Chapter 35 Positive Competition
Just when Li Mudi was still very distressed about how to deploy Castile's lineup, his friend Zizu's life could not be said to be too easy.
In addition to the attitude of Lafayette, the main reason for Benitez's dismissal was that the league results did not meet the desired goals of the club's management and fans, and the home defeat to the bitter rival Barcelona was a fatal blow to the worse. But the results in the Champions League are not bad, and they deserve the praise of the king of the cup. In the Champions League in the 15-16 season, Real Madrid was placed in Group A, and the three opponents were Paris Saint-Germain, Shakhtar Donetsk and Swedish champion Malmo. In the first four rounds of the group stage commanded by Bei Shuai, Real Madrid won three and drew one, and did not concede a goal, has locked the qualification place in two rounds in advance, and has achieved the advantage of one win and one draw in the face of Paris in two legs, if no miracle happens, the position of the top spot in the group can also be said to be firmly in hand. But Zizou's first official game after taking over was on November 26 against Shakhtar Donetsk (FC.Shakhtar Donetsk), who could only fight for a place in the Europa League, although they scored all three points, they were scored three goals by the home team, and they conceded three goals in the last thirteen minutes when Real Madrid was leading 4-0. After the game, Zizou was scolded by many media, and some even claimed that it was better to let Benitez stay in office. However, fortunately, the team did show strong dominance in the first 77 minutes of the game, both mentally and technically and tactically much better than before, so most of the media were still more objective and did not worsen the situation. Li Mudi also posted two messages in a row on his Twitter to support his friends, but unfortunately the number of people who followed him after he appeared on the front page of Marca Newspaper was still less than 100,000, and he had no influence at all.
Fortunately, the first-team opponent in the league at the weekend is Athletic Eibar, a team that played Castilla in the warm-up games before the start of the season and is at the bottom of La Liga, and with Real Madrid's quality, it will not be too difficult to win even if they play away from home.
Coincidentally, Castile's next opponent is also one of the underdogs in the league - Getafe C.F., S.A.D. B, whose first team is now underperforming in La Liga, and the reserve team is second from bottom in La Liga and is in danger of relegation. The main formation of the Getafe B team is 4-4-1-1, with a single midfielder and a single striker, and the core player is midfielder Darlan, who is on loan from Vitoria, Brazil. The model of this player is the Brazilian star Emerson, who is all-round in attack and defense, and has no shortcomings. But in Li Mudi's eyes, the Brazilian guy who is only 21 years old and not a super genius is still not enough, and omnipotence means that there are no particularly outstanding aspects. In the lower leagues, such a player will be the absolute core, but in the world of top football, it is difficult for a person without a skill to stand on his feet, even if he is all-round such as Gerrard and Lampard, they each have the world's top technical characteristics, long passes, long shots, and runs are all super-giant levels, what is the use of a player with all attributes at 13 or 14 points? Therefore, in the selection and training of young players, Li Mudi looks down on this kind of guy with ten fingers and not long.
Truth be told, Castilla's rookie coach didn't take this opponent seriously, and when he used scouting tools at the beginning of the month, he didn't write much information about Getafe B in the record book, even if there were no special notes on several players who needed to be focused on, the strength of this team can be imagined. Of course, this is not arrogant, after all, after a few months of training matches and the return of Mbappe and Odegaard, Castilla's strength can already establish itself in the middle of the second division, and the weak team in the second division is really difficult to pose any threat to them.
On Sunday, November 29, at 19:00, in the fifteenth round of Group 2 of the La Liga B, Castile hosted Getafe B. Before the game, Li Mudi and visiting coach De La Red, who had previously worked for Castilla and Under-19s, were warmly embraced.
Castilla's starting line-up for this game: goalkeeper Yáñez, right wing-back Forlan, central defenders Hector and León, left-back Abner, central midfielders Odegaard and Toro, forward Enzo, right winger Alvaro, left winger Mbappe, center Mariano.
After 14 rounds, Mbappe and Mariano are second and joint fourth in the scorer list with 9 and 8 goals respectively, but both of them have not played many games and missed a lot of games in the late and early stages respectively, so they are the top killers in this league in terms of efficiency. It was the first time the two had started together in an official match, and the clash of positions in the first team and the reserves, combined with the competition for the scorers' charts, gave the two of them a great desire to attack in the game, and in turn, the visitors' defenders suffered.
In the fourth minute, Alvaro crossed from the right, and Mariano was fouled by the referee when he jumped up to fight for a header. Carbonier lay on the ground with his ribs clutched on his face, and lay down for a while with the help of the team doctor before he could stand up, but fortunately nothing major happened.
