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

Chapter 974: The Changing Guardiola

Mourinho was also very dissatisfied that the referee did not give Pogba a yellow card. He jumped up on the sidelines and yelled to the field: "Give him a card! This is such an obvious deliberate foul!"

The fourth official came up and just signaled Mourinho to retreat back to the dotted line, but did not make any comment on Mourinho's words.

This is a Manchester derby, one of the most heated derbies in the UK. It is normal for the two head coaches to vent their emotions on the sidelines. There is no need to pay too much attention. Experienced referees, even the fourth official, know how to control the situation.

The referee of the game, Mike Oliver, did not hear Mourinho's shouting, or even if he did, he did not take it seriously.

Seeing that the referee ignored him, Mourinho had no choice but to turn around and complain to his assistant coach Faria: "Damn home advantage!"

He was worried that Manchester City's rough style of play would cause Bruno to get injured, which would be a disaster for Manchester United.

Mourinho is very clear that if Bruno is injured for a long time, it is not impossible for Manchester United to collapse on all three fronts and ultimately only win the League Cup.

………………

The TV broadcast gave a shot to Manchester City's head coach Guardiola. The bald coach was now sitting in the coaching seat watching the game with a calm face. He looked quite leisurely, as if the competition on the field was not fierce at all.

No one knew that Guardiola was recalling the arrangements he had made to his players before the game.

"...Manchester United still insists on their so-called dual core, but in this game we want to make their dual core completely ineffective. To deal with Gundogan, we will use double teams. Gundogan has just returned from injury not long ago, and he must be very worried about injuries now, so as long as you are tougher in defense, it will be enough to make him retreat. The next focus is Bruno. The Portuguese has excellent passing accuracy and vision, but he has a shortcoming, that is, his physical confrontation ability is not very strong. Of course, this is relative to Paul and Rodrigo..."

In the locker room, Guardiola was emphasizing the tactics of the game to his players, and Manchester City players were listening attentively.

"Remember to use your bodies properly and control the degree of collision. It won't be easy to commit a foul. Keep putting pressure on him, disrupt his rhythm and make it impossible for him to play normally. I think as long as you keep playing like this, Mourinho will have to replace Bruno..."

He is now very satisfied with the performance of the players, who have faithfully carried out their tactical tasks.

And so far, the defense against Bruno was only the first foul, nine minutes into the game, and he was already very satisfied.

………………

Pogba's foul on Bruno won Manchester United a free kick, but Manchester United did not seize the free kick. Ederson didn't even jump, but looked up and watched the football fly high over the crossbar.

As derby opponents, they never forget to despise each other in various ways at all times.

As the game continued, because there was a lot of physical contact between both sides, the referee Oliver had to rely on constantly blowing the whistle to stop the game to control the situation.

Gary Lineker was quite dissatisfied with this and complained: "At the beginning of the game, Manchester City seemed very aggressive, but Oliver was reluctant to give out even a yellow card, which made Manchester City feel confident. When the situation became worse and worse, he still didn't give out a card. This was a disguised connivance of Manchester City! Oliver is one of Manchester City's favorite referees. In order to ensure the smooth flow of the game, Oliver often chooses to keep more fouls in a balanced state. That is, the number of fouls on both sides without stopping the game remains relatively equal. Manchester City and Manchester United both understand the style of this referee. Excessive movements are not a problem. The key is that both sides have to play a wonderful game. Oliver's law enforcement principles are very simple. I am the one who decides the trend of the game. It depends on which side can impress my love for football..."

………………

Gary Lineker was complaining about Oliver, but the game was still going on intermittently with the constant whistle blowing.

A Manchester City player on the field tackled Bruno to the ground and the referee sounded the whistle.

At the same time, the stands of the Etihad Stadium also rang with deafening boos, with the home fans thinking Bruno had dived. However, anyone who wasn't pretending to be blind knew that Bruno hadn't dived.

Bruno was taken care of by Manchester City from the beginning of the game. As long as he got the ball, Manchester City's two defensive midfielders would rush over and use their physical advantages to push him down or knock him down. Just look at the color of Bruno's red Manchester United jersey, and you can tell that he fell to the ground and rolled over a lot.

It was Pogba who fouled Bruno this time, and the French midfielder also received a yellow card for this tackle.

Gary Lineker said with a slightly sarcastic tone: "Thank God, Oliver finally took out the yellow card in his pocket to show it to others, otherwise I really thought he was a miser!"

