Chapter 172 The father-son battle with Guardiola (Part 1)

Pellegrini is no pushover either. He naturally saw the problems in the team's defense.

So, taking advantage of a dead ball, he called Zabaleta over and gave him some instructions.

Manchester City's defensive formation has changed to a certain extent. Their defenders moved the back line forward a little, making it more difficult for the opponent to attack behind their waistline when counterattacking.

This adjustment quickly produced results.

When AC Milan tried to repeat the same trick, El Shaarawy either couldn't get the ball or was knocked over by the rushing defender as soon as he got the ball.

If the pass is too strong, Manchester City's defenders can create an offside trap, making him offside even if he receives the ball.

Not only that, Manchester City also increased the intensity of pressing in the frontcourt, making it impossible for the opponent's midfielders to pass the ball as they wish.

After this series of combined attacks, AC Milan's attack on the flanks, which had just started to gain momentum, quickly went silent.

At the end of the first half, Manchester City returned to the locker room with a 3-goal lead.

Although the opponent scored two goals, the expressions on the faces of Manchester City players were still relatively relaxed because their lead was still very large.

There is a clear division in the Manchester City dressing room:

Local players such as Joe Hart, Wright and Richards gathered together.

Kompany, Yaya Toure, Gael Clichy and other non-local veteran players are in the same circle.

South American players such as Zabaleta, Aguero, Demichelis, Fernando, Fernandinho and others are mixed in.

Spanish players such as Lin Quan, Silva, Navas, Negredo and others form another circle.

A team can actually have four different circles.

Lin Quan has broadened his horizons!

When I was at Werder Bremen, most of the players on the team were German players.

A small number of foreign players are also from Austria and Eastern Europe, and the composition of the players is relatively simple.

But when it comes to the giants in the five major leagues, the situation is completely different.

The composition of players in the five major leagues is very complex, and players from Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and various football powerhouses on the European continent are very common.

The only relatively rare type may be the Chinese players studying abroad.

Because the level of football is declining, and the money-driven football is becoming increasingly popular.

The once-popular craze for studying abroad has been gradually declining over the years.

Chinese players are seen less and less in the five major leagues and even in the entire European arena.

While Lin Quan was chatting and laughing with David Silva, he was observing the members of other circles out of the corner of his eyes.

“The local players have the largest number, but their abilities are generally not strong. However, due to the FA’s policy, the clubs have to support them!”

David Silva doesn't think much of English players. Except for a few, the others are just idiots in his opinion.

They enjoyed the FA's policy dividends on local players, but did not have the strength to represent the team. They sat on the bench for most of the season and sometimes could not even make the main roster.

"The old players, Kompany and Yaya Toure are both talented. Kompany is the captain of the team at present. He is a relatively stable person. Because of his position as captain, he is more concerned about the overall situation."

What this means is that you can get in touch with Kompany more, as he should be someone who is easier to deal with.

"Where's Toure?"

Lin Quan was very curious about how Silva evaluated Yaya Toure. To be honest, after watching Yaya Toure's performance in the team training match, Lin Quan was quite convinced of Yaya Toure's strength.

However, Guardiola would rather promote a newcomer than use him, and there must be a reason for this.

So, what are the flaws of Yaya Toure that made Guardiola choose Busquets over him? "Toure is very strong, but how should I put it? His position should be in the attacking midfielder, not the defensive midfielder!"

"Hmm? I think his defensive ability is quite strong and he covers a large area. Isn't this attribute very suitable for the defensive midfielder position?"

Lin Quan's evaluation of Silva was a little surprising. Yaya Toure is more like his national team teammate Martinez.

Both of them are the type who are strong, energetic, cover a wide area, and can attack and defend.

But looking at Silva's evaluation of him, it seems that it is not very high.

"Yaya Toure has skills, but his passing ability is not strong. He is good at forward attacking. His offensive ability is even stronger than some forwards. But the problem is that he plays as a defensive midfielder. If he attacks and the opponent counterattacks, our defense will be in danger."

Lin Quan recalled the first goal conceded in the first half. It seemed that AC Milan took advantage of Yaya Toure's forward attack and scored a goal on the side he was defending.

