Chapter 942: Doesn't Wenger have any face?

Although Liverpool lost to Manchester City 0-1 at home, their performance was still highly recognized.

The double defensive midfielder combination of Lucas and Charlie Adam was selected as the best player of the game for two consecutive rounds of the league, which is also an affirmation of Dalglish's style of play. However, the team's offense still has no improvement.

The Liverpool Echo revealed that in the locker room after the game, Dalglish criticized the team's performance, believing that the players did not carry out his arrangements in the final stage of the game, but were a bit rash and arrogant, resulting in the loss of the ball.

In the post-match press conference, Dalglish did not mention Su Dong's performance at all. Instead, he believed that Liverpool's only mistake in the entire game was seized by the opponent to score a goal, which should attract the attention of all players in the team.

"Through this game, I believe all of us should be aware that we are capable of freezing the strongest team in the Premier League, but we lack some concentration, especially in the final stages of the game."

Dalglish said he believed Liverpool was on the right track and the team's performance would improve quickly.

The outside media's evaluation of Dalglish's remarks was half and half.

Liverpool did perform very well throughout the game and didn't even leave Manchester City with too many offensive opportunities. The only real mistake was at the final stage of the game, when the defense line was too close, leaving the two central defenders directly exposed to Su Dong.

However, authoritative media including The Times, The Guardian and Sky Sports generally believed that this goal was caused by Su Dong's personal ability, and that Liverpool's two central defenders had done their best.

As the Guardian said, "In that situation, it would have been very difficult for any two defensive players to stop Su Dong from scoring. Agger and Skrtel had tried their best and they should not be blamed."

In the end, Sky Sports did not give low scores to Liverpool's two central defenders because of this goal. On the contrary, the Premier League broadcaster believed that Liverpool's two central defenders perfectly froze Su Dong throughout the game, which was extremely rare.

"If they hadn't conceded a goal at the last minute, they would have accomplished what all defenders have wanted to do but failed to do in the past few years, that is, freezing Su Dong!"

It can be said that the reactions of both the media and the fans to Liverpool's home defeat were very positive.

Manchester City's 13-game winning streak feels like a matter of course.

As The Sun said, people have become accustomed to Manchester City's winning streak.

"They are always winning, they are so good at winning!"

But the outside world's expectations for the next game are not quite consistent.

Manchester City will play in the League Cup quarter-finals in the middle of the week, challenging Arsenal away, and will face Arsenal at home in the 14th round of the Premier League at the weekend. This is like a two-round knockout match, and it involves two fronts at the same time.

The League Cup is decided in a single game, and the loser will be eliminated, while the 14th round of the Premier League is related to Manchester City’s 14th consecutive victory, whether they can tie Arsenal’s record of the longest winning streak in Premier League history.

It can be said that these two games are of great significance to Arsenal.

The former is related to the qualification for the League Cup. As Arsenal has no hope of winning the Premier League this season, winning a cup championship is undoubtedly an important way to resolve the embarrassment, so Wenger will do his best to fight for it in this battle.

As for the fourteen-game winning streak, although it has more symbolic significance than practical significance, it is still an honor.

But the terrible thing is that in the 13th round of the Premier League, in the London derby between Arsenal and Fulham at home, thanks to two goals from Vermaelen, Arsenal drew 1-1 with Fulham.

Wait, Vermaelen is an Arsenal center back, he scored two goals, how could they draw 1-1 with their opponents?

See, you don’t understand this, right? …………

…………

Since the game against Fulham, Wenger has been studying Liverpool's home game against Manchester City over and over again.

He repeatedly watched and pondered Dalglish's defense, especially the defense against Su Dong.

At the same time, he was thinking over and over in his mind that the combination of Daniel Agger and Skrtel almost froze Su Dong, so what if Mertesacker and Vermaelen combined forces?

Can they also achieve similar effects to Daniel Agger and Skrtel?

When Wenger posed this question to the coaching staff, the reactions were generally pessimistic, because Arsenal and Liverpool are two completely different teams and there are huge differences in their concepts.

Concepts are like the starting point of a race. If the concepts are different, it is equivalent to different starting points. What is the point of reference then?

As assistant coach Pat Rice said, "We can't find a double defensive midfielder like Lucas and Charlie Adam. The combination of Arteta and Alexander Song can't play to their effect."

"Without Lucas and Charlie Adam to suppress Manchester City's midfield, the final result is that Manchester City's midfield will keep passing the ball forward to create opportunities for Su Dong. No matter how solid the defense is, it will be difficult to stop Su Dong. He will seize opportunities and create killing opportunities in one attack after another."

Wenger knew that Pat Rice was right.

