Chapter 446: Fatal Question

After the game, Guardiola's interview video was uploaded to the Internet, which immediately attracted attention and discussion among fans.

"BBC reporters are really good at making trouble. How can Guardiola answer such questions?"

"One is the player I once admired the most, and the other is my most capable general now, and he is also his son. The key is that both of them are very strong and have similar styles. It is not easy for Guardiola to choose!"

"If Lin Quan hadn't come out of nowhere, I think Guardiola would definitely choose Messi. I heard that when he went to coach Bayern, he often used Messi to pua Bayern's players and always praised Messi."

"Haha, I've heard about this too. It's said that Guardiola formulated tactics according to Messi's standards and told the players to do this and that, but found out the players couldn't do it at all. Then they realized Messi is unique, so they became even more determined to become Messi fans!"

"What a pity, such a Mei fan betrayed the organization in just a few years!"

The person who said this was obviously a Messi fan, and his tone sounded joking, yet a little helpless.

Before Lin Quan, Melo was often compared with others.

But the styles of the two are actually very different, and each has their own unique advantages. If you have to compare them, you can only compare some data and honors.

But Lin Quan is different. His style is very similar to Messi's, even almost exactly the same.

When he first debuted, people called him Little Messi. It was only in recent years, as his fame grew and he won more and more honors that even Messi had never won, that he no longer was called Little Messi.

However, when it comes to who in football is most like Messi, the first person that fans think of is Lin Quan.

The two players are of similar height and build, with very similar technical styles, and their positions on the court, ways of passing, and shooting techniques are almost identical.

It can be said that they are cut from the same mold. Such two people can naturally be compared together.

The topic of who is stronger between Lin Quan and Messi has actually been discussed on the Internet for a long time.

There are many people who support Lin Quan, but there are more people who support Messi.

After all, Messi has been playing for so many years and has accumulated a larger fan base.

But Lin Quan's momentum is very strong. He won the World Cup, which Messi has never won, and he won it as the core of Spain, which has attracted countless fans for him.

For the younger generation of fans, they obviously prefer Lin Quan. After all, when they first started watching football, Messi had passed his prime, while Lin Quan was still at his prime and was even getting stronger.

But for old fans, there are still more people who like Messi. This is due to the impression left by Messi's outstanding performance in the past few seasons, as well as factors such as the feelings of their own youthful years.

"Messi was really strong back then, but unfortunately due to injuries and the team's lineup and tactics, his current performance is not as good as before!"

"Messi is not young anymore. If he doesn't change his playing style and continues to get injured so frequently, he will probably follow in Ronaldo's footsteps. So for us idiots, every game of his is one less to watch!"

Messi has been plagued by injuries since 2013, and has been injured consecutively this year, missing many league and Champions League games.

The reason why Barcelona's record is so bad this year is because of Messi's absence, coupled with Neymar's departure, which has seriously damaged their vitality. Not only can they not compete with Real Madrid in La Liga, they can't even suppress Atletico Madrid.

Coupled with Catalonia's independence movement, Barcelona's future prospects have become unclear.

Barcelona's current situation makes their fans worried.

Compared with Barcelona, ​​which is in a bad situation and has an uncertain future, Manchester City, where Lin Quan is located, obviously has a bright future.

With sufficient transfer funds, a stable management team, strong coaches and teammates, Manchester City already has all the conditions that a top club should have. They just need to win trophies and honors on the field.

In fact, the discussion about who is stronger between Lin Quan and Messi is not going to come to a conclusion in the short term.

But no one denies that with Lin Quan's current momentum, he will definitely replace Messi and become the most powerful player on the planet in a few years. It can even be said that he already is one now.

If no young players who can reach the level of Messi and Ronaldo emerge in the future, then he will most likely end the era of the two greatest players of all time, and dominate the football world!

…

Lin Quan was not affected by the questions from reporters, but Guardiola was different.

He seemed to feel a little guilty. In the past, he would usually choose to sit with Lin Quan, but today he ran to the front of the bus and squeezed in with several assistant coaches.

"Speaking of which, Pep, why don't you answer the reporter's questions?"