So, Yaya Toure has the excellent qualities of a defensive midfielder, but the heart of a striker? "But that's the problem. We don't lack offensive firepower in the front court. He will not only be of no help when he rushes up with the ball, but will also become a breakthrough point for the enemy's counterattack because he sticks to the ball too much."

Silva spread his hands.

Lin Quan nodded. An excellent player can fully realize his own strength and find his own position.

There is no doubt about Yaya Toure’s skills. The key is whether he can find his position and understand what he needs to do to help the team?

While Lin Quan was thinking about this question, Aguero took the initiative to come up and thank him:

"Lin, welcome to the team, you are an incredible player, and most importantly, you play in a similar style to Leo (Messi)!"

Aguero and Messi are good friends. Meeting a teammate on the field whose playing style is very similar to Messi's and who can also provide him with assists makes him feel like he is fighting side by side with Messi.

Aguero likes this feeling very much!

This caused his attitude towards Lin Quan to change 180 degrees.

From worrying that Lin Quan would take away his position in the team, he is now looking forward to working with him in official games.

"Thank you, A-Kun, your shot was great too. Keep up the good work in the second half and try to score a hat trick!"

Aguero has a good impression of him, so Lin Quan naturally would not refuse his kindness.

If he can leverage the South American gang through Aguero, it will be of great help to him in controlling the situation in the locker room.

…

The halftime break ended quickly and the second half began with the two sides changing sides.

Manchester City made personnel adjustments, Navas came on and replaced Kolarov.

Fernandinho comes on to replace Milner.

Fernandinho is a defensive midfielder. The purpose of substituting him on the field is to fill the defensive gap in the team's midfield and backcourt after Yaya Toure's forward run.

After the game started, Manchester City launched an offensive like a tide, hitting AC Milan's defense wave after wave.

However, Allegri seemed to have made some adjustments to the team's defense during the halftime break. They tightened the defense on both sides and allowed Manchester City to pass the ball from the flanks.

But in the middle, they defended tightly and did not give Manchester City any chance to penetrate with short passes.

This move had a very good effect, as Manchester City's attack was all talk and no action.

Although the attack seemed to be overwhelming and the ball could always reach inside and outside the opponent's penalty area, it was unable to be converted into a goal.

AC Milan, on the other hand, relied on counterattacks from its speedy wingers to launch several threatening attacks.

However, Manchester City's defenders were alert and Fernandinho was very active in defense.

AC Milan's counterattack ultimately came to nothing and failed to turn into a goal.

At the 75th minute of the second half, the score was still 5:2. The coaches of both teams continued to make substitutions.

Pellegrini replaced Aguero with Negredo, allowing the striker who was bought at a high price in the summer to play and find his form.

After seeing the substitution, Aguero was a little depressed.

In the second half, Lin Quan passed the ball to him several times, but the opponent's defense in the penalty area was too tight.

He either didn't have the chance to shoot or his shot was not of high quality.

This made Aguero himself feel a little embarrassed, but fortunately Lin Quan did not intend to blame him.

When I find that he has a good opportunity, I will still pass the ball to him.

After studying the positioning of the opponent's defenders, Aguero felt that he had found the trick to break through the opponent's defense.

As a result, before he could even display his skill, he was replaced.

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Aguero was substituted off, so there was no chance of a hat trick.

Negredo is a Spanish player, so Lin Quan and Silva naturally have to take care of him.

So the two of them started passing the ball to him and helping him create opportunities.

Negredo and Aguero are two types of forwards, compared to Aguero who is only 173cm tall.

Negredo is 186 cm tall and has strong standing ability.

According to the characteristics of the opponent, Lin Quan changed his strategy and started to kick high balls, allowing Negredo to grab headers.

This move did not work at first. Although Negredo's header ability was good, the opponent's defender was not a pushover. How could he easily snatch the opportunity to head the ball? However, when another big man Yaya Toure also rushed into the penalty area and joined forces with Negredo to disrupt the opponent's defense, Manchester City's chance came.

In the 87th minute of the game, Silva made a cross from the wing, Yaya Toure got rid of the defender, jumped high, headed the ball, and once again broke through AC Milan's goal.

This goal allowed Lin Quan to witness Yaya Toure's outstanding offensive ability. This guy really has the heart of a striker.

