Chapter 565 Haaland and Foden appear, the future of Manchester City!

The chaotic battle between the two sides continued in the second half, and no one could break the deadlock.

In the 86th minute, Guardiola made a key substitution, replacing Zabaleta with Mbappe.

This was a life-and-death substitution, replacing a main full-back with an offensive player with almost no defensive ability.

Guardiola seemed unwilling to accept a draw and wanted to take the victory away from Anfield.

Mbappe knew the heavy responsibility on his shoulders. After coming on the court, he was very active on the wing, frequently using his speed to try to eat up the opponent's full-back and create scoring opportunities.

But if you walk by the river often, your feet will get wet.

In the second minute of injury time, when Manchester City launched an attack from the wing again, the opponent quietly changed its defensive strategy. In addition to sending the full-back to tangle with Mbappe, Liverpool's midfielder Emre rushed up and double-teamed Mbappe.

Mbappe obviously did not expect this. In his haste, he failed to protect the ball under his feet and was snatched away by Liverpool players.

Although Liverpool did not score many goals or have many shots in this game, they have the potential to score goals as long as they are given the opportunity to counterattack.

After Emre completed the steal, he dodged De Bruyne who came to intercept and made a long pass to Coutinho on the wing.

Coutinho dribbled the ball forward, attracted the opponent's attention, and suddenly lifted the ball into the penalty area.

Wijnaldum, who came in from the other wing, hit the football hard with his forehead while running.

The football bounced after hitting the ground, Navas jumped in the wrong direction and the football went into the net.

The Liverpool fans in the stands all shouted excitedly! A lore!

This is a real killer kill!

Liverpool finally defeated the opponent they had always wanted to defeat - Manchester City at Anfield! On the sidelines, Klopp seemed particularly excited after Wijnaldum scored a goal and excitedly punched a set of fists.

Guardiola, who was not far from him, had a solemn expression on his face and frowned, not knowing what he was thinking about.

These photographers are really good at it. They put two head coaches with extremely contrasting looks in the same shot, and through the huge contrast in their expressions and movements, they use the language of the lens to show the fans the completely different situations of the two teams.

Two minutes later, the referee blew the whistle to end the game.

Although Guardiola was in a bad mood, he still straightened his suit, walked up to Klopp with a calm face and congratulated them.

Klopp accepted Guardiola's congratulations with a smile, and took his arm to have a deeper conversation.

But at this moment, news from another stadium made Klopp's good mood disappear.

Chelsea reversed the defeat against Stoke City at home and won their 13th consecutive victory.

Liverpool finally snatched three points from Manchester City, but it seemed meaningless amid Chelsea's winning streak.

When Guardiola learned the news, the expression on his face did not change much.

After losing to Liverpool, Manchester City has fallen out of the championship group, and it is very likely that they will have nothing to do with the championship this season.

So whether Chelsea wins 13 games in a row or 14 games in a row, they don’t care.

…

Although there is no winter break in the Premier League, finishing the first half of the season does not mean they can take a break and catch their breath.

However, after Guardiola's team was left behind by Chelsea by double digits, he gradually relaxed his mentality.

After leaving Liverpool and returning to Manchester, Guardiola gave the players a day off while he readjusted his rotation plan for the second half of the season.

Since it is difficult to win the championship this season, we should not blindly exploit the main players, but give more playing opportunities and time to young players and substitute players.

On January 2, in the 20th round of the Premier League home game against Burnley, Guardiola made major adjustments to the team's starting lineup.

Several main players including Lin Quan, De Bruyne, Aguero and others were placed on the bench, and they were replaced by the team's substitutes and rotation players.

Jesus, Sane, Son Heung-min and others all got the chance to start.

Perhaps it was because many of the team's main players were not on the field, or perhaps it was because the opponent played very conservatively.

Manchester City's substitutes did not perform well in the first half. Although they completed many shots, they did not score any goals.

Shortly after the start of the second half, the opponent took advantage of a corner kick to score a goal.

This made the Manchester City players on the field play more anxiously, but the result was even worse.

The Manchester City fans who came to the Etihad Stadium did not express any dissatisfaction. Instead, they continued to cheer loudly as usual, always standing firmly on the side of the team and being the team's most loyal 12th man.

Guardiola stood on the sidelines, clasped his hands together as a megaphone, and yelled at the players on the field who he thought were not playing well, reminding them to play more calmly and patiently.

Although these people are not the main players, they are at least Manchester City's substitutes. For a top team like Manchester City, can their substitutes be weak?

Of course not! So, the players on the field are not weak, but they have not adjusted their mentality and have not fully exerted their strength.

Perhaps Guardiola's call worked, and in the 62nd minute, Manchester City finally scored a goal.

However, the goal was not scored by the players on the front line, but by the full-back Clichy.

But these people on the front line did not disappoint Guardiola. After Clichy equalized the score, the players' mentality stabilized and their performance on the field became better and better.

In the 68th minute of the second half, Manchester City's front three completed a wonderful cooperation at the front of the penalty area. Jesus received a pass from Son Heung-min and headed the ball into the goal.

The score became 2:1 and Manchester City reversed the game.

After seeing this goal, Guardiola finally smiled.

This was the kind of cooperation he hoped to see, and these players finally lived up to his expectations.

After Manchester City took the lead, Guardiola began to make substitutions.

In the 70th minute, Guardiola replaced Son Heung-min with Mbappe.

On the way back from Anfield, Mbappe kept blaming himself for his mistakes in the final stage that led to the team's loss. For this, many people in the team, including the head coach, comforted him, and finally did not leave any psychological shadow in the heart of such a talented person.

It is a good thing to have this sense of responsibility for the team, but as everyone says, football is a team sport of 11 people, and neither losing nor winning is the fault or credit of any one person.

