[football] walk side by side

After a short holiday break, the next day's training was as usual.

Cyril arrived at the training ground early in the morning as before to prepare for the activities in advance. During his warm-up period, other players of Porto's first team also rushed to the stadium one by one. Everyone greeted each other briefly , put into their own simple warm-up activities.

At this moment, the coaching staff of the first team has not yet arrived, so the players are generally more relaxed. A few people are running around the stadium while chatting about their holiday experiences. It came over and hooked his neck, almost causing him to fall.

Cyril turned his head, looked at Jorge Costa who had caught up with him at some point, and said helplessly, "...Captain?"

Captain Porto smiled and winked at him: "How does it feel to be protected by Mr.? Do you suddenly feel that the world is full of love?"

Under Cyril's bewildered gaze, another Costa approached - Ricardo Costa quickened his pace to catch up with the two of them, and said with a smile: "You can see that you didn't read today's newspaper, right? On today's "Porto Business Daily", the gentleman reprimanded those sloppy media. I used to think that Mr. Mourinho was a very harsh and unreasonable coach. I really didn't expect it Mister will still have such a warm side."

Then, with the help of the two Costas in the team, Cyril successfully borrowed the "Porto Commercial Daily" that Costa said from the Porto training ground guard, as Porto's half team newspaper, "Porto Commercial Daily" "Didn't focus on accusing Cyril, they focused more on Jose Mourinho, who brought Porto to the top of the Portuguese Super League.

What appeared on the homepage of the "Porto Business Daily" was a brief interview with Mourinho, which read:

Reporter: First of all, congratulations to Mr. Mourinho's team for winning again and consolidating Porto's top position.In this matchup against Benfica, you played a young teenager Cyril Slade. As far as I know, his performance does not seem to be satisfactory. What problems did he encounter in Porto?

Mourinho: I think Cyril Slade can walk out of the Dragon Stadium very proudly. The assist against Benfica is very important. It helped us get three points instead of one. And the most important thing is that he played this year Only 16 years old.I don't understand why some media always like to criticize my players. In fact, I think they are talking nonsense-since my coach is very satisfied with my players, then what qualifications do they have to judge?

Reporter: You mean to say that you are satisfied with Cyril Slade's performance?

Mourinho: Why not?I think he's done as much as he can, and I believe he's about to do more than he can't do now.Overrated genius?On the contrary, you will soon discover that you have not overestimated Cyril Slade's ability, but underestimated his potential. He can do even better than you imagined.

Reporter: So do you think he will be a superstar?Like Luis Figo?

Mourinho: As long as those media who don't understand and pretend to understand can shut up, I believe that everything is possible.

"How is it, are you moved by what the husband said?" Costa patted Cyril's shoulder and teased with a playful smile.

Cyril's mood is a bit complicated at the moment.

On the one hand, he didn't expect that the first person to make such a high evaluation of him would be a coach he thought would hate him. On the other hand, he was also a little helpless... Is it really okay, sir, to shoot so directly?The media is probably going to blow up now...

"Anyway, although I believe in your control and grasp of your mentality, you can probably be quiet for a few days now. It is estimated that the group of media should focus on fighting with Mr., and have no time to talk to you." Jorge Costa explained with a smile.

Cyril hesitated for a while, then asked: "Sir, does he often do this?... I mean, turn all the blame on yourself?"

"If you mean to bring all the conflicts from the outside world to yourself so that the players can concentrate on playing football without any distractions, I think so." The Porto captain blinked at him: "Don't look at Mr. Difficult to get along with, he's actually a nice guy."

Before Cyril had time to say anything, a whistle from the coach stopped everyone.

The coaching staff headed by Mourinho had all gathered on the court at this time, and the players also trotted to the coach one by one, spontaneously forming a row.

"I'm very glad that none of you are late today, and you have done the preparatory activities I requested in advance. This is a good habit, and it can help us save a lot of time." Mourinho said, sweeping his eyes calmly. After passing every player, after seeing everyone's energetic faces, a look of satisfaction appeared on his face: "Very good, let's start aerobic training directly."

Unlike some coaches who use twelve 20-meter sprints as aerobic training methods, Mourinho has always played three-on-three confrontation matches on a field with a side length of [-] meters. While achieving the purpose of aerobic training, Also exercise the player's confrontation ability.

