Chapter 343: The lore against Monaco, Ranieri was fired
After returning to the UK from Germany, Manchester City rested for two days before setting off for Birmingham to challenge Aston Villa.
Aston Villa itself is not very strong, but their style of play is relatively rough. When facing them, even top teams cannot be careless, as they may easily suffer a setback if they are not careful.
Fortunately, Manchester City was in excellent form in this game and took a two-goal lead just 20 minutes into the game.
Even though Aston Villa used foul tactics, it was of no avail and they eventually lost to Manchester City 0:3.
After winning this round of games, Manchester City leads the standings with a perfect record.
However, Chelsea fought very hard. In this round's match against Arsenal, Chelsea, playing at home, defeated the Gunners 2:0 with goals from Hazard and Diego Costa.
As a result, they are still only 3 points behind Manchester City.
Manchester City's neighbor Manchester United met their younger brother Everton in this round of the game, and finally defeated the opponent with a score of 2:1, won two consecutive victories, and rose to fourth place in the league.
In this game, Falcao and Di Maria scored goals, which slightly dispelled some of the outside world's doubts about them.
After playing the Premier League, Manchester City returned home without stopping to face a League Cup match.
Manchester City's opponent in this game was not strong, so Pellegrini sent out a large number of substitutes.
Even so, under the leadership of Yaya Toure, Lampard and Djoko, Manchester City still defeated Sheffield Wednesday 7-0 and advanced to the next round.
Having won on three fronts, Manchester City seems to be continuing the glory of last season.
The outside world was very optimistic about them completing the first league title defense in the team's history! This optimistic voice reached its peak after Manchester City defeated Tottenham 4:1 at home in the eighth round of the Premier League.
《Eight consecutive wins! Who can stop Manchester City?》
"The birth of a giant: the entire Premier League witnessed the rise of Manchester City! "
"Tottenham are simply Manchester City's toys. Every time they meet Manchester City, they will be beaten miserably!"
"Tottenham's performance this season is not bad, and they are ranked high in the standings, but in this game, it looks like they don't know how to play football!"
"Yeah, it feels like I'm naturally restrained, I can't beat him no matter what I do!"
"In fact, Tottenham's performance in this game was considered good. At least they scored a goal. Last season, Manchester City slaughtered Tottenham 6-0 at home!"
The fans were not surprised that Manchester City won at home, as the Etihad Stadium has always been a devilish home ground that is difficult for other Premier League teams to conquer.
However, they are very confused about the fact that Tottenham are severely punished every time they meet Manchester City.
Although Tottenham is not a top club, it is the leader in the second lineup under the BIG5.
There is indeed some gap in strength between them and the championship group, but it is not so big.
But every time when they meet Manchester City, it seems like they suddenly can’t play football and are often slaughtered by big scores!
Last season, Manchester City scored 11 goals against Tottenham in two home and away games, beating them badly.
This has caused Spurs fans to completely suffer from Manchester City phobia. Among the 20 Premier League teams, Manchester City has become the team they least want to meet! Just when the outside world was shocked by Manchester City's eight consecutive wins and their strong state of beating Tottenham by a large score.
A senior journalist wrote in his column:
"The Premier League is dying!"
The subtitle is: A strong Manchester City may destroy the foundation of the Premier League! The reporter chose a very eye-catching title, which seems to be a clickbait.
But his article does have some substance, as it lists a lot of data and technical analysis, and it at least seems to be meaningful.
The reporter believes that the Premier League has always relied on the fierce competition among many giants and the huge suspense of winning the championship every season to attract audiences.
If Manchester City continues to be so strong and forms a monopoly on the championship, the Premier League may lose its biggest selling point.
By then, the attractiveness of the Premier League will inevitably decline significantly, just like the Bundesliga.
In the past few seasons, due to the rise of Dortmund and the decline of Bayern's dominance, the Bundesliga's overseas ratings have increased and its influence has expanded significantly.
However, with Dortmund's decline in recent seasons, Bayern has regained its dominance in the domestic league. Last season, under the leadership of Guardiola, it created the second longest unbeaten record in the top five leagues.
