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

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 concede a goal and the score will become 2:1 or 2:2."

Although Mourinho is confident in his team, he will not forget that his opponent today is Manchester City, a team with strong offensive power, including Aguero, Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Sane and David Silva.

Of course, he could also choose to retreat as a team, but Mourinho rejected this possibility at the first opportunity.

If there were still ten or twenty minutes left in the game, he would make this choice, but now it is only the first half and he cannot be so conservative.

The referee's strict and fair enforcement and the Manchester City players' excited emotions were keenly captured by Mourinho, who made the decision as quickly as possible.

Then he saw that captain Bruno had already led the team to implement such tactics on the field, so Mourinho did not make any adjustments and let the players play freely.

Mourinho couldn't help but sigh that it was 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, and he saved himself a lot of trouble.

However, this made his presence less noticeable, but that was not a problem. If the team could continue to win and win championships, it would not matter if he did not have any presence.

………………

After a pause, Mourinho asked Carrick: "What do you think of the effect of the adjustments made by the team?"

"The effect... is very good." Carrick thought about it and nodded in agreement.

The effect was of course good, the score was still 2:0, Manchester United led Manchester City by two goals at halftime.

The most important thing is that six Manchester City players were given yellow cards, which will be a huge hidden danger for Manchester City in the second half of the game.

Of course, two players from Manchester United also received cards, but with a score of 2:6, Manchester United also made a profit.

"That's all." Mourinho said with a smile, "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 he understood. However, looking at Mourinho's back as he walked in front of him, Carrick came to his senses and felt confused again.

He understood everything Mourinho said, but when he put them together, he didn't understand. What he wanted to know was why Mourinho was so decisive and resolute in making such a choice.

Carrick sighed. Mourinho had explained it to him, but he didn't understand it. It seemed that his understanding was too poor and he could only be an assistant coach for the rest of his life. How about signing up for a training course and learning the psychology course that Mourinho just mentioned?

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Guardiola met Manchester City manager Soriano in the corridor.

"Joseph." Soriano called out to Guardiola.

"Is there something wrong?" Guardiola asked unexpectedly.

"The chairman said we must win this game," said Soriano.

"Get him? Great!" 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, he snorted coldly, turned around and left.

Originally, Soriano and Guardiola, who both came from Barcelona, ​​had a good relationship. In fact, Guardiola was able to come to Manchester City to coach, and Soriano and his colleague Begiristain played a key role in it.

However, no matter how good a relationship is, it will be destroyed if a conflict of interest arises.

In Guardiola's first season as Manchester City coach, the Blue Moon only finished fourth in the league and almost lost their qualification for the Champions League because they had the same points as Liverpool and Arsenal behind them and only managed to rank fourth by virtue of their goal difference.

This is Manchester City's worst ranking since its official rise in the 2010s, and Guardiola and his tikitaka have fallen from the altar as a result.

The Abu Dhabi consortium was very dissatisfied with this, and Soriano and Begiristain, who tried their best to recommend Guardiola, also suffered a setback. After all, the Abu Dhabi consortium originally favored Mourinho, who is now the head coach of Manchester United and has led the team to great success.

However, Guardiola believes that the main reason for the team's poor performance, in addition to Manchester United and Chelsea being too strong, is Manchester City's failure in the transfer market.

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 Bundesliga MVP in the 2015-2016 season, the gap between him and Bruno, the Serie A MVP, is as huge as the difference in their transfer fees.

Although Manchester City management decided to fully support Guardiola at an internal meeting before the season, rifts between them did emerge.

………………

Guardiola closed the door and cursed under his breath.

He looked up at the locker room, where the players were having a heated discussion, or rather, a denunciation, about the unfair penalty of the referee. It felt as if they would be leading if it weren't for the unfavorable penalty of the referee.

Guardiola frowned.

He actually regretted accepting Soriano and Begiristain's invitation to coach Manchester City last year.

Guardiola felt that he was tricked into coaching Manchester City.

Before deciding to take over the position of Manchester City head coach, Manchester City chairman Mubarak, club general manager Soriano and director Begiristain drew a blueprint for Guardiola of 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 head coach, Guardiola criticized Aguero for being too fat and said that if Aguero could not lose weight, he would be asked to leave Manchester City. This 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 reality is that Aguero played only 31 Premier League games throughout the season with almost no injuries. He started in only 25 of them and played the full 90 minutes only 17 times, which is less than half of the games in the entire season. This is the season with the fewest starts for the Argentine striker since joining Manchester City.

………………

It can be said without exaggeration 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 any major injuries?

The 35-year-old Ibrahimovic started 4 games for Manchester United even though he was ruled out for the season due to injury 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 made 36 league appearances. Despite three injuries, he only missed two league games.

Another midfielder, David Silva, also started 31 league games for Manchester City and played a total of 34 league games.

Veteran Fernandinho also started 31 games for Manchester City and played a total of 37 league games.

As for Aguero's striker partner, Sterling started 29 games and made 33 league appearances.

Even young player Sane's number of appearances is 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 have reported that Guardiola and Aguero do not have a good relationship. Although Guardiola often praises Aguero in front of the media, he actually already hates Aguero from the bottom of his heart. Aguero is also dissatisfied with his position in the team and intends to leave Manchester City.

………………

From the very beginning of taking over as the coach of Manchester City, Guardiola encountered a reality that was much crueler than his ideal, and his differences with sports manager Soriano gradually became clear.

Guardiola wanted an all-around midfielder and mentioned Bruno's name, and Soriano brought him Mkhitaryan.

As for the originally promised Harry Kane, Manchester City did not take any action at all, but only bought veteran Nolito and young player Jesus.

This summer, Guardiola specifically asked Harry Kane, who was still at Tottenham at the time, to replace Aguero, whom he did not like.

But Soriano called Harry Kane and told him that Manchester City offered him an annual salary of 1000 million pounds (before tax).

Then, Harry Kane said that Manchester United offered 1200 million, and Soriano replied: "Come to Manchester City and you can get the championship you dream of. You should give up the money."

Harry Kane got angry and replied: "If you can give up your salary, I will go to Manchester City for 1000 million."

Soriano then rejected Guardiola's choice on the grounds that Tottenham and Harry Kane were "asking for an exorbitant price".

………………

In short, in one sentence, Guardiola has been coaching Manchester City for more than a year and he feels very tormented. He feels that his life is not easy. He not only has to lead the team to win on the field, but also has to fight Soriano unremittingly.

Guardiola had no doubt that if he lost the League Cup semi-final against Manchester United, Soriano would speak ill of him in front of Mubarak.

Speaking of Mubarak, Guardiola was also very angry. The Manchester City chairman promised Bruno, De Bruyne, Aguero and David Silva, but except for the three people who were originally in the team, the key Bruno did not come, but went to the city's arch-rival Manchester United.

Aguero was whispering with captain Kompany, who did not play today. When he saw Guardiola come in, he did not react and continued talking to Kompany.

The conflict between Manchester City's striker and Manchester City's head coach cannot be resolved by just praising the other in front of the media.

Until Guardiola knocked on the table, some players shut up, while others continued chatting regardless.

The team captain Kompany stood up and shouted, and the players gradually quieted down.