Chapter 1004 Goodbye, Mourinho!
This weekend, in the 35th round of the Premier League, Manchester City will challenge Wolves away.
In order to better prepare for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona next week, Guardiola did not bring the main lineup south this time. Many players who participated in the first leg of the Champions League, including Su Dong, were all left in Manchester.
There is really no need for Manchester City to make too much of a fuss against a Wolves team that has basically secured a relegation spot.
The course of the game was a little bumpy, mainly in the first half hour, when Manchester City created numerous opportunities, but neither Aguero nor Dzeko seized the chances, resulting in the team failing to score.
Until later, Leighton Baines made a good pass from behind, and Aguero sent the ball into the bottom of the Wolves goal with no one guarding in front of the small penalty area.
After the second half, Dzeko made a straight pass in the 74th minute, and Hazard broke into the penalty area and scored again, securing the victory for Manchester City.
Thanks to goals from Aguero and Hazard, Manchester City beat Wolves 2-0 away.
After losing this relegation battle, Wolves have been relegated three rounds in advance.
With this victory, Manchester City is one step closer to remaining unbeaten this season.
…
When Manchester City won 2-0 against Wolves away from home, the national derby was ignited at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, with Barcelona playing against Real Madrid at home.
Both teams attach great importance to this game, because Real Madrid currently has four points more than Barcelona. As long as they win this game, there will be basically no suspense about who will win the La Liga championship this season.
Barcelona hopes to turn the situation around, beat Real Madrid at home, shorten the points gap between the two sides, and at the same time get out of the shadow of losing to Manchester City at home, so as to boost morale for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final next week.
But the result of the game was still very surprising.
Barcelona, playing at home, once again lined up with a three-back formation. Mourinho was obviously determined to justify his defeat in the Champions League in the middle of the week at home, and he even adopted the same tactics against Real Madrid.
Pellegrini learned lessons from the Champions League match in the middle of the week. As Cruyff said in his column, he clearly saw Barcelona's problems and weaknesses, and deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation away from home, facing Barcelona with more of a defensive counterattack attitude.
The two sides fought fiercely in the game and neither of them held back.
Barcelona had possession of the ball, while Real Madrid defended well and patiently waited for Barcelona to make mistakes.
This time, after only seventeen minutes, Real Madrid took advantage of a corner kick opportunity and Khedira scored a goal for Real Madrid.
After that, Barcelona launched a crazy counterattack, but Real Madrid defended as solid as a rock.
In the 70th minute of the second half, Messi dribbled the ball and made a sudden shot, successfully equalizing the score for Barcelona.
But just three minutes later, Yaya Toure's dribbling was interrupted, Xabi Alonso moved to the left, Cristiano Ronaldo quickly inserted from behind, stopped the ball and drove straight in, breaking Barcelona's goal again.
Two to one!
Afterwards, no matter how Barcelona counterattacked, Real Madrid defended impregnably and did not give the opponent any chance.
In the end, Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-1 away from home thanks to goals from Khedira and Cristiano Ronaldo.
As a result, the La Liga championship this season has basically been locked in Real Madrid.
The only battlefield for Barcelona now is the Champions League.
After two consecutive defeats at Camp Nou, Mourinho was subjected to a flood of criticism, especially his deployment of troops in these two games, which was even more criticized. The Catalan media even directly demanded that he be sacked. Many fans also protested at Camp Nou, demanding that Mourinho be held responsible for the two recent losses.
Not to mention Barcelona godfather Cruyff, who directly blasted Mourinho's deployment of troops in the media, and at the same time pointed the finger directly at Barcelona's management, believing that the management did not listen to his advice and willfully hired Mourinho, which led to Barcelona's defeat today.
Cruyff believes that Mourinho's success at Barcelona is not because of his outstanding coaching, but because Barcelona has a group of outstanding players. As long as the head coach is up to standard, it is not difficult to lead these players to win the championship.
But now, the differences between Mourinho and Barcelona have become more and more obvious, and have even become a negative asset for Barcelona. The management is paying for the wrong decisions made that year.
Mourinho did not give too much thought to his future. He even directly stated in the post-match press conference that he would not resign voluntarily. If he left Barcelona, he would definitely be fired.
This once again caused an uproar in the media.
The reason is very simple. There is no compensation for voluntarily resigning. If you are fired, Barcelona will have to pay a large amount of liquidated damages.
The Catalan media directly blasted Mourinho for staying in Camp Nou for money and having no respect for Barcelona at all.
Suddenly, the whole world paid attention.