This has made Bundesliga matches dull and uninteresting again, and overseas ratings have also suffered.
"Conscientious journalist, what you said makes sense. We can't let Manchester City dominate alone!"
"That's right, we should call on other teams to unite, point their guns outward, and defeat Manchester City!"
"Count me in for Manchester United!"
"Chelsea counts as one too!"
"The Gunners are interested in joining!"
"The Reds have long been dissatisfied with Manchester City!"
"Tottenham, we are also willing to contribute..."
The fans of all the teams collectively said: "Get lost!"
…
Although these are things made up by some fans on the Internet, these Premier League teams have their own grudges and hatreds with each other, and it is unlikely that they will put aside their grudges and unite for Manchester City.
After all, if we talk about monopolizing the Premier League championship, Manchester United in the Ferguson era had already monopolized it.
The major teams didn't say anything at that time, so why are they complaining now that it's Manchester City's turn?
It’s because in their eyes, Manchester City is a nouveau riche with no foundation. They are used to bullying Manchester City and cannot adapt to the fact that Manchester City is superior to them for a while.
It doesn't matter, once Manchester City beat them a few more times and won a few more Premier League titles, they will get used to it! Having said that, the impact of becoming the public enemy of the league soon became apparent.
Because Manchester City will go away to challenge Monaco in the third round of the Champions League group stage, and just one day after the game, they will go away to London to challenge West Ham United.
The two games were too close together, so Manchester City applied to postpone the league.
They had made such an application once last season. In order to support the Premier League team to play well in the Champions League, the Premier League was very supportive of them and successfully postponed the game after coordinating with Aston Villa.
But this time, Manchester City's application was rejected.
Not only was the league perfunctory in its attitude and unwilling to help, but even West Ham United rejected Manchester City's application.
West Ham United would love to be able to play against Manchester City when they are tired and in poor form, so they naturally do not want to postpone the game.
After the application for postponement of the ninth round of the league was rejected, it had a significant impact on Manchester City's preparations.
Monaco is in the south of France, about 2,000 kilometers away from Manchester, which is not close.
The team would waste five or six hours on the plane just to travel back and forth between the two places.
But this game is also very important for Manchester City. Monaco ranks second in the group and currently ranks second in points.
It can be said that they are the only team capable of threatening Manchester City's qualification as the first in the group.
If Monaco gives up this game and gives the opponent three points, their points will be tied with Manchester City, which is not a good thing for Manchester City.
On the contrary, if they go all out to win this game, Manchester City's lead over Monaco can be extended to 6 points.
With three group matches left, it will be difficult for Monaco to equal the score, and Manchester City's qualification as group leader is basically secured.
Once they are confirmed as the group leader and qualify, they can consider strategically giving up the remaining games and focus on the league.
In this way, the team's main players can get some breathing time before the start of the Champions League knockout round.
In the end, Pellegrini decided to send all his players to Monaco! Like Chelsea, Monaco's owner, Rebolovlev, is also an oligarch from Russia.
It is not known whether it was because of his true love for football or because of Abramovich's huge success in the Premier League, the Russian tycoon spent a huge amount of money to buy Monaco Club in 2011.
After buying the team, he invited the tinkerer Ranieri and spent a huge amount of money in the transfer market to introduce big-name players.
In just a few seasons, Monaco has spent hundreds of millions of euros and bought countless stars.
Having invested so much money, he naturally needs better results to return his investment.
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So Rebolovlev gave Ranieri a death order, requiring him to achieve at least one of the two goals of winning the French Ligue 1 or reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League.
However, these two goals do not seem easy for Monaco.
Although Monaco has invested a lot, there is another team in the French Ligue 1 that has invested even more crazily than them - Paris Saint-Germain!
In the field of money-driven football, even Manchester City has to admit defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
The money Monaco spent was only a fraction of what the other side spent, which was nothing at all.
Therefore, the tinker was destined to be unable to fulfill the Russian boss's request.
Moreover, Ranieri has a characteristic, his record with mid- and lower-level teams with a certain foundation is very outstanding.
