Chapter 376 Mourinho's Concerns

On April 6, all members of the AC Milan team arrived in London to prepare for the Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Italian media are optimistic about this match. AC Milan has performed well in the past two years. They defeated Juventus in the final and won the Champions League last year. Although they were defeated by Deportivo La Coruna at home and were eliminated in the quarterfinals last year, the team's performance is still very good.

This year they have learned from last year's lessons and are likely to improve even further. As the top club in Serie A, they have reason to be so confident.

The English media are also optimistic about Chelsea. The team has already won the league championship and can focus all their energy on the Champions League. Compared with AC Milan, which is caught in the league battle, they still have a big advantage.

This is not the first time Chelsea has entered the Champions League, but the team's performance has not been very good and it has never qualified for the final. The English media certainly hopes that it can go further. Now Chelsea has become the hope of the whole of England.

Although a season ago they said that Chelsea's success would mean the rise of utilitarian football and a regression in football development, now they regard Chelsea as their hope. There are only three traditional giants in the entire Premier League, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, and Liverpool's performance has been really disappointing since the establishment of the Premier League system.

Now, Manchester United and Arsenal are showing signs of decline again in Europe. They have realized that only if more strong teams emerge in the Premier League can they gain a firm foothold in world football. Otherwise, if several giants do not perform well, the Premier League's desire to become the world's number one league will become a joke.

…………On April 5, Chelsea announced that it would conduct closed training. No media could enter the club for interviews, and the players were not allowed to go home. The entire team had to be in the club 24 hours a day.

The reason for doing this is to prevent the players from being exposed to the media, so that they can concentrate on training and adjust their condition before the game. It also facilitates the management of the club and the effect of tactical training is better.

When AC Milan arrived in London, Chelsea players were training as usual. Mourinho got the news first. He waved his hand to show that he didn't care, but his eyes staring at the training ground became more and more fierce.

"Wayne, pay attention, you are a defender! Defender! Do you really want to be a striker!?" Seeing Bridge inserted too far forward on the court, Mourinho immediately shouted: "Your task is to defend, not to attack!!"

"Scott!! Pass the ball!! What are you doing? By the time you find someone left or right, the chance is gone!! The opponent won't give you time to daze, you idiot!!"

"Alan, you need to move forward, you are a striker now!! A striker!! Not a midfielder!! Frank is behind you, don't you still trust your teammates!?"

...If there were reporters nearby, they would be shocked by what Mourinho said.

Since a few games in the first half of the season, the media has positioned Wang Li as a player between midfielder and striker. He can play as a shadow striker, attacking midfielder, winger, and midfielder, and can do very well. But think about it, he rarely appears on the field as a traditional striker.

However, after two days of training, Wang Li has already adapted to the new position. It can be said that he has taken away the jobs of Gudjohnsen and Drogba, who are now sadly serving as center forwards for the substitute team.

Everyone had no objection to this, they also hoped that the team could win, and the head coach just arranged new tactics and executed them. Mourinho did a very good job in this regard. He always arranged everyone's tasks in place before the game, and the players did not need to think about what to do on the court.

They have become complete parts of the team and believe that as long as everyone can complete their tasks, the team will definitely win.

The results of one season have fully demonstrated Mourinho's ability, and his approach has been recognized by all employees.

Wang Li's position change is Mourinho's winning magic weapon against AC Milan.

Before facing a strong team like AC Milan, it is absolutely a taboo for the head coach to temporarily change the team's tactics, because that will make many players uncomfortable and cause serious problems in coordination. However, facing AC Milan, Mourinho really has no confidence. If he follows the previous style of play, it will be too difficult to win.

He doesn't believe in so-called luck and perseverance, he just wants to take control of the game in his own hands.

So, new tactics were introduced.

It really takes a long time for a team to adapt to a new tactic, but this new tactic is very simple. As long as Wang Li can do his job well, the tactic will run smoothly.

The training in the past two days has also given Mourinho great confidence. He believes that this style of play can break through AC Milan's defense.

……… “These are the players that need attention.”

On the evening of April 6, when they arrived in Milan, Mourinho gathered all the players in the office and began to analyze the opponent. He held a stack of information and carefully explained the characteristics of each AC Milan player. After such analysis, Chelsea players found that each offensive player of AC Milan was quite threatening.

This puts the players under greater pressure.

"In their eyes, everyone in our team is a threat!" Wang Li's words relieved a lot of pressure on his teammates.

"Be sure to pay attention to the young Brazilian boy, Paulo. I leave this to you. He has strong creativity and is more threatening than the opponent's number one striker." Mourinho said, pointing at Paulo Ferreira.

Ferreira nodded.