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The day after the game, after finishing the morning recovery training, Guardiola kept the coaching staff and Su Dong. The topic of discussion was of course the upcoming second leg of the game, and the most important thing was Barcelona's response.
Guardiola is guessing what kind of tactics Mourinho will adopt? The current situation is extremely unfavorable to Mourinho, and it can even be said to be very, very bad.
According to the Spanish media, he could be fired at any time.
Daily Sports has even chosen his successor, Mourinho's assistant Tito Vilanova.
This assistant coach was Guardiola's assistant back then, but their contact has become less frequent in recent years.
Changing a coach is like changing a knife.
Chelsea's transformation after the change of coach is happening right before our eyes. They have directly reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
If Barcelona can really turn the situation around and reverse Manchester City in Manchester after replacing Mourinho, I believe the Barcelona management will definitely not hesitate.
Mourinho is now deserted by his friends and relatives. Except for his core coaching team and a few defensive players in the team, basically no one supports him. Even Yaya Toure has complaints about him.
This is no wonder, as the Ivorian midfielder has never been a good guy.
In this situation, what tactics will Mourinho adopt? Mourinho has always claimed that he knows Su Dong very well. Every time he meets Su Dong, he will tell the outside world that no one knows Su Dong better than him, because he has watched Su Dong grow from an unknown kid in Portugal to the world's top active player.
He said he knew Su Dong very well, which was absolutely true.
But Su Dong also knew him very well.
"At times like this, we need to be more cautious because Mourinho is a man with a strong gambling nature."
Su Dong talked about his understanding of Mourinho, which was definitely not just his casual talk, but was based on real evidence.
Mourinho has a strong gambling nature, which is reflected in many aspects, including his coaching career, some of his lineups, and especially in some games, he is even willing to take a gamble.
Of course, there are differences in gambling here.
Generally speaking, Mourinho seeks stability. He will choose the most reliable method. He is also a head coach with a strong desire for control, so most of the time he is a little conservative.
But once he is forced into a situation with no way out, or when his temper flares up, he will not hesitate to take a gamble.
"You mean, he will gamble in the second leg?" Guardiola asked with concern.
Su Dong nodded, "I think this is very likely."
After a pause, Su Dong explained: "Now everyone is accusing him of being conservative, but Mourinho always sticks to his point of view. He believes that if we press forward and attack us, he has no confidence in defense. But in the second round, it was obviously different."
Manchester City has an away goal at Camp Nou, which requires Barcelona to score in Manchester.
If Mourinho still adopts a conservative tactic, it will be very disadvantageous for the second leg.
Therefore, Su Dong believes that Mourinho is likely to just go for it, take a gamble, attack away from home, score away goals, and at the same time reverse the unfavorable situation in the first round.
If he wins the bet, Mourinho will definitely say that he played the first leg on purpose in order to grab the second leg; if he loses the second leg, he will directly tell everyone, see, it’s not that I don’t want to take the initiative, but you all saw that taking the initiative to attack Manchester City is just courting death.
Anyway, no matter what, he won.
Guardiola and his assistants looked at each other in surprise.
Mourinho always says that he knows Su Dong better than anyone else, but now it seems that Su Dong also knows him very well.
It is not surprising if you think about it carefully. After all, Su Dong already knew him when Mourinho coached Leiria. Later, Su Dong played for Sporting Lisbon and Mourinho coached Porto. The two met on the court many times.
It is said that Mourinho has never won against the team that Su Dong played for.
"Now that you say that, we all feel that Mourinho knows you far less than you know him." Estiat laughed.
Guardiola and others couldn't help but smile.
This kind of targeted match in the Champions League knockout stage is actually a guess about what tactics the opposing coach will adopt.
If you want to guess the opponent's head coach's tactics, in addition to objective factors such as the game situation and lineup configuration, the head coach's subjective factors are also very important. Some head coaches are born to like taking risks, while some head coaches always seek stability.
For this kind of Champions League knockout match, it is not only a contest of strength and technical tactics between the two sides, but also a battle of wits and strength between the two team's head coaches.
After seeing off Guardiola and others, Su Dong turned around and looked to the south.
Of course, Barcelona could not be seen at Carrington, but he could guess Mourinho's situation at this moment.
As an old acquaintance, or even a friend, Su Dong felt sympathetic towards his situation and even felt a little unfair for him, but this is the cruelty of professional football. He has been mentally prepared since the day he coached Barcelona.
But as an opponent, he will help Manchester City and do everything possible to defeat Mourinho and his Barcelona.
This is not only for Manchester City, but also for himself!
Farewell, Mourinho!
(End of this chapter)
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