At the 2018 World Cup on home soil, the Russian national team was recognized and praised by the whole world, especially for their perseverance and resilience against the favourites Spain in the first round of the knockout round, which made everyone know more about this so-called fighting nation.

In addition, many players in the team, such as high school striker Dzyuba and Cheryshev who came off the bench in the opening game to score a wonderful goal in the front line, can be said to have made a name for themselves in world football, not to mention the midfielder Golovin born in 1996 was sought after by many giants including Juventus before the end of the tournament, as if he was the next top superstar.

However, the squad has not changed much, and it can be regarded as almost the same team, but after entering the preparation cycle for Euro 2020, it suddenly becomes as if it does not know how to play.

In the UEFA Nations League held in the second half of 2019, the Russian men's football team, which was divided into the second group of the B League, turned out to be in the competition between Sweden and Turkey, with only 1 draw and 3 losses, and unsurprisingly ranked at the bottom of the group, and had to be relegated to the C League in the next competition. At the same time, their world rankings have also shown a significant downward trend, which makes the group situation of the qualifiers or finals for the future World Series extremely unfavorable.

In the 2019-20 European Championship qualifiers, although the Russian men's football team still failed to regain its peak form in the World Cup, it has more or less recovered. However, there were two strong opponents in the group: Belgium and Denmark, which were really difficult to resist, so after the qualifying battle, Russia only finished third in the group and missed out on qualifying. (Europe's 55 national teams are divided into 10 groups, and the top two teams in each group have a total of 20 teams to advance to the European Championship finals)

Thankfully, Denmark won the UEFA Nations League B final and secured a direct ticket to the European Championships, leaving the Fighting Nations behind them in qualifying to be on the last train as substitutes.

Fans are hoping that the team can gradually improve on the basis of the quarterfinals of the World Cup, and the huge gap between reality and ideal has caused the mentality of all Russians to be unbalanced, and even the experienced national team coach Cherchesov cannot control the situation within his ability.

In a warm-up match on May 27, the Russian men's football team faced Northern Ireland, which is not very strong at home (the reference is the whole of Europe, and has nothing to do with the men's football team of the Celestial Empire), not only failed to play a technical and tactical advantage, but the morale of the players also seemed to have problems, and they were almost pressed to the ground by the away team and rubbed. In the end, the Russian team, who showed no desire to win, suffered an ugly defeat, and the score of 0-2 no longer cared, because everyone thought that the future of this team was almost certain to be hopeless.

It was in this situation, with disappointment, helplessness and indignation at himself and his players that the 57-year-old Cherchesov suddenly fainted after the game. After emergency treatment in the hospital, although there was no life-threatening situation, the first symptoms of cerebral hemorrhage had appeared, and he was told not to engage in work that was easy to be nervous and excited, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

In the end, after the joint pressure of doctors and family, Cherchesov made the decision to resign after careful consideration, on the grounds that his health was seriously poor and he could not recover in a short time.

Although the loss of the head coach at this critical moment is certainly very detrimental to the national team's journey in the European Cup, Spain's temporary change of coach before the 2018 World Cup is the most classic case, but the Russian Football Federation has no other choice but to agree to the resignation request. After all, the illness of the meritorious coach is there, no matter how important the team's results are, it is not as important as a person's life, so the next problem is to find a successor or a backstabber as soon as possible.

Igor Shalimov, the coach of the Russian Premier League team Krasnodar, the coach of Lokomotiv Moscow Yuri Shomin, the head coach of Dynamo Moscow Dimitry Koklov, and even Moscow. The coach of the Central Army, Belarusian Goncharenko, has become the focus of the Football Association's contact. Yes, not for an inspection, but for direct contact. Because of the time, there is no time for further argumentation, as long as you can get one of the better managers in these domestic leagues, it will be considered a complete task.

And just when the Football Association stayed up late and worked overtime in the hope of finalizing the new coach as soon as possible, their boss Comrade Vladimir suddenly made a suggestion, since it is no longer necessary to choose a Russian head coach in the selection of coaches, then why can't you consider the Celestial Empire who has just become a dad?

As for why Mr. President has such a proposal, it is natural that he is also a big fan of Li Mudi. Because of the close relations between the two countries over the past 10 years or so, Comrade Fu is still quite concerned about the various situations in neighboring countries, and naturally he will not fail to hear about the former Turin coach who has become popular throughout the Chinese region in the past two years.

What's more, when he went to the Celestial Empire for a state visit in the summer of 2019, he heard praise and comments against Li Mudi from the mouth of *** at a dinner, which deepened his impression of the football coach who jumped up at a rocket-like speed.

This time, there has been a major change in the men's football team in his country, and even if he is not a die-hard football fan, Comrade Vladimir still hopes to reap a relatively good result. In his opinion, although there are many candidates suitable to take over the national team coaching whip in China, they cannot let people see the hope that the team will get back on track in a short period of time. It's better to take a big gamble and see if the Celestial Empire, who is often considered to be able to always perform miracles, can continue his achievements in Spain and Italy.

So under the suggestion (pre) of Mr. President, the Russian Football Association contacted Gines at the first time, and then the Minister of Sports Korobkov personally reached Li Mudi's mobile phone and conveyed Comrade Fu's full sincerity to him, which surprised Li Mudi, who was already a little happy in taking care of his daughter.

However, he finally made the initial decision soon and agreed to take over the hot potato of the Russian men's football team, and officially announced that he would come back to the mountain.