If you want to freeze Su Dong, it is not as simple as just arranging two people to guard Su Dong, but you have to cut off the passes to Su Dong as much as possible and reduce the number of times he gets the ball.

With Su Dong's physical fitness and ability to run without the ball, he can always appear in the open space to provide support. It is basically unrealistic to stop him from getting the ball.

Why do I say that? Just like Mertesacker, with his height and weight, it would be strange if he could keep up with Su Dong's running! There is only one person in the world who has that height and physical fitness and can run like Su Dong!

Then let Vermaelen go, okay?

Yes, but if Vermaelen follows, Su Dong will use his body to suppress the Belgian central defender.

This is the most troublesome part of freezing the Soviet Union and East Asia.

The strategy adopted by Liverpool is, I know that Daniel Agger and Skrtel can't defend Sudong, so I don't put all my hopes on them, but focus on Lucas and Charlie Adam, suppress Manchester City's forward passing lines, reduce the number of times Sudong gets the ball, and then let Daniel Agger and Skrtel defend Sudong.

But in Arsenal, there is no double defensive midfielder like Lucas and Charlie Adam.

"Our offense will be more threatening. Can we strengthen it appropriately to relieve the pressure on the back line?" someone suggested.

Wenger and Pat Rice looked at each other and both flashed a negative look.

Compared with Liverpool, the attack composed of Gervinho, Van Persie and Walcott is indeed better, coupled with Arsenal's midfield, the Gunners' attack is better than Liverpool.

But facing Manchester City, is Arsenal's biggest threat their offensive disadvantage?

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No, it's defense! "From the game against Fulham, our rotation is also a problem." Pat Rice reminded.

With the score at 1-1, it looked like Fulham had no chance of scoring a goal, but in fact, Arsenal's attack was also problematic.

Chamakh no longer has the stunning performance he had when he joined the team before, and the 30-year-old Arshavin also seems to have declined significantly. Players such as Rosicky, Benayoun, Chamberlain and Park Ju-young have not been able to lead the team's offense well and relieve the pressure on Van Persie.

So much so that now the media outside are joking that Arsenal has Robin but no Batman.

In the absence of effective rotation, Gervinho and Walcott's performances were sometimes good and sometimes bad, and only Van Persie was relatively stable.

When Wenger thought of this, he was extremely envious of Manchester City's Guardiola. He had endless money and had built a very strong lineup. He even built two high-level lineups to compete on all fronts and rotate players a lot.

Without a strong lineup to back him up, Guardiola's rotation would have been shot down long ago.

Now, Arsenal is facing a dilemma.

In terms of defense, it does not fit the Gunners' tradition, and the lineup configuration is not very suitable, but there are more chances; in terms of attack, it fits the Gunners' tradition, and the lineup configuration is more suitable, but they may die miserably, just like the humiliating defeat last season.

How to choose? …………

…………

On the evening of November 29th, at the Emirates Stadium in London.

In the League Cup quarter-finals, Manchester City will challenge Arsenal away.

When guessing the side, Su Dong grabbed the opportunity to kick off for Manchester City.

At the beginning of the game, Manchester City, playing away, slowly controlled the ball and advanced patiently.

When the time jumped to the 29th second, Toni Kroos made a long pass, accurately to the right side of the penalty area.

Su Dong suddenly started and quickly inserted himself between Mertesacker and Vermaelen.

In order to better organize the defense and freeze Manchester City's offense, Wenger specially arranged four central defenders to form the back line, with Vermaelen as the left back.

However, in the competition with Mertesacker and Vermaelen, Su Dong took the lead and kicked the ball to the middle, which fell behind Mertesacker. He immediately turned around, fended off Mertesacker's entanglement with his hand, and chased to the right side of the top of the arc.

Both defensive players Koscielny and Alexander Song pressed towards Su Dong at the same time, trying to double-team him the moment he stopped the ball, blocking his shooting angle and forcing him to pass the ball back.

But what no one expected was that when Su Dong passed the ball to himself two seconds later, he shot with his right foot without thinking and actually volleyed the ball.

The ball was like a cannonball, it drew an arc at lightning speed and accurately shot into the right side of the Arsenal goal.

Goalkeeper Szczesny was also caught off guard, and he dove to the side, but how could he catch it? The ball went into the net! Su Dong excitedly turned around and rushed out of the court to celebrate.

Wenger, sitting in front of the home team's coaching booth, covered his forehead with his hands in astonishment, watching the scene on the court in disbelief.

Damn, when playing against Liverpool, we didn’t score a goal for 90 minutes and only got one in the injury time.

When you played against Arsenal, you scored a goal in just 30 seconds. Did you do it on purpose?

Don't I, Wenger, have any dignity?

(End of this chapter)