Chapter 534 Cracks
After teasing Carrick, Mourinho began to explain the situation to Carrick: "If we press forward and continue to attack, we may score and the score will become 3:0, but we may also be scored by the opponent and the score will become 2:1 or 2:2."
Although Mourinho is confident in his team, he will not forget that today's opponent is Manchester City, a city with a strong attacking power and talented attackers such as Aguero, Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Sane and David Silva.
Of course, he can also choose to retreat as a team, but Mourinho rejected this possibility at the first time.
If there are still 10 to 20 minutes left in the game, he will make such a choice, but now it is only the first half of the game, so he can't be so conservative.
The referee's strict and fair enforcement and the excitement of Manchester City's players made Mourinho keenly capture this information and make the decision as quickly as possible.
Then he saw that on the court, captain Bruno had already led the team to implement such tactics, so Mourinho did not make any adjustments and let the players play freely.
Mourinho couldn't help but sigh. It's good for the team to have a captain with a strong sense of the overall situation. The team started to adjust before he made any adjustments. He saved too many troubles.
However, this made his presence less, but this was not a problem. If the team can continue to win and win the championship, it doesn't matter if he has no presence.
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After a pause, Mourinho asked Carrick: "What do you think of the team's adjustments?"
"The effect... is very good." Carrick thought about it and nodded in agreement.
Of course, the effect was good. The score was still 2:0, and Manchester United led Manchester City by two goals at halftime.
The most important thing is that Manchester City actually had six players get yellow cards, which will be a huge hidden danger for Manchester City in the second half of the game.
Of course, two players on Manchester United's side also got cards, but 2:6, Manchester United also made a profit.
"That's it." Mourinho smiled and said, "We need to observe the psychological changes of our opponents. Michael, you can take some psychology courses when you have time."
Carrick nodded. He felt that he understood, but looking at Mourinho's back walking in front, Carrick, who had come to his senses, was a little confused again.
He understood what Mourinho said, but he didn't understand it when he put it together. What he wanted to know was why Mourinho made such a decisive and resolute choice.
Carrick sighed. Mourinho had explained it to him, but he didn't understand it himself. It seemed that his understanding was too poor and he could only be an assistant coach for life. How about signing up for a training class and learning the psychology course that Mourinho just mentioned?
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Guardiola met Manchester City manager Soriano in the corridor.
"Joseph." Soriano stopped Guardiola.
"What's the matter?" Guardiola asked unexpectedly.
"Mr. Chairman said that this game must be won." Soriano said.
"Get him? Good!" Guardiola was already full of anger, and sneered, "Let's deal with that damn twelfth man first."
After saying that, Guardiola ignored Soriano and pushed open the door of the locker room and went in.
Looking at the door that was slammed shut, Soriano's face turned pale, snorted coldly, and turned away.
Originally, Soriano and Guardiola, who were both from Barcelona, had a good relationship. Even Guardiola was able to come to Manchester City to coach, and Soriano and his colleague Begiristain played a key role in it.
But no matter how good the relationship is, it will be destroyed when there is a conflict of interest.
In Guardiola's first season as Manchester City coach, the Blue Moon only finished the entire season in the fourth place in the league, and even almost lost the Champions League qualification, because they had the same points as Liverpool and Arsenal behind them, and only ranked fourth by luck with a goal difference advantage.
This is the worst ranking since Manchester City entered the 2010s and officially rose, and Guardiola and his tikitaka fell from the altar because of this.
The Abu Dhabi consortium was very dissatisfied with this, and Soriano and Begiristain, who tried their best to recommend Guardiola, also suffered for this. After all, the Abu Dhabi consortium originally favored Mourinho, and Mourinho is now the head coach of Manchester United and has led the team to great success.
However, Guardiola believes that the team's poor performance is mainly due to Manchester City's failure in the transfer market, in addition to Manchester United and Chelsea being too strong.
What he wanted most was Bruno, but in the summer of 2016, Manchester City's transfer team only signed Mkhitaryan for him.
Although the Armenian was the 2015-201VP, the gap between him and Bruno, the Serie A MVP, is as huge as the difference in the transfer fee between the two.
Although at an internal meeting before the season, Manchester City management still decided to fully support Guardiola, the rift between them appeared.
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Guardiola closed the door and cursed in a low voice.