"We need to pay more attention to their number one striker Shevchenko. The Ukrainian is in very good form and is the most threatening. When defending, we must pay attention to shrinking the defense line and not give them too much space to attack."

"In terms of offense, just follow the tactics we learned in training. AC Milan has always believed that their defense is the strongest in the world. Indeed, in the Champions League, they have not conceded a goal so far. I don't want to see that their goal count remains zero after this game." Mourinho said solemnly and half-jokingly.

"Don't worry, boss, Alan will definitely score a goal." Seeing that the atmosphere in the room was becoming a little more lively, Bridget immediately jumped out and pointed at Wang Li and said.

"I thought you were going to say: I will definitely score a goal," Lampard said sarcastically with a smile.

"Oh my god, I'm a defender. You can't expect me to go in and assist or take shots. The boss will be unhappy if I do that."

Mourinho nodded, smiled, and said: "If you assist but can't score a goal, you will sit on the bench in the next game."

"Our first game is at Stamford Bridge, and the second round will be at San Rossi. This schedule is not favorable for us. So I hope to score as many goals as possible in tomorrow's game, and try not to let them score. Only in this way can we have a better chance of advancing to the semi-finals. In tomorrow's game, don't be complacent even if you are leading by two goals. Remember, this is only the first round!!" Speaking of this, Mourinho became serious again.

In the European Champions League, there are countless examples of a team leading by a large margin in the first round but being overturned by a large margin in the second round. In the European Champions League, Chelsea is still a very young team, and Mourinho does not want the team to test these truths in practice.

Just like Ancelotti said, this has a lot to do with the players' mentality.

Chelsea does lack experience in major competitions.

…………On the afternoon of the next day, Stamford Bridge was already packed with people.

At this time, European media were finally able to get close to Chelsea players. During these days, they had always wanted to interview Chelsea, but the team had been in closed training.

And now, all the reporters have a feeling of "seeing the bright moon after the clouds have been cleared", especially the reporters who interviewed Wang Li. They even thought "it's worth waiting for so long, I finally get to see Alan". From this point of view, Chelsea's closed training is also very effective in terms of appearance.

Wang Li is naturally the most popular star in the Chelsea team, even more popular than Mourinho. As soon as he walked out of the home team's locker room, he was surrounded by reporters from England, Italy, Spain, Germany, etc. Wang Li also saw reporters from the ancient oriental country of China.

What everyone is concerned about is Wang Li's current condition, what the team has trained in the past two days, and some breaking news.

This kind of news always appears about Wang Li because he always behaves very high-profile before the game.

"We will win, AC Milan is a very good team, but unfortunately they were unlucky to meet us."

Wang Li's answer was not unexpected by most people. Many people even thought it was natural. This young man has always been like this. At this time, a media from Germany asked: "Who do you think is more threatening in AC Milan? Will you be nervous when playing against such a giant?"

"Nervous? I think they should be the ones who are nervous. Maybe they were prepared to lose before coming here. You know, that Italian kept comforting himself before the game and confusing himself with winning. We don't bother to pay attention to such a clown."

Chelsea players had long known what Ancelotti said in the media before the game, and everyone was very angry about it. Wang Li was also angry. He said AC Milan would win before the game even started, which was a mockery to Chelsea players. Now, facing many media, Wang Li finally had the opportunity to fight back, and he would not miss this opportunity.

In fact, if you put yourself in his shoes, he wouldn't even think about what he did when playing against other teams... Wang Li's words obviously suited the appetite of these reporters. Except for the Italian media who were somewhat indignant, reporters from other countries were very satisfied. They were very glad that they came to interview Wang Li to get such explosive news.

At this time, the Italian media could not help but start asking indirect questions: "What do you think of Ancelotti? Would you consider coming to Milan in the summer? Mr. Berlusconi also admires you very much."

"Milan City!?" Wang Li was stunned for a moment, then he came to his senses and smiled, saying, "Maybe, I really like the blue and black striped jersey." In other words, he likes Inter Milan very much.

To the AC Milan media, this sounded as disgusting as eating a fly!

After answering a few questions casually, Wang Li walked straight to the court. At this time, AC Milan's players were already adapting to the venue.

Compared to the entire Stamford Bridge stadium, Wang Li was just a small dot in the stands, but when he walked out of the player tunnel, whether it was the fans who had just entered the stands or the AC Milan players who were adapting to the field, they all looked at him.

"Kaka, that's Mr. 80 million!?" Gattuso looked at Wang Li and asked with interest. In fact, the news that Berlusconi wanted to buy Wang Li for 80 million euros had spread all over Italy. Of course, the internal G14 agreement could not be made known to the media.