Torrent was squeezed by Guardiola so that he could only sit on half of his butt, so he deliberately asked questions that Guardiola did not answer at the previous press conference to make things difficult for him.

"Only a fool would answer that!"

Guardiola rolled his eyes at him and thought to himself, I'm not stupid. This kind of question that is not pleasing to both sides is clearly a deliberate attempt by the reporter to frame me. I won't fall for it.

After Guardiola finished speaking, he no longer paid attention to his assistant. Instead, he picked up the team's schedule and began to study it seriously.

Manchester City still have two games to play at the end of October.

One is the League Cup match against Crystal Palace, and the other is the league home game against Norwich.

Both opponents are not strong, and with Manchester City's strength and current state, it is not difficult to defeat them.

Guardiola does not attach much importance to the results of the League Cup, so he plans to send substitutes to play against Crystal Palace and let them find their form.

As for the match against Norwich, it depends on how these substitutes perform in the League Cup.

If they perform well, Guardiola may continue to give them opportunities, but if they don't perform well, there will be nothing that can be done.

At the end of each year, the biggest worry for Premier League teams is the Christmas season.

For the Premier League, which has no winter break, the schedule during this period is definitely a devilish one.

There are many matches in the Christmas Express, and there are also a lot of focus battles.

Once you lose, it means you lose a game worth 6 points. Even if you had a huge lead before, it is easy for the opponent to catch up here.

Coupled with the fact that there is no winter break and they can't even go home for Christmas, the players' morale is low and their condition will be greatly affected.

If we add the cold weather in the British Isles, this period is also a high-incidence period for players to get injured. If they are not careful, the team will be filled with injuries.

So this time of year is a big test for each team, testing their bench depth and team management level.

This summer, Manchester City was relatively restrained in its signings, so during the winter break, Guardiola planned to bring in another striker to supplement the team's front line.

Although there is a Jovetic on the bench, his strength does not meet Guardiola's requirements, and he is not the type of player he likes.

In order to cope with possible waves of injuries and intensive schedules, it is necessary to further improve the team's bench depth.

Of course, if it really doesn't work, we can also select talents from the youth team like we did last year.

…

On October 29, League Cup, Etihad Stadium, Manchester City will face Crystal Palace at home.

In this game, Guardiola sent out a large number of substitutes and even players from the youth team, and their strength on paper may not be much stronger than that of Crystal Palace.

But Manchester City's substitutes overwhelmed their opponents with a crushing victory of 5:1 at home.

In this game, Son Heung-min scored twice, Iheanacho scored a goal, and De Bruyne, who came on as a substitute, scored a penalty.

It is worth mentioning that Manu Garcia, a 17-year-old young player of the U18 team, came on as a substitute in the 84th minute of the game and scored a goal in injury time.

This goal brought him a lot of attention from the outside world, and many teams began to turn their attention to this young player.

With the successful case of Lin Quan as a precedent, many teams now have a special liking for young players who are 17 or 18 years old. They want to shop around the world to see if they can discover some rough gems that others have not discovered in advance.

This provides a lot of opportunities for young players, such as Mbappe.

In the just-concluded 11th round of the French Ligue 1, he came on as a substitute in the 82nd minute of the game, completing his first-team debut and breaking the record set by Thierry Henry in 1994 at the age of 16 years and 308 days, becoming the youngest player in Monaco's history to make his first-team league debut.

This was more than a month earlier than Lin Quan remembered that he played for Monaco's first team. Although Mbappe, who came on as a substitute, performed mediocrely in this game, being able to appear in the French Ligue 1 at such an age is itself a huge success.

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After the first time, as long as Monaco's own record does not drop significantly, their head coach may give Mbappe a chance to play if there is an opportunity in the future.

With the experience of a competition of the level of Ligue 1, Mbappe may become famous much earlier than before.

Guardiola's confidence increased greatly after the team defeated the opponent by a large margin at home with the help of substitutes.

In the league game two days later, he continued to boldly use new players, not only putting Son Heung-min in the starting lineup, but also putting Iheanacho and Manu Garcia on the bench.

