The Southampton players were obviously a little nervous. After all, this was their first time playing in the quarter-finals of the English League Cup, and their opponent was the star-studded Manchester City team.

Coach Adkins did not put too much pressure on the players, but just told them to let go of their burdens and play well.

After all, as the only English League One team to make it to the quarterfinals, it is understandable that they lost to Manchester City.

As long as we play well, the fans will see our efforts and won't be angry or disappointed.

Led by captain Davis, Southampton players put their hands together and encouraged each other.

At 7:35, players from both teams lined up in the tunnel, holding the hands of their caddies, and, under the leadership of the referee, filed into the court.

The live broadcast received the live signal, and the number of online people in the live broadcast room instantly exceeded 400,000! Although today is not the weekend, the gold content of this game is extremely high, and the domestic sports lottery has also opened single bets, so it has attracted a large number of fans and non-fans.

Most of the fans in the live broadcast room had already bought lottery tickets predicting Manchester City would lose by 2 goals, and were waiting for Gu Ran to help them realize the freedom of buying a second home.

There was a friend named "I am really Sun Jihai" in the live broadcast room, who immediately sent a super big rocket.

"Fuck! Is it really Sun Jihai?"

"That's impossible. Sun Jihai can watch the game in our live broadcast room? It must be fake!"

"I want to change my name, too. I want to be called—I am really Sun Jihai!"

"Haha, I want to change my name to I'm Zheng Zhi!"

At this time, a netizen named "I am really Zheng Zhi" silently sent a super-large rocket to show his presence.

At the Etihad Stadium, players from both teams lined up to shake hands.

The referee motioned the captains of the two teams to come over to toss a coin.

Manchester City's on-field captain is No. 28 center back Kolo Toure, while Southampton's captain is goalkeeper Davis.

Kolo Toure is not the first captain of Manchester City. Manchester City has many big-name players, such as "Big Head" Kompany, former Arsenal captain Vieira, jack-of-all-trades Milner, midfield ace David Silva, beast waist De Jong, Balotelli, and the Premier League Golden Boot "Homesickness" Tevez who was poached from the arch-rival Manchester United last season.

At this time in Manchester City, fame is everything.

And Tevez was at the peak of his career in this era.

So, the current captain of Manchester City is Tevez.

This is also related to Mancini's preference for forward players.

However, in this game, Tevez did not start, but sat on the bench, chatting and laughing.

The coin toss on the field naturally fell on the hardworking Vincent Kompany.

In the end, Southampton got the priority to kick off and Manchester City got the priority to choose the side.

Manchester City chose the south half, which is also in line with the traditional way of starting.

The captains of both teams shook hands and exchanged team flags according to the procedure. The players of both teams also took photos in their respective half of the field and then formed their formations.

In today's game, the away team Southampton still adopted the 442 formation, defending with all their strength in the first half and pressing closely in the second half.

Manchester City is a stronger team than Everton. Although they did not play well before 2009, Manchester City's configuration has become quite luxurious since the rich people from the Middle East moved in.

Moreover, according to the military intelligence and tactical analysis before the game, Manchester City is a team that focuses more on offense, and Southampton, which has a weak forward line, would choose to fight against Manchester City unless they are crazy.

Therefore, defense plus counterattack is Southampton's tactical thinking today.

After a rest, Southampton's main players all appeared on the field today.

The two forwards are center forward Guli and flexible forward Lallana.

Lallana's position is slightly back, between the center forward and the attacking midfielder, serving as a fulcrum for passing the ball in the midfield.

Lambert will be the attacking midfielder.

Of course, Lambert's role is more of a central midfielder than an attacking midfielder. His main role today was interception and cross-position switching, not crossing forward, but switching backward.

Behind him was the biggest starting change for Southampton in today's game - Gu Ran.

Gu Ran was promoted from the previous starting left back position to the defensive midfielder position.

This is also to target Manchester City's extremely fierce 433 attacking style of play, and only Gu Ran can control the midfield.

At the critical moment, Gu Ran could also switch positions with Lambert in front of him and directly confront Manchester City in the face with a B2B attack.

The left midfielder is Chamberlain and the right midfielder is Schneiderlin.

With Gu Ran standing in the defensive midfielder position, his relationship with Chamberlain and Schneiderlin became closer, and he could better gather the midfield.

The starting left back today was replaced by Hammond.

As a left-back, Hammond has almost no assist ability and cannot cross the wing, but his defense on the wing is still remarkable.

And that's enough.

With Gu Ran in the middle, the left and right sides can be mobilized at any time.

