Mancini, a striker in his player days, is not inherently a conservative coach in his heart!
Saying he is conservative is something he does out of necessity.
Who wouldn't want to play beautiful attacking football?
Who wouldn't want to earn the reputation of being a master of attacking tactics in front of tens of thousands of fans with exuberant offensive play?
Since coming to Inter, Mancini has implemented a conservative approach due to the current squad configuration, a compromise he had no choice but to make.
Even so, deep down in his heart, he still desires to play attacking football.
In fact, during the first period of Mancini's Inter, the 2006-2007 season, Inter was indeed playing attacking football.
That year, they retained the Serie A title with a team record of 97 points.
Throughout 38 Serie A matches, Inter astonishingly scored 80 goals!
With an average of more than 2 goals per game!
It's an extremely rare occurrence in the defense-focused Serie A Alliance.
Since 2007, in the following seven years, no Serie A team has been able to break the single-season 80-goal league record.
"I want to win the Serie A Golden Boot!"
"I want to become the youngest Golden Boot in the century-long history of Serie A!"
So, in November 2014, when Mancini returned for a second term and had a one-on-one conversation with Icardi in his office.
The ambitious words of the Argentine forward instantly captured Manqiao's heart!
Mancini has emphasized more than once to his assistant coach Herrera:
"A team that wants to win the championship must have a strong forward who can score 20-30 goals in a single season."
During the first period of Mancini's Inter, that person was Eevee;
After coaching Manchester City, that person was Aguero.
And on the first day of his second term at Inter, Mancini identified that this person would undoubtedly be forward Icardi!
Mancini has a keen eye for talent, and his team-building skills are truly world-class.
Even though Icardi scored only 9 goals last season, even though the over-thirty main Inter forward Palacio scored 19 goals in the entire season.
But sharp-eyed Mancini concluded that the future flag bearer on the Inter frontline wouldn't be Palacio, but only Icardi!
Although on the surface Mancini hasn't shown any indication, nor did he publicly compare Icardi with Palacio to the media.
But the team-building strategy centered around Icardi began to sprout in his heart from the first day Mancini arrived at Inter.
Especially after he participated in several training sessions with Inter, he became even more firm in his thoughts.
Icardi's sense in front of goal is absolutely top-tier in Serie A!
Wanting to coach successfully at Inter in the future, Icardi is the most important piece for Mancini.
"Push forward, move up!"
Mancini issued short but determined instructions from the sidelines, signaling the players to intensify their attack in the remaining minutes.
Assistant coach Herrera nervously suggested:
"Boss, we're already leading 3-0, and the match ends in 5 minutes. This is Rome's home ground, if we continue to attack, I'm afraid the opponent will make larger moves..."
"Why are you scared," Mancini said with a disdainful smile, "Totti with his hot temper is off the field, no other Rome player can cause big waves, let's just play!"
After receiving Mancini's instructions, Inter pushed up all three lines.
The happiest was undoubtedly Icardi.
Merely one goal was not enough to satisfy his ambition.
Hernanes scored one, Palacio scored one, Icardi was not content with merely being on par with them.
"Tang, keep it coming, you deliver, and I'll kick it in for you!"
Tang Long naturally wouldn't miss this chance to fiercely hit Rome.
The Red Wolf had already been beaten down, and with Totti off the field, they were down a man.
Now is the time to hit the opponent, to boost Icardi's stats, when else could it be?
In the second minute of injury time, Inter utilized their numerical advantage in formation, Rome was once again tightly compressed within their penalty area.
No matter how Inter's midfield managed the opponent in the 20-meter area outside the penalty area.
Rome remained inside, refusing to come out.
The one handling the management, Hernanes, seemed extremely patient.
Whenever the ball came to his feet, he was always mindful of the other's defense positioning movement, attempting to discover gaps within.
"Look here!"
Icardi glanced at the Brazilian midfielder and then immediately dashed forward!
However, he had already crossed the offside line before he saw Hernanes's pass.
Feeling frustrated, Icardi looked towards the counterpart, only to receive a single-hand downward gesture, signaling him not to rush, accompanied by a smiling face.