"How should I know?" Kaka also looked at Wang Li's figure and said thoughtfully, "What's so good about him that Chelsea wouldn't even sell him for 80 million?"

"The coach told me to focus on defending him. He is the most threatening player in Chelsea. He is just under 19 years old. Hehe... He is really amazing!"

"Ivan, don't underestimate him. He almost scored 50 goals in 31 league rounds. This kid's goal efficiency is extremely high. You may not be able to defend against him!" The Ukrainian nuclear warhead Shevchenko next to him also came over and said sourly. As one of the world's top strikers, he knew how difficult it was to score so many goals.

Gattuso waved his hands and said, "Andre, are you jealous of him? Haha..."

"That's not true. I'm the top scorer in Serie A!" Shevchenko said, stretching his arms and posing.

This caused everyone nearby to scatter.

"He is also the top scorer in the Premier League and has scored twice as many goals as the second-placed Henry. Andre, you have to work harder."

Hearing this, Shevchenko looked at the back, nodded solemnly, and whispered silently: "I will prove that I am better than him!"

…………15 minutes before the start of the game, the broadcast studios of various TV stations had already received the starting lineups of both teams.

AC Milan's starting lineup did not surprise most people. All of their main players appeared on the field to face Chelsea in their strongest attitude.

The goalkeeper is Brazil national goalkeeper No. 1 Dida, the four iron defenders are No. 2 Cafu, No. 31 Stam, No. 13 Nesta, and No. 3 captain Maldini, the three defensive midfielders are No. 8 Gattuso, No. 21 Pirlo and No. 20 Seedorf, the attacking midfielder is No. 22 Kaka, and the forwards are Argentine shooters No. 11 Crespo and No. 7 Shevchenko.

"AC Milan lined up in a 4312 formation with all their main players. However, judging from this traditional formation, AC Milan still wants to play it safe at Stamford Bridge. The combination of three defensive midfielders and four defenders is indeed very strong. Their defense is also the best in the world. It seems that it will not be easy for Chelsea to score goals."

"...They also need to pay more attention to defense. AC Milan's forward line is not inferior. In the Serie A league, their number of goals ranks third. With this kind of offensive power, it will not be a problem to break through Chelsea's defense."

On Sky TV, Graham looked at AC Milan's lineup and analyzed it with concern.

"Well, let's look at Chelsea's starting XI again."

"…oh, my~~god!! Oh my god, this is really unexpected, Alan is at the front and plays center!?"

Chelsea's starting lineup surprised all the media. In addition to Wang Li's position change, Drogba and Gudjohnsen did not play, which means that Wang Li played as a single striker. As expected, the two wingers were still Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, and in the midfield Lampard, Makelele and Scott Parker also played, which means Chelsea had 5 midfielders.

William Gallas sat on the bench in the defense line, while Bridge got the chance, which made everyone confused and puzzled.

Although Bridge's defensive ability is also very good, it is still inferior to Gallas. When it comes to offensive ability, Gallas, who can break through and pass, is experienced and flexible in positioning, is much stronger. This starting lineup is indeed confusing.

Is Mourinho going crazy or giving up the game?

…………At the same time, in the home team’s locker room, Mourinho also got AC Milan’s starting lineup.

He first glanced at the opponent's back line, and four famous players came into view - Cafu, 35 years old, former captain of the Brazilian national team, winner of two World Cup titles. Although he is older, his strength is unquestionable, and he is still the absolute main force of AC Milan.

Stam and Nesta are the two iron defenders of the former Lazio dynasty. Stam is known as the "Iron Defender". Although he is 32 years old, now is the best period of his career; while Nesta is known as the "Iron Defender" and "Roman King" in Italy. His Serie A record-breaking price of 31 million euros in 2002 fully illustrates his ability.

Paolo Maldini, 37 years old, is the son of former AC Milan captain Cesare Maldini. Although he is already 37 years old this year, he is still the captain of AC Milan and is still called "the best left-back" by the Italian media. Since becoming the absolute main force of AC Milan in 1985, this is his 20th season playing for this giant club. His strength needs no explanation at all.

The combination of these four defenders was not unexpected, but Mourinho still felt a little uneasy. He looked at the black-haired boy sitting cross-legged on the chair with some concern.

In this game, the Portuguese had almost put all the goals on Wang Li. "Can he withstand the pressure?" "Can he play at his normal level facing these super defenders?" ... These questions have always been on Mourinho's mind. Even though he is extremely confident in Wang Li's condition and strength, he still worries when the game is approaching.

However, it is now impossible to make a temporary change of formation. When he saw the black-haired boy in front of him open his eyes, Mourinho knew that it was time to take the players out of the locker room and to the player tunnel to prepare to enter the field.

(To be continued)