In the end, Manchester City defeated AC Milan 6:2 with goals from five players including Lin Quan and advanced to the final.

The first game of the new season saw a big win over the Serie A giants, which made everyone in Manchester City club very happy.

In particular, Lin Quan's outstanding performance in this game made the Manchester City fans who traveled with the team very excited.

I thought it would take Lin Quan some time to integrate into the team, but I didn’t expect him to integrate so quickly!

Seeing how well he organized Manchester City's frontcourt, no one would believe that this was his first official game after joining the team.

Seeing how relaxed he was, people would rather believe that he has been playing for this team for many years! Otherwise, how can we explain how well he cooperated with his teammates? He scored a goal and provided four assists right after his first appearance?

Although it was just a warm-up match, there were still many people paying attention to it.

After the game, media in Germany, Britain and Spain all reported the match extensively.

The German media mainly focused on Lin Quan, and they believed that Lin Quan had made great progress this season.

It is a real loss for the Bundesliga that such an outstanding player leaves the league.

The Spanish media focused on Lin Quan and Guardiola.

They started hyping up the first showdown between father and son in an official competition!

"One is a young talented player, the other is a world-class coach, and more coincidentally, they are also a father and son.

Such a confrontation is extremely rare in the entire football world, which makes us look forward to the result of this game. "

After hyping up this topic, the Spanish media also launched a vote on social media, asking fans to choose who to support.

"Although Lin Huang is very strong, football is not a one-man game. Compared with Manchester City and Bayern, there is still a gap in hard power, so I am optimistic that Guardiola's Bayern will win!"

"With this lineup and configuration, how can Bayern Munich lose?"

"If nothing unexpected happens, this Bayern team will still be the favorite to win the Champions League this season. As for Manchester City, although they have Lin Huang joining them, they are still far from competing for the championship!"

"Indeed, Guardiola's coaching ability is obvious to all, and Bayern's lineup is so luxurious. They just won the Champions League. The whole team will definitely crush Manchester City in terms of momentum. In addition, they are playing at home, so it is basically impossible for Manchester City to win!"

"Although Bayern is very strong, Guardiola has only been in charge of Bayern for a short time, so it is hard to say to what extent he has control over the team.

On the contrary, the strength shown by this Manchester City team in this game is awe-inspiring, especially Lin Quan, who continued his excellent form in the Confederations Cup, so I am optimistic that Manchester City will win! ”

"Hey, I heard that the big-name players at Bayern have bad tempers. Even Guardiola can't control the locker room. So Guardiola joining Bayern may not be a strengthening for Bayern, but a weakening.

But Lin Huang joining Manchester City will have an immediate strengthening effect on Manchester City, so I am also optimistic about Lin Huang! ”

…

There are still more fans supporting Bayern on the Internet. After all, whether in terms of paper strength or team momentum, Bayern has more advantages.

As for Manchester City, they don't have any outstanding results yet.

Although they had just defeated AC Milan, AC Milan was not a top team at that time.

They lack a lot in terms of historical achievements, so it is hard to believe that they can defeat the mighty Bayern Munich.

As for those fans who chose to support Manchester City, almost all of them cast their votes reluctantly for Lin Quan's sake.

As if to confirm this, two hours later.

On the same field, Bayern defeated Sao Paulo 3-0 and also advanced to the final.

In this way, the champion of this Audi Cup will be decided between Manchester City and Bayern.

However, the dominance Bayern showed in this game was awe-inspiring.

Not only did they lead overwhelmingly in all statistics, they also had a firm grasp of the situation on the field.

Sao Paulo hardly caused any trouble for Bayern and lost completely.

Not only that, in this game people saw the difference that Guardiola's arrival brought to Bayern.

After learning from Heynckes' coaching experience, he incorporated his own style into some details.

This allows Bayern to continue with the same offensive style of play from last season, while also being able to show off their skills in positional warfare, using dazzling passes to tease opponents and score goals.

After this game, outside predictions for the final have completely changed.

Less than one in ten fans are optimistic about Manchester City winning!

"Honestly speaking, I don't see any hope for Manchester City to win, this Bayern team is too strong!"

"I'm a Manchester City fan. I think the team will win as long as they don't get beaten badly!"

“I hope I don’t lose more than three!”

(End of this chapter)