Clearly, the Brazilian midfielder wouldn't easily play a through ball without a clear gap.
"Too conservative, my position was perfectly fine!"
Icardi couldn't help but lament to Tang Long.
On the sidelines, Herrera stood beside Mancini, arms crossed in front of him.
"Boss, look, Rome's formation is very compact now, retreating very deeply, this kind of conduction is hard to penetrate, Hernanes wants to draw the opponent out, Rome won't fall for it since losing to us by three goals at home is already at the limit that their management can endure."
"Hmm, they're like a can of compressed biscuits, packed very tightly."
"I'm guessing this score will hold until the end of the match."
"Not necessarily, no matter how tight the can is, there's always a knife to pry it open."
"But Hernanes isn't passing threatening balls anymore, his passes are leaning towards being conservative."
"Herrera, the person to open the can doesn't necessarily have to be Hernanes."
In Mancini's view, Hernanes is a very outstanding passer.
Especially his control over the midfield distribution, it's top-notch in Serie A.
However, he's not perfect.
Having coached for many years, Mancini knows well that to break through Rome's compressed defense, simply relying on probing from outside the penalty area would not lead to substantial breakthroughs.
The key is the sudden change in pace!
To pry open this tight can, what's needed is an unexpected, deadly strike.
Mancini had a vague expectation.
This person to deliver the deadly strike wouldn't be Hernanes, not Kovacic, nor Inter's wing-backs Jonathan and Yuto Nagatomo, and certainly not the rough-footed Medel;
If he had to choose someone, Mancini would put his bet on Tang Long!
This was an intuition from a former top Serie A striker.
Time reached the 94th minute.
The last minute of regular time.
Inter launched their final wave of attack.
Icardi was anxious, as he still hadn't opened his second goal account;
Tang Long was also anxious because Hernanes hadn't given him possession for a long time!
Since the time Tang Long's cross from the flank accidentally resulted in a penalty.
Perhaps because he didn't follow his orchestration, Hernanes, who controlled midfield possession, rarely passed the ball to Tang Long after that.
Time ticked by second by second.
The referee already had the whistle in his mouth, watching the clock.
Ready to blow the whistle to end the match at any moment.
Tang Long quickly thought on his feet, running to the edge of the penalty area, he shouted to Hernanes:
"Prophet, look over here!"
Hernanes had his back turned, he was originally ready to pass the ball on the left flank with Jonathan and then wait for the match to end.
But upon hearing someone call his nickname loudly, he quickly turned his head and saw Tang Long waving at him, "Prophet, Prophet, give me the ball!"
People in the workplace like to be complimented, and professional players are the same.
Hernanes immediately chuckled.
Good heavens, this young Chinese lad actually knows my nickname!
Seems like the fame of being a football prophet has spread all the way to distant China?
Heh heh heh~
I truly am well-known far and near.
Pop!
Facing the incoming ball from Hernanes.
Tang Long's brain was rapidly processing with the aid of AI!
The space available to Tang Long was indeed very small now.
There were two Rome players right behind him, quickly closing in on Tang Long.
This was to block Tang Long's turning space instantly!
As long as Tang Long couldn't turn around in front of the penalty area,
he would have no choice but to pass it back.
Once he passed it back, a couple of touches and the referee's whistle would blow, and Rome would effectively defend the 0-3 scoreline, avoiding the humiliation of conceding more than four goals at home.
The ball was about to contact Tang Long's foot, yet the brainwave hints remained silent, without any feedback.
Malfunctioning?
"Beep beep beep!"
"According to big data analysis, the opponent's back is densely packed, if the host turns and forces a direct pass after receiving the ball, the chance of connecting with the forward is only 2.23%."
"Tip: Consider letting the ball go, there is a 35.45% record of creating unexpected chaos."
A massive amount of AI analysis flooded into Tang Long's mind almost in milliseconds.
Just when the football was only 1 centimeter away from touching Tang Long's stopping foot.
He spread his feet, making sure to leave a one-foot wide gap!
The soccer ball slipped through between his legs!
In the penalty area.
A lurking blue and black shadow, like a leopard, hunched and darted out...