Chapter 1000 Mourinho's unique skills
Beep! With the whistle of the Turkish referee Cakir, the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, which attracted worldwide attention, officially kicked off at Camp Nou, and the Barcelona fans booed loudly.
The first person to kick off was Manchester City center forward Su Dong who was standing in the center circle.
Barcelona fans have always had a very torn impression of Su Dong. They miss the good times when he played for Barcelona, but they also hate that after he left Barcelona, he led his team to slaughter Barcelona many times. This makes Barcelona fans love and hate him, which is quite contradictory.
Once upon a time, Barcelona hated him more than they loved him, but after the easing of the situation last season, especially after Barcelona won the Champions League, the attitude towards Sudong improved a lot.
But now, they began to hate each other again.
There is no way, Su Dong is too strong.
…
As soon as the game started, Manchester City realized the changes in Barcelona's lineup.
This doesn't look like traditional Barcelona style of play, but more like a three-back formation.
Puyol, Pique and Mascherano, these three players are lined up from left to right on the back line.
Alves, who was originally thought to appear in the back line, actually appeared on the right side of the midfield.
As a result, Barcelona's midfield from left to right became a combination of Seydou Keita, Yaya Toure, Xavi and Alves.
Iniesta and Fabregas were in front of the midfield, Messi behind.
The Argentine superstar played as the lone striker.
This lineup is a bit weird.
I have never seen Barcelona use such a style of play before.
It looked like a 3-4-2-1 formation, but when Manchester City's Sanchez broke through on the right with the ball and tried to open the defense from the right, Seydou Keita retreated to the defense line.
This proves that Barcelona is not without full-backs, but has pushed the full-backs forward to the midfield.
Seydou Keita and Alves are wingers, but when defending, they can retreat to the back line at any time to protect the wing defense, which will turn Barcelona's back line into five defenders.
Push forward when attacking and retreat when defending. This places high demands on the players' tactical execution, physical fitness, and defensive ability, but Seydou Keita and Alves are basically capable of doing this.
The intention of doing this is actually very simple, which is to exert strong enough pressure on Manchester City in the midfield.
Especially Fabregas and Iniesta, the two players almost kept their eyes on Busquets.
Everyone knows that Busquets is the passing hub of Manchester City's midfield and backcourt. He is able to steadily organize and pass the ball under high pressure. He looks very low-key and inconspicuous, but in fact, his role is very obvious and his personal ability is also very strong.
Mourinho used Iniesta and Fabregas to target Busquets. In addition to defense, the purpose was to ensure that after a successful steal, the two could launch a counterattack immediately and cooperate with Messi.
In terms of overall tactics, Mourinho indeed adopted a more conservative tactic. He did not show an aggressive momentum at the beginning of the game, but took the initiative to give up possession of the ball and tried to pressure and press Manchester City through the numerical advantage in the midfield.
It has to be said that Mourinho's strategy does have a certain effect.
When Manchester City had the ball in the midfield, Fabregas and Iniesta's retreat and Seydou Keita and Alves' forward movement allowed Barcelona to have six players in the midfield. Manchester City usually only had three, and even if Suarez retreated, there were only four, which was completely disadvantageous.
Barcelona players quickly succeeded in stealing the ball through this kind of pressing pressure in the midfield.
Due to Iniesta's interference, the ball passed by Busquets to David Silva was intercepted by Xavi. Although David Silva tried to counter-attack immediately, Xavi was faster and passed the ball directly to Messi who was retreating in front.
Messi pulled out of the Manchester City center back's defense zone, received the ball and rushed forward. When approaching Pepe, he made a feint and fooled Pepe. Although he failed to break through with the ball, he still sent a precise straight pass to behind the Manchester City defense line.
Fabregas quickly moved forward, Kompany chased back all the way, got into the penalty area, and before Fabregas kicked the ball, he fell to the ground and made a tackle, blocking the Barcelona player's shot from going out of the baseline and turning it into a corner kick.
Afterwards, Barcelona's corner kick was cleared out of the penalty area. Yaya Toure grabbed the second point, stopped the ball, and then fired a long shot from nearly 30 meters away from the goal, but it was too high.
Two consecutive shots, both from Barcelona.
Manchester City controls the situation and the ball, but has not yet been able to organize a decent attack.
Guardiola kept calling on the players to remain patient on the sidelines. Su Dong, wearing the captain's armband, also signaled to his teammates on the court to try their best to control the ball and slow down the pace.
…
Benítez once said that football is a battle for space and ball possession.
City had the ball but Mourinho wanted Barca to occupy space.
So he took advantage of the numerical advantage and built a very solid steel defense line in the midfield.
Even at first glance, it seemed that he had placed the defense line directly in the midfield.
As soon as Manchester City players dribbled the ball into the midfield, they were immediately surrounded and blocked by Barcelona players.
