Chapter 273: Against the No. 2 Mortal Enemy
On Friday night, Li Mudi, who returned to the apartment, had a rare online video connection with his girlfriend for less than half an hour after dinner, which is not to say that there is any problem in the relationship between the two people, but that he has other important things to do.
At half past eight, the Torino coach picked up his mobile phone on time and dialed his good friend Zinedine Zidane, who had just finished preparing for tomorrow's game against Valencia and finally had time to deal with additional matters.
Real Madrid's current situation can be said to be a joy and hidden worries, the Champions League semi-finals drew the city rival Atletico Madrid, although in the last two years they have not had as much advantage over the Sheets in the league as they did more than ten years ago, but in the European battlefield, it is a veritable Atletico nemesis, the first two times to win the Big Ears Cup, in the final are the same city opponents. So when this set of matchups is released, the general opinion of the outside world is that the defending champions can reach the final for two consecutive years, but Simeone's team has always been good at playing against the wind, and it is really difficult to say who will advance.
In the league, Real Madrid, which used a large rotation to ensure the physical condition of the players after the winter break, once got a three-point advantage over the second-ranked Barcelona with one less round, which can be said to be quite good. But who would have thought that last weekend's national derby would have a shocking scene, Real Madrid, who could have basically locked up the league title with a draw, wanted to force a big attack at the end of the game, but the plum ball king seized the last counterattack opportunity and completed a wonderful stunner in the second minute of injury time. The shot of him holding his shirt with both hands and gesturing to the crowd at the Bernabeu has also become a classic celebratory move.
This directly led to the Galacticos being directly overtaken by their opponents in the standings by goal difference, and the only advantage they have now is the replay game away to Celta Vigo, considering that it was this opponent who knocked them out of the last four of this season's Copa del Rey, and the situation of La Liga to win the championship instantly became delicate.
However, this is not the most troubling thing for Zizou, although he has done his best to match the playing time of those attackers up front, it is inevitable that he will be treated differently against opponents of different strengths and weaknesses, and Morata and Ronaldo rarely have the opportunity to start in the game of the strong dialogue, which has also caused displeasure among the two players.
The BBC has always been the best attacking combination in the minds of Real Madrid's top management and even many fans around the world, even if Bale always has a mysterious injury in the soleus muscle, Isco, who has the advantage in the issue of contract extension, has taken advantage of the situation and has become a key player in the heart of the team's manager by relying on continuous excellent performances. Coupled with Ronaldo's unique position in the team and Zizou's "superstition" about his fellow countryman Benzema, Spain's "new Raul" and Colombia's super forward can only exist as rotation players with tens of millions of dollars. According to Gines, both of their agents have already revealed their departure in the transfer market, hoping to get a major commitment from a giant club in the summer.
For this level of big names, even the world's top Real Madrid can't force it to stay, if there is really a suitable next family to take over, if it doesn't work, it will have to be released obediently. And the loss of these two capable attackers would immediately drop more than one level of squad depth this season, which will definitely have a very serious impact on the results in the years to come.
Fortunately, Li Mudi introduced a group of young talents to the team last year, and Mbappe's amazing performance in Monaco this season has been recognized by the media as the new king, and the central defender Melle who is on loan at Sporting Gijón and the winger Zivkovic who is on loan at Alaves have also played well. Add to that Asensio, who returned last summer, and Jesus, who found form in Torino, and Real Madrid can still gamble on these youngsters next season and not be too passive.
After receiving a series of thanks from his friends, the Torino coach said that it would be boring to talk too much about the relationship, so he put his thoughts and ideas out, and he still set his sights on the lads of Real Madrid and Castilla, hoping to continue to loan a few players who have not yet been able to get a chance in the first team next season.
Centre-back Diego Llorente, young midfielder Marcos Llorente and Croatian Mateo Kovacic, who have been on loan for the last two seasons, are the players Lee would like most. However, after a moment of contemplation, Zizou only spat on the first player, the latter two of which will have a place in the team next season, and it seems that the club will not let go for the time being.
With Rayo Vallejo set to return to the Bernabeu in the summer, the acquisition of Diego Llorente would only mean a one-for-one exchange, which would not be enough for the Torino team, which could make a big change at the back. So Li Mudi hit Pepe with the idea, he hoped that his friend could pass on a kind attitude to the already famous warrior in the middle, to see if there was a chance to make the other party accept a large salary cut, so as to shine in Serie A.
In this regard, Zidane said that the difficulty is not ordinary, and he can only say that he tried his best, but the effect was hardly satisfactory. Because the monk has always wanted to reach a new two-year contract with Real Madrid, he has claimed that he can reduce his annual salary, and has also turned down invitations from many clubs, waiting for Lafayette's change of heart. Just looking at the face, it is really difficult for outsiders to see that Pepe is such a loyal and good player, but the approach of Real Madrid's top management is too chilling, thinking of the previous Hierro, Raul and Cassie, the construction of club culture has indeed been a big problem.
Of course, Qi Zu's side was not always in a passive situation, he still incarnated as the most qualified salesman, and recommended two defensive black holes to his friends who were already bound to be sold. Portuguese Coentrão and Brazilian full-back Danilo, these are the two big burdens that Real Madrid will take the initiative to push into the transfer market in the coming summer.
Since arriving at the Bernabeu in the summer of 2011 for another €30 million, Coentrão has only played more than half of his games for Real Madrid in his first season, and his record has been declining every year since, until it became a joke that he only played 297 minutes in the whole of last year. Due to a "brain-dead" contract extension, his contract will not expire until 2019, which makes the world's Meilinger crazy, hoping that the team will dispose of it as soon as possible.