As for the reason, it's simple. One is that he can't always carry out his father's career at home, even if there is no invitation from the Russian men's football team, according to the original plan, he will return to coach the club this summer. Now there is a chance to return to the eyes of everyone in this high-profile way that has attracted the attention of global football, and it will be of great benefit for him to be able to get a big club recruitment.

No, when he led the Russian national team, which had been struggling in the slump for nearly two years, to win the first victory in two months with a strong 3-1 warm-up match against Slovenia, Arsenal's head of football relations, Raul Sanlej (a former Barcelona director, a close confidant of Laporta, and a key figure in the La Liga giants' defeat of other rivals to bring in Neymar in 2013) flew to the temporary residence of the Russian men's football team in Glasgow, Scotland.

It turned out to be another lightning signing, with the Gunners signing their new manager on a three-year contract with an annual salary of £4.5 million plus a variety of variable bonuses of £1 million after tax. Of course, the transfer right has also returned to the hands of the team's head coach after experiencing the unlucky man of Emery, which is the right that Li Mudi must control in his own hands.

The details of the signing with Arsenal, we will talk about it in detail later, and first bring the topic back to the reason why Li Mudi took over the Russian men's football team, this reason has received an immediate effect, and the rest will play a subsidiary role.

The second reason is that he personally admires the superb political skills of Comrade Vladimir. Healing skills and strong masculinity, coupled with the fact that the two countries are now in a close relationship, they are willing to form a good relationship when the other party encounters great difficulties, because even if they fail to turn the situation around, at least they will not make the other party feel dissatisfied, after all, this is the behavior of a dead horse as a live horse doctor.

The last reason is that the sincerity of the other party really makes it difficult for him to refuse. Not to mention what happened next, only from the signing on May 29 to the end of the European Championship, in just 45 days, the Russian Football Federation agreed to pay 1.5 million euros in after-tax remuneration. This price calculation adult salary is 12 million, including the club, which is already ranked among the top ten in the world, how can it not make Li Mudi, who hopes to earn more milk powder money for his daughter, tempted.

Of course, it is not only these external reasons to take over this team, but most importantly, the real level of the Russian men's football team is not as bad as they have shown in the past two years.

Although the legendary defenders have completely withdrawn from the national team after the 2018 World Cup on their home turf, judging from the ability values given in the FM system, the current batch of Russian internationals can barely be regarded as the second-rate in Europe.

Zagoyev, Smolov, Mario Fernandez and Cheryshev are all in the prime of their careers between 28 and 30 years old, supplemented by a new generation of internationals such as Golovin, Zobnin, and the Milanchuk brothers who have become the main players of the team after the World Cup, plus veterans such as Akinfeev and Dzyuba who have maintained good form, just looking at the main lineup, the level of the Russian team can still bring a lot of difficulties to those strong teams.

It's just that after the withdrawal of Ignashevic, Zhirkov and Samedov, the team's bench seems to be difficult to find reliable players, even without scouting tools, Li Mudi can clearly find that the football environment of the fighting nation is also suffering from a similar problem as many other countries, that is, the lack of talent in the future.

At least in the summer of 2020, their new national team manager failed to find a player under the age of 22 who had the quality to establish himself in top leagues such as Italy and Spain, even if it was difficult to rotate in a relegation team.

Fortunately, Li Mudi's goal only needs to be for this European Cup, even if the next two warm-up games are counted, the guarantee is only five games. As for the subsequent knockout rounds, he thinks that if he is lucky enough, the quarterfinals will be the limit, and he will only play six or seven games, and it seems that it is not completely impossible to put Baodu on the main players. Although he hates this way of using a lineup, the situation is stronger than people, and he can only compromise once as a last resort, after all, victory is the most important thing.

So after making a comprehensive consideration, Li Mudi combined all kinds of information given by the FM system and finally decided to go on this trip to troubled waters (at least many European media think so).

Since the registration list for the European Championship had been submitted before he took over, Li Mudi did not get room to operate in this regard, but fortunately, the 23-man squad selected by the former Cherchesov and the Football Association was basically the best choice, and the new coach did not face additional problems, which can be regarded as a blessing in misfortune.

With the medal effect provided by the plug-in (after a hugely successful 2018-19 season in Torino and an increase in experience points, but not to the point of promotion, so the effect is the same as in his final year in charge of Serie A, so I won't be too much to say here), he quickly embraced his tactical ideas with the players. It's just that Cherchesov has been using a back four formation in the four years of coaching, in order not to cause new adaptation problems for everyone, so Li Mudi maintained the original 4-2-3-1 position of the Russian national team, but the speed and investment in defensive counterattacks are far higher than those of his predecessor.

To this end, he took Dzyuba from the starting line-up the high-school striker who rose to prominence at the World Cup two years ago and has since occupied the main striker position, and corrected Krasnodar FC striker Smolov, who has reached 16 in both speed and explosiveness, behind him, Golovin and Cheryshev are first-class attackers with a combination of skill and speed on both flanks, and Alesek Miranchuk in the front midfield only plays an over-linking role in most cases, but the occasional forward can also have a surprise effect.

It was with this set of defensive and offensive tactics that Russia accumulated a lot of confidence and boosted the team's morale by winning against a relatively weak Slovenia. After that, he had the last laugh in the match against the Nordic tough guy Norway, and the score of 2-0 finally relieved everyone who cared about this team.

In this way, three days before the opening ceremony, the Russian men's football team defeated Estonia 6-0. Li Mudi started his Euro 2020 journey with three consecutive wins in warm-up matches, and the real test of his return this time has just arrived.