Even if Su Dong retreated and formed a diamond-shaped ball possession formation with David Silva, Toni Kroos and Busquets, it was difficult to penetrate Barcelona's defense.
Mourinho is truly an expert at building defense.
Especially now, Su Dong retreated, and the two wingers rushed forward, and they were just trapped by Barcelona's three central defenders.
You know, Puyol and Mascherano are both very fast, and both can keep up with Di Maria and Sanchez's dribbling breakthroughs, not to mention Pique who is lagging behind.
After Su Dong retreated, Yaya Toure kept pestering him.
The Ivorian midfielder has always had mixed reviews at Barcelona, but Mourinho trusts and values him very much.
As long as Su Dong retreated, he and Xavi would never move forward.
Manchester City also quickly realized the difficulties in the midfield. Marcelo and Zabaleta began to move forward actively and participate in the passing and controlling of the ball in the midfield, hoping to open up the situation from the flanks. At this time, almost ten minutes of the game had passed.
In the first ten minutes, Manchester City didn't even have a shot on goal.
This shows how strictly Barcelona restricted Manchester City's midfield and frontcourt in this game.
Low defense, midfield strangulation, three central defenders, and only Messi left in the frontcourt, this looks like a real defensive counterattack.
"Remember, at the beginning of the season, after losing to Manchester City in the European Super Cup, Mourinho once said that he actually preferred to play defensive counterattacks because he believed that this was the most effective tactic against Manchester City."
"Now, he has finally used the tactics he wanted to play the most, but it seems that the fans at the scene still have some opinions. After all, in Camp Nou, Barcelona has always been domineering and invincible, but now they are forced by Manchester City to retreat and counterattack, which makes Barcelona fans feel ashamed and angry."
"But Mourinho's credo has never been to win beautifully, but to win!"
…
Manchester City had the ball in their hands, but it was difficult to create threatening attacks.
Even after fifteen minutes, Manchester City still hadn't taken a single shot, which made the situation on the field become a little anxious.
It was not until the 19th minute that Su Dong saw Di Maria returning to defense following Alves who had taken the ball forward, and he immediately ran to the left.
Marcelo and Di Maria teamed up on the left side, intercepted Alves' ball and passed it to David Silva.
The Spanish midfielder sent a through ball directly behind the defense line.
Su Dong cut diagonally from the middle to the left and stopped the ball before anyone else.
Puyol also blocked Su Dong's passage to the penalty area as soon as possible.
He knew Su Dong too well.
One-on-one, Su Dong was not afraid at all. He made a fake move and pushed the ball to the baseline, trying to force a breakthrough, but Puyol reacted quickly enough and followed immediately.
Su Dong had slightly better explosive power and was half a body length ahead, poking the ball into the penalty area. He then rushed out of the court, avoided Puyol, and suddenly accelerated. Before the ball went out of the baseline, he kicked the ball inside the line, and before Pique came to clear the ball, he passed the ball back to the penalty spot.
Sanchez arrived at this time and shot directly at Su Dong's return pass, which was Manchester City's first shot of the game.
This was originally a very good opportunity, but due to Mascherano's interference, Sanchez's shot was a bit off and went directly out of the baseline, failing to pose a threat.
The entire Camp Nou stadium breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he failed to score, Su Dong's speed and technique when facing Puyol and Pique on the left side were really thrilling.
As long as he is on the court, no one can feel at ease.
Sure enough, just four minutes after the last attack, Manchester City intercepted the ball in the midfield again.
This time Toni Kroos made a long pass behind the defense line. Su Dong quickly inserted himself from behind, got ahead of Pique, and headed the ball from Pique's left side to Pique's right side. He accelerated again and caught up, got ahead of Pique, stopped suddenly and dribbled the ball to the left side, passed Pique directly, and dribbled the ball straight to the left side.
Puyol stepped forward to fill the position immediately, but Su Dong passed the ball to the baseline.
With no one guarding him, Di Maria cut diagonally into the left side of the penalty area, caught up with Su Dong's pass, and shot directly into the far corner with his left foot.
As a result, this shot that was sure to score hit the bottom edge of the right post and bounced out, failing to score.
Di Maria held his head in pain and fell in Barcelona's penalty area.
This was already a one-on-one shot, the opportunity was so good, but it hit the post.
"Manchester City's offensive has improved recently and is becoming more and more threatening. Su Dong has created opportunities continuously, but they still lack the finishing touch."
"Neither Di Maria nor Sanchez are the kind of players who score very efficiently."
"But the problem is that now Manchester City only has Su Dong who can hold the ball in the frontcourt and create opportunities."
"Guardiola was on the sidelines, still constantly calling on the players to remain patient, to hold their ground and wait for the opportunity."
"It's clear that both sides are waiting for their opponents to make mistakes."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
