Chapter 14 Don’t Rush Forward, Stay Alive

Mourinho arrived at the Valdebebas training base early in the morning on September 1st.

Today is the day for the Real Madrid first-team players who did not participate in the national team to resume joint training.

He and the members of the coaching staff will arrive in advance to prepare.

As a well-known "one-stop" coach in the football world, Mourinho is very concerned about daily training.

From the first day at Valdebebas, Mourinho has paid full "care" for the quality of the turf, training facilities, jerseys and shoes, and even the new and old lockers in the base.

He is outspoken about the poor performance of the club, meticulous in management and likes to communicate directly with the staff.

Therefore, although he has brought unprecedented pressure to many staff members in the base.

But correspondingly, the entire base has indeed improved the efficiency of operation and preparation.

However, Mourinho, who usually appears to be a serious image in front of everyone on weekdays.

At this moment, he is in his office, looking at the length and special reports of Li Ang and C Ronaldo's extra training with joy and helplessness.

It's not that he doesn't like his players to practice diligently.

Extra training is a good thing, which means that the players have higher requirements and ambitions for themselves.

But now Li Ang and Ronaldo are completely "overtraining".

This made him feel "happy troubles" when he was extremely satisfied.

But it is definitely not okay to directly deny the two people's approach. Mourinho does not want to dampen their enthusiasm for extra training.

So after considering the words, Mourinho called the two people who arrived at the training base first in the morning into the office one by one for patient communication.

For Ronaldo, praise must be more than preaching.

Mourinho praised Ronaldo and emphasized Ronaldo's core position in his tactical system again, and then he tactfully proposed that Ronaldo should pay more attention to rest.

As for Li Ang, Mourinho did not have so many twists and turns, and the conversation was very relaxed and straightforward.

"You are still young, don't overtrain. You have a place and opportunity here. Take your time and don't overtrain yourself. Are you under a lot of pressure recently? You have my number. If you are in a bad mood, you can call me."

Li Ang looked at Mourinho, who was nagging in front of him, and listened patiently to his "persuasion". He was inevitably moved.

He didn't know why the head coach had become more and more kind to him recently, but he could feel Mourinho's sincere care for him.

The rigor and pressure on the training ground remained the same.

But in private, Mourinho did care about his life and growth.

As for pressure, Li Ang always looked at it from two sides.

If it was the kind of pressure that was deliberately applied to disgust people, he would certainly fight back.

But if the other party had great expectations and goodwill, hoping that you could further break through the limit and grow, and put pressure on you, Li Ang would gladly accept it.

After all, he was an uncle's soul in a young body, and he still had the ability to distinguish right from wrong and be patient.

Mourinho was also very satisfied to see that Li Ang listened to his advice without any impatience.

He liked Li Ang's "competitive" talent that has been increasingly revealed recently, and he liked Li Ang's maturity that was inconsistent with his age.

Young players who can understand things at a glance are really rare.

In terms of talent, Li Ang and Balotelli, who he coached in Inter Milan for two years, can't be compared at all.

But if Mourinho had to choose, he would only choose to train Li Ang.

For him, talent is certainly important.

But maturity in thought, harmony in communication, and firmness of spiritual will are more valuable qualities.

"Go, prepare well for the morning training, you can come to me at any time if you have something to do, don't force yourself to train, and remember to go to the physiotherapy room for examination on time!"

Mourinho finally patted Li Ang on the shoulder and sent him out of the office with a good smile.

After the morning episode, the dozen players of Real Madrid's first team found that their head coach seemed to smile more today than usual.

Of course, after the training session officially started with the same intensity, Mourinho's smile was no better than the devil's smile.

Because the South American countries did not recruit players to play friendly matches during this international match day, Di Maria and Marcelo, who indulged themselves a little during the two-day holiday, were almost trained to kneel.

When the other players completed the morning training tasks and began to rest, they still had to complete the five-kilometer running lap with a sad face.

After having the "negative teaching material", the other Real Madrid players also deeply understood a truth.

That is, Mourinho will not care what they did during the holiday, how crazy they played.

But they have to have a scale in their hearts.

Otherwise, Di Maria and Marcelo this morning may be the next time.

In the intensive preparation training, the physical and mental state of Real Madrid players have been quickly adjusted.

And Khedira, who has long recovered from injury and returned to the team, I don't know if he has a sense of crisis about his starting position.

He did not report to the German team this time, but stayed at the Valdebebas base and actively trained with his club teammates.

To be honest, his performance in training is still very good.

Although he still likes to go forward from time to time, his defense is indeed more active than when he first reported to Real Madrid.

A healthy Khedira is full of energy and can also cover a large area of ​​the midfield and backcourt.

Regardless of the actual effect, it looks quite like that.

If he is willing to focus more on returning to defense and doing dirty work.

With his current strength and hardware quality, Li Ang and Las Diarra can only play after him.

Even if Mourinho is optimistic about Li Ang, he still has to put the transformation of Khedira at the top of his work at this stage.

Li Ang may become the top defensive midfielder he likes in the future.

But once Khedira's mind "turns around", Real Madrid will now have the strongest double midfielder combination in Europe.

So after weighing the pros and cons, the coaching staff still put Khedira in the first team that trains with more main players.

When it comes to September 9, Xabi Alonso, Ramos and other first-team players who have participated in national team competitions have returned.

The starting lineups for the next round of La Liga between Real Madrid and Osasuna are almost out.

On the evening of September 11, at the Bernabeu Stadium.

Li Ang, Di Maria and Canales sat on the bench and covered their mouths to discuss.

Mourinho was very dissatisfied with the situation on the field, which was slow to open up and almost let Osasuna steal the game.

In the 42nd minute of the first half, Real Madrid still couldn't do anything to Osasuna, and the score remained at 0-0.

Real Madrid fans at the Bernabeu expressed their dissatisfaction very directly.

Boo.

From sporadic to continuous.

C Ronaldo's face was very ugly.

Benzema put his hands on his waist and looked at a "dead man" whose ability to return to defense was almost zero, and finally did not complain.

Alonso was panting in the backcourt, and at the same time tried to calm his breath.

He didn't like to complain, but Khedira didn't return to defense after the forward attack just now, and he almost couldn't help but spray him!

It was another game that required both organization and the responsibility of returning to defense.

He was not opposed to helping Khedira clean up his ass.

But this German kid always asks him to make up the position, and he didn't see any accuracy after two kicks on the offensive end.

It's better to focus on the defensive end first, strangle Osasuna's counterattack first, and then play his set to attack, so that everyone can play more easily!

Unlike the last round of stable and assured play, most of the Real Madrid players played very badly in this round of the league.

Alonso is tired, Ramos and Carvalho face more direct attacks from the opponent's forwards, and the offensive players in the front court get fewer offensive rounds and ball possession.

Thinking of this, except for Khedira and a "dead man" who didn't play in the last round of the league.

Real Madrid's stars all remembered the last round of the league, and shouted in the backcourt to remind them to be bold to grab, and he himself would be responsible for filling in the position to intercept and chase back.

How reassuring it is to have a teammate who is willing to do and can do the dirty work in the backcourt!

Ronaldo muttered a few words in annoyance.

He began to dislike this German teammate who often made forward runs.

He wanted to be the little lion!