He looked up at the locker room, where the players were having a heated discussion, or rather, a denunciation, and everyone was talking about the unfair penalty of the referee. It felt like if it weren't for the unfavorable penalty, they would be leading now.
Guardiola frowned.
He actually regretted accepting Soriano and Begiristain's invitation to coach Manchester City last year.
Guardiola felt that he was fooled into coaching Manchester City.
Before deciding to take over the position of Manchester City's head coach, Manchester City Chairman Mubarak and the club's general manager Soriano and director Begiristain drew a blueprint for Guardiola to form a team consisting of Bruno, Harry Kane, De Bruyne and David Silva. Guardiola found it difficult to refuse to coach this great team.
Before taking over as Manchester City's head coach, Guardiola criticized Aguero for being too fat and said that if Aguero could not lose weight, he would let him leave Manchester City. This once made people worry that he would have conflicts with Aguero after coming to Manchester City.
But as soon as he arrived at Manchester City, Guardiola immediately affirmed Aguero's status: "I will present the best Aguero."
But the actual situation is that Aguero played only 31 Premier League games throughout the season without any injuries. Among them, he started only 25 games, and played the full 90 minutes only 17 times, which is less than half of the games in the whole season. This is the season with the fewest starts since the Argentine striker joined Manchester City.
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It can be said without hesitation that Aguero is not the absolute main force of Manchester City under Guardiola!
In the Premier League, which team's absolute main striker does not start more than 30 games for the team without major injuries?
The 35-year-old Ibrahimovic started 27 games for Manchester United even though he was injured and reimbursed for the season in the 33rd round of the league in April!
As for Manchester City's midfield core De Bruyne, he started 33 games for Manchester City last season and played 36 league games. In the case of 3 injuries, he only missed 2 league games.
Another midfielder, David Silva, also started 31 league games for Manchester City and played 34 games in total.
Veteran Fernandinho also started 31 games for Manchester City and played 37 games in total.
As for Aguero's striker partner, Sterling started 29 games and played 33 times in the league.
Even the young player Sane's appearances are not much less than Aguero. The German genius started 20 times in the league this season and played 28 times in total.
Many media outlets broke the news that Guardiola and Aguero's relationship is not good. Although Guardiola often praises Aguero in front of the media, he actually hates Aguero from the bottom of his heart. Aguero is also dissatisfied with his position in the team and intends to leave Manchester City.
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From the beginning of taking over Manchester City's coaching, Guardiola encountered a reality that was much crueler than his ideal, and the differences with sports manager Soriano gradually became clear.
Guardiola wanted an all-around midfielder and named Bruno. Soriano brought him Mkhitaryan.
As for the promised Harry Kane, Manchester City did not take any action at all, but only bought veteran Nolito and young player Jesus.
This summer, Guardiola named Harry Kane, who was still at Tottenham at the time, to replace Aguero, whom he did not like.
But Soriano called Harry Kane and said that Manchester City's annual salary for him was 10 million pounds (before tax).
Then, Harry Kane said that Manchester United gave him 12 million, and Soriano replied: "Come to Manchester City and you can get the championship you dream of. You should give up money."
Harry Kane was angry and replied: "If you can give up your salary, I will go to Manchester City for 10 million."
Turning around, Soriano rejected Guardiola's choice on the grounds that Tottenham and Harry Kane "asked for a sky-high price."
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In short, in one sentence, Guardiola has been coaching Manchester City for more than a year, and he feels that it is not easy for him. He not only has to lead the team to win on the field, but also has to persevere in fighting with Soriano.
Guardiola even has no doubt that if he loses the League Cup semi-final with Manchester United, Soriano will definitely say bad things about him in front of Mubarak.
Speaking of Mubarak, Guardiola is also very angry. Bruno, De Bruyne, Aguero and David Silva, promised by the chairman of Manchester City, except for the three people who were originally in the team, the key Bruno did not come, but went to Manchester United, the city's mortal enemy.
Aguero was whispering with the captain Kompany who did not play today. Seeing Guardiola coming in, he did not react and continued to talk to Kompany.
The conflict between the Manchester City striker and the Manchester City head coach is not something that can be bridged by someone praising each other in front of the media.
Until Guardiola knocked on the table, some of the players shut up, while others continued to chat regardless.
The team captain Kompany stood up and shouted, and the players gradually quieted down.