"Finally you're willing to give a card? But you're wrong again this time. It should be a red card!" Mourinho shouted on the sidelines while making the gesture of giving a card.

The fourth official came up and reminded Mourinho again to stand back in his own area.

Mourinho vented his dissatisfaction to the fourth official: "Shouldn't this be a red card? It was a flying tackle from the side!"

"The specific penalty is decided by the referee on duty, Mr. Mourinho. Could you please move back? You have crossed the line." The fourth official replied.

Mourinho knew that the fourth official was just a robot that could only give mechanical answers and a robot that would complain in the match report, so he had no choice but to turn around and return to the coaching seat angrily.

………………

This time Bruno lay on the ground for a while before getting up.

When Pogba tackled him, he fell hard. If he hadn't rolled over several times to relieve the force, it would have been even worse. Seeing Bruno rest on the ground for a while before getting up, Guardiola smiled on the sidelines. He felt that his tactics were getting closer to success.

When Bruno realizes that he will face endless collisions in this game, his mentality will collapse.

No one wants to stay on the court and be knocked to the ground again and again.

The reason why he didn't arrange someone to mark Bruno was because if this strategy was only used by one person, that person would probably be sent off at halftime.

Now, the risk of getting a card is shared among two or even more players, so the risk is much smaller.

The game had been going on for almost half an hour before he received the first yellow card, and he was very satisfied with that.

After Bruno is taken down, he will deal with Gundogan. When the two core players are unable to play their roles, Manchester United will be close to death.

………………

In the first half, due to Manchester City's tough defensive performance, Bruno found it difficult to perform, and Gundogan did not have any outstanding performance. Although he wanted to help Bruno share the burden, such as taking a long pass to directly bypass Bruno to launch an attack, but under the opponent's double-team defense, it was difficult for him to kick the long pass accurately with his left foot.

Manchester United was at a disadvantage on the field, and the fact that they did not concede a goal was thanks to the outstanding performance of goalkeeper De Gea.

When the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, many people were surprised that the first half was over.

When they recall the first half, probably apart from the constant whistles and boos, there are Manchester United players, especially Bruno, who fell to the ground again and again, which is simply a thumbnail of the first half.

At the end of the first half, when the players from both teams left the field, the TV broadcast also gave a close-up shot of Bruno, especially Bruno's jersey, which was blue and black, and covered with dirt and grass.

The dirty jersey showed how badly Bruno fell.

"Bruno received special attention from Manchester City in the first half and had almost no performance to show for himself. I think this is a problem that both Bruno and Mourinho need to solve during the half-time break..." Gary Lineker said as he watched the shot.

………………

As soon as Mourinho entered the locker room, he walked straight to Bruno.

Bruno is being examined by team doctor McNally.

"How's it going, Steve?" Mourinho asked the busy Steve McNally.

McNally was massaging Bruno's ankle and had no time to answer Mourinho, but Bruno, who was sitting in the massage chair, answered Mourinho: "I'm fine, Jose."

"I didn't ask you!" Mourinho glared at Bruno. The players would naturally say anything in order to be able to play in the game, so their words were not credible.

McNally had finished examining Bruno by this time, and he straightened up and said to Mourinho: "They are just some hard injuries, some bruises and lumps on the body, but there is no problem, no injuries to the joints."

Bruno spread his hands and said, "That's what I told you."

………………

After receiving a positive response from the professionals, Mourinho breathed a sigh of relief. What he was most worried about now was Bruno's injury.

Not getting injured is certainly a good thing, but there is another important thing facing Mourinho.

Even if Bruno was not injured, it would not be good if he had no performance or role in the game. It would be better to replace him directly.

But Mourinho knew that once Bruno was replaced, the opponent would concentrate its forces to deal with Gundogan, and Gundogan would not be able to perform well under their siege.

Therefore, the two cores must be on the court at the same time, which can share the defensive pressure.

But if we keep Bruno on the court, how can we make Bruno perform at his best level?
Mourinho really couldn't think of a solution.

After all, Bruno's problem is that he is not strong enough, but this problem is difficult to solve within fifteen minutes.

Moreover, it is predictable that no matter how much Bruno trains, he will never become a muscle maniac, as he does not rely on strength to make a living.

Therefore, it is unrealistic to transform Bruno into a heavy tank. We can only think of other ways.

(End of this chapter)