Chapter 20: Roma vs Cagliari Without Helder But Wait a Minute Helder is Back For The Young Team?
From the beginning of the match, the Roma team would accept the game behind, on Manager Luis Enrique's instructions.
And, as his manager said, they accepted the game in half of the game.
It was Luis Enrique's only goal to quickly finish the match with counter attacks.
Luis Enrique had asked Totti to come back a little further and quickly pass the balls that he had taken and won.
A character like Totti could not adopt this kind of game.
But he wanted to see what a new manager could do.
Although Totti didn't want it, it was the captain's job to try to adapt to this tactic.
It would appear later in the match that this tactic would not work!
Cagliari understood his opponent's tactics.
They were also playing calmly.
In order not to have a counter attack, they did not attack with too many people.
Cagliari's main goal was to score goals from standing balls.
Cagliari's manager, Ficcadenti, had coached the team with a standing ball for the week.
They wanted to score from the corners and free-kicks won.
Matchmaking 30th minute…
It was perhaps the seediest Serie A game so far.
The game he played on his two teams could not be called football!
It was not what Roma expected.
Somehow Cagliari wasn't going forward with many guys.
Cagliari did not break with the discipline of the game.
But Cagliari's striker Nene pressed too much into Roma's defense and exhausted the defense as much as possible.
And the second half would be unexpected things…
***
Helder was concentrating on his team as much as possible and watching his friends.
And he knew where they had gone wrong.
The idea of a counter-attack against Cagliari was really bad.
They had to be pressed intensely and attacked with set attacks.
Because in the first half of the match, Cagliari's fullback players never attacked.
They just waited in defense.
Of course, not only Helder but many people have seen this.
This included Roma's manager, Luis Enrique.
He had changed the tactic of the second half.
"I want Totti not to come back and you guide the attack." he said.
"I ask Pjanic and Gago that you both go to the opponent's penalty area a lot. And plenty of press on the opponent. I trust both of you. " he continued.
Teams took to the field.
The second half of the match started with the whistle of the referee.
But from the second half of the match, Totti was uneasy.
As the minutes passed, Roma fans started to whistle at the footballers.
They still could not make a set attack yet.
"Come to yourself guys, we are Roma!" Totti shouted.
Of course, the players who heard this showed an instant reaction, but it didn't work either.
It was 69 minutes…
Cagliari's midfielder Nainggolan crossed the midfield with the ball in an instant.
He was advancing with the ball.
Just then…
Roma defender Jose Angel fouled Nainggolan extremely violently.
The referee showed the red card directly without hesitation.
Totti remembered the bad feelings of the second half, and sadly the feelings were right.
Roma now had 10 people left.
Roma made 2 substitutions.
They turned to the 4-4-1 tactic.
But Cagliari was encouraged because Roma remained ten people.
And they attacked one after another.
***
The Roma fans were cursing incredibly at the final whistle of the match.
There were so many yelling and whistling sounds that Helder wanted to leave as soon as possible.
In addition, fans were hearing "Return to Luis Enrique" to Barcelona.
Why were the Roma fans crazy?
Because...
Match score: Roma 1 - Cagliari 2
Roma had suffered an unexpected defeat…
Helder was thinking when he went to the facilities ...
He had a character that wouldn't give up and he wouldn't give up…
Until he got the news ...
"Hey Helder, get up, the boss wants to see you." said Daniel, one of the coaches of the A team…
Helder looked at the clock.
It was 2.30 at night.
Although Helder found the situation strange, he was gone.
He knocked on the door.
He entered the room.
Luis Enrique said one thing.
"From now on, you will be training with young teams." said…
Wait a minute?