From the man behind the football king to the football king.

"Curse?" Mourinho was a little surprised when he heard the word from Bruno. He had not thought about this before. For him, he does not believe in supernatural things. He is an atheist.

"We just haven't had much luck lately," he said to Bruno.

Bruno can't say whether he believes in these "mystical" things, he has no feeling at all. But in reality, football is indeed connected with these magical things.

In Africa and South America, there are full-time wizards, and some teams will invite these wizards to the stadium to practice before playing against their rivals, so as to ensure that the team wins.

There are also some wizards who will cast spells on a star out of disgust for the star, such as cursing him to suffer a serious injury in the future.

Europeans are not far behind when it comes to stadium superstitions. Several big football countries have their own famous examples in this regard.

For example, Manchester United's upcoming opponent, Chelsea, their captain Terry always sits in the same seat on the team bus before the game, listens to the same CD, and always parks his car in the same parking space at Stamford Bridge; Manchester United, Inter Milan and Liverpool player Paul Ince will only wait until he walks out of the tunnel before putting on the match jersey; England international James likes to pee on the wall before the game; Three Lions legendary striker Shearer only eats two kinds of food before the game: chicken and beans .

There is another more famous "superstition" in German football, and that is the German's "lucky coin."

Although Germans are not very superstitious in general, they do believe that piglets, chimney sweeps, four-leaf clovers, and horseshoes have some mysterious power. Likewise, the German copper coin "Pfennig" ” also has the same effect.

The Germans came up with this idea after the German team suffered a 2002:1 defeat at home to England in the 5 World Cup qualifiers. Germany's copper coins have long been considered to have some incredible magical powers, so the Germans decided to use this magic on the court.

The editors of Bild came up with the idea before Germany's crucial play-off match in Ukraine. They buried a penny in the penalty area of ​​the Kiev stadium and it has been like a charm ever since. The German team drew with Ukraine 1:1 in Kiev, defeated its opponent 4:1 at home, and won the World Cup ticket.

In the World Cup in Japan and South Korea, this coin still plays an important role. It helped the German team, which was not optimistic before the game, to pass all the way and reach the final.

However, this coin does not always work, and they lost to Brazil 0:2 in the final.

The French superstition is even more successful. In the 98 World Cup, France's center back Blanco would always kiss goalkeeper Barthez's bald head before the game to pray for good luck.

This approach worked very well, and the French team finally won the first World Cup championship in their country's history.

………………

Regarding Mourinho's disapproval, Bruno also shook his head and said: "I don't know why, but a series of unfortunate incidents did affect the atmosphere in the locker room."

When Bruno first heard Lingard mention the "curse", he didn't pay much attention. But when Manchester United was once again held to a draw by the mediocre Anderlecht in the away game, and some incredible situations frequently occurred in the team, leading to the rise of "curses" again, Bruno decided to have a talk with Mourinho. Talk about this.

Mourinho also knows that these things have affected the atmosphere in the locker room, as well as the team's morale and combat effectiveness.

The team's performance during this period cannot be said to be good. Compared with the first half of the season, it can even be described as "bad".

After entering March, Manchester United played a total of 9 games in all competitions. Although they did not lose, there were 5 draws. In the 43 games before this, Manchester United failed to win only 3 games.

You know, in the nine games in March and April, apart from encountering Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-finals, Manchester United did not encounter any strong opponents.

But how to solve such a thing? Should he ask a wizard to do it? joke. Manchester United is a club managed with modern concepts. Not only he himself, but also the club owner Mr. Jassim would not agree to this kind of thing.

Mourinho looked at the still empty training ground and fell into silence.

………………

Although Manchester United was praised by many people for their outstanding performance in the first half of this season and believed that their revival brought new strength to British football, when they began to be unlucky, many people gloated.

In fact, this is the same as Manchester United during the Ferguson era: when you become stronger, more and more people will naturally hate you, although at the same time, more and more people will like you.

"Bruno stated twice that his goal is the league championship. I think if he really wants the league championship, it is better to transfer to Chelsea, even to Manchester City. There is no future in staying at Manchester United. This team has been After people have thoroughly studied it, they return to their original shape..."