In order to avoid occupying the registration place, Qi Zu also hoped to at least loan the player out, and it happened that Li Mudi called to ask for support from his parent team, so he took the opportunity to throw this trouble to the latter, which is really a standard loss friend!
As for "Dani Leak", although he barely completed the substitute task during Carvajal's injury, when he joined the Spanish giants with an even more exaggerated 31.5 million euros on New Year's Day 2015, he has not been able to win the hearts of fans, especially at critical moments, he always makes mistakes and concedes goals for the team, so the annual transfer window has been rumors of switching to his team. This season, he was evaluated by the outside world as a man with his own 0-1 halo, which made Danilo, who was already competing for Carvajal in the position of right wing-back, extremely frustrated, and moved the mind to leave, Real Madrid gave the green light, but asked the buyer to bid with enough sincerity.
Qi Zu also pretended to be generous and said that if he sold it to other families, he wouldn't open his mouth if he didn't have 22 million, but if the Turin team wanted to buy it, for the sake of his old friend's face, he would ask Lafayette to give him a discount, 18 million would be fine, which would be regarded as the support of his buddies.
Li Mudi replied angrily on the phone: "18 million let me buy a big colander, your conscience is very bad, I will only consider looking for this money, otherwise let me play!" ”
After the joke, the two exchanged tactical ideas in the recent period, which ended today's call.
Despite the acquisition of a Diego Llorente with a potential that is not as good as Vallejo but is even more powerful, the Torino coach has not fulfilled his previous expectations, and the free support he received from Real Madrid is still too little. However, this is not that Qi Zu is unwilling to help, but the Galaxy Battleship has tasted the sweetness of using the new generation of players in the past two seasons, hoping to take advantage of the opportunity of rotation to cultivate a large number of successors for the aging Ronaldo, so some good seedlings in the academy are reluctant to go out on loan, and they are constantly recruiting talents from other teams, which looks like they want to build a youth guard.
However, it is not that they can't count on this "mother's family" completely, because Real Madrid is likely to usher in a big adjustment this summer, then there will inevitably be original players who will be marginalized, and if the price is not large, the Torino team still has a good chance to pick up a leak.
Before Li Mudi set the recruitment plan, he still sorted out the list in the team this season to see which players are bound to leave and which ones are ambiguous. The sooner the number of players is settled, the more detailed the transfer plan will be, but due to Torino's outstanding performances this season, more than half of the players in the squad have caught the attention of other clubs.
If you call up the FM system, you can see that many players in the team list are marked with the word "interest" in front of their names, and many of them are stronger than the Red Bulls. This brings a lot of variables to the team coach when making a plan, and it is almost impossible to come up with a feasible plan, and it takes a lot of time to formulate corresponding countermeasures for every player who may leave.
Fortunately, Saturday's game is just around the corner, allowing him to temporarily break away from the mess of transfers, and the historical feud between Sampdoria and Torino, coupled with the 2-0 defeat away to each other in the first round of the season, this Serie A opener still deserves special attention from the Torino manager.
Giamboro's side had an impressive start to the second round, beating Roma 3-2 at home in the 22nd round, AC Milan by one goal away in the 23rd round, and then winning three and drawing two in succession, until the defeat to Juventus ended their seven-game unbeaten run. However, after killing Inter Milan in the thirtieth round of away shocks, Samp's form began to decline inexplicably, with 1 draw and 2 losses in the last three rounds, and the last round was lost to the relegation team Crotone, and the local media and fans were naturally not very satisfied with the team's performance.
Thankfully, they have a special opponent: the Red Bulls, the third most competitive club after city rivals Genoa and second rivals Bologna, and Sampdoria will be hoping to use this game to change the team's previous slump and regain the winning feeling.
In this regard, Li Mudi said at the pre-match press conference that the other party is obviously thinking too much, the home record of the Torino team can be ranked in the top four in Serie A this season, and so far it has only lost to the old lady once, with the cheers of the fans, the Red Bulls have the confidence to fight against any opponent to the end. And judging from the current state and strength of both sides, it is also the home team that has an absolute advantage, and the odds given by the bookmaker are a proof of this. Therefore, the home team aiming to attack the Europa League ticket will never give their second arch-rival any chance, and winning is the only task for Torino today.
The war of words between the two sides started before the start of the game, and although the results between each other were very different, the special hostile relationship made the smell of gunpowder quite sufficient, attracting the attention of many neutral fans. With Juventus playing the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals in midweek, their clash with Atalanta will also take place on Saturday afternoon, coinciding with the Du-San match, so it will inevitably be a race for ratings. And after this hype, the game, which was originally much less attractive and topical, has become high-profile, which can be regarded as a benefit to the broadcaster.
Judging from the starting line-up announced before the game, the visiting coach Gianpaolo is still sticking to his usual 4-3-1-2, but with a slight adjustment from the meeting between the two sides last year. Portuguese full-back Pereira, who was bought back by his former club Benfica on the last day before the winter window closes, netted Samp with a net profit of €2.5 million from the player in a year and a half, and Beresineski, who joined from the Polish league in January, became the starting right-back today.
In midfield, former Paraguayan veteran Barreto suffered a slight muscle strain in the last league game and was not included in the squad for this game, and 22-year-old Polish Linetti was replaced.
The striker is partnered with Quagliarella by Czech star Schick, the original main Colombian Muriel has been out of action for a month and a half due to a hamstring injury, but Schick once broke Joe Hart's goal in December last year, and this group of matchups is also very interesting.