However, when coaching a top team, the results are often very bad.
If not for this, he wouldn't be fired by top teams so often.
Monaco's previous lineup might have been just right for Ranieri, but after the big boss spent a lot of money to buy a lot of players, Ranieri was a little overwhelmed.
He is not very good at handling relationships with these players, so it is difficult for him to fully tap their potential.
Therefore, facing the aggressive Manchester City, Ranieri consciously adopted a defensive counterattack tactic.
This tactic is basically the only choice for non-giant teams when facing Manchester City.
You know what, the tinker really has some skills.
The defense he arranged was different from that of others.
Monaco's three lines of defense were relatively close today, which greatly compressed the offensive space.
Moreover, they pressed very hard and refused to give Manchester City players time to calmly organize an attack.
This makes it difficult for a team like Manchester City, which is good at ground penetration, to play. Even a strong player like Lin Quan finds it difficult to get opportunities when losing the offensive space.
Manchester City also had bad luck today. Kroos was injured and left the field just 15 minutes into the game.
Kroos's departure has a significant impact on Manchester City's offensive organization.
When the game reached the 80th minute, the score was still 0:0. In the Stade Louis II, Monaco fans continued to cheer and wave flags for the team.
For Monaco fans, being able to push the defending champions to this point was an unexpected surprise.
Especially since they were unexpectedly tied by Zenit in the last game.
Before the game started, the outside world generally did not think highly of them, and many people even predicted that they would be slaughtered by Manchester City.
In the box of the stadium, Monaco's boss saw his team being suppressed by Manchester City in their own half and being beaten passively throughout the game.
His face looks very ugly!
What he wanted was a resounding victory, not a draw achieved by relying on defensive tactics.
Moreover, the game has not ended yet, and it is hard to say whether they can maintain the tie until the end.
Thinking of this, the Russian boss looked at Ranieri with an unfriendly look.
He spent so much money to build a luxurious team, but this guy led it to this state? Paris Saint-Germain next door can beat the arrogant Barcelona in the Champions League, why can't you beat Manchester City? Seeing that the game was about to end, the players on the court became more active.
After playing for most of the game, I feel that Manchester City is not as strong as I imagined!
This is their home court after all. It would be a bit embarrassing if they were always suppressed by the opponent and only lost one point.
So, in the final stages of the game, they tried to launch a counterattack against Manchester City.
On the sidelines, Ranieri originally wanted to stop the players' reckless behavior.
He has watched many videos of Manchester City's games and found that Manchester City is very good at reversing or defeating the opponent in the final stages of the game.
Last season's Champions League semi-final, when they eliminated Real Madrid away from home, was proof of this.
So even though they played well for 80 minutes, if they slacked off in the final stages of the game, a crushing defeat would likely await them.
But just now, the club staff came up to remind him that the team’s owner was very dissatisfied with the team’s performance in this game.
The boss hopes to see a victory at home! Ranieri is a relatively honest person. Since the boss has given a death order, it is not easy for him to disobey.
So all they could do was watch the players organize the attack with trepidation, with a glimmer of hope in their hearts.
If their counterattack was effective and they really scored a goal, they would have to make all the players withdraw and defend to the end.
However, it turns out that playing football with a fluke mentality will not lead to any good results.
In the 88th minute, Manchester City took advantage of Monaco's counterattack and hit the opponent's counterattack. It only took a few seconds to get the ball from their own 30-meter area to the front of the opponent's penalty area.
Manchester City's counterattack was too fast. Many Monaco players were still rushing forward. When the opponent passed the ball to their half, how could they turn around and chase? Lin Quan rushed into the penalty area and calmly sent the ball into the goal in the face of the attacking goalkeeper, changing the score to 1:0. Lin Quan's goal made the whole stadium silent, and Monaco fans were stunned.
In the box, Rebolovlev's eyes were bloodshot!
He has made up his mind to fire that damn Italian after the game!
He felt extremely regretful and should have terminated his contract with Ranieri after the end of last season.
In that case, the team's record might not be so bad!
Poor Ranieri, he once again became the scapegoat.
(End of this chapter)