In the 11th minute, it was Mbappe who received Enzo's through ball, stepped into the penalty area in two steps, and easily pushed the goal one-on-one in front of the goalkeeper, but unfortunately the linesman at the far end had already raised the flag to signal offside, and the goal was blown away. The Frenchman wanted to argue with the referee, but he received a yellow card because he was too focused just now and didn't hear the referee's whistle, and he still completed the shot after he was offside. Enzo saw that he was still a little angry and wanted to protest to the referee, so he hurriedly ran over and pulled the stunned boy away.
Li Mudi on the sidelines didn't worry too much when he saw this scene, he knew that it was all because the young man hadn't played for a long time before, and he had no place to hold back his energy, as long as he released it moderately. Mariano, on the other hand, felt a lot of competitive pressure, making movements a little tight, too much force, and this situation will slowly ease as the game progresses.
Aside from these two men, the home team was also firmly in control of the situation on the pitch, almost pressing all 11 players of the visiting team back into the half, using skillful coordination and relatively exquisite technique to try to knock on the defensive fortress of Getafe B again and again, but always by the slightest margin.
In the 31st minute of the first half, the first goal was belated. Odegaard inserted to attract the defense and split the side, Mbappe received the ball and cut inside, forced to get rid of the full-back who followed the defense at the position of one step on the sideline of the penalty area, and directly kicked the ball, the ball was just kicked out by him and touched the feet of the central defender Angel who rushed to make up for the defense, and then bounced high, but went straight to the middle. The Dominican international used his physical advantage to beat Carbonier's header on goal, but the goalkeeper was unable to turn the tide, and with this Mbappe's indirect assist for Mariano's goal, Castilla led the visiting Getafe B 1-0 at home.
After the goal, the players of the home team gathered around to celebrate, which eased the tension between the two before, and Mbappe also clapped his hands with Mariano before parting, although they were all poker faces, but they still made Li Mudi look at it in his eyes and be happy in his heart.
After the restart, the visitors were unable to organise an effective attack, making mistakes after a dozen passes and ceding possession. And the home team's side has finally increased their cooperation with each other with the ice-breaking between Mbappe. It turns out that there are coaches who have seen the two of them as the next pair Raul and Morientes are very discerning. In the 40th minute, after Enzo and Mbappe switched positions, the left side of the bottom wiped past the defender and crossed, Mariano in the middle of the one-to-two, struggling to return the ball to the point, Mbappe received the ball in the arc of the penalty area, immediately strode to the goal, and easily scored the ball five meters from the goal. 2-0, the home team extended their lead.
At half-time, Li Mudi did not hesitate to praise the performance of the players and also focused on encouraging the two goalscorers. Solari used the remaining time to analyse the team's attack in the final period of the first half, pointing out that after the connection between Mbappe and Mariano, the overall offensive effect was significantly better, and the team's options became more diverse.
In the second half of the game, as the cooperation between the players became more reasonable and efficient, Li Mudi's ideal offensive tactics were finally realized. Imagination, speed, strength and teamwork, Castilla, with all their firepower, finally showed their fatal fangs five months after the new manager took charge. As long as he can maintain this form in future competitions, Li Mudi can guarantee that his name will have a chance to be engraved in people's memories after the season.
In the 62nd minute, Mbappe cut inside on the left and shot from a distance of nearly 30 meters from the goal, but unfortunately was blocked by the crossbar and missed a world wave;
In the 67th minute, Enzo's free-kick was headed towards the goal by Hector, and after being saved by the away goalkeeper, it was swept into the goal by Toro, who was ambushed at the back post, 3-0.
In the 74th minute, Enzo made a direct pass, Mbappe dribbled the ball past three people, and after attracting the goalkeeper to block, knocked the ball into the middle, and Mariano followed up and easily sent it into the empty goal. 4-0, after the goal, Mariano pounced on the back of the French youngster who selflessly assisted him, and cheered heartily.
In the games that followed, the home side created a number of chances, but they couldn't find the back of the net again. In the end, Castilla defeated Getafe B by four goals at home to continue their march up the league standings.
Kylian Mbappe and Mariano are tied for second place in the scorers' charts with 10 goals each, just one goal away from first place.
In the post-match interview, when faced with a question about the dispute between the two strikers, Li Mudi defined the relationship between the two as an active intra-team competition, which has brought great help to the team and can promote mutual learning and improvement together, which he is very happy to see.
Later in the day, Real Madrid won 2-0 away at Athletic Eibar, the only bad news was that the main right-back Carvajal was injured in the 85th minute and is likely to be out of action for a month......