"In fact, Mourinho has been very successful at Manchester United. He has led the team to win the League Cup, and has also suppressed Chelsea and other Premier League giants in the Premier League standings for a long time. As we all know, the teams he leads basically have to be in the second place. He only started to break out in the second season, and this was true from Porto, Chelsea Phase I, Inter Milan, Real Madrid to Chelsea Phase II. In Porto and Inter Milan, he also won the Champions League in the second year; in the league championship at Real Madrid, It was Barcelona who overpowered Guardiola, scoring 100 points and 121 goals."

……

There are various voices in the media, and some even seem to be excusing Manchester United and saying good things, but the central idea is one thing: they are not optimistic about Manchester United's next game.

………………

Mourinho has not yet figured out how to change the atmosphere in the locker room, but Bruno, as the core player of the team, cannot watch the team's morale drop.

Especially in the next game, they will face Chelsea. This game is widely regarded as the battle for the Premier League title this season.

If Manchester United can win at home, they will establish their absolute advantage in the Premier League standings. But once they lose, they will lose the initiative to compete for the Premier League title.

The current Premier League standings are as follows:

曼联30场25胜4平1负，积79分排名第一；

切尔西31场24胜3平4负，积75分排名第二；

热刺32场21胜8平3负，积71分排名第三；

利物浦33场19胜7平7负，积64分排名第四；

曼城32战18胜7平7负，积61分排名第五；

埃弗顿33战16胜8平9负，积56分排名第六；

阿森纳30战15胜6平9负，积51分排名第七。

Although Manchester United still has 4 points more than Chelsea with one game less, it seems that they have a relatively large advantage, but once they cannot defeat Chelsea at home, they will actually have no advantage.

Because in the next seven games, Manchester United will also have strong dialogues with Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City, and they are all away from home. Manchester United cannot guarantee victory in these three games.

In comparison, Chelsea's league opponents are generally relatively weak, namely Southampton, Everton, Middlesbrough, West Brom, Watford and Sunderland. Except for Everton, they are all The middle and lower reaches of the Premier League teams.

What's more, Manchester United is still fighting on three fronts. Both the Europa League and the FA Cup will affect Manchester United's energy. If they are not careful, Manchester United will face a tragic situation where all three fronts collapse.

Because Chelsea's performance last season was so poor, there is no European competition this season to take away their energy. In addition, they are out of the FA Cup again and only need to focus on the Premier League. This puts them at a clear advantage both physically and mentally.

………………

Bruno doesn't want this battle with Chelsea to be the beginning of the team's losing streak at the end of the season. He must do something.

Although he is not the captain of the team yet, because Manchester United's three captains have played less and less this season, he has gradually worn the captain's armband in some games, and has slowly become the core and spiritual leader of the team. .

With this status, it is also his responsibility to boost the team's morale.

On Friday, after the afternoon training, everyone returned to the locker room.

During this period, the atmosphere in the locker room was less active than before. Everyone was affected by failure and the so-called "curse theory."

Just when everyone was changing clothes with their heads down, Bruno stood up and clapped his hands.

In the relatively quiet locker room, his slap was loud and everyone heard it. They looked up and looked at Bruno who was standing.

"Why are you two so frustrated? Are we going to be downgraded?" Bruno's words stunned everyone.

By the way, if Bruno hadn't said that, I would have thought our league ranking was very bad, but in fact our current league ranking is...

"We are now ranked first in the league and maintain a 4-point advantage with one game less. This is still something to be proud of. Why do you have to be downcast?" Bruno asked, pointing to everyone.

"Of course I feel sorry for the injuries of Mata and Jones, but how can there be no injuries in football? Maybe I will be injured in training tomorrow? This is not a reason for us to be discouraged. We performed so well, why should we feel Are we the ones who are frustrated? Don’t listen to what the media says, they are good for nothing but creating stunts to attract attention!”

As Bruno grew up, the media has always played both positive and negative roles in him, and controversy has always surrounded him. In addition, his transfer choice was also unexpected, leaving everyone guessing.

He knows the media very well.

Finally, Bruno said: "I think no matter how many people are injured or suspended, as long as we can still get eleven players to play, there is no reason to behave like this."