I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 509: Chapter 10: Center Stage

Under Pellegrini’s coaching, Real Madrid reached the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, won the league and King’s Cup, bringing a double crown to Real Madrid.

But this season, Mourinho, the ”world’s number one coach,” has arrived at Bernabeu.

Everyone believes that Real Madrid will become invincible.

At least, Mallorca won’t be a match for Real Madrid.

But what’s the reality?

In the first La Liga match, Real Madrid’s opener, Mourinho’s Real Madrid drew away against the opponent.

There were even two instances where, if not for Real Madrid’s good luck, they might have swallowed a defeat away.

People noticed the disharmony among Real Madrid’s players.

Without Chen Zhong, Real Madrid is like scattered sand.

On the field, they created a sufficient number of ”opportunities,” each showcasing their personal abilities, but losing team coordination.

They dribble for the sake of dribbling, shoot for the sake of shooting, perform for the sake of performing.

This was Real Madrid’s performance against Mallorca.

Before this match, many believed Real Madrid’s new season was a successful pairing of a successful coach with successful players, or a top-notch coach with top-tier players.

Many even thought that Real Madrid could claim the Triple Crown this new season.

However, this 1+1 effect didn’t seem greater than 2.

Numerous fans who initially didn’t want Pellegrini to leave have started reminiscing about him.

They think that if it were Pellegrini, the team definitely wouldn’t have ended with a draw.

After all, Pellegrini is famous for his steadiness in the league, and although in the just-concluded league, Pellegrini’s Malaga was defeated 1-3 by Valencia.

But in that match, Malaga was the first to score and maintained a one-goal lead for a considerable amount of time.

The goal was scored by Baptista, playing the role Chen Zhong did last season.

It’s just a pity that Baptista is no longer the player he once was. In Sevilla, coach Caparros moved Baptista from Defensive Midfielder to Attacking Midfielder, greatly improving his goal-scoring rate.

In the 2003-2004 season, he scored 20 goals in 30 La Liga league appearances, ranking second in the season’s scorers list, helping the team secure a UEFA Europa League qualification.

In this match, many believed if Pellegrini had Chen Zhong under him, Valencia would definitely not be Malaga’s match.

Yes, Chen Zhong indeed has the capability to elevate the team to another level.

Precisely because of Malaga’s performance in this match, many fans believe Pellegrini understands Chen Zhong the best, at least Malaga under his coaching played more attractively than Mourinho’s Real Madrid.

The La Liga debut, 0:0, opponent Malaga.

The ”world’s number one coach” who has won the Triple Crown twice, Mourinho, couldn’t hide the disappointment on his face, but compared to disappointment, he was mostly calm.

When he appeared at the post-match press conference, facing the murmuring journalists.

The ”Storm Man” showed no fear, only found it somewhat amusing.

Even though Mourinho now vaguely holds the ”number one coach” title.

But his coaching career so far includes 6 teams, only Chelsea and Porto achieved victories in their opening matches, while Inter Milan had draws in both opening matches over two years. Faced with such a ”hellish start,” Mourinho was already accustomed.

When people started asking, ”Master Mu, what exactly happened?”

Mourinho neither ”apologized” nor ”got angry,” instead, he calmly stated that he was satisfied with Real Madrid’s performance against Mallorca.

He even emphasized the team’s defensive aspects, expressing, ”In defense, we didn’t face any issues, especially in the first half, we sent many players forward, leaving counterattack space for the Mallorca Team, yet our defense was still decent.”

”Our defense line stood the test.”

”And that was in the absence of Chen.”

This comment caused a stir among the journalists below, as Chen Zhong’s offensive abilities have become increasingly known, and Mourinho’s words seemed to suggest he wants to further unleash Chen Zhong’s attacking capabilities?

Last season, Chen Zhong as a midfielder already recorded quite a terrifying stat.

Though some believe he focused on weaker teams too much.

People anticipated Mourinho’s next words, and he indeed pointed out that Real Madrid’s main issue in this match was the midfield and forward’s goal-scoring capabilities.

This statement resonated with some but more people looked at Mourinho with different eyes.

After all, it’s obvious that Real Madrid’s main problem in this match was that Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain both didn’t want to play secondary roles.

These two didn’t cooperate much.

But Mourinho’s words seemed to place the problem on newcomer Ozil, though from a certain perspective, Mourinho wasn’t completely wrong.

If only Chen Zhong were in that position.

The Portuguese and Argentine wouldn’t make trouble, they’d cooperatively and harmoniously be good brothers.