These trainings are no different from previous trainings. Cyril, who has been in the first team for nearly a month, is also fully familiar with Mourinho's training methods. Therefore, after a series of trainings, although Cyril's performance is not top-notch, But among a group of adult players who are much younger than him, he can be regarded as above-average.

After the simple training, it is the daily practice of group competition within the team, with every 45 minutes as a round.

The difference is that the grouping this time is different from the previous ones.

Mourinho will not use the color of the jersey to distinguish the main players and the substitutes in the confrontation. His principle has always been to decide who to play based on the player's ability and state, but the difference is that this time, Porto's midfielder soul Germany Ke, and Cyril were also assigned to the red group.

This somewhat subversive grouping made all the players look strange-you know, in Porto's first team, Deco has always been the absolute core of Porto's midfield, but now, Mourinho has Cyril and Deco's partner, if it is not a whim, then the meaning of it is very meaningful.

Especially in the match against Benfica, Pedro Mendes, another midfielder who was replaced by Cyril, looked a little ugly, but still didn't say anything-as early as the first season of taking over Porto , Mourinho has successfully let all the players understand what the price of rebelling against the head coach will be.

"I don't know if you still have any impression of the game against Benfica the day before yesterday," Mourinho said to the group where Cyril and Deco were. "All you have to do is continue the way you played that day."

"Next, the training begins."

With assistant coach Faria's opening whistle, Kapushu from the red team quickly dribbled the ball forward, and Costinia from the yellow team quickly rushed up. Kapushu originally wanted to try to pass Kos directly But the two of them are too familiar with each other. Faced with Kapushu's many fake moves, Costinia was unmoved. In addition, he rushed too hard, and the teammates who responded at this moment did not After catching up, he had no choice but to pass it on to Cyril.

From the moment the game started, Cyril was full of Mourinho's instructions, but as the saying goes, haste makes waste, the more you think about something, the more you don't come——

Costinia, who accelerated to catch up, broke the football decisively from Cyril's feet. He was a little surprised by Cyril's hesitation, but this was a game after all, and Costinia had no time to think about it. Player, he passed the ball directly to Pedro Mendes, who is also in the yellow group.

And such a scene appeared more than once in this 45-minute game.

"Jose, could it be that you made a mistake?" Faria couldn't help asking: "Why do I feel that Cyril doesn't seem to be suitable for partnering with Deco? Their performance in this game..."

It's a disaster level.

"No," Andre Boas put forward a different opinion: "It's not so much that the two are not suitable for partners, it's better to say that Cyril didn't react at all." He pondered: "Actually, think about it carefully, It is unavoidable, it is as if you want a conservative person to suddenly think about problems in an advanced way, if you want to reverse it in a short time, I am afraid it will not be so easy, this kind of psychological inertia is not something we just say can be changed at will.”

"But this kind of change is very necessary." Mourinho stared at the court. Just now, Cyril was robbed again: "The biggest difference between a player with excellent talent and a player with top talent is that He does not lack this ability, but long-term compromise has obliterated his instinct for flashes of inspiration, and it is not enough to change this process overnight."

Silvino heard a different meaning from Mourinho's words: "Jose, how do I hear you mean..."

At this time, the players are still training on the court, and all the people standing on this side are members of the coaching staff, so Mourinho said without any scruples: "Yes, I want to help Cyril Slade .”

Let alone Faria at this moment, even Andre Boas, who has always been optimistic about Cyril, was a little shocked: "Jose, you are not joking, right? Righting Cyril? You want to use him Replace who? Pedro?"

Faria also had an expression on his face, and he even frowned slightly: "Jose, I always thought that the interview in the newspaper was just something you said casually... It turns out that you are really optimistic about Cyril Slade You know that he is only 16 years old now, considering his experience in competitions and his current ability, he wants to replace Pedro Mendes, this... this is too crazy!"

"So I need your help, guys. I need another training program for Cyril Slade himself." Mourinho smiled, and it was a confident smile, just like he said to him at the press conference. Everyone announced that Porto would become the champion with such a sure smile: "Give me a little time, I will let you see a brand new Cyril Slade."

"His talent is beyond the capacity of a small Portuguese Super League."