"Rookie combination?"
When Yang Yang followed Real Madrid from Australia to Guangzhou, China, after their friendly match and accepted an interview at the hotel with AS' traveling reporter Alvaro Rosa, he couldn't help laughing when he heard Mundo Deportivo's criticism.
"I think he's right. We really are all rookies." Yang Yang laughed it off, not taking it to heart at all.
Alvaro Rosa also smiled. There was indeed a great deal of criticism from outside, and plenty of voices claiming that Real Madrid were in poor form. But in reality, everyone within Real Madrid had been mentally prepared for this, and many of the players' complaints were understandable.
For example, many media outlets had reported that Real Madrid's players were criticizing the coaching staff's preseason training. That was true, and the club allowed it, because letting the players complain was also a way for them to vent their emotions. The only condition was that it could not affect unity in the dressing room.
Besides, most of the players' remarks had come during the early stages of training, when the sessions really had been brutally demanding.
As the team's traveling reporter, Alvaro Rosa had personally witnessed the change in the Real Madrid players' mentality.
Put it this way: if he conducted a survey among the First Team players now, most of them would probably still blast Pintus's training. But if they were allowed to choose for themselves, they would probably still choose to follow the coaching staff's arrangements.
The reason was simple: they had personally witnessed what Pintus was capable of.
As Yang Yang had encouraged his teammates on the training ground, "If a rotten old man of fifty-three can do it, how can we have the nerve to say we can't?"
The answer was no. They absolutely could not admit