Celebrate together when you win, and bear the loss together. Don't take all the responsibility on yourself, as that will only crush you.

Although he adjusted his mentality, Mbappe became more competitive on the court.

Having celebrated his 18th birthday last month, Mbappe is now an adult.

The team's big brother Lin Quan had already led Manchester City to the Champions League when he was his age.

But now he still has nothing, so if he doesn’t fight now, when will he fight? The Burnley players saw that the opponent was young and was still a substitute, so they didn’t pay much attention to him at first.

But when Mbappe performed several solo breakthroughs on the wing, they were all dumbfounded.

Where did this guy come from? Why is he so fast? And how can he change direction when spiking the ball? You can change direction so quickly when spiking the ball. Is your knee really not a problem? Mbappe does not have as rich an arsenal as Lin Quan, but he has made the most of his advantages. In one word - fast!

Anyone who is passed by him will never be able to catch up with him, and anyone defending him head-on will only have one chance: either steal the ball from me or be passed by me.

In the 78th minute, Mbappe had been on the field for less than 8 minutes when he scored a goal with his signature breakthrough from the wing and cut inside, changing the score to 3:1. After scoring the goal, Mbappe suddenly ran to the sidelines and bowed to apologize to the Manchester City fans in the stands.

The fans were stunned for a moment, and then burst into even more enthusiastic applause and cheers.

Mbappe's move completely captured the hearts of Manchester City fans.

Guardiola was delighted to see Mbappe also score a goal. He applauded and said to the assistant coach: "Go, let the two kids on the bench warm up!"

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Arteta, the former Arsenal captain who had just joined Manchester City's coaching staff, was stunned for a moment and subconsciously asked: "Boss, are you talking about those two kids who are not even 17 years old?"

Guardiola looked back at the two excited little guys dancing on the bench, smiled and patted Arteta on the shoulder:

"Yes, that's them!"

Well, since the head coach has said so, Arteta won’t say anything.

He hurried back, found the two men, and said to them:

"You still have you, take off your coat and go to the sidelines to warm up!"

The baby-faced young player's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Yes, coach!"

After saying this, he ran away, fearing that if he ran a step slower, such a good thing would slip away.

Another tall player couldn't believe it and asked, "Coach, are we going to play?"

Arteta was not sure whether Guardiola would let them play, so he just said vaguely:

"Go warm up, you don't have much time!"

When the young man heard this, he stopped hesitating, quickly took off his coat, rushed out, and ran at a speed faster than the baby-faced boy.

“Is there a warm-up like this?”

"Is this guy too excited?"

"Haha, if I was 16 years old and knew I was going to play for a top team, I would be so excited too!"

On the bench, several main players couldn't help laughing and making a few jokes after seeing the exaggerated behavior of the two teenagers.

Guardiola was not joking. After the two players finished warming up, they were substituted on the field together in the 82nd minute.

Haaland replaced Jesus and Foden replaced Gundogan.

Countless reporters at the scene pointed their cameras at the two young players who were about to play. They were still very green.

Although these two have never played for Manchester City's first team, they have already been well-known in the youth team.

Many people regard them as the hope for the continuation of the Manchester City dynasty, and are just waiting for them to grow up one day in the future, take over the team's banner from their predecessors, and bring it to higher heights.

Although both of them are talented players, this is their first Premier League game after all.

Tension is certainly unavoidable.

The opposing players also seemed to think this was an opportunity, so after the two came on the court, they frequently targeted them.

Haaland is fine, he is a forward, alone in the frontcourt and unable to receive the ball, and he is tall and strong, so the opponent has no good way to deal with him.

Foden is in a bad situation! He replaced Gundogan as the attacking midfielder, and this position still has a lot of ball possession. Although after he came on the court, Manchester City immediately adjusted their style of play and reduced the attacking midfielder's ball possession.

But even so, when he had the ball at his feet, he was still severely targeted by the opponent.

Foden is not tall and does not weigh much, so it is easy for the opponent to knock him down if he rushes up and bumps into him.

Once he was knocked down, the football under his feet would naturally be lost.

The standards for enforcing the law in the Premier League are already very lenient. In their view, this kind of physical collision may be just a very common physical confrontation and is within the normal range, so in most cases they will not blow the whistle.

Foden was already nervous, and then he was targeted and had his ball intercepted by the opponent. He became even more nervous and even felt a little guilty.

In this situation, Foden's performance became worse and he even began to fear physical confrontation.

When Guardiola saw this, he knew it was bad!

He even regretted letting Foden play too early. This kid was obviously not adapted to the intensity of physical confrontation in the Premier League. After all, the youth team would not encounter such a cruel and violent person.

But on second thought, this is the only way for young players like Foden to grow. It is impossible to keep them in a greenhouse, right? If you keep training them like that, even a genius will be ruined.

Let it be a little embarrassing, let this guy face the reality and know the gap between himself and the professional league players. This will be more conducive to spurring their growth and progress.

Of course, after this game is over, they will focus on strengthening their physical confrontation training for a period of time.

However, we still need to consult the youth training director about this matter. Perhaps they have their own training plan.

The two are too young and Guardiola does not plan to take them to participate in the league all the time.

It is enough to let them play once in a while, feel the atmosphere of the game, and accumulate some experience in major competitions.

After they have digested and absorbed what they have learned in the league and grown, we will give them more opportunities to play and improve their abilities little by little.

Guardiola did these things when he was at Barcelona. At that time, he really regarded Barcelona as his home and had no intention of leaving for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately, things went against their wishes. Changes at the top will eventually affect those who work below.

I just hope that this time, I can have such an opportunity in Manchester City! (End of this chapter)