From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 931 The Devil's Schedule Again

With Manchester United eliminating Tottenham and entering the League Cup semi-finals, Manchester United's games before Christmas have all ended. They did not play on Boxing Day this year, and the first game after Christmas will be at 12 pm on December 27. At that time, they will visit St. James Park to challenge the Premier League upstart Newcastle United.

This means that Manchester United players will have a rare week of rest, because Mourinho disbanded the team in London, and the time for regrouping is 19 am on Boxing Day, when Manchester United will begin preparing for the th round of the Premier League match against Newcastle United.

After Mourinho announced the disbandment of the team, Bruno did not rush back to Manchester, but went to Heathrow International Airport. There, Vanessa and Liu Yimei, each with their children, were waiting for Bruno on their Gulfstream G550 private jet.

This Christmas, Bruno and his family will fly to their private island Cabbage Island in the Caribbean to spend a quiet and beautiful holiday.

According to the plan, their family of five will stay on Cabbage Island for three days and fly back to Manchester on Christmas Eve.

Although the distance from Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, to Manchester, England is nearly 7000 kilometers, it is an easy direct flight for the Gulfstream G11000 private jet with a range of more than 550 kilometers.

And because the Gulfstream G550 business jet has a cruising speed of up to Mach 0.85, the journey only takes about 8 hours, which is about an hour faster than ordinary civil airliners.

………………

After spending a wonderful Christmas on Cabbage Island, Bruno and his family boarded a private plane again on Christmas night and began their return to the UK.

After nearly eight hours of flight, at six in the morning on the 26th, Bruno walked off the plane full of energy.

For Bruno, the journey was simply a sleep away before the plane arrived at Manchester International Airport.

After having the bodyguard team send Liu Yimei, Vanessa and their two children back to Bruno's villa in Manchester, Bruno went straight to the Carrington training base to prepare for the team training this morning.

In the past, Bruno could start his training arrangements directly, but since becoming Manchester United captain, he has a lot more work to do.

These tasks are the responsibilities of the team captain, and they are inevitable if you want to be a qualified captain.

After completing these preparations, Bruno entered the gym and started his training session.

The other Manchester United players only started arriving at the Carrington training base at 8:30.

However, Mourinho enforces discipline on the team very strictly, so no one dares to be late.

There were people who had tested Mourinho's bottom line before, but the results were terrible. They were directly sent to the reserve team by Mourinho for a month and were not allowed to return to the first team for a whole month.

Since then, no one dared to challenge Mourinho's authority.

When it comes to strictly enforcing team discipline, Bruno is firmly on the same front as Mourinho.

As a man who once wore a military uniform, Bruno knew too well the importance of discipline to a team.

Moreover, Bruno was also very clear that before he traveled through time, Manchester United had paid a heavy price because of its poor team discipline management in the post-Ferguson era.

Therefore, after becoming the captain of Manchester United, the first thing Bruno talks to every new player, including young players promoted from the youth team, is that they must abide by team discipline, otherwise they will be severely punished.

………………

After a four-day holiday, the team regrouped and the first thing they did was a physical examination.

This is what Mourinho repeatedly reminded us of before the holidays, because the English League will face the most devilish Christmas schedule, and this year's schedule is quite terrifying.

Manchester United's schedule is: on the evening of the 27th, they will challenge Newcastle United away in the 19th round of the English Premier League; on the evening of the 30th, they will play against Burnley at home in the 20th round of the Premier League; on the afternoon of January 2nd, they will play against Wolves at home in the 21st round of the English Premier League.

In just six days, Manchester United will play a total of three league games!

Moreover, among these three teams, Burnley and Newcastle United are relegation teams, while Wolves are a team competing for a European place.

Everyone knows how difficult it is for Premier League relegation teams, especially those halfway through the season.

In order to stay in the Premier League, or to survive, they will really fight with you!
The other team, Wolves, have been the dark horse of the Premier League in recent seasons and have always been a strong contender for a European spot. Their fighting power is unquestionable.

At such a sensitive time as the Christmas devil schedule, no one dares to take it lightly when facing these three teams.

………………

Of course, this is only the Christmas devil schedule in a narrow sense, that is, the Premier League played during the New Year after Christmas. But the Christmas devil schedule in a broad sense is far more than that.

After these three league games, Manchester United's schedule throughout January is very busy.

