which he is not sure whether he can seize, the Portuguese needs to put in a lot of effort here.

……

On June 6, Beijing time, the Chinese national football team players took a chartered flight provided by China Eastern Airlines to Kuala Lumpur, accompanied by some AFC officials.

There are many Chinese tourists and businessmen in Kuala Lumpur, and the Chinese national football team of course received their airport pick-up services. Wei Shihao and Wang Dalei wanted to visit some local attractions in Kuala Lumpur after the break, but Mourinho directly rejected their request.

"Let's talk about it after the game. You guys just stay in the hotel and the training ground for the next few days and don't go anywhere else."

Wei Shihao spread his hands in dissatisfaction and looked at Jiang Yuan beside him: "Is Chelsea like this too?"

"Is such that"

"All right"

Chelsea players did not have the right to relax and travel before the game, so Wei Shihao had no temper.

……

(End of this chapter)