Southampton's right back is Richardson, and the two central defenders are Jaidi and Fonte.

The goalkeeper is still captain Davis.

In general, Southampton's formation has used all the main players that can be used. In one word, it is fighting hard and defending with all their might.

On Manchester City's side, the lineup is much more luxurious.

Southampton has almost no big-name stars, while any player from Manchester City is a big-name star.

Manchester City's formation today is still Mancini's most familiar 433 formation.

Mancini is not a tactical master, and his formation is very conservative, basically 433, and he rarely changes the formation.

To use Mancini's words, changing the formation will affect stability, and team stability is what he pursues.

If the formation is not changed, it will be more dependent on the players, especially the performance of the stars.

Therefore, any team coached by Mancini is definitely a team with a super luxurious lineup. Even the substitutes must be a luxurious lineup. Mancini will not take over a team without a luxurious lineup.

Mancini's 433 formation, to put it simply, is a large regular triangle in the frontcourt formed by a center forward and two wingers, a small inverted triangle in the midfield formed by two midfielders and a defensive midfielder, and four defenders.

The front triangle of center forward and winger is very similar to the 433 model of Barcelona's Dream Three Dynasty, and also pays great attention to passing and controlling cooperation.

But the difference is that Barcelona's Dream Team's front triangle is composed of very flexible and technical players, while Mancini's 433 front triangle is composed of tall or impactful players.

Barcelona's Dream Team focuses more on passing and cooperation in the front and midfield. On the surface, the front and midfield seem to be just two positive and inverted triangles, but the real essence is that after running, the six players in the front and midfield can be combined at will, and every three people can form a running triangle, or a diamond.

This kind of passing and controlling tactics is very clever, and it can ensure a large number of flexible ball routes at any time during the attack, so Barcelona's 433 is definitely very suitable for passing and controlling. Their retreating center forward or an inline full-back can give the midfield an advantage in terms of manpower and connection.

Alves during his peak Barcelona period was a typical inside-type full-back. As a full-back, he performed a lot of work as a midfielder to ensure that the midfield triangle could move flexibly.

With such formation and tactical support, during the peak period of Barcelona's Dream Three dynasty, almost no team could form a midfield confrontation with them.

Even Real Madrid could only break Barcelona's passes by using foul-level confrontation and strangulation.

In comparison, Mancini's 433 is not so flexible and is more rigid.

Mancini's 433, on the surface, looks like a large regular triangle in the frontcourt followed by a small inverted triangle in the midfield. In fact, it is really just the regular triangle in the frontcourt and the inverted triangle in the midfield sewn together.

The right triangle in the frontcourt is quite similar to Barcelona's Dream Three, but the real core essence is not it.

Manchester City's front triangle and midfield triangle are not connected.

Manchester City's attack is not achieved through triangular movement in the midfield to control the ball, but relies on the luxurious wingers to cut inside, so as to achieve the front triangle to close, pass and shoot.

In this era, the main center forward is not very popular, and the wingers cutting inside have temporarily become the mainstream style of play.

So, to put it bluntly, Mancini's 433 formation is based on a super luxurious star lineup. Without Tevez, Balotelli, Yaya Toure, David Silva and other well-known stars, Manchester City would not be able to achieve such results.

During the tactical class, Coach Adkins pointed out that the biggest weakness of Mancini's 433 formation lies in the space behind the full-backs and wingers.

In Mancini's 433 offensive style of play, wingers are privileged players in the team and it is impossible for them to retreat to defend, while the assists of the full-backs are too high. During the attack, the full-backs have to act as midfielders, so it is easy for opponents to create deadly quick breaks behind them.

Therefore, from a tactical point of view, this game is definitely not as scary as imagined.

As a veteran defensive counterattack team, Southampton is still able to restrain itself against Mancini's rigid 433 formation.

As long as Mancini defends the fierce attacks and plays more balls behind him, his 433 will be disrupted.

Once Mancini's 433 is messed up, Mancini will suffer a mental breakdown, and his feeling of collapse will also affect all Manchester City players.

Then, Southampton will have a chance.

Of course, this is only tactical in theory. After all, no matter how good the tactics are, they still have to be executed by people. Manchester City, a team with star players, has very strong overall strength even if its tactics are a bit rigid.

If Southampton wants to beat Manchester City away, the difficulty level is basically 200%.

Today's game was also an obvious match between the weak and the strong.

Gu Ran's defense in the middle and distribution of the ball to the flanks are also crucial.

...(End of this chapter)