On the evening of January 1, the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals, away to Chelsea;

On the afternoon of January 1, the third round of the FA Cup, home game against Aston Villa;
On the evening of January 1, in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final, we will face Chelsea at home to compete for the qualification for the League Cup final;

On the afternoon of January 1, in the 15nd round of the Premier League, we will face Aston Villa away;
On the evening of January 1, in the 18th round of the Premier League, Manchester United challenged Burnley away. This was because Manchester United was going to play in the Club World Cup in February and the league was brought forward.

On the afternoon of January 1, in the 22rd round of the Premier League, Manchester United played against West Ham United at home;

On January 1, in the 26th round of the Premier League, Manchester United played against Southampton at home. This was also because Manchester United had to play the game in advance because of their participation in the Club World Cup.

If Manchester United can beat Chelsea in the League Cup semi-final, then their 25th round of the Premier League on the last weekend of February is likely to be brought forward to the evening of January 1.

That is to say, in just 12 days from the evening of December 28 to the evening of January 1, Manchester United is likely to play 30 games, one game every three days!
Don't think that things will stop here. In February, Manchester United's game tasks will not be easy at all. At that time, they will really start fighting on five fronts: the Premier League, the Champions League knockout stage, the Club World Cup, the FA Cup, and the League Cup final!

………………

"Our biggest advantage is that we made a lot of rotations at the beginning of the league, which made us more physically fit. Besides, both our main players and some substitutes were in good shape."

Chief assistant coach Faria explained to the players before the training session.

"But no matter what, we must not be careless."

At the same time, the coaching staff also stated that Luke Shaw, who was seriously injured before, will not be able to return to the team before the Christmas schedule as expected. The current forecast given by the coaching staff is that it will take until mid- or late January at the earliest, and it may even be until February.

This is definitely not a good thing for Manchester United.

Luke Shaw is the main left back of Manchester United. After his injury, Dalot had to fill in. However, Dalot was not a regular left back. Manchester United introduced him as a substitute for Cancelo. It was just because Mourinho could not trust Williams, the original substitute left back, so Dalot had to be used as a guest left back.

However, with only two full-backs, Cancelo and Dalot, it will obviously be difficult for the team to survive the devilish Christmas schedule.

Whether it is three games in six days or eleven games in thirty-three days, even a man as strong as Bruno can't handle it.

………………

Mourinho is also making two arrangements for this. On the one hand, he is arranging rotations. Not only Gundogan and Kante, but also other players such as Bruno will enter the rotation lineup. The purpose is to maintain the overall competitiveness of the devil's schedule.

If the players get injured again, then in February, facing the unprecedented situation of fighting on five fronts, Manchester United will not have to play at all and can just surrender.

Therefore, Mourinho gave the team four days off this time so that everyone can have a good rest and adjust their body and mind.

On the other hand, Mourinho is also trying to arrange other people to play as full-backs, such as Swedish central defender Lindelof. During training, Mourinho arranged this player to play as a full-back to test the effect.

In addition, Mourinho is doing his best to urge the management to operate transfers and recruiting as much as possible, and to strengthen recruitment in the winter transfer window to prepare for the second half of the team.

Everything is going on in an orderly manner.

Bruno does not dare to be careless at all, even though this is the sixth devilish winter break schedule he has experienced since joining the Premier League. But everyone who has experienced the devilish winter break schedule of the Premier League knows that experience is sometimes useless because there are always unexpected situations.

Whether it is playing three games in six days or eleven games in thirty-three days, it is definitely a tough test for all professional players.

………………

Manchester United did not rush to Newcastle a day in advance. Although Manchester is located in the northwest of England and Newcastle is located in the northeast of England, the straight-line distance between the two cities is only 180 kilometers, and the entire journey by highway is about 230 kilometers. It takes more than two hours to take the team bus, and an hour to take the team plane, including the journey from the airport to St. James' Park.

Manchester United set off from Carrington Training Base to Manchester International Airport at 27pm on the th and boarded the team plane that was waiting there. After a half-hour flight, they arrived at Newcastle International Airport and then took the team bus that had arrived earlier to St. James' Park for pre-match field adaptation training.

The team's head coach Mourinho and captain Bruno set off before the team because they had to attend the pre-match press conference. They took an R66 helicopter provided by Prince Jassim to the Manchester United club.

(End of this chapter)