Manchester City, playing at home, was in high spirits and led their opponents 2:0 in the first half thanks to goals from Lim Quan and Son Heung-min.

In preparation for the Champions League match in the middle of the week, Guardiola made a bold substitution, replacing key players such as Lin Quan and David Silva who had only played half the game.

Iheanacho, Fernando and Sagna were replaced.

When these players first came on the pitch, Norwich seemed to have not yet recovered from the heavy blow in the first half and was still timid.

However, after seeing through the opponent's strengths and weaknesses, they decisively increased their offensive forces.

I don’t know whether the opponent is lucky or Manchester City is unlucky.

In the 66th minute of the second half, the opponent's shot hit the defender's hand and the referee immediately awarded a penalty kick.

Manchester City's starting player in this game was not Navas, but Joe Hart.

Joe Hart's luck is really bad. He finally got a chance to play, but ended up encountering such a bad thing.

However, there is an old saying that goes "Misfortunes always turn into blessings", maybe he was extremely unlucky and then his luck turned around.

He misjudged the direction, but the opponent's shot hit his feet and was blocked.

Captain Kompany was quick to clear the ball with one foot, and Manchester City escaped.

"Wow, it seems even God is blessing Manchester City!"

"Norwich's players finally got a chance, but they ruined it with their own hands!"

After Joe Hart blocked the opponent's penalty, he roared and completely vented the dissatisfaction that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time.

Finally, my luck has turned and I have finally made it!

However, it turned out that his bad luck did not seem to be over.

In the 82nd minute of the second half, seeing that their attack could not penetrate Manchester City's defense, the opponent's forward Jerome tried a blind kick in the penalty area.

As a result, this kick hit an extremely graceful arc, leaving Joe Hart stunned and unable to react.

With a swish, the score became 2:1, Norwich broke through Manchester City's goal and successfully scored a goal.

Although the score was still behind, Norwich's morale was boosted after scoring a goal. Their players did not even want to waste time celebrating. They rushed directly into Manchester City's goal, picked up the ball and ran away.

It seemed that they were going to equalize the score or even reverse the game in the last few minutes! As a result, the last moment turned into a spectacle of Norwich besieging Manchester City's goal at Manchester City's home ground!

Guardiola's expression became serious. The players seemed to be frightened by the opponent's goal at the last moment. They became much more conservative in their thinking and seemed to want to rely on defense to drag out the last few minutes.

This made him very dissatisfied. Even though there were many new players on the field, the team should not be so conservative.

Offense is the best defense. If you just passively defend and get beaten, wouldn’t that just be handing the initiative to your opponent?

So he immediately shouted to the players on the field, asking them to attack again.

At this time, Son Heung-min was still on the court, and his speed was a powerful weapon for Manchester City's counterattack. As long as the ball could be passed to his feet in the counterattack, with the cooperation of his teammates, it would not be particularly difficult for Manchester City to score a goal, especially when the opponent was pressing forward and the defense was empty.

Things turned out just as Guardiola expected. In the 88th minute, Manchester City intercepted the ball in the backcourt and Kroos made a long pass to Son Heung-min.

Son Heung-min ran with the ball at lightning speed, incredibly fast.

The opponent's defender had no choice but to knock him to the ground, and was directly shown a red card by the referee and sent off the field.

Seeing that their counterattack was effective and the opponent had one player sent off, Manchester City's morale immediately recovered.

They resumed their siege of their opponents. In the second minute of injury time, De Bruyne was tripped after dribbling into the penalty area, and the referee awarded Manchester City a penalty.

But it seemed like a return of favor, as De Bruyne's penalty hit the crossbar and bounced out of the bottom line.

Seeing Ding Ding miss the penalty, Lin Quan and Guardiola were stunned.

What’s going on?

Did De Bruyne also get sick? Was he infected by the opposing players?

It is rare to have two penalty kicks in one game, so what was originally just an ordinary game attracted a lot of attention after the game.

However, the form shown by Manchester City in this game allowed many teams to see opportunities.

Even Norwich almost overturned Manchester City, why can't they?

(End of this chapter)